Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

3 years ago

December 22, 2021

Stephen Corrigan

Santa arriving by donkey and cart to An Spidéal on December 10, 1994.

1921

Prisoners’ memento

Some of the Galway prisoners took home with them on their release from Ballykinlar a little camp publication run off on a cyclostyle, entitled “Barbed Wire”, on which the tedious hours were passed.

The spirit of the men in the camp was revealed in this little publication which gives us a more intimate glimpse into camp life than, perhaps anything published. We reproduce some of the principal articles. The “leading article” says: –

“The phenomenal success achieved by ‘The Barbed Wire’ is a splendid tribute to the intelligence and culture of our readers. To say that the advent of our precious little periodical set the world agog is a very mild way of describing the effect which it created in all the courts and alleys of Europe, America, Asia, Africa, Australia, Ireland and Carsonia. While it had a sobering effect on the wider sprits in our midst, we have reason to believe our high-explosive magazine staggered humanity.

“Our first edition was sold out in a few minutes, and the editions which were ‘run out’ afterwards were sold as quickly as they were ‘run off’ the machine. In spite of our colossal labours, we were unable to meet the demand. Apologies are, therefore, due to the untold millions who were unable to procure a copy of our very August number. We had hoped to render apologies unnecessary on this occasion but owing to the vital part of our machinery – the silk – going on strike we must again apologise – this time in advance to the millions who will be denied the pleasure of buying the September issue of ‘The Barbed Wire’.

“S.O.S. – Appropriately enough, our line operator has sent a wireless message to us asking for a new machine, which we hope to let him have in good time for our magnificent Xmas number. Our policy this month is the same as it was last month. In this, as in many other matters, we differ from the majority of publications. Hence the unique position to which we have attained in the journalistic world.”

While a few people may dislike The Barbed Wire, all will admit that it has some good points.

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