Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1916
Further arrest
On Wednesday, a lad named Riedy, who had been missing since the Rising, was arrested and subsequently released. Although everything was peaceable in Kinvara during the Rising and since, between 20 and 30 arrests have been made and the “suspects” are still interned in spite of the efforts made for their release.
Surely it is a scandalous victimisation of the county to keep these young men in prison at a time when their services on the farms are sorely needed.
Workers drain
At present employees are being drained out of Galway (where we are unable to provide them with constant work) for munition working in England where they are earning excellent wages. Despite the spirited action of local men, the project to start, as a private limited company, a munitions factory in the city has failed, but we have strong grounds for stating that there is a probability of a £90,000 Government factory being established. The project is being well worked up locally, and has received considerable support from people in high quarters.
1941
Torpedoed crew lands
Another grim sidelight on the war at sea was revealed at Galway docks early on Friday morning when, ill-clad, haggard, starving and bone-weary, twenty-one members of a torpedoed Glasgow vessel were brought ashore from the Irish steamer which had picked them up off Slyne Head on the previous day.
Members of the Galway branch of the Red Cross organisation and the Local Security Force, together with nurses from the Central Hospital, assisted the port authorities, members of the Maritime Inscription Corps, and the Gardaí in caring for the seamen.
There were ten stretcher cases, and two of the men were dangerously ill.
The Glasgow steamer was torpedoed without warning on June 7th when outward bound 1,200 miles off the Irish coast, and the captain stated that no effort was made by the submarine to save the crew. The third engineer was killed when the ship was struck.
The ship’s second lifeboat also has been picked up with the remaining eighteen of the crew.
Rat bit baby’s hand
The terrible conditions that exist in some Galway city tenements was mentioned at Thursday’s meeting of the Galway Corporation. Ald. Miss Ashe said that a rat bit a baby’s hand in one tenement in St. Augustine Street that had been closed down but later re-occupied.
Petrol scandal
Speaking in the Dáil, Mr. G Bartley touched on something which has been the cause of surprise and some resentment everywhere when he spoke of the number of private motor cars to be seen at race meetings, dog meetings and other sporting functions all over the country.
He asked where did these people get petrol, stating that he would be surprised to discover that the ration enabled them to undertake all the travelling they appeared to be in a position to enjoy.
Mr. Bartley said it was disturbing to see private cars careering about whilst vehicles which should be engaged in essential services were idle for want of fuel.
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
