Archive News
Long and tortuous road lies ahead of Mulholland
Date Published: {J}
THE ray of hope which was provided by the Galway footballers in their unexpected opening round National League victory over Derry has already been extinguished – at least, for the time being – in the space of a month. It hasn’t taken long for reality to bite for the new team management and, clearly, a long, aand perhaps tortuous, road lies ahead of Alan Mulholland and his mentors in striving to revive the county’s fortunes.
The mood was all so different early last month when a youthful Galway selection travelled to Celtic Park for the team’s Division Two debut. There wasn’t a whole lot of confidence behind them for that fixture against Derry, but the Tribesmen emerged comfortable winners on a day most of the energy and intensity came from Gareth Bradshaw and his team-mates. Promotion was already been talked about as a realistic target.
There was a nagging suspicion, however, that Derry weren’t up to much and the bare result might have flattered Galway. Just seven days later, the more circumspect team supporters were somewhat vindicated when Finian Hanley and company failed to build on a good opening against Louth at Pearse Stadium, lost their way and were lucky to hang on for a draw against wasteful opponents.
It wasn’t an alarming display by any means and there was always the possibility that the Galway camp was still a big giddy after taking the scalp of Derry, a scenario which might have affected their focus for the visit of Louth. With the league then taking a three-week break, it afforded the management and players some time to regroup for their next outing against what was regarded as the weakest team in Division Two – Westmeath.
The Midlanders might have inflicted a shock championship defeat on Galway in 2009, but they have been in relative decline since and the fact that they are still missing the influential Garrycastle contingent – Dessie Dolan and his team-mates are currently preparing for the All-Ireland Club final – suggested that Westmeath were there for the taking. Pat Flanagan’s squad hadn’t been beaten much by Louth in the opening round, but they were trounced by Meath at home the following Sunday.
But making assumptions about matches involving Galway footballers has been fraught with risk in recent years and there was further pain for the county in Mullingar last Sunday. No matter how you attempt to dress it up, losing to a weakened Westmeath outfit is a bad result, especially having forged a hard-earned two point lead with time running out. It wasn’t going to represent a blemish-free effort but, at least, Galway would get the result and have five points in the bag after three league outings.
Unfortunately, they weren’t even able to hang on as a Westmeath outfit, which had battled hard all day, turned the screw from there to the finish. Scores from Denis Glennon and the returning John Heslin brought them level before Paul Bannon send over the winning point in the fifth minute of injury time. It was a sickening defeat for Galway, particularly as this had appeared their easiest fixture of the campaign.
With the likes of in-form Tyrone, Meath and Kildare coming down the tracks, the prospect of relegation has suddenly loomed into focus. Once again, winning primary possession was a big problem for Galway who must have known that they were in big trouble at half-time when only on level terms – six points apiece – having been backed by the elements. A lack of directness, unforced errors and a bout of poor shooting just before the break were all contributing to the team’s woes.
For more, read this week’s Connacht 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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