Archive News
May 12, 2011
Date Published: {J}
1911
Fatal fire
Mr. C.J. Cottingham, Coronoer, Oughterard, held an inquest on the remains of a child who died in the workhouse on Tuesday as a result of the burns sustained at her parents’ residence in Renmore, during their absence. From the evidence, it appears that the mother left the house for a short time on business, and during her absence another child, aged 6, threw a lighted twine at his little sister, igniting her clothing, with the sad result she received the injuries to which she succumbed.
Farm cleared
On Monday week, a grass farm near the congested village of Laraghmore was the scene of considerable excitement, when Mrs. Broderick and her son came, with a large force of police, to clear off the stock of a number of small tenants who held some grazing on the farm.
The poor tenants in Laraghmore village are in a pitiable condition, although there is an abundance of grassland all round them. Three of the tenants whose stock was cleared off hold only seven acres of poor land between them. This case comes before the meeting to be held at Kilskeagh on Sunday, the 14th inst., when the tenants from Laraghmore will be in attendance.
Homes burned
At Tuam Petty Sessions, a couple from Tierboy-road, Tuam, were charged with the burning of two dwelling houses at Cloonthooa, the property of Mr. P.E. Carroll, Tuam. Mr. O’Rorke, D.I., Tuam, prosecuted.
1936
New reservoir
At a meeting of Galway Urban Council, a report was submitted by Prof. F.S. Rishworth of the Engineering Department, U.C.G. on requirements for water supply to Galway. It requires a new reservoir to serve the needs of the western portion of the town, west of Eglinton Canal, situation on Clifton Hill, about the same size as the existing reservoir, i.e., about 500,000 gallons, the same level, and practically the same distance from the pumping station by a main siphoned under the River Corrib at Terryland.
A new reservoir is essential for the growing needs of the town, and particularly for Taylor’s Hill district and the proposed housing development at Shantalla.
Infectious diseases
During the month of March, fifteen cases of infectious diseases were reported by Dr. B. O’Beirne, county medical officer of health, as having occurred in Co. Galway. Five of these cases were diphtheria. Two occurred in Loughrea, one in Galway urban area, one in the Galway rural area and one in Tuam. There were five cases of scarlet fever: Ballinasloe rural, Galway urban, Galway rural, Glenamaddy and Mountbellew. There was an outbreak of a mild form of influenza in the Oughterard dispensary district.
Publican ‘treats’ customers
At Galway District Court on Thursday last, before Sean Mac Giollarnatith, D.J., Mrs. Glynn, Oranmore, was charged with a breach of the licensing laws. Mr. H. Macdermot, solr., defended.
Guard Allen, Oranmore, said that on Sunday he went to the house of the defendant and found two men in the bar. He also found other men on the premises. There was no evidence of the sale of drink, but the publican admitted that she had treated two men. The Justice said that the case was suspicious, but as there was no evidence of the sale of drink, he would have to dismiss it.
Bus service
A deputation from Galway put an impressive case before Mr. Sean Lemass, Minister for Industry and Commerce, against the proposal of the Great Southern Railways Company to acquire the Galway Omnibus Service. The Minister now finds himself in a dilemma. He has conferred powers on the Railway Company to acquire road undertakings so that they may be able to secure a monopoly of transport services.
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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