Galway In Days Gone By

Housing need

Few towns in Ireland need houses so badly as Galway. The pestiferous areas of Munster-lane and the Claddagh are a disgrace to civilisation. Apart from this, and notwithstanding the building that is proceeding apace, there is real need for additional houses.

The forty-two ex-servicemen’s houses built at Fairhill and the additional accommodation provided at Lenaboy and elsewhere have done little to appease the house hunger. The truth is that the population of Galway has increased, is increasing year by year.

Therefore, the problem providing good housing and accommodation at a reasonable rate becomes an urgent one.

We print on the opposite page details of a scheme for 107 new houses which a committee of the Galway Urban Council proposes to put before that body with a view to its recommendation to the Local Government Department under the new grants for building in the Free State.

We sincerely hope the scheme will be put through. No doubt, there will be some controversy about the widening of Silke’s corner, but the widening has got to come. But for the incompetence and the lack of moral courage on the part of the officials and council in the past, this work would have been carried out years ago.

1950

Racing carnival

Next week, Galway will be the centre of not merely one of the greatest sporting attractions of the West but one of the premier events of the Irish racing calendar.

A good entry for all races, a course in excellent condition, brisk booking in all the hotels and boarding houses, improved rail and ‘bus services to and from the city compared with the services in operation since the beginning of the emergency, and the prospects of favourable weather all combine to create conditions for an outstanding race meeting at Ballybrit on Wednesday and Thursday of next week.

Ballybrit, of course, will be the main attraction for everyone next week, but Race Week also brings to the city streets as well as to Ballybrit an atmosphere that makes the Western Carnival a unique affair. This carnival aspect of the week has played no small part in making the name of the Galway Race Meeting well known across the Channel as well as all over this country.

The carnival feature is by no means a touch of the Blackpool spirit. The gaiety of Galway Race Week is always restrained by dignity and there is a wholesomeness in the mood of the West of Ireland at play.

Pictured: HISTORY WALK - Ray McBride, who acted with Druid Theatre, during a walk to Mutton Island at low tide before the causeway was built, in March 1998.