Archive News
October 20, 2011
Date Published: {J}
1911
Craughwell ‘terrorism’
Kate Holland, Craughwell, claimed damages for injury to her horse, and the breaking of her windows. Dr. Comyn, solr., appeared for the applicant, and Mr. O’Toole, solr., appeared for the District Council, and Mr. Glynn, solr., for two Craughwell ratepayers.
The applicant’s husband swore that four or five men entered his house on a Saturday night (Aug.19th), with blackened faces, beat him, broke three windows in the front of his house, and one window in the gable. Next morning, the mane and tail were cut off his horse.
Witness belonged to what was known as the Tom Kenny party in Craughwell, and had saved Kenny’s hay a fortnight before. Witness had been refused goods in Mrs. Jenning’s shop in Craughwell. She told him to go home and send someone for them, but that she could not give them to himself.
Dr. Comyn: Did she say why?
Witness: She said she was afraid. Witness having proceeded to give evidence of value, he stated that he now considered that he did not claim enough for the breaking of windows.
Dr. Comyn: Why?
Witness: Because I couldn’t get in a window at all now.
His Honor: An extraordinary state of things in a civilised country!
Mr. Glynn: Extraordinary wrongs require extraordinary remedies in some cases, your Honor. We don’t live up in a balloon, and everybody knows the state of terrorism that existed in Craughwell, until the people took the matter into their own hands.
Kat Holland, the wife of the previous witness, corroborated.
To Mr. Glynn: Neither herself nor her children were boycotted in Craughwell. She could get all the goods they desired.
After police evidence had been tendered, Michael Connelly, a carpenter, swore he was prepared to restore all the damaged for 30s. His Honor adjourned the case generally, the witness to restore the windows for the sum mentioned.
1936
Sugar factory strike
The sugar campaign which was to have started in Tuam factory this week has been held up owing to the uncertainty of the strike situation extending from Mallow to the other sugar factories. Last week, steaming-up operations preparatory to the campaign were started and the Railway Company had arrangements completed by rail and road for conveyance of beet to the factory.
Then followed the notices served on all workers by the Sugar Company asking them to reply within 24 hours giving an undertaking that they would remain at work during the campaign and not go out on strike.
It is understood that the men refused to give the undertaking, and the Sugar Company immediately served notices on all employees, terminating their services in one week. This notice expires on Saturday. A similar notice, it is stated, has been served on clerks and other officials terminating their services after one month.
Following this notice, the Railway Company recalled the special staffs sent out in connection with the campaign, and the conveyance of beet, which was in full swing for two or three days, was stopped.
Other preparations for the campaign in the factory were also cancelled. The notices served on the men expire on Saturday and unless there is some settlement in the meantime, serious loss may result to workers and farmers.
Athenry school
At a meeting of the Athenry Industrial and General Purposes Committee, a long discussion took place in connection with the provision of an additional national school. It was pointed out that Athenry should be an ideal centre for a vocational school, being situated in a good agricultural district and surrounded with numerous villages, all within easy reach of the town.
Several of the members said a vocational school was a great necessity for Athenry, as there was no such school within miles of the district; young boys and girls, whose parents were not able to afford to send them to Galway or elsewhere, were in many cases, allowed to waste their time after leaving the national school, while waiting for a job.
It was also decided that the committee would make every effort to speed up the lighting of the town by facilitating the ESB in extending their mains to Athenry.
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
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
