Galway in Days Gone By
Galway In Days Gone By – A browse through the archives of the Connacht Tribune
1913
Home Rule fund
On Sunday week, a public meeting was held immediately after last Mass at Kilreekil for the purpose of re-organising the local branch and starting a collection in aid of the Home Rule Fund.
Mr. W. Kelly presided, and said he hoped they would hand in their names and do something for the National cause until they would get Home Rule.
Mr. Seamus O’Mulloy said that 113 years ago, England took away from Ireland her native Parliament, not by the will of the masses of the people, but by bribing the corrupt nobility of the country – to whose descendants, by the way, the poor people had ever since looked up to as the aristocrats of the land, and whose successors as Irish landlords have during that period crushed them under their arrogant sway, in some cases to the extent of £3,500.
Ballinasloe sensation
A report is current, which seems to have good grounds for belief, that the public will soon be regaled with more sensational events in our Joint County Asylum of Roscommon and Galway.
Another report is abroad of an action for libel and slander against a member of the staff of the institution, in which it is alleged the character of the plaintiff is assailed.
The plaintiff, it is said, is a well-known county gentleman, and damages are laid at £1,000. There seems every probability of the Asylum providing sensations for some time to come.
Drunk jailed
At Galway Petty Sessions, a man was summoned for being drunk and disorderly in William-street West on the 11th inst. He was fighting with his sister-in-law and his brother, and making use of bad language. There were a number of previous convictions against him.
Chairman: Is this the man who promised to take the pledge not long ago?
Sergt. Golding: The very man, your worship. He got a great many chances on his promising to take the pledge, and was let off with small fines.
Chairman: He will be sentenced to 14 days in jail without the option for a fine.
1938
Error costs contract
Because of an error in preparing his tender for the painting of and minor repairs to the County Buildings at Prospect Hill, Galway, Mr. Anthony Conboy, St. Bridget’s Terrace, Galway, who submitted the lowest tender, failed to secure the contract.
He tendered for the work at £187 10s., but in a letter to the finance committee of the County Council read at the weekly meeting of the committee in Galway on Saturday, he explained that this should have read £287 10s.
Although his tender at the increased figure was still the lowest received by the committee, the committee refused to consider it and decided to give the work to Messrs. Carr and Sons, Galway.
Carriage window broken
“A regrettable feature of this incident is that there was an English tourist in the carriage and he must have got a very bad impression of us,” remarked Supt. Lyons at a children’s court, hearing a summons against a boy for having broken the window of a train travelling between Castlerea and Ballinlough.
The boy admitted having broken the window, but said it was accidental, as he had thrown the stone at a dog. Mr. Hamilton, D.J., adjourned the case on defendant’s father undertaking to pay 9s costs of the window damaged.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
1923
Cancer campaign
After tuberculosis, cancer takes the greatest toll on human life in these islands. A serous effort is about to be made in England to grapple with the disease and an appeal has been issued for £1,000,000 to be expended in research work.
Medical men are optimistic enough to hope that as a result of research it will be possible, sooner or later, to prevent and cure the disease.
In Ireland, outside Dublin, little has been done to help in the campaign against cancer. It is a peculiarity of some people that, in this matter of the cure and prevention of disease, they adopt an attitude of indifference. They accept preventable disease as something inevitable and with the resignation of the fatalist.
This attitude of mind and the utter disregard for the ordinary laws of sanitation made Ireland in the past a hotbed of disease. The man who shifted the spittoon fearing that he would soil it with a tobacco spit is still with us.
Enlightenment is, however, coming slowly but surely. In this fight against cancer, Ireland can join hands with the sister isle in the common cause of humanity. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the appeals made to hospital committees like those in Galway and other parts of Ireland for financial help will not fall on deaf ears.
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.
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.
1923 – The impact of war
It is just nine years since the news of the European War fell upon a Galway gathering to celebrate Race Week. The banks closed, international credit and stability rocked upon their foundations.
True, the waves of that terrible conflict broke harmlessly enough upon our shores; our farmers and our few manufacturers grew opulent by supplying John Bull with food and clothing for the war, a few of our towns benefited by a temporary, if fickle and untrustworthy, increase in trade.
But that evening in 1914 marked the beginning of a period during which the progress of ordinary business sense was impossible.
The intervening nine years have not been wasted years: they have been rich with gain to Ireland; they will yield greater wealth in the future if only all of us, putting personal vanities or the desire for political domination aside, will work for the honour and glory of Ireland, material as well as punctual.
One useful way in which this can be done immediately is by brightening our towns, making them put on a cheerful and attractive summer garb, keeping our streets and alleyways bright and clean. In Galway there is little encouragement to do this, for deserts of dust and limestone grit lie upon the streets and are the sport of every wind that blows.
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.
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.
1923
Gloom after war
The special correspondent of the “Independent”, who has been writing of the aftermath of civil war in the West, notes that a feeling of apathy, due to the uncertainty of events, exists amongst the sorely-tried people of Connemara; that politics are referred to only with disgust and that not more than fifty per cent. of the people would vote at a general election; that poverty and unemployment are rife, and there is a growing tendency towards emigration; and that there are bitter complaints of the huge impost of rates and taxes.
It is only too true that there is enough of material for the pessimist to brood over, and that a feeling of gloom permeates country towns. But it is a poor tribute to patriotism that has survived such horrors to encourage this gloom.
It is the duty of all of us to get this pessimism out of the national body and to rid ourselves of the notion that we have not enough Christianity and moral sense left to restore our people to cheerful and ordered progress and industry.
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.
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.
Athenry’s Bia Innovator Campus one of 17 agri-food tourism projects to receive national funding
Galway public urged to report Otter spottings
Salmon Weir Fishery to close due to high water temperatures
Fitzmaurice rallies support for new rural political party
O’ Cuiv calls for special fund to raise roads in remote coastal areas
East Galway farm sells for €1.3 million
Official opening of Galway’s new pedestrian and cycle bridge
OPW Minister to meet Council engineers on ‘flawed’ motorway design
Detached home in Knocknacarra has host of amenities nearby
Survey finds one in five retailers in Galway want to go fully cashless
