Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1915
Volunteers jailed
At the Dublin Police Court on Wednesday, Mr. Mahony sentenced John McDermott to four months’ imprisonment with hard labour, and Mr. F. Sheehy-Skeffington to six months’ imprisonment with hard labour, for having made speeches, the former at Tuam, and the latter at Beresford Place, Dublin, last month, calculated to prejudice recruiting in Ireland.
In McDermott’s case, Mr. T.M. Healy, K.C., M.P., held that the trial should take place in Tuam, but Mr. Mahony ruled that he had the power to try.
Mr. Rearden explained that the charge was in respect of a speech delivered in Tuam on the 16th May. There was a meeting held in the Market Square at which there were about 25 people present. Mr. McDermott made a speech, which it was alleged, was calculated to discourage those present from joining the army.
Head-Constable Farrell submitted a statement purporting to give the substance of what accused said. This showed that “the object of the meeting was ostensibly to organise the Irish Volunteers,” and that Mr. McDermott referred to Home Rule as being on the Statute Book. He then “referred to the cry about German atrocities in Bachelor’s Walk. He then told people that he was in England, and that he saw that the people there were taking advantage of the war to start industries, but in Ireland, unfortunately, their fine, strapping young fellows were joining the Army to get killed fighting for England. He then stated that there was a rumour of conscription, but the Volunteers would oppose that at any cost.”
Mr. Mahony accepted the evidence and described the accused’s action as most mischievous.
1940
Call for Volunteers
An urgent appeal to the young men of the parish to give a generous response to their country’s call for volunteers was made at both Masses in Moycullen on Sunday last by Very Rev. Canon Carr, P.P., and Rv. T. Coyne, C.C. Canon Carr told the young men to join the forces now and not to wait for conscription.
Father Coyne said that the present generation should not allow it to be said that they were not imbued with the same patriotic spirit that inspired their forefathers during the long and bitter struggle for independence.
Civil Defence
A civil defence force was formed in Tuam on Sunday last when a number of men attended a meeting in the Tuam Garda Station and were detailed for patrol duties. A large number of young men from the Tuam district have joined the Volunteer and Regular Forces for the duration of the war. They left Tuam on Monday for military centres for training.
Call for more turf
Farmers in the Ahascragh area were so busy with turf cutting and other necessary work that only one man attended the court there to answer a summons.
The Government call for more turf had a big response in the Ballinasloe district, and the bogs for the past few weeks have been scenes of activity in cutting and saving the fuel.
Never before has there been such an all-round and constant trek to the bogs. Householders in the towns have procured turf banks and are now cutting their own turf. These include a number of guards.
Side by side with this trek to the bogs has been the response of all classes to offer their services in the defence of the country in the Army and the Local Security Corps.
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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