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Old Galway
THE CLASS OF ‘82
by Tom Kenny
One hundred and sixty years ago, in 1862, the Jesuits opened the doors of St. Ignatius College on Sea Road for the first time. They also opened a Community residence and a church at the same time. To take on such an ambitious building project at a time when the economic state of the country was so bad took courage and vision.
The move to Sea Road was a success, attendances at mass and ceremonies grew rapidly, confessions sometimes went on until midnight. The College, however, was more of a challenge. The numbers at first were as expected, grew steadily to 90 in 1865 and reached 110 in 1874, but they began to fall thereafter and were inconsistent from year to year. In 1899 there were 49 pupils in the school. Numbers were low but academic standards were high. Things improved a little in the early 1900s but social, economic and political challenges in the 1920s saw a new decline in numbers and by 1924 there were only 67 boys on the rolls. Two years later, it was decided to close the school.
THE MODEL SCHOOL
by Tom Kenny
The Model School on Newcastle Road was built in 1849/50 for a cost of £2,533 plus £800 for the furniture. It was one of a series of Model Schools built around that time and was the only one constructed under budget. It opened in July 1852, 170 years ago this month. It catered for Protestant children.
In 1904, the Chief Secretary of Ireland, Mr. Wyndham, declared in Parliament that the average attendance in the school for the year 1903 was 95 and the expenditure out of public funds was £482. 11s.
THE BOYS’ CLUB
by Tom Kenny
“There is nothing as Galway as Our Lady’s Boys’ Club,” was how our president Michael D. Higgins described OLBC some years ago at a function in the Columban Hall. It is over 80 years since it was founded and it is the longest-running youth club in the country. It was set up by Fr. Leonard Shiel S.J. at a time when there was a lot of grinding poverty in Galway and no recreational facilities or extra-curricular activities for young people in areas like the Claddagh, Bohermore, Shantalla and ‘The West’. The club provided these and has been a source of guidance and inspiration to thousands of young men and boys since, especially those from working-class background. From that first day of nervous membership, right through their teens, and even after they had taken up the challenge of adult life, the spirit and watchful eye of the Club is ever with them.
THE BISH
by Tom Kenny
The Patrician Brothers, at the invitation of the last Catholic Warden of Galway, arrived in Galway in 1826 and a month later they opened St. Patrick’s Monastery and School on Market Street. They initially had 200 pupils but this figure rapidly grew so that during the Famine, there were over 1,000 boys being educated, fed and many of them clothed there every day. The school was a major success but there were no educational facilities for older boys in the ‘lower orders’ in Galway so Bishop McEvilly invited the Patrician Brothers to set up a secondary school.
SICKEEN/ SUCKEEN
by Tom Kenny
According to O’Donovan’s Ordnance Survey Letters from 1839 “Suckine is now pronounced Suicín, which is, out of satirical humour frequently called Suicín na Mallacht, that is “Sickeen of the Imprecations or curses”. It is written Sickeen Dyke in the Name Book and described as lying where the road from Galway to Menlo crosses the flooded land at Coolagh.
The word Suicín means Dyke so the above may refer to the Dyke Road.
In various old maps it is spelt Sickeen, Suckeen, Succeen, Sikeen, Silkeen, Sickeen Lane and in more recent times is described as St. Brendan’s Avenue. There are people who believe that the name was related to dairy farming which was once an essential part of life here, the term suckler calf possibly having led to Suckeen and on to Sickeen. Some referred to it as Railway View, others called it St. Brendan’s Avenue, but to locals it is always called Sickeen.
McDONAGH’S, A GALWAY TREASURE
by Tom Kenny
Patrick McDonagh from Galway was born in 1817 and married Sarah Cooney. They had a son Michael who married Peggy Wallace in 1870 and they in turn had a son Colman in 1875. He had a habit of whispering in people's ears and so became known as ‘Cogar’. In 1902, he moved from Carraroe to Galway and rented stores at the back of the Spanish Arch from Peter Greene. From there, he began to sell coal, carrying it on a horse and cart.
He married Mary Joyce in 1903 and they had six children. They rented a house on Quay Street from Carrs the painters. Cogar got involved in the Nationalist movement, joined the Irish Volunteers, became a friend of Pádraic Pearse and did a lot of fundraising on behalf of Pearse's school in Dublin, St. Enda's.
Bohermore and some of its people
by Tom Kenny
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.
STEAMER’S QUAY
by Tom Kenny
Alexander Nimmo made a survey of Lough Corrib almost 200 years ago in which he wrote the following “The lake has 50 miles of shore, occupies 30,000 Irish acres and contains 1,000 acres of arable land in its isles, and contracts into a very spacious river about two and a half miles above Galway, which, flowing by the town, communicates with the Atlantic. The fall from the summit of the lake to the sea is considerable, but to the Wood Quay, above the town, it is trifling, and the river is in parts very shallow, running over a bed of rocks and hard gravel. It is not navigable from the sea to the Wood Quay owing to its shallowness and the rapidity of the water, and none but small boats can come down; but unless in very dry seasons, it is thence navigable by boats drawing four feet of water and carrying from ten to twenty tons, with one square sail and four men, to Cong. They seldom sail, unless before the wind, and though the lake has many islets and sunken rocks, the only serious difficulty in navigation is at Buachally Shoal about four miles up the lake, and at Newcastle. These shoals could be deepened for a small sum and the whole made to admit vessels of much greater magnitude. The fine navigation which extends about 30 miles, and into a seaport town, seems to deserve more attention than it has yet received. A good chart with soundings and sailing instructions should be published, the shoals or rocks cleared or beaconed, and a communication opened with the sea”.