Archive News
More heartbreak for Mayo that is shared by us all
Date Published: 26-Sep-2012
Only the most callous or cold-hearted Galway supporters could have taken much pleasure from witnessing the despair etched on Mayo faces after our neighbours and greatest footballing rivals suffered their sixth All-Ireland Final defeat since 1989 at Croke Park on Sunday.
The banter between supporters from the two counties might not always be the friendliest when it comes to championship showdowns in Pearse Stadium or Castlebar, but it’s one of the joys of the GAA that supporters of neighbouring counties – even bitter rivals – tend to support each other when they get out of their provinces.
There is hardly a GAA supporter in the country who would not begrudge the Mayo men an All-Ireland title success at this stage, and it’s incredible to think that a county which loves its football so much has been waiting since 1951 to be crowned national champions.
That’s why there was so much caution in the air north of Headford and Clonbur last week, as Mayo people more than anyone realise that titles are hard-earned. They were not losing the run of themselves, simply because they had been burned at this stage so often, with the heartbreaking defeats of 1996, 1997, 2004 and 2006 taking their toll.
How sad, then, that they endured such a nightmare start, just as they had done in their last two final appearances. They could hardly have asked for a worse introduction to the 2012 decider than conceding two goals inside the first 10 minutes and having to wait 15 minutes for the first score of their own.
Suddenly, all those painful memories must have been flooding back for their shell-shocked supporters. One can only imagine the despair of Mayo fans who had flown home from London or Chicago, only to find their team trailing by 2-1 to 0-0 with barely 10 minutes on the clock.
A moment of pure class from Man-of-the-Match Michael Murphy set the tone for what was to be a monumental day for Donegal football, while there was no better man than Colm McFadden to pounce when a significant slice of luck presented him with the chance of ramming home the northern side’s second goal.
It’s to the credit of the Mayo players that they fought back and made a decent contest of it, that they were not buried under an avalanche of scores as they had been in their previous two finals against the Kingdom. Team manager James Horan, who has transformed his county’s fortunes, has to take immense credit for the character shown by his side against the odds.
Aidan O’Shea and Barry Moran worked hard to get the Connacht champions back into contention and Donegal could not celebrate their second All-Ireland title with conviction until the dying minutes of the final.
And yet Mayo never really looked like getting the better of the strong Donegal full-back line or registering the all-important goal which might have turned the game on its head. They worked hard, they have had a good year, but they never really recovered from the despair of gifting Jim McGuinness’ men such a significant lead so early in the decider.
At least the fact that they lost to such novel champions lessened the pain somewhat, as there would have been little consolation in defeat had it been a Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone, or Cork man who stepped up to collect the Sam Maguire Cup on Sunday.
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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