Irish and Latin were the two languages spoken in St Nicholas for religious services when it was first built in 1320. Before then an ancient site of worship which used Irish stood for hundreds of years before that - and it is still evident today in the foundations.
At the time, Irish was the working language of the church and the wardens needed to speak it so they could tend their parish.
Ba iad an Ghaeilge agus an Laidin an dá theanga a labhraíodh i San Nioclás nuair a tógadh ar dtús é i 1320. Roimhe sin bhí suíomh ársa adhartha a bhain úsáid as an nGaeilge - agus tá sé fós le feiceáil sa bhunsraith inniú.
Ag an am, ba í an Ghaeilge teanga oibre na heaglaise agus cúpla focail as Laidin.
An Irish translation of the prayer book, Leabhar na nVrnaightheadh Comhchoidchiond (Dublin, 1608) was eventually made by William Daniel (Uilliam Ó Domhnaill) who had previously been Warden of the Collegiate Church, Galway, until 1602 when he returned to Dublin to prepare an Irish translation of the New Testament (1603), and then of the prayer book.
Under Queen Elizabeth, parts of the service were sometimes in Irish in the Collegiate church, despite the absence of an Irish prayer book: for the principal Sunday service in Galway, the sermon was occasionally in Irish, English, and Latin.
Warden Daniel used Irish extensively in Galway after he came in 1595, and it is very likely that his early drafts of the Irish prayer book had been made for services in the Collegiate church and later formed the basis of his Leabhar na nVrnaightheadh gComhchoidchiond. In a way, history was repeated when Gary Hastings, the previous rector of Galway, published Leabhar na hUrnaí Coitinne (Dublin, 2004), an Irish translation of the latest version of the Book of Common Prayer, which is occasionally used in services in the Collegiate church.
