Loughrea Town Commissioners, Minutes, 1971-1978

Volume of minutes of proceedings of the Commissioners meetings, includes resolutions such as:-

• ‘Letter from Dept. of Posts & Telegraphs dated 30/08/1971 stating that it is not proposed to issue a stamp commemorating the 50^th Anniversary of the death of Michael Collins’. (p1)
• ‘Town Park:  Mr Devine stated that he understood that the Land Commission are selling the Town Park to local sporting bodies  Mr Devine appealed to these sporting bodies not to pay the Land Commission for this lands, as when the Land Commission first acquired this land, it received it free of charge’ (p2).
• ‘Meeting re Redundancy at Local Factory:  Mr Kelly referred to a press report of a meeting held in the Temperance Hall in connection with the recent redundancy at Loughrea Cottons.  Mr Kelly stated that the report of this meeting had gave the impression that Mr H Melvin C.C. had attended the meeting without an invitation.  Mr Kelly stated that he had called this meeting and he had invited Mr Melvin, C.C. to attend.  Mr Morgan stated that the meeting he was referring to when he asked if Mr Melvin C.C. was invited to attend, was a special meeting, called by the Chairman, to discuss the McKinsey report on C.I.E.’ (p10).
• ‘New Houses: Mr Kearns informed the meeting that the applicants for the 16 new houses at Galway Road, Loughrea are under review and the houses will be allotted as soon as possible…’ (p12, see also p17).
• ‘“The Walks”: …The question of preserving “The Walks” as a public park was discussed and on the proposition of Mr Morgan seconded by Mr Greene it was agreed to request the County Council to have “The Walks” abandoned as a public road, to have the Right-of-Way for vehicular traffic extinguished and to have “The Walks” preserved for pedestrian traffic and amenity purposes’ (p60).
• ‘The Town Clerk stated that the Assistant County Manager was waiting on a decision of the Galway courts in connection with itinerants camping on public property, before he proceeds to take legal action against itinerants parked at the Fairgreen, Loughrea’ (p70, see also p74).
• ‘Galway County Council informed the meeting of the following decisions on recommendations made by Loughrea Town Commissioners:
  (1)  The Australian Gates at Barrack Street have been removed.
  (2)   It is not recommended to let surface water into the town sewer.
  (3)   Public lighting on Gort Road and additional lights at Collage Hill, is being attended to.
  (4)   Grass in burial grounds at Loughrea will be cut.
  (5)   There is no provision for a public convenience at the Long Point, but that this location will be kept in mind when a new priority list is being prepared.’ (p82)
• ‘Mr Brendan Donnellan moved the following motions:
  ….
  (b)”That the Western Health Board provide a decent coffin for all burials that they are responsible for.
  Mr Donnellan is moving the above motions referred to a funeral he had attended recently of a person who was in employment for over 40 years, this person was buried in a “contract coffin” and a “pauper’s grave”.  This Mr Donnellan stated was an indictment of our Social Welfare system.  Mr O’Brien stated that this was a very isolated occurrence and if any relative had claims the corpse a plot would have been provided and a state grant towards the cost of the funeral, applied for.  Mr O’Brien added that the County Council is most generous in looking after these matters. Mr Kearns pointed out that the closing of burial grounds is a complicate matter and he suggested that Mr Donnellan alter his motion to request the Western Health Board to cease using the plot known as the County Home plot.  Mr Donnellan agreed to alter the motion.  The motions were then seconded by Mr Barrett and passed unanimously.’ (p97)
• ‘On the proposition of Comm. Morgan seconded by Comm O’Brien the following applications for Sale or Lease of dwellings owned by Loughrea Town Commissioners were approved…’ (p104).
• ‘Late Late Show, Saturday 12^th April 1975:  Comm Donnellan referred to the appearance on the Late Late Show on the 12/4/1975 of one Sir Owsald Mosley, Comm. Donnellan stated he considered it a disgrace, that a person who held such beliefs as this person holds, should be given an opportunity of appearing on the public media, especially in view of the policy that exists at present regarding the appearance of certain organisations on the public media….’ (p114)
• ‘The Walks” A.D. Comyn & Co., Solicitors in reply to the query raised at the last meeting regarding the ownership of “The Walks” stated that there is no simple way of finding out who owns “The Walks” and that unless it is considered of importance to solve the problem, the fee which would be charged to try to determine ownership would be substantial and would not be justified…’ (p122, see also p127).
• ‘The Chairman in welcoming the delegates to the meeting stated that C.I.E. has decided to close the Loughrea branch line and felt that the people should do all in their power to keep the branch line in Loughrea open…
  Mr Donohue stated that he would like to remind the meeting that Loughrea is the last remaining branch line in the British Isles and was in fact for one time closed for four years.  With regard to the question of finding the £300 extra revenue per week, Mr Donohue state that he thought that this was a considerable sum in view of the fact that only a percentage of the charge made on goods, etc is credited to the Loughrea Station….’ (p125, see also p131, LTC/1/20, p278).
• ‘At this special meeting the sympathy of the Board was extended to the family and relatives of our former President, Mr Eamon De Valera.  Commissioner Donnellan in proposing the vote of sympathy, paid tribute to the late Mr De Valera for the work he had done for the country and referred to Mr De Valera’s early association with Loughrea adding that the late Mr De Valera had addressed one of his first, if not his first public meetings, at Loughrea in 1917….’ (p126).