Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1917
Very dangerous man
At Galway Petty Sessions, Michael O’Connor, Carton, was described as being a very dangerous man on the occasion, summoned on a third offence for being drunk and disorderly in Galway. He had, said Constable Durcan, a large knife open in his hand in a public house in Cross-st, and he was wild.
Acting Sergeant Casey said the man was creating an awful scene when he found him, intoxicated, and he had a large sum of money in his pocket. There were previous convictions. Defendant made profuse promises to take the pledge and turn over a new leaf. The Bench fined him 5s. and bound him to the peace on £10 and two sureties of £5 each, at the same time, issuing a serious warning to him.
The toll of war
The sorrows of war bear heavily upon parents of only sons. This week the sympathy of everyone goes out to Mr. O’Connor Beirne, Taylor’s Hill, upon the news that his only surviving son, Sergt. Patrick William Beirne, of the Canadians, was killed in the attack upon Vimy Ridge. On Easter Monday morning, the Battle of Arras began with an attack on the celebrated vantage point that had resisted the furious French onslaughts in the previous year, and to the Canadians fell the honour of achieving what the German Generals had regarded as the impossible. Amongst the fallen on the evening of the battle lay young Beirne. It is a pathetic fact that on the day following the battle, his father received from him two cheery letters. It was some time after before the Canadian Office was notified of the death, and in turn notified his parents.
At the time of his death, he was only 29 years of age. Mr Beirne’s other son died in America some years ago.
1942
Yank journalist
Ian Ross MacFarlane, of the American Mutual Broadcasting System, has a great grá for Galway. One day many years ago, he was studying the tourist posters on the walls of Euston Station, London, with a hazy idea at the back of his head that a holiday wouldn’t be such a bad plan, when he saw a poster advertising this city.
“Just what the doc ordered,” said Ian, “I’ll get as far West as I can.” And forthwith he booked for the City of the Tribes.
He liked the place so much that he has been here several times since, but his last visit prior to this month was thirteen years ago. Nevertheless, he has an amazing memory for people and actually remembered to bring across a certain pack of cards and some other things that he promise his Galway friends thirteen years ago he would bring with him on the next trip”
He considers Galway to be the most characteristically Irish town he has ever been in. “You couldn’t mistake it for anything but Irish,” he said. And he insisted on being photographed in front of one of the few surviving thatched cottages of the Claddagh, despite efforts to dissuade him.
“Say, if you want to bring back a photograph to show that you have been in New York you want a picture of the skyline or something like that, don’t you. So I want something that is typically Irish.”
In vain, it was pointed out to him that the thatched cottages of the Claddagh were not typical of modern Galway. So we gave him his thatched cottage and it will appear in due course in one or more transatlantic journals. But, otherwise, he was quite rational about this country and very much annoyed by the “dope” that some American journalists have written after a couple of days on the island. He hopes to visit Galway after the war to watch the city grow.
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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