Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By
1918
Portumna assault
At Portumna Petty Sessions – before Mr. Whyte R.M. (presiding), and J. Morrissey, J.P. – James Madden summoned James Canning for assault. In a cross-summons James Canning charged James Madden with abusive and threatening language.
Mr. Kearns, solr., appeared for Madden and Mr. Muleair, solr., for Canning.
James Madden started, in reply to Mr. Kearns, that on October 14th James Canning caught him by the throat, and, added witness, “pulled it out of him” (laughter). There were blood marks on his neck. He called him and old cripple.
“I am on the best of terms with him and have never interfered with him,” concluded witness.
To Mr. Mulcair: HE was a quiet man, and never interfered with Canning. He did not call in the doctor. He went to Mr. Kearns as he thought he would get better value (laughter).
James Canning stated Madden stopped him when driving his cattle. He shoved Madden, who called him a perjurer and raised a stick over his head.
James Power corroborated.
Canning was fined 10s. and both parties were bound to the peace.
Mellows unopposed
Mr. Liam Mellows, Sinn Fein candidate, was returned unopposed to the East Galway Parliamentary division on Wednesday. Some forty supporters attended at the courthouse for the declaration. There was no demonstration.
In the paper on which he relied he was proposed by Rev. Dr. Dignan, seconded by Mr. M. Staunton.
Rev. Father O’Flanagan visited Ballinasloe on Tuesday, and addressed a small and unrepresentative meeting, which was attended by a number of clergy. His address was on similar lines to that which he delivered on that night in Galway City.
1943
Teachers’ pay
In the hands of capable administrators it would be possible to provide better schools for the children, better salaries for the teachers, and better results in education for the same outlay, said Mrs. K. M. Clarke, Kiltimagh, women’s representative on the Central Executive Committee of the I.N.T.O., at a meeting of the Galway Co. Committee of the Organisation in the Town Hall, Galway, on Saturday. The meeting, attended by over one hundred Co. Galway teachers, unanimously passed a resolution demanding an immediate and substantial increase in salaries and in the pensions of retired teachers in view of the increase in the cost of living.
Bus stop complaints
Mr. Michael O’Flaherty, P.C., II.C., told Galway Chamber of Commerce at its meeting on Monday night that he had hear many complaints about the recent change of the ‘bus terminus from Victoria Place to the railway station.
He had heard it said that the railway station was not at all a satisfactory place for boarding ‘busses because people had to queue up on the road where there was no shelter from bad weather.
Books don’t last
The County Manager (Mr. C. L. O’Flynn) at a meeting of Galway-Co. Libraries Committee on Saturday adopted estimates for the coming year which provided for an expenditure of £2,717. He reduced the estimates submitted by the County Librarian by £204.
In a statement submitted with the estimates the County Librarian said that the figures were approximately the minimum necessary to maintain the services at its present level.
The main item in the library budgets just now was the book fund. At no time since public libraries were empowered by law to purchase books had the acquisition of stocks presented such difficulties. The cost of books had risen appreciably if not unduly. Outstanding was the question of the provision of novels. The flimsiest make-up cost half-a-guinea a copy, and before the novel had passed through many hands it was certain to be laid aside for binding.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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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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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.
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1921
Emigration rising
The emigration statistics just published show that during 1920 emigrants from Ireland numbered 15,585, compared with 2,975 in 1918 – in other words, emigration last year had risen to about half of what it was in the years before the war.
6,044 men and 9,487 women left Ireland during 1920. But it was pointed out that unlike Great Britain there is no excess of women in this country.
In June 1920, it was estimated that the Irish population was 2,261,000 males and 2,209,999 females, a total of 4,4470,999, or an increase of 86,392 on the census year of 1911. The overwhelming majority of emigrants last year went to the United States.
Connacht supplied 3,801 of those who emigrated, but the greatest number of emigrants came from the county of Antrim, which, including the county borough of Belfast, contributed 1,893 people to swell the population and work for the prosperity of foreign countries.
Let us all sincerely hope that in the new Ireland that is to be, many of those who have been compelled to leave their country will be enabled to return and find bread and work at home.
Irish lessons
Irish Irelanders will be interested on hearing that the Irish classes are now being opened in Galway. Irish classes are being conducted from 11 to 2 p.m. at the Commercial Boat Club, and night classes form 8 to 10 p.m. in the Town Hall.
There is no necessity to impress on the young men and young women of Galway the desirability of their attending these classes. It has been said with truth that if we have no language, we have no country, and during the present “big push” for our freedom it behoves all those who are not acquainted with the language of our country to do their utmost to learn it.
A ceilidh mór will be held in the Town Hall on Saturday, August 20, and it is hoped that the attendance will be large. Irish dances are the real “thing”, but it is unfortunate that they are not as popular as they should be.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Win a fantastic seven-night Mediterranean cruise in this week’s Connacht Tribune
