Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1922
Collins killed
History plays strange tricks with its heroes of war. But few of them survive to enjoy the peace which their prowess has won. Militarism always takes its toll and refuses to fit in with any known order of events.
It is devastating, cataclysmic. Yet Collins was no militarist. His death was brought about by this fact. He had fought England with a lion-hearted valour, and the conditions in which that hideous warfare was waged put a greater strain on the Chief of the Intelligence than any mere physical bravery on the field.
Yet he bore it all with native gaiety; for he had the heart of a Celtic lad and the courage of the noblest of our race. When communications with his comrades in the country were severed, when his colleagues were in jail or across the seas, when he, with a price upon his head, was hunted night and day, he kept the spirt that achieved victory alive; and today, the English “Daily Telegraph” is constrained to describe him as “the most implacable and dangerous foe we ever had”.
Knowing full well what that the initial peace kites sent up by England signified, he raised the cry, “let us get on with the work”.
“Had he been captured,” says the Telegraph, “history would have run in a different channel”.
Studying Irish
Upwards of 160 students are applying themselves assiduously at the Spiddal Irish College this yar to the study of Irish. They are, for the most part, composed of teachers from various parts of the country and, under the tutorship of expert native Irish teachers, remarkable progress is in evidence.
An innovation which is bound to have a wholesome effect is in operation this year whereby students are prohibited from speaking English.
Last year, and at previous sessions, pupils in the beginners’ and intermediate classes were, to suit their own convenience, allowed to speak English, but at the present session it is completely dispensed with, and nothing is to be heard but the native language.
Practical application is an essential element in the acquirement of any language, and the prohibition of the Béarla at the Irish Colleges will have an advantageous reaction.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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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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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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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.
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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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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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