Archive News
”By then, sure Michael D. might have a posh new address at the ”The Park”
Date Published: {J}
I was telling you lately that Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny will be demanding that Galway West return an extra FG Dáil Deputy when it comes to the next General Election. He has told ‘the lads’ as much and might need that extra seat to get into government.
The speculation has been not alone on who would join sitting Dáil Deputy Padraic McCormack on the FG ticket, but whether long-serving McCormack would stand for re-election one more time if the election were to be as far away as 2012.
But the high-profile success last week by McCormack in winning the Chair of the FG Parliamentary Party (TDs, Senators and MEPs), plus the recent issuing of colour political literature by McCormack in the constituency, have made people in the Fine Gael organisation in Galway West, stop in their tracks and make no presumptions at all!
When it came to the counting last week, in the secret ballot for the FG Chair, I understand the first count gave McCormack 26 votes, outgoing Chairman Tom Hayes TD (Tipperary) 19 votes, and Joe McHugh TD (Donegal) 15 votes. When McHugh was eliminated, McCormack won by two votes . . . a not inconsiderable victory either by two of McCormacks staunchest campaigners, Michael Ring TD (Mayo) and Ulick Burke TD (Galway East), who might be regarded as ‘old style’ Fine Gael.
McCormack, who has been in the Dáil since 1989 but made his first bid to win a seat in 1981, has been keeping his own counsel on whether he intends to stand at the next election, but last week’s victory, plus his enthusiasm for the business at constituency level, show that anyone writing him off might like to think again.
All of which will be of huge interest to the others in the constituency who are eyeing-up a place on the FG election ticket in Galway West – Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames, Councillor Brian Walsh, Cllr Padraig Conneely, Cllr Sean Kyne, Cllr Hildegarde Naughton, and JJ Lee.
On the Enda Kenny visit to Galway during last June’s Local Elections campaign, during that walkabout by Kenny down Galway’s main street, Walsh went very publicly on the record as seeking a nomination.
Apart from Healy-Eames, he might be regarded as a ‘front runner’ for a nomination – though he was nominated in the 2007 General Election, but stepped down for family reasons. Kenny persuaded McCormack to stand again, though McCormack had announced weeks earlier that he was retiring.
There are certainly no indications of a McCormack retirement now – but, if he is going to lead the ticket in the next election, he will not underestimate the extent of the task confronting FG in winning two Dáil seats.
In the 2007 General Election, FG got 20% of the first preferences and they will need the best part of 10% extra if they are to secure two Dáil seats out of the five in Galway West. So, party strategists will have to pick a ticket to do just that and hope that opinion poll levels remain high for FG nationally and ‘translate’ to support levels in Galway West.
Galway West is not a constituency like others in the western seaboard where it is a direct fight between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael and Kenny is a potential Mayo Taoiseach. In Galway West the political ‘market’ is very fractured – two Fianna Fáil (Eamon Ó Cuív and Frank Fahey) one Fine Gael (McCormack), one Independent (Noel Grealish– former PD), and one Labour (Michael D Higgins).
The last time Fine Gael held two seats in Galway West was way back in 1982 when John Donnellan and Fintan Coogan were both elected – and, ironically, McCormack agreed not to contest so that the FG party strategy of winning two seats might succeed. However, in that November 1982 election (the third general election in 18 months), the one to lose his Dáil seat to Fine Gael was Labour’s Higgins.
Right now, one of the intriguing pieces of speculation in Galway West is whether Higgins, who has been in the Dáil since 1987, will stand again if the election is not in the near future . . . and whether he might run for election to the Presidency when Mary McAleese finishes her term of office.
As one Fine Gaeler put it this week . . . “sure, by the next General Election, Michael D might have posh new address in ‘The Park’ if the speculation about him running is anything to go by”.
In any contest for ‘The Park,’ there are rumours of any number of high-profile possible contenders. Higgins hasn’t been ruling himself either in or out of the race and certainly would be a powerful ‘draw’ in view of present FF unpopularity in the opinion polls . . . but FF are not easily beaten and there is the possible candidature of MEP Brian Crowley, a huge vote-getter in Munster and a very formidable campaigner indeed.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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