Galway In Days Gone By

The Padraic Ó Conaire statue in Eyre Square Galway in the 1950s. The original stone statue of the Connemara-born Irish language writer was designed by Albert Power, and it was unveiled by Taoiseach Eamon De Valera in 1935. In 1999, it was vandalised by a gang of drunken youths who knocked the head off. Surgery had to be carried out, including work on the nose, fixing the brim of the hat, and cracks along the neck. In 2004, while the Eyre Square redesign project was underway, it was moved to the grounds of City Hall, before being relocated to Galway City Museum two years later. The original statue is still being housed in the museum which is likely to be its permanent home. A replica replacement bronze statue is due to be put in place in Eyre Square in the coming weeks.

placeholder image — The Padraic Ó Conaire statue in Eyre Square Galway in the 1950s. The original stone statue of the Connemara-born Irish language writer was designed by Albert Power, and it was unveiled by Taoiseach Eamon De Valera in 1935. In 1999, it was vandalised by a gang of drunken youths who knocked the head off. Surgery had to be carried out, including work on the nose, fixing the brim of the hat, and cracks along the neck. In 2004, while the Eyre Square redesign project was underway, it was moved to the grounds of City Hall, before being relocated to Galway City Museum two years later. The original statue is still being housed in the museum which is likely to be its permanent home. A replica replacement bronze statue is due to be put in place in Eyre Square in the coming weeks.

1917

Severe cold spell

For the past week we have been treated to a severe spell of arctic weather – intense cold, frost and snow – which has now continued unabated for close on eight days. Snow fell copiously last weekend, and immediately a heavy frost set in, which put a glazed covering on the snow which rendered pedestrianism very dangerous and difficult, with the result that during the week, many severe falls were sustained.

The severity of the frost may be appreciated from the fact that the various locks and waterfalls in the city were frozen. The electric light failed on several nights, and caused much inconvenience, especially on Saturday night, when a dance, which was held in the Town Hall, had to be proceeded with in semi-darkness. The explanation of the failure is that blocks of ice got into the turbines.

The inhabitants of the city were fortunate that the water supply was not interrupted in any way.

A snow storm, stated to be one of the severest experienced in the district for the past fifteen years, has raged in Tuam and district for several days. An intensely cold eastern wind preceded the blizzard, making outdoor conditions disagreeably uncomfortable.

The snowfall, which began on Thursday afternoon, unceasingly for thirty hours, and on Friday morning, in consequence of the dry weather which had been prevailing for a week previous, the ground was covered in places by several feet of snow. The large, dry flakes came down in drifts, banks in many places varying from six to nine feet high, being accumulated in public thoroughfares.

Where medium-sized walls and fences formed the boundary between roads and fields, it was impossible to locate them, and in the course of seven or eight hours, the main roads became impassable.

On Friday afternoon, the streets of several towns in the district lay under a deep white mantle, which completely isolated the inhabitants from outside communications.

1942

Vaccination defaulters

The Corporation of Galway finds itself today with over 2,500 smallpox vaccination defaulters in the city, and the Department of Local Government and Public Health, which knows but the letter of the law, insists that the “necessary action” must be taken forthwith against the defaulters: this is to say, 2,500 prosecutions, every one of which may cost the ratepayers £1.

A great many of these “defaulters”, however, have refused to have their children vaccinated because they honestly believe that the process is not only useless, but actually harmful and, holding such belief, they cannot be condemned unreservedly. Their conscientious objection is no mere bee in the bonnet.

Connacht population decrease

Since 1936 the population of Connacht has decreased by 13,300 according to the preliminary results of the recent compilation of the register of population. The total population of the Twenty-Six Counties showed an increase of 21,300, as compared with the population on census date 26th April, 1936.

The population according to provinces showed an increase of 43,300 in Leinster, of which Dublin County Borough and Dublin County accounted for 31,300, but a decrease in each of the other provinces as follows: - Munster, 4,100; Connacht, 13.300; and Ulster (part of), 4,600.

The following are the figures for the Connacht Counties: Galway, 168,500 (increase, 300); Leitrim, 48,400 (decrease, 2,500); Mayo, 154,400 (decrease, 7,000); Roscommon, 76,200 (decrease, 1,400); Sligo, 64,700 (decrease, 2,700).

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.