Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Time Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune.
1913
Tailor trouble
At the City Petty Sessions, Mr. Joseph Kilbride, R.M., in the chair, John Boulger, a tailor, of Athlone, was charged in custody with stealing a suit of clothes valued at £1 from a man named Patrick Joyce, of Church Street, Galway, on June 10th.
Head-Constable Killacky said Joyce was not now present to press the case.
Chairman: But didn’t he swear an information?
Head-Constable: [Boulger] admits taking the clothes.
Defendant: I’ll give 5s. now to any constable you like; I’ll give another 5s. next Saturday, and I’ll give 10s the following Saturday.
The Chairman remarked that that seemed fair enough.
The Head-Constable, explaining the circumstances of the case to the Court, said it appeared the defendant got a coat and vest to alter, and instead of altering them, he sold them to some man in Cross Street, whom he (defendant) could not remember, and got drunk.
The defendant was allowed out under the First Offenders Act, on his own recognisances, on guaranteeing to pay Joyce the £1. For the drunkenness he was fined 1s.
1938
No more ‘yes men’
“The days of yes men are gone forever,” said Mr. Peter Kelly, Fine Gael candidate for West Galway, addressing a meeting in Abbeyknockmoy on Wednesday.
“It is part time that the people of this country realised that it is their duty to return to Dáil Éireann men who will have the local interests of their constituencies at heart and who will not be at the beck and call of party whips all the time they are in Leinster House.
“Every member of the Fianna Fáil party is a yes man. What have the Fianna Fáil deputies does for Galway? They have neglected the Claddagh fishermen while subsidising strangers to the extent of fifteen hundred pounds for fishing gear.
“All that Fianna Fáil did for Galway was to close the Clifden railway line, thus cutting off the unfortunate Gaeltacht from the rest of the country and losing for the West valuable tourist traffic. Since Fianna Fáil came into power, Galway has been styled the forgotten county. Apparently, the cry of Fianna Fáil is jobs for Jews and not for natives.”
Resignation threat
Tuam Town Commissioners have fixed a special meeting to consider the question of resigning in a body, owing to the failure of tenants in the Board’s houses to pay the rents. The total arrears at the end of this month, the collector reported, was £342 6s 1d., a reduction of £32 7s. 3d. since last month.
Mr. O’Malley: I think the only thing to be done is to tender our resignation.
Chairman: We have sympathy with the unemployed, but how are we to know which of these tenants are genuinely unemployed?
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.
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
