Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

2 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

15 hours 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

1 week 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

2 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.