Date Published: 11-Nov-2009

He was satisfied that the sheep were killed by the British Government, but the British were not supposed to have been here at the time, so the sheep were not therefore officially killed by them, and their killing could not now be officially recognised. Under the Act, no person was entitled to claim for damage done by the British Government after 1922.

He was sorry, but he would have to dismiss the case, said Judge Wyse-Power at Clifden Circuit Court, dismissing a claim brought by Thomas Kane, Bunowen, for twelve sheep killed by fire from a British gunship.

Volunteer recruits

Keen interest is being shown in the Volunteer movement in the Southern Connemara areas. Up to the time of writing, a total of 74 recruits has been reached for Rosmuc, Carraroe, Letterfrack, Carna and Kilkerrin. The main difficulty in those districts seems to be that of keeping within the quota as hundreds of potential Volunteers arrive whenever it is announced that Lieutenant George Staunton, the area administrative officer for the Gaeltacht areas, and Lieut. G. Foley, the recruiting officer, are to visit.

There are no halls in these areas and the lack of them is said to be a serious drawback, but now it is rumoured on good authority that arrangements are being made to secure them without delay.

Meals refused

Loughrea Town Commissioners have refused to adopt the Provision of Meals Act for necessitous school children in Loughrea urban area.The Chairman (Mr. Cahill) said it would mean increasing the rates on the already overtaxed ratepayers.

Mr Coghlan: It would mean the striking of a special rate.Chairman: I don’t think the free meals would be accepted in Loughrea or that there is need for them.

Mr Connaire: The free milk is accepted.

Mr Coghlan: And the free meat will be accepted next month (laughter).

Wireless success

A meeting of Galway Harbour Commissioners had been told that a wireless operator had carried out tests on the wireless apparatus and found it very successful. He also carried out tests with the ‘Brittanic’ on Sunday last at a distance of 260 miles and they were also satisfactory.

The aerial, however, is rather near the funnel and to get the maximum of efficiency, it would be necessary to have a greater distance between them.

Overloaded bus

A defendant was fined 7s. 6d. at Spiddal District Court by Acting District Justice Conroy for permitting overcrowding in an I.O.C. ‘bus. Guard McGee said the ‘bus was a twenty-six-seater and there were eighteen people over the number it was supposed to carry, on the ‘bus. The defendant had previously been fined 5s.

1959

Message in a bottle

It has been ascertained that a message found in a tin box on the shore at Slyne Head was put into the sea by twelve year-old Frank Litton, Donneybrook, from the Aran Islands on August 29 last. Four days later, Mr. M. McDonagh picked it up. The box travelled at the rate of eight miles per day.

A bottle message containing a name and address in the Netherlands and stated to have been thrown into the sea from a ship on September 3, 1959, has been found by Festus O’Neill, Ailebrack, who has written to the address given.

Fairs ban

Long threatening comes at last, may aptly be applied to the street fairs problem in Loughrea. The news that the County Engineer has furnished his report on the matter to the Co. Manager and that an order will be made under which fairs will be removed entirely from the main thoroughfare through the town, i.e., along Bride Street, Main Street, Dunkellin Street, West Bridge, Athenry Road, will get a very mixed reception in the town.

It is proposed under the order that fairs and markets in Loughrea will be restricted to parts of the town other than the above streets, as specified at a Conference in Loughrea, some months ago.

K.L.M. disaster

A visitor to Galway during the weekend was Mrs. M.Der-Kock Van Leeween, of Holland, grandmother of the infant victim of last year’s K.L.M. air disaster off the west coast.

Mrs. Van Leeween flew over from Holland to attend the annual Cemetery Sunday ceremony in Galway City. Last November, Mrs. Van Leeween came from Holland to attend the Cemetery Sunday ceremonies also, and has always expressed her gratitude for the manner in which her grand-daughter’s grave is cared for, and the sympathy of the people.

Vandalism problem

Damage to public property and the growth of vandalism was deplored at a meeting of Galway Corporation, when it was stated that the Gardaí should be asked to reintroduce street patrols at night.

It was pointed out that if the law was unable to protect the people’s property, the people would have to take the law into their own hands to defend their property.

The meeting was discussing a report from the Borough Engineer concerning damage to the new toilets at O’Brien’s Bridge, which have been tampered with twice since they were opened recently.

Health services

Galway could not be described as central for patients from Letterkenny which was almost 200 miles away, said Mr. M. Carty, T.D., at a meeting of the Western Health Institutions Board, in Merlin Park. Under discussion were the orthopaedic services of the region.

Mr Carty said a regional orthopaedic hospital should be located in either South Donegal or North Sligo. How could relatives of patients travel 200 miles to Merlin Park, he asked, and it was an accepted fact that visits from friends and relatives speeded the convalescence of patients.

1984

‘Clogs’ found dead

A pub entertainer was found dead in his own van only hours after finishing a gig in the city. Tom ‘Clogs’ Gallagher of Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon, was found in his Morris Minor van in a carpark off Dominick Street by pub owner John Monroe.

He was nicknamed Clogs because he danced while playing the fiddle. He travelled the countryside in his van and in his own words on the Late Late Show last September “played a town a night”.

School go-ahead

The Tirellan area of Galway City is to get its own national school, and it is hoped building will start next year. The news that the Department of Education had approved the provision of a new national school in the area came in a written Dáil reply from the Minister for Education, Gemma Hussey, following representations made by local TD, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

The school which will be built in the centre of the Tirellan Heights estate, will service an area which has undergone a population explosion in the past five years, since the neighbouring Castlelawn Heights was first built.

Balance of power

The race to fill the vacant position on the City’s Borough Council – left void by the death of Fintan Coogan last weekend – looks like being fought out between Fianna Fáíl’s Martin Connolly and Fine Gael’s Fintan Coogan Jnr.

And dissident Fianna Fáil councillor Henry O’Connor, who himself was co-opted onto the Borough Council after the 1979 Local Elections, will hold the balance of power.

Lawn cemeteries

The introduction in County Galway of American stlye ‘lawn cemeteries’’ with their flat memorial stones would sound the death-knell of the ancient Irish craft of the stonemason, and threaten 50 jobs in Ballinasloe town alone, it was claimed this week.

Reacting to rumours that Galway County Council were contemplating the introduction of such cemeteries in South Galway, John Cotter, of Top Quarries in Ballinasloe, said such a move just couldn’t be allowed to happen.

Farmer anger

There is intense anger among farmers throughout County Galway this week over thousands of pounds worth of sugar beet left in the fields – and cattle may now be allowed in to ‘graze’ the remaining beet in a bid to salvage something from a financial disaster caused by record yields.

The reason for the crisis is that Irish Sugar’s Plant at Tuam will only take from farmers the tonnage for which they had contacted at the beginning of the year, and farmers whose yields per acre were driven sky high by an excellent growing season and good farming methods, are left with the beet.