Search Results for 'Fr Peter Daly'

In 1852, Fr Peter Daly purchased the estate of Kilcorkey from the Encumbered Estates Court. The owner of an adjoining site subsequently disputed his title to a particular plot and brought proceedings against him. Peter Daly, however, proceeded to construct on the plot in question a building he described as "A Benevolent Home for aged respectable females whose circumstances would render them unable to afford themselves a comfortable home". An attempt was made to settle the case out of court but it failed and, in court, judgment was given for the plaintiff Miss Grattan Esmonde. She was given possession of the house in August, 1863.

“...give me your tired, your poor,

The unfortunate collision of the Indian Empire into the well marked Margaretta Rock in the middle of Galway Bay was a blow to the newly established Galway Line. But by no means was it a knockout. Galway’s vaulting ambition to open a new ‘highway between the old and new worlds’ took on an even more determined energy. The exploitation of steam-power, driving ever bigger ships and faster trains, led to wild speculation as to what could be achieved even from Galway, in the middle of the 19th century.

Reading through William Henry’s comprehensive digest of the story of Galway * from its original foundation on the banks of the Corrib to the present day, I am reminded that there was an extraordinary burst of optimism and creative energy in the middle of the 19th century despite the ravages of the Great Famine barely a decade before.

In the edition of the Galway Weekly Advertiser March 25 1843 extensive coverage is given to the funeral of George Frederick De Carteret, a young ensign in her Majesty’s 30th Regiment, who drowned when he fell into the docks on his way back to the Shambles barracks three days before. He served on the revenue cutter The Raven. After a ‘party of pleasure’ he was walking along the docks, ‘the night being pitchy dark and tempestuous’ he was blown over ‘the brink’ and drowned before his fellow officers could reach him.*

Despite the excitement, the prospects, the agreement to carry mail, and new luxury ships, the Galway transatlantic adventure headed by J. Orwell Lever ended in failure within six years.