Archive News
January 24, 2013
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
1913
Editor’s coats stolen
A story of the sudden and almost simultaneous disappearance a few days before Christmas of three overcoats from two newspaper offices in the city, and their subsequent discovery in an Abbeygate street second class clothes shop, was told before the City Magistrates on Monday, when Mr. G.B. Heard, D.I., R.I.C., prosecuted Mr. Thomas Maree, of Abbeygate street, for receiving stolen goods.
On the 23rd December, three overcoats were stolen – one from Mr. Byrne, the clerk at the “Express” office, and two from Mr. Kenny, the Editor of the “Tribune”. On the following day, the three coats were found in defendant’s shop, where they had been sold for a few shillings.
They were valuable coats – one of Mr. Kenny’s was a Burberry – and if valuable coats like these could be disposed of so easily, the property of no one would be safe. If these facilities for stealing such goods were not afforded, they would not be stolen.
Defendant said he got them from a seaman who said he got them cheaply in Liverpool, it was not unusual for a seaman to have five or six coats.
“I was certain they were obtained honestly, I would be the last man in the world to buy them dishonestly.”
Chairman: Considering your age and evident respectability up to this, the magistrates do not like to convict, and they will let you off if you will give back the coats and pay the costs. Defendant did so, and the case concluded.
1938
Minister enforcing English
“We have here the peculiar situation of the Minister for Industry and Commerce trying to enforce the English language in Ireland, while the English themselves do not try to enforce it in Wales. You are prosecuting under an Act which is contrary to the Bunreacht.
“The new Constitution declares that Irish is the national language, but the Act under which you are prosecuting takes no recognisance of Irish. It specifies English and Welsh only,” said District Justice Sean Mac Giollarnath, when dismissing a case at Galway District Court on Thursday, in which Galway County Council were summoned under the Factory and Workshops Act 1901 for failing to have a copy of the regulations under the Act displayed “in English or Welsh” at Kilronan pier.
Runaway horse
Due to the promptness and presence of mind of Garda F. Allen, Eglinton-street Barracks, Galway, a runaway horse in Williamsgate-street was stopped before it could do any damage.
The horse, the property of John McGrath, Cregmore, Claregalway, was taking on a load of timber at Messrs. Corbett’s timber stores in Castle-street when it took fright and bolted up Williamsgate-street.
There was a lot of traffic on the road at the time and a number of children going home from school. Garda Allen, who was on point duty at Moon’s Corner, ran in front of the horse, caught hold of the reins and shaft of the car and soon had the horse under control.
Senate elections
Galway County Council have nominated seven councillors to the Senate electoral panel which will elect the new Senate. They were: Mr. MI. W. Cahill, merchant, Bishop-street, Tuam; Mr. Patrick Fury, farmer, Currandulla; Mr. Thomas Francis Joyce, Muinteroin, Leenane; Mr. John Jos. Keane, farmer and shopkeeper, Carraroe South; Mr. Thomas Nee, farmer, Market-square, Clifden; Mr. Thomas A O’Donoghue, solicitor, High-street, Tuam; Mr. Michael Quinn, M.T., Ballymoe.
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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