Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1913
Salthill improvement
Sir,
While awaiting the much-needed improvements in Salthill which all hope may be able to be carried out as a result of the forthcoming Bazaar, there are a few matters which are well worth the consideration of those who are interested in the welfare of Galway and Salthill.
1. Is there no watering cart in Galway to keep down the clouds of dust which are not only disagreeable but dangerous to the health?
2. Is there any reason why the summer, when visitors come in, should be selected to make a beautiful walk such as Grattan Road a receptacle for refuse. If a path or grass promenade is contemplated, surely this is the time to have it finished, not commenced.
3. Can only three seats be provided for the Grattan Road.
4. Can nothing be done to keep some women who have lost all sense of decency from going on to the very rock on which the men are actually dressing and undressing.
5. Is there no law prohibiting mixed bathing. During the past few days many people have been horrified to see a man and woman bathing together on the strand below Blackrock, whilst to make matters worse the man wore no costume of any description. This is a state of things which I am sure the people of Galway who have always a high standard of morality will not tolerate.
A Citizen.
Tuam mystery
A young girl aged twenty, who resided with her parents at Gortbeg, Tuam, left her home on Wednesday morning to wash some clothes in a neighbouring stream. Sometime later she was discovered lying in the water, which did not completely cover her body. Life was then extinct, and it is presumed that she fell into the water, overtaken by a fit.
1938
Cut tail off horse
He cut the tail off his neighbour’s horse because he thought it would improve the animal’s appearance, was the defence offered on behalf of a Kiltormer man at Eyrecourt Court, when he was charged with maliciously damaging a young horse, the property of his neighbour.
Supt. Dunphy said the defendant was capable of doing anything when he had drink taken. At the time of the offence, he was not on good, or friendly terms with his neighbour.
The owner of the horse said the animal was worth £20, but having had its tail cut, its value had decreased by £5. It was a young horse and it would now be difficult to sell it. He could not understand why it was done.
The defendant said he thought the animal would “look nicer” if the tail was cut. He admitted he cut the hair from the animal’s tail. He did not want to be sworn, he added.
The Justice, Mr. Cahill, said he was glad the defendant was not sworn, because his defence was very thin, and a novel one, from a person who was not, at the time of the offence, on good terms with the animal’s owner.
“You were near prison the last time you were here in court, and you were nearer still, today,” said Mr. Cahill, “and you have a poor chance if you are here a third time. I hope this will be a lesson to you.” He imposed a fine of 10s 6d; 40s compensation, and 8s expenses.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune
1922
A leader lost
“I have the greatest hope in the Irish people. But what we have got to learn in our public life is the merit of following the unpopular path. We have plenty of physical courage. Moral courage is what we need – and above all, we must develop.”
These words were spoken by President Griffith a few weeks before his death. They were words of inspiration, hope, instruction. They revealed the optimism that carried the man through the gloom of dark years, the discouragements of dangerous days and nights, until at last his bold spirit cleft the clouds, and showed the Irish people light.
They displace as in a flash that optimism that bore him through to triumph, that spirit that inspired all his acts, that courage that held him in the fairway when others wandered into by-paths, and the constructive genius that, had he lived, would have seen an Ireland even in his own day that could stand four-square every wind that blew.
O’Connell has been described as the Irish Liberator, the great tribune of his people. Griffith laid well and truly the foundations of a movement which won a greater triumph than O’Connell.
Local enterprise
Through the commendable enterprise of Mrs. Payne, Cross-street, the people of Athenry are at last provided with an amusement hall in which they can pass away many a pleasant evening.
The hall, the building of which has been recently completed, is a commodious one and can accommodate quite a considerable number. Already a well-known theatrical company has had an engagement at the new hall when there was a magnificent attendance each night – the entertainment being the right thing in the right place.
In a few weeks’ time this company will return with a greatly enlarged array of artistes, when the townspeople will be treated to something they will not forget.
Practice dances will be held on Sunday evenings, and there is a suggestion to secure the services of a qualified teacher of Irish dances to bring up the rising generation with a knowledge of Irish step-dancing.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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1922
Dawn surrender
National troops operating from Galway and Athenry at dawn on Wednesday morning surrounded an area about four miles between Liscananaun village and Aucloggeen, on the eastern side of the Corrib, and after a smart movement captured nineteen irregulars, with their officers, twenty-two service and Mauser rifles, a number of service revolvers and automatics, and considerable quantities of ammunition for bombs.
The National troops were under command of Co-Commandant Austin Brennan, O.C., Galway area, and the various battalion and company officers, and the plan to surround these villages, which lie in a marshy waste between the Curragh Line, or Galway-Headford road, and the main road from Galway to Tuam, was evolved after information had been received that a number of irregulars were quartered there, and were commandeering sheep and foodstuffs from people in surrounding districts.
Slowly and silently, accompanied by a Lancia armoured car on which machine guns were mounted, the National troops moved out from Galway shortly before two a.m. on Wednesday. One column took the Galway to Headford road, the other taking the Tuam road.
The column operating on the Headford road swung to the right beyond the Cregg river, taking the road to Drumgriffin. By dawn they had taken up extended formation in the woods around Cregg Castle, and this formed a trap into which the irregulars were subsequently driven.
Trade unions position
Mr. Cathal O’Shannon, T.D., in his presidential address at the Trade Union Congress on Monday, declare that organised Labour was separate from and independent of any political party, and would take no dictation from any quarter outside its own ranks.
He strongly protested against militarism, from whatever quarter it came, and condemned the political censorship of thought and opinion, the ignoring of laws relating to the custody of prisoners, the existence of a semi-military police force, and the propaganda on both sides.
The present conflict or strife, he declared, was unnecessary and counselled the Irish workers to keep aloof from it.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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1922
Civil War impact
Had Ireland enjoyed the blessings of peace this year, the summer and autumn of 1922 would have stood out in our annals as a period when we had entered upon the first stages of real prosperity and welcomed the Irish from overseas to the shores of a free land.
Thousands of Americans came in the earlier part of the season. They had wallets full of money, which they were willing and anxious to spend amongst the people of their own land. To their dismay and keen disappointment, they found Ireland in a state of war.
A holiday in the ordinary sense was out of the question. Many of them turned to the highlands of Scotland; others went to Oberammergau, and other parts of the Continent; some turned westward again.
The daily Press has been full of the impressions of these visitors. Some of them had gone through experiences which tinged these impressions with rankling bitterness. We can imagine what they will say when they return home!
Ireland has lost by this fratricidal strife morally as well as materially, and the tragedy is that the loss has yet to be fully accounted, and that it comes upon a nation that has just secured its freedom after a struggle of centuries and at a time when we need all the wealth and work we can secure for national reconstruction.
It is now a matter of doubt whether Galway race meeting can be held this year, as those interested are not keen on courting a failure that would lower the prestige that Ballybrit has won.
Wait goes on for light
The proposed scheme for electric lighting of the town of Athenry has been temporarily postponed owing to the present condition of the country. The proposed capital was to be £3,000, £2,100 of which was to be subscribed by seven directors, while the rest was to be got from shareholders. It is expected that the project will be re-mooted as soon as opportunity offers.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
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The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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