Galway In Days Gone By

Demanding release

Mr. J. Finnigan, chairman, presided at Mountbellew District Council meeting on Wednesday. Members present were: Messrs. P. Noonan, P. Fannon, M. Petit, J. Stephens, T. Brennan, M. Dillon, J. Mannion, W. Naughton, and P. Glynn.

Mr Naughton asked if the Macroom resolution about the release of prisoners had been received, and the clerk said he had no such resolution.

Mr. Naughton said they were all aware that the Government claimed that the majority of the people were behind them in regard to the legislative programme that they had carried out during the last fifteen months.

The recent election, he said, had shown that they have not the people behind them, and a lot of what had been done was under the Ku Klux Clan system. It was now the duty of every public body to revolt and show the Government that it had not the sanction of the majority of the Irish people, and public bodies should endeavour to remedy what had been done, especially in regard to the 15,000 men and women in prison.

He proposed the following resolution: “Whereas the people showed at the recent elections that the further administration by the Dublin Caucus of the Public Safety and Flogging Bill would be a gross violation of democratic Government, we, therefor, call on its promoters to relinquish the self-imposed task of safeguarding the public and release the men and women imprisoned, so that they can return to their families and friends who love and revere them for the heroic sacrifices they have made for Irish freedom.”

Pictured: The Morbegs relaxing at the Quincentennial Fountain in Eyre Square with some of the children who were there to help out with the opening of the Baboro International Arts Festival for Children in October 1999.