Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Time Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune
1914
Was it ass flesh?
A peculiar case was heard at Gort Petty Sessions when a local butcher named Martin Kelly was fined 5s. and 13s. 6d. costs for having sold meat which was unfit for human consumption and which baffled a host of analysts, including Sir Charles Cameron.
George Heaney, shoemaker, Nestor’s Lane, Gort, swore that on the evening of January 12th, he was in Mrs. Cloran’s house in Church street.
He saw Martin Kelly come in and offer meat for sale. Witness inquired what sort it was, and Kelly told him it was pork. Witness bought a piece, bulked (1lb), for which he paid defendant fourpence. He got it cooked, but felt suspicious about it, and brought it to the police barracks and entered a complaint. It was not a porksteak, though it might be beef.
Mr. O’Beirne, D.I.: I had the meat forwarded for analysis to Dublin, and received this report: “It is not mutton, beef, horseflesh, or pork; its composition will not answer any test.”
“So you see” added that District Inspector, “it has baffled Sir Charles Cameron and a host of other analysts. It is a most extraordinary piece of meat.” (Loud laughter).
Sergt. Callaghan: Several people in the town are complaining of this man.
Mr. O’Beirne, D.I.: It is very general, but lately the practice has got more serious. The meat, if pork, would be 8d. or 10d.
Mr. Coen: It is very dangerous, and it might be poisonous.
Mr. O’Beirne: Sir Charles Cameron is doubtful if it is ass flesh, as he says there is no real test.
“No sleep made me drunk”
At Galway Petty Sessions, Constable O’Connor had John Francis summoned for being drunk on the public street. Defendant said he was at the fair of Athenry on Saturday, the 7th inst., and was up all night.
“I was not drunk,” he added, “but want of sleep made me more drunk than all the drink I had taken.” (Laughter).
The Chairman asked defendant if he would take the pledge, and Francis replied that he would, and that if he was caught again, the Bench could give him six months (laughter). He was fined 2s. 6d.
1939
Ashford mystery deepens
The mystery of the sale of Ashford estate appears to be getting deeper. A “Connacht Tribune” reporter was informed on rather reliable authority last week that the estate was not actually sold at all yet.
His informant said that the Forestry Department had made a certain offer but the sale was by no means completed. It appears that the Hon. A.E. Guinness is insisting on certain conditions in the interests of his former employees at Ashford.
Mr. Guinness attended a meeting of the trustees in Dublin last week and it was then he is reported to have disclosed his alleged attitude. He is stated to be insisting that the employees of Ashford should be left undisturbed by a change of ownership.
Failing his obtaining such guarantees, it is said that Mr. Guinness is prepared to buy out the interests of Lord Moyne and Lord Iveagh and keep on the estate himself.
Meanwhile an atmosphere of uncertainty prevails in Cong. None of the management in the office there are prepared to talk and the strictest secrecy is being observed as regards movements and happenings within the castle grounds. Intending visitors to Ashford have been refused admission at the gates.
A “Connacht Tribune” reporter learned, however, that events took a surprising turn there during the weekend, when the auctioneers who have been preparing for the auction marked over three hundred of the more valuable articles “withdrawn”.
Guards fast
“A policeman’s lot is not a happy one.” At least this was the unanimous opinion of the station party in Maam garda barracks when a reporter found them waiting for their breakfast late on Tuesday morning.
Their housekeeper lives some distance from the barracks and the heavy rains on Monday night caused flooding, which marooned her in her house.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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
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.
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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