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.