Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1920
War extends to finance
The battle between Ireland and England has extended to finance. We have seen this week the results that are bound to follow the stoppage of grants to the Local Taxation Account in the case of Dublin Corporation.
Local boards throughout over three-fourths of Ireland have replied by refusing to pay further interest or principal on loans. Indeed, the power to control local bodies has altogether passed out of the hands of British Boards in Ireland, as intelligent observers believe forever.
The three hundred and odd officials of the Local Government Board at the Custom House no longer serve any useful purpose in Ireland. Their auditors are not now recognised.
Rates are no longer lodged in the banks, where they would be liable to seizure in certain circumstances; they are held in trust for the various boards. Of the five millions advanced under the Labourers’ (Ireland) Acts for the building of cottages, only three millions have been repaid.
As two millions remain due under this head alone, it is obvious that local boards hold a strong trump card. People are already speculating what is to happen in connection with the annuities under the Land Purchase Acts. The keenest intellects of Sinn Féin have anticipated and provided for every stage in the revolution through which we are passing.
As long as the British Government remains unable to substitute statesmanship for force, Sinn Féin can win over three-fourths of Ireland by passive resistance alone.
Raid on rail stores
Early on Tuesday morning about five tons of hay in bales, which was lying at Galway Railway Station store, awaiting delivery to the Dragoon Guards at Earl’s Island, was taken outside y a number of men and burned.
A railway official named Graham was locked in an adjoining building whilst the raid was in progress. The fire was discovered shortly before 3 a.m. by an urban council watchman, who notified the town steward, but nothing could be done to save any of the hay.
Hay in the railway wagons near the store apparently escaped unnoticed by the raiders, and was carted away by the military on Tuesday. A quantity of barbed wire belonging to the military has also been removed from the station and no trace of it has been found.
The railway station is within sight of the Renmore military barracks which is situated about a quarter of a mile way. Each bale contained one cwt. the precaution of removing the hay from the store was evidently to prevent the risk of any part of the building taking fire.
The hay was evidently sprinkled with paraffin or petrol before being set fire to. Some of the barbed wire was found in a field at the back of the railway station.
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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