Archive News
Film Fleadh puts the focus on home produced work
Date Published: 05-Jul-2012
THE Galway Film Fleadh, which runs from Tuesday next, July 10 until Sunday, July 15, is screening an unprecedented number of Irish films and several have strong local connections.
These include Songs for Amy, filmed in Galway and New York, which won Jury Award for Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking at California’s Newport Beach Film Festival recently. It will be screened on Wednesday next, July 11 at 9pm in the Town Hall.
Songs for Amy is a darkly comedic love story, set in the West of Ireland and New York about a musician, Sean O’Malley (Sean Maguire) who writes an album for the girl he loves in an attempt to redeem himself after a night of bad behaviour. The album takes him on roller-coaster journey, where he is both helped and hindered by his misfit band mates.
It was directed by BAFTA and EMMY nominated director, Konrad Begg, who will attend the screening.
Songs for Amy was written and produced by Kinvara based Fiona Graham, who is excited at showing it locally.
“Galway is a character in the film with its culture and beauty woven into the story. It feels like we’re bringing the film home.”
The soundtrack of Songs for Amy includes material by Ultan Conlon and Jim Mckee, rock band Alabama 3, Patrick Bergin and Eleanor Shanley, as well from Tom Paxton and Jono McCleery.
Music is the theme of Natural Grace – Irish Music and Martin Hayes, a full-length documentary on Care fiddle player, Martin Hayes which will be screened at the Town Hall Theatre, also on Wednesday at 5pm. It’s the work of Connemara based film maker Art Ó Briain.
The film, which was shot over two years, is a musical journey into the heart and style of one of contemporary Ireland’s great traditional fiddlers, Martin Hayes. Travelling with him from Clare to the US and to Japan, Art Ó Briain captures Martin Hayes in informal and concert settings. Its Galway screening is the world premiere of the film and the Feakle fiddler will attend.
Of interest to all film fans locally is the Fleadh’s tribute to Galway based Frank Stapleton, a filmmaker, who was a leading light of Irish cinema in the 1980s and 90s until his career was cut short by Multiple Sclerosis. It is screening five films from Dublin-born Frank.
Dr Browne Also Spoke, a discussion between Noel Browne and Michael D Higgins, which was first shown in 1992, will be on Wednesday at 12 noon in the Town Hall. It will be followed by The Whole World in His Hands, a documentary filmed 10 years after Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland.
On Friday, July 13 Frank’s first feature film, The Fifth Province, in which the central character of Tommy walks a tightrope between fantasy and reality, will be screened. It was described by the Sunday Times at the time as “a comic masterpiece” and it’s in the Omniplex Screen Six at noon.
On Sunday, Frank’s1996 film Poorhouse, a half-hour drama set during the Great Famine, will be shown in the Cinemobile at noon. It’s the story of an old man’s relationship with a young woman in a workhouse. It will be followed by Poorhouse Revisited, directed by Michael Higgins. Poorhouse Revisited came about after the discarded film rushes were discovered outdoors in Dublin 15 years after the original Poorhouse had been made. . The fine cast of both versions includes Derbhle Crotty, Johan O’Hara and Birdy Sweeney
These are a selection of the Irish works on offer – in total there are 13 world premieres, seven European premieres and seven Irish premieres, including Shadow Dancer, the final film of this year’s Fleadh.
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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