Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1920
Waking up at last
British Liberalism is at last beginning to wake up to the ghastly failure of English Government in Ireland. Some of its newspapers, notably “The Manchester Guardian”, “The Daily News”, and “The Westminster Gazette” are expressing horror at the deeds that are being done in Ireland in the name of the English People.
We fear that the awakening has come six years late. During the intervening period these organs of opinion have been free to tell the story of a little nation’s travail, to indicate the inevitable tragedy towards which we were drifting, to sound without ceasing the voice of warning.
Mr. George Bernard Shaw has said that you must scream into the ears of an Englishman before he will listen even to the things that concern himself.
In the British Parliament or out of it there were no outstanding figures to reveal the naked truth, and where the truth was told in part, there were few hearts prepared to listen. Moderate Irishmen who wished to secure peace found themselves driven from despair to despair.
Their voice, and the voice of Irish journalists who sought to assist them to find a way to peace, was ignored by a degenerate Ministry, and lost amidst the rumbling militarism in Ireland.
War rumbles on
“Every day brings news of fresh outbreaks, with incendiarism, shootings, and all manner of violence, by the troops in Ireland,” says the “Manchester Guardian” news bulletin.
“It is flat mutiny, whatever the provocation, and so far it has nether been restrained, nor, as far as is known, punished. It is a complete defiance alike of civil and military authority, and amounts in effect to the waging of war on the Irish people. If neither the army chief nor the civil administration can restrain it they proclaim themselves impotent in the face of their own forces, and have virtually abnegated the authority entrusted to them.
“To talk of ‘restoring law and order’ in the presence of facts like these is to trifle with words. There is no effective law and there can be no pretence of order if British troops are permitted to run amok in this way among the inhabitants of a whole town as happened on Wednesday in Galway, or of a village, as happened lately in Tullow.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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1923
Gloom after war
The special correspondent of the “Independent”, who has been writing of the aftermath of civil war in the West, notes that a feeling of apathy, due to the uncertainty of events, exists amongst the sorely-tried people of Connemara; that politics are referred to only with disgust and that not more than fifty per cent. of the people would vote at a general election; that poverty and unemployment are rife, and there is a growing tendency towards emigration; and that there are bitter complaints of the huge impost of rates and taxes.
It is only too true that there is enough of material for the pessimist to brood over, and that a feeling of gloom permeates country towns. But it is a poor tribute to patriotism that has survived such horrors to encourage this gloom.
It is the duty of all of us to get this pessimism out of the national body and to rid ourselves of the notion that we have not enough Christianity and moral sense left to restore our people to cheerful and ordered progress and industry.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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1923
Peace negotiations
As we go to press, An Dáil is discussing the Peace negotiations between the Government and Mr. de Valera. It was announced on Wednesday for the first time that such negotiations were begun following Mr. de Valera’s “cease fire” proclamation of April 27, and that by the 30th of the month Senators Andrew Jameson and James Douglas were asked by him to discuss proposals.
They said it was for the Government to discuss; they could only confer. Into the ensuring conferences the Government declined to enter personally, but on May 3 the senators placed before Mr. de Valera the Cabinet’s terms, which were that future issues should be decided by the majority vote of the elected representatives of the people, and that as a corollary and a preliminary to the release of prisoners, all lethal weapons should be in the custody and control of the Executive Government.
Mr. de Valera relied to this on May 7 with a document in which he agreed to majority rule and control of arms, but added that arms should be stored in a suitable building in each province under armed Republican guard until after the elections in September, that the oath should not be made a test in the councils of the nation, and that all political prisoners should be released immediately on the signing of this agreement.
“You have brought back to us,” wrote President Cosgrave, “not an acceptance of our conditions, but a long and wordy document inviting debate where none is possible”.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
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Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
1923
State of the parties
Speculation as to parties after the next Irish elections is exceedingly interesting, especially in view of the enlarged franchise.
In Dublin, the view appears to be held by a number of people that Labour will make a great bid for power.
Dublin, however, has a curiously insular habit of thought where matters that concern all Ireland and in which Ireland has a say are concerned. We hope this insularity will rapidly disappear under the new conditions.
The country as a whole is backing the Farmers’ Party, and has not the smallest doubt that it will be the strongest combination in the next Dáil, and that it will oust the purely political parties, the one because it has resorted to force, the other because it has been compelled to use force to supress force, and the Labour Party because Ireland feels that at the back of its policy lurks the danger of Communism.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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