1923

Drunk at funeral

The manufacture of poteen goes on merrily in Connemara, and scarcely a week passes that there area not numbers of people fined at the district courts for possession of illicit spirits.

The man in the street has but a vague idea of the extent to which the vile traffic is carried on. The demoralising effect which indulgence in the spirit produces is noticeable in many areas of the West.

Recently a funeral left Galway for a remote district in Connemara. When it arrived at the late residence of the deceased, practically all the people who were present to receive the corpse were under the influence of poteen, and the funeral obsequies had to be temporarily abandoned.

A particularly sad feature of the business is that the habit of drinking the spirit is growing amongst the young girls scarcely out of their teens. Legislation is urgently needed to deal effectively with the matter.

The control of the sale and distribution of malt is a pressing necessity. As the law stands at present any person may sell malt in any quantity. If the excise authorities had been empowered by law to control this commodity, as in the case of spirits, a good deal would have been accomplished to put an end to the horrible traffic which is eating like a canker into the lives of young manhood and womanhood of the west.

The view from on top of Seapoint, taking in Salthill Church in 1964.