Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1915
City ambulance
Lady Philippa Waithman and Captain Waithman appeared before Galway Urban Council in reference to the provision of an ambulance for the town. Capt. Waithman gave expression to the desire of the military and naval authorities to have an ambulance provided for the town.
The one at present in use was disreputable, and patients carried over bad Galway roads suffered terribly. Galway should be better supplied in this respect.
Another thing was that the ambulance should be at the race course in readiness for accidents similar to those which occurred three years ago when three riders were badly injured, including the late Capt. O’Brien Butler, who had since died for his country.
The total cost would be about £80 or £85, and he would make a sporting offer that the Council contribute one-third. Lady Phillipa and himself would contribute another one-third and the Race Committee might contribute the remaining third.
Threw stone at husband
At Galway Petty Sessions, Sergt. McMullen charged Bridget Hession, Cross-street, with riotous and indecent behaviour on the 25th june. She threw a stone weighing three or four pounds at her husband, who was a sailor home from the Dardanelles.
Chairman: He was nearly as well off at the Dardanelles. It is a poor thing after escaping from a German submarine to be killed by his wife (laughter). Defendant was fined 5s. and costs.
Public nuisances
At the weekly meeting of Galway Urban Council, Mr. P.J.B. Daly, solicitor, wrote complaining of the nuisances committed at Battery lane.
Mr. M. Cunningham: That is a public passage. Would there be any possibility of getting a loan to build a public urinal?
Mr. Young: It would be well if we had one in the Square.
Chairman: There is no use in applying for money now. You won’t get it.
Mr. Cunningham: It is a public shame to have Galway without a lavatory, when people are coming into fairs and markets so often. The Chairman said the Council was doing its best in the matter.
1940
Revolting revelations
So revolting were some of the revelations made at this week’s meetings of the Galway Corporation that, in order to spare our readers’ feelings, we have been compelled to delete portions of the reports made by the Medical Officer of Health and the Sanitary Inspector.
Dr. J.F. McHugh reported that he had inspected a tenement in Middle-street on the opposite side to Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe. Six families occupied the seven rooms and in all, there were 23 people living there, including a number of children and two babies.
All the rooms were dirty, the floors were defective and the walls damp, unclean and had not been limewashed. There was no glass in the windows, with the result that the rain came into the rooms.
The stairs were dangerous, as the banister had been removed in a number of places and the children were liable to fall off and get killed. A number of slates were missing from the roof, thus allowing rain to come in and causing dampness.
At the back of the tenement, there was a small yard which was in a filthy condition. In one corner was a lavatory with no water in the cistern with the result the basin could not be flushed…” The report went on to describe the shocking expedients to which the tenants were driven.
“The state of this tenement is a grave danger not only to the occupants but to the public in general and at any time may cause a serious epidemic. It should be immediately condemned and these people removed to some proper place of habitation,” added his report.
Ald. Miss Ashe said they had discussed this matter before and had gone to the trouble of sending these people to Bohermore, but they had come back and taken possession of the place again.
The Acting Town Clerk said the only way to manage the situation was to put them out and demolish the place altogether.
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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