Eamonn Corbett and 1916

Thu, Apr 24, 2014

Eamonn Corbett came from Kileeneenbeg near Clarinbridge. He was associated with the Volunteer movement in County Galway from 1914 onwards. After the Redmondite split he gave valuable assistance in organising the Volunteers throughout the county, and in 1915 he was assisting Liam Mellows while training the various companies in the Brigade area.

Constitution Day, April 18, 1949

Thu, Apr 17, 2014

On that day 65 years ago, the Government declared Ireland to be a Republic. This did not help Anglo-Irish relations at the time, and it also upset deValera and his Fianna Fáil colleagues, but it was the cause of public celebrations around the country.

Market Street, one hundred years ago

Thu, Apr 10, 2014

The title of this photograph is ‘Old Building, Market Street’ and it was taken about 100 years ago. The building in the foreground was at one time occupied by the Augustinian nuns who were based in Galway (where the Mechanics is today in Middle Street) before 1651. The last Augustinian nun to die in Ireland is buried in Forthill. These sisters formed part of the same Augustinian Order as the friars, as do their contemplative successors today in countries like Spain and Italy. Continuing persecutions and other historical pressures saw to the end of these nuns in Ireland, though some lingered on in Galway up to the middle of the 19th century.

Richardson’s pub, Eyre Square

Thu, Apr 03, 2014

The first reference to Eyre Square, or ‘The Green’ as it was then known, was in 1631 when it was planted with ash trees by Sir Valentine Blake. It was located outside the East Gate of the medieval city. “The square plot at the Green was set apart for the purpose of public amusement and recreation; it was enclosed with wooden rails and handsomely planted around.” The 1651 map of Galway features a row of small buildings which ran the length of the east side of the square.

The Presentation Convent

Thu, Mar 27, 2014

One hundred and ninety five years ago this week, the Presentation Sisters opened their convent on Presentation Road, on March 25 1819 to be precise. Some years before that, Doctor ffrench, the warden of Galway, went to Kilkenny to ask the sisters there if they could found a convent here. He had a fund for the purpose, and so, on October 27 1815, three sisters arrived to a house in Kirwan’s Lane. This building was not large enough for them and the 30 girls of the school which had been handed over to them by a committee of ladies, so they moved into a larger house on Eyre Square where they remained for three years.

Donnellan’s of Shop Street

Thu, Mar 20, 2014

This drawing of the facade of John J Donnellan’s business on Shop Street appeared in the Connacht Tribune of April 9, 1910. The accompanying text said: “Ladies and Gentlemen, I say you cannot do better than call at Donnellan’s, the popular Drapery House for your millinery, your mantles, your blouses, your dresses. Men, for your suitings, your outfittings etc. All goods marked one price – The Lowest. All departments crammed full with the latest novelties”.

Fifty years a-dancing

Thu, Mar 13, 2014

The word ceili means a gathering of neighbours in one house, which emphasised the social nature of the gathering. This inevitably led to music, singing, and dancing, to people doing their party pieces. There were a lot of ceilis in Mick and Maisie Hession’s household on Kingshill in Salthill. Mick Hession was an uileann piper who played a number of other instruments as well, and he regularly had other musicians visit the house for sessions.

The 1956 All Ireland final

Thu, Mar 06, 2014

“Grey beards may tell tall stories of ‘The days when men were men’ but never, I feel certain, was there an All-Ireland Senior Football final so completely, and let me add, so distressingly satisfying as the 1956 decider yesterday in Croke Park where Galway defeated Cork by 2 – 13 to 3 – 7.

The Central Hospital

Thu, Feb 27, 2014

“The newly constituted County Hospitals and Dispensary Committee met for the first time on the 25th of February, 1922, in the boardroom of the old gate lodge of the old workhouse to organise the transfer of the Galway Hospital (Infirmary) on Prospect Hill to the workhouse site.” The hospital (which was where the county council buildings are today) had come under the control of the county council the previous year and it wisely decided that it should be closed and the workhouse developed as a central hospital to serve city and county. The Prospect Hill unit was phased out and ultimately closed in December 1924.

Edward VII in Galway, 1903

Thu, Feb 20, 2014

At the beginning of the last century, the Prince of Wales would have been one of the most famous personalities known to most Irish people. He had been to County Galway on a few occasions hunting, but when it was announced he was going to make an official visit, it aroused very mixed emotions. There were a lot of objections locally, led by an umbrella group known as the National Council. They disrupted preparatory meetings by shouting and heckling. Nationalists were not impressed either and other objectors included Edward Martyn, WB Yeats, Maud Gonne, and George Moore.

Renmore Barracks, a brief history

Thu, Feb 13, 2014

Because of its strategic location, Galway was always an important centre for the military. The original fort in Renmore was known as St Augustine’s Fort and featured prominently in the 1641 rebellion, after which it was abandoned, the purpose for which it had been built having been accomplished.

The view from the distillery, c1885

Thu, Feb 06, 2014

Towards the end of last year, we featured a series of articles on the building that is now occupied by the students’ bar in NUIG. The building started as a jute bag factory, then was converted to a bonded warehouse for Persse’s Distillery, later became the National Shell factory during World War I, was occupied by the 17th Lancers and the 6th Dragoon Guards, before being converted into the ammunitions factory known as IMI.

Galway’s Quincentennial, 1984

Thu, Jan 30, 2014

On January 1 1984, President Patrick Hillery officially launched the Quincentennial, a year long celebration of 500 years of civic independence unique in western Europe. In 1484, a number of Galwegian merchants persuaded King Richard III to grant the city a charter which made the town a mayoral city. In the same year Pope Innocent VIII granted them the power to nominate their own warden and priests.

Tommy Moroney and the Galway hurlers

Thu, Jan 23, 2014

For many years the Galway hurling team qualified automatically for the All Ireland semi-finals as Connacht champions. The problem for them was the semi-final was always their first championship game, whereas the team they were playing always had a few good tough games under their belt. As a result, we only had the one championship game in the season and rarely got to the final.

An Irish Republic: The first blow is struck

Thu, Jan 23, 2014

One hundred years ago, a series of dramatic events caused turmoil in Ireland, and made rebellion practically inevitable.

Humble but happy homes

Thu, Jan 16, 2014

The library of Congress in Washington kindly lent us this photograph (originally one half of a stereo photograph), which was taken in 1903. It shows “The humble but happy homes of the Claddagh fisher folk, Galway”.

Salthill Prom in the fifties

Thu, Jan 09, 2014

The Prom has been much in the news in the last few days. In Victorian times, our ancestors used to advertise the Promenade as a place unrivalled in the country, where a person could take the healthy invigorating air like nowhere else. In those days, it was just a narrow crooked roadway, very rough and untarred, and it extended from Palmer’s Rock to Blackrock. There were no shelters or flower beds, indeed there was hardly any beach, just rocks and shingle and seaweed. The cleaning up process started when breakwaters and piers were built, so there is a lot more beach now than there was 60 years ago. There were no large boulders to strengthen the Promenade, and flooding from the tide was far more regular than it is today – with the experience of this past couple of weeks excepted.

Galway market in the mid-twentieth century

Thu, Jan 02, 2014

“Let not the visitor miss the joyful chaos of Galway’s week-end purchasing. Saturday is not a day of speed. Petrol must give way to horsepower and donkey-power, and cattle that like to investigate both sides of a road. Proud, glittering models of fame crawl humiliatingly in face of a stream of vehicles of astonishing build and variety, rumbling in from Connemara. Carts piled with sacks of oats, potatoes, flour; others with crates of wondering calves and bewildered fowls. It is the great day – not necessarily a happy one – of small brown donkeys further dwarfed by huge wheels and the garden produce heaped above them. Around you in the streets, or about the food market in the shadow of the ancient church, you can hear the musical Gaelic speech. Tall, handsome women of Spanish type dark-haired and dignified: island women whose features speak hardiness and force of character: and women of the rock-strewn dazzling region about Carraroe unwittingly bring upon themselves the staring that notabilities endure. The men also receive attention. Of fine physique their faces healthily browned by sea and mountain winds, they attract you so that you wander, fascinated, from group to group. Old men in home spun, with the wide-brimmed Connemara hats, and the younger in tailored suits and coloured felts of fashion are alike in keenness of selling and shrewdness of buying.”

The Galway volunteer memorial committee

Fri, Dec 27, 2013

This committee, also known as Coiste Cuimhneacháin Óglach Condae na Gaillimhe, was set up in the late 1940s, and represented all shades of political opinion. Its objective was to erect a memorial gateway to the memory of all the men and women of Galway city and county who suffered for freedom during the years 1916 to 1923. The chairman of the committee was Louis O’Dea and the joint honorary secretaries were Mrs T Dillon and Mr John Hosty.

Christmas Day in the Pro-Cathedral, 1842

Thu, Dec 12, 2013

This photograph of Lower Abbeygate Street was taken from the top of a warehouse on the corner of Whitehall c1870. In the foreground you can see the remains of the Browne Mansion, and the original site of the Browne Doorway. Further up the street is the Pro-Cathedral, which was the site of an appalling disaster on Christmas Day, 1842. The following, which appeared in The Dublin Pilot, is a graphic account of what happened.

E-paper

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