Galway In Days Gone By

1920

Council cottages

Mr. A. Staunton, Chairman, presided at the weekly meeting of the Ballinasloe Urban Council held on Tuesday evening. There were also present: Messrs. MI. Ryan, W. Griffin, T. McDonnell, P. Dolan, J. Donnelan, F. Clayton, Dr. Rutherford.  The Local Government Board wrote approving the sites for the erection of 250 cottages in Ballinasloe Urban District. They are located at Brackernagh, Poolboy and Creagh, while the selection in the town is not approved.

Mr. Griffin: What is the next step? –Chairman: I think the sites’ committee appointed should see the sites and report to the next meeting. –To acquire sites by agreement, the surveyor said, was the next step and the plans would be prepared to suit the sites, he told Mr. Griffin

Answering, Mr. Ryan, the Surveyor said no area was approved where people were at present living. The sites on the right hand side of the Square were not approved and the existing houses should be dealt with under the Public Health Act.

Mr. Connolly said houses there were purchased by the Munster and Leinster Bank, but this would not mean the eviction of any one, the Surveyor said.

If people had nowhere to go, Mr. Ryan said, their disturbance would not be tolerated. –Chairman: What do you suggest to do, gentleman? –Mr. Ryan: Acquire the sites where there is no one living.

The Surveyor said they would get sites by agreement for eighteen houses in Brackernagh, and Mr. Connolly said a start could be made there. –Mr. McDonnell: Is this going to be a profitable work to the Council? –Mr. Ryan said the houses must be got. –Dr. Rutherford: What will they cost? –Clerk: £600 per cottage.

1945

Repair works

Despite the lot of work which had been done in the past couple of years many Corporation cottages were still in an appalling condition, Mr. C. I. O’Flynn, Co. Manager, told Galway Corporation on Thursday. Mr. J. S. Carroll, Borough Surveyor, he added, had estimated that it would cost £8,000 to put them all in proper repair, and the question was, would they adopt a piecemeal policy or get sanction for a loan to repair them altogether.

The matter arose when the Borough Surveyor asked for a supplementary estimate of £400 for cottage repairs. The Borough Surveyor told the meeting that if he was to spend sums on repairs over the next five years there would be constant complaints.

With about £8,000 he could clear up all the repair works within a year and start with a clean sheet. He referred to the unfenced houses at the Claddagh.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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