Archive News
April 29, 2010
Date Published: {J}
Police news
During the week, Constables O’Donnell and Ashe, of Tuam, and other constables from the outlying stations, were transferred on temporary duty to Ballymoe, where extensive cattle drives have taken place of late. Constable Flynn, of Castlehackett, has left for Clonberne.
An amusing story has been told to our representative of a late Sergeant at Castlehackett, who, not long before his departure dropped on what he thought was an excellent case for the Petty Sessions.
A little lad was sauntering down the road in that quiet district. He was carrying a can in his hand. On being met by the Sergeant and another policeman, an examination was made of the contents of the can.
The analysis of the contents, we are told, disclosed not the “good stuff”, which would lead to a prosecution under the Children’s Act, but a quart of buttermilk.
Runaway horse
A runaway scene, which might have had serious results in other circumstances, was witnessed in Shop Street, Tuam, on Tuesday evening last, the animal, which galloped out of the archway leading to the premises of Messrs. Murphy and Sons, and reaching the public thoroughfare, ran straight for the footpath opposite the premises of Mr. John Connelly.
In the impact of the wheel and the kerbstone, the axle got broken. One of the shafts came in collision with the shop window, breaking the glass to pieces. The infuriated animal proceeded towards the Bridge with the dilapidated vehicle, and on reaching the end of the street, collided with an approaching float, belonging to Mr. Rishworth. Some people who were convenient waited until a young fellow who was in charge arrived.
Daring theft
A daring theft was perpetrated at the residence of Messrs. Turner, Tuam, on Monday night. It was found on Tuesday that an out-office was broken into during the previous night, and some fowl and potatoes removed.
The police authorities have succeeded in locating the fowl, and Constables McIntyre and Confrey on Wednesday at about 2 o’clock, arrested a man on the charge of having stolen the goods.
He was detained in custody pending a magisterial inquiry.
1935
Rent settlement
After a long, drawn-out battle for a 50 per cent reduction of rents, a settlement has at last been reached between the Earl of Harewood and his tenants on the Loughrea estate. Some time ago, the local branch of the Town Tenants’ Association demanded the above reduction, but the landlord declined to allow the abatement.
A ‘no rent’ manifesto was subsequently issued by the Town Tenants’ Association pending a satisfactory solution of the question at issue. After protracted negotiations between the branch on one side and Mr. Munroe estate agent, on the other, an amicable arrangement was come to during the week, whereby the tenants agreed to accept the landlord’s offer of a 35 per cent reduction.
The leaseholders and fee farm grant tenants are to be dealt with desperately by the agent, who undertook to treat their claims on equitable terms with that of the yearly tenants. The settlement has given considerable satisfaction locally.
Husband and wife charged
Owen McDonagh and his wife, Mary McDonagh, of the itinerant class, were arrested in Galway on Friday night. When arrested they had two children with them, one aged eight years and the other aged about one year and eight months.
The children were immediately sent to Loughrea County Home and the parents were charged before Mr. Powell, P.C., at a special court on Saturday with assault on guards, disorderly behaviour, and with being drunk while in charge of a child under age. They were both remanded in custody to the next district court in the area.
Galway v. Cork
One of the most important hurling contests of the league season will be staged in the Sports Ground, Galway, on Sunday, when Galway meet Cork in the National League. Every care is being taken to have the best teams fielded by both counties and according to recent displays, there is no reason to doubt that the contest will be one of the keenest yet witnessed in this venue. Cork has infused quite a number of new blood into their team to uphold the honour of their hurling tradition.
As a curtain raiser to the league contest, there is also listed to take place one of the most important senior county championship football matches of the 1935 season when UCG, the holders, meet Corofin in the first round of this important series.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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
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