The word lynching and "lynch law" came into
our
language because of a sad occurrence in Galway city
in 1493. The Mayor
of the city, James Lynch
Fitzstephen, was forced to hang his own son
Walter.
Walter had been convicted of murdering a spanish
wine merchant called Gomez. Gomez had taken a
fancy to Walter's girlfriend Agnes. The Mayor
decided that the only way to sustain the city's
honour and business connections was to carry
out the punishment, and as no one else would
do it was forced to do it himself.
Quite a lot of evidence of the spanish
connections
can be seen in Galway, in the buildings and
the
famous Spanish Arch. |