Archive News
Late bloomer M‡ire finds success as a novelist
Date Published: 05-Jul-2012
It’s not everyone who can claim to be a published author and it is rare that someone starts at the age of 80 but that’s exactly what one city woman has done.
Máire Uí Fhlatharta, now 84, has just published her second novel and is already working on her third publication, this time a collection of short stories.
Máire, though not born inside the city walls but in the Connemara Gaeltacht, considers herself ‘a townie’ after living here since she first came to work in the city at the tender age of 17.
Máire, who now lives in Crestwood, spent most of her adult life in the city centre, in Eyre Street to be exact, with her beloved husband Seán who passed away eight years ago.
She still speaks with pride about the day Seán’s funeral cortege went up Eglinton Street and how his former GPO workers had not only closed the post office but lined the street in a guard of honour, though he had retired from there 12 years previously.
“It was very good of them to do that. I didn’t expect it but Seán had kept in contact with his post office colleagues and I know he was very well thought of and liked. That meant a lot to me that day,” says Máire who still speaks Irish like she never left her native Carraroe. Her brother, Tomás Mac Eoin, a well-known sean-nós singer and composer still lives there and she visits often, especially since she was widowed.
She had three miscarriages but this didn’t take away from her good relationship with Seán, who until the day he died was her constant companion.
In fact it was Seán, who on retirement and wanting something to do, suggested they take up some classes. As it happened, Máire found a creative writing class given by writer, Máire Holmes, who suggested she write in her native language. She did and Seán helped her research the story.
“He loved history and loved looking up what I needed for my story which involved Germans coming here in U-boats and concentration camps. It gave us something to do together.
“I had the idea for the first book Ná Gabh Thar Tí Stíofáin (published by Coisceim) that a high ranking officer in Hitler’s army would come to Ireland after his wife, a Jew shoots another army officer and is sent to the concentration camp. He escapes from Berlin with his child and lands in Connemara! And this man, Stíofán gives them shelter. Sure it never happened but it was fun making it up!” she laughs heartily.
She and Seán did discuss taking a trip to a concentration camp but it never happened as they holidayed mostly in the US where they both have relations.
That first book is now on the curriculum for mature Irish language students in Trinity College. No mean feat for a woman who never wrote fiction until her late seventies.
She does admit though to liking romantic and historical fiction, though Seán only ever read factual books and loved historical documentaries, hence the two complemented each other perfectly when it came to writing that first book.
Máire was surprised at the excellent reception it received and was encouraged to write a follow-up, though she stresses, this is no trilogy and with the publication of her latest book, Tí Stíofáin agus Níos Faide Ó Bhaile, that particular saga ends.
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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