The National Library gave us this aerial photograph of the ‘Regional’ under construction in 1953. The foundation stone for the hospital was laid in 1949 by Dr Noel Browne, the Minister for Health. Just in front of it you can see the old Central Hospital. The building of the new involved the demolition of the rear wing of the old Central. Long-term patients in the Central were accommodated in temporary huts located in front of the building, an arrangement that allowed the Central to function more or less normally during construction.
The first patients admitted to the Regional were brought into the Paediatric section which had accommodation for 50 infants and children. All of the patients in the Central were transferred into the new block on April 3, 1956, greatly helped by the assistance of the Knights of Malta Ambulance Corps. The Regional was up and functioning. The old Fever Hospital, built in 1909, is just about visible at the back. The adjoining Nurse’s Home was also still under construction.
The Lower Newcastle Road, seen running up the right of our photograph, is a traffic-free zone, not a vehicle to be seen. The buildings in among the trees were known as the Model School. This little complex was built in 1849/50 at a cost of £2,533 plus £800 for furniture, one of a series of Model Schools built around Ireland at the time. It formally opened in July 1852 and catered for Protestant children.
Frances Moffatt, in her wonderful book I Also Am of Ireland described it as follows: “The school I went to was not a very large modern one. It was a mixed school and very prettily situated. Anybody seeing it from the road would never think it was a school but a private building. For the entrance there is just a small narrow gate and a path that is styled ‘The Avenue’. On each side of the path there are different trees which make it very pleasant. There was no artificial light in the school and no heating pipes, just a coal fire which made it look very cosy. In a varied curriculum, the boys did woodwork and the girls did cookery. The girls always ate what they cooked and so always looked forward to cookery day. Physical education was an important part of the education and some singing was also taught.”
The school was eventually closed and was taken over by UCG who established the Chemistry Department here. At the time, the Patrician Brothers owned a field at the back of UCG near Distillery Road and Newcastle played all of their home games in the Streets Leagues there in the 1950s. Eventually the college offered to exchange the Model School for this field and the Brothers agreed. They then demolished the school and built a block of apartments which is now in the form of an office block occupied by the HSE.
At the bottom left of our image, you can see some of the first houses of the new estate that is Shantalla today. In the distance, you can see the newly constructed Newcastle Park and the sparsely populated Newcastle Road with the Franciscan building on the top right. Apart from that, it is all green fields and stone walls. The remains of the spur railway line that ran from the Clifden Line up to the quarries in Shantalla are just about visible.
This photograph is one of 45 images that make up an exhibition titled Old Galway, A Bird’s Eye View now on show in the Kenny Gallery in Liosbán. It is a unique view of the old city, you are not looking at streets or buildings, you are looking down at them, into their gardens and open spaces, you are looking at how these spaces have been filled, how Galway has changed and developed. It is a fascinating collection and should not be missed. Open for the month of April.
