Archive News
July 26, 2012
Date Published: 25-Jul-2012
1912
Cathedral and College Fund
The most Rev. Dr. O’Dea, Bishop of Galway, has received the following interesting letter:– St. Mary’s Rectory, Fairport, New York, U.D.A., July 5, 1912. My dear Lord Bishop, – When I asked Father Craddock’s kind offices to obtain your consent to my sending a contribution to the projected new cathedral, I looked at most for acquiescence through him, I did not expect a personal reply, much less such a gracious one as you have designed to send me.
I beg to thank you for it and express my deep appreciation of your kindness. I enclose a draft for £50. I need scarcely say that I wish you all sorts of success in your undertaking. The old “City of the Tribes” has long been in need of a Cathedral, and I suppose there is not a see in Ireland which had so poor a substitute for one. Indeed, unless my memory fails me; it was the poorest church edifice in the whole town. I can recall now the puzzle which often presented it to me in my boyish days – why it was that the Bishop had only that old ramshackle affair on Lower Abbeygate street I think it was? But now that the Bishop is to come into his own: and if I ever see the “Fair Hills of Holy Ireland,” my eyes will be gladdened by the sight of your new cathedral.
I am very glad that such success has awaited your efforts, and I sincerely hope that the burden of your great task may not weigh unduly upon you – I am, my dear Lord Bishop, very respectfully yours. J. L. CODYRE.
Still they come
We have already had the privilege of acknowledging two generous subscriptions for the Home Rule Fund through Mr. John Roche, M.P. We have just received a still further letter from Mr. Roche which shows that the example of Gurteen and Portumna and Ballymacward is being enthusiastically followed up by other districts in his constituency.
Gruesome threats
A strange story of lurid, threatening posters and of how a bullock got from a field enclosed on all sides by high walls on to the railway line where it was killed was told before Mr. Justice Madden at the Summer Assizes at Galway on Saturday, when the criminal inquiry appeal came on for hearing. The defendant appealed against the decision of the Recorder in refusing his application for £15 compensation for the malicious killing of a three year old bullock by being driven off the lands, onto the railway line.
MR JB Powell appeared for the applicant and in opening the case, he said the amount of hostility and persecution to which the applicant was surprising, even for the County Galway.
He had in his hand a number of threatening notices in which the applicant was specially referred to. One of them was actually printed, and was headed, “Death to traitors – remember your last end”.
1937
Four hundred cars
It is estimated that four hundred motor cars made the journey to Roscommon on Sunday for the Connacht football final in which Mayo beat Galway. The parking arrangements were somewhat on the same lines as practised in Dublin; the cars being parked side by side with the back close into the car.
Mr. De Valera pleased
Mr. De Valera was very pleased with his majority of thirty votes when elected President. Labour rallied to him without hesitation.
I believe that notwithstanding all that is being said about Labour embarrassing the Government there will not be much of it when the Dail settles down to work. The Government will be able to keep Labour on hands.
Western Carnival
The annual western carnival, which embraces the Galway Plate and Hurdle Race, will open to-morrow, when a record attendance is sure to assemble at the Ballybrit course, which will be followed on Friday by the meeting at the adjoining Tuam course.
The stakes at the meeting amount to nearly £2,000, and this year the value of the Hurdle Race has been raised to £400. As the carriage of horses is being defrayed by the Executive, it is certain that large fields will be seen out in all events.
Support For Bakery Guild
A representative meeting in the Imperial Hotel, Galway of master bakers from Galway and surrounding districts decided to join and give wholehearted support tot he Saorstat Guild of master bakers.
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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