Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1922
Sovereign rights
The right of opinion, especially in politics, is one conceded in all nations, but that right depends entirely on an unwritten code of honesty and honour that in forming his opinion every citizen makes use of honest intelligence and reason in guiding his judgement and is because a citizen is above lies and misrepresentation in matters affecting the national wellbeing and prosperity of his country.
On this date, January 15, 1922, every man in the West is (if not alien on Ireland’s soil or temporarily in residence) a Citizen of the Irish Free State, under the authority of the Provisional Government of Ireland. This Provisional Government consists of men chosen by the Irish people to represent them and by none others, and is to be in a few months replaced by one composed of those chosen by the Irish people.
Let us now, in endeavouring to point out certain dangers, bring home to the plain people the ordinary meanings of ordinary words.
Sovereign means supreme in power.
Supreme means highest and greatest.
Sovereign rights of the people mean the highest and greatest powers of the people. Now the highest powers are those born in, given to, inherited, owned by the people, to control fully the Government of the country, or in other words, Government of the people by the people.
These God-given rights of the people had been for ages denied the people not alone of Ireland, but of other countries, so the word republic came to signify these rights, and hence we turn up a dictionary printed and published in the U.S. and we read: “Republic – A nation or state governed by representatives elected by the citizens.”
Let me here point out that the Irish Free State now comes wholly and completely into that class, and no other, and that she has once again become, even unwelcomed by her own.
A thatcher at work on the roof of a house close to the Bishop’s Gate at Lower Salthill on March 4, 1966.
Restoring order
Now that the government of the country is passing into the hands of Irishmen, who will have control of all matters affecting the welfare of the old land, it is the duty of all classes and creeds to unite in their efforts to see that law and order will be efficiently enforced, and that there will not be any repetition of the recent looting of shops, which, owing to the frequency with which it occurred, could be regarded as nothing less than a scandal.
In conjunction with the R.I.C., the I.R. police of Galway have taken strong measures to cope with the “epidemic”, and in other ways are leaving noting undone to restore order.
In view of these circumstances, it is to be hoped that all right-meaning citizens and men of good-will, interested in the country’s welfare, will give every possible assistance in the preservation of order, which will reflect the fact that the nation is governed and controlled as a Christian community should be.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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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.
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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.
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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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