In the Ballyvaughan and New Quay District the Subscribers state that several of the chief Proprietors, who are mainly non residents, contribute nothing to the Dispensary. In proof of this statement eighteen such individuals were mentioned, whose joint annual rental is £12,000 a year. As the District is poor, those whose subscriptions support the charity consider it a hardship that, as occupiers, they should be doubly taxed while many owners do not contribute by subscriptions nor by assessment. The Medical Officer resides at Kinvara; his duties appear to be very diligently performed.
Thomas P,, who shot his sweetheart in August last, was hanged on Tuesday morning at a few minutes after eight o’clock, in Galway Gaol. The condemned man slept well during the night, and ate his breakfast heartily. He was afterwards strapped inside his cell by the executioner, B, and was then conducted to the scaffold by the prison officials, a warder holding him by the left arm.
He answered the responses of the chaplain in an audible voice, and when ascending the steps of the scaffold a warder caught him by the arm to support him, but P. shook off his grasp, saying that he could ascend unassisted. B. motioned to him where to stand, and he took his place, still continuing the responses to the chaplain’s prayers. No hitch or delay of any kind occurred, and death appeared to be instantaneous.
The condemned man had appeared to expect, when he was respited for a week to enable the Lord Lieutenant to consider his case, that the respite would lead to a reprieve, and when he was told a second time to prepare for death he seemed paralysed with fear. During the past two days, however, he had become more resigned, and before his end he had recovered his customary composure.
At the inquest a long statement was produced from P., which he handed to the governor of the prison immediately before his execution, in which he expressed his sorrow for the crime, and acknowledged the justice of the sentence. He thanked his friends for endeavouring to get him reprieved, and the officials for their kindness during his confinement in gaol; and, in conclusion, said:
My last declaration is that my mind was not right when I committed the deed, nor for a week previous, nor for some time afterwards. Therefore, my family and friends may rest assured that the testimony of the learned and skilful gentleman, Dr. K., as to the state of my mind on July 24, 1884, was correct, and I should be sorry to leave this world without doing this justice to a kind and Christian gentleman.
It will be remembered that Dr. K., the doctor at the prison, testified all through that P. was insane; but Drs. C. and B., of Dublin, who were sent down by the Lord-Lieutenant to examine him, testified that he was quite sound in his mind.
HMS Warrior – Prison Ship Mayhew, Henry and Binny John. The Criminal Prisons of London, and Scenes of Prison Life, Volume 3 of The Great Metropolis, Griffin, Bohn, and Company, 1862, Wikimedia Commons
At Galway county special sessions the board of superintendence applied for £7,350 for maintenance of the county gaol, bridewells, courthouses etc. The Rev Mr D’Arcy said that from the vast number of prisoners lately committed, the prison was more like a poorhouse than a gaol, there being nearly a thousand prisoners in it.
The state of the gaol was frightful and, in order to relieve it, an application had been made for a hulk to put some of the prisoners in, otherwise the spread of contagion would be awful. After some discussion the presentment was passed.
We gathered the turf in the dusky bog,
And hauling it home on sliding cars,
We left the moor with its murky fog
And the mountainside with its stars.
But it seems to me, as I sit and poke
The burning earth from that mountain fen.
That we brought the fog and the stars as smoke
And sparks going back again
To a misty bog that holds the heat
Of a mountain stacked with burning stars.
Faith, it seems to me that we hauled both peat
And dreams on the sliding cars
New Zealand Tabled 22nd April 1887 p19Photo: Norma Scheibe
On January 15 placards were posted in Loughrea and neighbourhood calling upon the tenants on the estates of Lord Clonbrock and other landlords to meet at four o’clock on the following day at the Cross roads, Holyhill. A strong force of police was consequently despatched to the place, but no meeting was held, and after remaining until a late hour the police discovered that the notices were intended to hoax them. The actual meeting was held at a place three miles distant and the tenants paid to the trustees considerable sums under the rules of the plan of campaign.
New Zealand Tablet 8th April, 1898 p9National University of Ireland, Galway Photo: Rob Smyth. Wikimedia Commons
A great meeting was held in Galway to consider the Catholic University question, and as might be expected, the Galway people spoke with no uncertain sound on the just claims of Catholics to educational equality. Professor Pye, MD., J. P., proposed the first resolution which ran as follows :—
“That we adopt the claim put forward by the Catholic laity of Ireland in their recent declaration, and reaffirmed by the national meeting held in Dublin, on the 11th inst., for perfect equality with our non-Catholic fellow-countrymen in all that regards endowment and privileges of University institutions, and express our determination to enforce that claim by every constitutional means in our power.”
The resolution was supported by Professor Steinberger, M.A., F.R.U.I., in a speech so fitting and to the point that we cannot refrain from quoting. He said he had travelled or lived in most of the countries of Europe, and when he first come to Ireland to learn the Irish language he met with many surprises. Nothing surprised him more than to find Ireland — which taught the greater part of the countries of Europe, and but for which he might now be a barbarian on the Alps or on the Danubem is without a University of its own.
He was astonished to find that the Catholic people of Ireland had no University. If they looked to India they could find the people provided for in this respect. If they looked to Austria, which was pretty much like the British Empire, in having under its dominion many different races and people speaking various languages, they would find the higher educational wants of these people well provided. Ireland is the only place in Europe where the majority of the people have no University.”
The following resolution was also carried;
“That we call on the members of Parliament for the town and county to press the Catholic claim for perfect educational equality on the House of Commons on every suitable occasion, and to expose the urgency of the grievance, and the injustice which a delay in dealing with it inflicts on the Catholic community.”
THE CHANT OF THE FAIRY TO CONNLA OF THE GOLDEN HAIR.Kinvara sunrise, Photo: Norma Scheibe
A land of youth, a land of rest,
A land from sorrow free;
It lies far off in the golden west,
On the verge of the azure sea.
A swift canoe of crystal bright, that never met mortal view
We shall reach the land ere fall of night,
In that strong and swift canoe:
We shall reach the strand of that sunny land From druids and demons free;
The land of rest, in the golden west, on the verge of the azure sea!
A pleasant land of winding vales, bright streams, and verdurous plains,
Where summer, all the live-long year, in changeless splendour reigns;
A peaceful land of calm delight, of everlasting bloom;
Old age and death we never know, no sickness, care, or gloom;
The land of youth, of love and truth,
From pain and sorrow free;
The land of rest, in the golden west, on the verge of the azure sea!
There are strange delights for mortal men in that island of the west;
The sun comes down each evening in its lovely vales to rest:
And though far and dim on the ocean’s rim it seems to mortal view,
We shall reach its halls ere the evening falls, in my strong and swift canoe;
And ever more that verdant shore our happy home shall be;
The land of rest,In the golden west,On the verge of the azure sea!
It will guard thee, gentle Connla of the flowing golden hair,
It will guard thee from the druids, from the demons of the air;
My crystal boat will guard thee, till we reach that western shore,
Where thou and I in joy and love shall live for evermore:
From the druid’s incantation, from his black and deadly snare,
From the withering imprecation of the demon of the air,
It will guard thee, gentle Connla of the flowing golden hair;
My crystal boat will guard thee, till we reach that silver strand,
Where thou shalt reign in endless joy, the king of the Fairy-land!
From “Old Celtic Romances,” by P. W. Joyce, LL.D.
Ossian
François Pascal Simon Gérard
A Reading Book in Irish History P.W.Joyce LLD
One of the Commissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland
Longmans, Green and Co. London, New York and Bombay.
Dubln: M.H. Gill and Son 1900
On Wednesday last the property of the union in Gort Workhouse was exposed to auction under an execution for debt and the whole knocked down for £28 by one of the creditors. When about to be removed, however, the paupers rose in general insurrection to retain the property – their last means of existence in their last refuge from starvation. Finally the property was let out to the vice-guardians for a certain weekly percentage upon the price for which it had be sold. It is, consequently, safe from several other executions for large sums that, we understand are in the hands of Messrs M, C and L.
Masked men recently perpetrated a daring robbery of the car caring the mails from Kilcolgan, Co Galway to Ballyvaughan. The car was held up by a party of masked men, all of whom were armed. A revolver was pointed at the driver who dismounted and fled for safety.
The car was driven for seven miles in another direction and when it was discovered by the roadside it was seen that several mailbags had been torn open and open letters were strewn in every direction.
The police rare scouring the country in search of the highwaymen.
The Burren and Beyond 