February 29, 2012

Date Published: {J}

1912

Shooting ‘curse’

At both masses in St. Brigid’s Church, Portumna, on Sunday, Rev. James Spelman, C.C., spoke in condemnatory terms of the shooting outrage recently perpetrated in the town. He said it was a painful matter for him to allude to, and he could not understand how any man could take a gun in his hands and fire into an innocent man’s house where the man was with his wife and family. He said a curse always followed such outrages, and although the guilty parties might escape the law, still the vengeance of God would sooner or later come on them.

The Claddagh King

There has been some difficulty in connection with the Congested Districts Board new fishing boat in Galway, “The Claddagh King”, as a result of which the crew of six Claddagh men have been replaced by another six also from the city. We may state that a sum of £1,500 has been spent on this boat, which is in charge of an instructor, Mr. Meadows, and also a Danish instructor.

The latter was engaged to show the Claddagh men how to work a Danish fishing net, an affair with huge wings and capable of very remunerative returns. The water engines of the boat are 60 horsepower, and the speed is 8 knots an hour. It seems that the difficulty was that the men were not inclined to face the slender, but continuous work necessary to acquire the training which the C.D. Board are anxious to impart.

They failed to turn out in the morning, with the result that Mr. Micks thought it necessary to intervene, as he happened to be in Galway on Monday on a private visit. As indicated, the boat is now going on satisfactorily, but doubt is expressed as to whether, in all circumstances, the entire project will justify the money that has been spent on it.

1937

Bad road

When Mr. Harry O’Toole raised a question about the disrepair of a road in Lettermore na Coille, Connemara, at the weekly meeting of the finance committee of Galway County Council on Saturday, the secretary (Mr C.I. O’Flynn) said that people were constantly sending in petitions about repairs to roads.

These people did not realise that the County Council could not spend money on roads for which provision had not been made in the Council’s roadworks scheme.

Mr O’Toole: I understand that, but there are 168 families in Lettermore na Coille that never voted Imperialist anyway; they voted our way, and a certain man who thought otherwise got £300 changed from this road to elsewhere.

Secretary: The reason of that change was that this road was a stop-end road and you could not spend money on it.

Mr. O’Toole: It is the only village in all Connemara where there is nothing doing.

Secretary: I wrote to these people during the week and explained that it was a stop-end road and I suggested that they send a petition to Mr. McLaughlin, of the Office of Public Works.

In reply to a further question by Mr. O’Toole, the secretary said he would write to Mr. McLaughlin, but he was afraid it would not be effective; he believed that all the relief money had been allocated.

Railway station fire

Athenry railway station had a narrow escape from being considerably damaged by fire on Sunday morning, when it was discovered that two lorries, the property of the Great Southern Railways Company, were in flames. The fire was first seen at 3 a.m. by people living in the vicinity of the station, Mr. P. Hahessy, Athenry station master, was the first to arrive on the scene. Member of the railway staff did valuable work in saving the buildings.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.