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.

The Conradh na Gaeilge Oireachtas and Ard-Fheis held in the Town Hall 1913

Thu, Dec 05, 2013

Conradh na Gaeilge, also known as the Gaelic League, was founded by Douglas Hyde and Eoin McNeill in July 1893. Their aim was to keep the Irish language alive and preserve the Gaelic elements of Ireland’s culture. It was open to all creeds, was non-political, and accepted women on an equal basis. It used a broad approach, organising classes and competitions in Irish music, dancing, literature, and games. After a sluggish six years in existence, it suddenly morphed into a mass movement.

Irish metal industries

Thu, Nov 28, 2013

Over the last few weeks we have been writing about the building on Earl’s Island which began life as a bleach and flax mill in the 1850s. It was then converted into a jute factory, became a bonded warehouse, a factory for making cannon shells during World War I, and was occupied by the 6th Dragoon Guards and the 17th Lancers during the War of Independence. After the British army left, it was vacant for a while before being converted into a factory known as IMI, or Irish Metal Industries.

Shantalla village, 1945

Thu, Nov 21, 2013

This remarkable photograph of Shantalla village was taken in 1945 by Pádraic Mac Dubháin and is from the National Museum collection. You will sometimes see the place name written as Shantallow and you will hear it pronounced Shantla by people with Galway accents. It is derived from the Irish ‘Sean Talamh’, old ground, though why Shantalla should be older ground than that which surrounds it is a mystery. Maybe it is because some of the land was not being worked.

The 17th Lancers in Earl’s Island

Thu, Nov 14, 2013

When World War I finished and the National Shell Factory on Earl’s Island closed down, the buildings were taken over by the 6th Dragoon Guards who had a reputation for wanton brutality. This was unusual in that most well armed British army units, with few having a role in the intelligence conflict, were rarely attacked during the War of Independence in the west of Ireland. While individual RIC men became defined as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, it was army regiments, rather than individual soldiers, that became so defined.

The Galway national shell factory

Thu, Nov 07, 2013

During the First World War, towns and cities throughout Britain and Ireland had factories producing munitions for the battlefield. Galway was not one of these locations and indeed many Galwegians were travelling to the UK to work in these factories. There was a lot of criticism over this and so the members of the Urban Council and some local industrialists began a lobbying campaign to attract such an industry to the city. It would create employment and would be beneficial to the community.

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