Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Time Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune.

Published

10 years ago

May 22, 2013

colin@upourside.com

1913

Frightening visitors

At the Galway Urban Council, Mr. R.W. Simmons, photographer, came before the Council and said he wanted to make a few observations as to the statements and articles appearing in a Dublin paper about fever in Connemara.

He said the articles would have a bad effect on the tourist traffic, and were very detrimental to the interests of Galway. In fact, there was no fever in Connemara. There had been only one case in the place where it was alleged to have broken out.

He had seen a report from the local doctor stating that there was no fever, and had also received a letter from another Connemara doctor stating that no fever had occurred in his district for 30 years.

That was only one letter out of many, and he thought the Council should call upon the ‘Independent’ to contradict the statements. One paper had contradicted them in a half-hearted way, but the Council should pass a strong resolution on the subject, for it was a great injury to Galway.

Mr. Costello: There is another thing, a number of good-natured people have put their hands into their pockets to help these people. We ought to be thankful to Mr Simmons for making that statement. We have to maintain the character of the town for good health.

1938

Hotel saved from fire

In response to an urgent ‘phone call, the Galway Fire Brigade drove to Mountbellew through a blinding hailstorm, in the early hours of Sunday morning. The ‘phone call was to the effect that some outhouses adjoining Mr. Wm. Fahy’s hotel in Mountbellew had caught fire.

When the brigade arrived at 3 a.m., a large galvanised shed containing tons of hay was completely enveloped in flames, which reached a height of sixty feet. The men of the brigade connected seventeen 40 ft. lengths of hose to the river which runs nearby, but because of the recent drought, they were unable to get sufficient pressure, and it was found necessary to put the turbines working to raise the level of the water in the river.

By the time the hoses were brought to play on the fire, the huge hayshed was doomed, and the brigade concentrated on preventing the flames from spreading to the hotel. This they succeeded in doing, but it took them five hours to get the fire completely under control.

The blaze could be seen for miles around, and attracted many people from outside the town, who, together with hundreds of the townspeople, watched the brigade at work.

Busy mother

A sow, the property of Thady Flynn, Knockavannie, Tuam, had a litter of twenty-six bonhams.

Tuam gridlock

A committee of the Tuam Town Commissioners met Superintendent Cronin, Garda Siochana, at a special meeting to consider the question of getting bye-laws made for the town, especially as to traffic regulations.

The Commissioners are particularly anxious to have the traffic regulated on the Square, where, it is alleged, obstruction takes place on a large scale on fair and market days. The matter was fully disclosed and whilst nothing definite has yet been decided about the new bye-laws, it is stated that special parking spaces are to be marked out in the town, including the Square.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune

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Galway In Time Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune.

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Galway In Time Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune.

Galway in Days Gone By

Galway In Days Gone By

Published

4 days 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.

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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.

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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

3 weeks ago

March 9, 2023

Stephen Corrigan

Young contestants taking part in the three-legged race during St Patrick’s Parish Sports at the Sportsground, College Road, on May 23, 1982.

1923

Food prices

The local committee appointed under the Free State Commission on Food Prices will hold its first public sitting in Galway next week.

The announcement should be received with general satisfaction in a town that, notwithstanding its natural advantages of lake and sea and fertile countryside, provides for its people little of the natural fruits of the earth except at prohibitive prices.

Mr. H. J. Reid, of 20, Dominick-street, Galway, is, as announced elsewhere, acting as secretary of the local committee. Those who desire to give evidence – and who does not desire to prove that life is a hard thing these days and that we could all be very well off if only the profiteer would have a heart? – should communicate with Mr. Reid at once.

Already, we understand, half-a-dozen citizens have expressed themselves willing and anxious to tell the committee how the problem of living affects them. We do sincerely hope that the cooperation of the people themselves will render it possible for the Galway committee to make the most exhaustive inquiries and to do effective work.

It should be remembered that it is our own committee appointed by our own Government – the Government not of the profiteer but of the plain man of Ireland – to do our work.

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.