Galway In Days Gone By

Defence of the Realm

On Wednesday night and early on Thursday morning, Michael Thornton, M.T., Furbough, and Mr. George Nicolls, B.A., Coroner for West Galway, were arrested at their homes and conveyed to Renmore Depot.

Yesterday, the arrests took place of Mr. Padraic O’Maille, D.O., Maam, and Mr. Richard Murphy, merchant, Athenry. All these men were interned from Easter Week until the general release of the Irish prisoners before Christmas.

Yesterday afternoon the mail train from Galway to Dublin was stopped by special order at Renmore siding, and the prisoners were taken away under armed escort. Their arrest was taken calmly, and there has been no demonstration of any kind.

It is not known on what charge the prisoners have been re-arrested, but it is supposed that this step has been taken under the Defence of the Realm Act.

A Dublin correspondent writes that the arrested men will be deported to England where they will be compelled to reside for the present. Barney Mellows, who has been arrested in Dublin, is a brother of Liam Mellows who escaped from England before the Easter Rising, and led the Volunteers in Galway, after which he is supposed to have escaped to America.

Police intervention

The power of the Food Controller was made evident in Galway on Saturday, when the police intervened to enforce Lord Davenport’s order, fixing the price of potatoes at 1s. per stone. There was a fairly large market, and from 1s. 3d to 1s. 5d was demanded by the vendors of the potato. The member of the constabulary informed the sellers that they would not be permitted to receive more than 1s. per stone. After some demure and deliberation, they decided to accept the amount divided upon.

1942

Hush hush!

Galway Corporation on Thursday welcomed back to its bosom Councillor Joseph Young, who was making his first appearance since an accident in the hunting field. During his regretted absence from its deliberations our local legislature, as was its duty, had held several meetings to discuss the appalling conditions that exist in the Galway slums, and the Connacht Tribune duly reported those meetings, as was our duty.

This has upset Councillor Young. It is bad for the tourist traffic, he says. Rambling around Clare and Limerick during his convalescences, he found many people who, apparently, were regular readers of the Connacht Tribune (advertisers please note) and who wanted to know what was wrong. One gathers that they said as one man put it “Kilkee for our holidays – or Lisdoonvarna – any place but Galway!”

This sort of thing must stop, says Councillor Young. When next Dr. Powell, or some other conscientious official, exposes any of our sores – the dreadful news must be kept out of the press. The newspapers graciously will be permitted to expatiate for all they are worth on the many advantages of Galway as a holiday centre, including its remarkably low death rate, but must not, in any circumstances, hint that, in common with thousands of other holiday centres at home and abroad, it has its black patches.

A similar outcry was raised by some members of the Corporation when this paper exposed the scandal of the water supply about a year ago. One gentleman accused us of taking the bread out of the mouths of poor people who had to depend upon the tourist trade for a living. But we persisted, with the result that the citizens of Galway now have a safe water supply – and, despite all the croakings of the dismal Jeremiahs, last year’s tourist season was one of the best the city has ever enjoyed.

The only way in which Galway Corporation can prevent us from publishing reports of its proceedings is to hold the meetings behind closed doors or in committee. Otherwise, we shall continue to do our duty by the public and every man who is deliberately responsible for bad housing or insanitary conditions can rely upon us to give him all the publicity he deserves – if his name is mentioned at a Corporation public meeting.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.