Galway In Days Gone By

Prison for poteen

At Galway District Court on Monday, the story of an exciting chase after three men engaged in the traffic of poteen was related to District Court Justice Gleeson, when Patrick O’Malley, Carraroe, was charged with illegal possession of illicitly distilled spirit.

Sergeant King said that on June 28, accompanied by two guards, he lay in wait at Ballinacourty pier at 3 a.m. for a Connemara boat, which he suspected of carrying a cargo of poteen.

The boat arrived shortly after three o’clock. Witness saw here men take three kegs from underneath some turf in the boat, and they stepped ashore with the kegs. Witness came out of his hiding place, and on seeing him, the three men ran.

The guards pursued two of them, and witness pursued the third, the accused, who jumped from the pier into the turf boat. Witness also jumped into the boat before O’Malley had time to put out to sea and arrested him. The other two men succeeded in making their escape.

Mr. O’Dea, solr. for the defence, said O’Malley was on his way to look for work in Athenry, and the owners of the boat gave him a seat from Carraroe. It was usual for men of O’Malley’s type to leave the rock-bound districts to seek work in the rich inland parts of the county.

The justice, in sentencing O’Malley to one month’s imprisonment and fining him £30 or another two months, said that these people were very poor and had to migrate from Connemara to the rich inland parts of the county was no palliation of the offence.

Pictured: Mayor of Galway, Cllr Fintan Coogan, with the 'Rose' finalists during the Oranmore Galway Shawl Festival on July 15, 1988.