Search Results for 'Old Galway Society'

On August 4 1914, Lt Col Henry Jourdain, Commander of the Connaught Rangers in Renmore Barracks, Galway, received mobilisation orders which changed the lives of thousands of families throughout the city and county. Urgent appeals for recruits were sent out. Hundreds of young men began arriving from all over Connacht. Temporary military camps were set up outside the barracks to cater for the recruits.

Events are to be held locally this week to mark the centenary of Armistic Day.

Some 100 years before this photograph was taken, most of the area we are looking at would have been under water, the river covered much of what is Woodquay today. Most of the people who lived in the area would have been small farmers or fishermen, their houses (outside the city walls) made of blocks of stone, often with moss stuffed into the crevices and a roof covered partly with straw, partly with turf. The river provided a rich source of food, though in the city, the fishery, from the Salmon Weir to the sea, was privately owned.

It is not surprising that any child with imagination, and an interest in the sea, would spend time at the city’s harbour watching the ships come and go, and the men who worked there as they talked and unloaded fish or cargo. As a child Kathleen Curran, once the home chores were done, would run down the back paths from her home on College Road and along Lough Atalia to the docks. ‘There she would stand and gaze in wonder at the ships, boats and trawlers, hookers and gleoteóigs tied up or coming and going about their business.’

This pub was one of Salthill’s landmarks for over a century. It was a post office originally until Joe Crehan from Ballinasloe bought it at the end of the 19th century and converted it into a pub, grocery, and guest house. The name Ballinasloe House was quickly shortened in Salthill to ‘The Bal’. At the time Salthill village ran from here to Seapoint with a few houses further west.

This photograph, taken from an old glass slide, shows some important personage in an escorted carriage leaving the Great Southern Hotel. There are some mounted liveried gentlemen in front and two RIC men on horseback behind the carriage, which is hidden by the RIC men. You can see a policeman on foot to the right of our picture.

This photograph was taken about 100 years ago and shows several boats from the Claddagh fleet moored at the quayside.

In the early 19th century, most of the area we see in our photograph would have been under water. Woodquay was so called because of the 150 feet wooden quay that ran the length of it. It was a kind of second docks for the city, attracting a lot of commercial traffic down the river. The Corrib Drainage Scheme in 1852 began to change the face of the space we are looking at, and later, when Steamer’s Quay was built, the area was gradually filled in and reclaimed.

Michael Madden came to Taylor’s Hill from the Ballinasloe area c1898. His family had been in the nursery business there since the 1830s, and in Laurencetown before that again. He leased the land in Taylor’s Hill from Colonel Courtney. In 1902, his brother James and his wife Elizabeth came to live there also, and a few years later, on Michael’s death, they took over the running of the nurseries.

Michael Madden came to Taylor’s Hill from the Ballinasloe area c1898. His family had been in the nursery business there since the 1830s, and in Laurencetown before that again. He leased the land in Taylor’s Hill from Colonel Courtney. In 1902, his brother James and his wife Elizabeth came to live there also, and a few years later, on Michael’s death, they took over the running of the nurseries.