Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1915
The Kaiser’s Head
At Athenry Petty Sessions, keen interest was manifested in the hearing of the prosecution under the Defences of the Realm regulations against Stephen Jordan, Athenry, Secretary, Galway County Board, G.A.A., for using statements alleged to be in contravention of the said regulations.
Constable Statham deposed he was present at a cinematograph entertainment in Athenry Town Hall on the 12th June. At the end of the programme certain pictures were shown. One was that of the German Emperor’s head in a barrel with that of a lion outside, and underneath the inscription “Get out and get under.”
Jordan said: “Cut it off; what age man are you?, and something to the effect that he had enough of it. When the pictures of the burning of the Church of Louvain and the bombardment of Reins Cathedral appeared, the cinematograph operator, in describing it, said that the favourite pastime of the German army was the blowing up of religious houses. In reply to him, Jordan said they would blow up more.
Witness said when the pictures of the Connaught Rangers and the Munster Fusiliers on the march to Mons were shown, the operator said that the odds against them were 50 to 1. Jordan asked, “What about their coming back?”
When the Turkish troops advancing in the Dardanelles were shown, they were cheered by Jordan and his party.
The picture of the German Emperor was loudly cheered by Jordan and the party with him. When the picture of King George boarding a battleship appeared, there was an objectionable noise made by someone in the audience. He could not say if Jordan was one of that party.
Jordan was convicted and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour.
1940
Survivors in Galway
Happy to have their feet planted again on firm earth, but anxious about the fate of their companions from whose boats and rafts they had become separated, twenty-five sailors, some of the survivors from two ships sunk by submarine action in the North Atlantic, were landed at Galway docks on Monday morning from the Norwegian ship, Varegg (Capt. Rolf Iverson).
They were part of two ships’ crews totalling about 120 men. One crew of eighty-seven included eighteen Europeans and sixty-nine Lascars. The other crew had numbered thirty-three.
Twelve Britons on the first ship sunk experienced a double torpedoing in less than four days. After their ship went down with heavy loss of life, they were rescued by another, which itself was torpedoed a few days later.
Creamery bombed
A bomber aircraft of German nationality flew over the area of Campile, Ballymitty, Bannow and Duncormick, County Wexford between 2 o’clock and 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Bombs were dropped at each of these points and the Co-oparative Creamery at Campile was wrecked. Three girls, Kathleen and Mary Ellen Kent, sisters, of Terrerath and Kathleen Hurley, Garryduff, were killed and one injured by falling masonry. The Éire Government has lodged a protest in Berlin.
English lie
Holiday resorts in the West of Ireland have given the lie vigorously to an alleged Sunday paper printed in England which told its readers this week that the holiday season in this country was a complete failure.
Hotel-keepers and others interested in the tourist traffic were represented as weeping salt tears because of the absence of holidaymakers from other countries and the failure of the Irish people to take their places.
The Irish people, readers were told, were spending their holidays in their back gardens and feeling peeved because they could not cross the Channel or explore the Continent as in previous years.
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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