Archive News
March 18, 2010
Date Published: {J}
Scurrilous postcards
Dear Editor,
For the past year in a district in West Galway, which I must say is inhabited by a good moral people, an abominable and vile practice has arisen of sending immoral and scurrilous postcards. Considering that such has been done by people who are supposed to know better, it makes the matter worse.
The danger of contaminating the morals of people by this practice can best be seen from the following illustration. Consider, where division of labour is used, as in post offices, the number of persons who handle and read these vile cards, the immoral impressions created, finally the country postboy, who is not trained in this immoral language, thinks them something awful.
Now postmen are human, and liable to err, and may unconsciously break faith by telling his neighbour at home, such and such got a dirty postcard today.
I think in a Catholic country like Ireland, and especially in the Holy season of Lent, people should try and practise the beautiful dictums of out sublime Catholic religion.
Further, I should say that the postal authorities should be induced to issue more stringent rules in connection with this part of the public service.
Tribune acquisition
We are pleased to be in a position to inform our numerous patrons in Tuam and N. Galway that we have just acquired the entire plant, machinery and good-will of the County Printing Works, Waterslade, Tuam, where in past years the ‘Tuam News’, then the leading Nationalist newspaper in Co. Galway was run by the late Mr. John McPhilpin.
Since Mr. McPhilpin’s lamented death, the printing works have been conducted by his nephews Messrs. Flannelly Bros., that whom there are no more deservedly popular or upright young men in North Galway.
In a short time, owing to the immense success which we have achieved in the district, we shall have established a branch office of the Tribune in Tuam, where orders may be booked and newsagents supplied.
Blackguard act
In every sense of the word was the act perpetrated on the piano in the reading room of the Tuam Temperance Society last week blackguardly. Its gravity was the more serious as it was only in the act of preparations for the St. Patrick’s Night concert that the discovery was made.
It was then found that damage of a serious nature to the hammer-heads was carried out, involving the replacement by new ones at a heavy cost.
The outrage, to properly describe it, has received the opprobrium of the townspeople, who are strong in the denunciation of the perpetrator, the punishment of whom could not be stronger than his villainy.
1935
Train smash
The railway gates at the level crossing at Claureen, Tuam, were broken to bits on Tuesday evening when the 8.20pm train dashed through them. It is stated that the train was over twenty minutes behind time.
Damp floors
We are told that in some country schools the children’s feet are in water all day long on damp floors during the winter months and at the same time, their shivering bodies are exposed to the wintry winds through badly-fitting windows and doors. And children are expected to take an interest in the teachers’ instructions under such hardships.
There is no need to pursue the unreasonableness of expecting children to study under such conditions. There are, at least, two schools in particular in Tuam district which have come under notice recently, and it is unbelievable that such places still exist for housing school children.
Parents are everyday summoned and fined at courts for not sending their children to such schools and in this connection, it must be remembered that the duty of the State to provide proper schools is still more important since legislation was introduced making attendance at school compulsory on all children – a very necessary and useful piece of legislation. There should be no further delay in having all condemned schools demolished and replaced by properly up-to-date buildings.
Salthill development
Following a unanimous decision from the Galway Harbour Commissioners early in the day asking the Minister for Defence to send two army aeroplanes to accompany the military parade in Galway on St. Patrick’s Day, the Salthill Development Committee, at a meeting held in Eglinton Hotel, Galway last night, also passed a resolution asking the Minister in view of Galway’s anxiety to develop and airport and its unique position on the West Coast, to do his best to send army planes to follow the military procession on the national holiday. This message was conveyed by telephone by the Very Rev. P. Canon Davis, P.P., president of the association, this morning.
At the meeting, Mr. Clancy appeared on behalf of the I.T.A. and stated he had been very well received in Salthill and that plans were now complete for the special Salthill folder which will be issued this year.
It was resolved to make further efforts to see if it would be possible to have a small boat-slip erected for the coming season.
The President announced that he had an assurance from the Urban Council that a Salthill sewerage scheme would be provided for in the next financial year.
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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