Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1915
Banker row
An extraordinary occurrence took place at the Galway railway station on yesterday afternoon, when Head-Constable Killacky, and Mr. Walker, of the Ulster Bank, Tuam, had a very heated altercation which had a very serious result.
Details are meagre, as the greatest reticence is maintained about the affair, but it has been learned that Mr. Walker, who recently got a commission in the army, motored to Galway, and while passing the railway it is understood that Head-Constable Killacky was making enquiries about the car when Mr. Walker rushed up against him.
A heated argument followed between the two men, and it is alleged that the Head-constable used a blackthorn stick which caused serious injuries to Mr. Walker’s head.
The latter retaliated and knocked the Head-Constable into the gutter. When he regained his feet, it was discovered that he had received a very nasty wound on the head, from which the blood flowed profusely.
In this condition he was conveyed to the County Hospital, where he had two stitches inserted over his left eye. Mr. Walker has been placed under arrest, and an inquiry will be held.
It was afterwards learned that Dr. Waters attended to the injuries of Mr. Walker, whose head was badly injured, and two stitches had to be put in it.
1940
War against disease
The fight which is being waged against disease in Connemara was described by Dr. B. O’Beirne, county medical officer of health, at the monthly meeting of the Galway County Board of Health.
He spoke of some recent outbreaks of scarletina and diphtheria in various parts of Connemara, and said that month spent on waterworks and sewerage schemes was not wasted.
The matter arose when a letter from Very Rev. W. Diskin, P.P., Letterfrack, who referred to “waste in waterworks schemes in Connemara” and that “two of these schemes were unnecessary and are not working”.
Mental Hospital escapee
Dr. Bernard Lyons, R.M.S., reported to the Committee of Management that a patient from the Ballygar district escaped from Ballinasloe mental Hospital on December 13 and has not been traced. The guards had been notified in the usual way and all efforts to find the patient had been unsuccessful.
Mr. Colleran asked if the ‘black-out’ helped the patient’s escape or if an ‘S.O.S.’ was sent out or a broadcast made about him. The R.M.S. said the guards all over the place had been notified and all that could possibly be done was done in an effort to trace the missing patient.
The R.M.S. said the patient was a harmless man, between 30 and 35 years of age. He got away from the dining hall on the occasion of a weekly dance. Once of the attendants brought two patients out, including the missing man, and this fellow got away in the darkness. He might have got over the wall. He was a very active and intelligent patient.
Head Attendant P. Gallagher said that twenty attendants were engaged in a search of the grounds following the patient’s escape. He, himself, went out in his car and searched a wide area. Three-quarters of an hour after the escape, the guards in Ballinasloe and other guards’ stations were notified.
Regarding the message that the patient was seen near Kilbeggan, the head attendant said he got this message from Ballygar, and the guards in Kilbeggan and all along the line to Dublin were notified, and South Dublin Union was also notified.
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.
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
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.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
