Archive News
Never-say-die Clarinbridge do Galway hurling proud
Date Published: {J}
THIS was some game for one game – an epic spectacle the like of which has probably never been seen before at club level. Saturday’s All-Ireland Club hurling semi-final had everything as a thrilling, wildly fluctuating encounter peppered with drama, brilliant scoring-taking and several magnificent individual displays produced the kind of heart-stopping finish which almost had to be seen to be believed.
The official attendance in Thurles may have been less than 2,500, but the small crowd who had the privilege to be there will surely carry memories of a titanic battle to the grave. It was that good; that spellbinding. So much was happening, and so much was changing, that it was even hard to keep pace with the game as two valiant teams emptied everything in their respective lockers in pursuit of a place in next month’s showdown.
The bare facts confirm that Clarinbridge and De La Salle served up an extraordinary contest in Semple Stadium. 53 scores in 80 plus minutes of frantic action; 41 of them from play and many of an exceptional quality; 19 different players hit the target; the teams were level a dozen times; and the Galway champions saw a couple of their longer serving players roll back the years in a manner few thought possible.
Clarinbridge have always been renowned for their stickwork and silky patterns of play, and while they had underlined their character on several occasions in capturing a second Galway title last year, notably against Beagh when they were a staring a shock exit from the championship in the group stages and in the county final replay against Loughrea, Saturday was something else altogether – the ‘Bridge have never played better than this or shown such admirable levels of resilience before.
Frankly, I didn’t think they had this level of performance in them. The team clearly surpassed anything they had produced in the Galway championship and hit a new peak in Thurles. Recovering magnificently from a dreadful start – their full forward line didn’t even touch the ball in the opening ten minutes – and with the Micheal Donoghue led team management making the right switches at the right time, the ‘Bridge pulled themselves together in doing Galway hurling proud on Saturday.
Initially, however, the Galway title holders were listing badly. De La Salle sprang out of the traps and were four points up after eight minutes. Clarinbridge were off the pace, struggling physically and guilty of some unforced errors. A typically well crafted point from Man of the Match Alan Kerins stopped the rot and just after the midway juncture of the opening-half, they were back on level terms with wing forwards Shane Burke and Stephen Forde both landing wonder points from the right wing.
By half-time, the ’Bridge were deservedly in front by 0-11 to 0-8 after the outstanding David Forde, Michael Donoghue, who made several inspiring catches, and midfielder Barry Daly all thundered into the match. Corner forward Eoin Forde was also emerging as another key player for them and would finish a marathon battle with five points from play to his credit. Another feature of the opening-half was a tremendous free converted by Mark Kerins
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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