Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Time Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune
1913
Billposters’ dispute
At the weekly Petty Sessions, Sarah Joyce summoned Patrick Ryan for unlawfully throwing down a hoarding, her property, at High Street, on the night of September 23. A man named Martin Durane was also included in the summons.
Edward Joyce, a son of complainant, gave evidence of seeing Patrick Ryan and Martin Durane pulling down the hoarding. The damage sustained was estimated at 30s. Witness reported the matter to the police.
A hoarding at O’Brien’s Bridge had also been pulled down on the same night, as also a hoarding the property of Mr. Hardiman.
In cross-examination by Mr Nicolls, witness said he did not see a young man named McDonagh that night before the boards were taken down. He knew Patrick Ryan had been at sea for five months. Witness said there were three holdfasts missing. His mother had permission for the site of the hoarding from the owner, Mr. Blake of Ballyglunin.
Constable Connell said that the last witness had made a complaint to him that the boards were thrown down by Patk. Ryan, on the 23rd September. Replying to Mr. Nicolls, witness said he never heard that Ryan’s hoardings were thrown down.
The defendant, Patk. Ryan, said that he was at a wedding on the night the boards were thrown down. He had nothing to do with them, nor was he in High street that night.
Mrs. Ryan stated she brought her son from a wedding that night close on 12 o’clock, and he did not leave the house afterwards. A fine of 2s. 6d. was imposed, 6s. 6d. costs and 6s. compensation for damage to the boards.
1938
Hurricane hits trawl
When the sixty-ton trawler, ‘Girl Winnie’, belonging to the Western Ocean Fishing Co., set sail from Cleggan, Connemara on Tuesday evening, en route for London, her crew never dreamt that she was to weather one of the fiercest hurricane within the sixty years’ experience of her seventy-five years old skipper, and limp into Galway docks three days later with her bowsprit and top mast missing, and her sails torn to shreds.
“We were about thirty miles west of Loop Head tacking against a stiff ‘sou-wester’ when the hurricane broke upon us,” the skipper said.
“Our wireless set had gone out of order the day before, so we did not receive the gale warning broadcast that evening. We had noticed trawlers moving in towards the Aran Islands as we passed down, but we thought they were only going in to fish. But we realised what was wrong four or five hours later when the gale arose.
“It hit us like a flash. In the first few minutes a heavy sea crashed into our jib and our bowsprit snapped like a match and was swept alongside. The boat reared up like a frightened horse and as she lurched down into the trough of the wave our topmast snapped with the sudden jerk and broke just at the butt.”
The gale was now at its height blowing at about eighty miles per hour. Mountainous waves came crashing over the trawler’s decks, all hatches of which were battened down, and the crew were waist high in water as each clung on to the riggings with one hand and tried to use the other tying ropes and reefs.
When the storm abated towards morning, the trawler succeeded in reaching Galway, where she now lies in the docks undergoing repairs.
Local fishermen believe the gale was worse than the one which caused the disaster of 1927.
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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