Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

4 years ago

March 28, 2019

Stephen Corrigan

Students undertaking a cycle 'marathon' for charity during Rag Week at UCG in February 1970.

1919

Poverty in Connemara

The poor we shall always have with us, but we associate the very poor rather with the vicious slums of great cities than with the far-flung plains of agricultural districts or with the sea-washed shores of a land that seems to breathe health and vigour. Even poverty is bearable in a rural district, for surroundings naturally healthy and free rob it of the horrible concomitants that are ever present in the city. History has taught the Irish peasantry to survive where a less proud people would succumb.

That they have had sore need of a training that has been continued through seven centuries is proved by the conditions that exist today in Connemara. Our correspondents send us harrowing details of the recurrence of misery, starvation, death and disease. Before ever the influenza epidemic came upon Europe, Lettermullen and Gorumna knew these things.

They have been investigated by successfully “sympathetic” Chief Secretaries, medical inspectors and Local Government officials; and ameliorative legislation has been doled out with the grudging hand of those who economise in life-saving that death and disease may survive. Instead of facing the terrible conditions with real courage and firm purpose, the Government has dallied with a pressing problem.

Housing need

The Urban Council of Galway met on Thursday. Mr. Martin McDonogh (Chairman) presided. Present: Messrs. Michael J. Crowley, Joseph S. Young, and Martin Moloney.

The Rev. Father Davis attended and pressed on the Council the urgent necessity for improved housing accommodation for the working classes, particularly in the Claddagh district. In reply to his inquiry as to the state of the scheme in preparation by the Council, he was informed that the plans were in the hands of Mr. Binns, the Council’s engineer, who was instructed to lodge them at the Council’s offices without delay, and stated that he expected to be able to do so in the course of the ensuing work.

Ill-paid nurses

The Nursing Sisters of the Ballinasloe Infirmary have, for the first time, applied to the guardians for an increase in their salaries. They are paid annually each £30, out of which they have to support themselves.

1944

Curtailed consumption

Owing to the present low level of the river, together with the necessity of curtailing consumption of electric current, and the difficulty of obtaining fuel oil supplies, the Galway Waterworks cannot continue to meet the heavy demand for water which is now being made upon it.

It is obvious that water is being used for non-essential purposes such as hosing shop fronts, footpaths, etc. If these practices continue certain parts of the area will be left entirely without water.

To Let: Eyre Square

The County Manager invites tenders for the letting of Eyre Square during Race Week, 1944, that is for the period from the Sunday night before the Race days to the Sunday night after the Race days, both inclusive.

Lessee may not sublet without the consent of the County Manager, and will not be allowed to erect any structure or tent on the top portion of the Square or on the portion where the flower beds are situated.

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.

Up Next

Late Galway collapse at odds with flying start to semi-final

Don't Miss

Clubs to share out €1 million – for living with landfill

Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

2 days ago

March 30, 2023

Stephen Corrigan

Young participants during the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Athenry on March 17, 1996.

1923

Capital of Connacht

Retail shopkeepers in County Galway towns complain very justly that they have to go to Dublin and cross-Channel for their goods, whereas in the all too few instances in which they can purchase in the county town at wholesale rates, they find they can do much better as to price and quite as good as to quality.

Has Galway ever considered what it would mean to the town if the wholesale trade were developed to any extent within its walls?

It would mean that instead of crowded streets on Saturdays and occasionally on Wednesdays, we should have eager, active businessmen thronging our thoroughfares every day of the six; that we should have streams of vehicles coming to and going from the city; that business would be stimulated, employment increased and prices reduced.

It would mean that shipping in our harbour would grow and expand, slowly and, perhaps even painfully, at first, that coastwise traffic would be developed, and that Galway would in course of time become in fact, as well as in the name, the capital of Connacht.

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.

Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

1 week ago

March 23, 2023

Stephen Corrigan

Young participants during the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Athenry on March 17, 1996.

1923

Optimistic outlook

The optimism of Mr. P. J. Boland was a refreshing thing at the inaugural meeting of the Galway Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. He saw great good in Galway: it was a delightful place to live and in a place worth working for.

It possessed the elements of greater good in the future; a prideful local patriotism; a desire to see things better done here than elsewhere.

That was a factor that should be availed of but was not. Why? Because men talked and talked of what should be done, but had no organised driving force to translate their ideas into action. Hence the present effort to establish a Chamber of Commerce.

This optimism is a heartening thing, and it will be justified if the new members enter the Chamber of Commerce in the spirt shown by the chairman of the inaugural meeting.

When the Sligo Chamber was being inaugurated of the 29th December last, a Senator A. Jackson, D.L., who presided, pointed out that there was scarcely an important town in England, Wales or Ireland, and certainly not a seaport town that had not a Chamber of Commerce in existence for many years.

He pointed to the significant, but fairly well-established fact in the matter of projected legislation far more importance was paid to representations from Chambers of Commerce than to representations made by municipal bodies or harbour boards.

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.

Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

2 weeks ago

March 16, 2023

Stephen Corrigan

Spectators outside Athenry Church awaiting the St Patrick’s Day Parade

1923

Post office raids

A series of wholesale raids on unprotected Connemara sub-post offices are reported. Lettermore and Cashel offices were raided and robbed on Friday night.

Carraroe, Costello and Kilkerrin were also visited by armed men and any money and stamps available were taken. The sums abstracted from these offices vary from £20 to £30.

Telegraph and telephone instruments were broken wherever they were found, and in consequence, the people living in these remote areas on the western seaboard have been much inconvenienced.

Costello bridge was blown up on Friday night last, when most of the raids took place.

1948

Telephone service

In the course of his address to the annual meeting of the Galway No. 1 branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union on Sunday Mr.

Everett made a statement regarding the telephone service at Galway which is of great interest to the business community in particular.

He admitted that the delay during busy periods of the day on the Galway-Dublin trunk service amounts at times to about two hours, and that this has on occasions been exceeded owing to one or more of the three existing circuits being out of order.

Delay on busy periods on the lines connecting Dublin with Tuam, Loughrea, Athenry, Clifden and Claremorris was also admitted.

The fact of these days is only too familiar to telephone subscribers in the West. Repeated protests on the matter have been sent forward by the Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce of Galway among others, but hitherto there has been no tangible result.

The facilities now available might perhaps have been adequate twenty years ago, but they are insufficient, to put it mildly, for present-day requirements and business is very seriously handicapped in consequence.

During the war years there was not only a shortage of the equipment which would be needed for improved facilities, but such equipment as could be obtained was more urgently needed for security purposes. It seems however that the war-time difficulties are well on the way to disappearing and the minister was in a position to make some promise of improvement.

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.