Galway In Days Gone By

1920

Deserted courts

Practically all the courthouses in North Galway are deserted on court days (writes our representative).

No persons appeared at the last Mountbellew, Ardrahan, Kinvara and Athenry petty sessions, and no court has been held in Kilkerrin or Williamstown for the past two months. Dunmore is also standing aloof.

The fact gives occasion for interesting reflections. British law, it seems, was not a preventive of wrong-doing. Its administration became conventional, and although nominal fines were imposed, no efforts were made to check repeated acts of misdemeanours.

There were litigants who went to those courts solely to “beset” one another in the fine points of the law. They brought the most trivial differences into court, and never cultivated the high moral principle of overlooking the little troubles that crossed their path.

The Sinn Féin spirit claims a high moral influence, and its advocates believe that in its operation a good deal of the troubles heard heretofore in British courts will disappear. Sinn Féin court sentences are severe and stringently carried out with a view to putting a stop once and for all to foolish squabbles between our own people.

Musical culture

Seldom in the history of our country has there been such a passionate and widely-expressed desire for a distinctive Celtic culture.

Whilst politicians and armed men may struggle for the mastery, the musician, the poet, the artist and the litterateur are taking a new pride in their work, and inspiring with a distinctive national expression.

“The Irish Statesman,” which unhappily has been compelled to cease publication, afforded most encouraging evidence of a new spirit and culture in current Irish literature.

In the realm of music the Irish Society of Composers promises to achieve what has never hitherto been possible by collecting all that is best in our traditional melodies and bringing them to classical fame in our own country under the aegis and patronage of our most distinguished musicians.

The Society is formed for the purpose of forwarding the interests of composers resident in Ireland or of Irish descent, and the term “composer” is not to be confined merely to composers of orchestral, instrumental or choral works, but is to be applied to the writers of dance music, ballads and light music of every sort.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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