Archive News
CodyÕs Cats make the Dubs pay for past exploits
Date Published: {J}
IT has already long been recognised that no team in the GAA world does revenge quite like the Kilkenny hurlers and the Cats again lived up to that fearsome reputation when putting Dublin to the sword in the Leinster final at Croke Park on Sunday. This latest title triumph also represented the county’s 13th provincial crown over the past 14 years which is now taking their monopoly to extreme levels.
Still, there had been pre-match doubts about Kilkenny’s capacity to inflict the kind of punishment beatings which have become so routine under Brian Cody’s reign and in their seven triumphant All-Ireland campaigns over the past 11 years. A couple of their heavy hitters like Derek Lyng and Martin Comerford had retired since last year’s final defeat to Tipperary while the likes of Henry Shefflin, Tommy Walsh, JJ Delaney and Noel Hickey have huge mileage on the clock.
Naturally, there was no shortage of speculation that Kilkenny were in decline and having lost three times to Dublin already in 2011, last Sunday’s decider was always going to be a key test of where Cody’s squad currently stood. Once again, however, they issued a sharp reminder that they are still in business, cruising to an 11 points victory and, once again, underlining their legendary capacity to score goals.
Of course, this was a different Kilkenny outfit to the one which had stumbled badly against the Dubs in the league final. The fit again Shefflin, Walsh, Michael Fennelly and Richie Power were all back on duty and this quartet made a huge difference on their own while, of course, there was an edge to their display which was conspicuous by its absence at Croke Park last May. The early goals from Eoin Larkin and Colin Fennelly gave them a foothold which they never like losing.
Despite the inexplicable observations of the TV3 panel on Sunday that Dublin lacked intensity, they again got stuck in, physically rattled Kilkenny but, this time, they were getting it back with interest. The champions were in no mood to roll over and with Brian Hogan a strong influence at centre back and newcomer Paul Murphy also prominent in defence, they gave the Dublin attack little scope to inflict much damage.
Typical Kilkenny too, when Paul Ryan found the net from a close range free in the second-half to reduce the deficit to six points, they had the sliotar stuck in the Dublin net within 60 seconds after Richie Power expertly teed up the impressive Michael Rice. In the end, they strolled to a convincing victory with Michael Fennelly again producing a powerhouse effort in the middle of the park.
Kilkenny may not be quite the force of old, but when you are talking about the greatest team in hurling history, that is hardly an a particularly negative commentary. They are still formidable, still hungry and are back in the zone. Cody had them really fired up for the match and though Dublin were injury hit and on something of a hiding to nothing, this was one match they were never going to win. Team boss Anthony Daly was naturally disappointed afterwards but, on the day, they just weren’t good enough.
The previous evening’s qualifiers saw Limerick build on the good impression when losing narrowly to Waterford in the Munster championship. With their own followers starting to turn out in force again, they had too much firepower and quality for Wexford in the Gaelic Grounds and were hardly flattered by their six points of victory, especially as Rory Jacob netted in soft enough fashion for the vanquished in injury time.
With the youthful Graeme Mulcahy and Declan Hannon picking off 1-13 between them up front, Limerick are clearly on the right road and are surely bound for an All-Ireland quarter-final showdown with Dublin after being paired with Antrim in this weekend’s next round of the qualifiers. They were the better team for long tracts of the opening-half, but an opportunist Eoin Quigley ensured that Donal O’Grady’s outfit only led by 0-11 to 1-6 at the break.
But within 30 seconds of the resumption, Wexford were nearly a beaten docket. Darren Stamp got turned over, allowing James Ryan to set up Mulcahy for a routine finish. Limerick’s possession and short-passing game served them well for much of the match and they are building up a head of steam at just the right time. Unfortunately, it brought the curtain down on another disappointing championship campaign for Wexford and it was no surprise to see their manager, Colm Bonnar, stepping down afterwards.
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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