Archive News
March 3, 2010
Date Published: {J}
GAA row
A meeting of the Galway County Board of the GAA was held at Murphy’s Hall, Athenry, on Sunday, Mr. W. Cannon, Tuam, presiding.
The minutes having been read, Mr. P. Burke proceeded to question an entry in them regarding a fine imposed on Mr. Murray.
Mr. Kenny: What authority have you to question the minutes? Is Mr. Burke a member of the County Committee?
Mr. Barrett (Secretary): He is not.
Mr. Burke: As a delegate I am right in questioning the minutes.
Mr. Kenny: You are not.
Mr. Burke. I am not asking you. I ask the Chairman if I am entitled to question the minutes?
Chairman: Are you here by proxy?
Mr. Burke: No.
Chairman: I do not think you have so.
Mr. Barrett: I believe a delegate has a right to question the minutes.
Chairman: At that rate, any member of the public could upset out meetings.
Mr. Kenny: I have no objection to you questioning the minutes if the Chairman permits you to speak as a delegate, and not as a member of the Board. If it bears any personal reference to you, I have no objection to you rectifying it.
Chairman: The question of personalities does not come into it.
Mr. Barrett: There are twelve or fourteen clubs affiliated. It seems strange to me if delegates from these clubs could not speak at the meetings of the County Board, especially where they are mentioned. What is the use of our meetings if they cannot?
Chairman: My opinion is that no persons outside a member of the Committee can take part in these meetings.
Mr. Kenny: Where is the use in us formulating councils if every member can take part? I say a delegate can speak if he is mentioned, but not otherwise.
Mr. Barrett: I admit all that, but there is one thing I believe, and that is, a delegate can question anything he considers necessary, but cannot vote.
Mr. Kenny: That is nonsense; if every delegate can speak, there is no use in us coming here.
Mr. Barrett: I think so.
Mr. Kenny: I do not interfere with you as a delegate. You are representing an old hurling club.
Mr. Burke: Older than Craughwell, too.
Mr. Kenny: That is questionable.
Mr. Burke: Did I propose that a vote of censure be passed on Mr. Kenny?
Chairman: You did not.
Mr Burke: I am reported as having done so.
Mr. Barrett: You are not down for proposing it.
Mr. Burke: I will get an opportunity to speak on some future occasion. By the rules of the Association any member of the Committee absenting himself from two consecutive meetings is deprived of his membership. I would like to know how many members have complied with that rule?
Mr. Kenny: I was never absent from a meeting.
The matter dropped.
1935
Rent relief
Ballinasloe U.D. Council, on the proposal of Councillor P. Brennan, have entered into negotiations with the Royal Liver Insurance Society for a long-term loan to relieve the tenants on their housing scheme at Brackernagh.
The original loan for those twenty houses was for 15 years, five years of which have expired. This, short-term, means a rent of 7s. 6d. per week on the present occupiers – a rent which Mr. Brennan says these tenants (many of whom are workless) are unable to pay.
The Council’s object is to have the loan extended to a period of 35 years so that the present weekly rents might be reduced to a figure which the tenants could pay. Similar action with the same insurance company, was taken recently by Athlone U.D.C., which enabled them to reduce the weekly rents on their housing scheme by 2s. 6d. per week.
Hammer action
A large concrete Celtic Cross, erected a year ago at Errislannan, near Clifden, by the Connemara I.R.A., has had a large part of the upper portion knocked off. A sledge hammer must have been used, it is said, to knock away the heavy, reinforced circle under the arms of the monument. Feeling runs high in the locality concerning the present outrage and Gardaí are investigating the matter.
Waterworks scheme
A new waterworks scheme and a sewerage scheme for Ballinasloe is under discussion to cost approximately £16,000. Following the sewerage works a new boys’ national school is to be built, the plans for which, it is understood, have already been made.
Rate seizures
Mrs. Muldoon, the rate collector for the Clifden area, has with two members of the Garda Siochana, been busy during the past week making seizures in connection with unpaid rates. Notices appealing to people to pay rates have been posted far and wide. Results in the Clifden area are on the whole, said to be satisfactory.
College damage
At Derrynea District Court, before Sean MacGiollarnath, D.J., sixteen young men were charge by An Feadhmanach ONiadh G.S., Spiddal, with having on August 24, 1934, maliciously damaged the Pearse Memorial College, Rosmuc, and with having broken a window of the college. Fifteen of them pleaded guilty, and was bound to the peace for twelve months on bail of £5 each, and they were ordered to pay 10s. costs between them.
Another young man, Garda O’Mainin said, incited the others to violence and broke a window by firing a stone. He was bound to the peace for twelve months on bail of $5, fined 1s., and ordered to pay 12s compensation.
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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