Archive News
Plenty of positives as hurlers turn a corner despite loss
Date Published: {J}
Tipperary 2-20
Galway 2-18
Stephen Glennon at Semple Stadium
If report cards were being handed out to the management and players in the wake of this gutsy Galway performance in Semple Stadium on Sunday, one suspects it would have made for encouraging reading all round.
Certainly, you would have to give the players an ‘A’ for effort and the management – no more than any proud parent – would have to be well chuffed with that. The Tribesmen played with honesty and heart, bringing an intensity to their game that has not been seen at senior level over the last 18 months or so . . . not since the maroon and white narrowly lost to Tipperary in the 2010 All-Ireland quarter-finals.
Okay, Anthony Cunningham’s charges should have reaped something from this game, and the only blemish on the report card has to be that when they had their illustrious opponents Tipperary within their sights – as they did in that knockout game two years ago – they could not see through the execution.
Hopefully that will come in time but, for now, Galway supporters can at least expect that a corner has been turned and the horror shows of the last year have been well and truly put to bed. The shoots of recovery are there; it may just take time for this particular sapling to flower. That said, a couple of more heartening displays like one this should nurture the growth and expedite matters.
For the small core group of die-hard Galway fans among the 4,951 gathering, they really were treated to a thriller and it was interesting to note a Tipperary ‘hack’ remark that it had been a while since the arena that is Semple Stadium experienced such an atmosphere. The fact that the sides were level an astonishing 14 times was a testimony in itself to the calibre of this contest.
With this exciting National League tie entering injury-time, the two were all-square at 2-18 apiece, but then Tipperary substitute Johnny Ryan – with his first touch – and Noel McGrath (free) tallied late scores to claim a two-point victory.
Saying that, Galway did have an opportunity when just a point in arrears to gain parity once again, but Conor Cooney, following good work from Johnny Coen and Bernard Burke, spurned a relatively easy chance in front of the posts. Had he scored that 72nd minute effort, they may have been able to hold out for those three minutes added on to secure a draw.
Cooney, though, should not beat himself up. He had a fine game throughout – scoring three points, one from a free – and with a couple of more ‘big’ games like this under his belt, his temperament for popping over those pressure opportunities will no doubt improve. As it will across the board.
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
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