Galway In Days Gone By

1916

Appeal to farmers

In a powerful speech at yesterday’s Recruiting Conference at the Mansion House, Dublin, Mr. Redmond said they had raised from Ireland, counting the old regiments and the three new Irish Divisions, fifty-three battalions.

The towns of Ireland had done magnificently. The farmers, above all other men, had a special interest in the speedy end and victory of this war, and the idea of a Farmers’ Battalion was an admirable one.

Every day that had passed since the war commenced had convinced him more and more profoundly that the highest interest of Ireland, from the industrial, political, or from any other point of view, was the speedy and victorious ending of this war.

Women war workers

Mrs Joseph S. Young, hon. Secretary representing the Galway Ladies’ Committee, and Mrs. Donovan O’Sullivan, M.A. (sub-director of Connacht), attended a Conference called by Lady Wimborne at the Vice-regal Lodge, on the subject of desirability of co-ordinating and extending the activities already in progress amongst the women of Ireland for the ameloioration of the conditions which directly and indirectly are the outcome of the war.

The Conference was large attended by ladies who have taken prominent parts in war work throughout the country, and by representatives of the leading organisations of women workers, including the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Help Society, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Families’ Association, the Central Committee on Women’s Employment, the Women’s National Health Association, and the Ulster Ladies’ Association.

Her Excellency said that the suggestion was that a Council of War Emergency Women Workers should be formed, to which all existing societies should be invited to send a representative, for an exchange of views without interference with the work.

1941

War hospitals

The County Home, Loughrea, and the Children’s Home, Tuam, will be used as emergency hospitals in case of hostilities breaking out in the country during the present war.

Docs without fuel

Galway County Council has decided to “demand” from the Minister for Supplies sufficient petrol to enable dispensary doctors to do their business.

The doctors, said Chairman Mr. J.J. Cunningham, had a grievance. The allowance of petrol to them was totally inadequate. In Connemara and in other parts of the county, the doctors had frequently to travel long distances to patients.

Petrol substitute?

The gravity of the situation created by the petrol shortage is daily becoming more evident. Its repercussions are far flung. The inconvenience to which the general public has been subjected, serious though it is, must be regarded as of less importance that the huge addition to the ranks of the unemployed caused by the reduction in the transport services and the threat of starvation which faces areas like Connemara.

Probably many will regard as fantastic the suggestion put forward by Alderman Miss Ashe at the meeting of the Homes and Home Assistance Committee in Tuam that we should make better use of the Shannon Scheme for our transport services. A little reflection, however, should show that it is a practical proposition worthy of serious consideration by all concerned.

We hear very little of the famous Drumm Battery nowadays, but the number of trains operated by it has been doubled recently and delivery vans driven by the Drumm batteries are to be seen in steadily-growing numbers on the streets of Dublin. How is it that the principle has not been applied to omnibuses?

Seaweed transport

While seaweed is available for sale in some districts, transport problems may make the market price in many areas prohibitive.

Galway County Council’s Finance Committee on Saturday decided to have money expended on a road near Oranmore to make it suitable for the carriage of seaweed from Galway Bay.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.