Archive News
February 21, 2013
Date Published: 20-Feb-2013
1913
Battleships arrive
On Wednesday afternoon, the main line of the Atlantic Fleet, first-class battleships, torpedo destroyers, gunboats, and cruisers – twenty-two in all – entered Galway Bay in calm and beautiful weather, and sailed up the bay ‘til they came right opposite Barna, where they dropped anchor – right in the centre, opposite the proposed new trans-Atlantic port.
It is a fact that they carry only what is known as nucleus crews at the present, but looking out at them as they lie banked on the bay, it is curious to think that they carry more souls than the entire of our city holds.
William Duffy’s reception
Loughrea was en fete on Monday night when it became known that Mr. W.J. Duffy, M.P., after his arduous attendance in Parliament during the progress of the Home Rule Bill, was returning home after the adjournment, and for the first time since the passage of the measure in the House of Commons.
The people of the town turned out en masse to give him a hearty céad míle fáilte.
Tar barrels were ablaze at several points, and suitable mottoes were displayed giving expression to the feelings of the people. A vast crowd of the townspeople, headed by the Temperance Society brass band, marched to the railway station to meet the train on which he was expected to arrive; fog signals were placed along the line and discharged their salutes in quick succession as the train steamed into the terminus.
Great enthusiasm prevailed, and as the popular member alighted from the train, amid ringing cheers for the Irish Party and Home Rule, he was accompanied to his residence by the band and the huge procession.
1938
Hospital broken into
The clerk of works (Mr. Cardan) reported to the meeting of Mayo Board of Health held in Castlebar on Saturday (Mr. T.S. Moclair, Co.C., vice-chairman, presiding), that the new hospital at Castlebar had been broken into and tablets which were hanging on the entrance walls were removed and smashed. The Guards had been notified. – Chairman: De martins nil nisi bonum. Mr. S.T. Morahan: They are gone now and let us hope we will hear no more about them.
Bailiff seizes stock
During the past week the Sheriff’s bailiff made seizures of stock in the Loughrea area on foot of decrees obtained against farmers for poor rate. The stock were impounded at Loughrea and released on payment of the debt.
In one case – in the Kilchreest area – a grazier’s cattle were seized on a farm, the owner of which was unable to restock the lands. The decree for poor rate in this case amounted to something like £70, which was paid by the owner of the cattle before they were released from the pound.
Tuam school opening
The value of vocational education in our national development, and the importance of domestic economy as a subject in the schools, was stressed at the blessing and official opening of the Tuam vocational school on Monday.
The opening ceremony was performed by Tomas O Deirg, Minister for Education, and the school was blessed by his lordship, Most Rev. Dr. Walsh, Bishop of Cela and Auxiliary Bishop of Tuam.
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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