Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1917
Council bear garden
Tuam District Council chamber was converted into a bear garden during the progress of the quarterly meeting. There was a large attendance of members, and a few hundred road contractors occupied the benches behind the barrier. The report of Mr. M.J. Kennedy, Co. Surveyor, was read by the Clerk, and after some observations being made in reference to its proposals, Form 29 (the pay sheet) was submitted. They sheet was one of the best presented for a considerable period.
Shortly after the sheet had been read, and during the course of the Chairman’s remarks, a scene of disorder occurred in the gallery. Contractors groaned and hurled nasty epithets at Mr. Kennedy.
The business of the Council was suspended. Fruitless appeals for order and quietness, together with threats not to sign the pay sheet were made by the Chairman and several members. In the din of the confusion, all that could be heard was the violent brawling of the contractors.
It is many years since such disgraceful and uproarious conduct was witnesses. The Clerk, accompanied by members of the Council, approached the contractors to allay their excitement.
The Co. Surveyor moved in the direction of the disturbers, and immediately several members rushed in his direction, and prevailed on him to retire to the Clerk’s office rather than face the probabilities of rough handling.
On all sides, demands were made by members to requisition a force of police, but the request was declined by the Chairman, who was equally powerless with his colleagues in the suspension of the uproar. The Council was eventually forced to abandon the meeting, and proceed with the business of the Board of Guardians.
1942
Black market oats
“They will prosecute people for paying more than the fixed price for barley, but they will not prosecute the shopkeeper who charges ten or fifteen shillings for a pound of team,” said Mr. McKeigue at the meeting of the Galway County Committee of Agriculture, when reference had been made to the Court proceedings in the South of Ireland against offenders against the Cereals order.
The Very Rev. P. Canon Moran, Chairman, remarked that the feeding of cattle was more important than the making of porter, the amount of which could be reduced. He referred to the position in regard to oats and said that there was a black market in oats, yet he had not seen anybody that was prosecuted for paying more than the fixed price for oats.
Mr. Stankard: Last year the Department fixed a price and when the time came, they got so blind and deaf they could not see what the merchants charged.
The Very Rev. Chairman: The ways of the Department are inscrutable.
The Rev. Brother Jarlath Edwards said that the trouble in regard to barley was that it might be required to mix with wheaten flour.
The Very Rev. Chairman: And you must always remember the drop of porter. That is the poison in the whole thing. There was never more porter drunk in Ireland than there was last Christmas.
Dangerous old buildings
Much has been written of Galway’s historical and archaeological interest, of its splendid examples of mediaeval architecture, but while all that has been written on the subject may be justified, there is another side to the picture – old walls and buildings that have no historic or archaeological interest, but which stand a danger to life and limb and to public health.
These old walls and buildings – some overhanging busy streets and dwelling houses and in danger of toppling over in gales – should be pulled down without delay.
Mr. M.J. Allen, solicitor, of the firm Messrs. MacDermot and Allen, solicitors, Galway, told a Connacht Tribune reporter that the Corporation had power to compel owners of old walls and buildings that were a danger to life by collapse or a danger to public health to have them pulled down, or, if it were an economic proposition to do so, to carry out such repairs as would make them safe.
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.
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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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