Galway in Days Gone By
Galway in days gone by
1942
Farmers’ direct action
Members of Galway County Council’s Finance Committee waxed highly indignant on Saturday when they learned that Ballinakill farmers, employing 100 horses and carts, had sanded main roads to make them safe for horse traffic, having grown weary of waiting for the Council to do the work.
Indignation was intensified when it was learned that the doughty farmers, though the local branch of ClannnaTalmhan, actually had sent in a bill for the job. Opinion was divided about referring the matter to the Council’s solicitor for drastic action, but it was eventually decided to leave it to be dealt with by the new County Council, which is to be elected on the 19th inst.
Careless driving
At Galway Court before District Justice Sean MacGiillarnath, Peter Hernon, Shantalla, Galway, was charged with the careless driving of a horse and sidecar on July 11th. Peter Geoghegan, aged thierteen years, said that he was wheeling an invalid chair in which another boy was seated at the junction of Shop-street and Mainguard-street. He was within a foot of the footpath on his correct side of the road when a sidecar going in the same direction pulled the invalid chair out of his hand and overturned it. The boy who was in the chair was thrown on the road and slightly injured.
Peter Hernon said that when he first saw the boys they were about five feet from the footpath. There were cyclists on the other side of the road. He whistled at the boy who was wheeling the invalid chair and instead of going towards the footpath, he went more to the centre of the road and the side of the car touched the chair.
The Justice fined Hernon ten shillings.
1967
Races fashion
Team with white was the rule of couture at the middle day of Galway Races. Outfits ranging from chiffon coat and frock to dresses and two pieces shared their colour with the neutral one. Black, red, mauve and even orange did it and there was some tinge of what in every hat.
Skin cancer survey
The findings to date of the skin cancer survey being carried out in County Galway, which is at the half-way stage, has confirmed the results of previous unrelated research in a number of countries that people of Celtic origin were more prone to this form of the disease than others.
Big crowds
The weather was a spoilsport for the August holiday weekend in Galway-Salthill, but nevertheless the resort had one of the largest crowds for some years. Over 6,000 visitors travelled on special buses and trains from many parts of the country over the weekend and reported very heavy motor traffic on all roads going to the city.
Rescue service demand
Holiday makers to Salthill are concerned about the lifeguard organisation at Salthill and they are joined in their protests by the only lifeguard at Salthill. The visitors – and 17-year-old lifeguard and secondary school student, David Cunningham – say there should be at least another lifeguard in the resort. So far, there has been at least ten near tragedies from drowning this Summer, the vast majority of those involved being children.
Seven injured
Seven people were taken to Clifden Hospital in the early hours of Tuesday morning and one of them was subsequently removed to Galway Regional Hospital as a result of a collision between two cars at Ardbear.
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.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
