Search Results for 'motor car'

The first motor car was imported into Ireland in 1896. The early ones were steam-powered and badly suited to Ireland’s climate and roads. There was no surface on the roads, lots of potholes left by horses and animals, and of course pedestrians who were unfamiliar with motor cars. Some thought they were parts of trains that had broken off, noisy and smelly vehicles driven by faceless people – drivers wore goggles and head coverings to keep smoke from the engines and road dust from irritating their eyes and nose. Others thought they were the devil’s work and would bless themselves and say a prayer as these cars went by.

As a result of a number of years planning by some enterprising young men, a meeting took place in the hall of the Mechanics Institute on this day, May 15 1875, one hundred and fifty years ago with the purpose of forming Galway Commercial Rowing Club. The resolution was formally proposed and seconded and unanimously adopted. The subscription was fixed at £1 which included the entrance fee and the annual sub. The following committee was elected – Laurence Carr, J St George Joyce, Morgan Lee, Thomas O’Gorman, Thomas Hogan, Thomas Hayes McCoy, Y Kean, James Maher, B Roche and Patrick Bodkin. In addition, 62 members enrolled.

In 1902, the number of fairs listed for Eyre Square was: January 1st; March 20th & 21st; April 14th & 15th; May 30th & 31st; June 20th; July 13th & 14th; August 6th; September 3rd & 4th, 20th & 21st; October 21st; November 2nd (pigs only); and December 8th & 9th. This list gives one an idea of how important and busy the Square was for commerce at the time. These were occasions when the country came to town, when rural people brought in their produce and hoped to convert it into cash.

Cars have played a key role in Irish society over the past half century. Back then, not everyone had a car, so they were a novelty, a treat which created the notion of the Sunday spin, the journey to a match, the 'are we there yet?' moments that fill the memory boxes of so many families.

I have often wondered how the unusual name of Zetland found its way to the head of Cashel Bay in the heart of Connemara. It is, of course, the name of a well known hotel today. The hotel was founded in the closing years of the 19th century, by the son of a mountain farmer, JJ O'Loughlin, who had a canny instinct for business. The hotel was originally called The Zetland Arms, and before that The Viceroy's Rest. All these names allude to the hotel's distinguished patron Lawrence Dundas, Viceroy or Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1889 to 1902, in which year he became the Marquis of Zetland.

The word ‘hackney’ derives from the place name Hackney in London which supplied horses from the surrounding meadows. An ordinance for the regulation of hackney coachmen in London was approved by the English Parliament in 1654 to “remedy the many inconveniences [that] do daily arise by reason of the late increase and great irregularity of coaches and coachmen.” The first hackney carriage licences date from 1662. Licences applied literally to horse-drawn carriages, later modernised to ‘hansom cabs’ that operated as vehicles for hire.

Insider thinks the answer to this question has to be: probably not. Capitalism is a voracious system forever in search of somewhere to put its money so that it can turn that money into more money.

The North Mayo-West Sligo Heritage Group will host a talk by A.G Leonard in the Ballina Family Resource Centre on Tuesday, April 30 at 8pm, on the photography work of his grandfather, Jack Leonard - entitled 'In My Grandfathers Time.'

Next week a commemoration will be held to remember the tragic explosion of a sea mine, 100 years ago on June 15 1917, at Lochán Beag about three miles west of An Spidéal.

We are one month out from Christmas, to the day, and I would like to mark it by wishing you and yours a happy Black Friday. The retailers’ fabricated start to the Christmas shopping season has already caught on in little old Ireland. The run up to Christmas no longer begins on the Church’s specified day, but instead is determined by frenzied shoppers, wound up by delighted retailers. Of course, the upside is that shoppers bag bargains, businesses take on extra employees, and extra income is regenerated as a result of the additional footfall.