Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1916
Missing motor car
Acts of blackguardism are frequently perpetrated under the guise of practical jokes. On last Thursday night whilst two motorists were at a dance in the Town Hall, their car was taken, and having been driven all over the city, was left in a damaged condition a couple of miles out the Tuam road. The episode will probably cost the ratepayers £60, and this robs the occurrence of any title to be classed in the category of practical jokes.
Mr. Fred Statford, M.P.S., having as passenger Mr. O. Browne, drove into the city at 1 o’clock on Thursday night, leaving a new Morris Cowley car, which cost something like £300, standing outside the Town Hall.
Both gentlemen entered the dancing room, and in the morning, they found that the car had disappeared.
When found, the lights were still burning and the steering gear was seriously damaged. The engine had become so chilled with the night air that there was considerable difficulty in starting hit.
The matter has been reported to the Commercial Union Insurance Co., a claim has been lodged, and will be heard at the Quarter Sessions in Galway about the 28th January. We have not yet heard at what sum damages have been placed, but probably about £50 will be claimed, and this, with costs, will result in a nice levy upon the ratepayers of Galway for the action of two undetected blackguards.
A brave end
Mr. Michael Spain, Palmerston, Portumna, has during the past week received the sad news that his son, Henry Spain, a private in the 13th Battalion Canadians, was killed in action on the 1st December in France.
Spain went to America some years ago when quite a boy. When the war broke out, he crossed to Canada and came over with the Canadian contingent. He has been twice wounded. His father and mother are alive, and the greatest sympathy is felt for them in the sad tidings conveyed to them during the holy season.
They have four other sons in the fighting line, viz.: Joseph, Connaught Rangers (Mesopotamia); Michael, Leinsters (at present on sick leave from Salonika, who was also at the Dardanelles); Patrick, Leinsters (Salonika); Christopher, Artillery (Salonika). They have also four nephews, two grandsons in the army, and a son-in-law, Patrick Monahan, a prisoner in Germany.
Pte. Spain brings the roll of honour of Portumna men up to 11 killed since the outbreak of the war.
1941
Turning to God
“The fundamental condition for world peace is the reign of Christ in the souls of men,” said His Lordship, the Most Rev. Dr. Browne, Bishop of Galway, at Pontifical High Mass in St. Nicholas’s Cathedral, Galway, on Christmas Day.
There could never be true peace unless men and rulers and states recognised and observed the moral law, and they would not observe the moral law unless they believed in God and in His son, Jesus Christ, declared His Lordship.
His Lordship, the Bishop, said that the message of the angels, “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to men of good-will,” rang out to-day all over a world that paid little heed.
It rang out to a world that was not bathed in the soft light of peace, but in blood and tears. Instead of peace, there was war – war with a degree of suffering, misery and destruction that the world had never known before.
Terrible forces of evil were unloosed; the darkest side of human nature was supreme. Brute force cared nothing for beauty and truth and goodness and the very civilisation and progress that men were so proud of were to-day threatened.
Yet it was in such dark and terrible times that they could best understand the message of Christmas because it was in such dark and terrible times that they could realise the frailty and wickedness of men and that they could recognise how much they stood in need of a Saviour – of One Who would wipe away human sin and Who would lead men to the road of justice and charity and peace.
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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