Archive News
August 18, 2010
Date Published: 18-Aug-2010
1910
Tramp vandal
On Friday evening a man of the tramp class named Rock, a baker, maliciously broke a plate glass window in the house of Miss Healy, Dominick Street, by throwing a stone through it.
Rock, at the time he committed the offence, was drunk, and was creating a scene in that portion of the town. He endeavoured to gain admission to a neighbouring business house, and this was refused by an employee who threw him on the street.
The aroused Rock’s anger, and probably mistaking Miss Healy’s house for the house from which he was thrown, he threw a stone deliberately at the window and smashed it.
Sergeant Walker, on approaching the scene, was discovered a distance away by Rock who decided on making good his escape. He ran through the town and was pursued by Sergeant Walker through several streets. Owing to the throng of people on the streets at the time, Sergeant Walker was unable to capture him. Rock has since evaded arrest. The window was valued at £7 and was insured.
Street preaching
On Saturday, the Clifden dair day, a strange incident occurred in front on the R.I.C. barrack, when three of the usual street preachers appeared, in company with a man in naval uniform with three stripes or badges on his arm, supposed to be a coastguard from Cleggan. All of them preached or blasphemed in turn, the whole party being under police protection.
The Clifden people never mind the meanderings of the ordinary street preacher, whom they believe to be trying to keep himself from the pursuit of a more criminal career; but when they saw a man wearing his Majesty’s uniform blaspheming and insulting, by his ignorance of the sacred Scriptures, then, indeed, they justly became indignant, particularly when they understood that he was being protected by those with whom they pay and maintain for other and different purposes.
If the man referred to were a coastguard he should not have spoken or appeared on the street as a preacher; and is he were a preacher, he should not have donned naval uniform.
And in either case, he should have been arrested and prosecuted by them. It is, however, expected that more will be heard of the matter.
1935
Connemara flooding
Following a prolonged fall of heavy rain among the hills, flooding occurred in several places west of the Beanna Beola on Sunday evening. At Letterfrack, the road was flooded in places and some inconvenience was caused. Hundreds of people, including many visitors from hotels in the neighbourhood of Clifden, came to enjoy the magnificent spectacle of the Owenglin in flood at the cascade beside the town.
The road opposite the Ivy Hotel was flooded and people entering and leaving had to use a gate recently constructed by the management to provide against such an eventuality.
People living further along the terrace had to risk their lives by walking along several yards of the narrow and uneven wall-top above a dark swirling torrent. A great deal of land was flooded on the east side of the bridge.
Rate rise
The suggestion that the Tuam town rate will probably have to be increased from 1s. to 1s. 6d. will naturally not be popular, but in view of the big improvement taking place in housing, etc. following the erection of the Beet factory, it is hard to see how the public services such as lighting, street maintenance etc which have to be extended, can be maintained on the old town rate, which was only sufficient to meet the requirements when the population of the town was much smaller.
Water problems
Complaints regarding the water supply to the Ballinasloe Mental Hospital were made at a meeting of the committee of management of the institution. Dr. Mills, R.M.S. said that, as some of the older members were aware, he had been complaining about the water supply at the institution for a log time. It was dirty, muddy, peaty and of insufficient pressure.
Advert
Christian Brothers, Tuam, Secondary “A” School. All classes have now recommenced. Leaving Cert. Results 1935 – Presented 19 – Hons. 13 – Passes 5. Other results later.
Salthill carnival
At a meeting of the Salthill Development and Improvements Committee, arrangements were made for Salthill Gala Week, which is to be held from September 1 to September 8. It was decided to hold fireworks and aerial displays, as well as many other attractions. Salthill will assume a festive aspect for the week, gaily coloured lights illuminating the promenade etc.
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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