Galway Races Cancelled?

A saving of Oats instead

This order to stop racing looks like another one of those stupid blunders of the Government for which they have become notorious since the first day the war began

What will Galway people do if their races have stopped!  That’s the question of the hour just now.  And with the Races, will our Annual Bazaar go too?  At the hour of writing the Races at all events are hanging in the balance.  Still we are not inclined to believe that they are doomed just yet, in fact we are not inclined to think they will be stopped at all.   There can be many a slip between the cup and the lip from May to August.  All Ireland, it may be depended on, will put up a fight to hold their race meetings, at least the principal ones, and Galway is amongst the first of the principal ones.  It is a good thing that Mr. Crowley set the ball rolling at the Urban Council on Thursday, but we must join with all Ireland in doing much more than that.

This order to stop racing looks like another one of those stupid blunders of the Government for which they have become notorious since the first day the war began.  The only reason we have seen given for it, is that there will be a saving of oats for food for the people.  How do they make that out by stopping the races?  Is it that horses eat more oats on racing days or do they want owners of horses to kill them in order to save the oats?  The only other alternative to killing the horses is to sell them; but won’t a horse eat as much oats with its new owner as with the old one.  There is further explanation required.

Galway Observer, 5 May 1917

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