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Old Galway
SATURDAY IN THE MARKETPLACE, 1948 (02 01 14)
“Let not the visitor miss the joyful chaos of Galway’s week-end purchasing. Saturday is not a day of speed. Petrol must give way to horsepower and donkey-power, and cattle that like to investigate both sides of a road. Proud, glittering models of fame crawl humiliatingly in face of a stream of vehicles of astonishing build and variety, rumbling in from Connemara. Carts piled with sacks of oats, potatoes, flour; others with crates of wondering calves and bewildered fowls. It is the great day – not necessarily a happy one – of small brown donkeys further dwarfed by huge wheels and the garden produce heaped above them. Around you in the streets, or about the food market in the shadow of the ancient church, you can hear the musical Gaelic speech. Tall, handsome women of Spanish type dark-haired and dignified: island women whose features speak hardiness and force of character: and women of the rock-strewn dazzling region about Carraroe unwittingly bring upon themselves the staring that notabilities endure.
THE GALWAY VOLUNTEER MEMORIAL COMMITTEE (26 12 13)
This committee, also known as Coiste Cuimhneacháin Óglach Condae na Gaillimhe, was set up in the late 1940’s , and represented all shades of political opinion. Their objective was to erect a memorial gateway to the memory of all the men and women of Galway City and County who suffered for freedom during the years 1916-1923. The chairman of the committee was Louis O’Dea and the joint honorary secretaries were Mrs. T. Dillon and Mr. John Hosty.They commissioned the distinguished Cork sculptor, Seamus Murphy to come up with a design which is what we illustrate today. The monument was to be erected on O’Brien’s Bridge and would open on to the bank of the middle river, thus making the walk available to the citizens.
CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE PROCATHEDRAL, 1842 (12 12 13)
This photograph of Lower Abbeygate Street was taken from the top of a warehouse on the corner of Whitehall c.1870. In the foreground, you can see the remains of the Browne Mansion, and the original site of the Browne Doorway. Further up the street is the Pro-Cathedral, which was the site of an appalling disaster on Christmas Day, 1842. The following account, which appeared in The Dublin Pilot, is a graphic account of what happened.“I write to give you the earliest information of a very sad catastrophe whic occurred this morning in the parish chapel. As is usual here on every Christmas morning, he first mass is read at 6am. The doors opened at 5am.
THE CONNRADH NA GAEILGE OIREACHTAS AND ARD-FHEIS HELD IN THE TOWN HALL 1913. (05 12 13)
Connradh na Gaeilge , also known as the Gaelic League, was founded by Douglas Hyde and Eoin McNeill in July 1893.
Their aim was to keep the Irish language alive and preserve the Gaelic elements of Ireland’s culture. It was open to all creeds, was non political and accepted women on an equal basis. They used a broad approach, organising classes and competitions in Irish music, dancing, literature and games. After a sluggish six years in existence, it suddenly morphed into a mass movement.
IRISH METAL INDUSTRIES (28 11 13)
Over the last few weeks, we have been writing about buildings on Earl’s Island which began life as a Bleach and Flax Mill in the 1850’s. It was then converted into a Jute Factory, became a bonded warehouse, a factory for making cannon shells during World War 1 and was occupied by the 6th Dragoon Guards and the 17th Lancers during the War of Independence. After the British Army left, it was vacant for a while before being converted into a factory known as IMI, or Irish Metal Industries.It was opened by Seán Lemass, Minister for Industry & Commerce on July 22nd, 1935. The site consisted of about 13 acres of which 3 were occupied by buildings.
SHANTALLA VILLAGE, 1945 (21 11 13)
This Remarkable photograph of Shantalla Village was taken in 1945 by Pádraic Mac Dubháin and is from the National Museum collection. You will sometimes see the place name written as Shantallow and you will hear it pronounced Shantla by people with Galway accents. It is derived from the Irish ‘Sean Talamh’, old ground, though why Shantalla should be older ground than that which surrounds it is a mystery. Maybe it is because some of the land was not being worked. Our photograph shows a cluster of thatched cottages and outhouses on the Rahoon Road, possibly near where the entrance to Highfield Park is today. It was taken from a small hill in the foreground.
NEWTOWNSMITH, c.1870 (18 07 13)
Newtownsmith was an important development outside the town wall on the northern side of the city in the late 18th and early 19th century. The project was undertaken by the Governors of the Erasmus Smith Estate. In this suburb, the county courthouse was erected between 1812 and 1815 and a little later in 1824, the town courthouse. In 1823, it was objected that there were several suitable sites for a new courthouse ‘immediately in the town’ and that it was ‘quite idle’ to lay foundations in Newtownsmith, or in any part of the suburb. Galway’s second bridge was completed in 1819 and it connected the courthouses with the new (1810) county and town gaols on Nun’s Island.
WILLIAM EVANS OF ETON (11 07 13)
William Evans of Eton (1798-1877) was the drawing master of that public school in England and was an accomplished artist who exhibited widely in London, Dublin and Paris. He made a number of visits to the west of Ireland in 1835 and 1838 where he produced a lot of studies and finished watercolours, mostly of Counties Galway and Mayo, a mixture of picturesque landscapes, market and street scenes and what might be called peasant structures and peasant portraits. Some were of Galway City and many of Conamara. One cannot be sure what brought him out to ‘the wilds’ to that very rugged terrain which would have been remote and very adventurous for an English artist at that time. He liked the parts of Ireland least visited and said that “Ireland failed to attract the pencils of the recording brethren of the easel and lay like a virgin soil untouched by the plough”.