Archive News
Suspended Molloy to miss Mervue United’s First Division home tie against Limerick
Date Published: {J}
STEPHEN GLENNON
MERVUE United will look to leapfrog mid-table rivals, Limerick in the Airtricity First Division table when they face the Shannonsiders at Fahy Field this evening, Friday (7:45pm).
Indeed, a victory for Johnny Glynn’s outfit could see them climb into the top five and that would be a remarkable achievement given their relationship with the bottom of the table over the past number of seasons.
That said, judging on their opening five games, Mervue United have certainly showed signs that they are a squad moving in the right direction. Away victories over derby rivals Salthill Devon and Wexford Youths, and a draw against Cork City Foras, have yielded seven league points – one less than Limerick, who have two wins and two draws from six outings.
Mervue were also unlucky against Longford Town – a game they deserved to get something out of – while their only other defeat came to league leaders Shelbourne, a 2-1 loss at home last month. Definitely, no shame in that.
Their duels with Limerick last year also give rise to optimism. They drew their opening game at home 1-1, before going down 2-0 away mid-season. Their final game was a narrow 1-0 defeat at home, but if Mervue have improved in 2011, then reversing such a scoreline this evening is well within their scope.
Manager Glynn does have injury concerns, with long-term injury victim Dan Cunningham and Dave Goldbey both out, while striker Jason Molloy serves a one-match suspension, following four yellows.
However, Mervue would appear to be in good shape other than that, although Glynn – true to his nature – urges caution ahead of this important First Division fixture. “Yes, it is an opportunity for us to pick up three points, but we also have to put it into perspective. One of their player’s weekly wage would almost be the equivalent of what it takes to fund our team for the week. That’s if you were to look at it in financial terms.
“Now, I am not one of those managers that gives out about budgets or what have you – like other managers do – but Limerick have big plans and they are looking to get promoted this year,” says the Mervue boss.
Still, following a satisfactory start to their campaign, there has to be room for optimism this evening. “Absolutely,” agrees Glynn, "but all we want to do is focus on our next match. I am not one to be looking at tables too much, although I’m sure that (the opportunity to leapfrog Limerick) is probably something the lads are looking at themselves.
“I just want us to focus on our own performance, and try to get us into a winning habit. Confidence is a big thing for us, having been at the bottom of the table the last two seasons. So, wins help build confidence in a big way – it’s a good habit to get into – and we will be trying to take all three points on Friday evening. Certainly, they would be a massive, massive – three points for us,” concludes Glynn.
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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