Archive News
Hibs dump Mervue from FAI Cup for second year in a row
Date Published: {J}
Mervue United 2
Hibernians 3
Mike Rafferty
Two goals in a five minute spell just after the restart turned a poor game into an exciting contest as the underdogs bit back and dumped Mervue United from the FAI Junior Cup for the second year in succession.
The sides went into the game in contrasting form and as the 8/13 favourites, Mervue United would have being full of expectation, while at 100/30, Hibernians were nothing more than hopeful, but while not taking away from the visitors win, Mervue United can only look in-house in the post-mortem.
They were missing just one player as opposed to the five Hibs players from the respective line-ups a league encounter between the sides six weeks ago and on that occasion it was the league champions who prevailed in a very comfortable manner by 4-1.
It was a different case at the weekend, when lining out in a 4-5-1 formation, Mervue were neither creative going forward nor secure when under pressure and the reality is that with a very talented bunch of players at their disposal, the home side seemed to be playing with the handbreak on.
They lacked a sense of urgency and apart from an early Brian Meaney goal and a Stephen Cunningham shot across the face of the box, they never threatened John Cotter’s goal. Indeed the striker, who had scored seven goals in his last six games, looked an isolated figure upfront and it was only after he was joined in attack by Enda Curran on 54 minutes that Mervue began to look threatening.
The visitors were certainly no better in a poor opening half, but while their expectations might have being a little more limited, they certainly made matters more interesting on the resumption as they took a 2-1 lead and opened up the game as a contest.
The last half hour was certainly a very watchable contest as Mervue went chasing the game and at the same time left themselves open to counter attacks, which Hibernians exposed by notching the third.
However despite pulling it back to the minimum, the chase came up short as the visitors displayed admirable qualities in holding out in a frantic closing spell, which included eight minutes of additional time.
Matters all started out so differently as an early Shane Gallagher header tested Brian O’Donoghue, before the home side took the lead on just four minutes. Just like in the earlier league meeting of the sides, it was again Meaney who made the breakthrough as he floated a corner all the way to the net for a 1-0 advantage.
The only other real excitement in the opening half came on 17 minutes, when Mike Tierney got on the end of a Keith Ward corner, but his close range effort was kept out by the diving O’Donoghue.
Apart from that early breakthrough the two sides cancelled one another out, as midfield was as packed as Shop Street on a Saturday afternoon and opportunities were nonexistent.
However the course of the game changed quickly on the resumption. A Ward free-kick from wide on the right in the 47th minute was clipped over the cover and past the far post, where Mark Murphy was steaming in and his sliding finish was exemplary as the shot somehow got the better of O’Donoghue at his near post and at 1-1 the game was coming alive.
Four minutes later it moved up another level as Hibernians made it 2-1. A weak pass back by Colm Smyth put O’Donoghue in trouble, but he rescued the situation well as he diverted away Murphy’s close range effort. However the ever-willing winger chased the rebound and his cross literally put it on a plate for Daniel Small as he finished off from close range.
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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