Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Time Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune
1914
The “niggers” hospital
The Galway Port Sanitary Authority forwarded estimate and demand amounting to £12 10s on the Council for the year-ending 31st March, 1915. The Clerk, replying to Mr. Nilan, said the demand last year was £8 10s.
Mr. Nilan: Why is there a difference this year – we are giving that money for nothing?
Clerk: They have expended £15 on repairs.
Mr. Nilan: Sure there is no one in it but the caretaker (laughter). I think the only patients they ever had were two niggers out of some ship that was in Galway (laughter). I think we should refuse to pay it. Let them send particulars of the repairs.
Clerk: You can be compelled to pay the demand made. The Clerk then read the expense incurred in connection with the hospital during the year.
Mr. Nilan: What is the Clerk doing?
Mr. Cahill: He has more to do than you think.
Clerk: The Clerk and the Port Medical Officer get £40, which is not much for two men. It is a reduction of £6 on the year before.
Mr. Nilan: That was the time they had the niggers there (laughter). I propose that we do not pay it. It was decided to instruct the Clerk to write to Mr. Leech, Secretary of the Port Sanitary Authority for particulars showing the reason for the increase in the demand.
1939
Ballinasloe morgue
Ballinasloe is at last to have a morgue. The Urban Council is in negotiation with the Town Hall Committee to rent suitable premises for the purpose. The absence of a morgue in the town has been the subject of comment at nearly every inquest held in the district for years and particularly when a tragedy necessitates the hasty removal of the victims to the nearest business house as has happened on occasions recently.
It is only, however, in cases where post mortem examinations are necessary that the necessity for such a building becomes apparent.
The suicide’s grave
Among the incidents related by Professor J. Howley, in a broadcast from Radio Eireann, in the second of the series, “The Weirs in Human Experiences”, was a story of weird happenings near Galway City.
The late Dr. Brereton, he said, took a house not far from Galway City, and on the first day heard queer sounds, as though someone was gasping for breath, but he was unable to locate the cause of the noises.
They ceased that night to resume again the following evening. He made enquiries, and was told that the house was on the border of two parishes. The site had previously been occupied by a shed in which a man had cut his throat.
The people of the parish kept pushing his body over the border, none wanting him to die in their parish, but after a struggle, the parties agreed to put the body in the shed.
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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