Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1915
‘Seduction’ case
At Galway Quarter Sessions, Thomas Feerick sued Luke Connolly, Milltown, for damages for the alleged seduction of his sister. Mr. Concannon appeared for the plaintiff and Mr. McCormack (instructed by Mr. McDonogh, solr.) for defendant.
Miss Feerick said that on December 3, 1913, she met defendant near her brother’s house and he seduced her. They kept company on various occasions in February.
In May, she knew something was wrong with her, and she asked the defendant what he was going to do and he said that he would see that she would be all right, and promised to marry her, but she never saw him afterwards.
To Mr McCormack: Witness said it was at Christmas she knew she was in trouble. She was 28 years of age. She agreed to marry the defendant if he got rent receipts in his own name.
If he got the fortune, he said he would marry her. The parish priest, she heard, spoke publicly from the altar about the occurrence. He complained to her and her brother about the house they kept.
Connolly, the defendant, denied the charge. Father Diskin, the parish priest, when witness went to him, said he “would see him out of it”.
In cross-examination by Mr. Concannon, witness denied that he had ever even a conversation with the girl.
The case was adjourned to the following Thursday.
1940
Egg trade ruined
With the Department of Agriculture regulations regarding the marketing of eggs, Connemara has received its worst blow yet from the application of nationwide legislation to that area.
As a result of these new regulations, the egg trade has now been completely ruined in Connemara. In the course of enquiries throughout the area last week, our correspondent failed to find one rural shopkeeper who had not discontinued to handle eggs.
It appears that the shopkeepers do not object to paying the required registration fee of £1, but they find it impossible to comply with the regulation requiring them to market the eggs within two days.
Heretofore, lorries did rounds of all the rural shops in Connemara, at intervals of ten days, or maybe a week and collected all the eggs.
Under the new regulations, these lorries would have to call every second day. This, of course, would be unprofitable to the big egg dealers with whom the rural shopkeepers used to trade. The result has been that the egg lorries have ceased to call to the shops, and the shops in turn have ceased to take their eggs from their customers.
Country subsistence
One of the big mysteries at the moment in Connemara is how the families of relief scheme workers in the area manage to subsist on a net income of 13s. 7d. per week.
The average-sized family in places like Recess, Cashel, Carna and Rosmuc is composed of the father and mother and from eight to ten young children. Such a family will consume a sack of flour in a week costing 24s.
If we allow one pound of tea and five pounds of sugar, the weekly outlay totals about 29s. Butter and other odds and ends, including tobacco, would add an extra ten shillings, making a total of 39s. at a very conservative estimate.
Thus, the deficit in the domestic budget would amount to £1 5s. 11d. per week. Could any financial wizard tell us how this deficit is met? Is it any wonder that we have a decline in marriages and births and that the countryside is being abandoned.
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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