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Westmeath Examiner April 23 2016

Gardaí ‘hamstrung by political class’

Rural gardaí were being hamstrung in their efforts to fight crime by a political class who took their eyes off the ball and senior management who were selling their members short. That was according to controversial crime reporter Paul Williams, who was one of the speakers at a talk on rural crime held at Mullingar Auto’s new Škoda showroom.

Mr Williams told the gathering that the Irish police force was still among the finest in the world and remained of the community. However, years of mismanagement and underinvestment in staffing and equipment had created a corporate organisation that has lost confidence in itself, he stated. Mr Williams also said that recruits to the gardaí were not getting paid enough.

“We have brilliant recruits and we expect them to fight crime for less than you’d get paid stacking shelves in Tesco,” he said.

Westmeath Examiner April 22 2006

End of French dream

The sale had been agreed of a property in the town of Montbard in France that had been purchased 12 years earlier by Westmeath VEC. The report stated that the building had been sold for €87,000, a loss of €13,000 on the original purchase price of €100,000.

However, further costs had come from the various attempts to restore the building, which was bought with a view to establishing a module of the Vocational Training Opportunity Scheme (VTOS), in France for Irish students. VTOS and Westmeath VEC had jointly funded a community employment scheme to refurbish the building in France. Then Education Minister Niamh Breathnach said the VEC had acted beyond its statutory powers.

Westmeath Examiner April 27 1996

Rural decline concerns

Up to 100 people attended a public meeting in Cullion Community Centre, Mullingar, in a bid to stave off the closure of Knockdrin post office and to express their concerns at rural decline in general. The meeting heard that to date, An Post had closed 117 post offices and guest speaker Dan McCarthy, chairman of the ICMSA rural committee, said it seemed as though people didn’t matter any more.

Mr McCarthy went on to tell the meeting he objected to “people in ivory towers making decisions affecting rural communities”. Anything in rural Ireland that is likely to cost money is going to be closed, he predicted.

Mr McCarthy told the meeting he had been involved in a national investigation on the upsurge in rural crime and its increasing prevalence and viciousness.

He said those investigations produced a clear message: in 1991 a new policing policy was put into operation to centralise gardaí and close rural stations or have them open only for a few hours a day.

“That was an unmitigated disaster,” he declared. “We have to get garda stations reopened,” he said, adding that local services such as the garda station, post office and schools had to be kept open but also must be used and supported.

Westmeath Examiner April 26 1986

Parking charges on the cards

Work on a new £40,000 car park at the rear of McHugh’s supermarket, Pearse Street, Mullingar, (Church Avenue car park) was expected to commence that month following representations from local traders and business people, according to the lead story in the Westmeath Examiner of April 26 1986.

The report stated that the car park, originally scheduled to begin in January, would provide between 80 and 90 spaces.

The development formed part of a dual plan by Westmeath County Council, which also included the construction of a larger car park at Bishopsgate Street. Work on the second project was expected to begin towards the end of 1986.

Both developments were part of the council’s wider plan to regularise parking in Mullingar, with a view to introducing disc parking – a proposal strongly opposed by local business people.

The council intended to introduce a system similar to that already in operation in Cork and other centres, initially in public car parks and, within 12 months, to extend it to on-street parking.

Two traffic wardens were to be employed to oversee compliance.

Westmeath Examiner April 24 1976

Dominick Street footpaths

Footpath works in Dominick Street, Mullingar, which began before Christmas, had cost £1,773.96 up to the end of January, members of Mullingar Town Commissioners were told at their monthly meeting the previous Friday.

Town engineer Mr J Lynch said delays in completing the works arose because the existing concrete path had to be broken up using a compressor. He added that additional work had been carried out near the post office and noted that Dominick Street was a particularly busy thoroughfare.

He also informed the meeting that eight men were employed in street cleaning.

Mr Vincent Brophy said the path was the only one of its kind in Mullingar but suggested that more than eight workers were needed, given the expansion of the town.

Mr Lynch cautioned that any increase in staffing would lead to higher expenditure, while Mr F McKeown said eight men were insufficient, noting that litter was often swept to the roadside and left uncollected.

Mr Jack Coleman called for the county council to be approached about providing additional cleaning staff. Chairman Mr Eddie Bruton said Mullingar Youth Club planned to undertake a clean-up as part of a Youth Week initiative, and Mr Coleman expressed hope that would encourage greater public use of litter bins.

He added that bins should be emptied regularly and that more should be provided. The chairman said much of the blame lay with those who dropped litter, citing the car park at Quinnsworth where yoghurt cartons had been discarded beside a bin.

Mr Brophy also said plastic bags from coal merchants and sawdust from tractors contributed to litter, particularly when blown by the wind.

Westmeath Examiner April 23 1966

Observance of Holy Days

A significant announcement was made during a confirmation ceremony in Mullingar at which 400 boys and girls were Confirmed.

The Most Rev Dr J Kyne, Bishop of Meath, announced that Catholics in the diocese were dispensed from the obligation of abstaining from servile work on Church Holy Days. The Westmeath Examiner explained that that meant the only remaining obligation was attendance at Mass, with work now permitted where it had previously been prohibited.

Dr Kyne acknowledged that some may have regarded him as stricter than other bishops in insisting on observance of Holy Days. When he arrived in the diocese nearly 20 years earlier, he found a strong tradition of observance, encouraged by his predecessors and supported by Canon Law.

He said he had sought to uphold that tradition, noting that a precedent of 40 years would normally be required to set aside such a practice. However, changing conditions, including increased industrialisation, had made observance more difficult for many people.

During the Second Vatican Council, he consulted with other bishops and found that similar practices were largely no longer in place elsewhere, though the exception was the Diocese of Ferns.

Dr Kyne said he had the authority to grant the dispensation, making Meath the only diocese formally freed from the obligation not to engage in servile work on Holy Days.

Referring to reports of a dispensation in Germany from attending Mass on Holy Days, he remarked that such a development was far removed from the situation in Ireland, adding that “the next thing they would be looking for is not having to go to Mass on Sundays”.

Irish Independent April 21 1956

Gone to Canada

An item in the Evening Echo reported that 14 men from Westmeath had departed for work in the mines in Canada.

The men, aged between 19 and 25, left Cobh aboard the Holland-America liner Maasdam for Halifax, en route to uranium mines in Alberta operated by the Canadian government.

The report stated that Paddy Fagan, who was returning after a holiday in Westmeath and acted as group leader, said a further party of about 30 men was due to sail from Cobh within a month. He added that more than 50 men from Westmeath were already working in the mines and were earning good money.

Westmeath Examiner April 27 1946

Foreign games ban

The Around About column called for the lifting of the GAA ban on “foreign games”, arguing that the rule had become outdated.

The writer noted that the outgoing president of the GAA had described the previous year as the most successful in the association’s 62-year history, and that new rules had strengthened governance by giving each county direct representation.

He argued that the ban on foreign games was widely seen as unnecessary and difficult to enforce, and was frequently breached. In some cases, he said, its enforcement could place the association in a “ludicrous position”.

He cited the example of a similar rule in the Gaelic League, which was broken by Éamon de Valera through his attendance at a dance during Tattoo Week in Ballsbridge.

“To avoid subjecting the head of the government, who is doing his utmost officially and personally for the preservation and spreading of the language, this rule had to be modified,” said the writer.

While acknowledging that the ban may have been justified in the early years of the GAA, when it had to fight its way, there could not be much now in its favour, he wrote.

“The Association,” he continued, “has grown into full manhood. It is well established with a firm footing and all the power and strength of maturity and it can afford to give to its members a degree of freedom which it considered prudent to reserve in the days of its infancy.”

Westmeath types of men very attractive

Westmeath Independent April 18 1936.

This strange article was not actually an April Fool’s joke but published in the Westmeath Independent of April 18, 1936.

Harvard University’s racial survey of Ireland, which was conducted by Dr C W Du Pertuis, assistant in the Department of Anthropology, has concluded. D. Du Pertuis, who began his work in the Free State over two years ago, will leave for Boston this week.

The results of his investigations have been sent to Harvard where they will be analysed. This will take about two years, and a report on the result will be sent to the Free State Government.

Dr Helen Dawson, a research worker, has also completed a survey of about 2,000 women in counties Clare, Kerry, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, and Donegal, the results of which will be correlated in conjunction with the survey of Dr. Du Pertuis.

Dr Du Pertuis examined 10,725 men; in each case taking 125 measurements. He has been helped in the work by his wife who is with him.

Dr Du Pertuis travelled 35,000 miles and visited over 500 towns and villages in the rural parts. He did not work in the larger cities, where he considered that the population is too mixed to be of much use to his survey.

Although he had yet to complete the examination of the statistics he had collected, he was able to give a rough idea of the result of his observations of the racial characteristics.

The special types, which he was able to put into categories, numbered about a dozen, and these represented about thirty or thirty-five per cent of the people he examined.

He found in Co Leitrim, and in Longford, Westmeath, and parts of Roscommon a very rare type, which he called the Leitrim type. They were dark-haired, dark-eyed, round-headed, and smaller than the average. They gave him an impression of those found in Central Europe.

In the midlands he found a type fairly tall, with long head, big hooked nose, light hair, long face. He saw a number of them in County Westmeath and County Tipperary.

Considerable interest was taken in the Irish red-haired type found in parts of the midlands, and in Westmeath and Longford. They have roundish heads and freckles and were very attractive.

Another striking type was what he called ‘The Galway Type’, who were found almost entirely in that county and especially in Connemara. That type had a long face, deep jaw, and invariably hooked nose, dark hair, light eyes, and were fairly tall.

There were not so many of them to be found in East Galway. He admired these people very much. They were bony and not inclined to be fleshy.

They were well built and handsome.

The most outstanding type was what he had called the Mayo type, although it was not by any means confined to that county. That type was characterised by prominent cheekbone, large face, square jaw and medium to tall stature with brown hair, light eyes and slightly ruddy complexion.

He found that type by far the most numerous he had noticed in Mayo, south Donegal, parts of Leitrim, Calvin, the mountainous districts of Fermanagh, parts of Armagh, Down, North Meath, Louth, East Limerick, West Cork and East Kerry. He found that type mostly in the hilly regions and the poorer districts. It seemed to him that those people may have been an earlier Irish type which had been pushed into the poorer lands and in spite of that had preserved their characteristics.

As an instance of that, he found specimens of this type in the mountainous districts of County Down.