Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Time Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune.
1913
The Galway Buffer
At Galway Petty Sessions, Constable O’Leary had John Melia and John McDonogh summoned for being drunk and disorderly in Mainguard-street on the 4th inst. Complainant said the two defendants were going to beat a little man. Melia was the worst of the two.
Chairman, Mr W. H. Hill, R.M.: Did the little man give a good account of himself?
Complainant: No, your worship, he was trying to get away from them (laughter).
Melia told the Bench that a man named Ward followed McDonogh and himself into a public house and demanded a drink from them. They refused to give him the drink, and the latter followed them on the street for the purpose of getting drink.
The Chairman said they had decided to fine McDonogh 2s. 6d. Addressing Melia, he said: “If you think yourself a Galway ‘buffer’, and a jolly good drinker, let me tell you that if you knock about long enough, you will get a man not half your size that will knock you into the middle of next summer (laughter). Defendant was fined 10s. and costs.
1938
Grim discovery
There is intense garda activity in Oranmore and the surrounding districts following the discovery of a portion of the body of an infant child at Blackweir, Oranmore. The grim discovery was made on Wednesday night by Luke Monaghan, while walking near the foreshore at Blackweir, concealed in a heap of straw near the back yard of his house.
The foreshore and neighbouring fields, some of which contain dense undergrowth, are being thoroughly searched, but as yet have failed to reveal any further clues to this mystery, which has shocked the whole of the West of Ireland.
An inquest opened on Thursday, and Dr Sean Tubridy said it was impossible to say whether the child was male or female.
He could not say if the severance was caused by an instrument, but he was inclined to the view that it was. The body was in an advanced stage of decomposition and, in witness’s opinion, was some weeks dead.
There was no means of ascertaining the age of the chid or the cause of death.
Heavy rain and storms
Winter arrived according to schedule in Connemara last week and the putting back of the clock seemed to have been the signal for a general onslaught by the elements.
There were heavy rains and storms on Saturday night, with consequent losses of hay and oat crops to farmers over a large area. Trees were felled across the road at Arbeare, Kilmilkin, Kylemore and on the Sky Road, Clifden.
The storm abated somewhat on Sunday, but it again gathered gale force on Monday and on Monday night, Connemara experienced one of the severest gales in many years. Towards midnight the wind rose to a speed of about ninety miles per hour and blew from the north-east.
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.
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
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.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
