Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Time Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune.
1913
Strike settled
We are pleased to announce that, after a struggle lasting over a month, the strike of labourers in Galway has been settled. On Wednesday evening, Mr. N.S. Reyntins, Chief Industrial Commissioners’ Dept, Gwydyr House, Whitehall, S.W. arrived in Galway from Sligo to try to effect a settlement.
He interviewed the Employers’ Federation during the afternoon and saw the Committee of Labourers’ Union at night. As a result the Employers offered terms to the Union, which include the following:
The builders and general labourers to receive 16s per week instead of 15s, as hitherto; dock labourers to receive 5s and 6s per day according to the class of work. A rise of 6d per day has been conceded, and an increase of 1d per hour for overtime to dock labourers. Casual workers at the dock and stores, 4s per day, being a rise of 6d.
Casual labourers, for builders and contractors, 3s 6d per day. Half holiday at 2 o’clock on Saturday for builders’ labourers only; 3 o’clock for the merchants’ labourers. These rules to be in operation up to and including the 31st December, 1914.
Seaweed rights
In the Commons, Mr. O’Malley asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the fact that the seaweed on the shore below high-water mark belongs to the Crown, landlords owning property along the Connemara shore can enforce a rent for such seaweed; whether certain landlords on Connemara are now, and have been for many years, charging a rent upon such seaweed; and will he take steps to assert the rights of the Crown in these cases in the interests of the poor tenants?
Mr. Robertson: This depends upon the ownership of the foreshore. This ownership is prima facie vested in the Crown and if the Hon. Member will furnish me with full particulars of any case where a rent is being charged, either for the foreshore or for the seaweed growing on it, I will have the question of title carefully considered.
1938
The first President
The selection of Dr. Douglas Hyde (An Craoíbhinn Aoibhínn), Frenchpark County Roscommon, to be first President of Éire has been acclaimed by all parties and by high dignitaries of the Church. Messages and telegrams of congratulation have been received by Dr. Hyde from all parts of the country.
Galway Corporation at their fortnightly meeting on Wednesday decided to invite Dr. Hyde to Galway to have the freedom of the city conferred on him.
Poteen traffic increasing?
Judging by the number of recent prosecutions brought in the local district courts and the seizures made by Gardai during the past fortnight, it would appear as if the poteen traffic in Connemara is on the ascendant. There were no fewer than three prosecutions for possession of malt and poteen at Derrynea district court on Tuesday, and there was also a similar prosecution at Maam district court on Wednesday. In one of the cases, the defendant pleaded that he had no other means of livelihood.
The Gardaí throughout Connemara are making a determined effort to cope with the renewed poteen traffic and extensive raiding is being carried out. On Monday last a party of Gardaí from Oughterard swam out to an island in Lough Corrib and paid a surprise visit to an illicit distillery which was about to be put into operation there. The Gardaí captured the stil and equipment, together with about £200 worth of wash.
Farmers’ unease
The continued summer-like weather is causing a certain amount of uneasiness and trouble to farmers, who in many districts have to bring cattle and sheep long distances for water. Early sown gardens in town and country are in a backward state owing to the drought, the likes of which has not been experienced for many years.
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
