Archive News
November 15, 2012
Date Published: 14-Nov-2012
1912
Workhouse horse
At a meeting of Galway Board of Guardians, the master reported that the workhouse horse was suffering from old age and was unfit for the ordinary work of the house. He might do for odd jobs around the house, but a remarkable thing about him lately was that he would not go past the new cemetery (laughter).
Mr Gallagher: Surely he does not expect to be interred there.
After discussion, it was decided to keep him for odd work about the place and to instruct Mr. Kyne, R.O., to buy another horse at the forthcoming fairs in the town at a reasonable price.
Lighting of Loughrea
On Thursday evening a public meeting of the householders of Loughrea was held at the Temperance Hall in reference to the proposed lighting of the town by electricity. Mr. Thomas Sweeney, T.C., said anybody could readily see the necessity for an improved lighting system for the town. Fifteen years ago they (the Commissioners) embarked on the project.
This scheme and that scheme were discussed with the result that up to the present, nothing had been done. Lately, it occurred to somebody to ask their enterprising townspeople, Messrs. Sweeney Bros. to light the town by electricity, and they kindly consented to do so.
Before embarking on the project, Messrs. Sweeney wanted to know how many of the householders of the town would be prepared to take in the light, in order to give him an idea as to the power that would be required to generate electricity.
1937
Invisible aeroplane
On Friday afternoon, the people of Ballygar and Creggs districts had their attentions attracted skywards by the roar of an aeroplane engine, but although the machine must have been flying at a low altitude (judging by the sound) it was not visible to anyone. The sky was overcast at the time and the pilot was evidently in difficulties in the clouds and was circling over the district for several minutes.
Water complaints
There are serious complaints heard in Tuam these days about the domestic water supply. At the last meeting of the Homes’ Committee, Dr. T.B. Costello reported that there was a continual shortage of water to the Children’s Home. On Sunday last the people were told that the water would be cut off on Monday.
Housekeepers made preparations accordingly, but the water was not actually cut off until Tuesday, when nobody was prepared for it, and in addition, instead of being cut off from 10am to 6pm it was cut off from 8.30am to 8.30pm.
It is unnecessary to point out the serious inconvenience arrangements like this cause so far as domestic water supply is concerned. There are also complaints about the purity of the water, and it is alleged that it does not pass through any filtering process. This, of course, is a matter entirely for the medical authority, and we feel sure that if complaints on this account were genuine, the matter would have been seen to by them.
Dangerous streets
The Tuam streets are in a bad state of disrepair owing to the heavy motor traffic, and after the beet campaign they are likely to become absolutely dangerous. We understand that the county surveyor was to have a special grant available for expenditure on this work, but unfortunately, owing to the delay in starting the second part of the sewerage scheme, the work is to be held up indefinitely.
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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