The Galway Vindicator of November 24, 1863 reported that “The completion of the Grattan Road will add much to the beauty and salubrity of the handsomest of our suburban districts. The embankment being made by Miss Grattan will reclaim 28 acres of land which is now a swamp, but which will become, with little cultivation, some of the most fertile ground in the neighbourhood. In the past season of distress, Miss Grattan has given great employment to the poor of the neighbourhood in making this road and embankment. Since June last, up to the present time, there have been over 200 labourers employed and from 12 to 14 masons regularly. It will, when finished, alter the appearance of Salthill and contribute much to make that favourite place one of the nicest locations in the kingdom”.
In 1870, a committee of the Town Commissioners was formed to establish an Industrial School. In June 1871, the house and grounds of Benevolent House owned by Miss Grattan Esmond were acquired and fitted up to house 50 boys at a cost of £450 and in September of that year Salthill Industrial School was opened for "the reception, religious instruction and vocational training of destitute poor boys". Two hundred and eleven boys were admitted the following day.
The boys studied farming, shoe making taught by Mr McDonald, tailoring, carpentry, baking taught by Mr Flannelly, wheelwright’s work taught by Tom O’Connor, painting, in addition to Christian Doctrine, reading, recitation, writing, dictation, arithmetic, singing and geography. Mr Fogarty Kelly was the music master and taught saddlery. In 1883, a number of local tradesmen complained that the school was doing their type of work at lower rates of pay. The dairy and cattle farming section became so successful that local farmers complained. Into the 1970s, over 3,400 boys were admitted, staffed by up to 500 Christian Brothers.
This aerial photograph, taken in 1953 by Captain Morgan and given to us by The National Library, shows how accurate that prediction of 1863 by the Galway Vindicator was, how they were able to reclaim land and make it fertile.
The planted fields in the foreground were used to grow food for the community and to train some of the boys in horticulture and farming. The farm buildings can be seen on the far right of the photograph, next to that was the hospital. The row of buildings adjoining the fields were all classrooms, nos 1 - 6, then workshops. The row of buildings which backed onto Stewarts were also workshops.
That part of the complex which ran along the main road included the chapel, the refectory and the dormitories in addition to recreation rooms.
The buildings in the left foreground are the offices and workshops of Stewarts, the builders. Many of the houses we see along Lower Salthill Road were occupied by people who taught in the Industrial School. The house next to the school on the town side was occupied by the Leyden family, and later by a shoemaker named McDonald and his family. He employed a dwarf named Paddy O’Brien who had been a pupil of St Joseph’s. Next door to them were Wards.
St Mary’s Avenue, known locally as O’Leary’s Lane (Tim O’Leary had a well-known shop on the corner ) ran up to St Mary’s Terrace at the bottom of Taylor's Hill. The field beside it is all developed now. The Bishop’s Palace is seen to the left as is the Bishop’s Field which ran down to the Bishop’s Gate on the Salthill Road. Notice the number of trees. At the top left of our picture, you can see the beginnings of the Shantalla scheme.
