Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1916
60 panes smashed
Between midnight on Saturday and 6a.m. on Sunday morning, an outrage of a very regrettable character occurred at Bushypark, about two and a half miles from Galway. Sixty panes of glass were broken in the front of Bushypark National School, and the windows at the back and gable end were also smashed. Some of the stones hurled into the building, especially from the back, weighed many pounds and smashed the ashes and the furniture inside.
The motive has reference to the appointment of a teacher to succeed the late Mr. Patrick Concannon of Dangan, who died some six months ago, after having been for years Principal of the School.
Mr. Concannon’s son, Mr. T. Concannon, is said to be qualified for the post rendered vacant by the death of his father, and though the appointment did not go to him, there is a strong feeling in the district that it should have.
The first of these people, Mr. McNiffe, never took up duty at all, owing to the feeling of the people; the second, Mr Waters, took the position only for three weeks; while the third, the gentleman who now fills it, Mr. O’Byrne, late of Moycullen National School, has been only teaching for three weeks.
The police are investigating the outrage.
1941
Pongo and gangster pictures
“There are an enormous number of youngsters who would do anything and everything to get into these Pongo places,” remarked Mr. J.S. Young at the monthly meeting of the Galway Corporation, when asking the Corporation to call on all urban authorities in the country to press for the enactment of a law making pongo illegal.
“This Pongo,” added Mr. Young, “is a shame and a disgrace. I know people who go to these games and lose money that they cannot afford to lose.
Mr. Faller thought that a motion calling for the suppression of Pongo should be supplemented by another dealing with the pictures.
He had been told, he said, that the amount of juvenile crime in Galway at the moment was deplorable and it was due not so much to Pongo as to gangster pictures.
When the Corporation were issuing cinema licences in future, they should see to that matter. If any member of the Corporation wanted to know what was happening, he could go down and ask the police.
Mr. Carrick said that he attended the pictures frequently and he never saw anything to excite him.
Mr. Healy: You are not a juvenile.
Mr. Carrick: I do not see why the cinemas should be curtailed in any way.
Mr. T. Cooke: thought that this was a matter for parents to attend to. They could keep their children away from these pictures.
Mr. Faller: It is up to these licensing authority.
It was agreed to send a resolution to other urban authorities calling for the suppression of Pongo.
Mr. T. Cooke remarked that Pongo was a form of ‘House’, which was an illegal game.
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
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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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