Archive News
Freda in the spotlight as she joins An Taibhdhearc
Date Published: 14-Jun-2012
The new Artistic Director and Manager of An Taibhdhearc is not only excited about the challenge of her new job but thrilled that she will be supervising the running of a completely refurbished theatre.
Facing into a new job would faze most people – taking a position in a currently homeless theatre is certainly added pressure, but it doesn’t seem to bother Freda Níc Giolla Cháthain who appears as cool as a breeze.
Not only is she currently working on a programme for the coming year for the Irish language theatre, but she is also busy organising the official re-opening of the premises in October.
The theatre in Middle Street was badly damaged by fire four years ago and its refurbishment has been dogged by financial woes. But a financial commitment from both Galway City Council and the Department of the Gaeltacht has galvanised the theatre …into raising the rest of the money themselves as the insurance money didn’t cover the extent of the necessary works.
All of this happened before Freda took over her new position a few weeks ago but she is no less excited about the development and enthuses about the new facility, which will, when finished by the end of the summer, provide a state-of-the art venue.
Freda, who is a native of Athlone, is no stranger to the stage, though usually its being on it as a performer.
She is a harpist and concertina player and is a member of the Galway Ramblers traditional music group, which is just back from playing in Dubai.
It is no surprise then that Freda’s eyes glint with excitement as she talks about the acoustics of the refurbished theatre and its big rehearsal space on the top floor, which she also sees as a brilliant space for other events, namely art exhibitions.
“Oh, I could live up in that space,” she says, “because of the light coming from two big skylight windows. It would be a shame not to use this area when it is not being used as a rehearsal room.”
She remembers the former premises, having worked there for eight months in 2007. At that time she worked in the office doing everything from box office to general administration.
She had done her degree in UCC in Music and Irish, after which she came to Galway to do a post-graduate course in Arts Administration in NUIG.
“Mike Diskin [former manager of the Town Hall Theatre who recently passed away] was one of my first lecturers. He was a great inspiration and a great help to me.
“I really enjoyed my time in the Taibhdhearc then and as soon as I saw the vacancy advertised, I applied,” says Freda who admits she was very pleasantly surprised when her application was successful.
Freda has always loved music and the Irish language. Though her parents have a knowledge and appreciation of both, neither of them speak Irish or play a musical instrument.
And yes, of course music will feature very highly in the forthcoming Taibhdhearc’s programme and she will also be encouraging it as a venue for concerts but hastily adds that there will be no question of the theatre being in competition with established music venues in the city, namely pubs.
She intends to continue the theatre company’s aim to promote Irish language drama for young and old and is very aware that despite being homeless for the past few years, the Taibhdhearc continued to stage productions at various venues in the city and in Cois Fharraige.
Freda and the admin staff are currently located in rented offices around the corner from the theatre building, near enough to pop into what has been a construction site up until a few weeks ago.
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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