Old Galway
BALLYBRIT MEMORIES
by Tom Kenny
On the night before the papal visit, most of our extended family moved into my brother’s house in Ballybane. No motorised traffic would be allowed near the place on the day of the event, it would be a shorter walk from Ballybane to Ballybrit, and maybe we would have a chance to get a little more sleep.
Some chance! The extraordinary carnival atmosphere outside as crowds of people made their way towards the racecourse made sleep impossible. My sister-in-law had made an enormous pot of soup, and it was all needed as we spent our time bringing out bowls of soup, mugs of tea and coffee, sandwiches, etc., mostly to people who had travelled long distances by coach and who were now walking to Ballybrit. For them, as for us all, it was a true pilgrimage in every sense of the word.
THE COLONIAL BUILDINGS
by Tom Kenny
“An important structure is now in the course of completion in ‘the citie of the tribes,’ which will supply a decided want in that hitherto neglected town, but destined – we trust at no distant period – to be a great highway from the Old to the New World. Very little indeed has been done in Galway in the way of building improvements, but a wide field is now being opened; and as transatlantic commercial intercourse increases, so must her prosperity and architectural requirements,” so began an exciting article in The Dublin Builder of Jan 1st, 1860. It continued:
“The new institute presents a frontage of about 40 feet by 70 feet flank, each elevation harmonizing in character, and displaying architectural features, with bowed connection between the two fronts. Towards the principal street, on ground floor, is a large business concern, with about 25 feet frontage and 33 feet depth, with central doorway, and also communicating with a small office, a fire-proof safe room, parlour (15 feet square), pantry, hall, and staircase of a private house. In the basement are various apartments, comprising kitchens, servant’ bedrooms, sculleries, cellars, etc, to meet the requirements of the habitations with which they are in connection. The plans throughout are admirably arranged, and in execution will, no doubt, prove most commodious.
MacDONNELLS OF WILLIAMSGATE STREET
by Tom Kenny
In 1904, M.J. McDonnell, Confectioner, announced the fact in the local papers, that he had just opened a TEA ROOM at Number 8, Wiilliamsgate Street where ladies and gentlemen ‘can have freshly made tea and cakes – all cakes made freshly on the premises with the purest ingredients only. Seed, Plum, Rich Plum, Madeira, Citron, Cherry, Sultana, Genoese, Pastry etc. White and Brown scones, Cream scones and Crumpets always in stock. Ice Creams in 24 hours’.
Jellies, Blanc Manges, Meringues, Pies, all could be made to order as could sweets in great variety. Large or small luncheon and tea parties could be catered for at 24-hour notice. Light Luncheons and Teas were ‘Comfortably’ Served. Wedding cakes could be ordered at the shortest notice and they were also agents for Fuller’s Confections.
SEAGHAN UA NEACHTAIN
by Tom Kenny
This iconic building dates from the late 16th or early 17th century. It has two-bay elevations on two streets, a beautiful three light oriel window with mullions and a transom in at the back. It also has a slight buttress or batter at the base of the outer wall as has the building now occupied by Evergreen at the top of High Street. The premises has a long and interesting history.
It was the town house of Richard Martin, better known as Humanity Dick because he was one of the founders of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He was one of the Martin family who owned much of Conamara, and was elected as Member of Parliament for Galway on a number of occasions. He used to claim to have ‘the longest drive in the world’ which started just outside Galway and went out as far as Ballynahinch. Martin built a theatre in Kirwan’s Lane for his wife who fancied herself as an actress. They put on plays there – Martin acted in some himself – but the project came to an end when a young Theobald Wolfe Tone came to live with the family.as a teacher of their children. He also featured in some plays, but he had an affair with Mrs. Martin and was ‘asked to leave’. Enthusiasm for theatricals evaporated.
THE CHRISTMAS MARKET
by Tom Kenny
The Saturday Market at St. Nicholas’ Collegiate Church is a Galway tradition that goes back some 800 years. It was a fruit and vegetable market which expanded greatly at this time of the year when the farmers brought in large numbers of turkeys and geese for sale.
From very early morning, a procession of donkeys would set out, nose to tail, for the market. There, the donkeys were unharnessed and tethered to a wheel, the shafts were let down and the goods to be sold were displayed on the sloping cart. Vendors came from many more prosperous areas and their wares were a source of envy to those who lived in the congested strip along the coast. Eggs in big wicker baskets with hinged lids, ducks, hens and chickens, wooden kegs of buttermilk, home-churned butter laid in rolls on cabbage leaves, cabbages, onions, sometimes geese, hand-knitted socks --- all sold briskly to people of the town. At Christmas time, this market would be much bigger than normal and there might be two or three extra market days where the emphasis would be on selling turkeys or geese. On these days, the activity would extend into adjoining streets.
TOWN HALL INTERNMENT CAMP
by Tom Kenny
The last months of 1920 were the most vicious and bloody in the war of Independence in Galway. There were a lot of killings, burnings, shootings and beatings. There was a sweeping roundup of hundreds of the usual suspects and the old gaol in Galway could not take any more prisoners. Two internment camps were opened in the city, one in the military camp on Earl’s Island where “33 of us were given 32 blankets and herded into an old hut without glass in the only window, and never got a cup, knife or cup during our 13 days” according to John Costello. These prisoners were eventually moved into the Town Hall Theatre which was commandeered as the second internment camp.
THE GALWAY ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY
by Tom Kenny
The Galway Electric Light Company was set up by James Perry, an engineer and County Surveyor of the Western District of Galway, and his brother, Professor John Perry to generate electricity. On November 1st, 1888, they applied for permission from the Galway Town Commissioners to ‘erect poles in some parts of the town as an experiment for the electric lighting of the town’. The company had established a generating station at Newtownsmith in an old flour mill which had existed since the 1600s and straddled the Friar’s River. They installed a hydroelectric turbine in the watercourse which was linked to a generator producing alternating current.
The plant at Newtownsmith consisted of a 200 BHP VJ4 Vickpet crude oil engine manufactured by Vickers Petters of Ipswich, a National and Crossley gas engine of 60/70 BHP each fuelled by anthracite coal and a Hay Maryon turbine of 130 HP supplied by water power. In addition, they had an extensive battery system where surplus current could be stored. The company started off with a private scheme customer base of 59 houses and this was the reason for their application to erect poles to deliver current to their customers.
SOME OLD ELECTION POSTERS
by Tom Kenny
Election posters are very much part of the democratic process. They are primarily used to urge people to vote, to communicate political messages, rally public support for a candidate or a cause. They play an important role in our documentary history and are often a powerful way to capture a moment in time. They can be used to educate, inform and inspire people. They also generate loyalty to the cause from the thousands of volunteers who hang the posters up. They were an especially powerful form of communications for previous generations.
In the latter part of the 19th century a kind of ‘cartoon war’ developed between Ireland and the UK. The British cartoonists increasingly caricatured the Irish as simian, ape-like creatures, ogres. The Irish cartoonists, on the other hand portrayed the Englishman as a normal man, a portly tweedy John Bull. But the Irish used the word as the strong weapon to get their message across. These continued into the early 1900s as political posters were used to promote the cause of Irish Independence, often in a highly emotive way depicting powerful images of the Irish people and their struggle for freedom.