News
Familiar figure in sporting circles reveals inner poet
Athletic trainer James O’Toole has been a familiar figure on the sidelines of Galway’s sports pitches for two decades. But none of his colleagues or friends could have guessed that in their midst was a prolific poet.
“Some of them came to the launch and they were shocked. I wrote about some of them. They were certainly very surprised,” he laughs.
“When I was young, poetry was a bit poofish, a bit Galway 4-ish. In Henry Street you’d be a dead poet. But it’s the sexual revolution. If the gays can come out why not the poets?”
His self-published collection, called The Street, is intensely personal.
In My Reign is Over, he talks about how his “squaw” got impatient and left him because he was never home for dinner on time:
“She stole my thunder;
now I’m simply a cloud
No one respects a cloud
For all I do is go around weeping all day
For my squaw.”
There are several pieces about his daughter Jade, his sister – a nun – his father and about Henry Street where he was raised.
In the poem which gives the collection its title, The Street, he recalls a happy childhood.
“How could I forget my childhood?
Empty dark streets except
for our laughter
on the corner
huddled together
under a gable end
as the rain spat down
on midnight. Dan dominated as usual
with his tales of masturbation
tit feeling
we listened on
nodding in agreement though
knowing nothing of either.”
In the course of our interview, James quoted extensively from several of his poems, of which he seems intensely proud.
He has been scribbling lines since he was a young lad, inspired by his ‘Jes’ English Teacher, Dan Griffin – “the only class I managed to stay awake in” – and later during his stint in the then UCG studying arts and h.Dip under the tutelage of Professor Hubert McDermott.
“A class with Hubert in full flow on Shakespeare was as good as any piss up with the lads or a soccer match to me – and that’s all there was back then, there was no work, the place was desolate, he was a guiding light in those days.”
During his decade in America, he came second in a poetry competition with the Irish Voice newspaper, the proceeds of which were put to good use over two days of eating and drinking one Christmas.
It was only when back in Galway and a friend persuaded him to go to poetry class in 2009 that he pulled out all those scraps of old poems – which he labels his ‘babies’ – and revisited them.
Under the instruction of poet Kevin Higgins, class was held for two hours every Tuesday when the assembled poets and aspiring writers would dissect ideas and material.
On Mondays, from midnight until 3am, he would crack open a bottle of red and compose poems.
The process was a welcome distraction from the day job. He trained as an athletic trainer in Harvard University before setting up a sports medicine programme in UCD.
He then established his own sports injuries clinic in Henry Street and has worked with college, soccer and GAA teams up and down the country.
While his sister felt her poem, The Sister the Nun, was a little too “smutty” – talk of “topless ladies sway their breasts” no doubt raised eyebrows – he did run the three poems he wrote about his 15-year-old daughter by her.
There’s a lot more material in the coffers for any fans out there of The Street, available in Charlie Byrnes and Kennys book shops.
James has already plans to publish a second book.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
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
