On the 1820 map of Galway, the site of the Taibhdhearc was part of the then Augustinian Church. When the present church was built in the 1850s the site became derelict. The late Ned Joyce remembered a large tree growing on the site, a tree which stretched across the street to a tenement known as ‘The Windings’. The occupants used to hang their washing on the tree on fine days.

In 1912 the Augustinians built the present building as a parish hall, which functioned as a social club where they put on dramatic productions as well as playing billiards and table tennis, etc. This club became defunct and, in 1928, a committee of 10 under the chairmanship of Dr Seamus O’Beirne took it over and equipped it as a theatre. Their idea, and that of the Government of the time, was to use An Taibhdhearc and An Céad Cath, the Irish speaking army battalion based in Renmore Barracks, as vehicles for the regeneration and promotion of the Irish language in Galway. The committee invited Mícheál Mac Liammóir and Hilton Edwards to produce the first play which was Mícheál’s own Diarmuid agus Gráinne.

In March 1838, workmen, under the supervision of a Mr Clare, were carrying out repairs on the vaults and tombs near the main altar of St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church. They made a remarkable discovery. A body, which had rested in a tomb for 129 years, had been discovered incorrupt. Incredibly it was the remains of the last Roman Catholic warden John Bodkin, who when handing over the keys of the church to Williamite soldiers, after the town’s surrender on July 26 1691, cried out in despair: “ My God, that my right hand may not decay until the key of this church be restored to its proper owners”.

Because of the hue and cry that the discovery triggered, and later the mutilation of the corpse, even the threat to throw the church sexton off O’Brien’s Bridge into the raging torrent, prompted Mr Clare to gave a statement to a solicitor.* There was considerable interest in Mr Clare’s renovations. As work progressed past the Lynch aisle, ‘ at the right as you look to where the high altar faced Church Lane’, Mr Clare stated, ‘members of the old families, the descendants of the Tribes, began to frequent the church. Many of them pointed out to me the vault which, they said, contained the remains of the Very Rev Warden Bodkin... upon opening the vault I was the first to descend. I found the body of a man, all perfect, except for his toes. Many of the by-standers stated that they had been b

The story of the Augustinians in Galway began in 1508 when the order opened a house outside the walls. The church and monastery were on a high position which, with the development of artillery, became an important strategic point. It dominated the city on one side and the entrance from the sea on the other. In 1602, there was a plan to fortify the city, so the friary and cemetery were levelled and a military fort built which was occupied by a garrison of English soldiers. Only the church and one other small ecclesiastical building were left standing, and the area became known as Forthill.

The fort was shorn of its military trappings and fortifications in 1643, but its prime situation militated against it and the few remaining ecclesiastical buildings were seen as a threat to the town as Coote and his army were advancing through Connacht. So, the corporation and the Augustinians came to a mutual agreement to demolish the remaining buildings on Forthill, and in return, the corporation would build a similar church on a named site when real peace returned to the country.

In the 1870s the parish of Rahoon extended from Corcullen to Furbo. It had two chapels, one in Barna and one in Bushypark.

Those people who lived in the town side of the parish attended Sunday Mass in the chapel attached to the Presentation Convent, but it was quite small and worshippers often had to kneel on the ground outside, no matter what the weather was like.

As a result many of the major parish ceremonies were moved to the Pro-Cathedral. In 1881 no fewer than 300 children from the parish were confirmed in Middle Street, which gives us an idea of the population of the area.