Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

5 years ago

August 16, 2018

Our Reporter

Unrestrained glee greeted Galway's 1980 All-Ireland hurling win as the fans cast off the shackles of a half-century of failures by invading the Croke Park pitch in a show of sheer delight.

1918

Farmer’s guns saved

Sensational details are to hand regarding a raid for arms at Kinvara, and the pluck of a farmer’s daughter, who held the raiders at bay with a sweeping twig, until her parents arrived with a loaded gun and drove them off.

The facts appear to be that on Friday night at about 8 o’clock, an armed party, disguised with masks, knocked at the hall door of Mr. John Finucane, Duras, Kinvara, and demanded admission in the name of a neighbour who was in the habit of visiting the house nightly. The door was immediately opened, when two of the party rushed in and demanded the owner’s guns at the point of a revolver.

They were engaged in a scrimmage with Miss Finucane at the door, when, it is alleged, they fired at her. Fortunately, the shot went wide, and the lady, displaying splendid pluck, belaboured the raiders with a twig, holding them off until her father, who was reading in an inside room when he heard the struggle, arrived on the scene with a loaded gun. He discharged five shots, when the raiding party decamped, leaving a hat after them. It is believed that one of the shots took effect on the raiders.

Mr Finucane is regarded as one of the best shots in Co. Galway; and he pursued the raiders for a considerable distance.

County Inspector Ruttledge and the D.I. have visited the scene, and police investigators are proceeding, but up to now the police have not succeeded in establishing the identity of the miscreants in a single raid or shooting that has occurred in the county within the last twelve months.

1943

More lorries going

The extension of the emergency transport scheme in the West means that a number of privately-owned lorries will be put off the roads should the owners not be prepared to incur the expense of fitting them with producer gas equipment. The desire of the Department of Supplies is that those owners should equip the lorries for gas.

For some time, Government inspectors have been carrying out a survey in East Galway to enable them to determine the number of lorries which would give the area a reasonably efficient emergency service with a view to economising to the utmost in petrol and vehicles.

If they have not received it already, an intimation will soon reach all owners of lorries deemed to be redundant that the petrol allowance which they enjoyed will be discontinued from an early date.

The Great Southern Railway Company will step in and operate the new services in conjunction with whatever local vehicles may be permitted for the maintenance of the minimum service decided upon.

Theft of onions

At Headford Court before District Justice Mac Giollarnath, Thady Leen, Bullybeg, Corrandulla, was charged with the larceny of eight stone of onions, the property of John O’Neill, Toragurrane, value £2 16s.

O’Neill said he missed the onions early in July. He got 10s. a stone for onions last March, but they would be only 7s. a stone now. Leen admitted he took the onions and sold them in a shop in Tuam at 6s. a stone. He said he would pay O’Neill the value of them. Supt. O’Neill said defendant had been convicted previously of larceny.

The Justice told defendant that he had got a previous warning. He would now be sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour, not to be enforced if before next court in September he has paid £2 10s compensation to O’Neill and 15s. expenses.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

6 days ago

June 1, 2023

Stephen Corrigan

A group of young people sitting on PJ Ruane's horse cart off New Road near the canal in Parkavara, Galway City in 1985.

1923 – The impact of war

It is just nine years since the news of the European War fell upon a Galway gathering to celebrate Race Week. The banks closed, international credit and stability rocked upon their foundations.

True, the waves of that terrible conflict broke harmlessly enough upon our shores; our farmers and our few manufacturers grew opulent by supplying John Bull with food and clothing for the war, a few of our towns benefited by a temporary, if fickle and untrustworthy, increase in trade.

But that evening in 1914 marked the beginning of a period during which the progress of ordinary business sense was impossible.

The intervening nine years have not been wasted years: they have been rich with gain to Ireland; they will yield greater wealth in the future if only all of us, putting personal vanities or the desire for political domination aside, will work for the honour and glory of Ireland, material as well as punctual.

One useful way in which this can be done immediately is by brightening our towns, making them put on a cheerful and attractive summer garb, keeping our streets and alleyways bright and clean. In Galway there is little encouragement to do this, for deserts of dust and limestone grit lie upon the streets and are the sport of every wind that blows.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

3 weeks ago

May 18, 2023

Stephen Corrigan

Some of the attendance at the opening of the new school in Ballymacward on June 24, 1974.

1923

Gloom after war

The special correspondent of the “Independent”, who has been writing of the aftermath of civil war in the West, notes that a feeling of apathy, due to the uncertainty of events, exists amongst the sorely-tried people of Connemara; that politics are referred to only with disgust and that not more than fifty per cent. of the people would vote at a general election; that poverty and unemployment are rife, and there is a growing tendency towards emigration; and that there are bitter complaints of the huge impost of rates and taxes.

It is only too true that there is enough of material for the pessimist to brood over, and that a feeling of gloom permeates country towns. But it is a poor tribute to patriotism that has survived such horrors to encourage this gloom.

It is the duty of all of us to get this pessimism out of the national body and to rid ourselves of the notion that we have not enough Christianity and moral sense left to restore our people to cheerful and ordered progress and industry.

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.

Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

4 weeks ago

May 11, 2023

Stephen Corrigan

Nurses on strike on May 10, 1980, protesting a sub-standard pay offer. Around 700 nurses took part in the protest, hitting services at Gawlay Regional Hospital where only emergency cases were being admitted.

1923

Peace negotiations

As we go to press, An Dáil is discussing the Peace negotiations between the Government and Mr. de Valera. It was announced on Wednesday for the first time that such negotiations were begun following Mr. de Valera’s “cease fire” proclamation of April 27, and that by the 30th of the month Senators Andrew Jameson and James Douglas were asked by him to discuss proposals.

They said it was for the Government to discuss; they could only confer. Into the ensuring conferences the Government declined to enter personally, but on May 3 the senators placed before Mr. de Valera the Cabinet’s terms, which were that future issues should be decided by the majority vote of the elected representatives of the people, and that as a corollary and a preliminary to the release of prisoners, all lethal weapons should be in the custody and control of the Executive Government.

Mr. de Valera relied to this on May 7 with a document in which he agreed to majority rule and control of arms, but added that arms should be stored in a suitable building in each province under armed Republican guard until after the elections in September, that the oath should not be made a test in the councils of the nation, and that all political prisoners should be released immediately on the signing of this agreement.

“You have brought back to us,” wrote President Cosgrave, “not an acceptance of our conditions, but a long and wordy document inviting debate where none is possible”.

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.