Archive News
Bumping into stars of soccer and soap in the heart of Manchester
Date Published: {J}
They say the footballers of today are inaccessible prima donnas who live in ivory towers – well, a few of us were enjoying a few days in Manchester last week….and who did we bump into but Wayne Rooney?
Bumping into him is probably overstating it, to be honest – more standing in a queue to have him sign a copy of his new DVD, coupled with a quick pic and a whoosh out the door of the Manchester United megastore with your newly autographed purchase under your oxter.
For good measure, we then bumped into Martin Platt. When we last saw Martin, it was on the small screen and he was a nurse who was unfortunate enough to be married to Gail, the chinless wonder.
These days, Martin can be found selling his award-winning cheese at one of Manchester’s many Christmas markets. And so as not to muddy the waters between soap and reality, the cheese is the work of actor Sean Wilson who once played Platty but who now milks goats.
Whereas Wayne would sign just one item – to be more precise, a DVD once you bought it in the Manchester United megastore – Sean would pose for photos even if you told him you were lactose intolerant.
You’d wish that he was the superstar earning two hundred grand a week instead of the striker who refused to sign a Man United jersey – bought in the megastore and with Rooney on the back – for a ten year old boy who had thought that life couldn’t get any better until his hero deflated his bubble for him.
Manchester is a happening place, full of students and shoppers, and with a beating heart that’s as compact as Galway. The Arndale centre – once blown to smithereens by the IRA – must be one of the biggest shopping centres in the world and Picadilly is a short walk away.
Just now, it is home to around eight different Christmas markets – all with that Germanic influence and packed with decorations, presents, food and the most potent of lager – illustrating just how a small pilot project less than a decade ago can grow into a major tourist attraction for an entire month each year.
It should give hope to those behind the market in Eyre Square that these things can take on a life of their own, and you only have to stand back and marvel at the numbers downing their litres of lager at lunchtime to see how enthusiastically the Mancunians have embraced the German tradition.
The shops at a Christmas market are, of course, a question of taste and you won’t be bringing up mini-Christmas trees or large plants. But there’s a terrific atmosphere as you wander through the streets and the quality of the jewellery and ceramics, for example, was top class.
If the daytime is about shopping, then the night is about the plethora of pubs and restaurants that will suit every taste. The Printworks is a maze of drinking and dining emporiums, all under one vaulted old roof and the area around Oxford Road – the student part of town – has enough pubs on its own to see you through a week’s break.
For the sheer novelty of drinking in a toilet – literally and not accidentally – try the Temple Bar on Great Bridgewater Street; it was previously an underground toilet and, although understandably tiny, it has the friendliest staff. Ironically, whatever they spent on converting the toilet into a bar 13 years ago, they didn’t spend much on doing up the actual toilet.
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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