1926

Taking flight

As forecasted in ‘The Connacht Sentinel’ some time ago, the flight form Galway to America is to be undertaken by Free State pilots this year.

A giant three-engined British aeroplane, carrying two pilots and an expert navigator, belonging to the Free State Air Force, is to ascent from the Galway coast one day in July in an attempt to fly non-stop to Newfoundland.

Plans for this trans-Atlantic attempt are now rapidly taking shape. The technical advisers off the Free State Government, in collaboration with the Master of Semphill, the well-known British cross-country flyer, who was recently in Dublin, have chosen July for the attempt because in that month, the head winds that oppose any flight westwards across the ocean are least powerful.

Negotiations are now proceeding with several British aircraft firms for a suitable machine, which, the experts state, should be driven by three air-cooled engines.

The cruising speed of the plan, it is calculated, will be from 85 to 90 miles an hour, and, allowing for a headwind of moderate strength, the machine should alight at St. John’s Newfoundland, about 24 hours after departure. The distance is about 1,900 miles. The start will be made from Clifden, on the coast, famous in aeronautical history as the spot where Alcock and Brown, the British aviators, landed in 1919, having flown eastward across the Atlantic from newfoundland in 16 hours.

1951

Bogs hold the key 

The shadow of the national fuel crisis is upon us and if we are to emerge from the shadow, the most energetic action will have to be taken by every person in a position to make a contribution to the production of fuel.

The County Officers were given their instructions here yesterday by Mr. Norton and Mr. Keyes on behalf of the Government to go ahead with all possible energy to provide enough turf in every county to meet their own needs.

When that task fell on the County Councils during the recent war, a peak quantity off 611,000 tons of turf was produced in 1945 and Galway, to its very great credit, led the list with almost one-sixth of the total quantity.

That was a great tribute to the work of the Co. Manager and the Co. Engineer and their staffs as well as to the men who turned out on the bogs. They are being asked to do it again but in slightly different form.

Pictured: The cast of Renmore Pantomime’s Snow White in 1988.