Galway In Days Gone By

Tuberculosis in milk

It has been established beyond all doubt that one of the primary causes of tuberculosis in Ireland is the use of milk from tubercular cows. The cow, we are told, is peculiarly susceptible to tuberculosis, so that it is obvious that the first step to be taken in the campaign against the white plague is to insist that purveyors of milk should keep none but tubercle-free cows.

This is the view of Dr. Thomas Walsh, Galway, who attended the annual conference for the prevention of tuberculosis in July last as the representative of Galway County Council, and who has now presented a report to the Council.

Dr. Walsh and a number of colleagues have combined to form a research group with the object of attacking tuberculosis and other diseases.

1950

Top Gaeltacht parish

Carraroe enhanced its claim to be Ireland’s premier Gaeltacht parish when on Sunday last, His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Walsh, Archbishop of Tuam, blessed and opened a £3,000 sports field there, dedicated to the memory of the late former Dáil Deputy Seán Keane, who was the originator of the project.

Literally hewn out of the granite rock, the Seán Keane Memorial park as it is now called is the first of its kind west of the Corrib and a striking testimony to the unflagging courage and determination of the people of Carraroe in overcoming those natural obstacles to progress, with which the Gaeltacht abounds.

Beginning with a grant of £1,340 obtained by the late Mr. Seán Keane from the Fianna Fáil Government as an unemployment relief scheme, the sports field committee raised £450 locally.

When this sum was found inadequate to carry out the scheme, representations were again made to the present Minister for Finance and a further grant of £1,340 was obtained.

A site of five-and-a-half acres of rocky mountain land was obtained near the village and the work took over twelve months to complete. During that time, an average of fifty tons of sand was used daily to fill the hollows and half-a-ton of explosives was used to blast away the rocks.

Pictured: Julia Heaney in her and her husband James "Ruachan" Heaney's grocery shop at the bottom of Eyre Street on June 1, 1984.