Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1914
Connemara Volunteers
Letterfrack, Galway was the scene of an imposing turn-out of a large number of the Connemara Volunteers on Sunday. As was announced last week, a conference of delegates from the various corps forming the Connemara Battalion was held, for the purpose of electing a delegate to the County Board, a commander of the Battalion, and the usual officers, and for a general discussion.
Delegates attended from the various corps, while the corps of Volunteers from Claddaghduff, Ballinakill, Tullycross, and Letterfrack marched in full strength. The Tullycross Volunteers arrived in Letterfrack at 3.30pm and they certainly made a fine show, wearing hats of the Boer pattern, while the Hibernian division, having their neat badges, were also conspicuous.
They were led by fife and drum band, and were met some half mile from Letterfrack by the corps from that village, and further on by the Ballinakill corps.
They marched in perfect order into Letterfrack, where the Claddaghduff Volunteers were already lined up. The Clifden Volunteers were prevented from being present by having to fulfil a previous engagement to attend at Ballyconneely on that day.
Bigamy on 7d a day
At the weekly meeting of Ballinasloe Board of Guardians, a man named Patrick Treacy, who had been admitted to the House during the week, was brought before the Board. The Master said he was in receipt of a pension of 7d. per day, and he paid 6d. for his maintenance in the House.
He had been at Limerick last year convicted for bigamy.
Mr. Parker: On 7d. a day? (laughter)
Master: He is like some gentlemen I know, who leave their first and second wives in the Workhouse, and they can do the gentleman outside (laughter).
Chairman: You need not pass your own town (laughter).
1939
Gallant rescue
Paddy Naughton, 18, Henry-street, Galway, former Connacht bantam boxing champion, was the hero of a thrilling sea drama on Sunday, when, at the risk of his own life, he saved Miss Mary Ruane, High-street, Galway, who was in imminent danger of being drowned when she got into difficulties while bathing at Grattan-road strand, Salthill.
Mr. Naughton was cycling home from Salthill when, passing by the Grattan-road junction near the Warwick Hotel, he heard cries for help coming from the strand. He dismounted and found a girl shouting hysterically and pointing and to the figure of a girl in the water.
Pausing only to divest himself of his coat, he dived into the water and after considerable difficulty succeeded in bringing the drowning girl to safety. Artificial respiration was administered to the girl by Garda Nalty, Salthill, who was quickly on the scene, and the girl was shortly afterwards able to walk home.
Dr Tubridy’s passing
It is no exaggeration to say that all Connemara was dumbfounded last week by the death of their popular representative, the late Dr. Sean Tubridy, T.D. It is not so much as a politician that Connemara will remember Dr. Tubridy, but as a painstaking conscientious doctor, the whole of whose charitable work for the poor of his native area will never be fully known.
We ourselves have known him to have sat up all night by the bedside of a patient in south Connemara when his fee for doing so was a ‘red ticket’. He saved the life of one of his beloved Connemarians, and that was all that mattered.
It was only one of thousands of similar good deeds in the all-to-short life of a great Connemara man.
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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