Archive News
FG Mayor battle, but there may be just one Galway Council under plans
Date Published: {J}
A right old battle has broken out in Galway Fine Gael between Councillors Padraig Conneely and Hildegarde Naughton over which of them should be the new Mayor in June. But the word in informed circles is that Minister Phil Hogan could be looking at long term plans of his own.
There is well-informed speculation in political circles this week that under possible local government reform changes, a move could be made by Environment Minister Hogan to have just one local authority for all of County Galway.
The basis for a possible merger, or replacement of the two local bodies, appears to be the line in the ‘Bord Snip’ report published some time ago, which suggests in relation to local authorities that the government should “reduce the 34 city and county councils to 22 local authorities”. Remember, this is a government which is looking about for reform and change and might not shirk from such action.
Little has been heard of the proposal by Colm McCarthy which is aimed at cost reduction at local authority level, but I understand that ‘it hasn’t gone away you know’ and is at least being discussed in high-powered circles as the government searches around for spending cuts.
One could see how there would certainly be savings in areas such as administration – for instance there might be only one planning section in an amalgamated council for the entire county.
Certainly, the amount of work in areas such as planning has tailed-off dramatically since the demise of the Celtic Tiger, with the hundreds of planning applications and one-time queues in the planning offices being replaced by a mere trickle in more recent times.
Under any such change, the Croke Park Agreement might mean job transfers, for instance, or prople moving from one department – or indeed authority – to another. Details on this are a long way from worked out and this is at a very preliminary discussion stage but it is being considered.
My instinct is that there would certainly be opposition at political level, though there is no official indication of what might happen in relation to the 15-member city council and the 30-member county council and what might replace them, or its make up and its numbers. Local areas jealously guard their input into decision-making at the best of times.
Could I venture to suggest that there would be a substantial body of opinion in the county which feels that, in such a situatiion, safeguards would have to be implemented to ensure that Galway City did not dominate the situation. I don’t think I would have to scratch the surface too deeply, for instance, to find a body of opinion which feels that Galway City has had a dominant role in the county for many years.
Key areas like Connemara might also feel that they have special planning considerations … of course, a lot would depend on the strength of any regional, local or other committees, or bodies, which, one feels, would have to be part of any restructuring.
Meanwhile, back to that row which has blown up in Fine Gael circles in Galway in recent weeks over who should be the next Mayor of Galway – the new term starts in June but there is a total standoff between Councillors Padraig Conneely and Hildegarde Naughton, with no agreement in sight.
Right now there are hushed and rather delicate discussions going on in Fine Gael circles in Galway City over the standoff between Conneely and Naughton. Both want the Mayoralty and Conneely has the backing of the sole other Fine Gael member of the City Council (Frank Fahey).
But the Hildegarde Naughton camp are standing firm on the basis that, they say, it has been understood in FG that the Mayoralty would go by ‘rotation,’ and that Padraig Conneely previously held the Mayor’s Chain, then she is entitled to the term which starts next June. There has been some tut-tutting in FG circles.
Conneely held the Mayoralty a few years ago with the highpoint being a visit to The White House on St Patrick’s Day, with photos taken with President Obama.
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
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
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
