Galway In Days Gone By
1925
Power of water
The observant stranger visiting Galway for the first time never fails to express his surprise at the little use we make of the water power of the River Corrib.
An Irish-American visitor, Mr. O’Shaughnessy, the Art Commissioner of Chicago, who is a native of Gort, and who was in Galway last summer, spoke with enthusiasm of the wonderful possibilities that lay in the harnessing of the Corrib, and was astonished to learn that no effort on a big scale in this direction had been made since he left his native county nearly forty years ago.
In this connection, it is worth mentioning that an English journalist just back from Canada has given in a London paper an account of the benefits derived from the utilisation of Niagara’s water power as a source of electrical supply.
It should be studied with interest here in Galway. The writer confesses that he was puzzled by “the biggest powerhouse in the world”. He says: “I felt more competent to take an intelligent interest in what a consumer had to tell me about the uses of cheap current in his home. “My average bill is five dollars (about £1),” he said.
“That is for a family of four in a seven-roomed house. We use at home an electric cooker; electric water heater for constant hot water supply to bedrooms, kitchens and bat; electric refrigerator, gramophone, vacuum cleaner, fans, iron, table toaster and coffee pot; an electric machine that does all the family washing, electric light, of course; and just a trifle of current for the radio and all that from Niagara for five dollars a month!”
1950
Minister V Doctors
Dr. Browne, Minister for Health, is angry with the doctors and the doctor are even more angry with Dr. Browne. The Minister wants free treatment on a voluntary basis for all mothers and children and the doctors are opposed to this because it would cut across private practice and might be the beginning of even more far-reaching State control of medicine.
Dr. Browne has been given a severe jolt by the medical profession and how it all will finally work out, nobody can say.
If the doctors should resist the scheme, it cannot very well be made operative, but on the other hand, as it is to be free and voluntary, it may be possible to launch it irrespective of the degree of success which may be achieved.
Pictured: The organising committee of the Shantalla Residents’ Association annual dinner in the Sacre Coeur Hotel, Salthill, on October 13, 1978. Seated, from left: Mr. Tom Browne, Mrs. John Francis King, Mr. John Francis King, Mayor of Galway and Mrs. Vera Browne, Secretary. Standing, from left, Mr. pat Harlowe, Mrs. Annie Griffin, Mr. John Sullivan, Mrs. Pat McDonagh, Mr. McDonagh, and Mr. Joseph Potter.