Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1916
Church searched
We are prohibited by the Irish Press Censor from publishing correspondence that took place between Rev. T. Burke, P.P., Kinvara, and General Sir John Maxwell on the subject below.
Every man, woman and child in Kinvara parish and district, and most people throughout Co. Galway and the West, know that Kinvara Church and Convent have been searched by armed police.
A great many well-informed people are aware that the revered parish priest, the Rev. T. Burke, has made a strong protest to General Sir John Maxwell, the Military Governor of Ireland.
The following proposal was unanimously adopted at the conference of priests of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh:
“We, the priests of the diocese of Kilmacduagh, have heard with amazement of an outrage perpetrated against the Convent of Mercy and community, Kinvara, on Sunday, 4th June, by the police, who said they came to search the convent for rebels.
“We enter out solemn protest against their search of the convent, and we say that the search, and the manner in which that search was made, was a gross outrage on religion and an uncalled-for indignity and insult to the nuns.
“Catholics well know that religious Sisters never harbour strangers or externs in their convent, and that nuns’ cells are privileged, no strangers being allowed to enter them.
“This immunity was violated by the police, and the manner in which the cells were searched was equally offensive to manliness and common decency.”
The affair at Kinvara has been grossly mishandled from the beginning, and the characteristically Prussian attitude of the new censorship in Ireland does not improve, but considerably aggravates a painful situation.
Surely the military governors of this country ought to be able to defend their own attitude, and the attitude of their subordinates, without resorting to the equivocal expedient of a clumsy endeavour to conceal from the public all the facts.
Even from their own standpoint, the attitude of the censor in this respect is extremely stupid. It makes a mystery where none existed, and renders the people suspicious of an authority that resorts to methods that are given so sinister an aspect.
1941
Turf cutters protected
Four men returned to work under Garda protection on the County Council turf scheme at Glennaun bog, Inverin of Monday. Forty-one workers are still idle.
Garda reinforcements have been drafted in from Spiddal and Carraroe and it is feared that the dispute may take a more serious turn. The strike began when fifteen workers were laid off on the plea that there was not sufficient work available for them.
The workers refused to accept this plea and pointed out that there was plenty of work on the bog for all. The dispute has now dragged on for over three weeks.
Blow to holiday traffic
The holiday traffic this year has sustained a very serious blow by the decision of the Great Southern Company not to run Sunday excursion trains. It will cause thousands of Dubliners to spend Sundays quietly in their gardens, but the demand for bicycles on the part of young people has already increased amazingly. I think there will be a scarcity of bicycles soon.
The loss of income for those dependant on the tourist business for a living will be a serious matter. But the railway company has no alternative; it has not enough coal to carry on the services.
Timber fuel dump
About ten or fifteen thousand tons of timber unsuitable for building construction or other commercial purposes are to be stored at South Park, Galway, by Fuel Importers (Eire) Ltd, a company formed for the purposes of conserving fuel supplies throughout the country. Fuel dumps are also to be established in other parts of the country.
The timber – secured through the clearing of scrub and the removal from State forests of trees unsuitable for any purpose other than firewood – will be brought into Galway from Monivea, Cong and Woodford, and will not be released for firing unless an emergency should arise.
Cycling fans
Galway 0-10 Mayo 1-5
A great effort by J. McGauren not only saved his net in the last minute of the game, but saved Galway from a point defeat at the hands of Mayo in the first round of the Connacht senior football championship at Tuam.
Several thousand people – most of them cyclists – saw Galway qualify to meet Roscommon or Sligo in the provincial final next month.
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
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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.
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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