Archive News
No contest on the cards for Portumna men
Date Published: {J}
AT first glance, it appears that the bookmakers have suffered a collective bout of untypical generosity. Odds of 100/1 are freely available on Dunloy causing what would be, admittedly, a stunning upset in Sunday’s All-Ireland Club hurling semi-final at Parnell Park. Yet, the Antrim team are the only blemish on Portumna’s otherwise perfect championship record outside their county’s boundaries.
It was February, 2004, just a few months after Portumna’s historic first county title, when the Galway champions took on their Antrim counterparts in the All-Ireland semi-final at Clones. They were burdened with the mantle of strong favourites despite it being their maiden voyage in the competition and Dunloy having no shortage of experience of this level of hurling – 12 months earlier, the admirable Antrim men had shocked Mount Sion of Waterford in Mullingar.
In that match six years ago, Portumna probably didn’t do themselves justice though credit must be given to Dunloy for a really committed effort and no shortage of quality hurling which saw them carry the day on a 2-13 to 2-10 scoreline. Ollie Canning, thrown up front in a desperate late move to try and bail out the Galway title holders, came close to saving the day but his low effort flew just wide of the opposition posts.
At the time, it was a sickening reversal for Portumna and though again reaching the county final the following Autumn, they hadn’t overly impressed in that campaign and, ultimately, fell victim to a late Athenry surge at Pearse Stadium. Some local pundits were starting to wonder if the border men were a one-hit wonder but, incredibly, they have only lost a single championship game in the interim – the controversial showdown of 2006 against Loughrea.
That is phenomenal consistency by any standards and they have now amassed five county and three All-Ireland titles along the way. In fact, Portumna stand on the brink of hurling history as they are now just two matches away from doing what no other club has achieved before . . . capturing the Tommy Moore Cup for the third consecutive year. Johnny Kelly’s charges are overwhelming favourites to do it too despite the presence of recent All-Ireland champions, Ballyhale Shamrocks and Newtownshandrum in the other half of the draw.
Not alone are Portumna protecting a long unbeaten record, but no team has really troubled them over the past two seasons bar Clarinbridge in the knock out stages of the 2008 Galway championship. They have been routinely handing out hammerings – inside and outside the county – with Waterford’s outclassed De La Salle beaten out the gate at Croke Park almost 12 months ago. A few weeks earlier in Thurles, Portumna produced a magnificent opening half display in taking care of the considerable challenge of Henry Shefflin and Ballyhale.
In full flight, I have never seen a better club team. Their mix of pace, quality and work-rate has elevated them to a different level compared to all their adversaries and there are no indications whatsoever that Portumna’s squad is losing any of its motivation or ambition. If anything, they are more driven than ever at the prospect of achieving the three-in-a-row and with Joe Canning in tremendous physical shape at present, the champions are going to take some stopping.
That doesn’t mean they are the proverbial ‘good thing’, but the team’s winning pedigree is such these days that many opponents are already beaten psychologically before the ball is even thrown in.
Still, it wouldn’t be in Portumna’s psyche to get ahead of themselves. They will treat the Dunloy challenge with respect and having a score to settle with the Ulster title holders from six years ago should ensure that there will be no complacency in their ranks. Furthermore, Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry’s eclipse by St. Gall’s in the recent All-Ireland intermediate semi-final will also help to keep the Portumna players on their toes.
The fact Sunday’s semi-final is going ahead in the relatively tight confines of Parnell Park is possibly a plus for Dunloy, who have won 11 Antrim titles over the past 19 years with two players, Gregory O’Kane and Alastair Elliott, introduced as a substitute in their county final win over Cushendall (3-14 to 1-13), featuring in every one of those campaigns. Significantly, goalkeeper Gareth McGhee was the man of the match on that occasion with strong contributions too from Malachy Molloy, the Richmond brothers, Paddy and Liam, Darren Quinn and the long serving O’Kane. They subsequently beat Ballycran of Down in the Ulster final on a 2-16 to 2-11 scoreline.
The Antrim bush telegraph suggests Dunloy are not the force of old, but that they remain as enthusiastic as ever. Remember, this is a club which has contested four All-Ireland finals in the past and took Birr to a replay in 1995. Unfortunately, they were well beaten in that game and it was a similar story in their other three final appearances against Sixmilebridge (1996), Birr (2003) and Newtownshandrum the following year. Still, they keep coming back for more.
Portumna may be without the suspended Niall Hayes on Sunday, but his absence should only have a minimal impact on a proven attack, especially as Dunloy’s defence are not used to dealing with opponents which possess the title holders’ movement and mobility. It’s hard to see anything other than a clearcut Portumna victory, but Dunloy’s admirable pride alone is likely to ensure that they will have the odd moment to savour even if a heavy defeat looks unavoidable.
For more, read page 53 of 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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