Archive News
Marathon men of Mountbellew still hanging in there
Date Published: {J}
Mountbellew/Moylough 0-10
Tuam Stars 2-4
Dara Bradley at Tuam Stadium
THERE’S just something about Mountbellew/Moylough, there’s no keeping them down! A bit like a bad smell, or a sweet smell, depending on your hue, Mountbellew/Moylough continues to lurk and linger around in this year’s Galway senior club football championship.
They now face their fifth match in as many weeks this coming weekend after earning a draw courtesy of a late free from marksman Cathal Kenny against Tuam Stars at Tuam Stadium on Sunday in the quarter-final of the championship.
You’d have to wonder what Football Board Secretary, Seamus O’Grady, and the fixtures men did to Mountbellew/Moylough to deserve this fixture backlog! Added to the championship delays through appeals and the arbitration process surrounding the Micheál Breathnach debacle, the men led by captain Joe Meehan are facing their third replay of the season.
No matter what happens, and no matter who wins the Frank Fox Cup this year, Mountbellew/Moylough has left an indelible mark on the 2011 campaign. Having lost the PR battle and the support of many outside the club through off-field antics over Micheál Breathnach fielding an unregistered substitute, Mountbellew/Moylough in their three subsequent matches seem to have won over the hearts and minds of a large chunk of neutrals who cannot but admire their doggedness and downright bloody-mindedness, as the men in black and amber refuse to bow out of the championship.
Their stubbornness was evident again on Sunday. But, even though it was Mountbellew/Moylough that scraped the draw with a late leveller, Tuam Stars would feel more relieved to have gotten out of jail – Tuam played second-fiddle for long stretches of this disjointed but exciting clash, and by rights would be out of the championship had their opponents converted possession and territorial dominance into scores.
Alan Flynn’s charges were ring-rusty, and played in fits and starts, obviously feeling the effects of a lengthy layoff since their last championship outing. They’ll hardly be as poor in the replay – this match should bring them on immeasurably – but what was worrying was the manner in which they failed to take advantage of a Mountbellew/Moylough side that were out on their feet.
It was clear Joe Bergin and Co were tired – who could blame them having played so many championship games in such a tight schedule – but it was Mountbellew/Moylough who finished far stronger, and should have won had they not ballooned a few shots at the posts in the final quarter.
Although they were lucky in the end, Tuam were the authors of their own demise in the opening half. They raced into a 1-2 to 0-1 lead after just six minutes; with points from Gary O’Donnell and Darren Kelly, and a bizarre three-pointer from Shane Gaffney.
The Tuam corner-forward was fouled as he took a pop at the posts, and a free was signalled, to be taken from where the ball landed, as his Garryowen style effort was still high in the sky; it was punched back into play by full-forward Donal Marley and was caught close-in again by Gaffney, who in an act of ingenuity and quick thinking rattled the net from the free, as the Mountbellew/Moylough rearguard and goalkeeper were asleep.
That score should have settled them, but their lack of sharpness began to show as they conceded three scoreable frees in the remainder of the half that were in the ‘gimme’ or ‘silly’ categories.
Firstly corner-back Evan Kilroy was pulled-up for over-carrying and Cathal Kenny punished; then centre-back Tony Costello played the ball on the ground, and this time Joe Meehan ensured it was a costly mistake. Later on, Meehan again converted after a Tuam player was whistled for over-carrying.
Raiding half back, Gary Sweeney, cut in off the wing to narrow his angle and split the posts; and a long-range effort from Joe Bergin levelled matters 0-5 to 1-2 with ten minutes remaining to half-time as Mountbellew/Moylough dominated the midfield exchanges and kick-outs battles. They should have been further in front – a swerving shot by on goal by midfielder Colm Colleran bent the up-ight before bouncing away to safety.
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
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
