December 2, 2010

Date Published: {J}

1910

Rowdy gentleman

Two fines of 10s 6d each, with costs, were imposed on Christy Kelly, a Gort butcher, at Gort Petty Sessions for charges of drunkenness on the 6th July and 2nd September, and a fine of 21s and costs for a charge of drunkenness and disorderly conduction on the previous night.

Constable McGlynn related finding the defendant drunk and Sergeant Reilly said the defendant promised to take the pledge before.

Chairman: He did not keep It?

Sergt. Reilly: No sir. The sergeant added that the defendant was a low class butcher.

Defendant (indignantly): I was the most respectable butcher in this town at one time. He added that he had served half the town of Gort with meat some time ago. He denied that he did not live with his wife, and said she was a wardsmaid in Tuam hospital.

Defendant elected to be sworn, and then admitted that he was drunk on the 6th of July, but denied that he was under the influence on the previous night. He kept the pledge until then, and, he added: “I only took two drinks which I got leave to take.”

Sergeant Reilly stated that about 20 minutes past nine, the defendant was drunk and disorderly in George’s Street. He was disorderly by shouting at a publican down the street. They could hear him a long way off. They had to arrest him and he was in custody since.

Defendant explained that he had been in the asylum with a bad head and himself and Pat Shaughnesy (the publican) were only jesting. They were asking him to sing a song in the barrack and he sang a couple of songs for them. That was all the shouting he did.

Defendant asked for time to pay the fine, saying that his employer would pay it. He would, he said, never take a pledge again after that, but subsequently, he said he would take the pledge if their worships gave him time to pay (laughter).

1935

Financial position

Galway County Council are in a much stronger financial position than they were in November last year. The rates are coming in much better and during the past week, the Council’s financial position was further strengthened by about £18,000 received from the Department of Local Government as an instalment of the county’s share of the Agricultural Grant. The Council still have, however, a debit bank balance.

Sudden death

Widespread regret will be occasioned by the news of the sudden death of Miss Lily Flynn, manageress of the Leenane Hotel, which occurred during last week. Deceased was about to go to Galway to visit in Seamount Nursing Home, Miss McKeown, proprietress of the hotel, who sustained a broken leg when a servant fell through a skylight on top of her during the previous week.

Miss Flynn, who, it is stated, had hurried upstairs to her room from a waiting car to fetch something she had forgotten, was found later, having apparently succumbed to heart failure.

Air base hopes

A special meeting of the Air Port Development Committee was held in Clifden on Wednesday evening. It was decided at the meeting to acquire the services of engineers to ascertain the exact extent of the work necessary to make Aillebrack conform fully to the most modern requirements.

It was stated at the meeting that as a result of representations made to him, Mr. G. Bartley, T.D., was strongly urging Aillebrack’s claims as the future terminal of the Transatlantic service. Fresh efforts are being made to renew the interests of the Irish Transatlantic Air Corporation.

Mr. J.A. Mollison, the well-known airman, intends to establish a transatlantic freight service from Galway to Newfoundland next April, says the United Press New York correspondent.

He has arrived in New York to purchase three single-engined American ‘planes which, he announced, he and his wife would use to establish an experimental service. He proposes to carry “speciality” freight such as news films, gowns, and similar articles.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.