Archive News
No class system operates in SylviaÕs judo world
Date Published: {J}
IF anybody had told Rosshill resident Sylvia O’Flynn a decade ago that she would, one day, be to the forefront of a national martial arts association, she would have laughed herself silly all the way back to her native Cork.
Yet, today, O’Flynn stands as Chairperson of Judo Ireland, an organisation which caters for 19 clubs throughout the country, many of which are based in the West of Ireland. She points out her organisation is a separate entity to the Irish Judo Association – which boasts of 46 clubs nationally – after a split over funding occurred some years ago.
“They (Judo Ireland) felt the funding was staying at the top, with the elite (competitors), rather than filter down to individuals or clubs,” explains the Judo Ireland Chairperson.
In any event, O’Flynn does not wish to dwell on the negatives and, instead, focuses on the positives of an association that is doing a lot of work to promote sport among young people, both locally and nationally.
For O’Flynn’s part, she got involved in the sport when local instructor John Creaven, founder of Galway Judo Club, established Renmore Rapid Judo Club approximately six years ago. “My middle son (Liam) had some co-ordination difficulties, so I said I would send him there for a few weeks,” she says. “When I was there, John said ‘you might do a bit of the paperwork’. And that’s what led me into it.
“I hadn’t the slightest idea (about Judo). I knew it was a martial art but it could have been karate and I wouldn’t have known the difference. Now I do. I could tell you the moves and everything. That was six years ago last month. So, John started it and we, the parents, took it over.”
O’Flynn’s administrative role in Renmore Rapid Judo Club, which just recently won the John Allen Trophy for Club of the Year at the Judo Ireland All-Ireland Championships, led her to get involved at a higher level. She was subsequently recognised for the diligent work she had been carrying out locally when elected Chairperson of the national organisation last October.
That said, for her, the club and its members continue to be her utmost priority. “We have about 60 members in Renmore; they range from five up to 16, male and female. It is about half and half, believe it or not.
“The main classes are (in Renmore Sports Complex) on Thursdays from 7pm to 8pm, and they are the beginners. Then, from 8pm to 9pm is the more advanced. The more advanced also go on Tuesdays again, from 7pm to 8pm, for an extra class.”
She says every week someone new joins. “We have a few kids who after two or three weeks will really have the hang of it and we move them onto the advanced class. The smaller, younger ones, though, we try to keep them together, even if they show a lot of potential.
Because they are very young and, physically, they are too small.”
O’Flynn runs the club with the help of many parents, including Finola Croke, who, coincidentally, is Secretary of Judo Ireland. “We have a fantastic set of parents in Renmore,” says the mother-of-three. “They really are brilliant.
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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