Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1916
Unseemly incident
An unseemly incident occurred on Monday evening at the Railway Station. About a dozen soldiers and seamen from the Fleet were returning to their respective duties.
Owing to the great crowd that accompanied them, it was deemed advisable by the railway officials to allow none of these on to the platform, as only recently a man had a narrow escape from being killed through holding on to the carriage door while the train was moving out of the station.
This proceeding tended to annoy the friends of the men leaving by the train, and they made a determined rush and forced the entrance to the platform.
In their efforts to keep the people back, the Station Master (Mr. Warner), the passenger foreman (Mr. J. Griffin), and the ticket checker (Mr. Jos. Brocken) were assaulted, but happily were not seriously injured. Up to the present, it has not been ascertained if prosecutions will follow.
Prisoners of War
The Committee of the Galway War Fund Association have sent the usual fortnightly parcels to their 65 prisoners of war, and have received acknowledgments, thanking the Committee and their kind friends for their generosity.
Large bales of mufflers, socks, mittens, and other comforts were despatched to the 5th Battalion Connaught Rangers, and also Christmas parcels. The parcels containing hospital comforts were sent to the military hospital at Malta.
Other parcels were sent to Galway ladies who are nursing in Rouen, for distribution amongst the wounded there.
1941
Racing revival
In the wake of the world’s greatest catastrophe now raging with a ruthless devastation of life and property, the belligerent nations have had their freedom in the enjoyment of the lighter side of human affairs banished.
Sport, in all spheres, has been either entirely suspended, or maintained only in depleted forms in restricted areas.
The old maxim “it’s an ill wind that blows no good” perhaps aptly, may be applied to Eire alone in this phase of activity. 1940 has made its exit, leaving this country possibly the one least war-scathed and also that which has had an unprecedented boom in that ever-popular sport which at the same time is the medium of vast reproductive expenditure – horse racing.
Few, if any, of the present generation can recall a year in which the turnstiles at racing venues have clicked as continuously as in 1940, and a still less number will be prepared to disavow the general opinion that never before has there been such a revival in racing.
Casting those reflections aside, it may be opportune to make allusion to some of the factors, which have contributed to the altered situation and the by no means insignificant part that Galway has played in the position.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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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