Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1916
Reflecting on the Rising
We are now at a sufficient distance from the dreadful events that took place in Dublin during Easter Week to view them dispassionately, to appraise the aims, motives and methods of those who were mainly concerned in them, and to consider their possible consequences on the future of Ireland.
The outbreak, no matter how regrettable it was, or how ridiculous its issue from the point of view of the chief actors, must be dealt with fairly by the critic.
Much blood has been shed, many precious lives have been lost and owing to shell-firing, a vast amount of valuable property has been destroyed. The cause that would justify all this needs to be a great and noble one, of the highest that the nation can put before itself.
What then, was the aim of the insurgents? We are not defending them, but trying to see the trend of events from their standpoint. It will not do, where evidence is not forthcoming, to ascribe to them sinister purposes, and say that they were out for an orgy of blood and plunder. We must rather look to the studied expression of their hopes and aims as set forth in the document proclaiming an Irish Republic.
Such were their principles, principles for which, as events have proved, they were prepared to lay down their lives. Can we say that their aims were sordid and unworthy, and that the men who professed them deserve unhonoured graves?
Prisoners’ train
Today (Friday) at 1 o’clock, 189 more of the prisoners taken in the County of Galway will be sent to Dublin by special train. These, with the 200 despatched on Saturday, make almost 400 arrests since the Rising.
1941
Brighter city plan
A scheme providing for the further development of the Salthill and Munster Lane Parks, the linking up of O’Brien’s Bridge and the Salmon Weir Bridge by a pathway over the existing embankment that runs between the river and the canal, the repair of the bathing pool at Salthill and the provision of extra seating on the Salthill promenade, has been prepared by Mr. P.J. O’Flaherty, B.E., temporary Borough Surveyor, and is to be sent to the local Government Department for approval as suitable unemployment relief works.
More bad meat
Reporting to the Galway Corporation on a visit of inspection to the abattoir, Dr. C.F. McConn, Assistant County Medical Officer of Health, stated that conditions there were most unsatisfactory from a public health standpoint.
Rather than itemise the numerous defects at present, he urged the Corporation to expedite the erection of a new abattoir where satisfactory conditions and facilities could be provided.
A report was forwarded from Mr. McDermott-Kelly, Veterinary Inspector, on the result of nine visits of inspection during April. Some food which he considered unfit for human food was seized on two occasions and given to the caretaker for destruction
Bad civic spirit
A very bad civic spirit was shown all through Galway Corporation’s campaign for the acquisition of land for allotments, in the opinion of Mr. Wm. Faller, expressed at a special meeting of the Corporation on Monday.
“People who had land to spare would have come forward and volunteered to give it if they had the interests of the poor and workless at heart,” he declared.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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.
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.
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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