Coláiste Éinde, founded 1928

Thu, Jul 23, 2015

Coláiste Éinde was one of the institutions founded by the State shortly after attaining freedom. It initially suffered from ‘growing pains’. It started on October 23 1928 in Furbo House, and later moved to Dublin before eventually finding its home in Threadneedle Road. The building was constructed by Stewarts to house St Louis nuns attending UCG and also for a girls’ organisation.

Seapoint Ballroom

Thu, Jul 16, 2015

Sixty six years ago tomorrow, on July 17 1949, Seapoint Ballroom was officially opened by Joe Costelloe, Mayor of Galway, at 10pm. 

The Galway Fishery

Thu, Jul 09, 2015

The first documented reference to the Galway Fishery is found in the Pipe Rolls, a collection of financial records maintained by the British Treasury. The Rolls of 1283 AD refer to the fishery at the time being part of the property of Walter De Burgo. The fishery passed through several ownerships until 1521 when Henry VIII granted a licence to Janet and Anthony Lynch to have three nets upon the river of Galway between the bridge and the sea and to build one water mill upon the river wherever they thought proper. In 1570 Elizabeth I granted the mayor, bailiffs, and commonality of the town and their successors “The customs of one salmon every Wednesday out of the Great Weir, a salmon every Saturday out of the High Weir, a salmon every Friday out of the ‘hale’ (haul) net and as many eels as shall be taken in one day out of twenty eel weirs.”

Peg Broderick-Nicholson and the War Of Independence

Thu, Jul 02, 2015

Peg was born at 17 Prospect Hill of parents with a strong nationalist outlook. She went to school in ‘The Pres’, where after the 1916 Rising there was a pitched battle between the wearers of the red, white, and blue badges (common during World War I) and those wearing green, white, and gold badges. The green side won, but then all the badges were confiscated by Mother Brendan.

Elegant streetscape

Thu, Jun 04, 2015

There is a lovely vintage quality about this photograph of the most elegant corner in Galway, which was taken about 1950 at almost 6.15 in the afternoon. It shows how the three corner buildings, all of which are slightly rounded, complement each other. It was always known as Moon’s Corner or Dillon’s corner, never McNamara’s corner.

John Hosty, 1916 veteran

Thu, May 28, 2015

For John Hosty from Shantalla, the ‘physical force’ movement originated some time before 1910 with the publication of The United Irishman, a newspaper which kept a lot of young people from following ‘the constitutional movement’. When the 1913 Oireachtas was held in Galway, Seán McDermott used the occasion to swear in a number of young Galwegians to the IRB, and from then on they did all they could against the Irish Party, including distributing anti-enlisting literature at all hours of the night.

May Sunday at Menlo

Thu, May 21, 2015

Maytime was traditionally considered a time for festivals, and Galway was no exception to this. In fact it used to be said that the citizens had an almost reverential attachment to the old custom of going out to Menlo for three Sundays in May to partake in the pleasure of the open air and the early summer sun. It was known as ‘Maying in Menlo’.

Protecting Edward VII - A ‘friend of the Pope’, in Connemara 1903

Thu, May 21, 2015

Pleased with his friendly reception in Dublin in 1903, His Majesty King Edward VII determined to visit the wilds of Connemara and Kerry. Such a visit presented a number of problems for Dublin Castle, not least was security at a time when nationalism was rearing its head, and seldom lost an opportunity to express itself by demostrations and protests. I learn something of these concerns from a delightful book Memories: Wise and Otherwise. by The Rt Hon Sir Henry Robinson, Bart, KCB. (Published by Cassell and Co, London, 1923). Robinson was head of the Local Government Board in Ireland, and a man, who in the tradition of Somerville and Ross, saw humour in the Irish character, and indeed in the efforts of Britain to maintain control in Ireland.

Father Patrick Peyton, the Rosary Priest

Thu, May 14, 2015

Patrick Peyton was born on January 9 1909 in Attymass, Co Mayo, one of nine children. When they were growing up, the rosary was central to their lives. His family were subsistence farmers and unable to afford to send him to a seminary, so for a number of years he worked on the farm to help them earn a living as his father was too ill. Then he and his brother emigrated to America. They eventually entered a seminary in Notre Dame to study for the priesthood, but their hopes of being ordained together seemed to be dashed when Patrick got TB. The doctors told him his only hope was to pray, and pray he did, to the Blessed Virgin. He promised her he would dedicate his ministry to her and to the family rosary if he was saved. And so it came to be the two brothers were ordained as Holy Ghost Fathers together on June 15, 1941.

Galway Gaol

Thu, Apr 23, 2015

Our illustration today is of a ‘Wanted’ poster offering a reward for any information on a prisoner, John Hynes, who had escaped from Galway Gaol on November 29, 1892. We do not know what Mr Hynes was in jail for, but £100 was a lot of money in 1892, so it must have been a serious crime.

The Jesuits in Galway

Thu, Apr 16, 2015

The Jesuits have been working in Galway since the early 1600s. Even before then, men from the west of Ireland had been joining the order. It was the policy of the order at the time that only priests with a fluency in the Irish language would be sent to work in their native areas.

The Augustinian nunnery

Thu, Apr 09, 2015

The Augustinian Friars have been in Galway since 1508 when Margaret Athy, whose husband was mayor at the time, built a friary at Forthill, near a spring called St Augustine’s Well, the waters whereof wrought miraculous cures. In O’Flaherty’s Iar-Chonnacht, there is reproduced a document in which a miraculous cure is attested to by the signatures of several witnesses.

The Barracks, Eglinton Street

Thu, Apr 02, 2015

In 1640, on the site of this barracks, there was a three storey slated house to the front, and a one storey thatched house to the back. It was owned by Oliver Dean, an Irish papist. In 1657 it was owned by John Peters, an English Protestant, and was called Peter’s Plot.

The Presentation Sisters, 200 years in Galway

Thu, Mar 26, 2015

In 1815, the warden of Galway Dr French went to Kilkenny to ask sisters of the Presentation Order to return with him to Galway to found a convent here. A Reverend Bartholomew Burke has left a fund of £4,800 for the purpose. Three sisters arrived here in October of that year. They moved into a house in Kirwan’s Lane temporarily, and from there to Eyre Square. On March 25th, 1819, they moved to a house in poor condition that had originally been built as a Charter School and which would become known as the Presentation Convent. The following year they opened their school adjacent to the convent.

Cobblers and shoemakers

Thu, Mar 19, 2015

The 1651 map of Galway shows a Shoemaker’s Tower located in what is the Eyre Square Shopping Centre today. Shoemaker’s Lane, or Bóithrín na Sudairí, the road of the shoemakers or the tanners, was where Buttermilk Walk is today. Shoemaking was always an important business but the individual shoemaker is a rare breed now, instead you associate the craft with factories like Dubarry in Ballinasloe.

The Head of the River

Thu, Mar 12, 2015

In 1976 a group of likeminded people got together to work out a way to make the sport of rowing in Galway more competitive. They decided the best way to achieve this was to set up a new club, and so Tribesmen Rowing Club was formed. Starting a new rowing club is an expensive business so they began a number of fundraising activities, running raffles, organising dances, etc. They managed to get their first crew on the water in 1977.

Remembering Máire Stafford

Thu, Mar 05, 2015

Máire and Seán Stafford were a touchstone of Irish language culture in this city for more than 60 years. They each had many and different talents and, when they were together, they made a formidable team. They were always together. It took him a whole three weeks after he met her to ask her to marry him. They kept Conradh na Gaeilge going for years, they kept Feis Ceoil an Iarthar going for years, they kept Féile Drámaíochta na Scoil going for years, they were the mainstay of An Taibhdhearc from 1950 for many years, their contribution to the quality of life in Galway was immense. They also reared a very talented family, many of whom were on the stage for the first time while still in their mother’s womb.

The winter tram

Thu, Feb 26, 2015

This photograph of a single-deck horse drawn tram was taken in Eyre Square c1900. The American style dome roof top cover provided cover for passengers during the winter. In one of their books, Somerville and Ross described these vehicles thus: “The little one-horse trams glide along the shining desolate road like white-backed beetles.” This tram was painted in a battleship grey colour. The double-deck open summer trams, which needed two horses to pull them, were painted in olive-green and white.

Post office communications

Thu, Feb 19, 2015

This photograph of a group of postmen was taken on December 17 1928 outside the General Post Office in Eglinton Street. The sorting office was inside the double gate, as was the long narrow passage that brought one into the back of the post office. The car in the background was a Model T. Notice the cobbled footpath.

The Galway General Omnibus Company

Thu, Feb 12, 2015

Our photograph today shows a Karrier double-decker bus which was operated by the Galway General Omnibus Company. It was taken at the Spring Show in the RDS in 1924, before it went into revenue earning service. The side panel carries the name of the company, but not the crest. The small lettering on the chassis below the word ‘Galway’ reads ’12 m.p.h.’ A major problem with this type of vehicle was its chain drive which frequently slipped off and caused breakdowns. The bus had solid-tyred wheels and was uncomfortable to ride in.

E-paper

Read this weeks E-paper. Past editions also available from within this weeks digital copy.