Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1915
The King’s Appeal
To My People
At this grave moment in the struggle between my people and a highly organised enemy who has transgressed the laws of nations, and changed the ordinance that binds civilised European together, I appeal to you.
I rejoice in my Empire’s effort, and I feel pride in the voluntary response from my subjects all over the world who have sacrificed home, fortune, and life itself, in order that another may not inherit the free Empire which their ancestors and mine have built.
I ask you to make good these sacrifices.
The end is not in sight. More men, and yet more men, are wanted to keep my armies in the field, and through them to secure victory and a lasting peace.
I ask you, men of all classes, to come forward voluntarily and take your share in the fight.
In freely responding to my appeal, you will be giving your support to our brothers, who for long months, have nobly upheld Britain’s past traditions, and the glory of her arms.
George.
Lighting coastal fire
At the weekly City Petty Sessions, three young men from Barna named Michael Cloherty, Patrick Conneely and James Griffin were charged under the Defence of the Realm Act with lighting fires on the shore at that place on the 11th inst.
Mr. Heard, D.I., who prosecuted, stated the nature of the defence, and said, though he did not press the cases, the defendants could have observed they were committing an offence, as notices had been posted up all over the country warning the people from lighting such fires on the coast.
Constable O’Brien stated that at 7.45, he found the defendants at a fire lighted on a height, where it could have been seen from the sea. They made no excuse for having lighed the fire, which was situated up a sort of boreen.
Answering Mr. J.S. Young, witness said there was a wall each side of the boreen, but the fire could be seen from the Bay all the same.
Mr. Kenny (Messrs. Blake and Kenny) for the defendants, said it was a technical offence, and Mr. Heard did not press for a severe penalty.
The Barna people, he added, amidst laughter, did not want the Germans to come in there. As a matter of fact, they did not light the fire at all, but were at it.
The boys were given a good character, and were fined 2s 6d each.
1940
Housing ‘bombardment’
Numerous complaints were read at Ballinasloe Urban Council of disturbances by tenants in the Council’s terraces. One complaint said it was worse than the London bombardments. Another sufferer wrote: “In London, the people have shelters and ear-plugs, but here we have to put up with this terrific bombardment night after night, and I would ask the Council if they do not take immediate action with these offending tenants to supply us with a shelter inside the house or give us ear-plugs.
The Council discussed the complaints at length, the Chairman (Mr. Cullen) remarking that the Council should take firm action and protect their tenants and proceed against the offenders in Court; otherwise, he thought, the Council were not doing their duty to their tenants.
The Town Clerk said that there was a clause in the tenancy agreement regarding the conduct of the tenant.
Other councillors expressed the opinion that they would be creating an undesirable and unwise precedent in interfering, and suggested that it was a matter for the tenants’ they could proceed in Court on summons.
Eventually, the Council decided that it was their duty to protect their tenants and handed the complaints to their solicitor, with instructions to proceed against offending tenants in Court.
Lost in the kitchen
Many shop girls and others are lost in the kitchen when they get married, said Ald. Miss Ashe at a meeting of the Galway City Vocational Education Committee during the course of a discussion on the cookery and general household management classes in the Committee’s school at Father Griffin road.
She asked the teachers if they taught girls how to cook a cheap, wholesome dinner on the assumption that some would become the wives of working men earning only £2 or £2 10s. a week and would only have 25s. or £1 10s available to spend on the house each week.
Ald. Miss Ashe: There is a crowd of shop girls and others who are painful when they get married; they are lost in the kitchen.
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.
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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