Archive News
Flying winger is pledging his future to Connacht
Date Published: {J}
CONNACHT winger Tiernan O’Halloran believes Connacht can put behind the subdued performance of their Heineken Cup home defeat to Toulouse last month and, possibly, record their first ever competition victory over visiting Gloucester at the Sportsground on Saturday.
In many respects, the residue of that loss from Connacht’s historic Heineken Cup clash at the Sportsground has been lingering since then, reflected in their subsequent displays in the RaboDirect Pro 12 league, in which Connacht have since lost to the Ospreys and Treviso.
O’Halloran admits that – given the heady build-up to the Toulouse game – the performance and result were “massively disappointing”. Indeed, the Clifden native says it was the slow start Connacht made – something they hope to rectify this weekend – that ultimately cost them, although he concedes – albeit reluctantly – that the sense of history surrounding the occasion could have as easily jangled some players’ nerves.
“I suppose, there was such a build-up to the game for so long, ever since the summer when the draw came out and everyone was talking about Toulouse coming to Galway,” says the 20-year-old. “You could see it around the city, the excitement.
“So, maybe it was at the back of our minds, but we wouldn’t like to say that it was because we felt it wasn’t a factor. It could have come into our minds at the start [of the game]; maybe we were a bit in awe of the occasion. Like the atmosphere was unbelievable and stuff. Toulouse face that every week, where for us having 9,000 people out there was something new.”
Indeed, at long last, the West seem to be buying into – and seeing the potential of – Connacht rugby, with season ticket sales going from just under 1,000 last year to 3,000 this year. “That has helped a lot and with the new stand there, the Clan Terrace, the sound really echoes out onto the pitch.
“It really does give the players a boost when there is a big crowd there. The only thing now is, we have to start performing on the pitch or those attendances will start dropping again,” says the 20-year-old winger.
This weekend’s Heineken Cup tie against Gloucester certainly provides that opportunity, given that the English Premiership side have also struggled this season and are plummeting towards the bottom end of the table. Indeed, they have won only one of their last seven games in all competitions.
“I suppose, Gloucester would be the weakest of the three [other group rivals], so we would definitely be targeting them. Their form of late hasn’t been the best but, then again, the way our form is we also have to target every game at the moment because we need a win. Once we get that one win, we can build it from there – and more wins will start coming. It is just – at the moment – the confidence levels are a bit low so we need to get a few tries and a victory.”
For their part, Gloucester have the ignominy of having one of the highest counts of missed tackles in the Premiership and O’Halloran agrees that this, certainly, is an area Connacht can target. “We have done our analysis this morning already and we have been looking at them. Defensively, they wouldn’t be as strong as Toulouse and Harlequins and their form in the English Premiership isn’t the best either. They lost to Newcastle there at the weekend, and Newcastle are bottom.
For more, read this week’s Galway CityTribune.
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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