Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1917
Solicitor’s ambush
An extraordinary story of how a solicitor lay in ambush in connection with the house of his client that had been robbed of its marble mantelpieces and all its woodwork was told when Mr. Hildebrand, D.I., prosecuted Mr. James Lyons, Oranmore, for the theft of timber from the unoccupied hill of Mr. G.W.F. Kelly, of Rockhill.
Mr. M.L. Colohan, solr., of Ballinasloe, who was acting for the owner, proved that he went to Rockhill, and while concealed in the yard, he heard footsteps. On looking out, he saw defendant taking away small pieces of timber.
This house, added Mr. Colohan, had been completely robbed of all its woodwork. The timber work, floors, doors etc. had been taken, and fine marble mantelpieces had been smashed into pieces. Sometime previously, the Sinn Féiners had asked Mr. Kelly for permission to hold a dance in one of the barns.
This permission was granted, and the only excuse defendant could put forward for being there was that he went to see the dance house. Lyons was given an excellent character. He had been for 30 years around the place, and nothing had ever been brought up against him before.
He was convicted of the offences, and allowed out under the First Offender’s Act upon entering into his own recognisance of £5 to come for judgment when called upon during the next twelve months.
1942
Serious typhus outbreak
Next Monday’s Spiddal Fair is banned. Schools are closed and meetings of any kind in the area are forbidden, while Dr. C.F. McConn, acting County M.O.H., Dr. P. Geraghty, and a special staff strive strenuously night and day to subdue a typhus outbreak which has assumed alarming dimensions.
The disease, which made its first appearance in the Spiddal area in July, has spread through the district from Salahoona into Furbough and north to Bol Uisge.
Owing to lack of beds in Galway Fever Hospital, the Irish College at Spiddal has been converted into a temporary hospital.
To date there are seven active cases and seventeen convalescent cases.
Dr. McConn told our representative that typhus came from dirt. “Any type of vermin will carry it,” he explained, and added that the state of some of the houses in the Spiddal area was greatly to be deplored.
“The origin of this fever is a few dirty houses, and it is a terrible thing to see others suffering on account of the dirt of the few,” he said.
Dr. McConn said that all buses passing through the infected area were disinfected and vacuum cleaned. No lorries were drawing turd from the particular area at present.
Until such time as the fever was completely under control, no migratory labourers are allowed to leave the area unless they first get a clean bill of health from the medical officer.
Up to the time of going to Press, there were fourteen patients in the temporary hospital at Spiddal.
Dr. McConn said that there were a number of attempts at concealment by people living in the fever area, but he was going through the whole area and testing every individual person in it.
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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