Archive News
January 10, 2013
Date Published: 09-Jan-2013
1913
Storm in Kinvara
The approach of Christmas was ushered in at Kinvara on the eve of the glorious festival by a hurricane the like of which had not been witnessed in the district for years. It blew a whole gale for hours, carrying everything before it, slates, chimney pots, walls, trees and corrugated iron sheds in its destructive course.
The district along by the sea-board at Duras suffered most heavily. Trees were uprooted on the Wilson Lynch demesne, and the sea wall of “cush” connecting the Burren with the district of Kinvara, was almost completely wiped out.
The sea wall which runs along the sea for about 80 yards has cost more to keep in repair than would buy the fee-simple of the island. The Gort District Council are after the storm inviting tenders for a £50 repair, and they might as well throw the money in the Atlantic.
The contract is given to some local “gubbaun” who knows as much about a concrete wall as he does about making a watch, and the moment the wall is passed and the contractor paid, down comes another “mouth” like a hundred of bricks. The County Council ought to insist on doing it right, and make a good job of it, and not be continually erecting a temple of folly.
1938
Beet factory closes
After a campaign of seven weeks, the Tuam beet factory closes this week. The last of the beet was brought in on Monday. It was the shortest campaign in the factory since it opened. The cause, of course, is the small return of beet this year, due in large measure to the damage to the crop by mangold fly in several parts of the country.
There is, however, a general complaint that farmers are not as anxious to sow as much beet as they eagerly sowed in the first year. Several reasons are given for this, including the price paid for the beet, the poor yield of beet from some land, the cost of labour where growers have not much assistance of their own, and the hardships of pulling the beet in severe weather.
It is generally believed now that the beet will not be grown in sufficient quantity for the factory next year unless there is a substantial increase in the price offered by the Sugar Board, and some farmers go so far as to say they will not grow it under any circumstances.
Wage demands
The large number of applications for increases in salaries and wages by the staff of Ballinasloe Mental Hospital on Monday last reflects the increase cost of living during the past twelve months. Many of those who went in on what were considered adequate salaries some few years ago now find themselves in the position of being unable to meet calls of rents, rates, taxes and other increased costs.
This is especially so in the case of married attendants, who have to find house rents, which in the past few years have considerably increased, due principally to the need for new houses in Ballinasloe and district.
New bishop
The Connacht Tribune this week gives record in print of the consecration of the new Titular Bishop of Cela and Auxiliary Bishop of Tuam. Without using the language of hyperbole, the occasion may be described as historic, for Tuam has played a great part in the history of the western province.
Most Rev. Dr. Walsh is in every sense a man of the people, for not merely has he been born and reared amongst them, but he has spent most of the best years of his life in Tuam as a teacher and preacher, a worker and administrator, a guide philosopher and friend.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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