Archive News
Athenry spot on in penalty shoot-out against Cork side
Date Published: {J}
Soccer Wrap Up with Mike Rafferty
On a good weekend for Galway teams in the FAI Junior Cup, it was Athenry who had the closest call as they required penalties before seeing off Fairview FC in Moanbaun on Saturday last, while Corrib Rangers and OLBC had more comfortable successes over Mountview United and Hill Celtic respectively as all advanced to the last 32.
With Athenry getting some of their regulars back into the starting eleven, expectations are getting a little higher, but despite all the experience available, the hosts struggled to see off a Cork side that set out in defensive mode and stayed true to their mantra throughout.
The home side eventually prevailed by 5-4 on penalties, after the contest finished level at 1-1 following extra time. Gabriel Glavin’s charges made a good start and it was Cathal Fahy who sent Gary Forde scampering away to fire home the opener, but the advantage was short lived as Fairview quickly levelled matters.
Despite that setback, Athenry continued to do most of the pressing and Conor Cannon and Declan Cullen were both denied by some top class goalkeeping and, indeed, the Fairview custodian continued to frustrate with save after save.
However Athenry’s failure to kill off the visitors didn’t prove to be their downfall as they prevailed in the shootout. Seamie Crowe, Cathal Fahy, Stephen Rabbitte, Alan O’Donovan and Mark Moran were all spot on with their penalties, while Mark Cobey made one crucial save when diving to his right to keep out Fairview’s final effort to secure victory.
Boys Club were always in command in Limerick as goals by Jason Ruffley, Jason McDonagh and Jimmy Jennings eased them to a 3-0 win over Hill Celtic.
The final outcome in Terryland was a little flattering as far as Corrib Rangers were concerned, but their 4-1 win over Dublin side Mountview United was merited, but achieved against a side who finished with just eight men.
Set piece goals by Barry Moran had Rangers two up on 64 minutes, when Mountview imploded and, in quick succession, they had two players collect second yellow cards.
Despite the numerical difference, they pulled one back from a Martin Mullarney penalty and it took a goal line clearance by Kevin Fitzpatrick to deny Johnny Gunnery a shock equaliser. Another red card for Chris Barbour reduced their number to eight.
Despite all the advantages lying with the home side, they struggled to keep possession and it was only deep in additional time that Moran completed his hat trick and David Smith also found the range to seal the win.
Unfortunately, the three Galway teams left in the Junior Cup will all be taking to the road following Tuesday night’s Sixth Round draw. Athenry will be heading to Donegal to face Millford United, while OLBC must travel to Dublin to take on Trinity Corinthians. Corrib Rangers will be making the relatively shorter journey to west Limerick to face Broadford United. The games are scheduled to take place on the weekend of January 14/15.
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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