Archive News
February 28, 2013
Date Published: 27-Feb-2013
1913
Sheep scab
At Athenry Petty Sessions, Sergt. Maher summoned a defendant for failing to notify the prevalence of scab in his sheep. The complainant deposed that on February 1st he found 14 sheep suffering from scab. Some of them were getting better, and the wool was coming off a number of them.
Chairman: Is he a big farmer? – He is not.
Chairman: Why didn’t the defendant give notice? – I asked him the question, and he said he was doing his best to cure them. I caught him in the act of dressing the sheep.
The complainant mentioned there was a second case against another farmer whose land adjoined the defendant’s in the previous case. He found six sheep, the property of the defendant (John Ward), suffering from scab. Two were recovering and four were really bad. Defendant had sixty-five sheep altogether.
Defendant stated that he did not know it was obligatory on him to report the matter to the police.
Chairman: The public must be protected. – a fine of 10s and costs was imposed in each case.
1938
Bombing of slums
In a discussion on their proposed new housing scheme at Ballinasloe Urban Council, the Chairman, Mr. Michael Connolly, said the clearing of these sites would be costly. He saw in a newspaper where in England councils were asking the aero clubs to clear, or bomb, old slum dwellings, just for practice for the airmen.
He wondered if it would be advisable to ask the Irish Aero Club to clear Ballinasloe’s old slums in the same way. It would be a cheap way of getting them done (laughter).
Modern day ‘evils’
Present-day social dangers are referred to in the Lenten Pastoral Letters read in the churches throughout Ireland on Sunday. The Bishops of Ireland advise the people as to how they should combat these dangers, and exhort a strengthening of the Catholic life.
Among the matters dealt with in the Pastoral Letters read in the western churches are emigration, unemployment, and the dance hall evil.
His Grace, Most Rev. Dr. Gilmartin, Archbishop of Tuam, states that he is glad to know that in the diocese the direction to have no dances during Advent and Lent has, with few exceptions, been obeyed.
Dealing with the licensing of halls, His Grace states that he has reason to believe that if all justices agreed to an eleven o’clock rule in winter and twelve o’clock in summer, with no all-night dances, they would have the blessing not only of the fathers and mothers, but also of the great majority of boys and girls. As matters stand at present, they are most unsatisfactory.
Corporation protest
“Any mistakes made by the Corporation should not result in an imposition on the people of Galway,” said Mr. Peter Kelly, vice-chairman of the Galway County Libraries Committee, when speaking at the monthly meeting of the committee on Saturday, on the decision of the Galway Corporation to protest against an increase in the special rate on the city for the upkeep and maintenance of the county libraries.
1963
Spiddal Courthouse
Members of Galway Co. Council at their meeting on Saturday expressed the opinion that the Department of Justice and not the Co. Councils should build and maintain courthouses. The meeting agreed to provide a new courthouse for Spiddal and Mr. Sean Donnellan was informed that the new building will incorporate a library and council offices for engineers and others.
Minister at dinner
Dr. P.J. Hillery, Minister for Education, was guest of honour at the Tuam Fianna Fáil dinner and social held in the Imperial Hotel, Tuam, on Monday night. Dr. Hillery congratulated Tuam Cumann on its strength and said that perhaps the organisation of Fianna Fáil could do more to encourage and protect the natural patriotism of their young people.
Stand for Tuam?
Tuam Stadium may have covered stand accommodation in the not-too-distant future. At present discussions are taking place as to the best possible type of structure, and when finalised plans will be presented to the Stadium Committee for their consideration.
Postal delays
In Dáil Éireann, Ald. Fintan Coogan, T.D., asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will take steps to rectify the unnecessary delays in postal delivery for letters posted in Clifden, for Ballyconneely and Roundstone.
Mr. Hilliard: I am not aware of the unnecessary delays referred to. Letters for both places posted at Clifden in time for the outgoing evening despatch are delivered the following day, Sunday excepted.
If the Deputy will let me have particulars of any specific cases of delay, I will have inquiries made.
Mr. Coogan: Is the Minister aware of the ridiculous situation there is that a letter posted five miles away in Ballyconneely has to go 105 miles before it is delivered, whereas if the bus brought the mail, it could be delivered within an hour.
Mr. Hilliard: I shall have that examined.
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
