Each volume contains minutes giving the date of meetings, attendance, correspondence and business transacted. Initially the Board of The Galway Town Commissioners met on a weekly basis, during in later periods it met less frequently. Earlier volumes contain lined pages, later volumes contain indexes and pre-formatted pages. The collection also contains two volumes of drafts of minutes. The volume or volumes covering the period May 1853-September 1862 is missing, according to a list which accompanied the initial deposit it was never deposited at the library. The vast majority of the information contained in the minute books relates to the day to day provision of the services which the Board was responsible for including the collection of tolls, the watch and the maintenance of roads and footpaths. The minute books also contain references to wider social and political events such as The Great Famine and The Land War. The pages of the volumes in this collection are in good physical condition, the covers of some of the volumes are very worn.
Three of the four volumes contain minutes giving the date of meetings, attendance, correspondence and business transacted. The first volume also contains the minutes of the Galway Town Commissioners for the period 6 November 1890 - 31 December 1898, although this is one physical item it can be considered as two items for the purposes of description and arrangement. One of the items in this collection LA4/4 is a letter book which contains copies of correspondence and other items such as reports and for the period 4 May 1922 - 20 December 1922 it includes the copies of the minutes of council meetings. There are no minutes for the period 12 October 1912 - 16 December 1916, however there are some copies of letters for this period.
The volumes in this collection are in good physical condition.
The minutes of the Galway Urban Sanitary Authority list the date of each meeting, the attendance, Reports of Committees, record of sanitary work performed, correspondence and special business. Meeting typically took place at monthly intervals, the vast majority of the Authority's business concerned the provision of running water, sewers and inspection of houses or buildings.
Estimate, specification and two plans drawn up by John Harris, Civil Engineer, Galway, relating to the proposed repairing and extension of the pier at Kinvara Harbour. This collection formed part of the legal papers of the Blake Forster family, landowners in Kinvara at the time.
Letter Book for Galway Urban District Council, contains copies of correspondence and copies of other material relating to the Urban District Council, including reports from committees, statements of accounts and the minutes of council meetings. Many entries are not dated however they appear to be in chronological order. The volume is paginated pp1-994, only one side of each leaf is paginated. Page 5 includes a statement of loans for the Galway Harbour Commissioners. Page 68 contains a statement of rents received from houses on Bowling Green for the years 1904 and 1909. The amount borrowed for the housing scheme was £1060 for a term of 50 years. Page 424 contains a statement of outstanding loans for public health and other acts. Each entry contains the following fields 'purpose', 'amount of loan', 'date', 'no. of years', 'principal paid off.', 'principal outstanding' and 'rate of interest'. Entries include 'Claddagh Bridge' £2000, 1888... And Auxiliary Engine £900, 1893'. Page 456 includes a plan to purchase Grattan's Estate in the Claddagh, according to the plan the estate had 80 houses built on it and goes on to say 'That number of houses required would be about 150. Which might be provided as follows: 100 houses £140 each - £14000, 50 houses £100 each £5000.' Pages 924-994 contain copies of typescript minutes of meetings of the Galway Urban District Council. According to entry dated 4 May 1922 on page 924 'A vigilance committee was appointed to draw up a report with regard to the supervision of certain literature which is being circulated in the district.' According to entry on page 928 'Mr. F. Flanerty asked if the action of parties who done damage at Eyre Square and removed the statue of Lord Dunkellin was to be permitted to go unpunished. Decided to consult the Council's solicitors and instruct them to take proceedings to have the parties punished.' According to entry dated 22 September 1922 which appears on page 955 'A letter was read from Dail Eireann, stating that the Minister for Local Government was of the opinion that sanction should have been obtained before expenditure had been incurred in connection with the purchase of the large hanger which is being erected at Salthill.' According to entry dated 5 October 1922 which appears on page 964 'It was decided to draw the attention of the Inspector, Civic Guard, to the number of shooting galleries which are allowed to do business at Eyre Square, and ask him, if possible, to effect the removal of these parties. Page 990 includes a report relating to electricity supplies in the city, the report relates to the construction of a power plant, the existing plant having been 'destroyed by fire about the 17th of March this year and is not yet entirely reconstructed.'
Materials in this catalogue are organised hierarchically and assigned to sub-fonds such as Personal, Academic, or Business papers. These groupings are intended as broad contextual guides rather than strict definitions, and they determine the reference number that is assigned to that particular archive collection (for example A for Academic, P for Personal).
Because many creators’ lives and work do not fit neatly into a single category, some collections include material that might also sit comfortably elsewhere. In some cases, collections that contain academic or literary material have been placed within Personal papers, reflecting how the records were originally grouped or described.
More detailed information is provided at collection and item level.