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.