Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1909
Fleecing ratepayers
Several claims for malicious injury to property in Galway City and the surrounding districts were heard before the Recorder at Galway Quarter Sessions on Monday, and substantial awards, all of which add to the increasing rates, were given in all cases.
Mr. M. T. Donnellan, Shop-st., Galway, claimed £25 damages for the wanton and malicious breaking of a large plate-glass window in his business premises on the night of 11th November, and also claimed £20 for the breakage of a large plate-glass window and three smaller windows in his premises on the 14th December.
Mr. S. Redington, solr., appeared for the claimant, and Messrs. Blake and Kenny for the Urban Council.
His Honour gave decrees for £21 7s. 6d. and £17 17s. 6d. respectively.
Freedom for prisoners
On Monday afternoon Mr. Éamon de Valera, Mr. Seán Milroy, and Mr. Seán McGarry left Lincoln Jail without formal leave taking, and joined in freedom their four colleagues who made good their escape a few weeks ago.
There has been much speculation as to how the Sinn Féin Leader made his bold and successful bid for freedom, for journalists delight in daring escapes, but none of them has so far suggested another German plot.
That old wheeze has obviously done duty too long, and the “footprints and crop of wild rumours” that de Valera left behind could by no possible boozing of the compass be got to indicate that intrepid spirit had gone off hot-foot to Holland to restore the Kaiser to his throne.
1944
Make Galway beautiful
The people of this generation may not see the ideal Galway City which Mr. Dermot O’Toole, 69, Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, President of the Architectural Association of Ireland, has been engaged to plan but it is possible that vast changes will take place in the physical appearance of the city in the near future.
Mr. O’Toole regards Galway City, which he revisited on Wednesday, as one of the best situated centres in Ireland both because of its proximity to some of the best scenery in the country and because of its position in relation to transatlantic air travel.
The big problem which Mr. O’Toole is now undertaking consists of indicating in a sketch plan how all that is ugly in the physical make-up of the city can be eliminated and how that ugliness can be supplanted by beauty in line and form, retaining at the same time the medieval character which makes Galway one of the most interesting cities in the country.
Connemara pride
Connemara is proud of Mairtín Thornton, the new Irish heavy-weight boxing champion. On Friday night last, excitement ran high in Thornton’s native Gaeltacht of Cois Fhairraige and the inhabitants literally swarmed around the few wireless sets in the area to hear the broadcast of the fight.
The menfolk walked miles to the nearest houses in which there were wireless sets. Needless to say, these houses were overcrowded and the audiences overflowed into the streets and clustered around the open doors and windows.
Losing the plots
Ballinasloe Urban Council authorities, despite numerous appeals and public announcements to the large number of unemployed workers in the town, are disappointed that the number of applications for free plots have not, this year, exceeded twenty.
Two years ago well over a hundred allotment plots were tilled in the urban area; last year the number had fallen well below the hundred mark, and this year it would appear, from the poor response to date, that the scheme locally may collapse.
The scarcity of vegetables in Ballinasloe market throughout the year, and the hundred per cent increase in the price of those supplies available should, one would think, be a strong incentive.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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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.
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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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