Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

3 years ago

June 24, 2021

Stephen Corrigan

An image of the then walled Salthill Park captured in the 1950s or 1960s.

1921

No show in Mountbellew

We have no doubt that the decision to abandon the Mountbellew Horse and Agricultural Show for 1921 was only arrived at by the committee after full consideration.

Possibly it was unavoidable in the present disturbed state of the country. It is nonetheless regrettable for since that fixture was first established in 1904 it has proved a most valuable factor in promoting agriculture and industries in one of the most extensive and important areas of County Galway.

The show ranked amongst the most important in Ireland. Year by year it extended its usefulness, and its practical value was marked by an increased grant from the County Committee of Agriculture.

For the present season this grant is lost. We may hope that in the happier Ireland of 1922 the show will be revived on a greater and grander scale than ever. The committee closes its accounts this year with a surplus credit of £182, and a record of public service that cannot be gainsaid.

The tribute to Mr. J. Moran upon his laying down of the office of secretary will be cordially supported by all who have had experience of that energetic worker, whose advice and assistance in an honorary capacity will, we hope, still remain at the service of the society.

First aid training

It is a little astonishing that an elementary training in first aid has not formed part of the curriculum of our primary and secondary schools.

Accidents happen in the best regulated families and communities from one cause or another, particularly nowadays because of heavy motor traffic and other causes. If a little knowledge of first aid were more general, a life could, perhaps, be saved if immediate assistance were available pending skilled medical aid.

It is, unfortunately, true that very few people know how to treat temporarily a fractured limb, to stop the bleeding of an artery, or to deal with a patient in case of sudden collapse. Instead of many subjects now taught, some at least of which are but little practical value, all school-going boys and girls should get at least an elementary course in first aid.

It is a desirable and necessary subject which our education authorities should give serious attention, as the training given remains of practical value all through life.

“What greater aim can man attain than conquest over human pain?”

It is a great and privileged gift to be able to bring useful relief to a poor sufferer in an accident – perhaps to staunch ebbing life blood and to save a life. Yet the knowledge could and should be acquired in our national schools.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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Connacht Tribune

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

1 year ago

May 18, 2023

Stephen Corrigan

Some of the attendance at the opening of the new school in Ballymacward on June 24, 1974.

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.

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.

Connacht Tribune

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

1 year ago

May 11, 2023

Stephen Corrigan

Nurses on strike on May 10, 1980, protesting a sub-standard pay offer. Around 700 nurses took part in the protest, hitting services at Gawlay Regional Hospital where only emergency cases were being admitted.

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.

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.

Connacht Tribune

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

1 year ago

May 4, 2023

Stephen Corrigan

Brendan Cunniffe from Oranmore and Robert Kelly, Tirellan Heights at the Galway County Fleadh in Tullycross, Connemara, on May 16, 1985.

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.

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Galway In Days Gone By