Archive News
Connacht are coming good at the right time
Date Published: {J}
THE irony of it all can’t be lost on Michael Bradley. Seven seasons he has been at the Sportsground and now when the former Irish international scrum half is about to leave Connacht, the team is playing the best rugby of his protracted tenure. The Cork native would be entitled to a wry smile in the circumstances, but he must also take immense satisfaction from the squad’s progression over the past couple of months in particular.
Bradley has been a loyal and dedicated servant to Connacht rugby and though his tactics and team selections occasionally came under scrutiny, he had immersed himself in developing a potent rugby force out West and given the province’s recent rollicking displays, he could be set to depart on an incredible high. Suddenly, previously elusive qualification for the Heineken Cup is no longer a pipedream.
Sure, they are still propping up the Magners League table, but the gap between Connacht and the other teams is now nearly as yawning as in previous seasons. They are now only four points behind struggling Ulster with four rounds of the competition remaining and have far more momentum than their counterparts up North. John Muldoon and company still have work to do, but the chance is there.
Connacht, of course, can also secure qualification for the Heineken Cup through the European route. This Saturday at the Sportsground, they take on Bourgoin in the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final and should Bradley and his already appointed successor, Eriu Elwood, manage to guide them to victory, they will also have the considerable advantage of a home semi-final draw. Naturally, it’s a big ask for Connacht to go all the way, but their current body language and performances suggests that they are afraid of nothing these days.
Having beaten Leinster everywhere bar on the scoreboard at the RDS the previous weekend, it was heartening to see Connacht edge another tight encounter against title-chasing Edinburgh at the Sportsground on Friday night. Initially, it appeared that the men in green had the capacity to rout the Scots when they stormed into a thoroughly deserved 11-0 lead after just 13 minutes. Ian Keatley landed a penalty and also converted a well executed try from Brian Tuohy.
Though still controlling possession, Connacht were unable to add to their early haul before being caught napping for two Edinburgh tries from Tim Visser and hooker Andrew Kelly, both of which were converted by Phil Goodman. Trailing by 11-14 at the break, Connacht were entitled to feel sorry for themselves, but the regained the initiative in the third quarter thanks largely to a Keatley intercept try. With 54 minutes gone on the clock, they had fought back to lead 19-14 only to again fall behind. This time Roddy Grant’s converted try did the damage.
In the past, Connacht would not have either the belief or the capacity to pull the game out of the fire in similar circumstances, but they weren’t found wanting on Friday night and replacement out half Miah Nikora emerged as the hero of the hour with a thumping penalty from just outside the Edinburgh 10-metre line. The result extended Connacht’s unbeaten run on College Road to six matches and must leave them in perfect heart to face up to their French visitors on Saturday, despite the ungodly starting time of 1pm.
Bourgoin, however, still present a formidable challenge for Connacht to overcome. Remember, they only lost out to Northampton in last year’s showdown having achieved a tremendous away victory (32-30) over London Irish in the semi-final. Now freed from relegation worries in their own Top 14 domestic league, Bourgoin will not be lacking intent and possess a quality out half in Benjamin Boyet. They are a big strong physical outfit and certainly won’t fear their hosts.
The indications are that Saturday’s semi-final will be a sell out – that’s the least Connacht deserve – and the manner in which Fionn Carr and his team-mates have been upping the ante in recent matches, they are well capable of qualifying for the province’s first European semi-final since 2004. Though Elwood and the squad have only been awarded one-year rolling contracts amid further IRFU murmurings about cost-cutting, they have the high morale ground at present and, hopefully, that state of affairs will continue for what yet could yet prove a landmark season for rugby in the West.
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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