Galway Advertiser 1995/1995_05_18/GA_18051995_E1_018.pdf 

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C O M M E N T

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L E T T E R S *

G a l w a y Focuses T h e ^ E m i g r a n t Experience

Irishmen in the British Army The Real Reasons ?
D e a r Editor, Last week's Comment about the Irish joining the British army during World War I I I found to be at least a little misleading. Having talked, while a child, with men who'd joined the British army I discovered that the overrid ing reason they'd joined up was in order to earn a livelihood. Then as now there was forced emi gration. While there were heroic deeds done b y some of the men, there were also atrocities com mitted. War brings out both the best and worst in people. With regards to the Irish soldier I have the utmost respect. This is why it puzzles me as to why the Irish army has been reduced to the 'strength' of some 10,000 personnel. This, at a time when the pre dominantly sectarian R.U.C. police force in Northern Ireland has some 13,000 armed members. In addition, it has been found necessary to have 20,000 troops in order to keep the lid on the situation. Yes, it would be great if peace was achievable through talking. And yes, Neville Chamberlain guar anteed the British people 'peace in our time' as he waved his famous piece of paper. Then as now the desire for peace, founded on a shallow and simplistic dream, overruled reason and reality. It is a very foolish people that throws away its defensive weapons simply because a potential enemy has signed a peace of paper. Mise L e M e a s , T o m Cahill Galway. D e a r Editor, I found your Comment of May 11th about Ireland's position of neutrality during the last war very interesting. As I am an Irish person who has been liv ing in Britain - a country that has treated my family and I so well over the years - since leav ing my parent's home in Wexford over sixty years ago, I would like to make a few com ments on Ireland's behaviour during the Hitler war. Although I have not lived in Ireland for many, many years, I did make regular visits home while my parents were still alive, and when my brothers and their families were living in the Wexford area. Now they are all gone, and most of their children have resettled in Britain. I know that many Irishmen joined the British army because there was no work for them. But I know for a fact that many of those young men I knew who were of an age to join did so because they believed in fighting for what was right and decent. I can still recall the awful voice of Hitler as he used to sound over the wireless. I didn't know what he was talking about, but it was clear from the way he spoke and the newsreels that were shown of him in the cine mas that he was a very bad man. Of course we knew noth ing at that time about what he was doing to the poor Jewish people, but I do remember there were several Jewish fam ilies not far from where I lived in London and they used to talk about letters they received from relations who lived some where in Germany or Austria. It was clear even from the few things I was told that they were very frightened and wanted very much to come to Britain. I don't know if they ever did, and I often wonder about them. I used to feel very ashamed when I was a young woman working in London. Although most of the people I knew and worked with were very kind. I do remember, especially when the bombs were falling, one o r two people who said very nasty things to me when they learned I was Irish. I think that if you have a coun try you should be prepared to fight for it. Ireland may have escaped all the bombs, but it also won a name for being unwilling to stand up for what it believed in. I still remember people saying to me, "Oh yes, you'll let us do the fighting for you." I think the British people are the most tolerant people in the world. Living here during the bombings that the IRA carried out made me sometimes ashamed to go outside my door. Especially after Warrington. My neighbour said to me, 'Why haven't you been out lately? I told her. She said They're just madmen and madmen are all the same. It's only an accident they're Irish. They could be Iranians or Arabs.' I was very grateful for her words. I hope this all makes sense to you and is not too rambling. I am sent your paper by a friend I have in Galway and I always enjoy reading it. Yours, Mary Gallagher (Mrs.) L u t o n , E n g l a n d

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t would probably be quite impossible to put anything like a definite figure on the thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of Irish men, women and children who left this country through the port of Galway over the last two centuries? For how many Irish people was the receding sight of Galway City, or the coastline of Clare and Connemara their last memory of the country that had given them birth but was unable to give them a living? And, as we know, right up until comparatively recent times, emigrants continued to leave Ireland by way of liners sailing to the United States. Of course we share the experience of emigration with many other countries around the world, especially those who've helped make the United States into what President Kennedy once called 'a nation of emigrants'. But in Ireland's case there is a significant difference. We are a small country, very small indeed compared to even the smallest of the States that make up the United Slates. And yet. from this small base population - even at its height before the Great Famine it was never much more than about 8 million - the descendants of those who left Ireland sometime in the last one hundred and fifty to two hundred ears have made enormous contributions in every imaginable field, from politics, business, education, the sciences, to medicine, social service, music, literature...the list is really endless. Wherever you find the Irish, in whatever coun try around the world, you will almost invariably find they have made their mark. For many years now it has been the pattern to express sorrow because of what was quite rightly seen as a kind of national blood-letting. But in recent years there has been a significant change of attitude. We still express concern that the economy cannot provide employment for so many of our young people. Yet there is also a growing recognition of the undeniable positive aspects of the emigrant experience. A group of Galway people, including Professor Tom Bartlett, Director of Irish Studies at U C G ; Professor Kevin Boyle, Professor of Law at Essex University; Mr. Terry Brennan, General Manager Operations at the Great Southern Hotel; Pat Fotrell Professor of Biochemisty at UCG; the City Manager, Mr. Joe Gavin; the Managing Director of Euro Languages College in Galway, Mary Loughnane; Tom Kenny. Director of Kenny's Bookshops and Art Galleries; Mr. Cyril McGinty of Neylon. McGinty & Company, Galway; Ms Fidclma Mullane, Udaras na Gaeltachta's Arts & Heritage Special Advisor; and Professor James Ward of the L'CG Marketing Department, have come together with an exciting and audacious idea - making Galway City the location of a national and international Irish Diaspora Centre. These people have decided to imagine on a large scale. And their proposal out line begins with a striking observation that sets the stage for their more detailed plans: "The contribution of the Irish diaspora is sufficiently significant to be iden tilled as a world culture in its own right." With this brief but provocative obser vation the whole emigrant experience is put into a different and much more post live perspective. T h e Irish diaspora, in other words, is no longer to be seen as something that has 'leaked' away from Ireland; instead, w e are to see our Irish lorebears as bringing with them to their new homes the seeds of a vital culture strong enough to survive uprooting and transplanting, that over the last two cen turies has produced a strong new culture that yet has unbreakable links to the old which gave it birth. The group mentioned above envisage the creation of a centre, complete with a building of major international significance in architectural terms, containing a museum and exhibition centre, a gallery, a library, an auditorium and facilities for seminars, all of which would be devoted to exploring the history and significance ot the Irish diaspora. As Galway is a university city, it is also envisaged that there will be close links with UCG. Why Galway? A better question would be: Where else other than Galway? There are already strong links between our ancient maritime city and both Europe and the Americas, as well as the countries of the antipodes - Australia and N e w Zealand. T h e West has probably seen more of its people leave this island than any other region in Ireland; it is only appropriate that the unofficial 'capital' of the West should b e the focus o f this exciting new project. Finally, as well as being one of the fastest growing cities in Ireland, it is also Ireland's major bilingual city, and it is envisaged that this closeness to the ancestral language will play an important part in developing the Irish diaspora centre. Benefits are obvious. Not only would such an important centre increase the already high profile of Galway around the world, but it would prove a major attraction for both domestic and overseas tourism. It would also become a focal point for research a n d study. Finally, it would undoubtedly be a catalyst for a major boost in employment. T h e Galway Advertiser warmly welcomes this imaginative and exciting proposal and applauds those involved in it w h o have had the vision and the courage t o see the emigrant experience not as the defeat of the nation, but as the seed of a new and igorous culture that all Irish people - wherever they may happen to be - can REGARD with pride.

Port Revenues

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u r i n g t h e fifteenth c e n t u r y t h e town of Galway grew in both population a n d trade. Its expansion d r e w u p o n it t h e eyes of central g o v e r n m e n t . T h e patent rolls of H e n r y V I r e c o r d t h a t in this week in 1425 W i l l i a m B u t l e r a n d J o h n R e d e w e r e appointed to e n q u i r e into t he activities of all m e r c h a n t s , both foreign e r s a n d natives, w h o i m p o r t e d oil, wine, honey, wool, skins hides o r lerd into Galway a n d o t h e r ports in C o n n a c h t . These were liable to custom duties and the king was obvi ously protecting his revenues. The enquiry was also aimed to identify the owners and cap tains of ships involved in this trade. The customs duties col lected in the port were impor tant and could be sued for var ious purposes. For example, two years after the enquiry undertaken by William Butler and John Rede, in this same week in 1427, Sir Ulick de Burgo and his brother were granted twenty marks and forty pounds out of the customs of Galway to enable him to subdue the Irish. Indeed the revenues collected in Galway port were some times distributed as rewards. For example Edmund, Lord Dunboyne, was granted the prisage of wine imported into Galway for life because of his signal services against the Irish and and for taking C o n O'Connor prisoner and deliv ering him to the Lord deputy.

It's Hume Not Adams Who Deserves Our Thanks
Strikes and can be seen as a fluke. The fact remains that, in a quarter century of political activity in Northern Ireland, the election of the late Bobby Sands, Mr. Owen Carron and Mr. Adams himself are the only occasions when Sinn Fein was able to convince democra tic voters to give them their votes for elections to Westminster. T h e first t w o occasions were clearly emotive protests; only Ihe third election has any claim to be taken as evidence of widespread sup port for Sinn Fein. And it is curious that a coalition of UDA voters and SDLP voters was able to outnumber Sinn Fein voters (i.e. nationalist voters) in the eleclion that followed. How is this to be explained if, in fact, Sinn Fein represent a majority view. Yours sincerely, P e t e r C a n a v a n Loughrea.

D e a r Editor, I want to lend my support to the anonymous letter writer whose letter you published in your issue of April 27th. We are in great danger of forget ting that, despite all the media attention he has won, and is still winning, Gerry Adams On the other hand there were does not even hold an elected some pickings too for local office, apart from that of merchants in t he city. In 1445 President of Sinn Fein. His Alexander Lynch and Nicholas organisation makes great play of the fact that they really rep Skerreth were appointed col resent the voice of nationalism lectors of customs for both in Northern Ireland. Galway and Sligo. There suc Well, I've news for Mr. cessors in that office included Edmund Lynch in 1450 and Adams. In a democracy the only way to establish whether James Bodkin in 1455 or not someone represents a Galway was obviously becom minority or a majority view is ing a place of consequence in through either the ballot box or, this period. less reliably, opinion polls. The In fact one Germyn Lynch fact is, there is no evidence to was in 1461 given authority to suggest that Mr. Adams speaks set up a mint in the city. At the for any more than a minority, same time the corporation was even of nationalists, in asserting its own power to con Northern Ireland. The ballot tml the city's trade and to use box has been an option for Sinn the revenues from it for the Fein for the past quarter centu benefit of the town. ry. Results, both North and It was in this period that the South, have been negligible. Galway merchants were seen Mr. Adams' election, following to assert themselves against on that of Mr. Owen Carron. the power of the de Burgos. was unquestionably heavily T h o m a s P. O'Neill influenced b y the Hunger

THIS WEEK.