Archive News
Gort must now turn their sights on Coolderry
Date Published: {J}
BARELY a month ago, James Stephens, Oulart-the-Ballagh, Ballyboden, Ballygunner and the reigning champions Clarinbridge were the perceived main contenders for All-Ireland club hurling glory but, against the odds, all of them have bitten the dust in the interim as this year’s title race continues to throw tradition and expectation out the window.
All of a sudden, Gort have emerged as the new favourites to lift the Tommy Moore Cup – the fact that successive Galway champions don’t annually have to contend with an arduous provincial campaign always ensures they figure prominently in the betting in any event – and must now have every chance of maintaining the county’s great record in the championship.
Naturally, the Gort mentors and players would have been keeping a close eye on the action in last Sunday’s provincial finals and though the general assumption was that they would end up facing Oulart-the-Ballagh in next February’s All-Ireland semi-final, they must now refocus their sights on Coolderry of Offaly who added to the protracted torment of Wexford hurling at Nowlan Park.
With Oulart’s team boss and outstanding ex-player, Liam Dunne, having been recently appointed the Wexford manager, together with the club’s semi-final triumph over James Stephens, hurling supporters around the county were starting to believe that a corner was being turned in lifting the Slaneymen out of the doldrums, but that optimism looks greatly misplaced on the evidence of Sunday’s Leinster decider.
Once again, a Wexford team had enough chances and possession to have carried the day, but instead Oulart-the-Ballagh were guilty of poor shooting and poor decision-making, while the team’s lack of composure also undermined their challenge. In the circumstances, it was difficult to comprehend why Dunne opted to replace key forwards, Rory Jacob and Eoin Moore, before the end of the match.
You’d always have question marks about a team like Oulart which has been a long time around and still has to win a Leinster club title. Last Sunday again showed why.
In contrast, a much improved Coolderry outfit were again typically economic. Having knocked out Ballyboden in the semi-final, Oulart would have held no fear for them. The Offaly champions may lack some physique around the field, notwithstanding the influential presence of the Brady bothers, Kevin and Joe, along with the rugged Martin Corcoran up front, but they are a seasoned outfit backboned by current and former county players.
With fellow Lorrha man, Ken Hogan, at the sideline helm, Coolderry wouldn’t lack for coaching or motivation either, while they have been on a gradual upward curve since surviving a close shave against Clareen in the county quarter-final on their way to retaining the Offaly title for the first time since 1963. It was also the club’s 29th county triumph, extending their lead over Birr at the head of the roll of honour to seven.
Coolderry had many heroes last Sunday, including central defenders Trevor Corcoran and Joe Brady, free-taker Damien Murray and Brian Carroll, who sent over three critical points from play, but their top man again was Cathal Parlon, son of former IFA President, Tom. Cathal was a very young member of the Offaly squad when I was in charge a few years ago, but he was utterly committed and fearless.
Having scored 1-6 from play against Ballyboden, Parlon turned in another match-winning performance in Nowlan Park. Apart from landing three points, the in-form attacker also scored a priceless goal early in the second-half to put Coolderry in the driving seat. Though surrounded by a host of Oulart defenders and seemingly with no where to go, Parlon somehow managed to rustle his way through before steering the ball to the net from a tight angle.
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
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