Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1915
Disturbed family
At Oranmore Petty Sessions, a man from Ballinacourty was summoned by his father for assault. He made an information on the 4th March, in which he stated that he missed a sum of money from his box.
He did not charge his son with stealing it, but some parties took it. His son beat him on several occasions, and was generally very violent towards him. On account of the treatment he got in his own house he had to leave it, and on many nights he had to sleep with his brother.
He reported the matter to the Clarenbridge police, and he averred that he was afraid of his son. It was mentioned to the Court that the priests of the district were interesting themselves towards bringing about peace in the family, and the magistrates adjourned the case for three months with this view.
1940
Disastrous Tuam fire
The most disastrous fire that occurred in Tuam since the Black-and-Tans burned the town in 1919, broke out on Monday evening. Flames rocketing skywards lit the skyline for miles around. One drapery shop was entirely gutted, the grocery and licensed premises adjoining was almost burned out, and the outside portion of a licensed premises on the opposite side of the street was badly burned.
The fire originated in the drapery premises of Mr. H.T. McKay, Shop-street, formerly known as the Arcade when it was in the occupation of Mrs. O’Toole.
About nine o’clock on Monday evening Mr. O’Hara, shop assistant, Tuam, who was standing in the tailoring premises of Mr. Patrick Walsh on the opposite side of the street, noticed thick circles of smoke and a slight glare of light inside the plate glass window of McKay’s premises on the ground floor.
Alarm was given for the fire brigade by Garda Friel, who had been on duty in the town. There was no time, however, to save any property as the fire spread with alarming rapidity.
It would appear to have originated in the back portion of the kitchen and worked its way along the ground floor. At about 9.20 an observer on Shop-street saw through the plate glass windows of Mr. McKay’s shop a mass of flame and the bursting noise of glass was heard. Then the flames shot out the window and huge tongues of fire licked the shops on the other side of the road, where the licensed and grocery premises of Mr. Thomas Connolly were the most seriously affected.
When the town fire brigade arrived about 9.30, the fire had reached ominous proportions and it looked as if it could not be overtaken. The Galway fire brigade arrived about 10.30 and was followed shortly afterwards by the military fire brigade from Athlone. With the three brigades operating, the fire was soon got under complete control. It is estimated there was at least €10,000 worth of damage done.
Blackout to blame
The darkness and ‘blackout’ prevailing was given as an excuse for his stumble by John Healy, an ex-British service man, Gort, at Gort Court on Saturday, when charged with drunkenness.
Guard Diffley said the man was drunk; he stumbled on to the footpath from the roadway. Mr. Cahill, D.J. said drink did not apparently agree with Healy, and he fined him 2s. 6d.
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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