Galway - Lynch's Castle

Lynch's Castle (16th C.: National Monument), a large gray building with coats of arms on the facade, now occupied by a bank, was the residence of the Lynches, an aristocratic family which provided several mayors of Galway. One of the Lynches, while in office as mayor, condemned his own son to death for the murder of a young Spanish visitor and carried out the sentence with his own hands when no one else was willing to do it: hence the origin of the term "lynch law." A black marble tablet on the wall of the old prison in Market Street marks the spot where the execution is said to have taken place.