Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1917
Milk profiteers
In the promulgation of its various orders fixing the prices of foodstuffs, the Government has shown callous indifference to the needs of the poor by its negligence in regulating a maximum price for milk. During the week, many of the women vendors in the city notified their customers that they had advanced the price from 4d to 5d per quart.
No change has been made at the milk depot, but as its daily supply is limited, hundreds of poor people will be compelled to pay the profiteers’ price. In the interests of the destitute poor and their families, immediate action should be taken to prevent the imposition of an additional financial tax on their slender earnings.
Animal cruelty
At the monthly meeting of Tuam Town Commissioners, the Department of Agriculture wrote respecting the ill-treatment to which cattle were subjected in their removal, as is at present the practice from the fair green at Tuam to the railway station through the principal street of the town, instead of by the circular route agreed on some time ago.
The whole main street from the railway station to the fair green was packed with cattle and as attempts were made to open the gate, indescribable scenes of cruelty occurred in the rush made to get the cattle through the gates.
This cruelty occurred not alone at the level crossing, but along the whole length of the streets – a regular orgy of beating taking place in order to rush the cattle to get to the place of entraining.
In one rush, he observed four cattle struck down, and were it not for the efforts of the sergeant and some constables, who, at considerable risk to themselves, forced back some of the cattle, these animals would probably have been killed. He was informed that some of the cattle had arrived at their destination dead in the trucks.
1942
Typhus epidemic
Strong condemnation of the obstructive tactics adopted by some people in the typhus infected area of Connemara was voiced by the Very Rev. N. Donnelly, P.P., Spiddal, at the 11 o’clock Mass on Sunday. Father Donnelly specially condemned the blocking of a road in front of an ambulance at Derryloughlin. Obstructive tactics have since ceased.
The present epidemic in the Spiddal area has had far-reaching repercussions, and the Department is believed to be determined to make a thorough clean-up. Migrant workers from the area are suspected of being responsible for outbreaks of the disease in England and Northern Ireland this year.
Blood tests carried out on some of these are stated to have proved “positive”. Hence the restrictions on migrants leaving the affected areas.
When the ambulance called at infected homes, many of the occupants were absent, and it is believed that some of them had “gone on the run”. Gardaí reinforcements were again on duty during the day both with the ambulance and at the temporary disinfecting station in Spiddal Irish College.
Blood tests have disclosed that an alarmingly big percentage of those examined have been infected at some time or other within the past few months. It is when such positive results have been found that the medical authorities carry out the disinfecting operations which have been meeting with such senseless opposition. Over 130 contacts have been dealt with at the disinfecting station.
Bring home the bacon
Provision shopkeepers all over the country are to have extra supplies of bacon and ham for Christmas. The extra quantities are being made available out of reserves accumulated by the Pigs and Bacon Commission.
The quantity is to be calculated so as to enable shopkeepers to obtain fifty per cent of the supplies they obtained at the same time last year.
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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