Galway in Days Gone By
Galway in Days Gone By
Record land price, Ashford Castle for sale, Rail service concerns and the Connemara Coast Road – it could be 2013!
1913
Record land price
On Saturday last, Mr. M.A. Kennedy, auctioneer, Athenry, put up for sale a small holding of land, with cottage. The yearly rent under judicial tenancy was £1 10s.
After brisk competition, it was knocked down at the record figure of £300, to a local resident, which is about 200 years’ purchase at the present rent. This is the highest price for land recorded during memory.
1938
Ashford for sale
Over one hundred workers employed on the Ashford estate, Cong, are greatly disturbed by the announcement that the estate and castle have been offered for sale.
Situated amidst perhaps the most beautiful scenery in Ireland, between Lough Corrib and Lough Mask, the property comprises a beautiful castle and 3,560 acres of pasture, tillage and woodlands. The woodcock shooting on the estate is believed to be the best in Great Britain or Ireland.
Ashford castle is the Connemara residence of the Hon. E. Guinness, who established a private sea-plane base on the Corrib in front of the castle.
There was a strong rumour afloat some months ago that the Corrib had been surveyed near Cong by a syndicate of the British Government for the purpose of establishing a sea-plane base in connection with coastal defence. This rumour was never officially denied.
1963
Rail concerns
Although 27 centres throughout the country whose railway services were recently amputated or curtailed are envious of Loughrea’s improved service, many people in Loughrea are convinced that CIE is doing its best to close down the local branch-line.
Railway business in Loughrea last year is stated officially to have made a very handsome profit – £24,000 – and the volume of trade far exceeded that at Ballinasloe.
Despite that, however, new systems evolved whereby goods dispatched by rail from Galway for such places in the Loughrea postal and rail district as Duniry and Woodford are now being unloaded at Ballinasloe for delivery by lorry.
As Woodford is only fourteen miles from Loughrea, it is difficult to understand the economics of such a service. Traders from Woodford and district, who are able to get goods a day or two earlier via Loughrea, cannot too easily figure out why the new system has been introduced.
1988
Road demand
A call has been made to upgrade the coast road in Connemara where traffic has been so heavy in recent weeks that small villages like Spiddal have experienced rare traffic jams. The road from Galway City to Carna in West Connemara has more than the average volume of passing traffic required to be classified as a national secondary road.
An urgent call has been made by Udaras na Gaeltachta’s Sean O Neachtain to speed up the process to have the road upgraded.
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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
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.
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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