Archive News
Bob gets the job done as Walsh atones for near miss last year
Date Published: 02-Aug-2012
Wednesday Report by John McIntyre
IRELAND’S top National Hunt owner, JP McManus, threw the kitchen sink at Wednesday’s Tote sponsored Galway Plate and the Limerick native’s mob-handed approach paid rich dividends with 16/1 outsider Bob Lingo scooping the biggest pot on the summer chasing calendar.
The five lengths success of the Tony Mullins trained 10-year-old, which had warmed up for a tilt at the €200,000 feature with an encouraging effort on the level in Killarney recently, saw winning jockey Mark Walsh go one better than 12 months ago when only Blazing Tempo got the better of his mount, Wise Old Owl.
Last year’s runner-up was also back in Ballybrit for another crack at the Plate, but this time was partnered by multiple UK champion Tony McCoy, leaving Walsh free to link up with Bob Lingo and, in the process, achieve the biggest win of his career to date.
Walsh said afterwards that Bob Lingo was a little out of his ground early on, but some accurate jumping saw him gradually make his way forward. “The horse travelled beautifully and I thought he was always going to win after jumping the last.
“I took my time in going by the front two, and just waited for the split. He loves soft ground and the rain has loosened it out. It’s just brilliant to ride the winner of the Galway Plate and it is definitely the highlight of my career so far.”
Almost from flagfall, Casey Top and last year’s winning jockey, Paul Townend, cut out the gallop with Cross Appeal and the pair had still to be headed on the approach to the home turn. It was evident, however, that Bob Lingo was travelling better in behind and when Walsh drove his mount between them, there was never any doubt about the result.
The gallant Casey Top stayed on for second with long-time ante post favourite, Blackstairmountain, pipping Cross Appeal for third in the shadow of the post. There was a massive off-course and on-track gamble on Edward O’Grady’s Out Now, but the bookmakers were singing in the rain when Barry Geraghty’s mount came off the bridle coming down the hill.
There was a tardy start to the race with Jamsie Hall missing the kick and being pulled up past the stands on the first circuit, but there were no real hard luck stories as flu victim McManus, who was an absentee, saw his colours carried to Galway Plate glory for the fifth time following the triumphs of Shining Flame. Grimes, Far From Trouble and Finger Onthe Pulse in the past.
Racing got underway with the Tote Pick Six Maiden Hurdle and, if the betting market was to be taken at face value, it was just a two horse race – both Too Scoops (11/8) and the Tony Martin trained Ted Veale (6/4) was backed almost to the exclusion of the rest of the field.
But the punters were left bruised when 8/1 shot Gold Ability threw a spanner in their works by edging out Too Scoops after a protracted battle up the straight on the testing ground and justifiably survived the subsequent Steward’s inquiry.
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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