Archive News
December 23, 2011
Date Published: {J}
1911
Advert
Madden and Daly, Auctioneers
The auctioneer’s season is every season, to be sure, but still at a time when our thoughts revert to men and things that have become institutions in our midst, Messrs. Madden and Daly naturally pass under review. They do a big business, and being men of the world, possessed of genial temperament, and the coaxing way, they do it well. Their terms invite rather than repel, so that it is little wonder that their volume of business is growing yearly larger.
Christmas retreat
At Galway Petty Sessions, Mr. Daly asked to have a case adjourned till the next Court day, and the magistrates having acceded to the request, he said he would have sufficient hardihood to request that a second case in which he was interested be adjourned.
The Chairman said they would agree to do so. That day week would be Christmas Day, so that both cases would not be adjourned for a fortnight.
Mr. Daly: In fact, sir, having regard to the general affairs of the country, I would ask you to adjourn the Court until 7th January.
Chairman: We couldn’t adjourn a Court of Petty Sessions, but we will let those cases of yours stand.
Mr. Heard: They will all automatically adjourn themselves this day week.
Mr. Daly: Mr. Athy (Workhouse Master) and the defendant will go on retreat for Christmas (laughter). Mr. Alfred there, too, is a very pious man and he would not like to be working at Christmas.
Jaunting car death
Mr. Patrick Gannon, one of the most popular car drivers in the city, whilst driving two Land Commissioners in from the country, suddenly fell dead on Friday evening. He was 76 years of age and married, and while driving through Rahoon, he suddenly uttered an exclamation and fell back from the ‘dickie’, and upon examining him, the Commissioners found that he was dead, and one of them immediately went to Galway for assistance and returned with a clergyman.
1936
Sad ceremonies
The bells of seven churches tolled their sad notes over Galway City on Friday afternoon as the mortal remains of His Lordship, Most. Rev. Dr. O’Doherty, Bishop of the United Dioceses of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora, were being laid to rest in the crypt of St. Patrick’s Church.
Princes and high dignitaries of the Church, leaders of the State and all sections of the life of the nation were represented in the cortege which followed the remains of the great Bishop who had been the spiritual guide and ruler of his people for thirteen years.
The interment took place in the crypt in which lay the remains of his two immediate predecessors, Most Rev. Dr. O’Dea and Most Rev. Dr. McCormack, and three Galway priests, Rev. Father Leonard, Rev. Father Dooley and Rev. Father Craven. The crypt had not been opened since 1923, when the remains of Most Rev. Dr. O’Dea were there laid to rest.
Storm off Aran
The Galway coast was lashed by huge waves which in some places swept across fields during the storms of the week. During a trip of the Galway Bay steamboat Dun Aengus, from Galway to Aran, the sea was so rough and the waves so violent that some of the passengers knelt and prayed.
The vessel broke her moorings at Kilronan pier, and passengers rushed to board her for the return voyage. All got on board safely, but some baggage was left behind on the pier.
The Aran Islands suffered severely during the storm. Seas reached a height not seen in many years, and curraghs had to be carried far inland for safety. Waves breaking across the quay caused postponement of the carpentry class usually held in a store facing the sea. The telephone line to Kilronan was out of order for several days.
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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