Archive News
Badminton tournament to benefit children in Chernobyl
Date Published: {J}
FOR badminton players across Galway and, indeed, Connacht, this Sunday’s open tournament in Oranmore Community Hall is a chance to test their skills and have some fun. For the children of Chernobyl, though, the money raised on the evening could be the difference between life and death.
In recent times, sportspeople and sporting events have been used to great effect to highlight the plight of the less fortunate . . . Clarinbridge and Galway hurler Alan Kerins being a leading light in developing community and youth leadership projects in Zambia.
Oranmore badminton player Bláthnait Ní Mhurchú may not enjoy the same high profile of Kerins – although she was crowned the 2011 Mayo Rose – but, nonetheless, she is determined to do what she can to raise some cash for the Chernobyl Children’s Project, which she will visit in Belarus later this month.
Indeed, Ní Mhurchú is one of 14 Roses, including 2011 Rose of Tralee winner Tara Talbot, who will make the trip to Chernobyl to volunteer in the Adi Roche aided Vesnova Children’s Mental Asylum between February 13 and 17.
In all, the Roses, along with two travelling escorts, hope to raise €20,000 which will go directly to assist the children. “We will be classed as medical volunteers for the week, spending time with the children and working in three different units, including the high dependency unit,” says Ní Mhurchú of her impending role.
“We will mainly be helping the nursing staff in the units there. So, we have to bring over medical supplies with us, like Sudocrem. The children suffer a lot because they are sitting around all day and they get a lot of bed sores and that. So, we will be just aids to the nurses there.”
Ní Mhurchú, a Client Relationship Manager for her brother Declan’s healthcare recruitment company Servisource, says their trip will also coincide with the opening of a brand new unit for abandoned babies. “It was built by Irish builders and there is going to be a big woo-hah around that.”
When it came to organising this weekend’s fundraiser, the Belmullet native, following discussion with Oranmore Badminton Club, decided that an open tournament would be a great way to generate some finance, have some fun and raise awareness about Chernobyl Children International.
Ní Mhurchú has always loved the game, although there was a 10 year period where she did not play at. “When I was 16, I won the Mayo U-16 singles and then I never went back again until I joined Oranmore in October 2010. I suppose, after that U-16 tournament, I started the Leaving Cert [at St. Brendan’s College in Belmullet] and then there was college [in Ballyfermot].”
So, what prompted her to return to the game? “Well, I had the racket! The old shaped one!” she laughs. “I used to work in Dundalk, so when I moved to Galway, I suppose it was a new start. My sister had a friend who played for Oranmore and he gave me the lead there. So, I walked through the doors in October (2010) and they haven’t been able to get rid of me since,” she smiles.
Certainly, it has been a productive marriage, with Ní Mhurchú landing a number of titles in the name of Oranmore. “Yeah, last year, we won the Galway County Mixed, Stephen Lally and I. That was Grade 10. I also won the Connacht doubles with Collette Gannon (Letterfrack) and the mixed doubles with Stephen (Grade D). I was also runner-up [to Caroline Pryce of Galway Lawn Tennis Club] in the Connacht singles, 2011.”
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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