Archive News
October 11, 2012
Date Published: 10-Oct-2012
1912
Fishermen missing
It is feared that four men have lost their lives off the coast of Galway. It seems that on Tuesday evening some fishermen at Cleggan, a village opposite the island of Inisbofin, Co. Galway, noticed what they thought was a small floating tank, such as might be used by lobster catchers.
On investigation the object turned out to be a fishing boat, “between two waters”, as the local men term it. This means that the craft was so heavily laden that she sank until nothing remained above water but the rim.
Inquiries were at once instituted, and it was ascertained that four men were missing. Their names are King, Davis, Mulvoy and Cuttingham. The men had started for Rossodelisk, Cleggan, and had evidently got a fine catch, for the boat and nets were full of fish.
The supposition is that the boat was so heavily laden with fish that she began to sink, and the men had not time to lighten her by throwing out their catch. It is thought the men then found the boat was sinking under them, and they dived off and swam towards the mainland. Three of the fishermen have wives and large families. Up to the time of writing, nothing has been heard of the men.
‘King Arab’ sentenced
At Galway Petty Sessions, Constable Gough charged Martin King with assaulting Honor Coney, a countrywoman, who declined to prosecute. It seemed that, as the woman was going home, someone rushed from the side of the road at Taylor’s Hill and tried to knock the woman down.
She screamed, and struck him with her basket. Two clergymen came on the scene, and they advised her to return and acquaint the police, the man having run away at the sight of the clergymen.
Constable Gough: He is a sort of dangerous tramp. He frequents Taylor’s Hill and mothers complain that owing to his presence, they are afraid to allow their daughters out at night.
Chairman: What sort of a man is he?
Complainant: He has a very ‘down’ looking appearance and goes by the name of the King Arab. (Laughter).
It was stated that the defendant had previously been convicted for begging, for which he got a month, and about eight months’ ago he got a month for assaulting William Kirwan at Taylor’s Hill. The accused was now sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.
1937
Foundry fire
Dancers merrily wending their way homewards from Salthill on Sunday night were amazed when approaching Galway they noticed the skyline for miles around lit up. Sheets of vivid red flame tearing upwards into the sky turned the night into day. Cars accelerated and raced into Galway, where hundreds had got out of their beds to watch the premises of the Galway Foundry and Engineering Company being gutted by fire.
“When I arrived,” writes our special representative, “the whole building was one gigantic mass of flames which, licking upwards into the blackness of the night, sometimes reached a height of one hundred feet. Not a sound save the awed whispering of many voices and the sullen roar of the Corrib which flows nearby.”
As the full pressure of the water was turned on, huge clouds of smoke billowed up, and the guards had to shove the huge crowd back as sparks and blazing pieces of wood were falling from the sky like hailstones.
The damage is estimated at £7,000, and the cause of the fire is not known. All hands were back in employment on Monday morning as usual, working at full pressure to replete the store rooms and fulfil orders.
Although large stocks were destroyed, Mr. John Allen informs us that delivery of goods will not be held up. The offices have been transferred temporarily to the foundry department at Nun’s Island, Galway, where a further sixty men are employed.
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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