Archive News
Heartbreak for St BrigidÕs in big defeat in colleges final
Date Published: {J}
Loreto Kilkenny 4-11
St Brigid’s Loughrea 1-10
Eoghan Cormican at Templederry
St Brigid’s bid to secure a first ever All Ireland senior colleges camogie title ended in bitter disappointment as they were outclassed by a stronger and more skilful Loreto Kilkenny outfit at Templederry on Saturday.
Two opening half goals put Loreto on their way as they copperfastened their reputation as the undoubted aristocrats of colleges camogie, retaining their crown in a final that turned out to be more of a procession than a contest.
Indeed, from the moment Sarah Dunphy bagged Loreto’s opening goal on nine minutes until the closing stages when Sarah Ann Quinlan blasted to the net, the reigning champions looked assured, composed and in command.
For St Brigid’s part, they can have no qualms about this one. Frankly, they were soundly beaten by a more accomplished side. It didn’t help however that St Brigid’s more talented exponents failed to deliver and this in no small way contributed to the fact that they were cleaned out between the 45s.
Their half forward line and midfield were completely outgunned, althought the switch of Rachel Monaghan to centre-forward in an attempt to curtail the influence of centre-back Miriam Walsh did somewhat stem the tide.
Further back, the St Brigid’s rearguard was under ferocious pressure and while centre-back Lorraine Farrell delivered a towering second half display, the half-back line was hit for 2-7 over the hour.
Remarkably, Loreto’s entire front six as well as midfielders Lydia Fitzpatrick and Niamh Leahy got on the scoresheet. Throw in an unrelenting work ethic all over the field and it’s easy to see why Saturday represented Loreto’s third successive All Ireland College’s victory.
They had excellent attacking performances from Claire Phelan, Sarah Ann Quinlan and Jenny Clifford and thanks to the industry of corner forward Orla Hanrick, plus Lydia Fitzpatrick, Kate Holland and Miriam Walsh further back the field the supply lines were strong enough to provide them with rich rewards on the scoreboard.
By way of contrast, St. Brigid’s conjured up just 1-3 from open play, displaying an over-reliance on the unerring free taking abilities of Rachel Monaghan.
That said, Mullagh’s Patricia Manning worked her way in brilliantly from the right to shoot of the hurl in opening the Loughrea School’s account. It was to be the only time Brigid’s would hold the initiative however as Sarah Dunphy supplied the finish to a sweeping move involving Niamh Leahy, Lydia Fitzpatrick and Claire Phelan to nudge the Kilkenny stickwomen two ahead.
Loreto settled and began to stamp their authority on proceedings with the likes of Walsh, Fitzpatrick and Phelan all to the fore in driving the Kilkenny College to a seven point lead at the turnaround.
Loreto weren’t completely dominant in the opening quarter but were far more clinical in possession and more often than not took their chances when they arouse.
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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