Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

3 years ago

October 4, 2018

Our Reporter

Some of the delegates who attended the annual convention of the Galway County Board of the GAA in Athenry in January 1957. Included in the group are Rev M. Walsh, CC, Portumna, Chairman; Messrs. J. Whelan, Killimor, Secretary; T. O'Connor, Registrat; P. Ruane, Treasurer; P. Naughton, Chairman, North Board, and M. Sylver, Chairman, South Board.

1918

Fiercest gale

Following the wettest month for forty years, came during last week-end the fiercest gale within living memory. On Saturday night the wind blew with hurricane force to the accompaniment of fierce showers of hail and rain.

The aerodrome at Oranmore suffered severely. The groundsmen under canvas had a particularly bad night of it, but the pilots and observers were safely housed in the old Militia shed. The canteen and tents were blown down and the soldiers had to seek quarters where they could shelter. The storm also played havoc with the tents along the railway line, which, we understand, are to be replaced by huts at an early date.

Pedestrianism along the promenade at Salthill was conducted with difficulty, as the wind blew violently through the open channel of the Bay. Cycling against it was a virtual impossibility.

Family record in war

Sergt. Tom Macken, 1st Northumberland Fusiliers, of Eyre-st., Galway, who recently volunteered from Malta for service on the western front, was wounded on Sept. 20. His brother, Walter, was killed in the battle of the Somme last year. Another brother, John, is at present in hospital suffering from wounds.

Coachbuilders’ strike

Twenty coachbuilders employed at Messrs Hughes’, Fahy’s, & Dowler’s works struck work on Monday for higher wages and shorter hours. The men state they have been working from 7a.m. till 7p.m., and that the minimum wage is 34s. per week. They demand an increase of 10s and a reduction of their working hours, with closing at 2p.m. instead of 3p.m. on Saturdays. Two of the strikers employed at Messrs Dowler’s works resumed on Thursday.

1943

Country classics

It is rather extraordinary but, nevertheless true, that there is no demand for the classics among readers in Galway City, but the people from the rural areas continually ask for them and seem never to have enough of them. We have had cases where families living in the country have taken the same classics out year after year. This statement was made to our representative by Mr. S.J. Maguire, Co. Librarian.

Country people also are very interested in good solid Anglo-Irish literature, said the Co. Librarian, such as books by Canon Sheehan, James Murphy, etc., but they also indulge in a little light reading. They are as fond of a good detective novel or a wild west yarn as anybody.

During the last three years, the demand for books dealing with the war is phenomenal and at least three out of four readers that utilise the County Galway Library ask for the latest books on war.

Our representative was interested to learn that the youth of 1943 – both boys and girls – look for books dealing with the war.

The boys are all the time asking for books which illustrate the latest type of ’planes and tanks and are very anxious to read stories written in the lighter vein where the central figure is a pilot of a ’plane or the commander of the tank. Stories about the sea have not lost their fascination and are in constant demand.

“Girls’ school stories and boys’ adventure stories are always in demand,” said Mr. Maguire, “but only a very limited quantity of them is coming on the market now and they are practically unobtainable. However, we have a very good stock of them in the Galway library and we are issuing those gradually.”

The greatest demand of all is for good detective novels and wild west yarns. Mr. Maguire pointed out that this demand was constant because it came from all classes. The professional man as well as the working man is very fond of a good detective story as well as a wild west story.

The Librarian added that they now had in the library a stock of books that would last for the next eighteen months.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

7 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

4 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.

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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.