Eyre Square is a large central plaza established in 1710 when Mayor Edward Eyre gifted the land to the city. He was a descendant of Captain John Eyre who acquired the property after Oliver Cromwell’s troops seize Galway in 1652. The banners display the crests of fourteen powerful merchant families called the Tribes of Galway. Since 1965, the square is officially called the John F. Kennedy Memorial Park. The name and a nearby bust commemorate when the president gave his last foreign speech here on June 29 before he was assassinated in 1963. His final words were, “You send us home with the warmest memories of you and your country.”
