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Hehir relishing challenge of running juvenile hurling

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Date Published: 03-May-2012

It is no easy task running a programme of games – in any sport – across a county, particularly a programme as comprehensive as juvenile hurling in Galway. Yet, for the new Chairman of Coiste Chontae Iomána na nÓg na Gaillimhe, Michael Hehir, it is an undertaking he seems to be relishing.

Chatting over a coffee in Tuam, where the Clare-born Garda is based, Hehir is so enthusiastic about his role that you would wonder has he yet grasped the enormity of it all. As volunteer jobs go, it would be recognised as one of the most demanding in Galway sport.

However, Hehir is taking it all in his stride and he talks about “bringing new ideas to the table” and adding “a little bit of freshness” in the manner in which the juvenile hurling programme is run in the county.

“You look at Joe Dolan (previous Chairman) and he had served 13 years [on the juvenile board],” says Hehir. “So, whatever way you look it, I have big boots to fill.”

In many respects, Hehir’s ascension to the throne has been an interesting one. For one, his adopted club, Tuam, would not be regarded as a stronghold of the game in the county, while being a blow-in from Clare could also have been seen as another impediment.

Yet, the local hurling populace have warmed to him and he agrees reaction to his appointment “has been fairly positive”. Then again, Hehir by his very nature exudes positivity and you have only to look at what he has been achieved at Tuam Hurling Club to recognise the contribution he can make.

Stationed at Tuam Garda Station in 2003, Hehir, who had been playing hurling and football with his native West Clare club, Coolmeen, subsequently transferred to Tuam Hurling Club the following year, lining out with the Junior ‘C’ outfit.

“Richie Williams (club secretary), as they say, collared me one day when I was on the beat to know if I would be interested in doing something with the club,” explains Hehir, who was not only seconded onto the committee, but at the December AGM was elected Club Chairman.

“I got involved in the coaching then in 2005 – coaching U-10s and U-12s – but it wasn’t as though I started it or reignited it. It was already there, to be fair. However, we also got involved in the schools around that same time. I made a decision if I was getting involved that the schools had to have strong links with the club.”

St Pat’s Primary School and Gardenfield NS came on board and although others have followed suit in recent times, those two still provide the backbone for Tuam’s underage structure. Indeed, seven years on, the fruits of the club’s labour are now being seen.

“We would have a pretty good U-16 team at the moment,” he says. “They would probably be our best team in the club this year, so fingers crossed we will do something.”

Then again, Hehir and Tuam Hurling Club have, quite often, gone above and beyond the call of duty to promote the game locally, underlined when they took an U-15 hurling team to London for a trip which not only included a challenge against the London All-Stars – a side made up of Kilburn Gaels, Thomas McCurtain and Granuaile – but also encompassed a tour of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and a Premier League game between Fulham and Norwich.

Interestingly, London has participated in the U-14 All-Ireland Féile na nGael for the past 14 years and Tuam was the first club to make the return trip back to the English capital in this time. Coincidentally, Tuam won that exhibition 10-12 to 6-3 in a game that was refereed by Tuam’s Charlie Ward.

For more, read this week’s Galway City 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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