Archive News
A ‘hapworth of tar’ for the potholes
Date Published: 30-Jul-2010
IF you never knew that Galway Races were on this week, the subliminal signs were so obvious that you’d have guessed – the city always gets quite a brush-up in preparation for the influx of tens of thousands of holidaymakers and day trippers.
Fact is that the day trippers may have been more numerous this year than others because of the new motorway to Dublin being completed. This year it really was possible to get from Dublin to Galway in a little over two hours, so thinking of a day at the races, then going driving back to Dublin that night, was a very distinct possibility.
Meanwhile, when it came to preparations for the Races, it has always been a bit like the days when families hosted ‘The Stations’ – a ceremony involving Mass in people’s houses. In the weeks leading up to a household hosting the neighbours, out would come the paint brushes and everything would be given a fresh coat of that bilious ‘New Nile Green’ which appeared to be all the rage for years.
Down would come the delph that hadn’t been taken from the dresser in donkey’s years, ‘himself’ might even get a new suit, aunts and uncles that had not ‘darkened the door’ in ages would get a backhanded invitation in the hope that they wouldn’t come, and all would culminate in a gorge of rashers, sausages, black puddings and eggs on the morning that would feed the nation.
It’s a bit like that in Galway for The Races. Bus Éireann pull out all the stops to get the maximum number to and from Ballybrit, the cops come out of wherever they hide for the rest of the year so as to direct the traffic, and though the city swells to twice its normal population and traffic, things run smoothly. It all makes you wonder why a few weeks later the arrival of a wet day can bring the whole place to a shuddering halt.
By the way, just an aside . . . one of the buses I travelled on to Ballybrit two years ago, obviously had been used on school
runs on other occasions. Whoever the student was who drew the graffiti on the back of one seat . . . let’s say he/she wasn’t sleeping during biology class so graphic were the drawings! I’ll say no more, and just hope that the same attention to detail was paid in maths class.
Of course, Galway is not unique in this style of special spruce-up for a special occasion like the Races. You’ll remember a few years ago when the President was visiting one area in the West, they tarred half a mile of road in the vicinity of the neighbourhood she was due to visit! There was no tar and chippings, however, for many another pothole or rocky road.
And last week, with impeccable timing, they filled one of Galway City’s best known potholes – the one just across the road from Arch Motors and near the entrance to the church in Westside. Honestly, there were times in recent weeks when it looked like someone was working on a tank trap, but this monster and a neighbouring pothole which was turning into another nightmare, got the ‘hapworth of tar’ just in the nick of time.
Read more from JC on page 17 of this week’s City 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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