Search Results for 'Michael Hackett'

In the early fifties, Sisk’s (led by foreman Jack Lillis) built a factory ‘out the country’ on a two-and-a-half acres on Sandy Road. It was part of a 15-acre site and the state-of-the-art building would house an industry called Galway Textile Printers which would become known as ‘The Cotton Factory’ or even ‘The Cotton’. We already had a hat factory and a china factory in Galway, but this was industry on a new scale in here. They quickly became one of the biggest employers in the west of Ireland. A number of those who worked there were specialists who were brought in to help set up the factory, but most of the employees were local.

The first golf course in Galway was constructed by Lieutenant Colonel Jourdain, the last Colonel of the Connaught Rangers, on military grounds at Renmore Barracks, between the rifle range and Cromwell’s Fort, in 1893. Play was originally confined to military personnel, but then some members of the public were invited and it took off so well that the colonel and his friends were invited to lay out a course on Knocknacarra Hill.

The correct name for this promontory is Blake’s Hill which comprises approximately 30 acres. Gentian Hill was a much smaller area further north, but nowadays the whole area is referred to as Gentian Hill. An extract from O’Donovan’s Letters described it as follows: “Here in Blake’s Hill over the sea, whither the young men of Galway were wont to come on horseback on the third day of their May game, and there dine between the hill and the castle of Barna. Sir Moragh O’Flaherty of Aughamore defeated an army out of Clanricard on the 22nd of June 1564 on the strand at Traybane, Cnoc an Blacaigh.”