Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1920
Compensation claims
The “Freeman” of Monday had a biting comment on the Act passed last year enabling the Government servants in Ireland who receive injuries in the carrying out of their duties, or the dependants of those who suffer death to acquire liberal compensation of the ratepayers.
It says: “On Friday last a police sergeant was awarded by the Recorder of Galway £1,200 compensation for the loss of an eye, the damage being incurred whilst endeavouring to arrest a lunatic who, says the terse report, ‘held the police at bay with a shotgun and ultimately perished in the flames of his own cottage.’
Presumably the sergeant was merely performing the duty for which he has been paid since he joined the Force of preserving the law, when he endeavoured to secure the safe custody of the unfortunate madman. It is fairly safe to assume that he knew since before he entered the Depot that such duty was expected of him in return for his stipend and that its efficient discharge involved the risk of injury.
Yet no sooner does the risk materialise than the same and unoffending ratepayers of a whole district are ordered to pay the damage wrought by a lunatic, as if his aberration of intellect and lapse from normal behaviour could be imputed to them as a crime! Could anything be more preposterous?
Why, the wretched man who perished in the flames of his burning cabin cannot be deemed a greater lunatic than the legislator or the administrator who would argue such a freak law is equitable.
Closure rumours
A persistent rumour gained circulation in Galway this week that the County Hospital will be closed. This, should it take place, would be due to the financial straits in which the Committee of Management find themselves. From inquiries made, no confirmation of the report can be obtained, but if money is not forthcoming there is no doubt that the institution cannot carry on.
A special meeting of the Committee will be held on Saturday, 14th inst., to consider the situation. A motion is on the agenda to request the Unions to pay the first half of the 1920 assessment immediately, and to ask the County Council to forward this amount to the Unions for payment.
There is a sum of £2,550 due to contractors, and the Bank, which has already given an overdraft of £1,000, will not advance any more money.
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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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.
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
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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.
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