Archive News
Five candidates to be interviewed next week for football job

Date Published: 16-Sep-2010
Dara Bradley
The five confirmed and officially nominated contenders for the Galway football management job will be quizzed by an interview panel next week.
Football Board Chairman John Joe Holleran told delegates at a meeting on Tuesday that no late ‘wildcard’ nomination will be added by the board to the field of hopefuls which includes Gerry Fahy (Oranmore), Pete Warren (Tuam Stars), Matt Duggan (Annaghdown), Pat Fallon (Barna) and Tomás Ó Flatharta (Kerry).
At the meeting, delegates Gerry Hussey (Dunmore McHales) and Gearóid Denver (Micheál Breathnach) were appointed to the five-man selection committee that will interview the contenders.
Board Chairman Holleran, Treasurer Milo Costello and Vice-Chairman Michael Ruane, had already been appointed to the committee at a meeting last Monday week.
If the selection committee deems, following the interview process, that none of the five candidates are suitable for the position, then the Football Board is unlikely to seek nominations from clubs again and instead will commence the process of ‘head-hunting’ a suitable candidate.
A Galway-based bookmaker suspended betting on former Cork manager Billy Morgan last Friday after he was spotted in discussions with an official from the Galway football supporters club.
There was widespread speculation following the suspension of betting that he would be offered the post but it is understood the meeting with Morgan, however, had nothing to do with the vacant manager’s position – the official was apparently canvassing support for an upcoming golf fundraiser.
The Football Board confirmed last night that it is still hopeful that a manager will be in place by the end of September or beginning of October.
In a separate development, it now appears increasingly likely that Holleran will be challenged for the position of chairman at the Football Board’s Annual Convention.
At least three men – a former Galway footballer and selector from Connemara; a former Galway footballer from Caherlistrane; and a current Football Board official – have been canvassed by supporters to mount a challenge to Holleran’s reign.
At this stage, months away from the Convention, which is usually held on the last week in November or first week of December, no challenger has publicly declared an interest in contesting the position and forcing a vote. But at least one of the three is expected to put their name forward for the Chairmanship.
Meanwhile, former Galway double All-Ireland winner Paul Clancy has been drafted in as selector to the Laois senior football team. The Moycullen man will join newly appointed manager Justin McNulty’s backroom team.
The current Galway hurling manager John McIntyre met with Hurling Board Officials last night (Wednesday) as per the decision made by hurling delegates a few weeks ago. The appointment of the Galway senior hurling manager for the next two years will take place at a meeting of delegates this coming Tuesday. It had been due to meet Tuesday just gone but it was deferred until next week.
The County Board was also to meet with the Hurling Board last night (Wednesday) to discuss the fallout from the staging of the U-21 final in Tipperary’s home ground, Semple Stadium.
Galway in Days Gone By
The way we were – Protecting archives of our past

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
Archive News
Galway have lot to ponder in poor show

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.
Archive News
Real Galway flavour to intermediate club hurling battle in Birr

Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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