Galway In Days Gone By

1916

Letters to the editor

Sir,

Referring to the presentation of a gold wrist watch, etc., made in the Town Hall here on Saturday last by Lady Clonbrock, on behalf of the “ladies and women of Ballinasloe and the County Galway” to Sergeant Michael Ward, I was compelled to say what I felt – namely, that the ladies and women of the town and county had put the men of Ballinasloe and of the county to shame.

Is it, I now ask, possible that these men are dead to all sense of chivalry, and so apathetic as not to recognise, in a substantial manner, as other towns and counties have done, the gallantry, grit and bravery, in the face of death, of this Irish soldier and hero, whose devotion to duty courage and dash, have brought honour to the land of his birth, and particularly to his native town and county.

I am convinced that the matter only needs to be brought to the notice of his fellow town and county men to have his bravery and devotion to King and country suitably acknowledged. This humble but brave man has been decorated for his pluck not only by the King, but by the Emperor of Russia and the President of the French Republic.

Will the men of Galway – I make no class or political distinction – permit it to be said that they alone failed to honour the only living Galway man who has up to the present during this dreadful war, conspicuously brought them honour and fame?

I extremely regret that it should be left to my feeble effort to move in this matter, and should any success follow, I shall, until more formal arrangements are made, gladly accept and acknowledge any subscription that may be sent me.

1. Rothwell, Ballinasloe.

1941

Waiting for drink

An application brought by Peter M. Kelehan to have a new hotel at Newcastle-road, Galway, licensed was refused by his lordship, Judge Martin J. Connolly, S.C., at Galway Circuit Court.

Objections to the granting of the licence were made by the Very Rev. P. Canon Davis, P.P., St. Joseph’s (Rahoon), Parish Priest of the parish in which the hotel is situated; by the Garda authorities; and by local members of the Licensed Grocers and Vintners Association.

Mr. C.J. Conroy (for the applicant) said that these premises were situated on what was one of the main roads coming into the city from Connemara and they were located some sixty or seventy yards from the Central Hospital on the opposite side of the road.

The hotel was built by the applicant’s family by direct labour and was completed sometime in 1940 at a cost (including furnishings) of £2,500. The applicant, who was brought up in a public house and therefore had experience of the trade, was, with the help of his sister, running the hotel, which catered mostly for middle-class people – and catered well.

In July, 1940, continued Mr. Conroy, it was opened for hotel business. At that time a shop was carried on in a front room which had now been converted into a dining-room. Since that time, visitors staying at the hotel had been mostly people from neighbouring counties – relatives and friends of patients in the Central hospital who stayed for a day or two days – and also people holidaying in Galway.

The nearest publichouse was Mr. Peter M. Cooke’s on one side, which was 300 or 400 yards from it, and on the other side, the applicant’s father’s publichouse, which was two miles distant. There would be evidence that people staying in the hotel from time to time had asked for drink which had to be gotten for them from other places. The nearest licensed hotel was the Hotel Enda, about half-a-mile away.

Superintendent Seamus O’Neill said that he was objecting to this licence on the grounds that the premises were unsuitable and that there were already too many licensed premises in Galway.

The Very Rev. P. Canon Davis said that he objected to a licensed premises so near the Central Hospital because of the danger of intoxicating spirits being brought into the hospital.

In reply to his lordship, Canon Davis said that he was afraid, too, that the facilities for getting drink might be abused by people waiting for funerals to leave the hospital.

Giving judgment, his lordship said he would have liked to grant the application, but he could not because he was not satisfied that the premises conformed with the requirements of the Act.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.