GALWAY, Ireland — The fires burned on both sides of the highway approaching Galway — small fires of peat, lumber scraps or brush. As cars whizzed by, young boys waved maroon and white banners or wore them like capes.
The youngsters' antics masked the melancholy of this Sunday, not because of the rain and mist, but because the team from Galway lost to Kerry, 17-10, in the all-Ireland finals of Gaelic football the day before.
The roadside fires were intended to "light the way home" for the players returning from Croke Park in Dublin, where the championship was played.
"The fires are more of a country thing," remarked a cabbie en route to Galway's center, implying there was a distinction between Ireland's westernmost city and its nearby villages.
Although dwarfed by Dublin's 1 million people, Galway is the Irish Republic's fastest growing urban center. For a visitor, Galway's tourist venues, its shops and its restaurants, are more accessible and its prices more reasonable than Dublin.
Galway also is the gateway to Ireland's rugged west, whether that be the ferocious, rock-strewn beauty of the Connemara, the surreal limestone mounds of the Burren or the majestic Cliffs of Moher.
The living museum known as the Aran Islands is a day-trip by ferry. Minutes away by car is the quaint Irish countryside, where some Galwegians have moved to escape their minicity.
Galway's history begins at the foot of Quay Street near the centuries-old docks where the River Corrib empties into Galway Bay. Galway is known as the "City of the Tribes," a reference to the 14 merchant families who controlled its affairs beginning in the late 1400s.
The Normans, who conquered Galway, began erecting a city wall in the 1200s. Inside, a trading center flourished, as evidenced by portions of medieval castles, stone gates and churches that still stand.
This makes for an informal, self-guided walking tour. The only requirements are a map, good shoes and an umbrella — shoes for the cobblestones and an umbrella for showers that are never far away.
There is only one historical museum, a small one maintained by the city, but history is on display in banks and other businesses, perhaps an appropriate link to Galway's entrepreneurial past. Nowhere is preservation and commerce more co-mingled than Kirwan's Lane, named for yet another merchant clan. Hardly wider than a horse-drawn cart, the passageway slips off Quay Street into a world of half a millennium ago.
At one end is the mini-conglomerate of the McDonagh family, fishmongers of Galway for four generations. There's a fish market, a fish-and-chips shop and a crowded seafood bar all at the same location. Free advice: Go for the fish and chips with slaw, about $6.
At the other end of Kirwan's Lane is Busker Browne's & The Slate House, an establishment with two names and three distinct themes. There is an airy coffee bar and also a traditional pub with a fireplace. Above the pub is a great hall with a high-beamed ceiling and the flags of the original 14 tribes, reached by a wooden staircase with brass handrails. The original building was a Dominican nunnery.
Gunning's fortunes were buoyed by the Cromwellian era — Parliament gave him the King's Head Pub property — but Galway's were not. The plague and Cromwell's forces both laid siege to the city, and landmarks such as the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas de Mrya bear Cromwell's scars. Soldiers defaced the Christ figure and the angel sculptures in the ancient walls of the church, which is an essential stop on a Galway walking tour.
The history of St. Nicholas spans seven centuries. Now part of the Protestant Church of Ireland, it is open to the public on a daily basis.