Archive News
Annexing of swathe of Galway East would impact hugely on sitting TD’s
Date Published: {J}
A controversial proposal to include a large portion of Galway East into a three seat constituency with the whole of County Roscommon has been made as part of a submission to a review group established to carry out political reforms.
It is proposed to include Ballinasloe town along with villages like Ballygar, Glynsk and Williamstown in a new Roscommon/East Galway constituency. But such a proposal would draw strong resistance from Galway East politicians and particularly Mountbellew based Deputy Paul Connaughton jnr. who would see a large chunk of his core vote eroded in the process.
There would also be opposition to the county boundary being breached but Independent TD Denis Naughten said that there would be a reduction of one TD if his proposals were adopted.
His submission would mean that Galway West would remain a five seat constituency with a downsized Galway East being reduced to three seats with a new Roscommon/East Galway constituency also having three seats.
Currently Roscommon is included in a constituency with South Leitrim with North Leitrim being included with Sligo – because the county is split in two, it has resulted in Leitrim having no Dail representation.
The former Fine Gael TD said that it would make practical sense for Leitrim not to be divided and aligned with Sligo as part of the one constituency. “The population of Roscommon can only sustain two TDs and that is why I am suggesting that part of Galway East along the River Suck should form part of a three seat constituency”, Deputy Naughten argued.
He said that Roscommon had more association with Galway from a health point of view while he added that Ballinasloe served South Roscommon from an educational and commercial perspective.
Such a move would spell disaster for the reelection prospects of Deputy Connaughton and also seriously jeopardise the chances of independent councillor Timmy Broderick from Kilconnell getting elected having polled so well in the last general election.
It would also mean that Sinn Fein’s Cllr. Dermot Connolly would be standing in a different constituency to last time when he ran in Galway East and received over 3,500 first preferences and is hoping to put in an even stronger bid in the next general election.
There would also be implications for the Kitt political dynasty in the event of Deputy Micheal Kitt or a family member contesting the next general election – a significant portion of the Leas Ceann Comhairle’s vote in last year’s election came from the Ballinasloe area.
Even as it stands, however, two sitting Fine Gael TDs will be looking over their shoulders as a potential new candidate has emerged in the constituency.
Abbeyknockmoy based Cllr. Pete Roche, who was recently announced as an ambassador for Console, confirmed to The Connacht Tribune that he would seriously consider running.
For more, read this week’s Connacht 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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