Pages Past - 'good fishing prospects'; 'urged to cut turf'; 'home for Easter'

Westmeath Examiner, April 27, 1935

Good fishing prospects

Anglers were beginning to turn their thoughts to the prospects of that year’s trout fishing season on Lough Ennell and Lough Owel, the Westmeath Examiner reported in April 1935, approving the fact that the preservation of Lough Owel in particular was now in the hands of “a very energetic and vigorous committee”.

That was as it should be because it was more than probable that Lough Owel would become a lake of not only local but national importance, the item stated, explaining that there was every hope that the minister of fisheries would establish a natural hatchery on its shores which would become a great source of supply for brown trout ova.

Due to be published shortly was the report of the Commission on Inland Fisheries and the writer said it was expected that that would bring big developments for scientific propagation on the lakes.

Continuing, the writer said that Lough Owel had already that year yielded a fine trout of five and a half pounds. The lucky angler was Mr PJ Mullally who caught the trout near Church Island.

Lough Ennell had also given good evidence of its sporting prospects. Mr K Patton had, one day during the week, risen several trout casting wet flies. One of them was fine specimen of three and a half pounds.

Westmeath Examiner, April 28 1945

Urged to cut turf

In contrast to today, when there are efforts to dissuade people from cutting turf, the opposite scenario pertained in 1945.

County council member Joseph Bennett presided at a ‘turf drive’ meeting in the county buildings, where T O’Connor, Turf Development Board official, told the meeting that more turf than ever was needed that year. There was, he said, a certain element of feeling that the war was going to end that year and that coal would be once again available; however, he believed coal would not be available that year, nor possibly in 1946.

Therefore, he said, there was a guaranteed market for every ton of saleable turf, at a reasonable price, so no one might have fears that turf would be left on their hands. Turf produced by the county council went to non-turf producing areas and, consequently, there was no use in people relying on the council for their supply of turf. Householders, wherever possible, should provide their own turf and not depend on getting a load from someone passing with a cartload of it. Those who had bogs even a few miles from them should cut their own turf.

Mr O’Connor also appealed to merchants to build up adequate supplies of turf in September, sufficient to last at least until the end of the following March. It was certain, he reiterated, that turf would be needed more that year than ever and possibly next year. He said the Mullingar Parish Council did useful work the previous year in issuing needy people with vouchers, which enabled them to purchase turf at a small charge.

Westmeath Independent, April 30, 1955

Engineer answers complaint

“When complaints were made at Westmeath County Council that a number of road workers were idle during the month of April, the county engineer replied that all their plant was at work,” a report in the Westmeath Independent of Saturday April 30, 1955 stated.

It went on: “Mr Waters said that 30 men who should be working on the roads in the Ballymore area had now been sent to work for Bord na Móna in Lanesborough. The engineer said there was no plant available, there would be work for those men in Ballymore when there would be no work for them with Bord na Móna.

“Mr McKenna said he never had so many complaints of men being idle, particularly in the Killare, Streamstown and Castletown Geoghegan areas. The county engineer said that ordinary road maintenance work was at a minimum at that time of the year. All their plant was out and the programme was so arranged that the money would be expended by March 31. Drainage work could be done now.

“The council approved the purchase of additional plants at a cost of £2,200. The plant was to consist of three dumpers and a road sweeper.”

Westmeath Examiner, May 1 1965

Home for Easter

An account of the locals living abroad who had returned to visit Kilbeggan over Easter was given in the edition of May 1, 1965.

It read: “Many visitors arrived for the Easter holiday, mainly from various other parts of the country as well as a small number from Britain. They were spending an early holiday with their families and friends. The windy wet and cold weather over the weekend kept people indoors, except when they attended the Easter ceremonies in large numbers in St James’s Church.

“Among the cross-channel visitors were Mrs J Doyle and her two children David and Mary, who intended to spend several weeks with Mrs Doyle’s parents Mr and Mrs Peter Hogan, Rostella, and also intend to visit her husband’s family in Tullamore.

“Another welcome arrival from London is Mrs Gerard Fahy accompanied by her children to spend a holiday with her mother Mrs J Gormley, Glangorm. Mrs Fahy will also visit members of her family in different areas including her sister in religion Sr M Roberta, Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny, Gallen Priory, Ferbane and another sister, Mrs J Clavin and family, Durrow.

“A visitor from a much warmer climate has also been recently welcomed in the person of Miss Kathleen Smythe SRN CMB, daughter of Mrs K Smythe, Harbour Road, and the late Mr John Smythe. Kathleen is a valued staff member of one of the big oil company hospitals in Kuwait, Arabian Gulf. Before coming to Ireland, she visited her sister, brother-in-law and family Dr and Mrs Adrian Price, Yorkshire, who accompanied her home, and also her sister Nora and her brother Anthony in London.

In Dublin she was greeted by Mr and Mrs Tony O’Connor and family, Dundrum, the latter another sister.

Westmeath Examiner, May 3 1975

Re-enacting the loss of The Lusitania

On display in the window of Shaw’s Hardware in Mullingar was a superb locally-made scale model of the liner The Lusitania, which had been sunk by a torpedo on May 7, 1915.

The model was also destined for sinking, for it was created by Edwin Gavin, of Greatdown, The Downs, assisted by Michael Cunningham, Fearmore, Rochfortbridge, to be sunk on the 60th anniversary of the loss of The Lusitania. The report stated that the model, made of aluminium, was to be sunk at the Tudenham shore of Lough Ennell at 2.10pm on May 7, 1975. Stated the writer: “Mr Gavin is no stranger to ships, having been a sailor for some years.”

The model ship he had created measured 40 inches in length. The original Lusitania was 790 feet long, had a beam of 88 feet, weighed 32,000 tonnes, and could cross the Atlantic in four and a half days.

The Lusitania went down about 10 miles south of the Old Head of Kinsale when it was struck by a torpedo from a German U-boat, and within 18 minutes, it had sunk in 312 feet of water. Of the 1,256 passengers and 701 crew on board, the number of lives lost was believed to be either 1,198 or 1,201.

Westmeath Independent, April 26, 1985

Expense of postage

The electorate in Westmeath were not going to be receiving polling cards in advance of that year’s local elections on June 20, unless An Post agreed to grant the county council a special commercial rate way below the standard 22p for open post, county manager Jack Taaffe told members of the county council at their monthly meeting.

“Prior to the inauguration of An Post, there was free post for elections, but I am quite prepared to deal with them and if we pursue a rate of between 4p and 5p, then we can go ahead, but if not, then I will have no option but to say to the council that we cannot afford to send out the cards,” he said.

Earlier, Mr Taaffe had been told by Deputy Mary O’Rourke of special arrangements on postage which An Post came to with the political parties in the European elections. Senator Sean Fallon appealed to the manager to do all in his power to ensure polling cards were sent out to as many people the cards represented their ‘vote’. He said if people did not receive the cards, they would not feel entitled or inclined to vote.

Mr Sean Keegan said he would not like Westmeath to be the only county in the country not to have sent out polling cards. If a deal could be made with An Post, then every effort should be made to secure one, he said.

Westmeath Examiner, April 29 1995

County scored well for hosting

For the first time ever, Westmeath hosted the national finals of Scór. The event – described by that week’s Westmeath Examiner as “a magnificent spectacle” – was held at the Regional Technical College in Athlone (now the Technical University of the Shannon).

The report stated that while there proved to be no success for the Westmeath competitors taking part in the event, “there was nothing but the highest praise for the organisers” of the event.

Officially, the national finals were organised by a sub-committee of the GAA – An Coiste Cultúir is Teanga, which was chaired by Séamus Ó Faoláin, chairman of the Westmeath GAA county board, the main work of staging the event was undertaken by the Westmeath Scór committee, of which the chairman was Des Maguire, and the secretary, Rose Longworth.

The writer of the report noted that the hall of the RTC was adorned with the flags of the 32 counties plus London and New York, along with the four provincial standards; splendid floral arrangements were supplied by Boland Nurseries, Rosemount, while the specially-designed banner was prepared by the well-known Athlone GAA stalwart, Artie Pyke.

The sound was by Cha Nicholson, Athlone, while a crew from ForeFront Productions, Cork, filmed the event for screening on RTÉ at a later date.

Westmeath Examiner, April 30, 2005

A Lidl bit of progress

The Westmeath county manager, Ann McGuinness, at the previous Monday’s meeting of the county council, had just signalled to members that the door was open for the resubmission of the Lidl planning application for a warehouse and distribution centre at Lough Sheever Corporate Park.

Journalist Deirdre Flynn reported that the “reopening of the door” was due to the approval by councillors of the Robinstown Area Plan, and Ms Flynn noted that the manager’s announcement came exactly one year and two days after the initial Lidl application, which was rejected – mainly because part of the site was inappropriately zoned.

The report stated that after widespread anger over the refusal of permission to Lidl, which had been promising up to 150 new jobs with the development, councillors agreed to fast-track the Robinstown Area Plan and zone the lands in question, after Lidl warned that they would look to other counties as possible locations for the distribution centre – which would mean a loss of approximately €300,000 a year in rates to the council.

Westmeath Examiner, April 25, 2015

Shoplifting on the up

Shoplifting was the fastest growing crime in Westmeath, the front page story of April 25, 2015 announced – and the trend was prompting gardaí to develop a new strategy to tackle the problem.

The item stated that newly-released garda statistics revealed that there had been 105 reported incidents of shoplifting in the Westmeath Division between the start of January of that year and the end of March, a 40 per cent increase on the same period in 2014. Sharing the figures at a meeting of the Joint Policing Committee, the then recently-appointed chief superintendent of the Westmeath Division, Lorraine Wheatley, said that what made the spike in shoplifting worrying was the fact that the first quarter of the year was historically the quietest.

She said the division was creating a strategy to help local businesses tackle the problem, including allocating specific streets or shopping centres to individual officers so that retailers would have a definite point of contact.

The story revealed that a Mullingar Chamber of Commerce survey published the previous year had revealed that almost 80 per cent of retailers questioned had been targeted by shoplifters in the previous 12 months, while the town’s three shopping centres were encountering the problem daily.