Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1920
Railway paralysis
Is there no group of men of good-will in Ireland who can prepare a way to bridge the present apparently irreconcilable differences between the railway men and the British Government? From small beginnings, the trouble has daily widened.
To-day passenger service is paralysed over three-fourths of the railway system of Ireland. A state of unrest and uncertainty prevails. Our commercial interests are being ruined. Tourist traffic is largely held up, and many districts are suffering severely.
Those who speak glibly about paralysing the entire railway system of the country can scarcely realise the significance of their words, or the dire results that such a state of things would bring about for the country.
It is better to examine calmly the source and extension of the trouble, and to see if a way out cannot be found.
The doctrine of refusing to handle munitions of war was first propounded by the Labour Party in England, who placed a ban on the sending of munitions by Britain to Poland to enable the Polish Government to make war on the Russians.
English Labour, whose views find no representation in the present coalition Cabinet, resorted to “direct action” to enforce its will. Just as the National Volunteers in Ireland first intimated the policy practised so successfully by Sir Edward Carson, so Irish Labour quickly took the hint from the heads of the principal transport organisations across the Channel.
In the result, the dockers at North Wall, with the tentative support of British Labour, refused to handle munitions that were being conveyed to Ireland by the British Government for the suppression of the Irish people, notwithstanding the fact that these munitions were loaded by fellow-workers on the other side from whose leaders the doctrine had originated.
Water power
An interesting sidelight on the manner in which the English Government in Ireland has allowed Irish resources to remain undeveloped in order that English trade may flourish, is found in the Government’s treatment of Ireland’s water power.
Not one of the 237 rivers of Ireland has been used for industrial purposes, although in these rivers there is immense industrial power. It is estimated that the rivers Shannon, Corrib, Erne and Bann could produce 100,000 horse-power which would mean a saving of 700,000 tons of coal every year.
The main rivers in Ireland could in many cases be used to work the mineral deposits which lie close to them. The total horse-power which the Irish watercourses are capable of producing is variously estimated but it is established that at least 250,000 horse-power could be developed.
This would mean that Ireland would save 1,750,000 tons of coal every year. But as England supplies the greater quantity of coal burned in this country and exploits it commercially, nothing has ever been done to harness the white coal of Ireland’s rivers. And nothing will ever be done until Ireland can take her own destiny into her own hands.
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.
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.
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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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