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.