Archive News
March 24, 2010
Date Published: {J}
Burglar enjoys himself
Before Mr. Justice Wright at Galway Assizes, Francis Goodwin pleaded guilty to the charge of having broken into the house of Capt. The Hon. J.B. Campbell, at Moycullen.
During Mr. Campbell’s absence, the house was in charge of a Mrs Morrison who visited occasionally to see that all was right.
On the 26th of February when approaching the house, she noticed several windows broken and on entering the house found a man of the tramp class dressed in a suit of coachman’s livery, and seated in a large armchair, before a very cheerful fire in the servants’ dining room.
Asked what he was doing there, he replied that he came in to warm himself and he intended to stay there till the weather got fine. Mrs Morrison having locked her prisoner in, sent her son, a boy of 12, to the nearest house for a man named Feeney, whom she left in charge, proceeding to the police barrack.
Mr Abbott, steward of the Home Farm, Moycullen, next arrived, and the prisoner was brought to the barrack. On the following Monday, Goodwin was conveyed in Oughterard to answer another charge of house-breaking in Connemara previous to this. Gallagher was sentenced to three months with hard labour.
St Patrick’s Day Parade
The National Holiday was celebrated with fitting solemnity in Galway. The day was observed as a general holiday. Business in the shops was suspended and from an early hour, crowds of country people thronged the streets. In all the churches, the various masses were attended by large congregations, and in most of them, sermons were preached in Irish. The arrival of the early morning train from Dublin brought added numbers from Tuam, Athenry, and the surrounding districts.
The annual procession through the streets was the event most anxiously looked forward to, and this year it eclipsed all the processions that have gone before.
At about twelve o’clock, the citizens and visitors congregated in the direction of the Square, which was to be the starting point of the procession.
1935
Building schemes
Some grumbling is heard in Tuam about unemployment, but if every town in the Saorstat had less cause for complaint in this respect, the outlook would indeed be bright. The schemes coming into operation in Tuam within the next few months include the building of ninety houses, the contract for which has been given and sanctioned by the Local Government Department, and work will start within the next week or two.
This contract, costing £26,000, will be followed by another of an additional ninety houses. On the same site, a technical school is to be built.
Then the first section of a sewerage scheme, costing entirely £20,000, will be laid this year on the Dublin road, to be followed by other sections in Ballygaddy road, Galway road and Bishop Street.
A new cement road will be laid this year from the town to the Beet Factory at a cost of £12,000, and in addition to this, there will be improvement work begun at the factory within the next week or two, to be followed by a sugar campaigning period of four or five months, during which time 1,000 to 1,200 men will be employed.
Town Tenants
Good progress has been made in the organisation of the Ballinasloe Town Tenants’ Association. A large number of tenants and householders have been enrolled.
The committee of the branch visited Castlerea last week, where there was a meeting of the Connacht Executive Council. At that meeting, Mr Michael Keane, secretary of the Ballinasloe branch and district, and as organiser for the branch in the district.
The tenants in the town have taken up the matter very enthusiastically and seriously – there are now over 200 members.
Anglers’ prospects
Anglers on Lough Corrib have had a good time during March and great prospects are held out for the coming season. On March 6, eight anglers on the lake from Oughterard got 41 trout weighing 55lbs; on March 7, six others got 29 trout, weighing 42lbs; on March 8 five anglers got 27 trout weighing 36lbs; on March 9 six anglers got 38 trout weighing 46lbs; and on March 12 four anglers got 10 trout weighing 15lbs.
The weather throughout the month was particularly harsh and unsuitable for fishing. Experienced judges say that when the season advances, the Corrib is in for another record year. Bookings in the hotels would seem to show that this is true.
Corinthians beaten
Close on 2,000 spectators were present in the Sportsground, Galway on Sunday to see University College Galway take the Connacht Senior Cup off Corinthians, who were the holders for the past two seasons.
Corinthians did not look like winning at any period of the game, and although they more than held their own forward, they were completely outclassed in the back division. It finished UCG 19 to Corinthians 6 points.
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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