The Adelaide Times, Saturday May 11, 1850 p.8
Mr Thomas Birmingham, writing to Mr. J. Grattan, from London says:-
I have accidentally discovered since my arrival here, that influential parties are projecting the purchase of the town of Galway, the entire town, nothing else will satisfy them, at a fair price, and then to establish the packet station for steamers &c. I cannot doubt my authority for this information, though undoubtedly this is a most desirable project to have realised; but would it not be advisable for Government and the representatives of Connaught to enable the proprietors of land and other property, in and about Galway, to estimate the prospective value of their properties before they are called upon to part with them, by declaring at once Galway a packet and commercial station? Then they could, with some degree of certainty, place a value on that property somewhere near the mark. I can hardly think this circumstance occasioned the failure of the meeting at Ballinasloe; but, at all events, it is high time that the public should know a little of what is going on here rather ‘sub-rosa’.
The Burren and Beyond 