Archive News
November 24, 2011
Date Published: {J}
1911
Labourer shot
Whilst Bartley McDonagh, a Connemara labourer, employed by Martin Conroy, farmer, Breanloughan, near Galway, was walking along the road on Sunday afternoon at 5 o’clock, a shot was fired from the adjoining field, striking the unfortunate man in the hip and posterior.
The affair has created a sensation in the district. Conroy, who is unpopular owing to some land he holds, was fired at and wounded in the head some years ago. The District Inspector, with a large force of police, searched the district, but no arrests have so far been made.
Kinvara flooded
Mr. T.W. Roseingrave, engineer to the Council, reported, in reference to the flooding of the Main-street in Kinvara.
He wrote – About 75 yards of the main street was badly flooded with the level of the water in the street about 3ft. 6ins. Above the level of some of the floors of the houses on the north side. This flooding was occasioned by the choking of the sewer at the catch pit.
Workhouse entertainment
On Monday, 13 inst., the Master of Tuam Board of Guardians reported that a very excellent tea was given to the inmates by the Misses Cleary (nieces of the Archbishop). After the tea, there was a very enjoyable entertainment, during which Miss Cleary personally distributed tobacco to the old men and women, and fruit, sweets and toys to the children.
Especial thanks were due to Miss Cleary for the great interest she takes in the comfort and happiness of the inmates. Sincere thanks were also due to the Rev. Father McDermott (chaplain), Rec. Father Heneghan, C.C., Father Cunningham and Professor Guy, who were always ready and willing to cooperate, as they have often done, in bringing bright moments to the monotonous indoor life of the inmates.
1936
Poteen raids
The Gardaí have been very active in raiding for poteen in South Connemara during the past week. On Friday morning, Gardaí from Lettermore captured over £200 worth of poteen-making implements and wash, while the Gardaí from Rosmuc station are reported to have seized two barrels of poteen in Derryrush.
New city school
Galway City Vocational Education Committee estimate that they will require an additional £7,000 to cover all the costs in connection with the erection and equipment of their new school at Father Griffin Road, Galway. If this €7,000 is borrowed by the Galway Urban Council, half the repayment charges will be refunded to the city by the Department of Education. Of the amount is borrowed by the Vocational Education Committee, the full repayment charges will fall on the city.
Hospital funding crisis
The seriousness of the financial position of the Hospitals and Dispensaries Committee of the Galway County Board of Health was referred to at the Committee’s meeting at the Central Hospital.
The secretary said that the total demand for the year was £48,130 as compared with £42,000 for the current financial year, an increase of £6,130, of which £3,300 was required to meet a debit balance on March 31.
At present, the Committee had no funds to meet the November or December payments unless the treasurers (the Galway branch of the National Bank) were kind enough to allow an overdraft.
Money should be made available from some source to meet immediate requirements, such as payment for turf supplies, weekly and monthly wages of workmen and domestic staff etc. and unless the treasurers were satisfied that arrangements were being made to provide a debit balance, they would hardly allow an overdraft. The whole position was very serious.
The secretary had gone into the figures and had cut them to the lowest limit. The Committee had now no money. The sum of £750 was now required to meet cheques and he could not go to the treasurers and ask for an overdraft. There was money now due for turf and it should be paid.
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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