Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1918
Conscription menace
Speaking at St. Ignatius Church, Galway, on Sunday, the Rev. Father Cahill, S.J., alluded to the appalling menace of conscription with which the country was faced.
The teaching of Catholic theology was that an oppressed, unjustifiable law could be resisted. The people affected by the Conscription Bill came under three heads. There were first those who came within the prescribed age limits. In the second place there was the executive charged with the enforcement of the Act – judges, magistrates, police and military.
To those, Father Cahill pointed out that to try and enforce an unjust measure of legislation would be co-operating in an act of injustice and tyranny, and to do that would be immoral and sinful.
Under the third head came women and children, and people over the prescribed age. By the law of charity, even those were bound to resist the Act, just as a man who saw his neighbour’s house on fire, or saw him attacked by a murderer, or his goods being stolen would be expected in charity to help him.
Seven churches march
“Denying the right of the British Government to enforce compulsory service in this country, we pledge ourselves solemnly to one another to resist Conscription by the most effective means at our disposal.”
This solemn pledge was taken at Eyre-square, Galway, on Sunday by a crowd of over five thousand people. It was one of the largest gatherings seen in the Square since the days of Parnell.
After eleven o’clock Mass, the congregations of the seven city churches marched in a processional order, headed by their priests and the crowd, with upraised hands and bared heads, solemnly took the pledge to resist conscription.
Very Rev. A.J. Considine, Adm, V.F., who wore his surplice, said he appeared in the garb because the gathering was a religious one, and he continued “to convey to you a message from your Bishop and others”.
“It is my belief that conscription is likely to work out under the authorities of the British Army in this country as a grave, physical and moral menace to the small, healthy remnant of the Irish in Ireland and, therefore, to the healthy perpetuation of the Irish nation.
“For this reason and for many others as well, I approve of and bless resistance to its enforcement by every means within the law of God.” (Cheers).
1943
Patients on floors
To relieve the demand on bed accommodation in the Galway Central Hospital and to avoid the necessity of compelling patients to sleep on hospital floors, some disused buildings such as the old workhouse in Portumna should be equipped and utilised as a hospital until a new County Hospital could be built.
This proposal, placed before the Galway County Council at Saturday’s meeting by Mr. R.M. Burke, was described by some other councillors as “propaganda”.
Ald. Miss Ashe said that the county had got rid of the workhouses and of the people who had forced the workhouses on them and they did not want to see the poorhouses utilised again for any purpose.
Mr. Burke said that he proposed to the County Manager some time ago that as materials were not available to permit building work at the Central Hospital, some existing building should be utilised. He had been informed that the old workhouse in Portumna could be fitted for temporary use as a hospital.
If that were done, patients from that part of the county would be spared a long journey to hospital and, what was more important, patients could have beds instead of being obliged to sleep on the floor.
Mr. S. O’Kelly supported the case and said that it was terrible that patients should be left lying on the floors in the general hospital in Galway because of insufficient bed accommodation.
Mr. H. O’Toole: I walked through two wards this morning and I saw beds empty. This is all false propaganda.
Mr. W. Dunne said that he would like to see the new hospital in operation, but did the people who were making proposals now realise that essential materials were unprocurable? The price of timber had gone up by 400 per cent and steel and iron were unprocurable. What was the use of talking hog-wash?
He described the proposals made at the meeting as pure propaganda and added that he did not care who liked that description.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
1922
The ‘pay-nobodies’
The righteous wrath of members of Galway County Council very properly manifested itself against the “pay nobodies” at the meeting on Saturday last.
“I am quite satisfied,” declared Dr. Walsh, “that numbers of people who defend the policy of not paying rates are thoroughly dishonest.”
Mr. Kennedy said the policy to-day was to pay nobody and the people who were in debt themselves “wanted everybody else to be in the same position”.
Mr. Tierney invoked the dictum of the Irish Hierarchy in regard to the payment of just and lawful debts. Verily, “there are greater thieves than Cacus” – men who have such noble and patriotic notions that, to their mind, national freedom is synonymous with freedom from just and lawful obligations. It is time the people paid their rates and debts and gave up their outworn cant.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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1922
Temperance club
A long-felt want in Galway has been supplied this week by the opening on Monday night of the temperance club in the Columban Hall.
The club, which will be carried on under the committee of the Pioneer Association, is not confined exclusively to pioneers, but will be open to persons who have a pledge against the use of alcoholic drinks.
There will be an entrance fee of 2s. and a nominal payment for members of 6d. a month will be required to pay expenses. It is intended to provide games, etc., on the premises and in the near future to organise concerts, debates, conversazione, etc.
Rev. Father Stapleton, director of the Pioneer Association, is interesting himself in the club, and those who know the kindly soggarth aroon’s organising capacity have no doubt as to the future success of the club.
Those desirous of joining should call at the hall any night during the week between the hours of 7 and 10.30 p.m.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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.
1922
Tackling drink
The International Congress on Prohibition sitting in Brussels reports that the liquor problem is substantially the same everywhere. In Ireland at present alcoholism has for us a tragic interest.
At no period in Irish history has there been so great a consumption of alcoholic liquors. Prohibition, even if it were practicable, would not solve the problem. America has taught us that lesson.
Scarcely a week passes that the American hospital registers do not record the death from alcoholic poisoning on a scale unprecedented before the country went “dry”.
The drink problem will never be successfully tackled in Ireland until such time as the public cooperate with the authorities in a rigid enforcement of the licensing laws and the drunkard is regarded as a pariah in a respectable community.
In this connection the announcement made at the last Galway parish court that persons found guilty of illicit distillation will be sent to jail without the option of a fine will be welcomed.
This is a step in the right direction and should act as a deterrent to people at present engaged in a traffic which is slowly poisoning the lives, in the moral as well as the physical sense, of large numbers of our people in outlying portions of the country.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
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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