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Old Galway
THE MEN OF ‘34
by Tom Kenny
There has been so much hype recently about how Galway had not beaten Dublin in football for 90 years that it got me wondering, what were those men of 1934 like? They must have been mighty men. They were!
MENLO HEROES
By Tom Kenny
On this day eighty five years ago, the fourth of July 1929, rowing history was made at Galway Regatta when a crew from the Menlo Emmetts Club brought the Senior Eights Championship trophy to Galway for the first time. All of the crew were from the small village a few miles up the Corrib, were native Irish speakers, and had lived locally and worked by the river all of their lives.
Some years before, there was a very wet spring and these men could do very little farmwork. They would watch rowing crews training on the river and then someone suggested that as they were all boatmen who went out fishing, if they were all together in a racing eight, surely they would be able for any opposing crew.
So, a club was formed with Mr. P.Ellwood as president, T. Brown as captain and P. Lydon as club secretary. The crew started slowly and improved with training, in 1926, they won the maiden eights at Galway Regatta. In 1927, they moved up a category to junior level and in that capacity won the eights at Limerick, Galway and Metropolitan regattas and also the junior fours titles at the latter two events. In 1928, they graduated to senior eights, senior fours and premier fours. They won the eights at Galway and the senior fours at Galway, Derry and Bann regattas and they finished as runners-up in the senior eights championship which was held in Cork.
GALWAY IN SONG
by Tom Kenny
Our first illustration today is of the cover of the sheet music for the song ‘Galway Bay’ as sung by Bing Crosby. It was written by Dr. Arthur Colohan, apparently in memory of his brother who was drowned somewhere near Seapoint. I have also been told that it got its first airing in the Hotel at the top of Prospect Hill. It seems Colohan, a medical student, was in there with a group of his fellow undergraduates when he told them he had written a song and sat down at the piano to play and sing it for them. The legend is that they fell all over the place laughing. He of course had the last laugh as his song became one of the world’s best sellers, topping the charts in Britain in1950.
THE TOWN HALL, A BRIEF HISTORY
by Tom Kenny
In 1639, the Corporation ordered that some of the shops and buildings adjacent to the market be pulled down and “all the same be reduced into a strong sufficient stone house, covered with slate and to be underpropped with good stone pillars, whereby way through it shall be to the said church”. The proposed building was to be opposite the present Anthony Ryan’s shop and was to be a Tholsel or premises for the town clerk, for the Corporation records and for meetings of the Common Council.
There were many delays in the completion of the building but, in 1709, it was finally open for use. It functioned as an exchange, a market building, a municipal office as well as a courthouse. Little over a century later, it was condemned as dangerous and in 1822, it was demolished. The stones from it were in the possession of Thomas Barnwell Martin of Ross and he used them to build a new market house on Eyre Square which is now the Bank of Ireland building on Eyre Square.
A MEDIEVAL CASTLE IN QUAY STREET
by Tom Kenny
Blake’s Castle is a medieval urban fortified town house at the bottom of Quay Street which was built c.1470 with single bay ground and first floors and a two-bay second floor. It has a flat roof with a crenelated parapet with a projecting machicolation on supporting corbels on the top floor above the entrance. This was an opening at the parapet through which defenders could drop material such as boiling water or hot pitch down on would be attackers. It was built with coursed roughly dressed limestone rubble walls with square headed window openings to the upper floors.
According to Hardiman’s History, this castle originally belonged to the O’Halloran Sept. It was then taken over by the Anglo-Norman Blake family. The Blakes were one of the tribes of Galway who owned extensive properties throughout the county, including Menlo Castle. They forfeited this Quay Street castle in 1641 and it was then granted to the Morgan family who were based in Monksfield, but it has always been known as Blake’s Castle.
ST. JOSEPH’S SPECIAL SCHOOL, THE EARLY YEARS
by Tom Kenny
On October 28th 1961, the following letter appeared in the Connacht Tribune --- “Sir, Educational facilities for mentally handicapped children are entirely inadequate in this country and except for the excellent work of the religious orders, the problem would be of much greater magnitude……………. Would anybody be interested in doing something for mentally handicapped children in Galway? Signed PARENT OF A MENTALLY HANDICAPPED CHILD”
The letter was written by Seán Keane who was looking for what all parents want for their children, a chance for them to reach their full potential, whether they are handicapped or not. He got no reply so he wrote again, this time in answer to his own letter. This prompted some more letter writers to contribute and then some editorials were published which highlighted the growing awareness of the needs of mentally handicapped children in Galway.
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE, THE EARLY DAYS
by Tom Kenny
It was about this time of year, May 26th, 1910 that the foundation stone of St. Mary’s College was laid. It was not, however, the first St. Mary’s College. Father John Paul O’Toole, born in Galway in 1804, was one of the last priests ordained during the wardenship. He was based in Paris and Rome but was always conscious of his own difficulty in obtaining a secondary education in Galway, so he decided to return to Galway in 1843 and open a school here. His main difficulty was finding a premises but happily, he managed to secure “West House”, a detached residence with extensive grounds situated on Helen Street. He bought it from John Lushington Reilly, a great benefactor of the town and neighbourhood, especially during the famine of 1822.
Fr. O’Toole adapted the building and opened the school on March 1st, 1844 and it flourished from the start. Two years later, the Bishop raised it to the status of Diocesan College. However, the success was short-lived. The construction of UCG was underway and it seemed it was only a matter of time before Fr. O’Toole was made a professor there. In anticipation of this, he closed the school in 1849 and the following year, he was appointed Vice-President and a professor in UCG. However, the Bishops regarded the undenominational system of education there as unsafe for Catholics and forbade any priests to work there. So, Fr. O’Toole resigned and went to England to do parish work.
SWIMMING IN SALTHILL
by Tom Kenny
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water as a form of recreation, exercise or survival. It has numerous health benefits and is good for all ages and all levels of fitness. It is among the top public recreational activities. One can swim in the sea, the lake or river. People have always swam in Salthill and the area has also been attracting tourists for some 200 years now. Some came unprepared and there were several instances in Victorian times where day trippers came without thinking of togs but could not resist the temptation to have a dip in the sea in the nude, scandalising walkers along the coast road.
It is hard to believe today that for a major part of the last century, there was no mixed bathing allowed in Salthill. It was a men-only zone in Blackrock and the Ladies beach was confined to women and children. The so-called family resort in fact divided families. Bishop Browne met a lady in a bikini on the Prom and gave her a lecture – You cannot appear in public dressed like that etc. When he finished his rant she simply said “Which bit would you like me to remove first”.