Archive News
July 7, 2010
Date Published: {J}
Tuam waterworks
The meeting of the Tuam Waterworks Committee on Tuesday last was not of the humdrum nature generally characteristic of the assemblies of that body. A lively debate ensued on the reading of a report from the superintendent on an alleged recent waste by a householder in town.
The action of Mr. Shine in reporting the matter at the meeting of the District Council was looked on by a member of the committee as rather high-handed, severe strictures being elicited from the majority, it was decided that bye-laws be drawn up by Mr. Concannon, solr.
Cattle drive.
On Friday night, two graziers put 18 head of cattle on the lands of Graig Abbey and during the night a drive took place. Some of the cattle driven were discovered late in the evening at Monivea, four miles distant.
The graziers have left, and will not occupy the lands. Those lands have been before the United Estates Committee for some time past, and an offer was made to Mrs Clarke on behalf of the tenants, which was refused.
Every attempt to graze these lands, except by the tenants in the vicinity, will be resented.
Widow sued
Before His Honour Judge Anderson, K.C. at Galway Quarter Sessions on Tuesday, Mr. James Salmon, hotel proprietor, Loughrea, sued Mrs. Georgina Egan, the widow of the late Mr. Laurence F. Egan, for £15 13s 9d, for the hire of horses and goods ordered.
Mr. Nicholls, solr. (for Mr Murphy) appeared for the plaintiff and Mr. Blake, solr., appeared for the defendant.
The plaintiff gave evidence to the effect that he had an account with the late Mr Egan, who died in June 1907. Mrs. Egan ordered some of the things by letter, and witness continued to debit them to Mr Egan until he told him to charge them to his wife.
Mr. Blake said the account was never furnished until after Mr. Egan’s death. Mr. Salmon said he thought they would never act so dishonourably and refuse to pay.
His Honour: The husband was the person treated to be liable in the first instance, but through some alleged conversation, he charged them to his wife, but in point of law, I am afraid I cannot do anything.
Mrs. Egan gave evidence and stated that she got 3 cwt. of hay from plaintiff, and offered him £1 for it. She wrote him for the bill for the funeral expenses, but he replied that he had stock grazing at Limehill, and that he would put them against the debt.
Plaintiff said he might have got a letter from Mrs. Egan, but if his Honour wished, he would tell him the conversation.
A decree was given for £1, with 17s. 6d. expenses.
1935
Galway on air
Next week, Galway will send from Cork, Athlone and Dublin, a broadcast of a Taibhdhearc play. This is a step in the right direction. We hope that it will be followed up by further such broadcasts.
When Dr. T.J. Kiernan, director of the Saorstat Broadcasting Stations, visited Galway at whit, he held an informal discussion with people interested in the radiation from the city of Gaelic music, songs and plays.
The director expressed the attitude of the Department when he stated that they felt that Galway was not making use of the unique opportunities at its doors as the heart and capital of the most Irish speaking Gaeltacht.
While discounting the idea of establishing a broadcasting station at Galway as impracticable and unnecessary, Dr. Kiernan said that if the producer of the Taidhbhearc could produce six plays in the present season, he would give them an hour’s broadcast.
Pilgrimage
The weather was beautiful on Sunday for the pilgrimage made by 600 tertiaries from Galway City to Ross Abbey, Headford. The tertiaries, who were accompanied by a number of Franciscan Fathers, travelled on ‘buses and had a most enjoyable day’s outing.
All the shops and houses in Headford and on the mile route to the historic Abbey were decorated with Congress flags. Large numbers of people from the surrounding district walked or cycled to the historic spot, and the interior of the place was crowded, close on 2,000 people altogether being present for the religious ceremony.
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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