Archive News
Jubilant scenes as St. ThomasÕ tops in replay
Date Published: 21-Feb-2013
ST. Thomas’ are on the brink of creating a little piece of history by becoming the first Galway club to win an All-Ireland senior title at the first time of asking. That may have explained why their semi-final replay victory over reigning champions Loughgiel was taking time to sink in.
The jubilant scenes which the St. Thomas’ supporters greeted the final whistle at the end of a second titanic struggle against Antrim’s Loughgiel Shamrocks in the space of a week was understandable, but for the players they almost had to pinch themselves.
“Just being out on the field with the supporters, it hasn’t sunk in yet really,” exclaimed St. Thomas’ captain Robert Murray immediately after the 0-15 to 0-7 win. “I had to ask a few people ‘has it really happened?’ In the next month, though, it will sink in and we will drag our feet back down to earth.
“We have one more game to play in this championship and we are really going to put up a fight. We really want this. This was our first time winning a county championship and we are now into an All-Ireland. We put the All-Ireland champions to the pin of their collar in the first match and, really, we put in another great performance in the replay. Obviously, we can smell blood now. We want to win this one (All-Ireland) and we will go all out to do it as well.”
Certainly, St. Thomas’, who only conceded one point from play over the 60 minutes in Clones last Saturday, took on board many of the lessons from their 1-25 to 3-19 draw (after extra-time) against Loughgiel Shamrocks first day out – no more so than the high cost of conceding three goals to the Ulster champions.
“I think the goals drew the game the last day for Loughgiel,” said Murray. “We were kind of disappointed in ourselves for letting in three goals and we knew if we kept a clean sheet in the replay we would have a great chance. It would leave Loughgiel to long-range shooting.”
He acknowledged this was something they made a conscious effort to address in the run-up to the replay, noting it was important they, once again, became “touch-tight” defenders. “Also, at this level, you really have to show a bit of grit and determination and that is what will win the game for you – the hooks and the blocks.
“I think the backs showed it today; they were fantastic. There were some goal chances there, especially in the first half. Cathal Burke flicked a ball away that was destined for the roof of the net. That is the kind of thing you need to see. There is a bit of luck but it also about sheer heart and determination. These lads wanted it today. They really wanted it. We knew we almost left it behind us the last day and that we still had a great chance of getting to the All-Ireland final.”
While lauding his team’s defensive efforts in not conceding a goal, St. Thomas’ manager John Burke was acutely aware of the goal opportunities that were conjured up by Loughgiel Shamrocks, especially in a frantic opening eight minutes.
“We were probably lucky,” said Burke. “We will have to look at it again but they did open us up three times. Alright, Cathal got a block on one of them – he got a good flick on it – and the other two were shot wide but we were lucky. If a couple of those goals had gone in, then we would have been chasing the game. However, we never panicked.”
Up at the other end of the field, the St. Thomas’ forwards were showing the same level of composure. Although Conor Cooney, who had shot 12 points first day out, was double marked, the surrounding forwards, in particular man of the match Bernard Burke, stepped up to the plate.
For more, read this week’s Galway City 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
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