Archive News
May 2, 2013
Date Published: 01-May-2013
1913
Strike settled
We are pleased to announce that, after a struggle lasting over a month, the strike of labourers in Galway has been settled. On Wednesday evening, Mr. N.S. Reyntins, Chief Industrial Commissioners’ Dept, Gwydyr House, Whitehall, S.W. arrived in Galway from Sligo to try to effect a settlement.
He interviewed the Employers’ Federation during the afternoon and saw the Committee of Labourers’ Union at night. As a result the Employers offered terms to the Union, which include the following:
The builders and general labourers to receive 16s per week instead of 15s, as hitherto; dock labourers to receive 5s and 6s per day according to the class of work. A rise of 6d per day has been conceded, and an increase of 1d per hour for overtime to dock labourers. Casual workers at the dock and stores, 4s per day, being a rise of 6d.
Casual labourers, for builders and contractors, 3s 6d per day. Half holiday at 2 o’clock on Saturday for builders’ labourers only; 3 o’clock for the merchants’ labourers. These rules to be in operation up to and including the 31st December, 1914.
Seaweed rights
In the Commons, Mr. O’Malley asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the fact that the seaweed on the shore below high-water mark belongs to the Crown, landlords owning property along the Connemara shore can enforce a rent for such seaweed; whether certain landlords on Connemara are now, and have been for many years, charging a rent upon such seaweed; and will he take steps to assert the rights of the Crown in these cases in the interests of the poor tenants?
Mr. Robertson: This depends upon the ownership of the foreshore. This ownership is prima facie vested in the Crown and if the Hon. Member will furnish me with full particulars of any case where a rent is being charged, either for the foreshore or for the seaweed growing on it, I will have the question of title carefully considered.
1938
The first President
The selection of Dr. Douglas Hyde (An Craoíbhinn Aoibhínn), Frenchpark County Roscommon, to be first President of Éire has been acclaimed by all parties and by high dignitaries of the Church. Messages and telegrams of congratulation have been received by Dr. Hyde from all parts of the country.
Galway Corporation at their fortnightly meeting on Wednesday decided to invite Dr. Hyde to Galway to have the freedom of the city conferred on him.
Poteen traffic increasing?
Judging by the number of recent prosecutions brought in the local district courts and the seizures made by Gardai during the past fortnight, it would appear as if the poteen traffic in Connemara is on the ascendant. There were no fewer than three prosecutions for possession of malt and poteen at Derrynea district court on Tuesday, and there was also a similar prosecution at Maam district court on Wednesday. In one of the cases, the defendant pleaded that he had no other means of livelihood.
The Gardaí throughout Connemara are making a determined effort to cope with the renewed poteen traffic and extensive raiding is being carried out. On Monday last a party of Gardaí from Oughterard swam out to an island in Lough Corrib and paid a surprise visit to an illicit distillery which was about to be put into operation there. The Gardaí captured the stil and equipment, together with about £200 worth of wash.
Farmers’ unease
The continued summer-like weather is causing a certain amount of uneasiness and trouble to farmers, who in many districts have to bring cattle and sheep long distances for water. Early sown gardens in town and country are in a backward state owing to the drought, the likes of which has not been experienced for many years.
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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