Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1921
Shots exchanged
A telegram from our North Galway representative yesterday stated: –
A report reached Tuam last night that Sergeant Beglan and Constable McGuire, of Castlegrove temporary police station, were fired at when on patrol duty at about eight p.m., and returned the fire.
Some men with revolvers appeared on top of a ditch and called on the police to halt. Shots were discharged. The police returned the fire, and after a short exchanged, the attacking party withdrew.
The fire on either side does not appear to have taken any affect.
Our reporter telegraphed later: –
It is stated that the police were fired at near Castlegrove as they were going to a shop for provisions. They were in the act of crossing a stile when the shots went off.
Rifle cartridges were subsequently found at the site of the ambush. One of the police stood and had a narrow escape, whilst the other threw himself on the ground.
Seeking compensation
Messrs. Grossman and Co., Belfast, applied for £40 compensation for injury to a motor car at Loughrea on October 27, 1920. – Francis Rock, Belfast applied for £10 compensation for injury to an overcoat on the same occasion.
Dr. Comyn, who appeared for the applicant, said this was a most peculiar case. This gentleman, Mr. Francis Rock, was a commercial traveller who lived in Belfast. He travelled for jewellery for the other applicant, Messrs. Grossman and Co.
On the evening of October 27, this gentleman was in Loughrea in the ordinary course of his duty for Messrs. Grossman and Co., who supplied him with a motor for the purpose of carrying on his business. He had what was known as a hooded Ford car for carrying his wares behind, and on the date in question he left the Railway Hotel at Loughrea and proceeded up the Main-st. in the direction of the West Bridge.
There was a party of uniformed policemen – none of them local police – travelling in two lorries some distance in front of Mr. Rock’s car. The police pulled up near the West Bridge and started firing down the main street. Mr. Rock, seeing them fire down the street, tried to turn his car around quickly when a bullet passed through his overcoat.
There were several bullets put into the hood of the motor, rendering it quite useless, and a new hood would now be required.
“It was only fair to state,” Dr. Comyn proceeded, “that there would be a good deal more damage done that evening were it not for the plucky action of the District-inspector Keohane and the Loughrea police who, at the risk of their own lives, walked up against the firing party and ordered them out of the town – for which the people of Loughrea were extremely grateful.”
His Honour, having heard the evidence of the applicant, awarded £20 compensation, adding that this was a case in which he was judicially satisfied that the damage was not caused by civilians, and he would accordingly bring the mater under the notice of the Crown authorities.
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
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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