Galway In Days Gone By

1922

Tuam Workhouse plans

At Tuam District Council meeting on Saturday, Mr. Kyne asked whether the workhouse buildings were to be kept in their possession. – Chairman: Yes, pending the formation of a local company in the town of Tuam to run it as a factory or some industrial undertaking. There is a nominal rent fixed on it for a few years in order to encourage local enterprise.

Mr. Costello said that Tuam workhouse would accommodate 20,000 people. Loughrea proposed expending £25,000 on the extension of Loughrea, and the L.C.D. refused to sanction it, as Loughrea was only the temporary site for the Home.

In order to cut the ground from under everybody’s feet and to get sanction to the loan, the Loughrea people said they would make Loughrea the permanent Home, and the committee unanimously agreed to that.

Chairman: Yes. – Mr. Costello: Money had to be spent there. Why should the ratepayers have to pay £25,000 simply to suit Loughrea, when the patients all over the county could be accommodated in Tuam, which is also more central than Loughrea? This thing will have to be inquired into as soon as the matters settle. We will demand an explanation why £25,000 of the ratepayers’ money should be expended on an unnecessary outlay.

The clerk was ordered to pay the Treasury money outstanding on the loan account under the Labourers’ Acts.

Mr. Shine, waterworks superintendent, reported that 144 feet of piping and other articles in the workhouse had been sold privately to Mr. Browne, auctioneer, Galway, representing the executive committee.

Mrs. Costello: No one seems to be responsible for this place now. – Mr. Shine said the porter had told him these articles were sold by Mr. Browne. The porter said he could not say whether those articles were sold at auction or not.

Mr. Shine: I believe Mr. Browne said he could do as he liked with the whole building. Mr Kyne proposed that the committee be asked to furnish a statement of the amount realised at the auction, and the names of the persons who purchased.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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