Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1920
Counting in the dark
A correspondent from Ballinasloe district sends us a letter which we deem of sufficient importance to be dealt with editorially.
He says that the report in our last issue that a candidate for election and the representatives of the Press were denied admission to the counting of the votes is a serious matter that should not be lost sight of.
Proportional Representation was new and intricate machine. The purposes for which it was imposed on Ireland were suspect by a great mass of the people. However admirable the system might be in itself, its utility had to be proved, and was in the process of proof at the municipal elections.
In the circumstances, it was of the very utmost importance that everything should be done “openly and above board,” and that, as far as was permissible, the public should be shown the working of the machinery.
We do not, however, go to the length of concurring with our correspondent’s assertions that “P.R. is so intricate that the voting papers could easily be changed form one person to another, if the candidates or their agents had not free access to examine all the papers after each count.”
Of course, anything is possible, but the extreme possibility our correspondent postulates is altogether unlikely – even given the sinister intentions on the part of the Returning Officer and his staff.
Derelict harbour
The ancient borough of Galway has no representative in the Imperial Parliament, and the servants of the “Mother of Parliaments” have wreaked their own sweet will upon Galway Harbour. Concurrently with the announcement that Mr. Robert Worthington has withdrawn the Galway (Barna) Piers and Harbours Bill comes the news that our docks are derelict.
Merchandise-laden argosies from Spain once sailed proudly into this port, which was accounted the third in Europe. Unhappily, under alien rule hundreds and thousands of Irishmen and women also sailed west from Galway, and the population of the old capital dwindled to a mere shadow of what it was. Now the docks are closed. If something does not “turn up” within a month, the dock gates will be thrown open that the tides may ebb and flow as they will.
It is one more sad evidence of faded greatness, one more tragedy of the curse of alien rule. Surely, the citizens will bestir themselves without a moment’s delay.
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.
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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