Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1916
Unbecoming behaviour
At Galway Petty Sessions, Head-Constable Killacky summoned John Moloney for misbehaviour at Dominick Street. The evidence of the complainant was that on the previous Thursday night, a man got sick in Shop-street and a crowd collected. The defendant with two others crossed the roadway and opposite Mr. Cloherty’s premises, took hold of one of three girls who were walking together and swung her round in a most unbecoming manner, with the result that the others screamed and ran off. The other fellows who were with the defendant ran away, and complainant did not get their names.
Chairman: This is a very uncommon offence.
Complainant: A very common offence, your worship.
Chairman: Is it?
Complainant: Yes, by this class of boy. They go in crowds around the town. She was a respectable girl going on her business. This class of girl works hard all day in the factory, and afterwards they cannot go down the town with any degree of decorum because rowdies like this molest them.
Defendant (a respectable looking young fellow): I was going down town and this girl was coming up and she passed a joke on me, and I passed one on her.
Chairman: Was any such thing going on?
Complainant: No, sir; it could not be. I believe he only goes about the town. I have had several complaints from his parents – both his father and mother – about his conduct for the past few weeks.
Chairman: Oh that’s bad. I think if we had the power, we would be inclined to deal very stringently with you, Moloney, because we could not think of allowing such conduct to go on in the town. I have been often down the town late at night, and I think the girls walking up and down are very well behaved always, their demeanour being such as would not invite any liberties on the part of young people like you; and if you are guilty of things like that, the magistrates think that it should be nipped in the bud at once.
You are fined 20s., and bound to the peace to be of good behaviour for 12 months, yourself in £5, and two sureties of £5 each, or, in default, a month in jail.
1941
Plague of tinkers
Deputy District Justice F.J. Mangan at Gort Court on Saturday sent several members of the “tinker” tribe to prison for drunkenness and disorderly conduct on the public street.
There was no appearance for the defendants, and in asking the Justice to take a serious view of the disgraceful conduct of these vagrants, Supt. O’Halloran said that they seemed to make Gort their headquarters on the occasion of fairs and markets.
They congregated there in droves and became a general pest; there were numerous complaints of their annoyance from the people of the town about their language and conduct while drunk on the streets.
Some of them, added the Superintendent, were selling pipe covers, but this was only a cover for begging and pestering the people at fairs and markets, while in the early hours of the morning at fairs, they were also about the streets drunk and disorderly and abusive to people attending fairs. The Acting Justice imposed sentences of fourteen days in several cases and imposed fines of 5s. in others.
Tuam train service
The G.S.R. replying to the request of Tuam Town Commissioners for a better train service (especially with the morning mail from Dublin which does not reach Tuam until 5pm), stated that it is not possible to make any change at present owing to the fact that there is only one train from Limerick to Sligo which connects with the morning train from Dublin for passengers and mail. The company, however, promised to keep the matter in mind to see if any early improvement could be effected,
The Dept. of Post and Telegraphs did not reply at all to the Commissioners’ application to have a bus run with the mails from Athenry to Tuam, thus enabling the mail to be delivered three to four hours’ earlier, and the Commissioners decided to request a reply to their letter.
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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