Archive News
Home or away Ð itÕs impossible to please everyone
Date Published: 20-Mar-2013
Did you ever wonder why we invest so much in our houses – and then lock them up to go away on holidays every time we get a week off?
Okay, perhaps it’s an exaggeration to suggest we pack the suitcases and head for sunny climes at the drop of a hat – but even when we have a few days away from work and find ourselves around the house, we don’t see it as a relaxing break.
That’s because you end up fixing the light or the shelf that was hanging by a thread for the previous three months or you end up painting the fence or just doing the things that don’t get done when work gets in the way.
You’ll also find that, if the two of you are home at the same time, it takes about 24 hours before you get on each other’s nerves to the point that you’d fight over who gets to go on the trip to the recycling centre.
Perhaps with tens of thousands now stuck in negative equity, the last thing they want is to be reminded of the millstone around their neck when they’re on a day off.
Unfortunately for them, holidays are not an option because if they don’t have the money for the mortgage, it’s unlikely they have the wherewithal to fly the family to France.
Hilton Hotels recently commissioned a survey on how much time off workers actually get each year – and the conclusion was that we only get eight ‘real’ days of leave because any additional time off is consumed by domestic chores and going to the doctor.
Despite workers having an average leave allowance of about 24 days a year, researchers concluded that the majority of that time is spent catching up on household chores, DIY projects or even doing the weekly food shop.
The study of 2,000 workers found that instead of relaxing, 40 per cent used some of their time off to catch up on those little jobs around the house, while almost a third took at least one day off each year to shop for birthday or Christmas presents.
About 31 per cent used leave days to attend medical appointments and 28 per cent took time off to catch up on household chores.
A quarter took days off to attend funerals or weddings with another 24 per cent using annual leave to look after children who were too ill to attend school or nursery. One in five made use of holiday allowance to go to their children’s school events.
But what is didn’t say is that – without wishing sick kids or school plays on anyone – the rest of these are seen as welcome distractions. Because you are simply not in the habit of sitting down in your own home during the day-time.
And if you yourself don’t feel guilty enough about that sort of lazing about in a building you’ll still be paying for past your own death, then as sure as eggs you’re living with someone who is happy to point that out to you.
Colleagues who’ve retired will tell you of the list of demands they are greeted with the moment the hangover ends from their going away party.
Even after they’ve finished their working lives and could theoretically get to live out their days in the home that they’ve spend the bulk of their income on, they are still whooshed out of the way so that they don’t get under anyone’s feet.
So you’ve got this house that you’ve slaved for throughout your working life, and you only get to use it as a bed and breakfast with limited access to the sitting room when there are important matches to be viewed.
You should really have put the new couch in the office so that at least you’d get to sit on it during your tea-break.
And then again, maybe that’s the way we’re programmed; imagine telling everyone that you’re spending your holidays doing nothing at home; think of the embarrassment for the kids who had to return to school with no tales of sunshine or swimming pools.
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
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
