Archive News
December 8, 2011
Date Published: {J}
1911
Advert
Genuine high-class American dentistry by London & American Dentists Ltd., 31 Harcourt Street, Dublin. Attends regularly every Friday and Saturday at McHugh’s Commercial Hotel, Vicar Street, Tuam. Extractions guaranteed absolutely painless. Teeth constructed on gold, platinum and vulcanite at moderate fees.
Gold fillings and crowning, crown bar and bridge work our speciality. All irregularities in children’s teeth rectified.
The London and American Dentists desire to draw attention of the public to the fact that they practice only Genuine American Dentistry and before entering any house, please note the words “Dentists, Regd.” on door plate.
Attempted suicide
On Tuesday evening last, Mr. A. Bell, R.M., help a special court at which a farmer from Turloughmore, was charged in custody with attempted suicide.
Mr. O’Rorke, D.I. prosecuted.
The son of the accused deposed his father was with him in the kitchen. He saw accused get rope reins, which were hanging on a peg on the wall. He went into the room and witness followed him. He saw his father put the rope around his neck and twist it three times. He drew the ends of the rope, which was then tight, outwards. His mouth was open. Witness went and unwound the rope from his father’s neck.
He never said anything to witness when he took the rope from him. Witness heard his mother ask him why he was choking himself. Accused made no reply.
About 9 o’clock that night, accused went to bed and got up about 10 o’clock and said he was going to drown himself. Witness prevented him from going out,.
Accused, who did not cross-examine on the charge being read out for him and cautioned, said he never spoke of drowning himself. He was returned for trial to the next January Quarter Sessions in Tuam.
Sergt. Reidy subsequently stated that accused had been suffering from depression for the past five months.
1936
Tuam unemployment
The provision of an industry that would give permanent employment to workers in Tuam was suggested by a deputation from the Tuam branch, Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, and Tuam branch, Irish Labour Party, at the monthly meeting of Tuam Town Commissioners.
Mr. R.M. Burke, speaking for the deputation, said there would be unemployment in the town soon when the house building scheme, town sewerage and sugar campaign ended in the New Year.
Rabbit trapping.
There are many extraordinary methods of catching rabbits, not the least of them being the crab with a lighted candle on its back – but the method being used at present on Aillebrack beach is as novel as it is effective. Parties of local youths have been having good nights fun and large bags during the past week with the aid of acetylene lamps and poaching greyhounds. The lamp is swung around until a rabbit is found in the spotlight. Then the greyhound sneaks along outside the light and grabs the bewildered bunny from behind.
Roads scheme
A gang of twenty-four men commenced work on repairing the Dunlacon road on Monday last.
The employment is being afforded under the new relief scheme whereby dole recipients each receive an average of two days’ work per week. Keen disappointment is being expressed at the fact that the scheme has not yet been extended to the Clifden area.
New fair
The proposed establishment of a new fair to be held annually on the last Thursday in July with the sale of cattle, sheep and pigs has met with approval with Mr. T. Ryan, toll-keeper, who in a letter to the Loughrea Town Board stated he was agreeable to fall in with its suggestion and would have the fair properly advertised in due course.
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
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
