Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1920
Settling the Irish Question
Frankly we do not believe the present British Government will ever make a serious or sincere effort to settle what it terms the “Irish Question.”
In the circumstances of British relations with Ireland to-day as revealed by the attitude of Mr. Lloyd George satellites, we quite sympathise with the little remnant of the Constitutional Irish Party in shaking the dust of Westminster off its feet during the elaborate farce that is now being enacted.
The bulk of legislators in that assembly have no real sympathy with Ireland, and act as if the terrible tragedy across Irish Sea did not exist.
But there is one important exception. Labour opinion in England in recent years has made wonderful advances in regards to Ireland. And we do not believe the Labour Party fully represents or expresses these advances.
During the week we beheld Labour in the country telling its representatives in the House of Commons that they did not go far enough on the Irish issue; that men must not be jailed without just cause and fair trial and conviction by ordinary process of law; that the nightmare of militarism must be lifted from our unhappy land, that Ireland must be free.
If Labour were in power to-morrow, Ireland would undoubtedly get all that she might reasonably demand; and the present majority at Westminster knows it, and strains every nerve that the truth about Ireland may be concealed from the English masses.
Saturday’s demonstrations at Hyde Park revealed as nothing else could the strength and the solidarity of Labour. It was a significant portent that the greatest gathering in all that vast assemblage of workers stood around the Sinn Féin platform.
In the heart the Empire ten thousand workers showed a desire to be told the truth that is so diligently hidden by a politically-minded Press. And let there be no mistake about it, the English politicians and the Press fear Labour.
For years, it has toiled at their terms. It has had no share in the good things of the wealthiest country in the world. To-day Labour dictates its own terms; and the politician looking abroad sees unrest everywhere, and fears that his days are numbered. He does not want to have to answer to Labour for the state of Ireland.
Rising prices
The prices of the mere necessaries of life still continue to soar (writes our Tuam correspondent), and the wage-earners in the town are hard hit.
Mutton and beef have advanced 4d. per lb. within the last week to 2s. 6d. per lb. No potatoes were brought into the market last Saturday because, apparently, the farmers do not wish to sell them below their own price.
Similarly, the turf is being held back. The Town Commissioners might be able to take the matter up and relieve the unfortunate people who are suffering most by reason of this action. If a committee met the Farmers’ Organisation a settlement of reasonable prices might be come to.
At the meeting of the Tuam Town Commissioners on Tuesday evening, Mr. M. Dwyer presiding, Mr. Byrne asked if the board was going to do anything about the present disturbed state of the market.
The townspeople were complaining owing to the starvation of the markets if the country people did not bring in potatoes. Mr. Burke: The Saturday before they were controlled a workman could not get a bag of potatoes, and the workmen of Tuam came here and organised themselves and made an effort to control the potatoes but they didn’t go the right way about it.
The land sharks kept the potatoes out last Saturday and they should be made toe the line. – Mr Burke: Hundreds of tons are exported from Ballyglunin, while the poor of the town starve.
Mr. P. Walsh: The shopkeepers and Town Commissioners are blamed for it. – Chairman: The price was reduced to 1s. a stone, and the Transport Workers thought they were doing a good turn for the people of the town, and, unfortunately, it turned out the reverse, and created a lot of dissension. – Mr. Coogan: it is the exporters they should get at, and the matter would settle itself.
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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Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
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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.
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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