Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

3 years ago

September 20, 2018

Our Reporter

All smiles at a Feis Ceoil in Galway in 1965.

1918

Teachers will strike

“We endorse the action taken by our C.E.C. in connection with the demand for Civil Service war bonuses, and we pledge them our whole-hearted support and co-operation.”

This was the principal resolution passed at a meeting of the Co. Galway branch of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation held at the Town Hall, Galway, on Saturday, under the Chairmanship of Mr. P.J. Parker, D.C. (Ballinasloe), County President.

The gathering was one of the most momentous ever held by the Co. Galway Association. Despite a persistent downpour, it was attended by 100 teachers, male and female, every district of the county being represented; and a quiet, earnest determination was displayed throughout the proceedings.

Tribune in Manxland

The wide circle of readers enjoyed by the ‘Connacht Tribune’ and its reputation amongst advertising firms are illustrated by the following communication received by Mr. P.J. Byrnes, Galway, the popular representative in the west for Messrs. Clune’s tobacco manufacturers, Limerick, from Mr. J.T. Foulis, Ramsey, Isle of Man: “Having often noticed your advertisement in the ‘Connacht Tribune’ re Clune’s Limerick tobacco, I would like to try a sample of Sarsfield plug, for which I enclose P.O.”

1943

Prom widening

After a valuer from Dublin had valued the lands adjoining the promenade at Salthill offers would be made to the land owners, and if these were rejected steps would be taken to acquire the land compulsorily.

Mr. C.I. O’Flynn, Co. Manager, told the Corporation on Wednesday that this procedure would be adopted for the purpose of carrying out the big road widening scheme at Salthill, which is estimated to cost £17,800, and on which it is proposed to start work within the next few months.

He maintained that to carry out the scheme on the seaward side of the promenade would involve bigger costs, and that the acquisition of the foreshore would hold up the scheme.

Quarry Danger

Mr. P. Cooke suggested at Saturday’s meeting of the Galway County Council that the old quarry adjoining Maunsell’s Road, Galway, should be made a dumping ground and filled in, as in its present unprotected state, it was a source of danger to children – many families now resided in the locality. The Co. Manager said that the quarry was situated on private property and some of the residents in the district might object to dump. He promised to consider the suggestion.

Farmers in slum conditions

Many small farmers – they should be classed as labourers rather than farmers – lived in conditions which were much worse than those prevailing in slum areas, Mr. R.M. Burke told Galway Co. Council. He urged that they should be considered in post-war planning by the local authority.

He noticed that while the Co. Manager had made provision for the building of about 120 new slum houses to relieve congestion in slum areas, he had not put forward any proposal for the provision of houses for small farmers.

Many farmers who were trying to elsewhere cut their living on very small farms were just as much in need as the dweller of a slum area in the city.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

3 days ago

September 16, 2021

Stephen Corrigan

President Eamon de Valera speaking at the opening of Coláiste Lurgan, Knock, Indreabhán, on August 4, 1968.

1921

Life in internment

A Gort man at Ballykinlar sends to the West and interesting account of the conditions in the internment camp, where so many men from our country are at present held prisoner without charge every having been preferred against them, without trial or conviction.

There are some disturbing features in his report, the cause of which might well be removed at this period when the Truce is being so well observed, when peace is in the air. For instance, he begins by the complaint that whilst the English papers are freely delivered, there is difficulty in getting their own papers.

“The camp,” he goes on, “is an improvement on the Earl’s Island death trap or the Town Hall poison den. There is a greater sense of security here than in either of those places. The food is inadequate, and doubtful of quality, as you may have seen by the Press. The men here have to put up a great fight against the ennui, which anyone acquainted with internment has experienced. Physical development classes and outdoor sports, football, handball and hurling, have kept their devotees fit and energetic, but the vitality is slowly and surely ebbing away.

“Exercises are being less violently participated in, brisk walks are being less frequently indulged in, and a general apathy and listlessness, hardly observable as yet, is, nevertheless, gradually setting in.

“The education board, which owes a lot to Mr. O’Connell, Duniry, to whom all students are deeply indebted, has been instrumental in endowing many of the boys with a liberal increase to their attainments (a description of the work would require a great deal of space), and has provided a much-needed antidote to the deterioration of the mind, which is so invariably associated with internment. The study of Gaelic has pride of place in the curriculum, and many students have made great headway. It is not unusual to find half-a-dozen in a hut almost at any hour carrying on a laboured conversation in Irish or debating some of the finer points in grammar. I believe one f the boys (none of them had a word of Irish coming in) passed for a fáinne at the recent examination.

“Hobbies in arts and crafts have an enormous sway, and a surprising amount of latent talent has been discovered and developed. Silver rings, chased, engraved and inset, have been made from silver coins, that, placed beside the finished works at Faller’s or Dillon’s, would not cause the designs to blush! Bones, more plentiful than meat at the cookhouse, have been manufactured into brooches of beautiful and distinctive design, which, I am sure, will be seen gracing the fair necks of favoured colleens later on.”

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

August 26, 2021

Stephen Corrigan

Some of the participants in the Kinvara Fancy Dress on June 11, 1967.

1921

Outdated laws

Ireland obtained her workhouses from the famine. They were erected to ameliorate a condition of things brought about by an alien government – a condition which historians unite in declaring could have been avoided.

On the 25th March, 1846, Tuam, Castlerea, Cahirciveen, and Clifden workhouses were opened, and a rate was struck on the Clifden union. The Tuam workhouse was contracted for July, 1840, at a cost of £7,600 for building and completion and £1,400 for fittings and contingencies.

It was made to accommodate 800 persons but in 1851 it housed no fewer than 2,881 paupers. Sheds had to be extemporised to afford a roof to those who had been stricken by the famine, and scenes of horror were enacted there during the period of the Black Death.

The workhouses also are a landmark of the fact that in these famine years Ireland’s population was reduced practically by half, and that so impoverished had the country become that it was unable any longer to maintain even the 4½ millions left without workhouses.

At present, on the eve of happier times, an effort is being made to reduce public expenditure and divert public monies into more profitable channels by amalgamating existing unions, and thus reducing their number.

Some have claimed that this is a question upon which the ratepayers ought to have been consulted and that in any drastic scheme of reform they should have a voice. None will dispute however that reform is absolutely necessary, and the sooner it comes the better.

The poor, no doubt, we shall always have with us, but when employment is revived throughout Ireland, and wages and the cost of living are reduced, we feel convinced that pauperism in this country will largely disappear and that public monies can thenceforth be utilised much more profitably than in maintaining an army of officials.

The neighbouring county of Mayo has drawn up an elaborate scheme of union amalgamation which the secretary of the county council has courteously forwarded to us. We hope to deal with this scheme fuller in our next issue.

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

1 month ago

August 19, 2021

Stephen Corrigan

Prizewinners Christina McCormac and Maria Walsh, both from Caltra, at the Ballygar Fancy Dress in August 1970.

1921

Emigration rising

The emigration statistics just published show that during 1920 emigrants from Ireland numbered 15,585, compared with 2,975 in 1918 – in other words, emigration last year had risen to about half of what it was in the years before the war.

6,044 men and 9,487 women left Ireland during 1920. But it was pointed out that unlike Great Britain there is no excess of women in this country.

In June 1920, it was estimated that the Irish population was 2,261,000 males and 2,209,999 females, a total of 4,4470,999, or an increase of 86,392 on the census year of 1911. The overwhelming majority of emigrants last year went to the United States.

Connacht supplied 3,801 of those who emigrated, but the greatest number of emigrants came from the county of Antrim, which, including the county borough of Belfast, contributed 1,893 people to swell the population and work for the prosperity of foreign countries.

Let us all sincerely hope that in the new Ireland that is to be, many of those who have been compelled to leave their country will be enabled to return and find bread and work at home.

Irish lessons

Irish Irelanders will be interested on hearing that the Irish classes are now being opened in Galway. Irish classes are being conducted from 11 to 2 p.m. at the Commercial Boat Club, and night classes form 8 to 10 p.m. in the Town Hall.

There is no necessity to impress on the young men and young women of Galway the desirability of their attending these classes. It has been said with truth that if we have no language, we have no country, and during the present “big push” for our freedom it behoves all those who are not acquainted with the language of our country to do their utmost to learn it.

A ceilidh mór will be held in the Town Hall on Saturday, August 20, and it is hoped that the attendance will be large. Irish dances are the real “thing”, but it is unfortunate that they are not as popular as they should be.

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.