Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1914
Forestalling at fairs
At the weekly meeting of Galway Urban Council, the Chairman, Mr. M. McDonogh mentioned the practice of forestalling at fairs. In connection with the September fair, which was to be held on Tuesday, the fair really took place on the two previous days.
It was an abuse that should be strongly condemned. It was unjust and unfair to people who waited for the day of the fair and who arrived on the advertised day, only to find that they had nothing to get.
Mr. Griffin said that if they had power to prosecute, they should do so. Forestalling had a most injurious effect on the fair.
Chairman: Of course, we have power to prosecute.
Mr. Silke: It is most unjust to the public, as well as buyers and sellers.
The Chairman’s suggestion, that the Council would take steps to prosecute parties who infringed the rules of the Fairs’ Committee, was ordered to be sent to the different almanacs.
1939
Hitler unpopular
Herr Adolf Hitler is the most unpopular man in Connemara at the moment, for he has ruined the tourist trade, which for the past month was the best for many years. There was an almost complete evacuation of the area by tourists during the weekend, and the flight continues even at the moment of writing.
One would think that Connemara was going to be the first objective of the German bombers. The local telegraph messengers all over Connemara had a busy time last week delivering telegrams to the hotels.
Every telegram was followed by feverish activity on the part of one or other of the tourist parties. There was a hurried packing of luggage, followed by a hurried meal, and someone’s happy holiday was brought to an abrupt ending.
In a jam
In dismissing a food and drugs prosecution for having for sale jam which on analysis was deficient in fruit contents against Mr. Michael Cahill (Cahill and Co., Ballinasloe, Galway and Tuam), Mr. T.G. O’Sullivan, Acting District Justice, said the prosecution and the public had his full sympathy but there was no legislative standard laid down regarding jam, and he dismissed the case.
He hoped the matter would go to a higher court, he added, but he could not do what the prosecution were asking him to do, to assume the duties of the legislature and make regulations regarding the standard at which jams should be sold to the public.
Guard Burke, food and drugs inspector, Ballinasloe, deposed to purchasing a pot of jam labelled ‘strawberry and apple’ from Cahill’s premises in Ballinasloe. He sent it to the public analyst, Mr. Thorpe, and the certificate showed that it did not contain fifty per cent fruit, or fifty per cent of the first named on the label, ‘strawberry’.
He maintained, therefore, that the jam was deficient and did not purport to be what it was labelled and sold as.
On hearing further evidence and quoted cases from law reports, the Justice said he was dismissing the case but the prosecution and the public had his full sympathy. He hoped the case would go further, but he could not assume the duties of the State legislative and fix a standard.
On the evidence, he dismissed the prosecution on the merits. The law would become chaotic if District Justices and Judges were to be allowed to fix up standards in these cases.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
1923
Gloom after war
The special correspondent of the “Independent”, who has been writing of the aftermath of civil war in the West, notes that a feeling of apathy, due to the uncertainty of events, exists amongst the sorely-tried people of Connemara; that politics are referred to only with disgust and that not more than fifty per cent. of the people would vote at a general election; that poverty and unemployment are rife, and there is a growing tendency towards emigration; and that there are bitter complaints of the huge impost of rates and taxes.
It is only too true that there is enough of material for the pessimist to brood over, and that a feeling of gloom permeates country towns. But it is a poor tribute to patriotism that has survived such horrors to encourage this gloom.
It is the duty of all of us to get this pessimism out of the national body and to rid ourselves of the notion that we have not enough Christianity and moral sense left to restore our people to cheerful and ordered progress and industry.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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1923
Peace negotiations
As we go to press, An Dáil is discussing the Peace negotiations between the Government and Mr. de Valera. It was announced on Wednesday for the first time that such negotiations were begun following Mr. de Valera’s “cease fire” proclamation of April 27, and that by the 30th of the month Senators Andrew Jameson and James Douglas were asked by him to discuss proposals.
They said it was for the Government to discuss; they could only confer. Into the ensuring conferences the Government declined to enter personally, but on May 3 the senators placed before Mr. de Valera the Cabinet’s terms, which were that future issues should be decided by the majority vote of the elected representatives of the people, and that as a corollary and a preliminary to the release of prisoners, all lethal weapons should be in the custody and control of the Executive Government.
Mr. de Valera relied to this on May 7 with a document in which he agreed to majority rule and control of arms, but added that arms should be stored in a suitable building in each province under armed Republican guard until after the elections in September, that the oath should not be made a test in the councils of the nation, and that all political prisoners should be released immediately on the signing of this agreement.
“You have brought back to us,” wrote President Cosgrave, “not an acceptance of our conditions, but a long and wordy document inviting debate where none is possible”.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
1923
State of the parties
Speculation as to parties after the next Irish elections is exceedingly interesting, especially in view of the enlarged franchise.
In Dublin, the view appears to be held by a number of people that Labour will make a great bid for power.
Dublin, however, has a curiously insular habit of thought where matters that concern all Ireland and in which Ireland has a say are concerned. We hope this insularity will rapidly disappear under the new conditions.
The country as a whole is backing the Farmers’ Party, and has not the smallest doubt that it will be the strongest combination in the next Dáil, and that it will oust the purely political parties, the one because it has resorted to force, the other because it has been compelled to use force to supress force, and the Labour Party because Ireland feels that at the back of its policy lurks the danger of Communism.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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