Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

3 years ago

March 17, 2022

Stephen Corrigan

Members of St Mary’s Housewives Club, Claddagh, taking part in the St Patrick’s Day Parade in March 1975.

1922

Officers shot

Two sergeants of the R.I.C., who were detained as patients at St. Bride’s Home, Galway, neither of whom was expected to live very long, were shot dead by masked men at about 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday, whilst a constable who was also a patient in the Home was seriously wounded, and a civilian from County Mayo, who was in the workhouse hospital suffering from wounds sustained in an attack upon him at his home a month ago, was shot dead about ten o’clock by three men who entered the ward.

The names of the dead are: – Sergeant Gibbons, R.I.C., The Fair Green, Westport, unmarried; Sergeant Gilmartin, R.I.C., Camp-street, Oughterard, leaves wife and two children; Patrick Cassidy, farmer and C.D.B. official, Crossard, Ballyhaunis, married.

The name of the wounded constable is: – Constable McGloin, R.I.C., Coonaghbawn, Cashergrove, County Sligo.

Sergt. Gilmartin, who was under fifty, was suffering from congestion of the lungs, and was not expected to recover. He occupied room 21 on the side of the home next to the Jesuit Church, his fellow patient being Mr. Madden, Taylor’s Hill, a market gardener.

About half-past nine four masked men came along the passage, leaving two to guard the hospital door. They were heard to remark, “This is room 21,” and they thereupon, entered the apartment, and called, “Hands up”. They asked the sergeant if he was Gilmartin and he replied that he was. They then searched his bag and told him to say an Act of Contrition, holding Mr. Madden up meanwhile.

A number of shots were thereupon fired into the sergeant, whose death must have been instantaneous. Nurses and hospital staff were at supper. Hearing the noise as of crashing glass, they rushed to the room, where Mr. Madden was moaning, and fell into a faint.

A nurse rushed to the room from No. 17, where Sergt. Gibbons and Constable McGloin were, and shouted, “My God, they are after killing the two in No. 17”. Miss Coffey, the matron, rushed into the passage, and immediately four men dashed along from No. 17, carrying revolvers in their hands. Upon entering No. 17, Miss Coffey found that Sergt. Gibbons was lying dead, with blood all around the room, and Constable McGloin was dangerously wounded, having received bullets in the arm and wrist, one in the thigh and one in the eye. The men dashed past quickly and disappeared into the night.

The matter was immediately reported to the I.R.A. police headquarters at Eglinton-street, and Capt. Kilkelly promptly went to the hospital with a party of eight men. A search failed to reveal the direction in which the masked men had gone. The I.R.A. at Renmore was also called out, and strong patrols were placed on the streets throughout the night.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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Connacht Tribune

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

2 years 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

2 years 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

2 years 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