Archive News
More than just 21 final place at stake as classy Galway boys take on Cats
Date Published: 23-Aug-2012
STEPHEN GLENNON
IF you are looking for the appetiser to the All-Ireland senior hurling final, then this is it. Galway v Kilkenny. All-Ireland U-21 semi-final. Semple Stadium, Thurles. This Saturday. 6pm.
It goes without saying that with both counties due to clash in the All-Ireland senior decider on September 9, the Tribesmen – chasing their 11th Cross of Cashel – and the Cats – chasing their 12th – will be anxious to lay down some sort of marker. To set the tone.
For Galway’s part, they boast no less than 17 senior panellists, so anything other than a victory for the reigning All-Ireland U-21 champions would be a setback of sorts this Saturday. Quite simply, they have to make a statement.
That said, this is a highly fancied Kilkenny U-21 outfit and they certainly backed up this assessment with emphatic victories over Wexford and Laois in the Leinster semi-final and final respectively. However, more of those games anon.
No doubt, Galway face a big challenge, particularly as they once again enter this fixture cold, but you would hope with the quality at their disposal they will be able to absorb the expected early Kilkenny pressure and subsequently lay the platform for a win in this contest.
Padraig Pearses Fergal Flannery and Craughwell’s Jamie Ryan will, not for the first time this year, battle it out for the No. 1 jersey, with the six backs to be picked from the likes of Darragh Burke (St. Thomas’), Daithí Burke (Turloughmore), Johnny Coen and Paul Hoban (both Loughrea), Joseph Cooney (Sarsfields), Brian Flaherty (Abbeyknockmoy), and Cathal Greaney and Mark Horan (both Craughwell) among others.
A plethora of players could be selected in the midfield sector but, certainly, a suitable pairing would be Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry’s Padraig Breheny and Gort’s Jason Grealish, who has recovered from the knee injury which kept him out of the Galway’s intermediates starting line-up last weekend.
The Galway attack holds endless possibilities and selecting the six starting forwards in this division could be the most daunting task for the management. Certainly, you would imagine senior semi-final starters Niall Burke of Oranmore/Maree and St. Thomas’ duo Conor Cooney and James Regan will all feature, leaving the remaining berths to be fought for by a host of quality players.
These include Tadgh Haran (Liam Mellows), Richie Cummins (Gort), Shane Maloney (Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry), Davy Glennon (Mullagh) and Jonathan Glynn (Ardrahan), the latter duo also played their part in the victory over Cork in the All-Ireland senior semi-final. Of course, the versatile Joseph Cooney could also feature in this area.
In any event, it appears to be a quality Galway outfit. Galway coach Tom Helebert agrees. “We have a strong panel and obviously we would hope to bring the experience that these players have got through the senior [campaign] into the semi-final on Saturday. I suppose, when you have 17 [U-21] players involved in the senior set-up, it does make it look strong.”
Of course, 17 does not go into 15, so with a number of senior panellists not starting this contest, Galway should have strength and depth on the bench and that will be vitally important. “We will be naming the team on Thursday night and we do have some difficult decisions to make,” acknowledges Helebert.
“We would be happy enough though with the way things have gone so far. The lads have been preparing well and a lot of that has been because there are a lot of them in with the seniors. So, they have been training away with the senior panel.”
In this respect, Galway should have an advantage over Kilkenny, who have just five senior panellists involved, namely Cillian Buckley – impressive when introduced against Tipperary last Sunday – Richie Doyle, Padraig Walsh (brother of Tommy Walsh), Willie Phelan and Walter Walsh, who has recovered from a bout of tonsillitis.
However, a plethora of Kilkenny players did feature in their intermediates’ 0-21 to 1-13 win over the Tribesmen last weekend, including defenders Jason Corcoran, Brian Kennedy and Luke Harney – a half-time substitute – and offensive players Jeff Brennan, Ger Alyward and U-21 captain Kevin Kelly.
Make no mistake, this is a strong Kilkenny outfit and this was reflected by their 3-20 to 4-6 victory over Wexford in the provincial semi-final. To the fore that day was Kevin Kelly with nine points, seven from frees, while the wily Walter Walsh and John Power tallied 2-1 and 1-1 respectively from play. For their part, Ger Alyward and Martin Gaffney chipped in with three points apiece.
For more, read this week’s Galway City 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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