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Galway Youths turn the screw in putting Mayo boys to sword

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Date Published: 09-Jan-2013

Galway League 6

Mayo League 1

Mike Rafferty

SETTING a standard that will be hard to match in the future, the home side comfortably saw off their fellow group contenders in impressive fashion at Deacy Park on Friday night and, in the process, qualified for the quarter-final of the FAI Youth Inter League.

This was a game that could have produced a dozen goals or more, as loads of opportunities were created at both ends and despite the score line, Mayo were by no means a five goal inferior side.

Galway led by 1-0 at the break after Padraig Cunningham headed home a Dillon Murphy cross on 36 minutes. Richard Fahy also struck a post with a cracking effort from the edge of the box, while visiting goalkeeper Colm Reape made a series of saves that kept the contest alive.

That said, Mayo too had their opportunities as James Healy made a smart save to keep out a close range effort by Ray Nugent, while on 28 minutes, Liam Flatley fired wide when through with just the custodian to beat.

The foundation for the impressive Galway display came from central midfield where an athletic Richard Fahy was imperious, as the box to box player displayed a high level of skill and ability. Alongside him, Shane Connaughton was equally impressive with his neat and tidy passing a feature.

Out wide, Arron McDonagh and Dillon Murphy provided a plentiful supply to a front two of Ryan Manning and Padraig Cunningham and they certainly displayed their eye for a goal with their finishing.

Now if Galway struggled to get the better of Reape in the opening half, it didn’t take them long to make an impression on the resumption. On 46 minutes, Manning collected a Connaughton pass before making it 2-0 with a cracking drive from outside the area, but the striker was denied a second on 72 minutes when Reape dived to his right to keep out his penalty, after Cunningham was upended in the box.

However from the resulting corner, central defender Colin Brady headed the Shane Hulgraine set piece to the net from close range for a 3-0 advantage. After the visitors had spurned a few chances, Flately was reward for his impressive display as he pulled one back with a close range shot past Healy.

Despite the setback, the home side never looked like being overhauled and continuing to dictate matters, they added three late goals. A powerful Fahy run from the edge of his own area saw him set up Manning at the other end and the striker slotted home for a 4-1 advantage. Hulgraine then headed home a Fahy set piece, before Manning completed his hat trick when he cracked home a twenty five yard effort in additional time.

Galway League: J Healy, Neary, Fadden, P Healy, Brady, Fahy, Murphy (Hulgraine 67mins), Connaughton, Cunningham (Gleeson 74mins), Manning, McDonagh (Carroll 81mins).

Mayo League: Reape, O’Boyle, Howley, Ivers, Walsh (inj-Byrne 80mins), Moran, Dunne (Maloney 37mins), Murray, Jennings, Flatley, Nugent (Darcy 85mins).

Referee: PJ Norman.

PREMIER LEAGUE

Two early strikes laid the foundation for Mervue United as they saw off the Corrib Rangers challenge by 3-1 at Fahy’s Field on Saturday and, in the process, moved three points clear at the top of the Brod Trill Premier League.

Stephen Larkin cracked home the opener off the underside of the crossbar on just seven minutes and a neat finish by Dean McDonagh had them two up after 22.

Rangers made matters more competitive when a close range Ger Bane finish pulled one back before the break and while they enjoy a good restart, they failed to threaten a home side who were the more impressive performers on the day.

Adam Lee drilled home a low effort from the edge of the area on 72 minutes to kill off the contest and while the visitors never gave up, they seldom got a sight of O’Donoghue’s goal as the home defence reigned supreme.

With Gabriel Glavin getting his squad back towards full strength, competition for places is intense and the introduction of Alan O’Donovan at the interval on Sunday last had a major bearing as Athenry defeated OLBC by 5-1.

The Corofin native provided the assists for all four second half goals, as the home side overtook their rivals to move to third spot in the table.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Galway in Days Gone By

The way we were – Protecting archives of our past

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A photo of Galway city centre from the county council's archives

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

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Galway have lot to ponder in poor show

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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.

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Real Galway flavour to intermediate club hurling battle in Birr

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Date Published: 23-Jan-2013

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