Archive News
Ex-Galway great is steering Ardrahan to new heights
Date Published: {J}
THE last time Bernard Forde stood, in a competitive capacity at least, on the hallowed turf of Croke Park was September 7, 1986. Galway had just lost their second consecutive All-Ireland final – this time to Cork – and by the end of the year the curtain would fall down on the mobile Ardrahan corner forward’s inter-county senior career.
This Sunday, Forde will don the boots again – this time as Ardrahan’s intermediate camogie manager – and return to headquarters for a joust against reigning national champions Eoghan Ruadh of Derry for an All-Ireland decider that has captured the hearts of the South Galway parish. Forde, himself, is filled with anticipation and, recalling his own playing days, he says the hardest part of it is “waiting for the final”.
No doubt, Forde brings a wealth of experience to the table. A former county minor in the mid 1970s, he was subsequently elevated to the Galway U-21 side in 1976 and was a key figure and captain in the final replay victory over Tipperary in the ’78 decider.
He later played his part in the historic 1980 All-Ireland senior victory, scoring an impressive 1-5 in the 2-15 to 3-9 win over Limerick, and he remained an integral part of the forward unit until his departure from the panel in late 1986. Given the Tribesmen secured Liam McCarthy victories in ’87 and ’88, you can’t help wondering is it a regret that he was not part of those winning sides?
Even now, though, Forde himself is somewhat unsure of what he feels. “The league used to start in October that time and I played the first couple of matches [in late ‘86], but at Christmas then they changed the panel. They would do that regularly enough and I lost out.
“To be honest, I wasn’t playing that great. I was building a house and I probably had lost a bit of interest. So, I didn’t get back. I was nearly there for another two [All-Irelands], but it just didn’t work out at that stage. I suppose, I did well to get the one.”
That assessment is somewhat modest. In his day, Forde was simply a class act, a skilful exponent, and one of the most feared forwards in the local and national game. Now, sitting in his home in Ardrahan, Forde comes across as a genteel character, although he has lost none of his fervour for Gaelic games and, understandably, he takes great pride in that famous win of 1980, the Tribesmen’s first in 57 long years.
“It was a dream,” he smiles. “After Kilkenny beat us in the final the year before – and everybody thought they (the Cats) were a spent force and we should have been able to put them away – I think people believed we were cursed and we were just not going to do it. What turned it around, though, was that we had a remarkably bunch of lads.”
Indeed, mention of the heroes of ’80 still evokes vivid memories of the romanticism of that fateful day. A day when men like Conor Hayes, the late Niall McInerney, Sylvie Linnane, Sean Silke, Steve Mahon, PJ Molloy, John Connolly, Noel Lane and Forde, among others, stood tall . . . and who will ever forget that rousing victory speech from captain Joe Connolly?
No doubt, there was passion there on that auspicious occasion, inside and outside the wire, and it is this sort of fervour Forde has been nurturing in Ardrahan’s intermediate camogie team ahead of their final clash against the Ulster champions.
Certainly, the former All-Star’s advice has stood to them in good stead so far. He has encouraged them to learn from both his and their mistakes, climb the wisdom curve, and resist the temptation to fall back into old habits when the pressure comes on.
“That is the one thing I find. You can tell her (a player) so often, but on the day of a big game if she is not tuned in, then you are in trouble. She has to realise that if ‘Plan A’ does not work, what is her ‘Plan B’? If she doesn’t come up with a plan quick enough, the play breaks down and you lose momentum.”
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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