Archive News
Government must be elected Ð not picked off a wish list
Date Published: {J}
You must always be careful what you wish for – and that’s a warning we’d do well to heed in the midst of this growing clamour for specialist experts to be appointed to run specific Government departments.
The idea is perfectly well intentioned – if you want someone to run the Department of Finance, bring in a financial expert, or if you want an individual who will take on the health portfolio, get yourself a medical expert.
The problem arises when it comes to putting names on doors – for two reasons.
First up is the long history of clientelism, croneyism and jobs for the boys when it comes to state or semi-state appointments, and we’ve paid a heavy price for that sort of political patronage in the past.
We’ve seen massive tracts of land and dilapidated buildings bought by state bodies for a multiple of their real worth, and we’ve seen plush trips to far-flung places that were utterly unnecessary – not to mention millions paid out in expenses by way of remuneration as opposed to compensation for costs incurred.
And we’ve been subjected to big Christmas parties, gold watch ceremonies and something small and gold for the wife – all paid for by the taxpayer as a little gesture to the political supporters who have been rewarded for their loyalty with a place on a state board or two.
But the bigger problem here is just who will decide who the best man or woman to run the Department of Finance or Health or Social Welfare is – and if these individuals don’t stand for election, what power have the people to influence that decision?
Take for example this regular call from the great unwashed to make Michael O’Leary the Minister for Finance – do we want Ireland Inc run by a man who would effectively shut down the public sector if he could?
Which of the many economists who grace the airwaves and the small screen would we like to see in charge? David MacWilliams who would default on the bail-out repayments? Constantin Gurdgiev and his right-wing rhetoric? Fintan O’Toole? One of the ‘experts’ from the financial institutions who brought us to this situation in the first place?
Who would be put to sort out our health crisis? Not a doctor, for a start – although James Reilly might end up there anyway, but at least he’ll have to come through the democratic process.
But we had a doctor in charge of the HSE when Brendan Drumm came in, in a blaze of glory – and how much had changed before he quietly departed the stage again?
Garret FitzGerald broke the mould by nominating Jim Dooge to the Seanad in 1981 and then making him Minister for Foreign Affairs. But Professor Dooge had previously been an elected Senator of longstanding – and anyway, Foreign Affairs isn’t the Angola that health or finance might be.
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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