Archive News
Galway’s Working – A Connacht Tribune jobs initiative
Date Published: 09-Feb-2012
Did you know that there are over 380 jobs available across Galway city and county this week? And that this isn’t an exceptionally good week?
In fact, there have been about that number of vacancies in Galway throughout January. And because sectors of Galway’s jobs market are seasonal, this situation is likely to improve as spring turns into summer and the tourism and hospitality sectors start recruiting again.
Yet, there are times you would think there isn’t a job to be had anywhere in the country, especially the West.
At the Connacht Tribune Group we want to change that perception and let people know that there are jobs available across a wide range of business sectors, from highly technical roles to entry level positions requiring little experience. We want to help lift the gloom that is enveloping the country and highlight some of the opportunities that are available to the many thousands of people who want to get back to work, or to work for the first time.
‘Galway’s Working’ is a new initiative from the Connacht Tribune newspapers and Galway Bay FM which will publicise each week the number and variety of jobs available in Galway. Working with Employment Services (formerly FÁS), local recruitment companies, Galway County & City Enterprise Board and GTC, over the next four weeks we will carry reports on the jobs market, interview skills, starting your own business and profiles of companies currently recruiting.
There are certainly major economic challenges facing us in the next few years and with over 20,000 people ‘signing on’ in Galway, unemployment is higher than it has been in a generation. There are thousands who have been unemployed for a year or more and it is difficult to return to the workplace.
Equally there are many young people who have not had the opportunity to work at all in the last few years since leaving education.
Our recovery begins with small steps and every single job opportunity can help change lives for the better. If there were 200 new or replacement positions available in Galway each fortnight then that would be 5,000 jobs created in a year. That would make a huge positive impact on the people and the economy of Galway.
Starting this week, and throughout 2012, we will provide free classified jobs advertising to businesses wishing to recruit staff to work in the Galway area. These ads will appear each week in The Connacht Tribune and Galway City Tribune and a selection of them will be featured throughout the week on Galway Bay FM.
Over the coming weeks we’ll also include many articles aimed at helping people return to work or looking for a career for the first time. Recruitment specialists will provide us information on interview skills and CV preparation. Career consultants will give pointers on how you can assess your own aptitudes, skills and experience and set job goals accordingly.
Not everyone wants to be an employee; some people would rather work for themselves. In the next few weeks we’ll also carry pieces from Galway County & City Enterprise Board, Galway Technology Centre and others who can help those wanting to start out on their own.
We don’t have all the answers. Far from it; but there are lots of people in Galway who have some answers and many more who can provide lots of assistance in helping us identify and achieve our goals.
If we work together as a community, even in small ways, we can make a big difference.
Galway’s Working. Let’s all be part of it.
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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