Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Time Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune
1913
Beating a donkey
At the Children’s Court, a young lad, the son of a Newcastle farmer, was prosecuted by Mr. Heard, D.I., with unlawfully ill-treating a donkey on the 4th inst.
Mrs. Shewell, wife of Capt. Shewell, Governor of Galway Jail, was the principal witness for the prosecution. She deposed seeing the boy furiously beating a donkey, which he was driving on the 4th September, thereby causing the animal great pain and drawing blood from its side; its tail was also cut.
When she went to where the defendant lived at Newcastle, she found the donkey still under the cart. The animal was in a very bad condition, and looked starved and very thin.
The youthful defendant was allowed out on his own recognisances, his father, who appeared for him, to be responsible for his good behaviour.
Reward for latrine theft
The Town Steward reported that on the morning of 17th inst. one of the money slots on the latrine at Salthill had been broken and a sum of money taken. He recommended that a higher entrance gate be erected, as the present one is too small.
Chairman: I suppose no one knows how much money was taken?
Town Steward: From what I took from it last Saturday, I should say there would be about 4s or 5s taken.
Mr. Moloney: That gate was ordered from the very beginning to be taken down as it was too small.
Mr. Faller suggested that a gate similar to those removable ones in front of shops be erected. It could be put in place every night. He also proposed that a reward of £1 be offered for information that would lead to the discovery of the guilty party.
1938
Chip shop gutted
Galway experienced its second fire within ten days on Sunday night, when a fish and chip shop, the property of Martin Flaherty, Church-street, Galway, was gutted.
The fire began with dramatic suddenness. Mrs. Flaherty, wife of the proprietor, and two assistants were serving customers when, it appears, the flue caught fire and in less time that it takes to tell a sheet of flame enveloped the huge range.
Customers left their suppers unfinished and rushed from the shop terror stricken. Some of the more plucky ones stayed to help to quell the flames, but their efforts were of no avail.
The fire quickly spread to the wooden cubicles, which burned like matchwood.
The Galway Fire Brigade, under Mr. C.J. O’Callaghan, borough surveyor, and Captain T. Duggan, were quickly on the scene. It was too late, however, to do anything for the shop, which by this time was a roaring den of flames.
Two families, Madden and Fortune, who were living on the second floor, quickly evacuated, and their furniture was removed through the windows.
The brigade laid nine lines of hose and fought the flames for three hours. They concentrated on preventing the fire from spreading. The terrific heat cracked many windows along the street. The efforts of the brigade were successful and after three-quarters of an hour they had the fire completely under control.
Poteen swoop
A large force of Gardai from the Headford district made a swoop on Keelkill at two o’clock on Friday morning and succeeded in capturing a complete still-house, which was found to contain two hundred gallons of wash, a still, work, buckets, jars, hurricane lamps, a keg containing five gallons of poteen, and a jar containing four gallons of poteen.
The still-house was ingeniously erected on the shores of the lake, so that the waters of the lake actually filled the purpose of acting as a cooler for the apparatus inside the house.
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
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.
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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