Galway In Days Gone By

1922

Unemployment dangers

There is considerable truth in the declarations recently made from more than one platform that unemployment is at the root of present Irish troubles.

The placing of a considerable proportion of the male population of military age and fitness on a military basis will not, unfortunately, aid in the immediate solution of this trouble.

Many have become not a little alarmed at the reserve territorial scheme advertised by the Irish Government, whereby those who volunteer for six months’ service will be permitted to retain their rifles afterwards.

The people of Ireland have said in language that no amount of casuistry can alter that they do not want any more militarism; they want to settle down to years of strenuous work to build up the country.

Further destruction and political manoeuvring with the torches and rifles in hand can only make that task practically impossible, further swell the ranks of the unemployed, and end in anarchy.

To stave off this, the Irish Government has had recourse to the methods mentioned but it should have a care lest it might err by swinging over to the other side. Its mandate is to demilitarise the country, and to reap the glorious benefits that await us in the years of peace that we all hope lie ahead.

Half the economic problems that created such trouble in England, and, indeed, in all countries after the war, were due to the fact that young men, half schooled or half learned in a trade, went into the trenches, and left the army grown men without profession, trade, or employment, unfitted for anything, full of the discontent that life under such conditions in the army breeds, and disinclination to entre civil life as honest workers.

It is easy to destroy – any fool or criminal can do that. The build up requires constant application, hard toil, moral courage, and brain power. These are the qualities we need in the Ireland of to-day.

Burning bridges

Portumna Bridge, the connecting link between Tipperary and Galway, which cost £100,000 to erect, is reported to have been blown up on Thursday.

The bridge on the main road to Ahascragh was blown up. It is now being repaired, all the male residents forming a civic guard. The enrolment of a similar is being contemplated in Ballinasloe.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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