Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
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.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
1920
Dairy decline
The extended report of the evidence given before the Commission appointed “to enquire into the causes of, and suggest remedies for, the decline of dairying in Ireland,” should be carefully studied.
Prior to the war, a Milk Commission took evidence at Galway and throughout Ireland and Great Britain, but the outbreak of hostilities so altered the situation that a review of the position has now become essential.
The decline of dairying is obviously due to the fact that the Department of Agriculture permitted milch cows to be exported from Ireland in considerable numbers during the last four years.
In the result, the people living in our towns were reduced to a state of semi-starvation. This condition of things was effectively countered in Galway by the successful establishment of a milk depot.
But the expedient was not sufficient to meet the clamant need. The conflict of opinion between the advocates of the milk depot system and the advocates of increasing the ordinary means of supply does not, in the least, detract from the value of a policy that meets the immediate needs of the public and of the poor, while a better way is being sought to regulate on an economic basis the normal means of supply and demand.
Clifden Castle
The judgement in the now famous Clifden Castle land case has been awaited with the most intense interest not merely by the people of Connemara but by all classes throughout the country. Monsignor McAlpine, who had no interest in the matter save that of the poor tenants who are his parishioners, has lost.
A Chancery Judge has decided in favour of Mr. Joyce and given an injunction with costs, that he is not further to be interfered with in his possession of the Eyre Castle and estate. We may be sure that this decision will be challenged on appeal. But the one fact that emerges is that all this trouble was brought about by the culpable neglect of the Congested Districts Board in delaying for five years the rescue of the Clifden congests.
In 1913-’14 the trustees of the estate were negotiating for the sale of the Castle and lands to the Board for the express purpose of relieving congestion. In 1917 Mr. Joyce got into communication with the auctioneers, and speedily completed the purchase.
He subsequently agreed to sell to the trustees for the tenants upon receiving £20 on his bargain; but Judge Powell has determined that his agreement was made under duress, and cannot stand. Stripped of all the rhetoric that tended to cloud rather than clarify the issues, those are the undisputed facts.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
1920
Watered down charges
At Galway Petty Sessions on Monday, before Mr. Kilbride, R.M., Sergeant McCaffrey charged Patk Ussher, Wood-quay, Galway, with selling buttermilk containing water. Mr. George Nicolls, Solr., appeared for the defendant.
Complainant said that on November 24 he purchased buttermilk from defendant which, on being analysed, was found to contain 35 per cent. of added water, exclusive of 25 per cent. allowed for churning.
Mr. Nicolls said that the defendant only got the buttermilk from other parties in the Moycullen district, and re-sold it. He did not get any guarantee from the person he bought the milk from, but he (Mr. Nicolls) understood that the sergeant had taken a sample of buttermilk from that person, but the result of the analysis was not known yet.
Defendant sold the buttermilk exactly as he got it. He was a well-known man in the town, and held a responsible position, and everybody knew he was not the sort of man that would commit a fraud.
Complainant stated that after receiving the summons defendant came to him on an evening when the person he bought the milk from was in his house with more, and asked him (the sergeant) to go and take a sample from her. Witness did so and sent it to the analyst, but had not yet got the result.
Mr. Kilbride said that even though defendant did not tamper with the milk it could not affect the offence with which he was charged – that of selling milk with added water. By having another sample of the milk analysed would, of course, clear the defendant of any allegation of fraud.
Sergeant McCaffrey said he did not allege that the defendant tampered with the milk.
Mr. Nicolls said it would be no use questioning the analyst’s certificate, though that might be done as he saw from a report of a case in Dublin that the certificate of three different analysts varied.
Mr. Kilbride said it was too bad to have people paying dear for milk a large percentage of which was water. He fined the defendant £1 and 10s. 6d. costs.
Immodest clothing
A league of St. Brigid will be started on January 10, to give Irishwomen an opportunity of uniting in protest against inroads of foreign immodest fashions.
It is proposed that the centres for joining the League should at first be the educational convents all over Ireland. No subscriptions are required, but each member will be asked to make the following promise in Church or Oratory: “For the glory of God and the honour of Erin, I promise to avoid in my own person all impropriety in the matter of dress and to maintain and hand down the traditional and proverbial purity and modesty of Irish womanhood.”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
1919
Hope at Christmas
Looking back over the things written at Christmas for many years, one finds that the note of hope has always dominated.
Last year it seemed that a nightmare had ended, and that a new era had opened. So far as the principal combatants were concerned, an Armistice had been signed.
The ideals of President Wilson rang throughout the world. Ireland had swung in with the flowing tide: in the December elections she had almost unreservedly placed all her hopes in the Peace Conference.
A new era of social endeavour had begun. Labour was to be emancipated from wage slavery; healthy and clean living, better housing accommodation and a fuller citizenship were to be provided for the hewers of wood and the drawers of water. Women were no longer to be compelled to obey legislative enactments in the shaping of which they had no part.
To-day, we are much sadder, though perhaps a little wiser. How little has been done; how much remains!
Improved crop
During recent years the Department’s efforts have been directed towards the possibility of further improving the crop by an efficient system of seed selection. The improved seed obtained as a result of the experiments is distributed to farmers in the barley districts.
Information has been received that the Malting and Seed Barley Competitions held at the recent Brewers’ Exhibition in the Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington, London, the World’s Championship Prize for the finest bushel of malting barley of any growth from any county, or colony, exhibited in any class, was won by barley grown by Mr. Edmond Doyle, Warrington, Kilkenny, from seed supplied last spring by the Departments’ Central Plant Breeding Station at Ballinacurra.
Mr. Doyle also won the Mark Lane Champion Challenge Cup for the best sample of seed barley grown in the United Kingdom or Colonies.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
€37 million secured for Galway’s regional and local roads
Galway Junior Minister calls for road safety improvements at Cloughanover
Design team to be appointed for new Athenry Gaelscoil development
Design team to be appointed for new Athenry Gaelscoil development
City councillors condemn death threat sent to Chief Executive over Cappagh Park floodlights controversy
Galway faces up to scourge of drugs in every parish
Gardaí investigating more than 100 rapes and sexual assaults
Warning on radon for Galway householders
Music legend Johnny Connolly laid to rest
€2.2m apartment development in Salthill faces wrecking ball
