Pages from the Past

150 YEARS AGO 1861 Election of workhouse schoolmaster The board of guardians of Athlone Union decided in November to elected a schoolmaster to the workhouse The salary was of €25 per annum "and rations and the usual apartments". A person having knowledge of agriculture would be preferred, an advertisement stated. The Westmeath Independent reported later in November that eight candidates had come forward but only two found proposers. One, Richard Hall, was the schoolmaster in the Ballinasloe Workhouse while another John Harris was a teacher in Baylin NS. The meeting of the board of guardians heard that there appeared to be a feeling that as the children in the school were all Roman Catholic that a teacher of that persuasion ought to be elected. However, the chairman Lord Castlemaine said that the less that was said on the matter the better. He said if the question of religion was introduced "it would have the effect of creating a great deal of unpleasantness and disunion". However, Mr P Grehan said it was a case of great importance where the children were all Catholics, that a Catholic teacher should be appointed. The meeting was also told that Mr Hall, was a Protestant, but had filled the same situation in Ballinasloe, where the children were all Roman Catholics. After a vote Harris was elected by 19 votes to 5. The board also agreed to ask the Commissioners of National Education, who ran the school system, to dispense with the requirement that the candidates be a particilar age after it transpired that Harris was "under age". 100 YEARS AGO 1911 Athlone Printing Works employees hit back at claims In this column a few weeks ago, we cited a report from the Westmeath Independent in 1911 regarding the announcement that the printing of half of the census returns for Ireland had been given to the Athlone Printing Works, part of the Westmeath Independent. The news though had a controversial postscript as a report in early November, 1911, revealed. The story read: "There has been quite a furore in printing circles in Dublin at the audacity of a provincial office securing a share of the work. The outrageous claim is advanced that the printing trade of Ireland should begin and end in Dublin and that the provincial employer and the provincial worker should be satisfied with the scraps after the city firms have scoured the provinces for every piece of printing work worth having. The amazement that there does exist in Ireland an office capable of competing with the city is indicated by the outrageous resolutions, misrepresentations and questions in Parliament and all the other efforts that have been made to induce the Government to forego the contract entered into. Workers of the Athlone Printing Works company met during the week and passed two resolutions, the paper reported. The first condemned and refuted statements published by members of Messrs Thom's Chapel and others concerning the conditions of employment in the Athlone Printing Works Ltd. The resolution added that the claims put forward by the employees of a disappointed competitor that Government printing contracts should be confined to a few city firms is audacious. The second resolution continued: "We, the workers in the Athlone Printing Works, are the best judges as to whether the conditions of employment are satisfactory or not. We work in a well organised, well run office, where none but Trades Society men are employed. "The standard of wages was arranged by the Typographical Society - and although the highest of any provincial town in Ireland - is only, we are glad to say, taken as the minimum not the maximum. "The statements made in the Evening Telegraph concerning cheap boy labour as applied to this office are utterly and shamelessly untrue," the resolution continued. 50 YEARS AGO 1961 Congo prisoners are freed The headline of the Westmeath Independent of Saturday, October 28, screamed out the good news: "Irish prisoners in Congo are free: News received with delight in Athlone." The story read: "Over 180 United Nations prisoners, the majority of whom are members of A Company, 35th Battalion, drawn from the Western Command, were released on Wednesday by the Katangans as a result of the ceasefire agreement concluded 12 days ago. They were exchanged for over 200 of President Tshombe's Gendarmerie who were captured in the fighting five weeks ago. News of the release were received with delight in Athlone and other areas in the Western Command especially by the relatives of the men who have a worrying time during the past five weeks. The handing over of the prisoners was witnessed by Mr Tshombe and Gen Norbert Muke for Katangan and by Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien and Abdul Succar for the United Nations. Moate are Westmeath junior football champions Moate All Whites may recently have been relegated to junior football. But 50 years ago, the club won the Westmeath Junior Football Championship when they defeated Clonmellon by 1-6 to 0-3 to capture a title they previously held in 1930. The Westmeath Independent reported that star of the Moate side was midfielder Oliver Costello who was partnered there by Garda Eamonn McNally. Moate's team was: P. McCann, T. Kennedy, J. Galvin, J. Murphy, B. Gillivan, PJ Donohoe, E. Heavin, E. McNally, O. Costello, P. Lalor, M. Adamson, N. Turley, T. Long, V. Cunningham and M. Burke. 25 YEARS AGO 1986 Archaeological treasure trove found in Shannon Four bronze-age spear heads and an iron-age sword were recovered from the bed of the River Shannon, close to Athlone, on Sunday by members of the Athlone Sub Aqua Club who were on a routine training dive, the Westmeath Independent reported in late October 1986. A National Museum of Ireland official was to visit later in the week, the paper said. Three of the spear heads were found in perfect condition by club member Donal Boland and the other spear head and iron age swords which weren't in as good a condition were found by John Reynolds and Louis Fleming. While the club was keeping the exact location of the find a secret in the interest of preserving the site, Club President Damien Delaney told the paper that the area seemed to be the site of an ancient crossing point on the river and he speculated that the weapons were deposited there during a battle. "The level of the river is very different today to what it was during the bronze age where there was a series of rapids through what is now Athlone," he said. The present day weir has dramatically altered the level of Lough Ree, and in the area where the weapons were found, there seems to be remains of a series of stepping stones across the river. No significant silt at Meelick - Minister tells Shannon campaigners It took just five days to clear up the silt in the river Shannon just north of Meelick, according to Minister for the Office of Public Works Avril Doyle in late October 1986. The Minister said that "very little silt of gravel deposits were found and only minor areas of rushes and summer growth of aquatic weeds needed removal. There was no significant amount of silting in the approach channels to the sluices at Meelick, she said. The silt uncovered had built up over a very long period of time and was "unlikely to have any significant effect" on the flooding situation. It had been claimed by politicians, farmers, the IFA and record keepers that the build up of silt at Meelick had been a major factor in flooding which affects basin areas of Westmeath and Offaly, the Westmeath Independent said.