Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1920
Criminal injuries
The remarks of Mr. Thomas Ruane, Co.C., at the meting of the Galway Rural District Council on Saturday last, reported on page seven, mark, we hope, a healthy awakening on the part of the representatives on our pubic boards to the plight in which the ratepayers of the County Galway are placed by the criminal injuries’ tax.
The announcement in our issue that, in round figures, £20,000 will be claimed at the Easter sittings of the Quarter Sessions has aroused the people to the dangerous reality of the situation.
The rate paying public are being headed straight for bankruptcy, and the sooner they realise it, the better.
If the present state of things continue, if the cattle-maimer, the thief, the arsonite, the night marauder – aye, and the murderer – are allowed to carry on in their campaign unchecked the farmers will find themselves burdened with a cess that will be beyond their capacity to pay; they will be taxed to such an extend that their land will be hardly worth the tilling.
It is not the ratepayers who are guilty of malicious acts of damage for which they are called on to pay so dearly.
It is then, for them to put their foot down. They must make it plain that those who are responsible for the outrages which are piling up the rates by such alarming amounts shall have no place amongst men who are anxious for the country’s welfare and the people’s good.
St Patrick’s celebration
The usual holidaying crowd of people from the country districts came to Galway on St. Patrick’s Day, and with the business houses closed, there were fairly large numbers on the streets although the weather was rough.
The shamrock was worn by everybody. Members of the Fáinne spoke only in Irish, and this rule was followed by many Gaelic Leaguers. Nothing of exceptional interest occurred during the day.
The sermons and devotions in all the churches were in Irish. The Lord Bishop Most Rev. Dr. O’Dea, presided at High Mass at eleven o’clock in the Pro-Cathedral; the Rev. J. Moran, C.C., was celebrant; Rev. Fr. Green, deacon; Rev. T. O’Kelly, sub-deacon; and Rev. J. O’Kelly, P.P., Master of Ceremonies.
In Loughrea the National Festival was fittingly observed. Business houses were closed and tere was a complete cessation of work.
The trefoil was much in evidence and at a few points of vantage the tricolour floated. A gratifying feature of the observance of the day was the complete absence of drunkenness on the streets.
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.
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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.
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