Archive News
December 22, 2009
Date Published: {J}
New Dean
The recent appointment of a Catholic priest as Dean in Residence in the University College, Galway, emphasises the removal of the ban which the Church in her zeal for the spiritual interests of her children, decreed wise to place on the educational system administered in the old Queen’s College, and marks the dawn of a new era in the history of higher education on the West.
Christmas behind bars
John Joe Garry, a well-known Galway character, will spend his Christmas in prison. John Joe has often been before the court hitherto, but never for such a serious offence as that with which he was charged at the City Petty Sessions on Monday before Mr. Kilbride, R.M., Colonel Woods, and Mr. James M. Campbell, when he appeared in the dock for the larceny of £3 from an Aran Islander.
The story of the larceny was told by Pat Connelly, of Aran, who related that he came into Galway on the 18th December. On the following day, he went into Lydon’s public house with an Aran man. He took out his purse to pay for a drink, and left it on a half-barrel. He paid for the drink with a half-sovereign. Garry was in the shop at the time. Witness knew him well and gave him a penny.
When down as far as Cooke’s, witness missed his purse, and he went back and reported the matter to the publican’s son. They searched the shop, and Garry came back with the purse. Mr Lydon counted £6 in it; the remainder was missing. Garry said he did not take any money out of the purse.
Constable McGloin found the £3 note subsequently in a hole in the wall with a stone over it. The Chairman said they had the record of the accused before them, and Sergeant O’Neill said he had nothing to add to it (laughter).
The accused was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment with hard labour, the Chairman of the Court remarking that it was a mean larceny.
1934
Boisterous spirits
Christmas was celebrated, not wisely, but too well, by not a few in Galway and, because of the methods adopted in some cases to attract a wide audience to their displays of high spirits in the streets, it was only natural that Gardaí should be amongst those who witnessed the performances.
The next step in the scheme of things was to Eglinton Street Station, and here that boisterous spirit of gaiety quickly cooled off in the unsympathetic surroundings of a bare room.
Some of the festive ones became aggressive and some minor squabbles took place. One man was struck on the head with a bottle and was removed to the Central Hospital where he was detained.
Gaeltacht grants
The £2 grant for children in Gaelic-speaking houses is generally acclaimed as one of the most practical schemes that has become operational in the Gaeltacht. So far, it is not possible to ascertain how many will benefit in Connemara, but it is expected that the number will be very large.
From one school (Derryvoreada) at Recess, it is reported that £180 has been paid to date. The area is not wealthy, so the money has come at a welcome time.
Legion of Mary
A branch of the Legion of Mary has been established at Ballinasloe, having had the approval of the Bishop of the diocese. Rev. Fr. E. Hughes, Adm., St Michael’s, at last Mass on Sunday, spoke of the work and activities of the Legion in other parts of Ireland and throughout the world and said the cooperation and help of active Legionaries was needed to combat many of the evil influences which were at present creeping in and operating in the country.
Christmas rush
Business house owners in Ballinasloe report an extra rush during the Christmas holidays as compared to the past couple of years; there seems to be no shortage of money and there was an extra amount of shopping, and money was freely spent. There seemed to be no shortage of cash in the buying of Christmas presents, and the business houses in nearly all cases followed the old time custom of giving customers ‘Christmas boxes’ or presents.
For more, read page 22 of 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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