Archive News
OLBC fail to make numerical advantage count in thriller
Date Published: {J}
OLBC 1
Oughterard 2
For the second week in succession Boys Club failed to take advantage of a numerical advantage as 10 man Oughterard left the Jesuits with the points on offer in this Western Hygiene Supplies Second Division tie on Sunday morning.
It was heartening to witness a good physical contest where both sides gave their all and where every bump and tackle wasn’t pulled back by referee Tony Geasley.
While they have played at least two games more than the chasing pack, the outcome is that Oughterard increased their lead at the top of the table to four points and despite their loss a very competitive Boys Club are not out of the promotion reckoning either.
In a game in which the kick-off was brought forward by an hour, it was the visitors who broke the deadlock in an opening half where few opportunities were created. On 12 minutes, a Danial Tuck free kick from outside the box bounced in front of Anthony Ryan to deceive the custodian and give the league leaders a 1-0 advantage.
For all their possession it took Boys Club until the final minute of the half to level matters as Damien Carter got a flick to a Colin Carew cross to level matters at 1-1.
The interval saw Oughterard having to make an enforced change in goal, with midfielder Jordan Waller replacing James Walsh between the posts, and the new custodian excelled with a series of smart saves – his first stop on 50 minutes was bravely diving at the feet of Ronan Caldwell after the front man was set up by a neat Liam Coakley knock down.
The second half saw Boys Club exert continuous pressure, while the odd breakaway was the highlight of the visitors efforts. However they were certainly very threatening on those occasions as Niall Walsh, James McConnell, and Dan and Andy Tuck always posed a threat.
The visitors should have regained the lead on 53 minutes when Andy Tuck broke through, but fired wide with just Ryan to beat. However they scored their second set piece goal on 57 minutes when McConnell timed his near post run to perfection as he got his head to a Dan Tuck corner for a 2-1 lead.
For the next few minutes Oughterard dominated but Andy Tuck, Ryan Lucy and Niall Walsh all fluffed great chances from close range to increase their lead.
As the half progressed it was a back’s to the wall situation for the visitors as Mike Mahew and Ray Darcy were besieged in central defence, but allied to some solid defending by the rest of the back four they held out.
However the home side still created enough chances to have rescued something from the game. The front two of Jimmy Jennings and Ronan Caldwell were a constant threat, but despite numerous opportunities they either failed to get the better of ‘keeper Waller or failed to hit the target.
On the hour mark, Kieran Caldwell was thwarted by a diving Waller and this was followed by Jennings and Ger Keane firing high and wild from close range. The closing minutes saw some hectic goalmouth action as the custodian made smart saves to deny Kieran Caldwell and Barry Molyneux, but despite the pressure the home side could not rescue anything from a good game where both sides tried to play some neat football.
While the home side went down, they did so with all guns blazing and apart from the finishing it was not a performance that any manager could fault, while at the other extreme Oughterard will have being more than happy to have escaped with three points and proud too that they survived the late onslaught without conceding.
OLBC: Ryan, K McDonagh, Carew, Molyneux, D McDonagh, Coakley, K Caldwell, D Carter, Jennings, R Caldwell, D Murray. Reserves: Keane for Murray (h/t).
Oughterard: J Walsh, Moran, R Molloy, Mahew, Darcy, Waller, D Tuck, O’Toole, Lucy, McConnell, A Tuck. Reserves: N Walsh for J Walsh (h/t), M Molloy for Lucy (72mins).
Referee: Tony Geasley.
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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