Galway In Days Gone By

Missing motor car

Acts of blackguardism are frequently perpetrated under the guise of practical jokes. On last Thursday night whilst two motorists were at a dance in the Town Hall, their car was taken, and having been driven all over the city, was left in a damaged condition a couple of miles out the Tuam road. The episode will probably cost the ratepayers £60, and this robs the occurrence of any title to be classed in the category of practical jokes.

Mr. Fred Statford, M.P.S., having as passenger Mr. O. Browne, drove into the city at 1 o’clock on Thursday night, leaving a new Morris Cowley car, which cost something like £300, standing outside the Town Hall.

Both gentlemen entered the dancing room, and in the morning, they found that the car had disappeared.

When found, the lights were still burning and the steering gear was seriously damaged. The engine had become so chilled with the night air that there was considerable difficulty in starting hit.

The matter has been reported to the Commercial Union Insurance Co., a claim has been lodged, and will be heard at the Quarter Sessions in Galway about the 28th January. We have not yet heard at what sum damages have been placed, but probably about £50 will be claimed, and this, with costs, will result in a nice levy upon the ratepayers of Galway for the action of two undetected blackguards.

A brave end

Mr. Michael Spain, Palmerston, Portumna, has during the past week received the sad news that his son, Henry Spain, a private in the 13th Battalion Canadians, was killed in action on the 1st December in France.

Spain went to America some years ago when quite a boy. When the war broke out, he crossed to Canada and came over with the Canadian contingent. He has been twice wounded. His father and mother are alive, and the greatest sympathy is felt for them in the sad tidings conveyed to them during the holy season.

They have four other sons in the fighting line, viz.: Joseph, Connaught Rangers (Mesopotamia); Michael, Leinsters (at present on sick leave from Salonika, who was also at the Dardanelles); Patrick, Leinsters (Salonika); Christopher, Artillery (Salonika). They have also four nephews, two grandsons in the army, and a son-in-law, Patrick Monahan, a prisoner in Germany.

Pte. Spain brings the roll of honour of Portumna men up to 11 killed since the outbreak of the war.

1941

Turning to God

“The fundamental condition for world peace is the reign of Christ in the souls of men,” said His Lordship, the Most Rev. Dr. Browne, Bishop of Galway, at Pontifical High Mass in St. Nicholas’s Cathedral, Galway, on Christmas Day.

There could never be true peace unless men and rulers and states recognised and observed the moral law, and they would not observe the moral law unless they believed in God and in His son, Jesus Christ, declared His Lordship.

His Lordship, the Bishop, said that the message of the angels, “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to men of good-will,” rang out to-day all over a world that paid little heed.

It rang out to a world that was not bathed in the soft light of peace, but in blood and tears. Instead of peace, there was war – war with a degree of suffering, misery and destruction that the world had never known before.

Terrible forces of evil were unloosed; the darkest side of human nature was supreme. Brute force cared nothing for beauty and truth and goodness and the very civilisation and progress that men were so proud of were to-day threatened.

Yet it was in such dark and terrible times that they could best understand the message of Christmas because it was in such dark and terrible times that they could realise the frailty and wickedness of men and that they could recognise how much they stood in need of a Saviour – of One Who would wipe away human sin and Who would lead men to the road of justice and charity and peace.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.