Month: August 2015

Connacht Tribune 27th December, 1968 p3.

The first shot in Co. Galway in Easter Week of 1916 was fired in Kinvara. The authority for that statement is Padraic Uas O’Fathaigh of Tullira, Ardrahan, who was one of the officers of the Co. Galway Board of the Volunteers and a central figure in the events of that week.

Mr O’Fathaigh was in Kinvara at the time the first shot was fired and was involved in the incident that led up to it but he does not claim to know for certain to whom the distinction should go – to a Volunteer or to a policeman.

full story to follow on theburrenandbeyond.com

Irish Examiner 7th May, 1928 p.5

The Lloyd liner Muenchen, which left Bremen for New York in the early hours of Thursday, sailed up Galway Bay shortly before three o’clock yesterday afternoon, and anchored on the roadside not far from the lighthouse. Simultaneously the Galway Bay Steamboat Company’s steamboat, Dun Aengus, which acted as tender, left the Dun Aengus dock, carrying 150 passengers for New York and the States. Of these 100 were third class passengers, from the counties of Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Clare and Limerick, the remainder being tourist and cabin class passengers, many of whom were returning from holidays in Ireland, or going to America on a visit to relatives.

Pending the erection of the disinfecting station, close by Galway docks, disinfecting facilities were afforded in the Galway Central Hospital, where everything worked smoothly under the supervision of Dr.Michael Davitt, resident physician; Dr Vondelour of Cove, Mr Kennedy, Cove, and the staff recently appointed by the Galway Urban Council.  A fleet of motor cars quickly transferred passengers from the Limerick steamship Co’s Lloyd’s agency offices at the docks to the inspection station.

So great was the interest in the first westbound sailing that has taken place from Galway for a generation, that enormous crowds from all parts of Connacht gathered in the city from early morning. As the tender was leaving the docks the crowd was so great that they broke through the barrier and a small and inadequate police posse. It was only with the active co-operation of the Limerick Steamship Co’s and Galway Harbour officials that they were kept from crowding on to the tender.

The DunAengus put the passengers and a number of visitors aboard the S.S.Muenchen at 3.30, the ship’s band rendering popular Irish airs the while. The Board of Trade Inspectors, immigration authorities, and Customs officials got through their duties with smoothness and celerity, and the liner sailed up the sunlit bay, which was smooth as a sheet of glass, on her westward course shortly before five o’clock. As she passed southwestward along the promenade at Salthill, a great farewell cheer that could be heard out at sea rang up from the crowds that lined the front.

During the brief period the Muenchen remained in Galway an interesting function took place on the captain’s bridge. Mr Philip O’Gorman, J.C., President of the Galway Chamber of Commerce, accompanied by the Secretary and some members, handed to Captain Wittstein of the Muenchen a letter of greeting from the Galway Chamber of Commerce to the President of the New york Chamber. Captain Wittstein said he would gladly bear the letter personally and convey the good wishes of the citizens of Galway, whose beautiful and sheltered bay would, he felt sure, be more closely linked up with the Port of New York as the years passed by. Last Christmas he entered the bay without a pilot. It was safe and open, and afforded as secure an anchorage for a big liner as there was in the world.