Archive News
Champs Tipperary given torrid time by the Dubs
Date Published: {J}
THERE’S no doubt about it anymore – Dublin are here to stay as a major hurling power. It wasn’t just the seniors’ noble effort against All-Ireland champions Tipperary at Croke Park last Sunday which underlined that development, but also the impressive showing of the county’s minors who had their Waterford opponents ripped to pieces by half-time in the first of the day’s All-Ireland semi-finals.
Leading by 17 points at the interval, the rising stars of Dublin hurling had made short work of the Munster finalists in the opening-half with their physicality, athleticism and skill turning the match into a one-sided contest. The young Dubs finished up with 6-19 to their credit and with the county U-21s virtually guaranteed – they play Antrim on Saturday evening – to reach to reach an All-Ireland final as well, Dublin has clearly an abundance of quality talent coming through.
Mind you, the fact that the Dublin defence conceded 5-13 to a gallant Waterford outfit last Sunday means that their minors are far from the complete package. Next month’s final opponents Galway will also strand up to them a lot more physically in what has all the potential to be a classic showdown. It will be the first time that Dublin will have appeared in a minor decider since they lost to the Westerners in 1983 – a day when Galway lifted the Irish Press Cup for the first time ever.
The senior semi-final saw Tipperary survive an almighty scare from Anthony Daly’s men. Set up defensively, with midfielder John McCaffrey operating as a sweeper across the half-back line, Dublin rattled the somewhat below par champions with a high intensity performance which was characterised by some excellent point taking in the opening-half after getting off to the worst possible start.
Just two minutes were on the clock when emergency full back Peter Kelly, who went on to produce a powerful second-half, misjudged a delivery from Shane McGrath, allowing goal machine Lar Corbett to just nip the sliotar to the net in a tussle with opposition goalkeeper Gary Maguire. It was the last thing Dublin needed, but it didn’t rattle them as they went on to dominate large tracts of the opening-half.
By the 19th minute, they had deservedly surged into a 0-9 to 1-3 lead. Alan McCrabbe, Dotsy O’Callaghan, Liam Rushe, Paul Ryan, excellent centre back Joey Boland, and Liam Ryan all picked off some wonderful points while, at the other end of the field, the Tipperary attack were being denied the time and space they have become accustomed to. Still, Corbett was doing damage and by the interval, he had picked off a priceless 1-3 and though Maguire did well to deny Seamus Callanan a goal chance, Tipperary must have been somewhat relieved to have retired level, 1-8 to 0-11, at half time.
Ultimately, however, it was the title holders’ positive start to the second-half which proved critical in the end. Three unanswered points from a previously subdued Noel McGrath and Eoin Kelly (two placed balls) ensured Dublin were playing catch up for the reminder of the half. They did manage to equalise on a couple of occasions, but Tipperary always seemed to be able to respond at the other end.
Eoin Kelly may have been struggling in open play, but his accuracy from the placed ball – he pointed three 65’s in the second-half – was exemplary, while McGrath continued to be a growing influence.
Furthermore, wing back Padraig Maher stormed up the field to pick off two rousing points as Dublin tired a little – no surprise really given the manner in which their players admirably emptied themselves on the battlefield. Another key factor in Tipperary’s hard fought victory was the commanding presence of Conor O’Mahony at centre back in the second-half.
There were probably times du
ring the game when Tipperary manager Declan Ryan thought his team were in big trouble, but in terms of the build up to next month’s All-Ireland final, he got what he was looking for – the removal of some of the hype and a reality check for even a few of their more raucous supporters. Like Kilkenny in their semi-final victory, Tipperary got the job done but didn’t exactly set the world on fire.
Though the Dublin camp will be gutted this week, it’s been some year for them. Winners of the Walsh Cup and National League, together with championship victories over Offaly, Galway and Limerick, they have made giant leaps forwards in 2011 and such is the levels of single-mindedness in the squad they will be determined to make further progress next year. And all of this against a background of a team riddled by injuries to several influential players.
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
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
