Archive News
Honours even as city rivals play out Drom stalemate
Date Published: 07-May-2013
IT finished a stalemate but either side could have nicked it. Nothing could separate Salthill Devon and Mervue United in the latest chapter of League of Ireland action between these two old city foes at a drenched Drom on Friday night.
Both teams had chances with Mervue creating more as Devon keeper James Keane made some brilliant saves to deny Gary Curran, Noel Varley, Jason Molloy, Ryan Manning and Stephen Walsh.
At the death, skipper Derek O’Brien could have snatched it for the hosts only to be denied by Conor Gleeson, who was called into the fray late in the first-half after Brian O’Donoghue was withdrawn with concussion.
The game began cautiously as Devon were forced to make a late change in defence, with Willie Enubele coming in for Robbie Gaul at centre-half. Devon showed the early incentive with O’Brien whipping in an early corner which O’Donoghue had to punch clear.
Ryan Manning was to fire Mervue’s first meaningful goal effort from a nice distance in the seventh minute which sailed a short distance wide of the mark.
Salthill tried to etch out another break two minutes after Manning’s effort when Brian Gaffney raced forward, but he took a heavy touch and Paul Sinnott intercepted to clear and avert the danger.
O’Brien again whipped in a fine cross from a corner in the 15th minute which was fisted into the path of Cian Fadden, but he blazed over when he really should have tested O’Donoghue.
Five minutes later Johnny Glynn thought his men had taken the lead when Marc Ludden – who was moved forward to left midfield – somehow had a shot headed off the line by Colm Horgan with James Keane was beaten.
A minute later, Mervue won a free-kick within range which Manning curled goalwards, but Keane produced a fine save, and the visitors looked to move up a gear.
Shortly after the half-hour mark Jason Molloy played a fine ball to Tom King, who cut inside to feed Manning who fell to the turf when Jamie McGlynn challenged him, but penalty claims fell on deaf ears. A minute later Mervue drove forward again, this time Molloy linking up with Gary Curran and King finished the move but failed to find the target.
With 10minutes to go before the break, Gary Curran found himself in space and Keane denied him with another fine stop when Mervue should have gone ahead.
Mervue were then forced to make a change between the sticks when Enda Curran and O’Donoghue clashed heavily, and the latter had to be substituted with concussion.
A minute before the break, Horgan made his second goalline clearance of the evening when King picked out Stephen Walsh, and the right-back blocked with his legs to once again frustrate Mervue.
Mervue launched another attack seven minutes after the break as Molloy played in King, but his ball was too heavy for Noel Varley and Keane gathered comfortably.
Varley played in King two minutes later and with only Keane to beat, he toe-poked it straight at him and the Devon keeper stopped it with his legs.
The hour-mark passed and the rain got even heavier as Molloy in a more forward role looked-up to find Manning, whose runs often created space, but the target evaded him and the ball flashed over.
At this point Devon began improving, with O’Brien again the main threat on the right side and proving hugely influential in their attacking prowess. His fellow winger Brian Gaffney had a go from distance which went well over.
On 66 minutes O’Brien embarked on his first major solo run and shot wide. Moments later he went at it again in an almost identical move, but this time his shot was on target but deflected clear by Walsh.
Mervue weren’t finished however and Sinnott was the latest in a maroon short to venture forward and had a go from distance but again could not keep it down and it hit the walls of the Drom clubhouse.
As the final third began, Mervue spurned another golden chance as they worked it up the pitch once more and Molloy played a perfect ball through to King, and with just Keane to beat again he shot straight at him. The game then developed an inevitable scrappiness as the rain made the pitch heavy impossible for snappy passing and movement.
With two minutes to go, Varley who performed well in the middle along with Gary Curran passed to Molloy and this time Fadden was the Devon player to block his shot.
Marc Ludden and Derek O’Brien were having an intriguing battle on the wing for most of the second-half and it was the former Galway United man in his 13th League of Ireland season who almost had the last laugh.
The Kerryman found space, sprinted in and struck it with real venom, but Gleeson produced another fantastic save.
Devon have yet to find their first win, but they can happy with a hard-earned point here with their goalkeeper largely to thank. In the other camp, Johnny Glynn will rue his sides’ finishing.
Remarkably, not one yellow card was issued in one of those rare League of Ireland occasions when the game itself took centre stage instead of poor refereeing.
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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