Archive News
October 6, 2011
Date Published: {J}
1911
Shooting outrage
A shooting outrage in connection with the boycott of a man named John Burke, of Currandrum, is reported here. On last night it would appear that a Mrs. Moran, of Anbally, the wife of a workman of Burke’s, was fired at by some person unknown.
It is stated that at about 7.30pm, Mrs Moran heard a knock at the door, and on going to see who was there, could see nobody. She then went a little distance out on the roadway leading to the house, and as she was returning, shots were fired from between two stacks in the haggard, some of the grains lodging in her arm and head.
The woman is not at present in a critical condition. It will be remembered that in connection with the boycott of Burke, a police transport car from Tuam was fired at some time ago. Burke and his workmen for some time have been under police protection, but, owing to the railway strike, the usual protection on this night was not available.
Racecourse row
It looks as if the public may have to pay dearly for the melee between the police and people on the last day of Ballybrit Races. At the Galway Rural District Council meeting on Saturday, Mr. Michael McNeill, J.P., Co.C. (Chairman), presiding, notice was received from two of the policemen who were injured during the row of their intentions to apply for heavy compensation at the coming Quarter Sessions.
John Connell, a peace officer, was maimed at Ballybrit, in the County District of Galway, is seeking £1,000 as compensation. Constable Lavin, who was with Head-Constable Connell, is claiming the amount of £700.
Strike ends
On Thursday morning, it was announced that the railway strike had come to an end. On Wednesday, a train ran into Tuam at 3.30pm – the first for a fortnight. A very large crowd was present at the station, and manifested their delight at the settlement of the dispute.
Immediately on the arrival of the train, two soldiers, who travelled in the next compartment to the engine, stationed themselves beside the engine with fixed bayonets, but their services were happily unnecessary.
1936
Criminal gang
Addressing three boys who stood before him at Galway Circuit Court on Tuesday on housebreaking charges, his lordship, Judge Wyse Power, said: “I believe you three form the nucleus of a criminal gang that has got to be broken up, and broken up here and now today. I do not believe poverty is the cause of your downfall. There are hundreds of young boys of your age and station in Galway who are able to enjoy life and still remain honest.
The boys were charged with a whole series of burglaries across Galway. Mr. J.C. Conroy, B.L., said the three accused were first cousins and sons of respectable working people. The families held very respectable names in the city, and there was nothing against them. Whether the boys were influenced by the pictures or not, he could not say. The materials taken by the boys had been returned.
His lordship: What you mean is that the guards found it on them.
Mr. Gavin, on behalf of the 17 year-old boy, said boys of that age were more or less susceptible to what they saw in the pictures. He had been more or less induced to commit these offences. By reason of the extreme poverty in which some people live, and their extreme poverty, they had not the chance of ordinary people.
His lordship ordered that two of the defendants be detained at Clonmel Borstal Institution for three years. The oldest of the gang should feel some shame. He had been concerned in an attempt to rob a safe that it was a serious offence. His lordship sentenced him to six calendar months’ imprisonment with hard labour.
Foreign games
Galway County Council at their special meeting on Saturday, had a long discussion on the playing of Irish and foreign games in western schools and college. It was asked could the Council send scholarship holders to colleges in which foreign games were played.
The secretary said that none of the schools in which foreign games were played was on the list of schools approved for scholarship holders. It was not definitely stated that a scholarship holder could not go to a school in which foreign games were played because the Minister could not allow them to make that condition.
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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