Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1917
No rear lamp
At Athenry Petty Sessions, James Ward, a chauffeur in the employment of Mr. Higgins, Athenry, was charged with driving a motor car at 11 o’clock at night without having a light to illuminate the identification mark at the rear. The defendant had no explanation to offer.
Chairman Mr. Joseph Kilbride, R.M., said it was a common practice among professional chauffeurs to let the tail light out at night so that they could not be identified. The District Inspector said it was a very necessary thing from the police point of view that the rear light be illuminated. The defendant was fined £1, the conviction to be endorse on the licence.
Bull on the loose
On Wednesday evening, consternation was felt among the female and juvenile population of the city when it became known that a bull had taken fright and was touring the streets of the city in an enraged fashion.
The animal, which was being driven quietly along, suddenly ran away in a determined fashion from his escort. He raced along the principal streets of the town and turned down in the direction of the docks, where he was brought under control by a number of dock labourers and farmers.
Killed by lightning
While working at his potato crop on Saturday afternoon, Thomas Naughton, Spiddal was struck by lightning and died in a short period. His head was badly burned and his hair completely singed. He was about to leave the field when he was killed. A married man with a family, he was aged about 35 years. Another man named Concannon was working in a boreen nearby when he was knocked down by a flash of lightning. In this district the lightning flashes were very vivid, and were of a bluish colour.
1942
Invisible planes warning
A few days ago an aeroplane flew over Galway. It was a clear day of sunshine, but, although thousands of people heard the plane, not one saw it – the machine was flying to high to be visible.
Possible the plane was one of our own, but, whatever its identity, the incident served to illustrate the vulnerability of this city to attack from the air. Military observers incline to the belief that the next few months will see the peak struggle of the war in Europe and this country’s danger will be greater than ever before.
In the circumstances, it behoves us to leave nothing undone that we can do to mitigate the peril of Galway. Our L.D.F. Battalion is a credit to the city – although we should have had enough volunteers for two battalions –
But it must be remembered that this is a purely combatant force and that there is a great deal of work for the safeguarding of the citizens and the protection of their property must be entrusted to other organisations.
Possibly it is because there is a good deal of misunderstanding among the general public as to its function that the L.S.F. has not been able to recruit one-fifth of the men necessary for the efficient working of the organisation. We feel sure that if the people understood the very valuable work which it has undertaken on their behalf, the necessary number would be forthcoming very quickly.
It is NOT a perfectly safe job. Should the city be attacked, the members of the L.S.F. will be exposed to far greater risks than the other non-combatants since the nature of their duties precludes them from taking shelter in the ordinary way. Whatever their own risks, however, it is their job to do everything in their power to minimise the casualties among the civilian population.
The danger is at our gates and drawing nearer with every day that passes. The L.S.F. wants those recruits NOW – today, not tomorrow!
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
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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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