Galway In Days Gone By

Police brutality

At the meeting of the Tuam Board of Guardians on Saturday, Mr. T. Connolly, Vice-Chairman, presiding, a letter was read from Mr. M. J. Nohilly, Secretary of the Tuam Sinn Féin Club, forwarding for adoption a resolution passed on the motion of Professor Whelan, and seconded by Mr. G. Guy, solicitor.

The writer asked the resolution to be considered from “a human standpoint.” It ran: “That the Sinn Féin Club condemns in the strongest terms the outrageous and brutal conduct of the police on the occasion of the recent arrest of Volunteers, in three times entering the sleeping apartment of one of our most respected townswomen, she being then in bed, and insultingly refusing to leave when called on to do so; that we further condemn their callousness in entering the sleeping apartments of the lady employees in the same establishment without permitting them time to dress; that in view of the fact that one of these constables admitted to the lady subsequent to the first to raids on her room that they had no warrant or authority – and only then produced one – we beg to call the attention of the Irish public bodies to the seriousness and gravity of the claim made by such action of the police in thus violating what is sacred to every decent Irish mind, the privacy of our women’s apartments; that we hold their conduct to be disgusting, unmanly, cowardly and brutal.”

1943

Art gallery request

“It will be a sad day for Galway if the people cannot be aroused to share in the excitement which the bequest of the late Mrs. Charlotte Frances Shaw for Irish cultural purposes has caused in Dublin, and if they do not make an effort to secure some of the money for cultural work in the city.” This view was expressed to our representative by Prof. Mrs. Donovan O’Sullivan, M.A. D.Litt., U.C.G.

Prof. Mrs. O’Sullivan, who is one of the leaders in an effort to stabling an art gallery in Galway, has been in communication through Mr. Stephen Gwynn with Mr. George Bernard Shaw – the correspondence began long before the publication of the bequest of Mrs. Shaw – regarding efforts being made in Galway to establish an art gallery and has received very kind encouragement from the 88-year-old dramatist who stated in one of his letters (before the publication of the bequest) that it was well that Mrs. O’Sullivan and others should know that money was to be made available for such purposes.

Pope in danger

In the course of his Pastoral Letter, which is in Irish and in English, His Lordship, the Most Rev. Dr. Browne, Bishop of Galway, states: In the midst of the present terrible war the eyes of Catholics all over the world are turned to the figure of His Holiness Pope Pius XII who stands high above the turmoil, shining a light amidst darkness.

He has never ceased to recall the minds of men to the truths of the Gospel and to preach to them justice, charity and peace. He has endeavoured to relieve the sufferings of prisoners, internees and starving populations, to whom he has sent through his representatives, food, clothing and help of every kind.

Now the tide of war has drawn near his residence and his sacred person: with horrified indignation the world has read of bombs falling in the city of Rome and even in the precincts of the Vatican.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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