Date Published: 15-Mar-2011

1911

Child neglect

At the Children’s Court, a man from Middle Street was summoned for ill-treating his child, who appeared together with her mother. The police evidence was that on last Tuesday night, she complained at the barrack at a quarter to ten o’clock, that the door had been locked, and that the child and herself had been put out.

Complainant: Were you thrown down the stairs that night. Mother: I might have told you that.

– Had you a pair of black eyes. – I had a small bit. I only got a clout on the nose, and, as a rule, a clout on the nose always blackens the eyes.

The Head Constable said he found the door locked at two o’clock, and the woman going around the town at that hour with the child. He had to go to the R.O. and get a ticket of admission for her to the workhouse. Mr Shiel said it was the defendant who should be in jail.

The Inspector of the N.S.P.C. gave a vivid description of the squalor and want in which husband and wife lived. The room they occupied presented a woeful appearance – no furniture, no bed, a blanket torn in two, the place wet and filthy, and giving off a cold, intolerable stench. They couple had a cat-and-dog life. The husband accused the wife of drinking, and the wife accused the husband of the same.

Only for the kindness of the woman’s mother, the child would suffer badly.

The Head Constable said he had seen cases against the defendant for the last twelve months. The woman said her father would take the child, and asked that it should not be sent to an industrial school.

The Inspector said the grandfather would not be able to exercise control over the child. The latter protested that he would be; he had a pension and his son earned 17s 6d. a week. The magistrates sent the child to an industrial school, and sentenced the father to a month’s imprisonment.

1936

Housing problems

There was a full attendance at a special meeting of Ballinasloe Urban District Council on Wednesday to meet Mr Wren, Local Government Housing Inspector. Some difficulty had arisen regarding the Council’s position in respect of nine families who were evicted from condemned houses and who were in occupation of the fever hospital at the workhouse buildings.

Recess hotel

Mr. P. Joyce, Recess, has just completed the building and fitting of his new hotel at Recess on the site of the former Garda station and near that of the old Railway Hotel. Standing on the main road amid beautiful surroundings with splendid mountain and lake scenery, the new hotel should draw good crowds for fishing and shooting. The premises are licensed.

Dead baby found

The dead body of a male infant was found under a clump of briars in a field wrapped in a sheet at Cussan, Athenry, on Sunday morning and on the evening, a female from Athenry was charged in connection with the affair at a special court.

The body was discovered by a farmer whose sheep were caught in briars. He and another man opened the parcel, which was tied with a rope. Dr. George Joyce, Turloughmore, said he examined the body. It was partly decomposed. The child was over a month dead; it was a still-born child. The defendant was charged with the alleged concealment of birth of a child.

Rates protest

One hundred farmers were present at a meeting of the Agricultural Ratepayers’ Association in the Town Hall, Galway, Dr. Powell presiding. The Chairman said that the urban area was the hardest hit in the country. For every acre of tillable land valued at £2 10s. there was £2 13s 11.5d paid in rates. No relief was, he said, granted to farmers in the area under the agricultural grant, and no special privileges, such as water, sewerage, light, etc., were received.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.