Archive News
May 31, 2012
Date Published: 30-May-2012
1912
RIC under Home Rule
Head-constable Killacky presided at a preliminary meeting of the sergeants and men at Eglinton police station on Saturday for the purpose of considering the position of the Royal Irish Constabulary under Home Rule.
Upwards of thirty men from the Galway district and West Riding were present, and the proceedings, which were private, lasted for about two hours.
It is understood that the intention of the constabulary is to send a petition setting forth their grievances to the Government, and for this purpose, the opinions of the force in each county throughout Ireland will be considered at a conference to be held at the Depot, Phoenix Park.
The Galway Force decided to send a delegate to Dublin to represent their views. They demand an increase of pay amongst the rank and file, so as to bring them on a level with other police forces throughout the United Kingdom.
During the past three months, every police force has got an increase of 15 percent in their pay, while the pay of the constabulary has been in no way improved.
A further recommendation is that for the future, the pensions be calculated on the basis of pay and allowances, and not on the basis of pay as heretofore, and that the allowances generally be increased.
Further, it is proposed that in the case of men having attained to within ten years of the maximum pension period, ten years be added to their services with a view to enabling them to retire on a full pension immediately if they so desire.
The men also feel that a redistribution of the various ranks is necessary, as the force is at present over-officered, but this will not possibly be embodied in the recommendations made.
It is worthy of note that there is a general belief that the “agitation” on behalf of the police throughout Ireland was originated by some officers at the Depot, whose allowances – which are almost as important as their salary – they feel may be reduced under the Home Rule Bill. But for this important fact, the men consider their grievances would not be put forward so persistently for redress at the present juncture.
1937
Central Hospital
The Hospital and Dispensaries Committee of the Galway County Board of Health, decided to give their support to the proposal that the new Central hospital for Galway should be built in stone instead of in steel and cement.
Galway Aerodrome
The Minister for Industry and Commerce is anxious to have a permanent land aerodrome for public use provided at or near Galway City.
In a letter from the Minister read at a meeting of the Galway Conjoint Air Development Committee, it was pointed out that the proposed aerodrome should be capable of being used by arrivals in all wind directions.
Unless operation in all wind directions were possible, the aerodrome would not be likely to attract a commercial air transport company running regular air services.
Telephone kiosk
The Finance Committee of Galway County Council, at their weekly meeting, granted permission to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to lay an underground telegraph line alone New Line to connect with the new telephone kiosk at Nile lodge.
Abominable language
“Letters of abominable and disgraceful language and expressions such as I have never read and hope will never read in a Court again, and that language written by a young girl of seventeen years of age, I think it is a most shocking state of affairs,” said Mr. H. Hamilton, D.J., at Dunmore District Court, when charges of sending letters in obscene language through the post were made against a 17 and a 19 year-old girl were made.
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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