Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

3 years ago

November 15, 2018

Stephen Corrigan

1918

Great War ends

The section of people in this country who, purely for political motives, cultivated as one of their many delusions, the belief that the Central Empires were invincible, the news that came to hand on Monday morning seemed almost incredible.

Yet so it was: victory for the Allies, and the unconditional surrender of Germany. So the armies on the field had long believed it would be; so those who have had the opportunity of studying the conditions on the western front at first hand have repeatedly stated, although few of the many who spoke and wrote on the war anticipated until a few weeks ago that the end was so nigh.

Loughrea influenza attack

A number of residents in the town have been attacked by influenza, and during last week nine deaths occurred from pneumonia. The victims include Mr. John Flynn, son of Mr. M. Flynn, Dunkellin-st; Mrs. M. Tierney, Galway-rd.; Mrs. T. Naughton, Abbey-st; and the Misses Nellie and Delia Cunnaire, Church-st., who were interred on the same day. Their father, Mr. John Cunnaire, has since died. Among the sufferers are five of the local clergy, the Master of the Workhouse, and three hospital nurses.

On Friday evening the remains were conveyed from Dublin for internment at Killeenadeema of Miss Nellie Flynn, daughter of Mr. M. Flynn, Cahercrea, who contracted influenza while engaged at business in the city. There are no fresh cases reported and the epidemic appears to be on the wane.

Mistreated mule

At Galway Petty Sessions on Monday before Messrs. J. Kilbride and J. B. K. Hill. R.Ms – Constable Cullen charged Thomas Roche, a rag dealer, stated to hail from Athlone, with working a mule while suffering from sores.

There were three sores, one of which appeared to come into contact with the shaft of the ear. The animal was in an ill-fed condition. Mrs. Shewell, Hon. Secretary, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, stated that she purchased the animal for two pounds, and in consequence of its delicate condition she had it shot. – Defendant was fined 40s.

1943

Poteen haul

Thanks to Sergeant O’Flaherty, Gortmore, there will be about twenty gallons less of poteen in circulation on the Christmas market this year. According to his evidence at Spiddal Court on Tuesday, where Peter Nee, Derryrush, was charged under the Illicit Distillation Act, the Sergeant found Nee in a still-house in front of a still with all preparations made for “a run.” The material in the still-house would make twenty gallons of poteen. Nee pleaded guilty and was fined £6 to be paid within two months.

Another interesting poteen case at Spiddal Court on Tuesday was one in which the defendant was a woman named Mrs. Peg Folan, of Inisherk, Lettermore.

Garda Gibbons, Lettermore, said that on July 15th he and Garda Kinnealy paid a surprise visit to Inisherk.

As they approached Mrs. Folan’s house they saw a boy standing at the gable apparently keeping a look-out. They next saw a woman running towards the shore. About fifteen yards from the house was a stable from which they noticed smoke. Inside the stable they found everything ready for the making of poteen. Mrs. Folan subsequently admitted ownership of the still and other things found in the stable.

Mr. M. Conroy, solicitor, defending, said that Mrs. Folan’s husband was in England and she was a very poor woman.

Deputy District Justice J. P. O’Reilly imposed a fine of £6 to be paid within three months.

Parental responsibility

His Lordship the Most Rev. Dr. Browne, Bishop of Galway, stated at the annual meeting of the Galway Branch of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (of which he is Patron) in the G.S.R. Hotel, Eyre Square, on Wednesday afternoon that at the present time there was a greater need than ever for the society.

The increased need, his Lordship said, was due in the first instance to the absence of many fathers either in the Army or across the water, and in the second to a decline in the acceptance of parental responsibility and a loss of interest in children.

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

September 23, 2021

Stephen Corrigan

Mayor of Galway, Cllr Michael Smyth, turning the first sod of the new £86,000 community centre at Shantalla on August 6, 1971

1921

Treatment of women

At the meeting of the Galway Board of Guardians on Wednesday, Mr. Pk. Thornton in the chair, a discussion took place regarding the admission of women with illegitimate children.

Mr. Cooke said that it was one of those questions which the Dáil Éireann was trying to solve. The assistant clerk said that Galway was only a small place in comparison to other places.

A member said that these people were coming in month after month, and it was perfectly scandalous.

Mrs. Young said that the practice should be stopped as in England. The assistant clerk said that they had laws of their own in England in regard to this matter. Mrs. Young said that it was a matter that the guardians should go into.

Clerk: So these women assist in washing and scrubbing, Mr. O’Toole?

Master: Yes, they do.

Mrs. Young: Until you tackle the thing, you can never make much headway. The nuns were terrified by some of them who absolutely refused to work.

Mr. Cooke: They should be cleared out.

Chairman: It is not fair for any able-bodied woman to be in the workhouse at the ratepayers’ expense.

The clerk said that this question was one of the most difficult which had confronted Dáil Éireann, and they were looking the matter up.

Profiteering black spot

Galway is the blackest spot in Ireland for profiteering. It is maintaining its inglorious record in extortion – a record that all but killed the race meeting some years ago and diverted the stream of visitors from the town for nearly a decade.

If this flagrant profiteering continues, it will have the result of reducing the city ultimately to poverty, whilst the few grow rich. The economic balance must be maintained. Elsewhere desperate efforts are being made to maintain it.

Prices must come back. Labour in Galway has done absolutely nothing to bring them back, because Labour in Galway appears to be less intelligently led than elsewhere. Yet unemployment is rife amongst us, poverty is already knocking consistently at the door of not a few, wages are falling and must fall.

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

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

1 month 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.

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.