Galway In Days Gone By

1915

Banker row

An extraordinary occurrence took place at the Galway railway station on yesterday afternoon, when Head-Constable Killacky, and Mr. Walker, of the Ulster Bank, Tuam, had a very heated altercation which had a very serious result.

Details are meagre, as the greatest reticence is maintained about the affair, but it has been learned that Mr. Walker, who recently got a commission in the army, motored to Galway, and while passing the railway it is understood that Head-Constable Killacky was making enquiries about the car when Mr. Walker rushed up against him.

A heated argument followed between the two men, and it is alleged that the Head-constable used a blackthorn stick which caused serious injuries to Mr. Walker’s head.

The latter retaliated and knocked the Head-Constable into the gutter. When he regained his feet, it was discovered that he had received a very nasty wound on the head, from which the blood flowed profusely.

In this condition he was conveyed to the County Hospital, where he had two stitches inserted over his left eye. Mr. Walker has been placed under arrest, and an inquiry will be held.

It was afterwards learned that Dr. Waters attended to the injuries of Mr. Walker, whose head was badly injured, and two stitches had to be put in it.

1940

War against disease

The fight which is being waged against disease in Connemara was described by Dr. B. O’Beirne, county medical officer of health, at the monthly meeting of the Galway County Board of Health.

He spoke of some recent outbreaks of scarletina and diphtheria in various parts of Connemara, and said that month spent on waterworks and sewerage schemes was not wasted.

The matter arose when a letter from Very Rev. W. Diskin, P.P., Letterfrack, who referred to “waste in waterworks schemes in Connemara” and that “two of these schemes were unnecessary and are not working”.

Mental Hospital escapee

Dr. Bernard Lyons, R.M.S., reported to the Committee of Management that a patient from the Ballygar district escaped from Ballinasloe mental Hospital on December 13 and has not been traced. The guards had been notified in the usual way and all efforts to find the patient had been unsuccessful.

Mr. Colleran asked if the ‘black-out’ helped the patient’s escape or if an ‘S.O.S.’ was sent out or a broadcast made about him. The R.M.S. said the guards all over the place had been notified and all that could possibly be done was done in an effort to trace the missing patient.

The R.M.S. said the patient was a harmless man, between 30 and 35 years of age. He got away from the dining hall on the occasion of a weekly dance. Once of the attendants brought two patients out, including the missing man, and this fellow got away in the darkness. He might have got over the wall. He was a very active and intelligent patient.

Head Attendant P. Gallagher said that twenty attendants were engaged in a search of the grounds following the patient’s escape. He, himself, went out in his car and searched a wide area. Three-quarters of an hour after the escape, the guards in Ballinasloe and other guards’ stations were notified.

Regarding the message that the patient was seen near Kilbeggan, the head attendant said he got this message from Ballygar, and the guards in Kilbeggan and all along the line to Dublin were notified, and South Dublin Union was also notified.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.