Archive News
March 22, 2012
Date Published: {J}
1912
Agrarian assault
Ballinasloe Petty Sessions were held before Col. Thornhill (in the chair), and J.J. O’Shaughnessy, J.P.
Mr. Price, D.I. charged Michael Kennedy and Thomas Hurney with assaulting Thomas Gately, Lissegan. Mr. Kearns, solr., appeared for the defendants.
D.I. Price said that on the 8th of the present month the complainant carted hay in Ballinasloe for a man named Burns of Lowville. There was a dispute over land held by Burns, and as a result Gately got into disfavour for carting hay for him. The two men charged called Gately names and assaulted him.
The magistrates, after consultations, held that there was an assault committed. Kennedy was fined 10s 6d and costs and bound to the peace and Hough was fined 5s and costs and bound to the peace.
Brutal stabbing
What appears to be a brutal stabbing affray occurred at Milltown on Sunday last, where a football match was played between teams representing Irishtown and Milltown. The injured man’s name is Michael Kirrane, from Logria, Irishtown, and he alleges that he was stabbed in the abdomen and neck with a knife.
Kirrane’s serious injuries left his position precarious, and Dr. Costello, Dunmore, the medical officer for the district, was immediately communicated with. He with District Inspector Horgan, Dunmore, promptly motored to Milltown, and the medical gentleman rendered all aid that was possible under the circumstances.
Subsequently the man was conveyed to Tuam and detained in hospital, where the wounds were skilfully attended to by the staff.
1937
Gort outrages
Mr. S. Broderick (U.I.P.), Galway, in the Dáil asked the Minister for Justice to state how many outrages have been reported to the Garda Siochana in the Garda district at Gort in the twelve months ended February 28, 1937; if he were in the position to state what has been the cause of such outrages and if any of the perpetrators have been brought to justice.
Thirteen cases were reported. Four were cases of theft, four cases of damage to property and intimidation believed to be connected with agrarian disputes, three cases of threatening letters, one case of fraud and one case of unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under the seventeen years.
Proceedings were instituted in connection with six of the outrages. Convictions were secured in five cases and one case has been adjourned. The Gardaí have been unable to obtain sufficient evidence to support prosecutions in the remaining cases, but enquiries are proceeding.
Infectious diseases
Twenty-two cases of infectious diseases occurred in County Galway during the month of January. The monthly report on Dr. B O Beirne, County Medical Officer of health just issued shows that eleven of these were cases of diphtheria and five were of scarlet fever. Five of the diphtheria cases occurred in the Loughrea areas, one on Ballinasloe urban area, one in Clifden, one in Galway rural area and three in Tuam area. Two of the scarlet fever cases occurred in Gort area, one in Galway urban area, one in Loughrea area and one in Mountbellew.
Wires down
While the West escaped much of the severity of the storms of last week, telephone and telegraphic communication between many areas was seriously affected. Telegraph lines were down in many places and direct communication between Galway and Dublin was completely cut off.
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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