The Spanish Arch is not, strictly speaking, an arch at all.

Built in 1584 as an extension of Galway's medieval city walls, it was a fortified bulwark protecting the quay where Spanish wine was unloaded, particularly a sickly-sweet Madeira variety called sack that the Irish found rather irresistible. The name came later, coloured by the turbulent relationship between Spain and the English crown.

That relationship turned catastrophic in 1588, when the Spanish Armada was routed and its galleons driven north by storms, wrecking along Ireland's west coast. Over 300 survivors were massacred near here, their bodies left where they fell. Local people gathered and buried them. In 1988, four centuries on, the Spanish Ambassador came to Galway to lay a plaque in their honour.

VoiceMap's tours use the arch to connect Galway's medieval wine trade, the Armada's wreckage on Irish shores, and the city's long entanglement with Catholic Europe.