Search Results for 'Clifden'

Here are five top tips from Slimming World on how to start making positive changes second nature this year.

Week III

It must have been an extraordinary sight in the 1860s to see Kylemore castle rise from a bog in the heart of Connemara’s Twelve Pins, barely a decade following the devastation of the Great Famine. More than 100 men were employed, some coming from as far away as Renvyle and further, at a handsome wage of seven to 10 shillings a week, turning rough, soggy land, only good for shooting wild fowl and for fishing in its nearby lakes, into a magnificent building. Today it stands more like a palace than a castle, and is still a show-stopper on the Letterfrack road.

Clifden was not the only town to experience the terror of British forces running wild, shooting, and setting fire to buildings. The previous year, July 19 1920, Tuam suffered a similar experience as Clifden, only mercifully no resident was killed on that occasion.

The murderous and vengeful events that followed 'Bloody Sunday' 1920 impacted on the town of Clifden in an unexpected way. There was shooting and murder on its streets; and, following a rampage by the Black and Tans, practically half the town was burnt down.

The volunteer crew of Clifden RNLI were requested on Tuesday to conduct a search operation in response to an EPIRB signal eight miles west of Clifden.

It is probable that if the coastal route had been chosen for the Clifden railway, rather than the Oughterard/ Maam Cross way, the line would still be viable today. The idea of the so-called ‘Balfour lines’, proposed by an enlightened chief secretary for Ireland, Arthur J Balfour, and given the go-ahead in the 1889 Light Railways (Ireland) Act, was to give far-flung towns and communities access to bigger markets, and to grasp the benefits of employment and opportunities.

Turning the Tide is a new book about Westport’s last resident parish priest, Bernard Burke. He was born in Omey Island in the parish of Clifden and after attending the local school, went to St Jarlath’s, Tuam.

John Henry Bailey was a well known business man in Galway at the close of the 19th century. He was a rate collector and an auctioneer but was better known for his selling and repairing Morris cars from his garage on the east side of Eyre Square, on a site now remembered as the former Odeon Hotel. He also had the distinction of being the first man in Galway to ride a bicycle.

“It has a brand name like no other,” Paul O’Brien says with a drop of hope about Galway and how the town will flourish again. These are radically different times and the deserted city streets illustrate how much everyday life has changed.