Archive News
League take-off in Limerick
Date Published: {J}
STEPHEN GLENNON
FRESH from their Walsh Cup final victory last weekend, Galway senior hurlers’ remain largely unchanged for the county’s National League opener against a new look Limerick side in Kilmallock this Sunday (2:30pm). The one exception is that Cappataggle’s James Skehill replaces Kinvara custodian Colm Callanan, as the management continue on with their goalkeeping rotation policy.
Galway, though, are not without their injury concerns either, with in-form midfielder Ger Farragher in a race to be fit after sustaining a hip injury late on in the 1-22 to 1-15 Walsh Cup win against Dublin. Farragher was hugely influential for the Tribesmen in their pre-league victories over Laois, Offaly and Dublin and his absence against Limerick would be a significant blow.
Simply, the Castlegar man has offered leadership, guile and potency in front of the posts, tallying 1-22 from dead ball situations and an impressive 1-28 in total. If Farragher is not passed fit to play – he faces a fitness test on Friday night – then his free-taking duties could fall to a myriad of players, with fellow midfielder Niall Cahalan and St. Thomas’ David Burke the frontrunners to take over this duty.
Of course, it does beg the question, then, who would fill the No. 8 jersey? The Galway management is not short of options, with half-backs Tony Óg Regan and Kevin Hynes both having lined out in this sector previously. This would present an opportunity for Fergal Moore, John Lee or David Collins to make their return to first team action to fill the vacant half-back berth.
The management’s reluctance, though, to alter a winning side is underlined by the selection of Portumna’s Niall Hayes for this one. Hayes – who made himself available to Galway for the Walsh Cup as he was suspended for his club’s semi-final victory over Dunloy last Sunday – was lively in the left corner forward berth against Dublin, showing well for possession and hitting a beauty of a point in the second half.
It is understood he was eager to get another game under his belt before he turned his attention to his club’s All-Ireland final meeting against Ballyhale Shamrocks of Kilkenny on St. Patrick’s Day – a decision which, no doubt, has pleased the Galway management.
Other than that, the team lines out with Damien Joyce, captain Shane Kavanagh and Pat Holland in the full-back line, with Donal Barry, Regan and Hynes named in the half-back berths. Farragher, if fit, and Cahalan form the midfield partnership, while Aonghus Callanan, Cyril Donnellan and David Burke make up the half-forward line. Inside, Aidan Harte, impressive full-forward Joe Gantley – who totalled 3-10 in Galway’s Walsh Cup campaign – and Hayes will be asked to provide the scores.
Speaking on the team selection for the League clash against Limerick, manager McIntyre noted: “We are still a bit tight on options, but we did feel following on from the victory against Dublin that the players who started showed the right application and they deserved to get another crack at it.”
That said, Galway – despite the absence of several key players, including the Portumna septet of Damien Hayes, Ollie and Joe Canning, Eugene McEntee, Eoin Lynch, Andrew Smith and Kevin Hayes – still have ample back-up, with defenders Moore, Lee and Collins and attacking duo Niall Healy and Iarla Tannian all named in Sunday’s squad.
For their part, it will be a new-look Limerick outfit that will field in Kilmallock. After dismissing 12 of his 2009 panel last October, McCarthy had to endure a mass walk-out by as many more over the ensuing months.
The latest player to quit the 2010 county set-up this week was goalkeeper Timmy Houlihan, which means there are only four players from last year’s squad left in the current panel, namely Brian O’Sullivan, Graeme Mulcahy, Paudie McNamara and David Moloney.
Consequently, Limerick will field without the likes of Brian Murray, Damien Reale, Stephen Lucey, Seamus Hickey, Brian Geary, Mark Foley and Andrew O’Shaughnessy on Sunday. It had been hoped a mediation process between the manager and players would be facilitated by Croke Park but this has been rejected by Croke Park officials, who are unwilling to become embroiled in the controversy.
In any event, the Limerick side to face Galway will be an unknown quantity, although Limerick did give a spirited performance in their Waterford Crystal Cup quarter-final defeat to UCC in late January. Indeed, despite losing 0-19 to 2-9, the Shannonsiders’ offensive unit was said to be impressive that day and could have posted a much greater tally had not UCC ‘keeper Anthony Nash denied them on several occasions.
More recently, Limerick produced another capable display against Clare in a challenge match, losing narrowly on a scoreline of 1-22 to 0-20. No wonder, then, Galway are wary. “They played a strong Clare side in a challenge in Newmarket last week and they came close enough in that game,” said McIntyre. “Yes, they have had their problems, but it shows Justin McCarthy has assembled a squad of very capable young players and we just can’t take them for granted.
“So, we have to make sure our players approach the game in the proper frame of mind and not be focusing in on what has been going on in Limerick. Everyone is talking about Limerick’s internal problems, but the reality is that Galway still has to go down there and beat them.”
Again, stressing that this is “a dangerous fixture” for his charges, McIntyre added: “The Walsh Cup win was a good boost to squad morale – it was good for Galway to win in a final and it gives us momentum going into the league – but we have to make sure we exploit that in Kilmallock.”
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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