Archive News
Hurlers & footballers have nowhere to hide
Date Published: 20-Jul-2007
THE point of no return has been reached by both the Galway hurlers and footballers.
It’s all or nothing now; win or bust. There are no more second chances; no more escape routes. Ger Loughnane and Peter Ford are in the knock out zone. Kilkenny and Meath bar their way respectively.
It could have been much easier only for Clare and Sligo surprisingly throwing a spanner in the works. It’s the hard way for both the county’s standard bearers now and, perhaps, the hurlers and footballers will be all the better for it. Playing safe is no longer an option.
Whatever is in them has to come out or its goodbye to championship glory in 2007. The fact that Galway are outsiders in this weekend’s two critical championship encounters will motivate and steel them on one hand, but highlights the magnitude of the task on the other.
The hurlers couldn’t face a more daunting assignment against the All-Ireland champions in Croke Park. Having wobbled early on against Antrim last Saturday evening, they cut loose in devastating fashion in cruising to a 25 points victory. It wouldn’t have been so big only for opposition full forward Kieran Kelly losing his head with a dangerous pull across Ger Mahon in the opening half, but Galway were already turning the game around with the in-form Alan Kerins helping himself to an outstanding tally of eight points from play.
Antrim, however, are hardly the ideal preparation for a showdown with Kilkenny even if Galway’s pace, movement and accuracy was heartening in their final All-Ireland qualifier. With no prematch indecision about who was lining out and with something to prove after their narrow loss to Clare, the home team were much livelier and Saturday’s big win will have helped to restore the squad’s confidence levels.
The team management had carried out significant surgery to the first fifteen from the Clare match and while not everything worked, notably David Tierney’s surprising deployment at wing back, the new midfield alliance and Mark Kerins’ return to the forty, it was clear what Loughnane and his selectors were up to — they were trying to exploit the natural pace in Galway’s ranks.
Damien Hayes, who fired home their first goal, was deployed at midfield, while Niall Healy and Kevin Broderick both came into the full forward line. In reality, utilising their natural speed is Galway’s only hope of flooring the All-Ireland champions.
True, they successfully took Kilkenny on physically in the 2001 semi-final, but such an approach wouldn’t have worked two years ago when the Westerners covered themselves in glory in an open, fast flowing and thrilling spectacle. Healy, in particular, will have fond memories of that encounter as he rattled the Cats’ net on three occasions.
It’s got to be more of the same from Galway on Sunday. Pace and movement is the only way to rattle the title holders who look as formidable as ever and are blessed with extraordinary physical power. They have again cruised through Leinster and you can be certain that they will be ready for Galway. Brian Cody doesn’t do complacency and with Loughnane in the opposition corner, it’s safe to assume the champions will be fired up against the one county which probably spook their team manager more than any other.
Few neutrals are giving Galway much of a chance but after what happened to Cork against supposedly battle weary and understrength opponents in Thurles last weekend, nothing can be discounted. Kilkenny are the benchmark in hurling these days and in the likes of Tommy Walsh, JJ Delaney, Eddie Brennan, James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick, Martin Comerford and Henry Shefflin, they possess some majestic players – but they are not invincible or unbeatable for that either.
Galway, however, can’t afford to start mixing it with them. Instead, they must try and open up the exchanges, avoid high puck outs raining down on the Kilkenny half-back line and maintain a high tempo throughout.
This is the game Loughnane has been waiting for; he admirably wants to test himself and his team against the best. He will be up for it — even if his untimely accusations about the Kilkenny backs being less than saints will surely antagonise the title holders — and one suspects that the players will be too. There may have been some doom in the county’s hurling strongholds last week, but every game is different. Galway go to Croke Park with a fighting chance. Nothing more; nothing less.
Though the Galway footballers have an impressive championship record against Meath and the Royal men were made to work hard for a two point win over Fermanagh last Saturday evening, there is no longer any great confidence behind Peter Ford’s squad. They were lucky to only escape with a one point defeat against Sligo and the decision to go ahead with a full round of domestic fixtures over the weekend was strange. Certainly, it could hardly be interpreted as vote of confidence in them by their own administrators. Perhaps, that change of environment will work to Galway’s advantage and give the players a fresh impetus, but the team management are going to have to bite the bullet and drop one or two of the old guard.
Sean Armstrong and Matthew Clancy, if fit, must be included in an attack which has faltered badly since the Mayo game. Galway’s defence has to get their house in order too and while Meath have a poor record in the All-Ireland qualifiers and are nothing exceptional, they will test the Tribesmen’s bottle. The Inside Track isn’t writing off Galway, but the odds are against them arresting what is looking like a serious decline.
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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