Archive News
Potential is there for St. ThomasÕ to take over
Date Published: 20-Feb-2013
THEY have yet to win the All-Ireland title, but the potential for St. Thomas’ to leave a lasting legacy similar to the three great Galway club teams, Sarsfields, Athenry and Portumna, is beyond dispute after they emphatically dismantled the challenge of title holders Loughgiel Shamrocks in a one-sided semi-final replay in Clones last Saturday.
At a Monaghan venue where both Athenry and Portumna have fallen in the past, the Galway champions recovered superbly from an unnerving start in continuing a fairytale season which will now conclude next month with an All-Ireland final date against Kilcormac Killoughey in Croke Park. It will be virgin territory for both teams which will add intrigue to the first Galway-Offaly club showdown since Portumna heavily defeated Birr in the spring of 2008.
Unlike the high scoring drawn affair the previous weekend in Parnell Park, Saturday’s replay was a much more defensive orientated contest with Loughgiel packing their half-back area in a clear attempt to nullify the threat of Conor Cooney. They were also endeavouring to isolate Liam Watson at the other end, and, initially, they had St. Thomas’ on the ropes.
They created goal chances for Benny McCarry, who blazed the ball wide, Shay Casey, denied by a timely block from Cathal Burke, and Watson, who took the wrong option in electing to pull rather than take possession when about ten yards out, but instead let their Galway opponents off the hook and ended up paying a heavy penalty for doing so. It typified their poor finishing on the day with an Eddie McCloskey point just on half time their only score from play.
It was unreasonable to expect that Cooney would have same impact as he had done in the drawn game, but up stepped Bernard Burke to pick up the slack as he make the replay nearly his own personal property. He picked off four critical points, one better than the other, and also had the pleasure of literally knocking the wind out of McCloskey’s sails with a hefty shoulder challenge close to half time.
St. Thomas’ had just edged 0-6 to 0-5 in front and their greater scoring power was highlighted by the neat point taking from the likes of David Burke, much more influential this time, James Regan, Bernard Burke, Kenneth Burke and substitute Eanna Burke. It was a disappointing position for Loughgiel given that they had no shortage of opportunities, but they simply didn’t possess the necessary cutting edge on the day. They were left to rue that wastefulness in the second half despite Watson tying up the teams soon after the resumption.
In a blistering spell which highlighted St. Thomas’ teamwork, greater skill and mobility, they rattled off eight unanswered points. Bernard Burke was at the heart of this dominance with a hat-trick of wonderful scores which would have broken the hearts of most opponents. Burke made hay when switched to the forty and with Richie Murray also benefitting from his move out the field, the Galway title holders began putting significant daylight between the teams.
With Sean Skehill again carrying out a wonderful policing job on Watson and Darragh and Sean Burke starring in the half back line, Loughgiel were now struggling to even create chances in the second-half when they were restricted to just two pointed frees. In contrast, St. Thomas’ were raising white flags at will, especially in the third quarter and though their scoring ratio dropped towards the end, the job was already done.
Considering they are such a young team and performing at this level for the first time, it reflects well on St. Thomas’ maturity that they didn’t allow the late change of venue from Parnell Park to Clones to affect their mindset. That switch might have been perceived as suiting Loughgiel more, but John Burke and Dinny Cahill had their troops in the right mood and the manner in which they pulled away in the second-half underlines the quality in the team. No wonder, they are priced at 4/7 to go the whole way now.
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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