Archive News
October 13, 2011
Date Published: {J}
1911
Roads meeting
At the Royal Hotel on Friday last, there was a meeting of the Local Centre or Road Committee, formed under the auspices of the Automobile Association and Motor Union.
Mr A. Allen said he had called the meeting to see what could be done with regard to the roads this winter. Before that, he would like to ask Mr. Ward what happened in regard to the Road Board Grant?
They had proposed that the road from Athlone to Ballinasloe and Galway, and from Galway to Clifden district should be done, but he understood that there was some amendment to that.
Mr Ward: At a deputation which we attended, we advocated a road from Athlone to Galway, and from Galway to Connemara straight, but it was put forward by Lord Killanin and others that the road by Spiddal and Costello would be the road to have repaired first and steamrolled, and it is the aim of the Association and this Committee that the roads that wanted to be improved most should be done first, and of course it is our view that the roads are not for motorists alone, but for all users.
The argument they used is that the district through which the alternative road runs is already fed by a railway, but that the Spiddal and Costello district had no railway facilities, and that the road was exceptionally bad – which is it?
Chairman: Is it wide or narrow?
Mr. Ward: Fairly narrow.
Chairman: Because it is very hard to steamroll a narrow road. After a year’s steam-rolling it is very hard to see and results in a narrow road.
Mr Ward: There was another argument they used, and it is almost irresistible – that where roads are costing 2s. 6d. and 2s. 9d. a perch, they would be fairly well maintained without steamrolling, but where the roads are not repaired at all, but done for 8d. or 9d. a perch, they ought to be done, provided they accommodate a large number of the public.
Eventually, it was agreed to organise a motor tour to Tipperary, with a view to demonstrating the advantage of steamrolled roads as they exist there.
1936
Ballinasloe fair
Traders in Ballinasloe report brisk business during the week of the fair and said there was free spending of money and increased business in the shops. This, it was stated, was due to the increased demand and prices for livestock.
Spanish Brigade
At Oughterard on Thursday, six volunteers got ready to leave to join General O’Duffy’s Spanish Brigade. Strict secrecy was maintained up to the last minute regarding the organising of the volunteers, and letters from G.H.Q. to the local organiser, Mr. Henry Stewart, were sent to a ‘convenience’ address.
It was learned that the volunteers intended travelling as ordinary tourists to Morocco. A farewell reception was given to the volunteers in Mr. John King’s house in Oughterard on Wednesday night.
Traffic signals
“It is not for the good of their health that guards stand for hours at windy corners in Ballinasloe or elsewhere,” said Mr. W. P. Cahill, D.J., at Ballinasloe Court at the hearing of a number of summonses for obstruction on market day, with carts and cars. They are there to direct the traffic and for the safety of the public and people will have to obey their signal. This class of case was becoming more prevalent in court, but he would see that people obeyed guards’ signals.
Strange trance
A 16 year-old girl from Ballybaun, Gort, is still in a trance-like state in which she was found over a week ago. She went to the well one morning and when she did not return, a search was made for her. No trace was found until late in the evening. She was found at a hollow at the end of a field not too distant from her house. Thinking her faint from exposure, she was carried home, but since then, she has lain there and has not eaten, or spoken or moved.
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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