Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1915
Shocking crime denounced
These are the salient sentences from the Public Letter which the Most Rev. Dr. O’Dea, Lord Bishop of Galway, sent to the Rev. Father Walsh, Parish priest of Ballindereen, in condemnation of the agrarian crime by which John Kelly, aged 79, lost his life at midnight on February 25. The Letter was ready by Father Walsh at both Masses in Ballinderreen on Sunday.
“Any of your people who know the perpetrators of this horrible murder should at once hand their names to the police and give evidence against them in open Court.
“I repeat that I hold your parish responsible till they show that they are Christians, by protesting publicly the horror that their feel at such an outrage perpetrated in their midst.
“Till then, the parish of Ballinderreen will be a by-word and a disgrace; and if nothing else can bring them to a Christian sense, I hope the good people of neighbouring parishes will take them in hands by making them feel that they are the lepers and the outlaws of these dioceses. These, I feel, are strong works, but they are deliberately chosen as true and just.
“I thank God that I have only one parish of Ballinderreen. This parish alone has already made me answerable before God for two brutal murders in the few years since I have become Bishop of these dioceses.
“I say, according to the words of Christ in a like case, the people of Ballinderreen are worse off than these pagan blacks of darkest Africa, and it will go harder with them on the day of judgement.
“If anyone asks, ‘Why does the Bishop blacken the whole parish for the crimes of a few?’, I answer, ‘What have your people done to show their horror of those crimes?’.
“I need scarcely add that this letter is not meant in the smallest degree as a reflection upon you, the parish priest, for I know you have done all in your power to civilise and Christianise your people. Rather, I pity you from my heart, and sympathise with you; because I feel that if all my people were like yours, I should regard it as a disgrace to their Bishop.”
1940
Daring poteen raid
One of the most daring raids ever carried out by Gardai in Connemara led to the discovery at dawn on Friday of a poteen-still working at full pressure in a house, on: the island of lnisheire, Lettermullen.
A ten-gallon keg had already been filled with “the fire water”, and the still had been put to “run” on a second keg when the Gardai arrived.
The Gardai dismantled the still, destroyed a large fifty-gallon vat containing two tons of wash and a large quantity of malt, and captured a still, a still-arm and a twenty-one foot copper worm.
The total cost of this seizure which is the biggest made within thirteen years is estimated at £75 and is believed to be the first ever made in a private house. The raid was carried out by Sergeant Patrick Rafferty and Guards E. McSweeney, B. McSweeney and M. McMahon, of Lettermore.
Proceeding at first to Creapach Island some distance from the mainland, the raiding party rowed across the bay and landed at the back of the island of lnisheire unseen. Hearing shouts coming from the direction of a lighted house, Guards E. McSweeney and M. McMahon carried out reconnaissances before proceeding inland. Creeping cautiously across the uneven ground, the guards arrived at the house unknown to the revellers inside.
Making a dash into the house, they found some men and women carousing inside, but seeing nothing to arouse their suspicion, they went into the kitchen where they found a poteen-still on the kitchen fire working at full pressure.
Two men lay fast asleep on a bed nearby while a fifteen-year-old boy tended the still. One keg was found to contain ten gallons of poteen made from barley and oats and the still had been put to “run” on a second keg.
The Gardai then returned to their station with their haul, having covered a total of thirty miles in carrying out the biggest raid with the smallest number of men that Connemara has known – a severe blow to the illicit traffickers.
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.
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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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