Archive News
Stay of execution for Carna bus
Date Published: 12-Nov-2009
The Carna bus which was set to be discontinued by Bus Éireann has survived – for now at least.
The axing of the Carna bus was seen as one of the toughest decisions by Bus Éireann as no other bus service – either public or private – serves that area in west Connemara.
It is also a bus closely linked to the political history of west Galway; the late Johnny Geoghegan who was a longtime conductor on the Carna bus became a TD and Minister for State.
His rise in the political world is attributed to a significant degree to his knowledge of Connemara and its people as a result of the Carna bus. Johnny Geoghegan settled down in Carna, a destination he reached via the Carna bus.
His daughter Máire Geoghegan-Quinn succeeded him in Galway West. She is now a member of the European Court of Auditors and is tipped by some people to become Ireland’s next Commisioner in Europe.
But history was away down the list when the future of the Carna bus was assessed by Bus Éireann in the past year and it had been targeted to be taken of the road.A meeting in Galway last Monday, however, ended in a reprive of sorts for the venerable Carna Bus.
Bus Éireann has agreed to try out a new route and new departure and return times for the Carna service.
The bus company’s regional manager Brian Connolly told a deputation from the “Keep the Bus” campaign at a meeting in Galway on Monday that the company will give a three month trial to a new system.
The bus will travel on the south Connemara road during that time and it will leave Carna at 7.30am. It will leave Galway at 5.15pm on the return journey. In order to speed up the journey to and from Galway the bus will not travel west to Muighros (in the Carna area) or into Ros Muc during the trial period.
The three month trial period – which is likely to be organised in the New Year – is aimed at increasing passenger numbers and making the service financially viable. Bus Éireann regional manager Brian Connolly said that the company would want to have from 25 to 30 people per day using the service.
Mr Connolly pointed out at the meeting that the passenger numbers on the bus when it reached Maam Cross in the month of October was seven and that pass holders were included in that figure.
He said that was not sustainable.
The “Keep the Bus” campaign provided a list of names of people who were willing to use the bus regularly, or more often, if it travelled at earlier times, took the south Connemara route and got to Galway city quicker as a result.
The “Keep the Bus” deputation from the Ros Muc and Carna areas was accompanied in Galway by the Minister for Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív and by the chairman of the Oireachtas Transport Committee, Deputy Frank Fahey.
Councillor Seosamh Ó Cuaig, the chairman of the Connemara group of Councillors accompanied the deputation and said that it would be a terrible blow if areas in south west Connemara lost the only bus service to Galway that is available to them. He stressed that the social need for the bus was vitally important.
“We have had a Carna for the past 80 years, and it would be a sad day to see it go now,” said Councillor Ó Cuaig.
Both Minister Ó Cuív and Deputy Fahey said that the bus service from Carna should be scheduled in order to make it convenient for people working along the south Connemara road, in the Furbo area and in Galway city.
Minister Ó Cuív pointed out that there are a large number of people working in places such as Radio na Gaeltachta, Údarás na Gaeltachta, An Roinn Gnóthaí Pobail Tuaithe agus Gaeltachta, TG4 and Oifig an Choimisinéir Teanga which are all located in south Connemara.
He said a further study of where people are travelling from, and where they work in the west and south Connemara area would be useful in deciding on travel times for the bus. Deputy Frank Fahey said he is “confident” that an arrangement can be made in the city which would give “priority” to the Carna bus at some points so that travel time on the 80km route could be shortened.
“I would hope that we could have the bus coming into the UCHG grounds and up by the University”, Deputy Fahey said. Meanwhile Deputy Fahey has suggested that a public campaign should be started aimed at getting people to use the buses and that Connemara could be the focus.
“Connemara people used to travel a lot on the bus at one time, and I am suggesting that we could have a pilot scheme in Connemara to try and get people back on bus,” he said.
There are also tax benefits for people who travel to work on the buses – and Deputy Fahey said this would form part of the promotional campaign that he is suggesting.
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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