Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1919
Bad fortune
When Madame C. Blanche, Bridge-st., Lisburn, was put under a rule of bait by the Petty Sessions Court on conviction for professing to tell fortunes by palmistry, Mr. Maginess, for the defence, said if it was against the law for this woman to tell fortunes it was also against the law to do so at bazaars in aid of church funds.
“It is a bigger crime at bazaars,” observed Mr. Griffith, J.P., who added that “it is a shame such a thing should be allowed there.”
The case was proved by Police-woman Jane Bell, who, amid laughter, said Madame Blanche told her, among other things, that she had four offers of marriage, that she would be married “for better,” that she “would not shed a tear for anyone for nine years,” and that she “would never be in the courthouse with anything concerning herself.”
Carpenters’ strike
The carpenters of Galway “downed tools” on Saturday morning. The local firms affected are McDonogh and Sons joinery works, J. Steward, Salthill, Timothy Emerson, McNally and Co., Frank Lydon, Robert MacDonnell, Walter O’Flaherty, and the Galway Urban Council, which is acting as a paymaster for the Government under the reconstruction scheme in connection with the erection of a hangar for the building of motor fishing boats at the docks.
Carpenters are paid at the rate of 1s. 2d. per hour, or £ 19s. 6d. for a fifty-one hour week. They demanded 1s. 8d. per hour, or £4 5s. per week.
After conference and consultation with other employers in different provincial towns, the employers in different provincial towns, the employers offered 1s. 4d. per hour, or £3 8s. per week. The men also demanded 3s. per day subsistence allowance when working out of town.
Fire outbreak
On Sunday night a defective chimney which serves the houses of Messrs. J. J. Gurhy and J. Raftery, Main-st., Loughrea, caught fire. As soon as the alarm was given a number of willing hands and the local “fire brigade” were quickly on the scene to try to cope with what first appeared to be a serious outbreak.
Fortunately, however, their services were not required as the conflagration, which lasted for several hours, did not extend beyond the chimney originally affected.
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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