Archive News
All eyes on Fine Gael in Galway City Central ward
Date Published: {J}
It may be the smallest local electoral ward in the city, but Galway City Central has some of the biggest personalities on Galway City Council and when it comes to the next elections there could be a number of surprises in store.
Because it only elects four members to the local authority, the ward often commands the least attention and while it has thrown up the occasional bit of controversy, it is largely predictable.
It has become something of a Labour stronghold over the past decade with Councillor Billy Cameron and Cllr Collette Connolly being returned in 2004 and then again in 2009, although Connolly had to rely on significant transfers before eventually crossing the line in the final count.
The electoral ward was enlarged between these two elections to take in a significant chunk of the city including Bohermore, Prospect Hill, College Road, Woodquay, Eyre Square and the Docks area.
There was an increase in the electorate by around 700 voters and it resulted in Cllr Ollie Crowe winning a crucial seat for Fianna Fáil from his Bohermore base. However, the tally figures would also show that he had wide appeal across the electoral area.
Cameron, who is in the news at the moment over the controversial Che Guevara statue, topped the poll on the last occasion and was elected on the first count. He may have expressed some doubts about running the last time, but he will definitely be in the frame on the next occasion and at this stage looks certain to be re-elected.
It will be a source of concern for Connolly that her vote dropped and had to rely heavily on transfers from Green Party candidate Mairead Ni Chroinin and Independent Mike Cubbard. She will be striving hard to prevent any further erosion of her vote.
On the last occasion Fine Gael ran just one candidate, Cllr Padraig Conneely, and not surprisingly he polled nearly a quota. His outspoken tendencies and his willingness to ‘take on’ city officials have made him hugely popular with a certain element of the electorate.
If the party decide to adopt a similar approach and run a single candidate strategy, then Conneely would win the seat hands down but there are suggestions within Fine Gael that this will not happen again and that in 2014 there will be a second candidate.
In this regard there is huge speculation surrounding the possibility of well known local footballer and college student, Eddie Hoare, throwing his name into the ring and if this was the case, he would present a huge challenge to Conneely.
Hoare is one of the stalwarts for the St Michael’s GAA Club where he lines out at midfield. He has also played U-21 and senior for Galway and well as winning a county intermediate championship with his club back in 2008. His family are extremely well known in the area.
Indeed, he canvassed for Conneely in the last Local Elections in 2009 and it is widely rumoured at the moment that he may have political ambitions and he would have the potential to command a substantial vote.
It would be an intriguing battle between the two individuals if it happened with some political commentators believing that it would be the ultimate in ‘spectator sport’ if Conneely and Hoare ran head-to-head.
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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