Search Results for 'Michael Lydon'

On the 1651 map of Galway, Bohermore is shown as running from The Green (Eyre Square) to the present Cemetery Cross where the ‘Old Gallows’ was located. There was also a gallows ‘where justice is executed’ near the Green. To the left and right of Bohermore, the land was known as St Bridget’s Hill and the region around Prospect Hill was known as Knocknaganach (Cnoc na Gaineamh), the Sandy Hill.

Ninety years ago, on August 2, 1931, the world famous long-distance swimmer, Miss Mercedes Gleitz, attempted to swim from the Aran Islands to Salthill. She did in fact manage to swim from Inis Meán to Spiddal in 18 hours 43 minutes, a distance of 18 miles as the crow flies, but it was estimated that with currents, etc, she covered a distance of nearly 30 miles. Two days later she gave a swimming demonstration in Salthill and presented a cup to the Chamber of Commerce to be presented to the school in the county which presented the greatest number of swimmers in relation to its student numbers. She stimulated a lot of interest in the sport, which had received a terrific boost just a few months before with the formation of two clubs, Blackrock Swimming Club and Galway Swimming Club. This guaranteed competition between the clubs and quickly helped raise standards.

In the year 1527, it was decreed in one of the Galway Statutes that “At no time to use ne occupy ye hurling of ye little balle with the hookie sticks or staves, nor use no hand balle to play without the walls, but only the great foot balle”. It seems the authorities of the day were trying to limit the playing of hurling, but they might as well have tried to hold back the tide.