Archive News
Odds strongly favour Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry
Date Published: 21-Jan-2010
IT is Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry’s turn to see if they can make a successful bid for the All-Ireland intermediate club hurling title when they face Ulster champions St. Gall’s in the penultimate stages of the championship at Parnell Park on Saturday (2:30pm).
After previous Galway contenders, such as Tommie Larkins, Killimordaly and Cappataggle, failed to make the breakthrough, the opportunity now falls to the amalgamated club to write its name into the history books.
Unsurprisingly, the inclement weather conditions of recent months have hampered Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry’s preparations, with the icy spell in early January, in particular, having a significant impact.
“Obviously, we had planned to play a series of challenge matches early in the New Year, so our match schedule was interrupted by the frosty weather,” outlines team mentor Mattie Kenny. “But it was the same for all teams across the country.
“We did get to play GMIT in Parteen last week, and we were happy to get the guys out hurling again. We also played NUIG in Tynagh on Sunday, so at least we have those games behind us.”
With no injuries of note to report, Kenny and his management cohorts of Tom Havil, Tom Brehony, Gerry Madden, Tom Moloney and PJ Kenny can call on the likes of goalkeeper Kevin Devine, defenders Liam Hodgins, Karl Kavanagh and Padraig Shiel, midfielders Anthony Burke and Ger Burke, and forwards Ronan Madden, Colm Larkin, Brian Cunningham and Michael Dervan. Of course, former Galway star Kevin Broderick, an impact sub in the Galway championship, adds another dimension to the East Galway club’s play.
No doubt, Tynagh/Abbey- Duniry were hugely impressive in the manner by which they claimed both county and provincial titles in 2009. A 2-10 to 1-7 victory over Kilconieron in the county semi-final set up an intriguing meeting with Meelick-Eyrecourt in the decider. Indeed, it took a Colm Larkin injury-time goal to save Tynagh’s title aspirations and earn them a second bite of the cherry.
The replay was just as unforgiving, going to extra-time, but in the end Tynagh/Abbey- Duniry pulled through as Ronan Madden tallied 1-5 from placed balls in their 1-20 to 1- 16 win.
Just 24 hours later, the Galway champions added the provincial title to the trophy cabinet, when defeating Mayo rivals Ballyhaunis on a scoreline of 1-19 to 0-12 in the final in Athleague. Brian Cunningham was Tynagh/Abbey- Duniry’s top scorer on the day with seven points, two from frees.
Meanwhile, St. Gall’s strolled to the Ulster intermediate hurling title. After accounting for Shane O’Neill’s 4-11 to 2-6 in the county semi-final, they hit a speed bump against local rivals Lamh Dhearg in the decider, when a long range free from Antrim football star Paddy Cunningham denied them victory.
However, St. Gall’s made no mistake in the replay less than a fortnight later, winning 0-18 to 1-7 to claim the silverware …and a quarter-final place against Lisbellaw of Fermanagh in the Ulster championship.
As it was, their Ulster sojourn was to pose little difficulty to the Belfast outfit, with the Antrim champions recording a 6-16 to 1-6 win over Lisbellaw before they hammered Eoghan Ruadh of Tyrone 5-15 to 1-6 in the penultimate stages.
This set up an Ulster final meeting with Middletown of Armagh, who had accounted for Liatroim of Down in their semi-final fixture. Again, St. Gall’s impressed, registering a 14-point victory, 5-11 to 0-12, with Sean McAreavey tallying a massive 4-4 of his outfit’s total.
Those four goals were netted in a 10-minute spell and underlined the utter destruction St. Gall’s can cause if given the time and space. In any event, those scores effectively quashed the challenge of Middletown and secured St. Gall’s their first ever Ulster hurling championship title.
Of course, it is a big month for St. Gall’s, who have also an All-Ireland senior football semifinal clash against Galway and Connacht champions Corofin looming large on the horizon. As expected, there is a certain amount of cross pollination between the two panels, with the likes of Anto Healy, Kieran and Conor McGourty and Aodhan and Ciaran Gallagher excelling in both codes.
No doubt, St. Gall’s – who certainly have the Midas touch in front of goals, scoring no less than 16 in their three provincial games alone – will harbour genuine ambitions of taking the scalp of the Galway champions on Saturday.
However, one suspects Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry boost a far greater pedigree than any of the sides the Antrim men have faced so far … and that is no disrespect to the fantastic work being done in hurling circles in the northern province – and the Galway champions look banker material here.
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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