Galway In Days Gone By

1922

A blot on civilisation

Under an efficient Home Government responsible to the Irish people the disgrace of Lettermullen and Gorumna would never have been permitted to remain a blot on our humanity during all these years.

An administration that attempted to apply futile palliatives and to tinker with a problem that demanded an immediate and radical remedy would be compelled to root out this plague spot by an indignant people. For notwithstanding the suavities and excuses of old departmental heads, despite the minor remedies applied by the well-meaning officials in the Congested Districts Board, the condition of the people on these islands and the barren inhospitable mainland of Carraroe is a scandal and a reproach in a nation where there is an abundance of the ordinary necessities of life.

We agree with Mr. P. O’Maille that there must be a root-and-branch reform. When children are growing more emaciated every day for lack of sufficient food, when their parents are suffering from actual want, the people must see to it that prompt measures are taken to alleviate the immediate distress. The Gaelic League and private subscribers have already taken measures towards this end.

We believe the Provisional Government will, as a result of the reports of their inspectors, send a free grant of seeds for the spring sowing. But demoralising charity must be ended as soon as possible.

The people of these islands are self-respecting, if poor. They must also be made self-supporting; their self-respect must not be utterly undermined.

A first responsibility of the Irish Government is to provide bread and work for them, and to cut clean away from the tinkering methods employed by British Government Departments in the past.

Shelter belts of trees would give colour and life to the neighbourhood. They would provide work, and enable carpentry and cabinet-making industries to be built up in the future. But until the district becomes a self-supporting one – if, indeed, it can ever be made to support such a large population – migration, under the direct control of the Home Government, must be undertaken.

As at present, it is a plague spot that must not be permitted to remain. It would be a disgrace to a free Ireland that bodies of her citizens should be compelled to live in an agricultural community on the bread of charity.

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.