Galway In Days Gone By
1921
Settlement prospects
The invitation which Mr. Lloyd George issued to Mr. de Valera on Sunday asking him to “attend a conference here in London, in company with Sir James Craig, to explore to the utmost the possibility of a settlement” opened up a new situation full with hopeful possibilities.
All the more so because the conditions laid down when the British Premier talked of a conference some time ago were absent. He asked Mr. de Valera to bring with him “any colleagues whom you may select,” and offered safe conduct to “all who may be chosen to participate in the conference.”
Sir James Craig, having consulted with his colleagues in the Six-County Cabinet, replied on Tuesday: “In view of the appeal conveyed to us by his Majesty in his gracious message on the opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament for peace throughout Ireland, we cannot refuse to accept your invitation to a conference to discuss how best this can be accomplished.”
And he named as his colleagues in the conference four of his five ministers, including Lord Londonderry, who declared last week that they should leave no stone unturned in bringing peace to the whole of Ireland.
On the same day Mr. de Valera wrote to the British Premier that he was “in consultation with such of the principal representatives of our nation as are available.”
He reciprocated the desire to bring about “a lasting peace between the peoples of these two islands,” and added that he saw no avenue by which this can be reached “if you deny Ireland’s essential unity and set aside the principal of national self-determination.”
Crash on the Bay
Whilst circling at a low altitude near H.M. destroyer Urchin in Galway Bay on Monday afternoon, an aeroplane from the Oranmore aerodrome crashed head foremost into nearly three fathoms of water, pinning Lieut. Fleming, the pilot, and Corpl. Bond, the observer, underneath.
The pilot, who was cut about the head and knees, managed to extricate himself and by Herculean efforts and he clambered his observer to the tail of the ‘plane, which had remained above water.
The observer, who was under water for a considerable time, had become unconscious, in spite of which fact the pilot had managed to climb to the tail of the machine, dragging him with him. A boat immediately put out from the destroyer, and took both men to the Naval base at the Harbour.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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