County (pop., 2002 prelim.: 208,826), Connacht province, western Ireland. It is bounded to the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Its seat, the town of Galway (pop., 2002 prelim.: 65,774), is at the head of Galway Bay. The descendants of the followers of the Norman Richard de Burgh, who assumed rule in the area in the 1230s, became known as the tribes of Galway. After 1652 the land settlement of Oliver Cromwell established a new class of landed proprietors. Galway is still largely an agricultural region, though it also has light industry, such as cotton spinning and sugar refining. It has the largest Irish-speaking population of any Irish county.