Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1914
Home Rule celebrations
At Headford Petty Sessions, Galway, Mr. Michael Doherty, licensed publican, was prosecuted for a breach of the Licensing Act.
Constable Quirke stated that on the 28th May he entered the licensed premises and saw a party there who was not a bona-fide traveller.
Mr. Concannon, solr., on behalf of both defendants, admitted the charge and said that the offence happened on a night of great rejoicing not only in Headford, but everywhere.
It was the night of the passing of the Home Rule Bill.
Mr. Comerford (D.I., prosecuting): Not everywhere.
Mr. Concannon: We had it in Tuam.
Mr. Comerford: Tuam is not everywhere – not in Ulster.
Mr. Concannon: We have our own Volunteers as well as Ulster.
The publican was fined 20s. and costs.
Kinvara ‘gun fight’
At Kinvara Petty Sessions, Mr. O’Beirne, D.I., summoned Thomas Shaughnessy and Michael Staunton, for disorderly conduct. Thomas Kearns deposed that he was in Gill’s public-house. Shaughnessy came in and asked Staunton something about a revolver he had in his hand.
A tussle ensued between the defendants, in the course of which the revolver left Staunton’s possession.
Sergeant Reilly slated he considered it advisable to have both defendants bound to the peace. The Bench ordered the defendants to enter into a bond, themselves in £10, and two sureties of £5 each, to keep the peace.
1939
‘Late’ nurses cautioned
At a meeting of Galway Hospitals and Dispensaries Committee, the secretary recalled that three girls had been reported out of the Central Hospital until four o’clock one morning. They had been asked for an explanation and they now wrote stating that they arrived at the porter’s lodge at 12.30am, got in over the wall and in through the window of the dormitory.
They were sorry that this occurred and added that it had not been their intention when leaving the hospital to remain out later than the usual time.
The matron wrote stating that she looked on the fault as serious, but as the girls had long service in the institution, she asked the committee not to deal with the matter more seriously than to curtail the girls’ weekly late pass.
The committee agreed to leave the matter pass with a caution. Mr. Lydon remarked that girls going out on bikes found it very difficult to time their return.
100 year-old trees felled
James Finn, Moorpark, was prosecuted under the Forestry Act for cutting trees on his land without having got permission from the guards. For similar offences, Joseph Corbett, Shudane, and Martin Rabbitt, Fahy’s Village, were also prosecuted. Mr R.J. Kelly, State Solicitor, prosecuted.
Guard Bodkin said that on January 26 he found four beech trees felled on Finn’s land. The trees were over 100 years old and were only suitable for firewood.
Guard Kerins said he found eleven trees cut on Corbett’s land. Corbett told the Justice they had to cut the trees for firewood owing to the bad season for turf last year. There were nine or ten people getting the timber for firewood and he did not receive and did not ask any money for it.
Guard Henry said he found one beech tree felled on Martin Rabbitt’s land.
Mr Kelly said the prosecutions in cases of this kind were becoming frequent. The offences appeared to have all occurred early in the present year. There were very little formalities to be gone through in getting permission from the guards, who gave such applications very favourable consideration. He was instructed to ask for penalties in these cases as a warning to others.
The Justice said he didn’t like to see three prosecutions coming together as it should total disregard of the Act. It was all pure carelessness as the guards showed sympathetic consideration to all applicants for leave to cut trees, especially for firewood.
If these offences continued in the district, he would impose a stiff penalty. He fined defendants 4s., 11s., and 1s., respectively.
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
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.
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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