Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1915
Lusitania sunk
“We are not fighting men, but reptiles – cunning, treacherous and envenomed.” So commented a popular illustrated paper on Monday in demanding that, after the devilish feat of sinking the Lusitania, with its human freight of innocent victims, the Germans should be tried as common criminals.
Up to Monday, 1,452 souls, practically all composed of innocent non-combatants, have, off the peaceful shores of Ireland, been sacrificed to German frightfulness.
Although the first torpedo was sufficient to finish the great vessel, which cost a million and a half, the savages fired another, and yet another torpedo in order to complete her destruction instantaneously, and ensure that she would not be able to make for shore.
The assassin blow was so sudden that escape was well nigh impossible, and the liner, getting a bad list, only one section of her lifeboats could be launched. Within practically 20 minutes, the palatial boat, from which no comfort or convenience that ingenuity could suggest or man’s hand prepare was absent, was at the bottom of 60 fathoms of water.
Down with her, imprisoned, went hundreds upon hundreds of innocent victims, and we are told by survivors that the submarine came to the surface for a moment in order to give its foul murderers an opportunity of gloating over the struggles of hundreds of others in the seething wages. And the only result is red raw murder, for the material loss, as the Cunard Co. Tell us, is fully covered by insurance.
Naturally, the whole civilised world shudders at the black deed, and a cry for vengeance has gone up. Not one nation attempts to defend the assassin who, by this crowning crime, outrivals the most atrocious act of savages known to history.
Even a section of the German people cannot find support for the barbarous act, though the Huns generally proclaim it as “a new triumph for Germany’s naval policy”.
1940
Idle unemployed
At a meeting of Ballinasloe Urban Council, the town clerk said it was deplorable that five unemployed men who were offered plots refused to take them. The plots were free – only a nominal sum of 1s. per year being charged.
Implements, seeds and manures as well as spraying material and expert advice on the cultivation and care of the plots were also free.
The chairman, Mr. M. Connolly, said there were no excuses whatever for these idle young men in refusing these plots.
Coal shortage
The effects of shortage of coal and other necessities since the outbreak of war have been instanced by letters read from the contractors to Ballinasloe mental hospital, who requested management to cancel their contracts owing to the difficulties in continuing supplies.
Extra supplies of turf will be cut and saved to counteract any shortage of supplies of coal for the coming season. The committee of management have their own turbary and have their own labour and transport services in the hospital.
Clash in West Galway
There are a number of members of the Fine Gael party who do not like the decision of the leaders not to contest the Galway election. Their attitude is that nothing can be gained in any direction by not fighting Fianna Fáil.
Foreign games ban
The ban imposed on St. Joseph’s College, Ballinasloe, by the Galway County Education Committee has been removed. Originally the Galway County Council, parent body of the committee, banned St. Joseph’s from participation in the county scholarships scheme on the grounds that rugby was played there, but recently a scholarship to that school was allowed and the committee, seeing that the principle was not being adhered to, felt that the name of St. Joseph’s should be included in the list of approved schools for scholarship purposes.
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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