Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1915
Women and the War
On Friday night, at Cinema Theatre, Galway, a very interesting lecture was delivered by Mrs. Swanrick, M.A., Manchester on “Women and the War” under the auspices of the Galway branch of the Women’s Franchise League (non-militant, non-party).
Mrs. Swanrick, said whatever the war had done, it had made it impossible for anyone to adopt the attitude heretofore adopted by some – that woman was some sort of an inferior animal, only remotely related to man.
She thought the strain of the war had come to every woman, very often parting from her dearest, and suffering agony at the death of the man she held most dear; men could not say it was their war, and that woman was only a kind of subsidiary person (applause).
After all, women stood and fell by the man; if the men were prosperous or in trouble, the women were happy to share either with them. She had often been told, “You women have got up to get the vote from themselves”, but how could they get it without the help of the men?
What they had to do was to try and convince the men that it would be good for both if the women got the vote, and if they succeeded in convincing them of that, the men would give them the vote with both hands.
The strain of war would perhaps make them realise for the first time how immensely the sexes were bound together in suffering as well as in prosperity.
When the war would be over, a great many of the women would be solitary in the world, and would have to take on the work that men used to do, and they had to try and use their brains to the very best advantage, and train and fit themselves as well as they could.
She had no doubt when the war would be over, men would give them all the rights they ought to have, including the vote for Member of Parliament (applause).
1940
A spade’s lifespan
The Unemployed Allotments Branch of the Department wrote to the Ballinasloe Urban Council stating that there had not been sufficient evidence submitted by the Council to satisfy the Minister that all reasonable care had been taken to ascertain that spades and shovels missing were lost, mislaid or worn by reasonable wear and tear.
The Minister, therefore, was not allowing recoupment costs, and the price of the missing articles would be deduced from the amount due to the Council.
The Town Clerk said the tools missing had been four or five years in use by the plotholders, and anyone who used a spade or shovel for five years on a plot was reasonably entitled to a new one.
Some of these people might have gone away to England and might not have given up the tools, or they might have sold them to help to make up their fares.
Others had gone into the army or the new Constructions Corps, but he did not know if they brought the tools with them.
Vice-chairman, Mr. Joseph Murray, said the ordinary farmer was not able to keep the same spade or shovel for five years. It was appreciated, he added, that a man who tilled his plot for five years with the one spade or shovel was reasonably entitled to a new one, but as the Minister would not recoup them for the loss of the few unaccounted for, the Council would have to foot the bill.
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
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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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