Eyre Square sits at the heart of Galway, but for centuries, it was deliberately empty.

When the Normans built their city walls in 1270, this open ground served as a killing zone where archers could cut down anyone breaching the eastern defences. A rather different image from today's pleasant park.

The square takes its name from the Eyre family, who were granted lands here after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. At its centre stands Claddagh Sails, a steel sculpture of the Galway Hooker fishing vessel, ringed by fourteen flagpoles bearing the crests of the merchant families known as the Tribes of Galway.

The park is formally named after John F. Kennedy, who received the freedom of the city here in 1963 before a crowd of 100,000, six months before his assassination.

VoiceMap's tours trace Galway's Norman foundations, its medieval merchant dynasties, and the dark history threaded through its streets.