Archive News
Lyng spurns a sitter and Offaly scramble home
Date Published: 06-Jun-2012
LITTLE happened between Offaly and Wexford at Tullamore last Saturday evening to alarm the main contenders for this year’s All-Ireland hurling title. Ollie Baker’s squad scraped through in the end as had been generally anticipated, but the overall standard in a wildly fluctuating struggle was no great shakes even allowing for the persistent rain at O’Connor Park.
The Leinster championship has long since been a one horse town as Kilkenny have captured 13 of the last 14 provincial titles with only Michael Jacob’s late goal in 2004 for Wexford breaking the Cats’ protracted monopoly. Offaly haven’t triumphed in Leinster since 1995 and though they will draw some heart from a first championship win over Wexford in 12 years, they have some serious improving to do.
Still, Saturday evening’s fixture was a difficult one for them in more ways than one. Apart from their recent poor record against Wexford, Offaly were also at home and strong favourites to advance to the Leinster semi-final. That background to the game obviously put extra pressure on them, so to survive in those circumstances was encouraging and, naturally, they won’t fear Galway in ten days’ time.
It was a match which had little pattern to it. Offaly, facing the elements, looked slightly more cohesive earlier on as the teams shared six points, but then Wexford got a bit of a run going with Diarmuid Lyng, PJ Nolan and two Jack Guiney frees putting them 0-7 to 0-3 clear after 16 minutes. Liam Dunne’s charges had their tails up and it should have been much better for them only for Lyng to miss a sitter when shooting straight at Offaly goalkeeper James Dempsey.
Incredibly, Wexford could only manage a solitary point in the remaining opening-half action as Offaly gradually took over. Brian Carroll, playing effectively as a third midfielder, Shane Dooley (two) and Joe Bergin had drawn the teams level by the 33rd minute when the first goal of the match arrived. Bergin unhinged the opposition defence with a perfectly flighted delivery before Dooley finished with some authority from close range.
Trailing by three points at the break and with the wind to face, Wexford were in dire trouble. Though Eoin Moore and the experienced Darren Stamp were introduced, it was basically all one-way traffic in the third quarter. Young Paul Morris, who has potential, did manage to pick off a point but, at the other hand, Offaly were inflicting a lot of damage. Dooley (3) and Brendan Murphy were on target while Bergin’s ground stroke found the net in the 43rd minute.
The origin of Offaly’s second goal was controversial, however. An umpire pulled Wexford goalkeeper Eanna Murphy for stepping outside the square when taking a puck-out and from the ensuing throw-in on the 21 yard line, the ball broke favourably for Bergin to score. It was a marginal call in the first place and, possibly, cost Wexford the match. By the 57th minute, they had fallen 2-12 to 0-9 behind and now it just appeared a question of how much Offaly would win by.
Wexford hurling has fallen on really hard times, but they still have the capacity to produce successful comebacks out of nothing as had been the case in the league match between the teams earlier in the year. Offaly wouldn’t score again and became increasingly rattled as Wexford got their second wind. Jack Guiney blasted a 21 yard free to the net having thundered a first-half effort off the crossbar, while Rory Jacob (2) and Garret Sinnott registered points.
Offaly were hanging on desperately and when Guiney stood over another 21 yard free approaching injury time, their hearts must have been in their mouths, but the effort was saved. Perhaps, the Wexford full forward should have taken his point and they might have forced an equaliser subsequently, but he went for broke and it didn’t come off. It was a relieved Offaly camp afterwards, but they will gain confidence and momentum from this hard earned win.
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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