Collected by Kathleen Fallon, Kinvara from Mrs Fahy Kinvara
Photo: Rodw Wikimedia Commons
10th of May, 1938
There is scarcely a country house that has not a churn in it. Some of the churns are small and some of them are tall. The tall churns are very wide at the bottom and they get narrower as they go up. The small churns are round on both sides.
In whatever house there is a churn there is always butter made there. Butter is made in country houses twice a week and in Summer three times a week. Sometimes the people make up the butter in bars of two and three pounds. Then they sell it in the town.
We have no churn but a neighbour of ours has. It is about three feet and she makes butter twice a week. Before she makes the butter she gathers all the new milk she has to spare and then she leaves it aside in basins to sit. When the cream is thick she takes it off and then she gives the milk to the calves or makes cakes with it. Then she washes the churn with boiling water. Then she puts in the cream and churns it. It a stranger happens to go into a house where they are churning he gives a hand to help. People say that if people do not help to churn that evil will fall on the churning.
In olden times churns were worked by the foot but now-a-days they are worked by the hand. In summer cold water is poured into the churn to harden the butter. The buttermilk is used for making cakes and people also drink it when it is fresh. In the town there is never any churning done, all the new milk is sent to creameries.
As will be seen from our advertising columns, Doorus annual sports will be held in Traught on Sunday, July 31. The committee have secured the services of the Athenry Pipers’ Bank. As this is the Band’s first visit to South Galway they are sure of a hearty cead mile failte, both in Dooras and Kinvara. The sports field is in close proximity to the already famous strand of Traught where tourists from all over the West come every summer to enjoy the beautiful scenery and natural bathing facilities offered there. Given a fine day, the public may be assured of enjoying the day’s outing.
It is well-known that Galway Harbour would be one of the finest in the world but for a reef that prevented large ships from entering. Several catastrophes have been connected with this barrier. The historic rock is now being smashed to smithereens by an 18 ton torpedo-type battering ram, which has a point made of the hardest steel known to scientists. The removal of this obstacle just outside Dun Aengus Harbour forms part of the, gigantic plan to modernise facilities for handling increased traffic at all stages of the tide, and for bringing in much larger ships.
Australians will recall a similar work at Fremantle by the famous Irish engineer, C. Y. O’Connor. The submerged rock barrier rendered navigation not only difficult but at times dangerous, and, more than once, ships have been laid up in the harbour for days, and others have had to stand by in the bay during inclement weather. Out in the harbour men are working to put an end to all that. Day and night, during October and November, the harbour was the scene of intense activity. The improvement scheme is estimated to cost £200,000, and within two years it is hoped to bring Galway into line with the other leading harbours, capable of accommodating seagoing vessels up to 8000 or 9000 tons.
French and Dutch experts, aided by local workmen, are well advanced with the job of removing the reef. A huge dredger first carries away the mud and sand from the reef 3 surface, preparing the ground for the rock breaker.Worked from a specially constructed barge, this battering-ram is dropped through a steel tube on the rock, smashing its way through it like a pneumatic drill breaking concrete. By the middle of this year it is expected that it will have completed its work, and the construction work proper, with an average of 200 men in employment, can begin on the harbour.
It is proposed to deepen and widen the approach channel to the dock to such an extent as to allow vessels to turn before entering or leaving the docks. The Dun Aengus Dock will be replaced by a concrete pier, 450 feet in length, on the south-west side and 320 feet on the north-east side. Passengers alighting from or embarking on the Atlantic tenders, especially during the winter months, must have carried away unfavourable impressions of the pier, bleak and without shelter from the Atlantic gales. It is to facilitate them, the travellers from the Aran Islands, and the Customs officers and other officials, that a concrete shed, 250 feet long, will be built along the pier. It will be equipped with offices and waiting-rooms. On both sides of the new pier it is intended to provide a railway line connected to the main line of the G.S.R. These branch lines will be equipped with travelling cranes capable of dealing with cars, baggage and merchandise. Adequate quays, roads, a car park, and additional space for storage will be made by filling in the disused dock to the east of the Dun Aengus Dock. This portion of the work is also in hand, and two caterpillar excavators are preparing the site. Till now the use of the harbour has been restricted to vessels with a draught of about 12 feet, entering or leaving one hour before or after high water, but when the scheme has been completed it will be possible for vessels up to 350 feet m length, and with a draught of more than 21 feet, to clear the passage with ease. Galway people see in the harbour scheme a new era of prosperity. Its completion, they say, will lead to many more ships making use of the harbour, with a consequent increase in exports and imports, and much-needed employment both at the docks and in the city.
The Burren and Beyond 