Connacht Tribune
Galway In Days Gone By
1918
Shot at by men dressed as women
One Sunday evening, at about 5 p.m., a boy named Patrick Ryan, son of Mrs. Ryan, Main-st., Loughrea, was fired at by two unknown men on a farm known as the Forde farm at Earlspark – recently the subject of litigation in the High Court – but fortunately escaped uninjured.
The assailants, who were dressed in female attire, with straw ropes tied around their feet, discharged one shot each at a distance of about twenty yards at young Ryan, and then fled. The police are making diligent inquiries into the affair, but so far no arrests have been made.
The farm on which the outrage was committed is being held in trust for the Forde minors and is at present under the supervision of the Ryan family.
Dangerous scourge
The alarming extent to which the influenza epidemic is spreading out to be taken as a serious warning by those who have so far escaped the scourge. In many instances, neglect to treat the outbreak seriously has ended fatally, and not a few deaths that have occurred in the West of Ireland are directly due to influenza.
1943
Ban on harvest amusements
During the agricultural debate in the Dáil, Mr. P. Beegan pleaded for the suspension of all public amusements during the “Harvest Season”, from July 20th to September 20th, so that farmers might concentrate upon harvesting.
He would have dance halls closed on week nights and open on Sunday nights only until an hour after midnight. In addition, he would ban horse-racing or dog-racing during the period mentioned.
“We all know,” went on the Deputy, “that there is such a craze for dancing and amusement all over the country all the year round, every night of the week, that it is interfering with the working capacity and usefulness of large numbers of young people in town and country.
“We all know that, no matter what they may pretend, those people are unable to work the next day after a night’s dancing. The fact that they are contemplating going to a dance disturbs their interest in their work and when they return out next morning, they are unable to give attention to what they are doing for the day.”
Another suggestion by the County Galway farmer deputy which found scant support amongst his colleagues of the Fianna Fáil party was increased remuneration for farm labourers during harvest periods.
New bus depot
Arrangements are nearing completion for the transfer of the Great Southern Railways road passenger services depot in Galway from Victoria Place to the railway station. A new waiting room and public inquiry office have been provided on the station platform and all ’buses plying to and from Galway will use the main entrance to the station platform as the terminus for journeys.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Two men in County Galway have been arrested as part of a Garda investigation into a series of burglaries in businesses in Limerick and Tipperary.
As part of the operation, three houses were searched yesterday (Saturday) morning in Co Galway and two men in their 20s were arrested. They were brought to Henry Street and Roxboro Road Garda stations in Limerick, where they were detained under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2007.
During the search operation, two vehicles were also seized for technical examination.
The eight burglaries were carried out in the Limerick and Tipperary area in the early hours of last Wednesday morning.
As part of these investigations, an operation was put in place by detective Gardaí from Henry Street Garda station with the assistance of the Armed Support Unit in the Western Region and Gardaí from Tipperary, Limerick and Galway.
Lifestyle – The disused terminal at Galway Airport is being transformed for Sruth na Teanga, an immersive journey through centuries of Irish language and culture. Created by theatre company Branar, it was commissioned by Galway 2020 and will use puppetry, music, video and live performance to give audiences a fresh insight into the oldest vernacular language in Western Europe. Its creator and director, Marc Mac Lochlainn talks to JUDY MURPHY.
Entering the terminal of Galway Airport is like visiting the place that time forgot.
The desks for Avis and Budget Travel are still in place, exactly as they were when the facility closed nine years ago. So too are signs saying ‘Departures’ and ‘Garda and Customs only’, while the yellow pay-machines for the empty car-park stand abandoned by the main door and wind howls through the deserted building.
At the reception desk, a dog-eared copy of Dan Brown’s novel, Deception, is a lonesome reminder of the days when people thronged through this airport, carrying reading material for their flights.
“It’s a bit like the Mary Celeste,” says Marc Mac Lochlainn, the director of Branar Téatar do Pháistí with a mischievous grin. He’s referring to the American shipwreck that was found abandoned off the Azores in 1872, with everything perfectly intact but its crew missing.
At the height of Storm Brendan, with the rain lashing and wind howling, the space does feel eerie, but from March 2-29, thanks to Branar, it will become home to magical forests, streams and islands for one of the main events of Galway 2020 – European Capital of Culture.
Branar’s new show, Sruth na Teanga, was commissioned by 2020 as one of its flagship productions. Now the theatre company has just over a month to transform the abandoned terminal building into a space for an immersive journey capturing the evolution of Western Europe’s oldest written, and still spoken, language. That language is Irish – a subject which caused so many people so much angst at school.
Marc is aware of this difficult legacy, but points out that Irish language and its culture far predates what has happened to it in the 20th Century at the hands of the Irish education system.
And that’s what Sruth na Teanga – based on the metaphor of a river – is all about. With puppetry, music, video mapping and live performance, it’s for children and adults and Marc hopes it will give people a fresh appreciation for Irish and its ongoing role in shaping us as a nation, through our place-names, our stories, our songs and the way we view the world.
Transforming the deserted airport terminal for this production will be no small feat but then Branar have never been short of ambition, as anyone who has seen their magical productions, such as How to Catch a Star and Woolly’s Quest, will be aware.
Sruth na Teanga has been evolving since 2015 when Galway first sought the European Capital of Culture designation and invited people such as Marc to dream big.
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.
IT’S a date with destiny like none other in the history of club Gaelic football. A team from Galway trying to go where no parish team has gone before.
Protecting a remarkable 35-match unbeaten run, Corofin stand on the threshold of becoming the first team to win three All-Ireland club senior titles on the trot.
It would represent a phenomenal achievement and the crowning glory for the Galway champions who have been such a compelling force over the past decade.
Standing in their way are All-Ireland final debutants, Kilcoo from Down, and while Corofin are red-hot favourite, the biggest occasion on the club GAA calendar has been littered with upsets down through the years.
It’s not in the nature of Kevin O’Brien’s charges to take anything for granted, however, and if they bring their A-game to Croke Park for the third year running, Corofin will have secured a cherished place in the record books on Sunday night.
€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
