Archive News
GalwayÕs sporting heroes whip aspiring jockeys into shape
Date Published: 15-Oct-2012
We’ve had reality shows for singers coming out our ears; reality shows for acrobats, would-be hurlers and footballers, ice skaters, dancers and even – in Big Brother – a reality show for people who are nothing at all.
And now TG4 has come up with one for jockeys – a reality show with whips, as they’ve described it, although that might really be more Big Brother’s playground.
The difference between most of this genre and Jockey Eile is simple – this one, like so much of TG4’s output, is superbly made. And it’s also a bit of craic.
What else could it be, of course, given that the Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell of this equine version are none other than Galway hurling legend Joe Connolly and the irrepressible Sean Bán Breathnach?
Two men with a sense of humour so that the rest of us can enjoy the craic; and a sense of perspective so that they don’t get too full of their own importance.
The concept is straightforward enough – JC and SBB take 20 young men and women who dream of becoming jockeys, mentor them through an intensive three-month training process, have them licensed by the Turf Club, and have them compete against each other in a race at Naas to see who wins Jockey Eile.
And our two intrepid Galwegians aren’t just left to their own devices to help these raw recruits become the new Lester Piggott – they can call on top jockeys Kevin Manning and Davy Russell, as well as Suzanne Macken (ex-wife of Eddie) and the wonderfully-named trainer Tucker Geraghty as mentors.
They also have Barry Geraghty’s wife, Paula, to advise them on diet – which for a jockey is presumably 10 ways to serve up a tasty lettuce.
Like all reality shows, the first step was to whittle down the field (excuse the pun) to just 20; some of whom have experience in the saddle, and some who look like they’d fall off a rocking horse.
And even those who made the cut still aren’t safe because there’s a further weeding out before it really gets serious, with the early morning riding out, the diet and the lifestyle all taking their toll.
You no more have to be interested in horse racing to watch this than you’d have to love singing to watch the X-Factor – it’s about people of different temperaments and abilities pushing themselves beyond their limits, cajoled and guided by two men who are passionate about their sport and who are made for television.
Jockey Eile goes out on TG4 on Sunday nights at 8.15pm and is repeated on Fridays.
And Friday is the night as well for a sporting reality series of a different sort – even if it’s more of a six-part horror show than a comedy as it turns out.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.
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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