Connacht Tribune
Porters turn their virtual version of 5k series into hit

WHEN the popular Galway 5km series, due to take place in April and May, fell victim to the Covid-19 pandemic, runners from across the county were disappointed. Yet, not to be denied, Craughwell’s well-known Porter family decided to take matters into their own hands.
A family of runners, the Porters are no strangers on the athletics circuit. Members of the family have run everything from 5kms to marathons and when it comes to the sport their enthusiasm for it is beyond reproach.
Father of the Porter household, Tom, has been hosting running groups for the best part of his life; his wife Mary was the voice of athletics on Galway Bay FM for many years; their daughters Lisa, Linda and Laura are also familiar faces at events; and son David, who won a county C1 medal playing at centre-forward with Craughwell in 2014, also has that capacity to open up the lungs in his genes.
In any event, the Porter family are not ones to sit around and, although the country is locked down at the moment, they have been keeping family, friends and acquaintances entertained with their virtual version of the Galway 5km series.
The background to this is as follows: Tom hosts a running group twice a week, with approximately 26 runners coming and going as they so wish. The onus is on the runners to turn up – Tom just provides the facility – and the runners connect via a WhatsApp group, named ‘Porter Runners’.
This hardy band of athletes, young and old and of all abilities, has become a community of sorts in recent years and one of the events they look forward to is the annual Galway 5km series, which consists of six races in as many weeks held at various locations around the county.
“So, when the 5km series was cancelled, the six races, everyone was feeling deflated, even though they were still doing their training and whatever,” says Laura Porter. “As far as we can see, there will be no road races for a long time. So, again, everyone was feeling deflated about that.
“Then, Brian Mulry (runner) and dad and I were talking and we kind of came up with the decision that we would run our own 5km series – virtually or remotely. There were about 26 in the WhatsApp group and it started off with just a few people deciding to enter.
“However, then, others who had ran with dad over the years became interested in doing it and more and more people started to get involved, like family members of runners. So, in Craughwell, we would have the likes of the Reidy family and the Whiriskey sisters doing it. Eventually, I had to stop the entries because the spreadsheet was filling up,” she says.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Connacht Tribune
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest

Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Connacht Tribune
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents

Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Connacht Tribune
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety

GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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