Archive News
April 6, 2011
Date Published: {J}
1911
Angry scenes
Lively scenes attended an inquiry at Mountbellew by Mr. D.A. Price L.G.B. Inspector, into the District Council’s application for a sum of £2,665 for the sinking of wells and the erection of pumps in the various parts of the Union, and for £1,000 for providing a system of sewerage in the village of Ballygar.
The Workhouse Boardroom, where the inspector sat, was crowded by ratepayers, many of whom strongly protested against the action of the Council in seeking to increase the Union rates. Replying to Mr. Price, the Clerk said if the larger loan were refused they would have to take the money out of revenue – half this year and half next year.
When Mr. Cornwall, engineer, stated that a pump in Kilmore was now in good order, a voice shouted: “It’s a d––sight worse than ever it was.” “It’s all humbug,” said another voice, while Mr. J. Cunningham, Co.C., was giving evidence and the term “Scandalous!” was used by a third voice.
“Our forefathers had to do without them,” said a ratepayer, referring to the Council, “and they were healthier and better men than we are.”
The Ballygar proposal met with vehement opposition, and the Inspector had on several occasions to adjourn if order was not observed. “We’ve been quiet too long, asleep too long. These Councillors are walking upon us,” interjected a ratepayer.
The Inspector temporarily suspended the inquiry. Subsequently, Messrs. Cunningham and Kenny, D.O’s were examined against the proposal, and a voice declared – “There will be a regular rebellion in the village if the work costs more than £300.”
1936
Buried alive
A 60 year-old farmer from Caherlistrane was found buried in a sandpit near his home on Friday evening last. The man, who had a new house building, was engaged raising sand from a pit on the land of a neighbour. When he did not return home at the usual hour on Friday evening, a search was begun for him and the tragic discovery was made by his son and a neighbour.
When found buried in the sand on Friday evening, he was on his knees and there was about a foot of sand over his head. His body was covered in stones and sand and the spade and shovel he was using were buried in the sand and broken.
Fire hose
At a meeting of Loughrea Town Board, when an application for the loan of the fire hose to water the new tennis court being laid at the Temperance Hall grounds was raised, Mr. Coghlan reminded the meeting that they would first have to rescind the minute setting out that the hose was for the sole use of the Board and was not to be lent to outsiders. “Could you not take it out for a trial?” Mr. Cox suggested.
“Get it back wet and let it rot,” commented the Chairman (Mr. Cahill). The Board made no order on the application.
Loan application
Mr. Michael Ua Riain, B.E., Engineering Inspector under the Local Government Department, opened an inquiry at the Galway Town Hall on Tuesday into an application by the Galway Urban Council for a loan of £126,000 for the purposes of the Small Dwellings Acquisitions Acts.
Mr. Cooke said that the Urban Council were at present engaged under the Small Dwellings Acts and clearance area enactments in improving the city of Galway as much as possible.
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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