Archive News
Hurlers draw small comfort from a poor performance
Date Published: {J}
Galway 2-19
Offaly 3-16
STEPHEN GLENNON
IN CROKE PARK
Were it not for the glorious sunshine and the redolence of suncream hanging in the humid summer air, Galway folk could have been forgiven if they thought that Halloween was upon them at Croke Park on Sunday. For, not to put too fine a point on it, the Galway senior hurlers got the fright of their lives from fearless underdogs Offaly in this pulsating Leinster semi-final.
The colours of Freddie Krueger’s ‘geansaí’ may now be a part of cinematic folklore, but for the Tribesmen it was the green, white and gold of the Faithful County that almost made this experience on Jones Road a living nightmare. For just like the fiendish Freddie, Offaly too often had the knack of popping up to slash and burn the Galway defence just when it was least expected.
Indeed, given Galway’s bright opening to this contest – leading 0-5 to 0-1 after just 10 minutes – no one of the 25,260 strong crowd could have foreseen that Joe Dooley’s men would turn this deficit around to lead 3-7 to 0-9 after 31 minutes, having all but shredded the Westerners’ rearguard.
Despite bouncing back into a commanding 2-15 (21) to 3-8 (17) lead after just 10 minutes of the second period, the nightmare continued for John McIntyre’s charges thereafter, as they struggled to come to terms with the fire and brimstone of a, by now, 14-man Offaly juggernaut.
In many respects, the harsh sending off of half-time substitute Daniel Currams on 46 minutes did nothing more than galvanise Offaly, who, having watched as Galway received a white flag for a Ger Farragher sideline cut that was clearly wide in the first half, were now transported back to the days of pikes and pitchforks.
This was their cause and for the remainder of the half they fought like a Clan of old, outscoring their rivals by eight points to four. This was no longer the ‘Galway match’, as it had been referred to all week. This was all Offaly. Old Offaly, new Offaly, it didn’t matter. This was championship Offaly at their best.
While it has been some time since the Faithful produced such a credible display – underlined by the delirium of their fans after the final whistle – it was still in their psyche to see this one out to the bitter end. That is provincial championship hurling and its uniqueness is perhaps something that has been lost on the men from the West, or at the very least, something that they have failed to grasp. Certainly, it’s a different beast to the qualifier system that the Tribesmen have become so accustomed to.
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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