Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1916
Days of Terror
For the country folk, cut off from all communications, these were days and nights of terror during the Rising. The Red Flag of Rumour was waved from hill to hill, and at a time when Casement had been captured and the old Russian rifles and machine guns that Germany thought good enough to send over were at the bottom of the sea, they were told that ten thousand Germans had landed on the Connemara coast and were marching through Galway!
Abandoning all work, they gathered in small groups and talked in cautious phrases, or kept to their houses. Was the war, of whose horrors they had been reading, about to sweep over their fair fields?
Bishop’s warning
The Most Rev. Dr. Higgins, Auxiliary Bishop, made his triennial visitation to Glenamaddy on Monday. His Lordship expressed satisfaction at the presence of the large congregation to show their Catholic faith and devotion.
They had also passed through a terrible time owing to the Rising in Dublin. God alone knew the extent of those days of unrest there are in other parts of the country.
Let them think of the insanity and utter madness of any body of men, comparatively only a handful as there were, rising up against the English Army, which amounted to five millions of men.
They had in County Galway, at Athenry, a miserable attempt at a rising. He happened to be there and saw it. Some of them, fortunately – though they might be called cowards – had the good sense to run home as fast as they could when they heard of the coming of the soldiers.
The Church condemned secret societies and wished her children to remain out of them. Unfortunately, some of them laughed, even scoffed at the teachings of the Church, hence, unfortunately for themselves, they had to pay the penalty and the country would also have to pay the penalty.
There had been spread to a certain extent over the county for years, a secret society which was well known and had its origin in Craughwell and Athenry.
He congratulated the people of Glenamaddy on the information that none of the young men of the parish were identified with it.
1941
Lectures for housewives
Since the present emergency confronted the nation, we have been inundated with a flood of suggestions designed to make things easier for the people as a whole. Few of them were worth the paper they were written on.
It is, therefore, with a rate feeling of thankfulness, that we have learned of the steps now being taken by the County Galway Vocational Education Committee to help the ordinary housewife to deal with some of the pressing difficulties of the moment.
Today, when economy in the use of foodstuffs is imperative, the woman of the house is a person of even greater importance than usual. It is useless to ask the nation to practise food economy unless the housewives of Éire are wholeheartedly behind the campaign.
Enthusiastic support, however, is more helpful when backed by applied knowledge. We are not going to re-open the old familiar controversy, “Can Irishwomen cook?” but we think that nobody will gainsay the fact that their culinary knowledge is usually somewhat restricted.
For this reason, the present shortage of materials to which they are accustomed makes their daily task more difficult and a series of lectures designed to show them how to make the most of the cheapest and most abundant foods to hand should be welcomed enthusiastically by all concerned.
A close shave
Frank Kilkelly, Upper Fairhill, Galway, a lorry driver employed by Messrs. T. McDonogh and Sons Ltd., and his helper, Michl. Fallon, St Dominick’s Terrace, Galway, had a remarkable escape from serious injury when a lorry in which they were travelling from Galway to Mountbellew shortly after 5.40 on Tuesday evening, mounted the grass margin near a very dangerous corner about half-a-mile outside Mountbellew and overturned, pinning them beneath it.
A priest who arrived on the scene shortly after the accident immediately summoned aid and Gardaí who came out from Mountbellew found it necessary to cut the steering wheel before the driver could be extracted.
Both men were attended by Dr. Crowe, M.O., after which they were removed to the Galway Central Hospital where they are detained suffering from minor injuries.
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.
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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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