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The mid-19th century was an era of little movement of people for social or pleasure purposes. In the post-Famine era, it was only business people of necessity, those who were emigrating or those whose financial circumstances allowed who travelled. Railway travel had come Galway in 1851 and there were a few horse drawn omnibuses operating between the city and the village of Salthill, which was really a rural backwater. But, it was becoming a fashionable place to live and was developing as a tourist destination. It was therefore no surprise when a tramway system between the city and the village was proposed.

A TG4 documentary to be shown next week will recall how city teenager Paddy Devlin travelled from Galway to Belfast to enlist in the British Army in 1941 and became one of its deadliest snipers.

By Maxim Kelly

Mayo County Library is hosting a major commemoration of the 225th anniversary of the 1798 rebellion in Ireland also known as ‘The Year of the French or Bliain na bhFrancach’. The programme coincides with 1798 Music Festival which will be held in the town over the weekend and its focus on history and heritage complements the more public events of the festival. The commemoration event will consist of:

On January 15, 1827 two Patrician Brothers, Paul O’Connor and James Walsh, took up residence in Lombard Street and set up the Monastery School. The attendance on that first day was 300 boys, many of whom had little interest in learning because they were poor and hungry. So the Brothers set up The Poor Boy’s Breakfast Institute in May 1830. It continued seven days a week, 365 days a year for many years after the founders' time. The breakfast consisted of porridge with molasses or treacle, and during the Famine, they fed 1,000 boys every day. The ‘Old Mon’ became a vital cog in education in Galway.

Professional boxer Kid Johnson, an American light-weight champion, was touring Ireland in 1902. In January, while at the Town Hall in Castlebar, he sparred with Darkie Barton. The Boxing World & Mirror of Life announced that Barton, an 'old man' in boxing circles, held his own, and afterwards, the pair agreed to a formal match. In September 1901, Barton had been knocked out in one minute and five seconds by Henry Brown, Liverpool's 'coloured champion'. Browne had also disposed of Johnson in four rounds.

Week II

The Irish Church Missions was the missionary wing of the Church of Ireland and England. They were a very rich organisation who felt it was imperative to convert Roman Catholics “from the errors of Popery”. Around the year 1850, they had two houses in Merchants Road and established a school in one of them (known as The Dover School) where a child might get an evening meal and a night’s lodging after attending a Bible class.

The Galway and Salthill Tramway Company was inaugurated in 1877. The Town Commissioners gave the project every encouragement and extended the time limit in which the tracks had to be laid. The single tramline was two and a quarter miles long with eight passing loops, roughly 250 yards apart. The rails were heavy steel, the gauge was three feet wide and the trams were horse-drawn, there was no electricity in Galway for another 12 years or so. The cost of construction was £13,000. The depot was in Forster Street and the western terminus was opposite the Eglinton Hotel.

This club, originally established in 1864, must be one of the oldest in Galway, if not one of the oldest amateur sporting clubs in the country. Unfortunately, the minutes of the club meetings for 1864 and 1865 cannot be found, but we are fortunate that Maurice Semple had access to the minutes for most other years and published them in a book entitled A Century of Minutes, the Story of the Corrib Club, 1864 – 1966.