Item 1 - Bound volume comprising the minutes of meetings of the Galway Town Commissioners.

c. 850 pp

Bound volume comprising the minutes of meetings of the Galway Town Commissioners. Each entry gives the date of the meeting, the attendance, the business transacted and correspondence, in a small number of instances transcripts of correspondence are included. The majority of resolutions and minutes refer to the maintenance and installation of street paving, the collection of tolls and the other civic improvements such as gas lighting. There are also some references to larger projects such as the enclosing of Eyre Square, the Corrib navigation scheme and the construction of a rail link between Dublin and Galway. There are also some reference to wider political events, such as the Repeal Movement. Meetings were generally held weekly on a Thursday, on occasion meetings were cancelled if a quorum was not present, meeting sometimes took place on other days of the week. Includes the minutes of the inaugural meeting of the Galway Town Commissioners, minute for the first meeting dated 6 July 1836 states 'M. D'Arcy stated that he had summons the commissioners in pursuance of a letter he received from A. H. Lynch Esq. M.P. announcing the passing of the local improvements bill, and the letter having been read.' The following are listed as having attended the meeting 'R.M. Lynch, James Joyce, John Gunning, James Flynn, John Atkinson, M. O'Brien, John Ireland, Edward Killeen, L.B. Burke, Patt Commings, James Lynch, M Lynch, E McDonnell, James Duggan, James Veitch, John Costello. Entry for the 5th October 1836 lists the election result for an election of Commissioners on the 29th and 30th of September. Francis Fitzgerald with 202 votes toped the poll, 21 Commissioners were elected. According to entry dated 13 March 1837 agreement was made between the town commissioners and the directors of The Galway Gas Company for 'putting up one hundred lamps to be kept lighting every night from one hour after sunset to one hour before sun rise for six hundred pounds per annum and one hundred pounds more on the following terms viz, the first 25 for £5 each, the 2nd 25 for £4 10s each, the 3rd 25 for £4 each, the last 25 for £3 10 each or the gas at eight shillings for 1000 cubic feet if we choose at any time to take it by meter....' According to entry dated 13 April 1837 the representative of Robert Hedges Eyre stated that Mr. Eyre 'was ready to give the Town Commissioners a lease of Eyre Square, a lease for lives renewable for ever at a rent of five shillings per annum. The Commissioners being bound in proper form to enclose the square with a handsome iron railing erected on a cut stone plynth and to keep it up as a garden....' Entry for 15th November 1837 states that 'The Secretary submitted, the Liverpool Bye Laws to enable them to adopt Bye-laws for the town of Galway and they have adopted the several laws....' Entry for 23 March 1843 states that the Town Commissioners 'do petition the legislature praying the repeal of the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland', the petition was to be forwarded to Daniel O'Connell Esq. M.P. for presentation to the House of Commons. Entry for 24 April 1843 includes a transcript of a letter dated 13 April 1843 from Daniel O'Connor, Merrion Square addressed to the Chairman of the Commissioners' Committee for the Repeal of the Legislative Union Between Britain and Ireland, O'Connell explains why he had not replied to a letter 'respecting the petition to parliament on the subject of repeal', O'Connell explains 'The reason I did not reply to his letter was this that it is utterly impossible I should answer all the letters I get everybody writing to me about everything'; he goes on to write that 'I wish most emphatically to distain any idea of slight or designed neglect of the Town Commissioners of Galway or to any of them....' Entry for 21 May 1844 includes a transcript of a letter from Robert Peel the Prime Minister. Peel writes 'I consider it to be clearly established that the navigation of Lough Corrib in the County of Galway is capable of improvement and that a navigable channel might be made from Lough Corrib to Galway Bay and between Galway Bay and Lough Mask....' According to the entry for 6 February 1845 a petition 'to her Majesty for the Establishment of a Provincial College in Galway' was adopted by the Town Commissioners. Entry for 27 March 1845 states that it was 'Resolved that our secretary be directed to convey to Stephen Ffrench Esq. M.P. the assurance of our heartfelt gratitude to him for his zealous and hitherto successful exertion to construct a rail between this town and the Metropolis.'

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27/06/2013
10/07/2025