Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

2 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

4 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.

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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.

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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.