Archive News
KellyÕs yard punching above its weight
Date Published: {J}
STEPHEN GLENNON
ONE West of Ireland trainer who is hoping to make his mark at the Galway Races next week is Ballygar man, David Martin Kelly.
Although Kelly took out a trainer’s licence in 2005, it has only been in recent months that he has really sprung to prominence, having graced the winners’ enclosure at Kilbeggan (Benefitthewest & Mind The Steps), Down Royal (Like The Da), Sligo (Benefitthewest) and Gowran Park (Like The Da) already in 2011.
Kelly’s achievements have been just reward for a man that has invested heavily, emotionally and financially, in elevating his status in an ultra-competitive sport. In many respects, he is a triumph for the ‘small’ trainer.
That said, equine pursuits have always played a large part in his life. His passion for horses, he says, probably came from his father, Tom, who worked for the well-known Costello family in Clare in his younger days, riding point to point.
“I used to do a good bit of showjumping myself before I got injured,” outlines the 34-year-old. “I broke my pelvis in three places and my femur. So, after that, I decided to do the trainers’ course. Basically, that is how I started into training. The fall might have ended my jumping career, but it started a new career for me, fortunately.”
It was not, though, that Kelly was unfamiliar with the process. He had worked and pre-trained horses for owners before the thoroughbreds were sent to bigger trainers previous to this, so when he was awarded his licence in 2005 it was just a matter of expanding his operation.
Already, many of the building blocks for a successful yard were in place, such as the horse walker and the indoor training facilities, but Kelly recognised he had to take it a step further.
“I built a gallop here at the house to school them for hurdles and fences,” he continues. “In the meantime, I also bought a bit of land in Roscommon and I put a six furlong uphill grass gallop on it. I knew what I needed to have, and I have all the facilities now.”
While the father of one could only boast of some minor placings in his debut season (’05), he finally broke his duck the following year with Killeroran Kash. “She was my first major winner,” beams Kelly. “She was owned by Padraig Egan in Ballygar and she won at both Fairyhouse and Galway for me. It was great. I was delighted to get my first winner.”
Slowly but surely, success followed. In 2007, Doranstown Boy won at Downpatrick, before Im A Witness (Roscommon), Like The Da (Clonmel) and Colmanstown Hope (Navan) secured victories for the trainer in 2008. In 2009, Colmanstown Hope (Punchestown), Moscow Roller (Naas) and Brownpolish (Thurles) proudly flew the flag, while ast year, Doransfirth (Kilbeggan & Galway) and Missgiloney (Limerick) claimed first place finishes.
“I have kind of improved every year and the last couple of months I have had a good few winners and a good few placed horses,” says the East Galway trainer. “Benefitthewest, Mind The Steps and Like The Da are the three big ones at the moment.
“Doransfirth is another, having won two races for me last year. She won in Kilbeggan and Galway (Autumn meeting) last year. Actually, she was going well in Tipperary the last day – she would have been second – but she tripped up at the second last fence, which was disappointing.”
In any event, Kelly has saddled five winners so far this year, which for a stable of his size is pretty impressive. “To be honest, I am quiet at the minute with horses. I have only five horses returned for training. It is due to the economy, but from October onwards I would hope to have 20 horses in for the winter. I would always be fairly quiet this time of the year anyway.
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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