“On April 8th, 1911, a sworn enquiry was held by Mr. J.F. MCabe, Local Government Board Inspector, into the application of the Urban Council for a loan of £6,520 for the erection of 40 artisan or working class houses in Henry Street and Kelly’s Lane. A plot of land of two acres in Kelly’s Lane and Henry Street was to be sold by a Mr. Seddle to the Council for £475 upon which the houses would be built at an estimated cost of £140 each. The Houses were to be two-storey cottages, with a kitchen and bedroom at the back, and two bedrooms overhead, porch and shelter to back door, a w.c., a small yard and water supply through a 3” main in the back yard. The yard was to be 14 feet in depth and the width of the house”.

The Report from the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry of 1826 list the following schools in the Barna area --- Barna Village, Barna House and Furbough.

The Master in Barna Village was Michael McDonogh, a Catholic, who was paid two pence a week for each scholar. The classes were held in the chapel of Barna. By the Protestant return, all the pupils were Roman Catholic, thirty one male and four female. By the Catholic return, there were forty four males and five females. Griffith’s Valuations shows that this school stood on a site of 2.30 acres within the Campbell Estate.

The title of this photograph is ‘ A Claddagh Family’ and it dates from c1865. It is from an album discovered some time ago in Chetham Library in Manchester in which all of the photographs are of locations in Galway city or county. It is interesting to note that a photograph of this exact group in a different pose, almost certainly taken on the same day, is in a different album in the National Library of Ireland.

“Why oysters were so popular from the earliest times has never been satisfactorily explained. Most commentators attribute to them great virtues in restoring and maintaining health. They “nourish your heart, cherish your blood” according to one Dublin ditty and an English writer once stated that they can “make the sick well, render the healthy stouter, prolong the shortening days of senility and impart an additional charm to youth and beauty”. These are truly great virtues that must be balanced against any vice they are thought to bring in their train. I refer naturally to their reputed aphrodisiacal qualities which are said to exceed all other elixirs, potions and concoctions”.