Archive News
April 24, 2013
Date Published: 24-Apr-2013
1913
Strike continues
The Galway strike has now reached an acute stage. Although up to the present, the utmost good order has prevailed, there is a good deal of patient and uncomplaining suffering that does not appear on the surface.
Both parties to the dispute refused the mediation of a Committee of Conciliation; nevertheless, as a result of the efforts of individual members of that Committee, it was felt that a direct conference between masters and men would be brought about.
For the past week, hopes were centred in the outcome of the conference, and a more optimistic spirit prevailed. On Monday, however, these hopes were dashed to the ground when it became known that the conference had not taken place, for the reason that the Employers’ Federation refused to receive Mr. O’Flaherty, the President of the Labourers’ Union.
Ballinasloe fire
On Saturday night last, a fire broke out in the out-offices of the licensed premises of Mr. J. Canavan, in Society-street, Ballinasloe. Before the outbreak was noticed, a considerable quantity of hay, and portion of the sheds were consumed. The hose being brought into play, the police and civilians worked with a will, and succeeded in putting out the fire after half-an-hour’s hard work.
1938
Emigrants return home
A ‘Connacht Tribune’ reporter learned last week that over 250 boys and girls from Carna and Barna emigrated to England during the month of March. Emigration from other parts of Connemara took place proportionately to the population during the same period.
Within the past few weeks, the tide seems to have turned somewhat, and fairly large batches of young men have been returning home. They say that work for men has slowed up greatly in England and thousands are being laid off weekly.
The more discerning of the emigrants see in this rather sudden slump an attempt to lure them into the army. They say that territorial camps are being established everywhere and many unemployed Irish boys have enlisted rather than return home. There are cases where boys’ passages back from England have been paid by their people at home.
Guard’s plucky action
Terrified countrywomen snatched up their baskets and ran for safety in the nearest doorway when a runaway horse and cart was seen careering madly down Eyre-street, Galway on Saturday, through the large crowd which had gathered for the weekly market.
The horse was being unloaded outside a house when it was frightened by a flying piece of paper and broke away. Two men made vain attempts to stop the runaway before it reached a number of children who were playing happily on the street. The children were pulled to safety as it continued its mad career towards Wood Quay, where the market, thickly populated, was in full swing.
Guard John Fox seeing the danger, with great presence of mind, jumped forward, caught the horse by the head, and was carried a full ten yards before he brought the now highly-frightened and sweated animal to a standstill.
Sewerage extension
A work urgently needed in Tuam and long promised is the extension of the sewerage scheme which has been passed by the county Council and is, we are informed, only awaiting sanction of the Local Government Department. This in a way is linked up with the road improvement, as it would be useless doing to roads until the sewerage has been laid. Both works are also needed to absorb some of the unemployed men of the town, many of whom have got not work since the beet campaign stopped.
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: 29-Jan-2013
On a weekend when the vast majority of the action fell by the wayside due to the inclement weather, Mervue United U-17 struck late to snatch a winner in Donegal as they qualified for the last eight of the FAI U-17 Cup following a success over Swilly Rovers.
Local League action saw just three games survive as OLBC notched a second half winner to defeat Hibernians to move into third position in the Premier League.
In the lower Divisions, table toppers Mervue United B and Moyne Villa continued on their merry ways with away wins over Bohemians and Naomh Briocain.
Swilly Rovers 0
Mervue United 1
In a game that was switched to a playable pitch in Fanad, Mervue United took a long time to assert their authority before striking late to give the home side no chance to respond.
The 89th minute winner was created by an Andrew Connolly flick on following a Ryan Manning thrown in and Schoolboy International Conor Melody made space for himself in the box before firing past Caolan Bolton.
It was no less than the visitors deserved against a young home side, but they had to work extremely hard for their victory.
While Anthoine O’Laoi missed a good first half opportunity, just a long range Manning free kick tested Bolton otherwise. Substitute John Migel Soler almost made an instant impact on the resumption, but was denied by a smart save.
Connolly, O’Laoi and Paul Healy all threatened a break though for the visitors, before a fine-tuned Melody eventually saved the day and secured the Mervue passage.
Mervue United: P Healy, Barry, Bailey, P Healy, Carroll, Melody, Assagbo, Manning, Cunningham (Soler), Connolly, O’Laoi.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.
Motorcyclist seriously injured in Road Traffic Collision outside Craughwell
MEP says that Ireland must introduce a specific mental health strategy to address what is a “Silent Pandemic”
Clifden RNLI appeals for people to be careful out at sea following two callouts in 24 hours
Works to bring high-speed broadband to 2,500 premises in Newbridge begin
Councillor calls for the appointment of a school safety warden in Claregalway to improve road safety.
‘Peeping Tom’ Garda spied on female colleagues
Garda investigation following discovery of body
Burkes return home to revel in their local roots
Man prosecuted for building house instead of agricultural storage unit
Juvenile’s driving ban for doing doughnuts in BMW
