Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1919
Disgraceful conditions
A report was forwarded through the Local Government Board, from Mr. Pack Beresford, on the condition of the labourers’ houses in Aughrim.
It showed they were in a most disgraceful way, without any sanitary accommodation and little better than hovels.
Fr Coughlan in a letter to the Local Government Board drew attention to the unsanitary, unchristian and savage conditions under which the poor labourers of Aughrim had to live.
As it was Fr. Dan Coughlan brought the matter up first, the Council returned their thanks to him, and it was decided to take steps to have proper houses built.
Economic danger
The country is at present passing through a period in its economic history which is full of dangers. There is a sinister tinge of irony in the reflection that a war, that has brought sorrow and devastation on many peoples and many lands, has brought wealth and prosperity to other people and other lands.
In a small measure, relatively speaking, the Irish farmer has been able to share in that prosperity. The demand for increased food production and his own efforts and industry have succeeded, during these terrible years, in finding bread and work for himself and his children.
In the result, both have lived in comparative comfort. To-day, America is seeking out immigrants who shall be good citizens and capable workers. The State Emigration Department of Washington is looking towards Ireland.
It does not want anarchists of revolutionaries from southern Europe. And of all the heterogeneous company that crowds into the States, the Irish emigrants make the best and most reliable citizens.
The difficulties of securing passports are rapidly disappearing. The day is drawing nearer when our young men and women, if they are not given a decent incentive to secure bread at home, will pour forth in thousands to the land where ten million Irish have found a home.
Water complaints
Complaints from all sides as to the City’s water supply were heard at the meeting of the Galway Urban Council yesterday (Mr. J. S. Young presiding).
First there was a letter from the Dominican Convent, Taylor’s Hill, about the insufficiency of the supply to the Convent.
The Town Steward (Mr. Molloy) said the tank in the convent was filled every night, but that it was wasted very soon. There were 200 people in the place.
Mr. Cooke thought it was a great surprise that after spending so much money on their new waterworks’ system that there should be a shortage. – “It is extraordinary,” agreed the Chairman.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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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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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.
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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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