Archive News
Galway U-21s banish bad Thurles memories with terrific semis win
Date Published: {J}
Galway 0-22
Limerick 2-14
CIARAN TIERNEY
AT SEMPLE STADIUM
HEART and courage, attributes which were supposedly missing from the DNA of the Galway hurlers all summer, were very much in evidence as the county’s U-21s overcame a spirited Limerick challenge in an exciting All-Ireland semi-final which went right down to the wire at Semple Stadium, Thurles, on Saturday evening.
No matter that the Galway sporting public had abandoned them, that the Munster champions produced potentially sickening goals at key stages of both halves, or that they had a man sent off late in the game; the men in maroon refused to buckle before holding on for what was a hugely satisfying victory.
The young Tribesmen might not be the finished article, but the way in which they settled into this encounter against battle-hardened rivals, before responding to set-backs and closing out the deal, should give huge encouragement to Anthony Cunningham and his management team ahead of next month’s final showdown with Dublin.
The foundations for victory were laid by a hugely impressive half-forward line in which the mobility of Barry Daly was inspirational while both Niall Burke and Tadhg Haran displayed the kind of accuracy from long range which augurs well for the final.
Daly seemed to pop up all over the field during a sensational Man of the Match performance while both Haran and Burke hit the ground running and helped their side to settle with some crucial early scores. Between them, these three men came up with 17 scores over the hour.
But there was so much more to this display from a side who had been humbled at the same venue by Tipperary last year, with the excellence of Niall Donoghue at full-back, midfielders David Burke and Johnny Coen, and the determination of the likes of Jason Grealish, Declan Connolly, and Rory Foy (before his costly moment of indiscipline late on) helping the Tribesmen to put that 2010 nightmare behind them.
This was some roar of redemption from a much-maligned group who made a mockery of their expected rustiness to take a 5-2 lead after nine minutes thanks to some fine shooting by Haran (three), Niall Burke, and the livewire Daly, who began the game at full-forward but covered a huge amount of ground over the hour.
The excellent Shane Dowling (a free) and centre forward Declan Hannon kept Limerick in touch during that opening spell, but following a long Aaron Murphy puck-out, the large Limerick contingent in the 8,125 attendance were on their feet when Dowling forced the sliotar over the line after it broke kindly to him from a scramble in the tenth minute.
That opening goal could have been a sickening blow, if Galway were as brittle as some expected, but Niall Burke – who ended the game with seven points from play – won a free which Haran drove expertly between the posts from 65 metres out.
Limerick then hit a purple patch with four scores in a row from Dowling (a free), Declan Hannon, Graeme Mulcahy, and Niall Kennedy, but again Galway refused to wilt with Donoghue and centre back Paul Gordon coping well under pressure, with the improving Coen moving back to help out his defenders.
Niall Burke lifted the siege with two points in a row before Coen set up a David Burke score in response to a long-range effort from rival midfielder Sean O’Brien.
Burke hit his fourth and fifth of the afternoon in response to a well-taken score from Hannon, out near the left hand sideline, and Daly forced a brilliant save from Murphy with a low drive on 26 minutes.
The Tribesmen finished the half with a flourish. Corner forward Davy Glennon found the target with a good score from the right wing, full-forward Conor Cooney robbed the Limerick full-back before splitting the posts, and Daly finished off a good move involving Foy and David Burke with an excellent score on the run.
But Limerick midfielder Conor Allis had the last word at the end of the first half with a well-taken score in injury time which left just two points between the sides (0-14 to 1-9). The Munster champions received a blow just before the break, however, when team captain Kevin Downes had to be withdrawn due to a hand injury he had carried into the match.
For more, read this week’s Connacht 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
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
