Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

2 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

5 days ago

March 4, 2021

Stephen Corrigan

Runners pass the Maxol Garage during the Turloughmore Road Races on June 18, 1981.

1921

Ambush thwarted

Our North Galway correspondent writes: A report was widely circulated on Friday that an ambush party had collected at Gortaleam, a district midway between Dunmore and Glenamaddy.

Two accounts are given of how the report was made, one being that an aeroplane which happened to cross over that part of the country on Friday “spotted” the supposed ambushers and conveyed the intelligence to Galway that groups of men were observed collecting.

The other account, and the one which receives semi-official confirmation, says that an eye-witness of the ambush preparations conveyed the information to a party of police or to Dunmore.

On Saturday morning, forces of auxiliary police and military converged on the scene. It was learned subsequently that no traces of the reported ambushers were to be seen. No walls were knocked, and the roads in the district were not tampered with, although authorities suggest there is no doubt from the fact that the ground was trampled in the vicinity and that other evidences have come under their notice that an ambush was in course of preparation.

Gortaleam is a bleak, open district, and one could not be impressed with the place as being a likely selection for an ambush, although it is suggested the hilly district offered a clear view of the approach along the road and ample cover for retreat.

At a bend in the road stands Gortaleam national school, and a high hill rises up at the back, commanding a view of the surrounding country for a considerable distance. There is an old ruin on the other side of the road opposite the school. It was reported that “the school children were kept locked in by armed men,” but the teacher in charge, when interviewed, declined to make any statement about the matter.

Crown forces searched extensively through the neighbouring district on Saturday. Ever since Dunmore, Glenamaddy, Clonberne, Williamstown, and Kilkerrin have been visited by auxiliaries who searched and interrogated every man they came across. On Sunday, the people leaving the chapels in some of these places were surrounded and terrified.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

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Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

2 weeks ago

February 25, 2021

Stephen Corrigan

Teatime on the Morrissey Farm in Clonshee, Ahascragh in June 1951. Pictured beside the mowing machine and horses Charlie and Bly is John Morrissey with six of his 12 children, Joseph, Seán, Eileen, Michael, Annie and Willie.

1921

Growing neglect

The meeting of the County Galway National Teachers’ Association merits the attention of a considerably wider body than that which may be said to have a professional interest in education.

These meetings, which are held primarily for purposes of organisation, have an absorbing interest and a vital concern for all who desire the future well-being of our young people.

Whilst conditions of employment must naturally be an important concern for primary teachers, Saturday’s meeting revealed the fact that their minds are exercised by the deplorable and growing neglect of primary education.

The statement of the outgoing chairman that out of seven hundred thousand school-going children, there are two hundred thousand absentees from the national schools every day; this compels immediate attention and demands effective action on the part of all whose duty it is to enforce attendance at school.

That means that nearly one-third of the pupils are absent from school daily. There could be no graver reflection on the parent, the public bodies and their school attendance committees and the spiritual directors than that thirty out of every one hundred pupils are absent from the schools every day.

“Do the people,” as the chairman asked, “realise the havoc such a state of things works amongst us as a nation? Is it any wonder that so many of our countrymen and countrywomen are condemned to a life of drudgery, bordering upon a condition of slavery, at home and abroad.”

In recent years we have heard much of the attractiveness of school programmes, but the obvious inference from this lamentable disclosure would appear to be that children dislike that “dry drudgery at the desk’s dead wood,” or that they are neither encouraged nor compelled by their parents or guides to thread the path of learning.

Whatever the cause, the fact is a national scandal.

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

3 weeks ago

February 18, 2021

Stephen Corrigan

Flooding in front of the Spanish Arch and Galway City Museum on November 11, 1977.

1921

What the public wants

Apart from the fact that to permit young children to remain up late in the heavy atmosphere of a picture theatre is detrimental to their health, there can be little objection to children seeing pictures – provided always they are the right kind of picture.

Recently, we have had a surplus of war propaganda pictures. The world is heartily sick of the game of killing and all its hideous trappings. We want to turn the young minds to the victories of peace, to the ways of high endeavour and moral greatness, to replace sordid meanness and intrigue with sterling honour and openness of the soul.

Stories of the crude justice of the Wild West are scarcely calculated to do this, any more than the hectic and neurotic ethical standard set up in silly serials may be supposed to direct the young idea along the paths that are best in life.

And we want happy, healthy laughter. The comedy pictures are perhaps the least objectionable. Bud Fisher stands alone, perhaps, in the great work he has done for humanity. But why should not filmmakers and scenario writers gather more from the old classical novels and the best stories from modern writers, from all that is noble and of good report, and less from the ugly things in life?

We suppose, as in the case of the yellow Press, so long as war and tragedy are “good selling lines” the film producers will “play them up”. In other words, they will give the public what it wants and therefore, what it deserves.

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.