Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1916
Naked and cold patients
At the meeting of Ballinasloe Asylum Committee, the report of the lunacy inspectors on the recent inspection of the institution was read. It stated that patients in some of the male and female divisions were found huddled together, practically naked, in a cold ward, lying on straw, and the conditions of things was scandalous.
They did not think that in any civilised country such a condition existed as they found in the wards visited. The patients were in a most deplorable condition. It was hard to realise that poor creatures who could neither speak or act for themselves would be left in such a manner.
Mr Millar: Who is responsible for this awful state of affairs?
The Clerk said that Dr. Kirwan had asked him to point out to the Committee that it was impossible to have patients done up in the form the inspectors required, as these patients were exceedingly bad, and the heading apparatus would be put in as soon as possible after the war.
Dr English: I am very sorry to have to admit that the report is true, and that things are as they found them. I was not aware that the patients were treated in the position stated and as has been reported, and I had no reason to believe that the patients were treated in such a manner.
I want to make it perfectly plain, clear, and above board, that if they were in the condition they were found in. I know nothing about it, and that my attention was never drawn to it.
Lloyd George’s ignorance
The amazing ignorance recently displayed by Mr. Lloyd George in the matter of coal-raising in Ireland affords a significant commentary on the interest which English Cabinet Ministers devote to the internal affairs of John Bull’s other island.
He confessed in his reply to the representative Irish deputation that interviewed him regarding the making of munitions in this country that he did not know that any coal was raised in Ireland.
1941
Huge turf scheme
A call to private turbary owners, turf societies, commercial organisations and every other available agency to co-operate in the production of turf on a scale never before contemplated, was issued by Mr. Hugo Flinn, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance, when he addressed the Galway County Council on Saturday on what he described as a work of real and urgent national necessity.
Unless over 6,000,000 tons of turf were cut this season, he said, there would be cold hearths and empty grates next winter. He guaranteed that every sod of turf of reasonable quality would find a market.
Airman’s body found
On Tuesday morning, the headless body of an airman was washed up on the strand near Oranmore, a discovery which was immediately reported to the local Gardaí.
Dressed in a shirt, collar and tie, a torn pullover, pants and two pairs of socks, the body was that of a sergeant and would appear to have been in the water for several weeks.
Mr. Michael J. Allen, solicitor, Coroner for West Galway, viewed the remains in the afternoon and decided that, under the new regulations, no inquest would be held.
On Tuesday night, the remains were coffined and interred in the Oranmore Catholic Cemetery. It is thought that the dead soldier was one of a crew of the R.A.F. bomber which recently crashed in Galway Bay.
High death toll
For two days after the bombing of Belfast on Tuesday night, special trains continued to arrive in Dublin laden with refugees from the stricken city. Thousands of men, women and children rendered homeless by the raid found sanctuary and every possible help in the Irish capital. In some cases, mothers carried dead babies in their arms.
The dreadful visitation has brought mourning to more than one home in Galway City and County.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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.
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.
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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