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Galway – 1928

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The Telegraph, Brisbane, Qld. 26th December 1928 p.6

Books Burned
Galway Public Library
The destruction of books belonging to the County Galway Public Libraries, following a report from the Archbishop of Tuam, the officially appointed censor to the Libraries Committee, led to discussion at the meeting of the committee.
Mr. Lynch asked for a list of the books destroyed, as it was rumoured that some by George Bernard Shaw had been burned. The secretary said, “George Bernard Shaw is not burned, but they are put where they can be got only with the sanction of the sub-committee or this committee.”
The books burned were strongly objected to by the Archbishop, and apart from the Archbishop’s views in having them destroyed he thought the committee did well.
Father O’Dea said there was a lot of talk about this matter by people who did not know what they were talking about because they did not know what books had been burned, and these people wore not going to find out from the committee. There had been talk in “The Statesman’ about a priest in Galway having ordered Bernard Shaw’s books to be burned. No priest In Galway had done that.
Mr. Lynch;
Books by Arnold Bennett and Victor Hugo were destroyed.
Father O’Dea:
If we object to his notion the Archbishop of Tuam is condemned. He is the censor. One member of the committee proposed that the books be destroyed, and it was seconded and passed, and I do not think it is anybody’s business to be concerned further. It was only the business of the Archbishop as censor.
Mr. Lynch said the doctrine of infallibility and impeccability did not arise when they referred to the Archbishop of Tuam as censor.
Father O’Dea;
Whose Judgment, then, is to be final in the matter?
Mr. Lynch:
You know he does not read any of them. There is a big principle involved. Tomorrow, we might get an attack on books on sociology. If the Archbishop is going to give an undertaking that he will read any particular book, I will agree to his decision.
Mr. Pringle:
The only alternative is to rescind the resolution appointing him as censor.
Father O’Dea:

Then we would all get out of the committee.
The Chairman:
That would mean the bursting up of the committee and the scheme. We will not agree to any change in the censorship, except it might be well to have a discussion by the sub-committee on the selection of books. This was agreed to.
The Free State Censorship Bill certainly promises to add to the gaiety of the nation (writes the Irish, correspondent of the “Manchester- Guardian”). In the debate on the second reading one of the two ablest members of the cabinet Professor O’Sullivan, the Minister for Education, preserved a discreet silence. The other, Mr. Hogan, the Minister for Agriculture, expressed a lively sympathy with those who oppose the censorship of books. Still worse, he made fun of the Bill and suggested that it was undesirable to limit its scope to sexual morality, as the Minister for Justice wishes to do.
He alleged that all the pornographers between them have not done so much harm to Irish morality as certain, political writings which sought to show when an oath is not an oath and when, robbery is the height of patriotism.
The Minister for Justice, Mr. Fitzgerald Kennedy, had the painful task of closing the debate immediately after his colleague’s amazing speech. He made it plain that he would not agree to exclude hooks from the Jurisdiction of the censor, but suggested that it was only “cheap” editions of objectionable books that were in danger. Balzac and Aristophanes would, he said be safe.
No member of the Dail, except professor Thrift, ventured to allude even distantly to the ban on the birth-control controversy. It was therefore not surprising to see that Bill allowed its second reading without division in spite of the anxiety expressed by members every party.
In spite of the hostile criticism of the Minister’ for Agriculture and In spite of the refusal of the Minister in charge to promise any amendment beyond limiting the scope of the Bill to sexual morality

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Evictions – 1848

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The Daily News and Evening Chronicle (Sydney, NSW) 3rd Nov. 1848 p.1

There is enough in the brief space of one week to show how the war of extermination is sustained, legislatively and executively, against the people. A letter from the Rev. Mr Mullarky says;
This townland is now made the theatre of many a melancholy and heart rending scene. The whole townland, I may say, presents the appearance of a battlefield the day after the fight. Nothing is to be seen but the shattered ruins of what were so lately the abodes of men. No less than thirty-three families, numbering in all one hundred and forty-five human beings, have been thrown on the world. It would be impossible for me to give a full and fair description of the wretched and deplorable condition of these unfortunate creatures stretched along ditches and hedges – many of them children and decrepit old parents, falling victims to cold, hunger and destitution.

The Limerick and Clare Examiner, received during the past week, gives from a special correspondent an account of wholesale evictions in the Kilrush union. It;

brings frightful details of the clearance system in unhappy Clare, and communicates the awful fact, that since last November one-thousand houses have been levelled with the ground in the Kilrush union.

The same journal, and under the same date states;
We have been informed that upwards of one hundred tenant farmers have received notice to quit in the neighbourhood of Broadford.

On Thursday, says another journal, ten families were ejected, under the superintendence of Dragoons, from the property, near Loughrea, of Mr. P. Connelan, who resides at Coolmore, county Kilkenny brother to Mr. Corry Connelan, Private Secretary to the Castle.

The Leinster Express and able Conservative organ, had during the past week, the following announcement;
More evictions at Clonaheen;
On Saturday last the sub sheriff the Queen’s County, John A. Fitzgerald Esq., accompanied by 100 constabulary, under Sub-Inspector G.S.Hill, and a company of the 71st Regt. accompanied by Capt. Colville, proceeded to the townland of Clonaheen, and ejected twenty-one families, numbering more than eighty individuals, including an old woman over ninety years of age! This property has been most fertile in the production of outrages; and this proceeding, especially at this season of the year, when the people had good crops, is not likely to diminish crime, or remove its causes.

This is a portion, a small portion only, of the published records of the week’s extermination.

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Galway Harbour – 1858

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The Age, Melbourne, Vic. 11 Sept. 1858 p.5
(From the Times Correspondent.)
Dublin, Saturday June 19th.
The fine steamer Indian Empire, which was to leave Galway on the 18th June, with the first mails from Ireland direct to the United States, while on her passage round from Southampton to Galway to take on board the mails, and when close on St. Margaret’s Rocks, was run hard ashore by the pilot who had charge of her from Southampton. Fortunately, however, the spot where she struck was not dangerous, and the ship eventually floated off and proceeded to Galway, having sustained but trifling damage and such as will not impair or otherwise prevent her from sailing on her appointed date. The authorities in Galway, on learning the particulars of the vessel’s going ashore, caused the pilot to be arrested, and after undergoing a preliminary investigation, he was committed to prison on a charge of having wilfully and knowingly run the Indian Empire on a hidden rock, the ship being in his charge at the time.

The people of Galway have had to endure another disappointment – only, however, a temporary one. On a close examination of the Indian Empire it was ascertained that some trifling repairs were required, which, owing to the slowness of the workmen, would, it was feared, necessitate the postponement of her sailing till this evening. The mail sent by this conveyance was very small – not 1000 letters, the average number being from 12,000 to 15, 000. The somewhat sinister accident which befel the steamship on her first entrace into Galway Bay has created quite a sensation here, and the result of the trial of the two pilots is looked for with no ordinary anxiety. The following narrative of the transaction is condensed from the Evening Mail.-


“She was boarded at Blackhead by two men, representing themselves as regular pilots, who undertook to guide her safely to her moorings. It was night, but calm and cloudless, and in the twilight of a summer’s sky landmarks and objects at sea, familiar to to the experienced mariner’s eye, were distinctly visible. The vessel was taken in charge by those men, whose bearing, however, was so little satisfactory or assuring to the captain that (contrary, it is said, to their advice) he slackened her speed to one-third of the rate at which he had been steaming. It was well that he did so, for in less than half an hour after they took the helm she struck upon a rock, and there remained for two hours before she could be relieved. Had she been going with all her steam up at the moment of the collision, there can be little doubt that she would, at least, have received irreparable injury. Happily, however, no material damage was sustained and she has this day departed, we trust, notwithstanding the omen melioribus fatis. The rock of St. Margaret, which was so near being disastrous to the enterprise, is so far out of the usual course by which ships approach or leave the port of Galway, that more than half a century has passed since any vessel was known to have come in contact with it. Its place is well known on the charts. It is, moreover, marked by a large buoy, so conspicuous that Captain Courtney decried it at a distance of a mile, and called the attention of one of the self-styled pilots to it. But that trusty guardian assured him it was only a small boat; and then there was scarcely time to order the engineers to back the ship when she came bump (sic.) upon the rocks. Other indications of wilful blindness have been mentioned, but we content ourselves for the present with those which have been proved in a public court. They present a case full of suspicion. A numerous bench of magistrates, comprising men of all the varieties of our social and political state, have committed the two pilots for trial at the approaching assizes. There was no difference of opinion on that subject. Whether it was through criminal neglect or ignorance equally criminal, or from a still more nefarious motive than either, that so untoward an event has been brought to pass, we leave to the investigations of justice to ascertain. We hope that a strict and searching inquiry will be made, and that neither pains or expense will be spared to trace it to the source.”

Another Dublin journal (the Express) deals more mysteriously with the conduct of the pilots:-
“It remains for a jury to decide whether they were guilty or not of the crime of intending to destroy the steamer. It seem to be the general opinion in Galway that the facts cannot be accounted for except on the presumption of their guilt. This, however, should be left to the decision of a jury of their countrymen. If they should be found guilty, the crime is one of the foulest on record. But if they are guilty, others are guilty too. If they did run the steamer on the rock intentionally, they were the agents of a diabolical conspiracy, which should be traced out; and, if the chief criminals can be detected, no punishment would be too severe for them. Suspicion points to Liverpool as the seat of this conspiracy. The motives assigned are commercial jealousy, and the self-interest of parties engaged in the Liverpool shipping trade. Should this prove to be the case, which we trust it may not, for the credit of our civilisation and the honor of our humanity, it would furnish the strongest possible argument in favour of the enterprise of Mr Lever. If those who are most capable of judging did not apprehend that it would be completely successful – that it would at least attract all the Irish traffic and especially all the Irish emigrants, and so interfere materially with their own interest – they would not adopt such atrocious means to defeat the project. Base, horrible and execerable as the attempt was – assuming that it was made, – it furnishes a most satisfactory augury of auccess, especially as it was so providentially and so mercifully frustrated.”

The Tablet takes a cooler view of the question, and thinks it is hardly credible – however strong the suspicion and evidence may be – that the vessel could have been purposely run on a sunken rock by the pilots. The Tablet is inclined to believe that the accident can only be attributed to the natural defects of the harbor and that these should be remedied before perfect success can be achieved in the way of Transatlantic communication between Galway and America.

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SPCA – 1825

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The Hobart Town Gazette 26th Nov. 1825 p.3
The first anniversary meeting of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was held on the 29th June, at the Crown and Anchor, in the Strand. Mr. Martin of Galway, made a long speech, in the course of which he said:-
“I must say, that it makes me blush to find that a greater love, or at least adherence to the principles, of cruelty, exists in St. Stephen’s Chapel, than in the bear-garden (sic.) itself. There is a regular set made there against any bill that I propose. Some of the Gentlemen there make it their boast, that they never did, nor never would support any of Mr. Martin’s acts. There’s the Member of Aberdeen, Mr. Joey Hume – he is one of them. But strange to say, no one has done me more good, than one of my opponents, no less a personage than His Majesty’s Attorney General.

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Corpus Christi – Kinvarra 1859

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Tuam Herald 2nd July 1859 p.3
Corpus Christi in Kinvarra
Not the least amongst the gratifying results which the mission of the Jesuit Fathers has felt after it in Kinvarra, was the scene which our chapel presented on the evening of the great festival of Corpus Christi. At half-past six o’clock p.m. the people assembled in the chapel in great numbers. The Rev Mr Arthur, P.P. commenced the devotions by reciting the Rosary of the blessed Virgin Mary, after which a short exhortation was addressed to the multitude by the Rev Mr McDonough C.C. which seemed to excite amongst them the most lively feeling of pious enthusiasm. Immediately after the exhortation a long train of young girls and boys to the number of 90 entered the sanctuary and were arranged in processional order by the Rev. Mr McDonough. The young girls (who formed the majority of the procession) were tastefully arrayed in white dresses with wreaths on their heads, and carrying in their hands bouquets of flowers. The processional banners were carried by four of the children – two of them by the young girls, and two of the boys. The procession moved several times about the interior of the chapel, through passages made amongst the crowd of adorers, the choir all the time chanting that almost inspired hymn, the ‘Lauda Sion’ composed by the ‘Angel of the schools,’ and read in the mass of Corpus Christi. The procession entered the sanctuary while the choir concluded the hymn. When the remonstrance was deposited on the alter, the choir entoned the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. After which they chanted the entire of the ‘Pange Lingua,’ which, together with the ‘Laudate,’ after benediction, they executed in a highly creditable manner. The ceremonies occupied little more than an hour, and were conducted all through with rubrical exactness and order. – Galway Vindicator.

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A Thrilling Dive – July 1919

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The Evening Telegraph, Tuesday 29th July 1919 p.4
THRILLING DIVE
Airmen’s somersault into Galway Bay.(abridged)
The striking spectacle of an airman diving into the sea from a falling aeroplane, a second officer scrambling from beneath the immersed machine, and both swimming to the shore, was witnessed at Galway Bay. The machine, piloted by Captain Bowen, R.A.F., accompanied by Lieutenant Alcock, R.A.F., was seen flying at a great height over the city. Gradually it descended, when it soon became apparent to the spectators that it was in trouble. The aeroplane eventually got well over the water, where the engine stopped. The machine then turned a somersault in mid air and fell into the water. The observer jumped clear, but the pilot was unable to extricate himself in time, and was carried underneath by the falling aeroplane. With difficulty he managed to scramble out and joined his partner in a twenty-five yards’ swim to the shore, which they reached in safety before a boat dispatched from the naval base immediately the mishap was observed could arrive on the scene. In the evening a motor-launch from the base towed the derelict aeroplane into dock.

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Food in olden times – 1938

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Collected by Peggie Regan, Clochar na Trocaire N.S. from John Joe Conneely, Kinvara, Co. Galway


There is a vast difference between the food the people have nowadays and the food the people had in olden days. Long ago the people never heard of a four course dinner or a lunch or they never heard of an hotel or a restaurant.
The people long ago used to eat three meals a day but they could hardly be called meals because, they were very scanty ones and they nearly always consisted of the same food. They used to call the meals breakfast, dinner and supper.
The people of long ago used to get up at daybreak and they used to have nearly a day’s work done before they ate any breakfast. The breakfasts of the people at that time were very poor ones and they only consisted of a few boiled potatoes with salt. In lots of cases the working men who used to work in the gardens used to dig up a few potatoes out of the garden and roast them in a fire which they used to make. This used to serve as a breakfast for the poor people. Before potatoes were ever heard of the people used to eat stir about made from indian-meal.
They used to have their dinner at about four o clock and they used to have potatoes for dinner also. Often times they used to drink a mug of very sour butter milk. Some of the people used to eat boiled “nettles” and “dock leaves”. They used to boil yellow flowers called “braisce” which grow in cabbage gardens and eat them for their dinner.
If the people ever got a herring for dinner the mother used to boil a big pot of potatoes and fry the herring. She used then throw the potatoes into a thing called a “scib” and they used all sit round it on the floor. She used then put the herring on a plate with gravy on “dip” as they used to call it. The mother used then say to the children “dip the praties in the dip and leave the herring to your father”.
For their supper then they used to have potatoes sometimes and boxty bread which was made out of raw potatoes. Other times they used to have oatmeal porridge and milk. They used to drink the milk out of vessels called noggins and there is a man living in “Crushoa” by the name of “Thomas Quinn” who has a few of these noggins still.

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0049, Page 0337, Duchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

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What an American Journalist saw – 1919

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Excerpt from The Workhouse or Gaol in Galway. What an American Journalist saw by James M. Tuohy (Staff Correspondent of the ‘New York World’). Freemans Journal (Sydney) 9th October, 1919 p.14

It is not surprising to find that Galway is a strong Sinn Fein centre, and during the Easter rebellion of 1916 there was a futile rising there. A score of men were taken from Galway City and deported to English gaols and internment camps, including Dr. Walsh, bursar of the Galway branch of the National University, where he
also holds two important medical professorships. His experience may be taken as a fair sample of the treatment accorded to men against whom no charge was ever preferred, no evidence offered, and to whom no trialwas ever accorded.

In Galway I listened to the stories of a number of men of culture and refinement, professional men and others, who had been arrested not once but twice and even three times, had spent long periods in gaol or internment camps without ever being brought to trial. Space does not permit me to give the details of these statements, of which no one who heard them could fail to be convinced of the truthfulness. They have no desire to advertise the ill-treatment and injustice to which they have been subjected, but their indignation was roused by Mr. MacPherson’s impudent misrepresentations.


As I have said, D.O.R.A. (Defence of the Realm Act) is all powerful in Galway and throughout the west of Ireland. Hardly a night passes that a police raid is not made on some house either in the town or the surrounding country ; searches are made and men arrested without charge, some being taken off into confinement, no one knows whither. These raids are preferably made in the dead of night, the police being accompanied by lorries full of soldiers, fully armed. The victims are handcuffed, placed in the lorries and taken perhaps to the large military barracks at Renmore, across the river. The next that is heard of them usually is that they have been sentenced by court martial for being in possession of ‘seditious’ literature or some similar crime.


Then there is the ‘Customary display of force by the army of occupation — squads of soldiers marching hither and thither with their trench helmets on to overawe people. But the people seem to be unconscious of these provocative demonstrations which, strike the newcomer with amazement. Apparently familiarity breeds contempt.

Note; Mr Lloyd George sent Mr Ian MacPherson to Ireland with ‘the Coercion Act in one hand and the Defence of the Realm Act in the other.’

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Saint Patrick – 1938

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In the middle of Derrybrien graveyard there is a big rock and on it are two holes which are the prints of Saint Patrick’s two knees. One hole is bigger than the other because it is said one of Saint Patrick’s knees was swollen when he knelt there. It is believed that people who do rounds and pray at this rock are cured of swollen feet.

Collected by Philomena Nester
Clochar na Trocaire N.S. Gort Inse Guaire.

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0050, Page 0031. Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

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Fr. Forde’s Mission – 1865

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Kyneton Guardian and Woodend and Malmsbury Chronicle 15th April, 1865 p. 2

The following letter appears in last Thursday’s Daylesford Express. At the earnest request of the Rev. Father Forde we give it space in our columns. This clergyman, it will be remembered, has been travelling in this colony for the purpose, of collecting funds for the erection of two chapels in the curacy of Ballyvaughan, a poor district in County Clare, Ireland.
During the twenty months or so he has been here he has met with considerable success, having collected about £1,600 chiefly in small sums. Bishop Goold objects to receiving the visits of priests travelling in this manner in his diocese, considering that the people of his charge have enough to do to provide places of worship in a new country where everything has to be begun. Consequently Father Forde was
forbidden by the Bishop to collect, and the members of the Roman Catholic persuasion to subscribe, to the funds he proposed to raise by his “mission.” Notwithstanding this prohibition Father Forde has continued his collection, and under the circumstances, his success either proves the exuberance of the resources of his country people and co-religionists, who cannot find outlet in this colony sufficient for their charity, or, that under the unassuming exterior of a quiet country priest, he possesses powers of persuasion of which we would be happy to own the merest “wrinkle.”
We may state that before Father Forde went to Daylesford, he desired the insertion of a letter which we positively refused to have anything to do with, as we thought it written in a style un-worthy of his profession, for the purpose of traducing a clergyman whom, nobody in the Kyneton district but respects. Without identifying
ourselves in any way with the dispute or its cause, we append the accompanying letter, premising that since appearing in. a journal in a
a neighbouring town it has become public
property:—


To the Editor of the Express.
SIR,—Having heard from an authentic, source that the Kev Father Geogehan, of Kyneton, on Sunday last spoke from the altar of the Roman Catholic Church there in terms depreciatory of my character; that he censured those who had subscribed to the charitable purpose I am successfully carrying out through the liberality of the Victorian colonists, and prohibited, the members of his congregation from giving any assistance in the matter, I am constrained to suppose that you will afford me a little space to reply to the observations of that gentleman. I have already satisfied all disinterested persons that I am duly accredited in my mission but may add in further confirmation on that point, that not only from my own bishop only have I received, credentials but also from the Right Rev. Prelates of Clonfert and Galway, and that I suffered to submit these and other similar documents, and also acknowledgements of remittances to the proper parties in Ireland, to the inspection of the Rev. Father Geogehan; but that he declined to look at them, stating: “That it was his bishop’s wish that he should do so.”
Upon the same occasion, a person who had been in my parish in Ireland, but who was then a member of Mr Geogehan’s flock accompanied me to him; but he refused to hear her speak in attestation of my character, and in explanation of the position I held at home, or of the one I now occupy here. Upon my arrival in Kyneton, I was informed that Father Geogehan desired to have an interview with “the stranger” collecting funds for a charitable purpose in Ireland, and a friend of mine thereupon wrote to him intimating my willingness to meet him; but he declined the interview he himself had proposed. Is such conduct as this, I would ask you Sir, either fair or gentlemanly, or becoming the sacred character of a priest? Would any person with the slightest sense of justice refuse to hear the vindication of a man whose character he had publicly and most flagrantly outraged; and what is to be thought of a clergyman who would not readily and gladly permit a fellow-worker in the vineyard of the Lord to relieve himself from the ill effects of calumny and scandal that had originated in covetousness and to all uncharitableness. I have already shown my testimonials to hundreds of persons in all parts of the colony, but am nevertheless quite willing to submit them to the examination of as many men as may wish to peruse them. But I can mention one circumstance that occurred since my arrival in the colony, that will satisfactorily show that those at least who are ungenerously fomenting opposition to my purpose are well assured that I am what I represent myself to be—i.e., Roman Catholic curate of Ballyvaughan, County Clare, Ireland,
The Very Rev. Dr. Bleasdale, acting as I am to presume upon the instructions of his Bishop, proposed to me in Melbourne that I should take a mission under the Right Rev. Dr. Goold, and discontinue collecting for the purpose for which I arrived in the colony. That offer was made by him and declined by me in the presence of a third party. My reply at length was that I would if my Bishop would allow me, and they would also give me £2000 for the object for which I came out. Dr. Bleasdale then whistled, but said nothing, and so the interview ended.
Allow me to avail myself of this opportunity of thanking the inhabitants of Woodend and Malmsbury for the munificent sum I collected among them
and the people of Daylesford and surrounding districts, for their liberality in the same cause—I
am, sir, your much obliged and humble servant.
FRANCIS FORDE, R.C.C.
Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland.
Daylesford, April 12,1865.