Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1920
Kinvara invaded
On Sunday night Kinvara was invaded by a crowd from Kiltartan and Ardrahan returning from the Bellharbour sports who kicked up such a noise that the people were in fear and terror of their lives all night.
The crowd made a swoop on a Connemara hooker that was lying at the quay, and commanded the skipper, with a loud shout of: ‘Hands up,” to hand over a jar of poteen which he had in the boat.
On getting it they carried it off in triumph. After imbibing a bit too freely on the contents, a row arose over the division of the spoils and the jar was smashed into atoms.
The owner of the boat took a bicycle from the fellow who captured the poteen, and in throwing the machine into the boat, he missed the mark and it fell into the tide. The owner of the bike and his confreres cycled to Duras to intercept the boatman ‘homeward bound’ and after chartering a small boat they were informed that the bike had been thrown in the sea at Kinvara.
They returned to Kinvara and kept shouting and singing at intervals until seven or eight p.m. One of the two of the party took possession of a ladder and went on the roof of a thatched house, and with lighted candles threatened to set it on fire.
Another batch of them threw cars and everything they could lay hands on into the tide, and did a lot of damage, while broken bicycles were found on every road.
Meeting as Gaeilge
The first meeting of the members of Galway Rural District Council was marked by the most important and most unique step yet taken by any public board in Ireland – the decision to conduct the proceedings in the Irish language. This also applies to the Board of Guardians.
Practically all the members were present, for the most part young men; the old familiar faces were missing. Mr. Tom Ruane, Co. C., took the chair at the meeting of the District Council and introduced a deputation from the Gaelic League, consisting of the Rev. M. Griffin, C. C., Galway; Professor T. O’Maille, Galway, and Mr. Philip Waldron, organiser.
Fr. Griffin, speaking in Irish, as the chairman had done, dwelt at length on the objects of the Gaelic League in asking to have the proceedings at the meetings conducted in the National Language. He was followed by Professor O’Maille and Mr. Waldron.
After a little discussion (in Irish) it was unanimously decided that the proceedings at the meeting in future be in Irish, the chairman of the day to translate the decisions arrived at to the clerk for record on the minutes.
The remainder of the business of the meeting (which lasted for close on two hours) was then conducted in Irish.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
