Galway In Days Gone By

Connemara conditions

Investigations by our correspondent of conditions in Connemara and on the coastline go to show that whilst there is no actual want up to the present, the prospects before the peasantry for the next four months are not at all hopeful.

The potato, which is the staple food of the people, has been a partial failure, the yield not being up to the average of other years. The recent heavy rains made harvesting operations almost an impossibility, and where hay and corn have been saved, the crop has suffered in quality.

The Galway County Council, having regard to the need for increased Home Assistance in the Western districts of the county, have decided to authorise the Board of Health to expend up to £800 in Clifden Rural District, and a similar sum in Oughterard Rural District subject to the general limitation that the total amount of assistance must not exceed 6d. in the £ in the county.

The help offered by the County Council is a mere bagatelle, which can only go a very short way towards relieving the distress that is inevitable.

Pictured: HELPING HAND …The late Charles Haughey, Fianna Fáil Party leader and Deputy Frank Fahey give a helping hand to Deputy Máire Geoghegan Quinn after they arrived by helicopter on Inis Mór during the Fianna Fail General Election campaign in December 1986.