Archive News
MurphyÕs minors swing into action
Date Published: {J}
Dara Bradley
AS the Galway minor hurling team look forward to an All-Ireland quarter-final clash with Antrim at Parnell Park this Saturday (3pm), two matches loom large in the mind of minor manager maestro Mattie Murphy: the scare against the Ulster champions at this stage of the competition in 2006; and last Augusts’ annihilation at the hands of Kilkenny in the semi-final at Croke Park.
Galway comfortably disposed of Antrim in 2009, in a 4-23 to 0-10 rout after a clinical display of hurling at Parnell Park by a talented bunch that went on to secure the Irish Press Cup.
But the previous meeting was somewhat different when Galway had just two points to spare (4-7 to 1-14) after Antrim tore into them, and almost pulled-off a shock victory with a goal in the dying seconds but for a vital intervention in the Tribesmen’s defence.
“That was Joe Canning’s last year as a minor and we were going for a three-in-a-row of All-Irelands. We met Antrim in the quarter-final that year and we just about got out of Mullingar by the skin of our teeth, it was very close,” said Murphy, adding complacency shouldn’t be a problem this weekend.
“We’d hope that we have lads in the right place, in the right frame of mind. We had a game among ourselves the other evening and the ‘B’ team certainly knocked any complacency out of the system. When we name the team (on Thursday night after training) we’ll be giving the shirts to lads and we’ll be saying: ‘here’s the jersey for today, now it’s up to you to keep it’,” he said.
A match that is far fresher in Murphy’s mind than the 2006 Antrim encounter, and which is to the forefront of the minds of the 13 players from the 2010 panel who are eligible to play again this year, is the mauling doled out by the Cats last year.
There was no other way to describe it but a humiliating disaster, as Galway slumped to a 5-19 to 0-15 hammering at GAA HQ, against a side that went on to claim the title with a (less than convincing) win over Clare in the decider.
“We’d be conscious of it all right . . . every now and again we’d be reminding them of it in training. We got a good hiding from Kilkenny last year and we’d be very conscious of the fact that we didn’t perform last year . . . you have to learn from that.
“It came as a total shock to us because we had done very well against a useful Waterford side in the quarter-final and had a bit to spare over them but it all went terribly wrong against Kilkenny. Minor is a funny grade and it really does depend on the day – Kilkenny had their day against us and were being talked up but then only struggled over the line in the final.
“At minor you’re hoping they won’t be overawed by the occasion and at Parnell Park on Saturday, there won’t be too many supporters there, most will be going to the senior’s match in Thurles, so I don’t think they’ll be overawed.”
Galway are gunning for their first title since 2009 and ninth minor title at this grade, many of them under the stewardship of Murphy, so how does the Gort man rate this current crop?
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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