Archive News
Experience counts for little as Moycullen end Killimor hopes
Date Published: {J}
Moycullen 2-11
Killimor 0-12
Darren Kelly in Athenry
Killimor’s aspirations of a repeat county final appearance evaporated last Saturday with two goals conceded and the loss of two players as Moycullen secured an intermediate hurling semi-final spot.
Leading 0-7 to 0-6 at half-time, it looked all set for Noel Lyon’s outfit who were clinical with chances during the opening period, but an early Moycullen goal upon the restart turned this tie around and saw the West Galway men advance.
Moycullen dominated the first half but wasted opportunities. However, the early second half goals from Philip Lydon and Niall Mannion along with Killimor red cards for Ronan O’Brien and Micheal Dervan saw them seize the initiative from their more experienced opponents.
The first half was a placed ball contest between Dervan and Eanna Noone with the Killimor stickman the better by the odd point in 11. Robbie Mitchell for Killimor and Moycullen’s Thomas Higgins got the other scores but it looked like Fergal Clancy’s squad has wasted their chance with six wides and three goal scoring opportunities.
After just 21 seconds, Lydon put Higgins in space but Liam Gordon blocked his effort and the Killimor keeper was on hand to deny the same players again nine minutes before the break – this time Lydon the scoring threat. Christopher Hurney was also denied for Moycullen while Killimor raised white flags from all but one scoring chance.
Despite losing by two points to the same opponents in the group stages, Killimor were expected to push on after the restart but Moycullen were again quickest and this time more successful, and 29 seconds had elapsed when Noone’s speculative delivery allowed Lydon space on the edge of the square and his subtle touch helped the ball past Gordon for their goal.
Noone sent over another free but the East Galway side responded positively when Mitchell and Andy Keary registered to leave it 1-7 to 0-9 by the 38th minute. Dervan also threatened a major when his long low ball required keeper Micheal Darcy to be alert two minutes later but this contest started to slip away 60 seconds later.
A Moycullen move towards the town goal involved Conor Bohan and led to Mannion finding the net and when Noone sent over another point on 43 minutes, Moycullen’s lead was five.
With over a quarter hour left, Killimor refused to yield and dictated the next 10 minutes but the dismissal of O’Brien with 15 minutes remaining for a second yellow was always going make matters difficult.
Dervan got the next two scores and added another six minutes from time. But their last chance for redemption arrived on 51 minutes when his free was knocked out by the Moycullen defence but Shane Duane’s rebound was denied by the crossbar.
Noone’s eighth point ensured Moycullen a 2-9 to 0-12 advantage as Killimor’s challenge yielded and Vinnie Faherty and Noone concluded the scoring for their side’s five point success.
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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