Athenry

Athenry stands on the plains east of Galway, a medieval town whose walls, castle and Dominican friary recall its place in the Anglo-Norman lordship of Connacht. Its defences protected a market community amid lands contested by Gaelic rulers and the descendants of the conquerors. The town's stone walls and gates gave it a prominence greater than its modest size might suggest.

Elizabeth I granted Athenry a charter of incorporation in 1577, allowing its burgesses to manage the town and choose their governors. The following decades brought war. In 1596 northern Irish forces entered Athenry and burned it, although the castle resisted their attack. The destruction left the town greatly diminished, its medieval defences unable to preserve the prosperity that had once gathered within them.