Galway In Days Gone By

1919

Lady candidates

Already the shadow of dissolution is upon them. Shrewd strategists are busy delivering election addresses to the reporters, so that they may pass on to office in the new body corporate.

But they will have to pass through the sieve of Proportional Representation; and the returning officers who were instructed on the new system at the Town Hall on Wednesday to declare it to be a Chinese puzzle.

This is not a hopeful beginning. As one optimistic returning officer put it, “We shall muddle through, and elect the new boards anyhow”. It is due to those who planned P.R. to say that it is not an “anyhow” method, but one which aims at securing representation for every section of the electorate.

In Sligo that result was admirably achieved; in Sligo they had the advantage of the P.R. officials, and these gentlemen in the coming contests must perforce delegate their duties to others.

“But these duties are simplicity itself,” they say. “Wait and see,” avers to our lectured returning officers. At any rate, the coming elections will provide a much bigger test in the great experiment than did Sligo. And already P.R. has given courage to new forces who have hitherto been practically unrepresented in Irish local government.

At least four lady candidates are spoken of. Certainly no body that has to do with the health and welfare of the community could be considered complete without women. Who knows better than the mother the trials and tribulations of the poor, and the need for decent conditions in the community?

Irish question interest

The Irish-American Press is once more freely entering this country. It reveals beyond a doubt that the Irish question to-day bulks large in American politics, and that Irish nationalism, as given expression to at the last general election, possesses a powerful and unsleeping organisation in the United States.

Smug English politicians who talk about “settling Ireland,” as if the fate and fortune of a nation were a mere matter of exchange and barter, might peruse the pages of some of the champions of Irish nationality published in the States with considerable profit.

Untrammelled by D.O.R.A., fearless of suppression, their writers speak with a candour that does not mince matters. Ireland is described as “a nation bound and gagged,” and Mr. Lloyd George as a “quack” who is merely fooling Ireland.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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.