Connacht Tribune
Races stir up memories of politics rather than ponies
It seems almost a shameful admission for a Galwegian to make but my interest in the Galway Races is only one or two notches above zero.
And it wasn’t as if we city kids weren’t exposed to horses growing up. My father, who worked for the Department of Agriculture, bought a horse when we were teenagers which were kept in a field near the Ardilaun Hotel. My younger brother took to horse-riding quickly and still loves horses.
Maybe I was at that teenage moment where you are indifferent to everything other than what your peers regard as important. But the gee-gees held no interest for me, then or now.
Sure, I went to Galway Races but the abiding memories had little to do with the phosphorous flash of colour and sound of speeding hooves as the horse zipped by the stand. It had to do with the funfair and the hurdy-gurdies when I was small, the fact that the pubs stayed open till 1am when I was a young adult.
Going to the races knowing nothing about horseracing is a disadvantage. There’s only so far you can go backing a horse because it has a catchy name. And you realise quickly too that the lads who got inside information from the horse’s mouth had actually been speaking to Shergar in their own homes with nobody else listening. I often wonder was the term ‘bum steer’ invented in Ballybrit?
When I started off as a reporter with The Connacht Tribune, the hardy annual story every year was to quantify the exact extent of what it was worth to the city each year. You would ring the race track, the local tourism chief, a few councillors, pub owners and shopkeepers.
And then you would pluck a figure from the air that was one-tenth science and nine-tenths hunch. The only important thing was the amount was bigger than the previous year. The vital component of the story was that the word ‘splurge’ would get its annual outing in a headline and first paragraph.
I made a terrible mistake one year when I left out the word ‘million’ in my copy and informed the readers of The City Tribune that Galway was set for a £13 splurge.
Always there was a bit of a mixture of puritanism and hypocrisy on my part.
I kind of disapproved of the excess and void-headed behaviour – the all-night poker sessions; the all-night drinking sessions; the 24-hour non-stop gambling. The lack of proportionality, the approval of all this behaviour, the fact that it was all filed under the generic heading of ‘craic’ all jarred with me a bit.
So, for me, if there was one week of the year to make myself scarce in Galway it was the week of the Races. And so that seemed a good enough solution to keep this killjoy away and the legions of Irish punters happy without having their ‘craic’ interrupted by a holier than thou.
But then, as luck would have it, politics began to rear up its ugly head. The Galway Races always happened to coincide with the end of the political year and half the TDs and Senators in the country would decamp to Galway.
It was a particularly Fianna Fáil phenomenon. Bertie Ahern always went down to Galway before going on his holiday to Kerry. Charlie McCreevy, when he was Minister for Finance, would spend the whole week there with his binoculars looking like a piñata pony with all the multicoloured ribbons aflutter.
And so too would Brian Cowen, before and during when he was Minister, but always more low-key than the flamboyant McCreevy.
When the economic situation seemed very strong in the 1990s, somebody in Fianna Fáil’s fund-raising department came up with the idea of the party putting up a corporate tent in Ballybrit and getting people to stump up vast amounts of money from the pleasure of sharing crab, prawn sandwiches and salmon with the likes of The Bert, Charlie, Cowen and the rest of the gang.
It was like Great Gatsby for the Soldiers of Destiny. Suddenly every mover and shaker in Irish society was lining up to get into the tent, to make large contributions and to rub shoulders with the leading members of the Government.
Seanie Dunne was there and the Bailey brother and Bernard McNamara. And just about every other developer and banker and speculator you could shake a stick at. And so every year, we political journalists would make the pilgrimage down to gawk into the tent (like the Downton Abbey staff) and watch all the so-called influencers at play.
It was mainly just people standing around drinking and eating and talking and gambling – very boring to the onlooker. What was important though was the identity of the people and the amounts they were putting into the coffers of Fianna Fáil. The Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races became the symbol of all that was wrong during those years of excess.
You had all those separate camps ruling the roost, oiling each other’s palms in one way of another. When you have that kind of close relationship, you have to be a very strong human being indeed to be able to resist comprising or conceding your position.
And as we have seen too often in the past politicians usually have spines and backbones with the strength of marshmallow. After a few years of excessive focus and spotlight, Fianna Fáil finally copped on that the caper might be great for fund-raising but it was dire for image and publicity. The party gradually began to pull back from it and eventually abandoned it altogether.
But it was too late. When the economy crashed and everything started to go south, the ‘Galway tent’ became a pejorative term for describing the Fianna Fáil brand of clientilism, where favours could be bought and certain wealthy people were always accommodated.
The Galway Tent was a pretty noxious example of that phenomenon. It is still true that if you are wealthy, or belong to a wealthy and powerful group or lobby (doctors, lawyers, farmers, financiers, big business, some public service trade unions) your level of access to government (and extent of influence) will always be much, much higher than the ordinary citizen who are the drone bees of Irish society and pay all their taxes.
While it was flagrant during the Fianna Fáil years, it is still evident and explains in some way the disparities in income gaps between the wealthiest in our society and the poorest. I’m not decrying the Galway Races.
I’ve met legions of people over the years for whom the week is their highlight of the year. Sure it’s all about splurges and craic and madness. And that’s all fine and dandy.
People can manage their own money as they see fit. But if there is one case where politics and sports should not mix, it is this. It important our political decision-makers remain sober and boring and predictable in how they manage our money.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
