Galway Advertiser 1979/1979_12_13/GA_13121979_E1_004.pdf 

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To-day's photographs show us the first Santa Claus ever to appear in a shop in Galway, and the shop itself, that of Leonard Martin in Mainguard Street. The photograph was taken about 1950, and the Santa

was a Mr. Jack Kerr, a war veteran who was employed by Leonard Martin. The idea of a Santa Claus was such a novelty that Mr. Costelloe, the then Mayor, came especially to see him and shake hands with him-- a far cry from the late

70's, when the Christmas season begins about October Leonard Martin's shop, tastefully decorated for Christmas here, was very well known for toys and family goods. They had a showroom upstairs. The Martin family moved from this premises to Lower Merchants Road in the 60's, when they changed their business entirely to whole sale. Before they came to Mainguard Street, this shop

was a butcher's shop called O'Connor's. Mr. Kerr may have been the first Santa in Galway, but undoubtedly the busiest this year will be the Galway Lions Club. Their Christ mas toys project has grown to huge proportions. They distribute toys to hundreds of deprived and handi capped children. You can help them by giving them a donation or a toy. They will be happy to take used toys as

long as they are in good condition. Remember the spirit of Christmas and help this terrific project. The ink was hardly dry on the Advertiser last week when Paddy Hynes rang to tell us the unidentified " J e z " boy was Martin Donnellan of the Atlantic

Bar. The photograph was in fact of the entire school, and not one class. I think the two "Jez" boys did a wonderful job on this column last week, so thank you lads, indeed thanks to all the people who contributed to a very lively paper last week.--T.K.

galway

gleanings

T h e e a r l y d a y s of December have always been dramatic ones for Ireland ever since the year 1921. It was in the early hours of December 6th, 1921, you may recall, that the famous Treaty was signed with the British. This was a decision that still gives rise to bitterness and controversy and marks the beginnings of a chapter in de-colonisation which continues to this day. When Lord Carrington was telling the Zwimbabi Patriotic Front leaders last week that they would have to accept the British arrangements for a cease fire or all deals were off, how familiar a ring these words must have for Irish people. It was, it seemed, a case once again of take the Pax Brittanica or else-- ? Anybody who recalls that excellent work on the AngloIrish Treaty by Lord Longford Peace By Ordeal will grasp the significance of it all. Sign now, our delegation was told in 1921, or risk "immediate and terrible war". Such threats and the presentation of such options, of coarse, is never, or rarely presented as being a form of war-making in itself.

country was on the statute books within a year. T h u s it can truly be said that the historic signing of the Treaty on December 6th, 1921, laid the basis for the political structures within which we operate right down to this day. That may or may not have been a good thing. There are those who ft rejected the settlement right down to this day, especially within the Six Counties. There are also very many in this part of the island who HINDSIGHT WISDOM reject the arrangement but Ireland learned the hitter have come to operate the lesson, and also probably system "in the interim" learned something which with a degree of skill and the African leaders of today dedication that is difficult to still have not grasped. If you fathom. wish to negotiate with a power of Imperial experi S E T T I N G T H E S C E N E ence, you do not stand on We recall that the Irish equal terms if you agree to Free State was officially come to London and talk proclaimed to come into with big daddy right on his operation on December 6th, home patch. Is dana gach 1922--a year after the madra ar lie a dhorais fein. Treaty signing. That is Our African f r i e n d s why you will find this date however seem to have a? 'He one in your passport learned one lesson from the which prescribes different Irish case of 1921. Let proceedures for Northern them threaten immediate Irish people who wish to get and terrible war. Let them an Irish passport, and who suggest that this is the only were born before that date. p o s s i b l e o u t c o m e of By December 6th, 1922, the refusing to give the bulldog country and the old Sinn his way, and suggest: "Yes, Fein movement was split my Lord. If it has got to be from top to bottom. Collins war, then let it be war". You and Griffith were both dead immediately find out to and William T . Cosgrave w h a t e x t e n t t h e y are had emerged as the leader of bluffing. There is further the Free State faction in time for consideration. The place of the two giants who time passes and in fact the h a d negotiated the war does not start as s e t t l e m e n t . A c e r t a i n scheduled . . . because they Eamon de Valera, still do not have the stomach for President of Sinn Fein and it t h e m s e l v e s . W h a t theoretic head of the Irish happens after that we shall Republic established in have to wait and see. It is 1919 had withdrawn from very easy to be wise with the Dail altogether and had hindsight. But in the Irish gone on the run. Dev was case it must be recalled that not to re-enter Leinster the Irish Free State and the H o u s e -- n o w a f i r m l y l a y i n g of t h e f a i r l y established 26 C o u n t y permanent partition of the Dail--until the fall of 1927.

And he did so then as head of the new Fianna Fail party which had been established the previous year, 1926. LI A M M E L L O W E S Events in December 1922 took a very tragic course. Following the shooting of two Dail deputies who were prepared to recognise the Free State and the Leinster House assembly, on December 7th, 1922, the pro-Treaty administration, which had already initiated a policy of execution of prisoners and reprisal, took out four men who had been in jail and never tried-since the previous June and shot them on the morning of December 8th, 1922. One of these was Liam Mellowes, whose statue stands in Eyre Square to this day and on which Fianna Fail usually lay a wreath each year. Mellowes of course had Galway connections since 1915 and was meant to represent Connacht on the list of four of which the Government decided to make an example. But he was not, of course, a native of Co. Galway. Where was Liam Mellowes from? And can you name the three others who were executed with him? LEADERSHIP CONTEST The period December 68th will in future years have a further political and historical significance for Irish people. Because December 7th, 1979, will mark the date on which the Fianna Fail party selected Mr. Charles J. Haughey as its fourth ever leader and the man they felt could best lead Ireland--or at least part of it--into the 1980's. It was a truly temarkable week in Irish politics and

once again the hard-nosed political animals of Fianna Fail demonstrated their capacity for working a system which in theory they were established to defeat-- and for survival. There has rarely been anything like it in the history of this country, and surely there has never been a political career as complex and amazing as that of the new Taoiseach. Harold Wilson's suggestion that a week was along time in politics has been clearly demonstrated by the intensity of the Haughey/Colley contest right up to the last minute. Talk of canvassing in smoke-filled rooms right up to the last minute were not an exaggeration. Except perhaps to recall that Mr. Haughey has chucked the fags a long time ago while George still continues to puff the weeds. That more than the smokers in the party got their fingers burned in this latest political shoot-out is obvious. And the reports and rumours of the last-minute switches and final deals will occupy the minds of the political commentators for months to come. It seems, on any reasonable reading of the situation, that it was Michael O'Kennedy's decision to switch sides that really swung things in favour of Charley in the end. Thus he is seen as the king-maker, has ensured himself a top job in the new cabinet' and probably became a serious contender for Fianna Fail leadership in a decade if and when Mr. Haughey bows out for whatever reasons STRANGER THAN FICTION O ' K e n n e d y is s t i l l

young--slightly younger than Haughey and Colley both were when they first crossed swords in 1966. Some 13 years later Mr. Haughey is still a fresh Taoiseach but not as young as some people think. He did not have to wait as long as his father in law Sean Lemass, had to wait for De Valera to bow out. And there are several people even in Fianna Fail who claim that Dev held on too long and did not give Lemass a chance to get going with his new broom, particularly in the economic sphere, in time. But the Northern Dub from Mayo is now in the saddle and it remains to be seen what the 1980's will bring him--and all of us. It seems fairly certain that Mr. Lynch will be glad to have laid down the burden. But it also appears that he is not entirely happy with the way the succession race went. After all it was to avoid this type of succession in 1966 that he agreed to Sean Lemass's request to allow his hat into the ring. Everybody, including perhaps Lemass, assumed at the time that Mr. Lynch would not last long at the top. In fact he reigned as Fianna Fail boss twice as long as Lemass himself. And what a career he had as Taoiseach . . . as Mr. Haughey whom he sacked in 1970, has reason to remember! There are many many other ifs and buts in this whole controversy. If, for example, Charlie had won in 1966 and had been Taoiseach in 1969--what would he have done? Where would he be today? Where would all of us for that matter. Truly can it be said that in Irish political life fact is stranger than fiction.