Who owns Galway’s Eyre Square? The billionaires, hoteliers and publicans running the central plaza
On a sunny autumn morning in Galway , as tourists drag their bags and themselves towards Ceannt Station for the early train to Dublin, Eyre Square’s pubs and businesses are preparing for the next influx of visitors. Kegs are stacked outside the pubs around the square. Restaurants are loading up on provisions. Tourists gravitate towards Eyre Square, once an open ground used by market traders outside Galway’s medieval town gate, now enveloped by the city and its centrepiece. Named after former mayor of Galway Edward Eyre, who donated the land to the city in 1710, the square is surrounded by historic and modern buildings. Recent additions contrast sharply with the late Georgian and Victorian buildings, many of which struggle to find a use in modern Galway as they stand either vacant or underused. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); The green park in the middle, owned by Galway City Council , was officially renamed John F Kennedy Memorial Park in 1965 to honour the US president who visited Galway months before he was assassinated in 1963. The change never caught on. People never stopped referring to it as Eyre Square. Property in the area has changed hands over the years. Based on a review of planning, company and Tailte Éireann (formerly the Land Registry) records, The Irish Times has pieced together who owns Eyre Square today. Here are nearly all the landlords of Eyre Square. (Records did not exist for seven of the 47 addresses surrounding the plaza.) The northeast side 1: There are some relative newcomers to Eyre Square, and two of them are the owners and occupiers of number one. In late 2023, the Richardson family, who operated a pub from the northeastern tip of the square for 70 years, sold their property to Tim and Wendy O’Connor for a reported €2.5 million. The O’Connors, who also own Dublin pubs O’Connors on Mount Street and Slattery’s in Rathmines, rebranded the venue from Richardsons to Jack J Foleys in early 2024. 2-3 : A number of the city’s most frequented pubs, including Fibber Magees at number 3, are based on the northeast side of Galway’s plaza. Tailte Éireann records show Fahy Travel Limited, a travel agency controlled by Maura Fahy, owns the ground-floor commercial premises extending across numbers two and three. The records do not establish who owns the upper floors. 4-5: These buildings housing the Pick ‘N’ Pay store and Galway offices of Re/Max Property Experts and EBS are owned by Weleyre Holdings Limited, a company controlled by Padraic McHale and the late Martina McHale of the family behind Mayo machinery business McHale Engineering. The company first registered its ownership of number 4 in January 2023 when it took over the ownership from L & C Mulryan (Eyre Square) Limited, a company linked to local auctioneer Liam Mulryan. New land records filed also showed that the McHale family’s firm declared ownership of number 5, also known as Hardiman House, in April 2026. 7-9: Since 1862, O’Connell’s pub has traded from Eyre Square. It remained in the O’Connell family until 2006, when Maureen O’Connell nominated St Vincent de Paul as the main beneficiary in her will. The charity sold the venue to a syndicate of notable developers that included Michael Burke, Peter Gilhooly, Walter King and Tom Considine for €14 million. In 2013, property developers and Galway-born billionaires Luke and Brian Comer acquired the building housing O’Connell’s bar at number 8, Odeon House at number 7 and 9, occupied by Galway Luggage Storage, as part of a receivership sale. Based on land registry records, the Comer brothers’ firm Manna Property Company Limited co-owns these buildings with Weleyre Holdings Limited, a company controlled by Padraic McHale and the late Martina McHale, two of the family behind McHale Engineering. Manna Property Company Limited, which owns €20.6 million of property assets, and Weleyre Holdings Limited, with €13.9 million of investment property on its books, also co-own a number of properties just off Eyre Square, including An Púcán and 19 residential properties on St Patrick’s Avenue, often available for short-term letting. 10: Another property on this row that traded hands in recent years is number 10. In August 2023, Galway Energy Store Limited, a building contractor owned by Wayne Hession, was registered as the new owner. It was previously owned by VHI Healthcare. Last year, Hession’s Londis opened on the ground floor of the building. 11: The building, occupied by Esquires Coffee, has been registered to owners Michael Burke and Rita Burke of Derrydonnell More, Athenry, Co Galway since May 2013. 12: This unit, occupied by car rental service Budget, is owned by R & M Property Limited, a company co-owned by Raymond and Mary McConn. 13: In addition to three other properties in the row, the Comer brothers’ property group also owns number 13, which houses the bar Thirteen on the Green. The property is controlled through Chateaugay Limited, which was registered as the owner of the property in September 2018. The firm’s latest accounts show it held €3.5 million of investment property. The southeast side 14-15: Three sides of Eyre Square are pepper potted with at least a dozen properties each, but the southernmost wing has four distinct addresses and is dominated by what is now known as The Hardiman, a 104-bedroom hotel that was called Hotel Meyrick until 2019. Alanis Capital, a property investment vehicle controlled by Dublin-based developers the McCormack family, bought the hotel in 2019 from receivers appointed by Deutsche Bank. The property had previously been owned by Galway developer Gerry Barrett. Financial records show the hotel property, which is run by the Choice Hotel Group, is held in ML Meyrick Limited and the ultimate controlling party is Breda McCormack. In its latest accounts, the firm declared its investment property was worth more than €26 million at the end of 2024. The hotel, designed by architect John Skipton Mulvany, was named the Railway Hotel when it first opened in the 1850s. Mulvany configured the property to allow passengers to step directly from the platform of the adjoining railway station into the foyer. 16: Galway’s Ceannt station, built in 1851, doesn’t have a direct link on to Eyre Square, except for roadways beside The Hardiman that lead to a drop-off bay and car park, but Irish Rail does have an interest in a property facing on to the square. Records show Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) was registered as owner of the leasehold title for number 16 in 2012. The title is held under a 999-year lease dating from 1898. The old Georgian town house built in the 1820s has been used as office space in recent years. In 2023, a company owned by Gerry Barrett, a Galway developer who previously owned Ashford Castle and the G Hotel in Galway, and London-based Summix Capital, called Seagullpoint Limited, secured permission to refurbish number 16. The revamped building is proposed to form part of their Augustine Hill project to develop 376 apartments, a hotel and offices on lands beside Ceannt Station. 17: This building, dating to the early 1800s, was bought in 2018 by Dico Property Limited, owned by Daragh, Ivor and Cormac O’Halloran. Last year, the three businessmen sold Hometherm Insulation to Netherlands-based Waterland Private Equity. Dico Property Limited, which owns other property in Ireland, disclosed it controlled €17.6 million in investment property at the end of 2025. 18: At the southernmost corner of the square sits number 18, which was an AIB branch until 2021. The building is still owned by AIB. Goodbody Stockbrokers, acquired by the bank in 2021, has listed the upper floors of the building as its head office in Galway. The southwest side 19: Many of Eyre Square’s pre-1900s buildings have been demolished in the past century, but number 19 is one of the survivors. The former National Bank of Ireland premises, a landmark three-storey building built in the late 19th century, was previously home to tenants including Bank of Ireland, Ernst & Young and Goodbody, but now is vacant. A “to let” sign has been posted outside the ground floor windows since the middle of last year. The owner, Londyne Limited, a company based in Bradford, UK, is controlled by Michael Feeley. The owner previously proposed converting the ground floor into a restaurant in 2014, but those works never occurred. Feeley’s firm also has other property interests in Galway, part-owning office space in the Dock Road office building. Last year, accounts for his UK firm said it owned €15.9 million of investment property in Ireland. 20: Eyre Square Centre takes up a relatively small part of the frontage of the square but the shopping centre, with 72 tenants, has a footprint almost the size of Eyre Square itself. Tailte Éireann records name International Investment ICAV, which bought the property in 2022, as the registered owner of the centre. As the ICAV does not publicly disclose its underlying investors, the ultimate beneficial investors in the fund are unknown. Since the acquisition, the centre was managed by Davy’s property arm. Now it is managed by David Goddard’s firm Lanthorn, which acquired Davy’s real estate business in 2024. 21: Now used as offices by Colleran Auctioneers, this three-storey former house dating to the early 1800s is controlled by Independent Trustee Company Limited, which registered its ownership of the building in March 2026. 22: The property, registered to owner Mary Finnegan of Cartron, Oranmore, Co Galway, is used as offices by MacSweeney & Company Solicitors. 23: One of the oldest remaining buildings on Eyre Square, with origins in the early 1800s, number 23 was acquired in 2019 by Eyre Square Court Hotel Limited, a firm owned by the hoteliers Richard and Sandra Byrne, who are also behind the Salthill Hotel. Last year, Galway City Council listed number 23 as derelict. 24: Formerly occupied by a Credit Union branch, number 24 was recently sold based on a listing from local real estate agents Mullery Auctioneers. Land registry records have not been updated to identify the new owners. 25: Pizzeria Gatto Rosso has traded from number 25 since the middle of 2021. Land records show the property has been controlled by Independent Trustee Company Limited since June 2018. 26- 29: The Skeffington Arms Hotel, which occupies numbers 26 to 29, has traded from Eyre Square for some time. The 24-bedroom hotel is one of the oldest businesses on the square, having opened in 1850. Last year, the hotel and property owned by John Callanan recorded revenue of €7.1 million and an after-tax profit of €153,000. 30: Caffè Nero, the coffee shop chain, has traded from number 30 since 2017. No records are available on Tailte Éireann to show who owns the building. 31: At the northern end of this side of Eyre Square there has been some recent activity involving new tenants and owners. Salad chain Sprout, run by brothers Jack and Theo Kirwan, opened its first outlet in Galway in June in number 31. That building is owned by Gary and Robert Monroe, who run Monroe’s Tavern on Dominick Street. 32: Lil’ Bros Pizza, sitting on the edge of Eyre Square nearest Galway’s main shopping district, is another relative newcomer to the area. The business, operated by Ronan and Eugene Greaney of the well-known Dough Bros restaurant, opened in the building, registered to owner Anthony Costello of Treannahow, Newmarket on Fergus, Co Clare, in March last year. The northwest side 33: The fragmented layout of Eyre Square is evident at its most northerly side, where more than a dozen properties are set back from the green area, including PTSB, which owns number 33 and trades from the premises. 35: The second-largest hotel on Eyre Square is the Imperial Hotel, which is based in number 35. The 83-bed property is run and owned by Kevin and Frank Flannery through the company Foxfield Inns. The Flannery family also run the Ashling Hotel in Dublin near Heuston Station. 36: Pat and Una McDonagh’s firm Atlantic Enterprises Limited, which is linked to the Galway-based restaurant group Supermac’s, owns number 36, where the McDonaghs’ flagship restaurant has traded for many years into early hours of the morning. 37: ADHD Tattoo and Card Factory both traded from the subdivided number 37. Planning records show that an entity called the O’Flaherty Group is the owner of the building. 38: Daybreak has traded from number 38 for many years. Two years ago, new filings with the land registry showed Glencree Stores Limited, a company controlled by Jason Henchy, is the owner the building. 39: No records exist to show the ownership of the property housing Ali’s Barbers. 40: Dunnes Stores, a long-time presence on Eyre Square, owns the unit it trades from. Planning records show the company, which also has a large store in Eyre Square Centre, also owns the building housing Golden Discs, but this latter property has no official number associated with its Eyre Square address. 41- 42: Company filings show a firm called Community Newspapers Limited, a firm connected to the Galway Advertiser group, owns the buildings in which the local newspaper is based. 43- 44: Bank of Ireland’s branch on Eyre Square is owned by a firm based in Clarinbridge, Co Galway, called Xenium Mainguard Limited. The company, which is used to hold €20.6 million of investment property, has disclosed London-based company Xenmal UK Limited as its ultimate parent. Filings for the UK firm say Enda Quinn of Craughwell, Co Galway, is the controller of the company. 45: One of the final addresses of Eyre Square is Hibernian House, based at number 45. Land registry records show the former clubhouse for the Galway County Club, which was built in the 1840s, has been owned by the McHale family’s firm Welhib Property Limited since 2021. The office property is leased to Ernst & Young, business lobby group Ibec, Lally Tours, health insurer Cigna and tech firm SiteMinder. Welhib declared its investment property worth €4.7 million in its latest accounts. 46: Two owners are linked to the property also known as Cleggan House. Jackie Prendergast of Lindencourt, Taylor’s Hill, Co Galway, owns units on the ground, first and second floors, while a separate title shows part of the property is linked to neighbouring publican Patrick Dick. 47: And tucked away in the top corner of Eyre Square, in number 47, is Kennedys pub. Based on the most recent land registry records, the pub’s property is owned by Patrick Dick. Based on Eircode data, the addresses 6 Eyre Square and 34 Eyre Square do not exist, which is why these locations are not included in the article