In the excitement of going away on holiday I gave the Advertiser the wrong text with last week’s photograph, so herewith the correct text and photograph.
This photograph of the Town Hall was taken about 1910. The building was handed over to the Galway Town Improvement Commissioners in 1884 and it functioned as a theatre, a dance hall, and a venue for meetings. It hosted variety shows, concerts, political rallies, fundraisers, etc. It was run by a Mrs Murray until the Hardiman family took it over, and they ran it from 1916 to 1967.
During World War I it was used by the British Army to host a recruiting meeting which had to be abandoned because of the very effective use of stink bombs by a number of volunteers (reputedly from Castlegar ).
After the Rising, the owner, Frank Hardiman, was imprisoned in Frongoch. He was a committed republican and hosted a number of Sinn Féin meetings and fundraisers during the War of Independence in the Town Hall. It was used by the British Army as a detention centre. On December 30 1920, some of the internees at the ‘temporary camp’ there, having contracted the mumps, were removed to the Isolation Hospital at Lough Atalia. The remaining prisoners were confined at the Town Hall, the County Jail, the camp of the 17th Lancers at Earls Island, while others were confined at various camps and barracks throughout the county.
On October 2 1921, a céilí was held there in aid of the Republican Prisoners’ Dependants Fund. Some Auxiliaries tried to get in for nothing and a fight ensued. Shots were fired, and people threw themselves on the floor. It was some time before it was realised a soldier had been killed and another injured. The soldier, Lieutenant Souchon of the 17th Lancers, was being driven past the Town Hall when the shooting started, and he died instantly. His driver was wounded but recovered later in St Bride’s. Once people knew someone had been killed, the céilí was abandoned. Both sides denied the shooting.
The earliest reference I have come across to moving pictures there was in 1912 when “The Original Irish Animated Company” announced a one-week programme of films there. These were silent films so the Town Hall employed live musicians to accompany the films.
When the Town Hall became a cinema only, all of the windows and the splendid portico were bricked up, as you can see from our photograph. During the 1930s many people loved going to this cinema because they played classical music over the PA for about half an hour before the programme started, but also around that time, they had to face the wrath of the bishop who proclaimed, “The children were learning evils and vices of the underworld through the cinema”. After the war cinemas had to include live shows so as to avoid tax, so Des Fretwell was employed as the resident musician.
The building next to the Town Hall was a Georgian house built in 1835 named Buckland Buildings, but known locally as Parochial House. It also was used briefly as a detention centre by the British Army in 1921. On July 26, 1926 it opened as the Church of Ireland School of the Parish of St Nicholas. The first headmistress was a Miss O’Brien. The building was not in very good shape and was eventually demolished to be replaced by a new school on the site in 1965. While the construction was going on, the pupils were accommodated in a room across the road (in the building to the left of our picture ) in Maurice Semple’s office. It was owned at the time by the Mercy nuns who offered the space free of charge. Maurice Semple was a solicitor whose passion for collecting material relating to his native city resulted in a number of well illustrated books, which in turn inspired many Galwegians to value their heritage.
In the foreground of our photograph you can see a couple with their donkey and cart, possibly going home from the potato market in Woodquay. It is the lady who is holding the reins. She is dressed in a beautifully patterned shawl, a práiscín over her petticoat, and a sturdy pair of boots. In the background you can see the Galway-Clifden Railway Bridge across the river.
