Archive News
April 14, 2011
Date Published: {J}
1911
Injury claim
Clifden Quarter Sessions were opened by his Honour, the Recorder, on Saturday. Edward King applied for compensation for malicious injuries to a mare, his property. Applicant, in reply to Mr. Murphy, solicitor, who appeared for him, said the injuries must have been inflicted by a large knife or reaping hook.
In cross-examination by Mr. Connolly, who appeared for the Clifden District Council, applicant denied that the animal took fright and ran away the day before.
His Honour said there was not a particle of evidence of direct malice and the only question was the possibility of the accident, but it appeared to him to be unfortunately committed by somebody. From the evidence, he could not believe it was accidental. He gave a decree for £5.
‘Shameless strumpet’
At the City Petty Sessions, Constable Donegan summoned a female for loitering at 1am. Defendant, who kept up a running commentary on the complainant’s evidence, said he caught her at her own corner coming out from a spree. He would have invited her for a walk, she supposed, if he got a soft mark on her.
Sir James O’Donohue said the defendant would have to stop or they would put her to jail.
(To the Bench): Make what you can out of it, give me a month, and I’m fit to do it (laughter).
Defendant was fined 40s in the first case, and 40s in a second, and bound to the peace for 12 months, herself in £10 and two sureties of £5 each.
Defendant: That is no trouble to me.
1936
Fire danger
A motor car burst into flames in Clifden late on Sunday night. This is the second serious fire which has occurred in Clifden during the past few months. As it is, considerable damage has been done to property owing to lack of facilities for fighting the flames, and it was due to the mercy of Providence that those responsible had not on either occasion to reproach themselves with loss of life. Only two fire extinguishers were available, and these, kindly lent at considerable inconvenience, represented the sum total of Clifden’s equipment.
Tuam employment
Much needed employment was obtained in Tuam this week when the Shannon Board officials began work in connection with the rewiring of streets and houses and fixing of new poles for the lighting of the town with Shannon electric current.
It is expected that before the end of this week, work will also have begun on the sewerage scheme which has been held up for some time owing to a dispute about wages. Now that all differences between the trade union and the contractors have been amicably adjusted, work is likely to start before the end of the week, as the question of the Government grant of €4,000 towards the work is settled and the grant will be available for the scheme.
Beggar for jail
District Justice Sean MacGiollarnaith at Galway District Court on Thursday sentenced a woman with two aliases to one month’s imprisonment, to be enforced after Friday last if she is found begging again in the city. Giving evidence on the charge against her, Detective Officer Walsh said he found the defendant begging in Galway on April 6.
The defendant said she had not been begging, but had been singing and selling songs. She would leave the city because she was not in the habit of this. Supt. O’Murchadha, who conducted the case, said there was a long list of cases against the defendant. On hearing the Justice’s order, the defendant thanked the Justice and called God’s blessing upon him.
Count McCormack
After his tremendous reception in the Albert Hall, London, by six thousand people, Count McCormack is to appear for the second time at the Savoy Cinema, Galway. He will be accompanied by Dr Larchet and assisted by Miss Jean Trimble, the celebrated pianist. No stranger to Galway or Connemara, the Count may spend a few days fishing in the West after his performance.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
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
