Archive News
Former Galway star grateful to get second chance
Date Published: 14-Jun-2012
MOST sports people who have retired from the game – be it at whatever level – harbour some regrets. Former Galway star and TG4 hurling analyst Cathal Moore is no different although these days the regrets have become fewer and fewer.
Indeed, the Turloughmore native’s view on not only sport but on life has changed drastically over the past two years – ever since he had to undergo emergency brain surgery in Beaumont Hospital in the Summer of 2010 and spent the best part of the next year putting the pieces of his life back together again.
Sitting in his office at Presentation College Athenry secondary school, where he is one of two deputy principals, Moore says the regrets he previously jousted with on a regular basis no longer command his interest in the same way as they once did.
“One thing I have learned from my illness is that you think things are important in life but sure there is nothing as important as your health. That is the most important thing and you only learn that through illness,” states the affable 36-year-old, who, in addition to temporarily losing his eyesight and balance after the operation, had to re-learn how to read and write, among other things.
“Of course, there are things that if you were back there again you would do differently but that is experience and no matter what you say you come to learn as you get older that you can’t put an experienced head on young shoulders. You just can’t do it.”
Still, he does miss the camaraderie of the Turloughmore dressing-room. “I have been cleared to go back playing hurling but when I look back now it is probably a younger person’s game and there are plenty of guys there. Also, it might not be the greatest idea in the world to risk getting a belt in the head,” he laughs.
“In any event, I appreciate what I have had. I enjoyed the years that I played and made great friends and it was a privilege to be involved with the Turloughmore team. Even though we didn’t win anything, there was great camaraderie and the one thing you would miss is the dressing-room.
“It was great craic and ex-players will always say that. There is great fun in the dressing-room and you don’t realise it as much when you are going through it. You just take it for what it is. It was the same with Galway. It was a great privilege to wear the jersey.”
From his time with the county, Moore has an extensive collection of underage medals – U-14, U-16, minor and U-21 – along with a couple of National League, Railway Cup and Oireachtas medals. “I nearly have the full set but I would still give them all back for a senior medal. Any player would, but being from Galway – 25 years on from our last win – I am not unique in that.”
In many respects, his younger brother and Galway captain Fergal now carries the hopes of the county and with a Leinster semi-final clash between the Tribesmen and Offaly looming on the horizon this weekend, it would be remiss not to get his views on the game.
“Offaly always seem to be able to raise their game for Galway, no doubt about it, and you only have to go back to those epic matches we had against them a couple of years ago to see that. Sure look it, no more than the Galway guys, they are trying to impress new management as well in Ollie Baker.
“What I would say is that both teams will approach this match thinking they have nothing to lose . . . that there is a Leinster final waiting there for them. You could say it is the easier side of the draw having avoided Kilkenny and Dublin and it probably is. I don’t think Galway or Offaly would want to be playing either of them at this stage.”
He believes the current Galway management appear to be heading in the right direction with their selection of players and believes manager Anthony Cunningham and company have got the balance right in terms of the mix and blend of the squad.
“People say it is a brand new squad but yet you go back to the Waterford game last year and you start counting up and you will soon come to nine or 10 lads who were there last year. While that is new, it is not radical. So, I think they have a good mix. There are always arguments regarding players who should or should not be in there, but it seems to me looking in from the outside that it is a very open ended panel.”
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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