Archive News
Only thing that matters Ð hurlers are still standing
Date Published: 18-Apr-2012
LET’S be honest about it, the vast majority of Galway supporters expected the county hurlers to be beaten in Sunday’s Division One relegation play-off against Dublin at Tullamore. The legacy of the recent Kilkenny hammering and the disappointing home loss to Waterford had created a negative environment and resulted in a small following for the team in O’Connor Park.
Against that background, the fact that Galway are still standing is a result in every sense of the word, especially as they were in a major hole when trailing by five points early in the second-half after Conor McCormack had goaled for Dublin. To the players’ credit, they rolled up their sleeves with Tony Og Regan, Iarla Tannian, in a new midfield role, Cyril Donnellan and the returning Joe Canning leading the fightback.
A flurry of points from Galway actually enabled them to take the lead midway through the second-half, but a Ross O’Carroll goal in the 57th minute – a score which again exposed problems in the full back line – regained the initiative for Dublin. Subsequently, when John McCaffrey put them three clear in the 69th minute, the game appeared up for the Tribesmen and, in the process, a return to Division Two hurling for the first time in over 20 years.
Somehow (and admirably), Galway rescued a dire situation. Canning fired over two close range frees before a terrific delivery by Tannian was pounced on by the Portumna man who splits the posts with a classic effort to send the match into extra time. The momentum was now with Anthony Cunningham’s squad, particularly as Ryan O’Dwyer, whose disciplinary record leaves something to be desired, was dismissed by referee Barry Kelly for an off-the-ball incident within seconds of the action resuming.
Two more Canning frees and an effort from the hard working Donnellan left Galway 0-24 to 2-16 in front after the first period of extra time. By that juncture, Dublin had imploded from a discipline perspective as another attacker, Alan McCrabbe, was red carded for a wild pull on David Collins. 15 against 13, two points ahead, you’d have expected Galway to comfortably close out the game from there.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way despite further Galway points from James Regan and last year’s minor Jonathan Glynn. With so many substitutions and players losing their sense of position, the match surrendered much of its structure and that helped a gritty Dublin to pull off an unlikely draw with late scores from two reserves, Daire Plunkett and Niall McMorrow, who kept his nerve from a 65 with virtually the last puck of the game.
In the circumstances, the Dubs had got out of jail and they remain dangerous opponents in Saturday’s replay even if McCrabbe and O’Dwyer will be sidelined for that match. Once again, their overall physicality had Galway in trouble, but it’s not the first time that the team’s discipline is coming under scrutiny. A couple of their players are living on the margins and while it’s one thing to be tough and fearless, it’s quite another to be reckless and dangerous. Anthony Daly has problems to sort out but, overall, he was surely relieved that Dublin hadn’t already been consigned in Division Two.
Regardless of Galway’s failure to close the deal, this spirited performance was still a significant step forward compared to recent outings. Dublin may not be Kilkenny, but they are dogged opponents and are not easy to subdue. Canning being declared fit enough to start must have been a huge lift for Galway and he had a stormer, shooting 12 points in total, including some cracking efforts from play.
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
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
