Archive News
A remarkable exhibition of artefacts from the King Tut tomb
Date Published: {J}
I debated with myself whether to go to the Tutankhamun – His Tomb and His Treasures exhibition in the RDS – well, I did have the feeling that the collection being made up of reproductions, might be a little like going to a museum to see a copy of the Mona Lisa, or admiring a reproduction of some other work of art.
To some extent the decision was eventually forced
by the fact that, considering recent events in Egypt, the chances of seeing the originals in the museum in Cairo, seemed rather remote. That, plus the fact that there have been reports of some of the original King Tut artefacts disappearing in the recent rioting.
I have to be honest and say that at my age, the odds are very long indeed on my going on a trip as ambitious as Cairo. Some years ago I did what might be termed ‘the grand tour’ in the Middle East taking in Israel and Jordan and found it exhausting, but hugely rewarding.
The highlights included a visit to the Sepulchre in the Basilica in Jerusalem and walking the Via Dolorosa. Of course there was the visit to the extraordinary Petra, in Jordan, though the nights in the desert sleeping in tents Bedouin-style as we followed the Lawrence of Arabia trail, were also never to be forgotten.
But the remarkable story of the finding of the tomb of King Tutankhamun, the extraordinary artefacts found there, and the sheer magic, the scale and grandeur that seemed to surround the era of pharaohs, left me with a feeling that, some day, I would dearly love to see the treasures of King Tut.
Time slipped right on by, of course, and I was no nearer to seeing them . . . other than on screen and in television documentaries about the discovery by archaeologist Howard Carter of the tomb in 1922, after six years of searching in the desert.
In fact, he was on his last dig, the money having run out, when the chance finding of a cut stone step by one of the diggers led to the extraordinary discovery of an intact tomb for the first time ever.
I have to say that I approached the exhibition in the RDS last weekend with a dread that I would be disappointed. After all, I was one of a generation raised on stories of the pharaohs – including the tales of the Curse of King Tut, not the least of them being the death of the financial backer of the King Tut excavation, Lord Carnavon, who appears to have died when a mosquito bite became infected.
Now the queuing was interminable, but we were lucky that it was one of those unseasonably warm and sunny days that you can get in this country – even in the middle of February.
I need not have worried. The exhibition gave me the first real impression of the sheer scale of the funerary finds which were made when they opened the tomb of King Tut for the first time in thousands of years.
For more, read this week’s Galway 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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