A look back at the old house as we move into the new one

Country Living with Francis Farragher

A lot of the nostalgia buttons are being pressed these days from our look back to Galway’s hurling success of 1980s to a more localised one for those of us who have spent the biggest chunk of our working lives at 15 Market Street in the heart of the city. This week marks the last editions of the Connacht Tribune newspapers to be produced from our current location as we move out to a new and more compact premises in the Liosbán Business Park just off the Tuam Road.

Like the 1980 hurling final, it does seem just like yesterday since I worked my first day in Market Street – the Monday after Galway had lost the 1986 All-Ireland hurling final to Cork. Galway had destroyed Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final at Thurles when they employed the then revolutionary tactic of playing a two-man full-forward line clearing the way for Noel Lane to strike for a hat-trick of goals.

Cork though were a lot wilier for the final leaving Johnny Crowley back as a sweeper . . . and he did just that . . . cleaning up across the Munster champions’ full backline and landing the man-of-the-match accolade in the process, as Galway eventually went down on a 4-13 to 2-15 scoreline.

All week that old rhyme about Cork hurling and Christy Ring kept creeping through my head: ‘Now Cork is bet; the hay is saved; the thousands wildly sing. They speak too soon, my sweet garsun, for here comes Christy Ring’. That day in Croker, Tomás Mulcahy was Cork’s Christy Ring when he scored one of the great All-Ireland final goals after a 50-yard second-half run to swing the match their way.

Those days in the late 1980s, the printing presses of the Connacht Tribune, as well as rolling out their own three titles – The Sentinel, Connacht Tribune and City Tribune – also produced thousands of copies of other titles every week including the Tuam Herald, Clare Champion and Connaught Telegraph. Like a lot of other industries, with the passing of time, the physical production of papers moved to just a handful of locations around the country and the rumble of the printing presses in Market Street grew silent as we went through the noughties.

While 1986 was one of desperate disappointment for Galway hurlers, the next two years – ’87 and ’88 – represented the most glorious ever period for the game in the county with Cyril Farrell’s charges winning back-to-back All-Ireland titles. From a Tribune coverage point-of-view, they were also very special weekends for those of us involved, often booked into the same hotel as the team – invariably The Ashling – with Turloughmore’s, Phelim Murphy, in charge of proceedings. There was a lot more informality about the ‘mixing’ between the team, reporters and supporters in those days, and while Cyril Farrell, did like to create his own little bubble with the squad, access and contact never seemed to be a problem.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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