Search Results for 'Fr Dooley'

In 1895, the Galway Woolen Mills opened in Newtownsmith on land that was owned by Marcella Burke. The project was set up to provide employment, especially for young women, rather than to generate profits. Fr Dooley, the diocesan administrator, was the driving force behind the project and it was known locally as “Fr Dooley’s Mill’ long after he died in 1911. He took over three houses in order to build the mill. The hours were long and the pay was not great, 7/6 for women and 18 shillings for men.

Although assisted emigration was frowned upon by some bishops and by the Land League leaders Michael Davitt and Charles S Parnell, there were some assisted schemes that were carefully planned, and in many cases worked well. The schemes that worked best were those which helped Irish families to avoid settlement in the great eastern cities of America where large numbers were caught in huge, stinking slums where it could take a generation or two to escape from.

There is a very interesting map of “St Stephen’s Island” in Mary Naughten’s excellent little history of the Parish of St Francis in Woodquay. It is dated 1785 and shows the beginnings of what would be now known as Newtownsmith. It consisted mostly of small houses, yards, malt houses, and a burial ground. This ‘new town’ was largely built by the governors of the Erasmus Smith estate. In this suburb, a county courthouse was erected between 1812 and 1815, and a town courthouse during 1824. In 1823 it was objected that there were several suitable sites for a new courthouse ‘immediately in the town’ and that it was ’quite idle’ to lay foundations in Newtownsmith, or in any part of the suburb.