Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1917
Ice floes on the Corrib
One of the most peculiar and interesting phenomena in connection with the recent severe weather was the ice floes which came down the Corrib last week. When these entered the mill races at the City, they created considerable inconvenience, and, as noted in our last issue, in the case of the Electric Light Works at Newtownsmith, they succeeded in stopping the turbine, and rendering its immediate stoppage necessary for three days from Saturday night.
The manager and staff of the company in the difficult and exceptional circumstances with which they were faced, grappled valiantly with the situation. Turning to the gas engine for power, they kept the town supplied during the daytime without interruption, and meanwhile, the work of cleaning the ice floes from the turbine was proceeded with under ice-cold conditions. Wading waist-deep in water and snow, they cleared away enormous quantities of ice and snow and also succeeded in cleaning the grating upon which the snow had formed a great dam.
This enabled the water to come through. The manager and his staff are to be congratulated upon the promptness and enterprise with which the difficult and exceptional situation was handled.
Another peculiar and somewhat pathetic feature of the ice on the river was the number of dead birds that were to be seen floating with the stream. Cold and hunger succeeded in destroying many, and in some cases birds were seen with their heads missing. The explanation is simple and pathetic. The birds while diving for food got caught in the ice floes which came floating down the river, with the result that their heads were amputated.
1942
Beach expansion
Before the Local Government Department will express an opinion on the scheme under which the Galway Corporation proposes to clear rocks from and improve the foreshore at Salthill, more detailed plans than those already submitted must be prepared and forwarded for examination by the Department.
At a meeting of the Galway Corporation, a letter was read from the Department which stated that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister had the plans already submitted. He desired that a more detailed scheme should be submitted together with a layout plan showing the extent of the work, the details of the bath reconstruction proposal, a detailed specification with particular reference to the use and handling of explosives and a detailed estimate of the cost.
Ald. O’Flaherty thought that explosives would not be needed for the work. He would not be in favour of touching the large rocks – he would simply take away the loose stones covering the strand.
Break famine averted
A three weeks’ break famine in West Connemara ended on Monday when Mr. J.J. O’Malley, Westport, dispatched twenty tons of flour to Clifden by specially-chartered G.S.R. lorries. The plight of the residents of this part of Connemara was described in last week’s Connacht Tribune.
Post-War trade
Possibilities of post-war trade between Connacht and Canada are being investigated already. Coming to the Gaeltacht with a high appreciation of the products of Gaeltacht industries, Mr. E.L. McColl, Canadian Government Trade Commissioner to Éire – who is making a thousand miles tour of the West of Ireland to study industrial development, and is now in Galway – on Thursday visited Gaeltacht factories on the Connemara seaboard to see in the making those articles of knitwear that had impressed him by their merit in workmanship and design when he saw them in Dublin.
The object of the tour is to gather information that will assist in the development of post-War trade between Ireland and Canada.
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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