Archive News
Referendum less a ringing endorsement and more indicative of apathy for change
Date Published: 14-Nov-2012
Ihad to take a double-take when I read a statement that the Tanaiste, Eamon Gilmore, put out on Sunday following the result of the referendum.
I won’t burden readers with too much of the turgid stuff like it being a vindication of all the values that we hold and how much we value children and childhood – the rather grand adjective axiomatic was made to describe that.
In fact all I’ll repeat is a sentence that stuck out, for me, like a sore thumb: “Today, the people made a strong and unequivocal statement on the values they attach to children and childhood.”
When I read that I wondered had the two of us witnessed the same spectacle or were we occupying different planets? If any statement were made in the children’s referendum, it was neither strong nor unequivocal.
The miserly turnout of 33.5 per cent was compounded by a result of about 57 per cent to 43 per cent that was much, much closer than anybody had anticipated.
If you look at how the sides ranged up against each other. On one side you have virtually every political party, every church, every NGO, every trade union and civic society group.
On the other you had a ragbag of, not even groups, but individuals, the most prominent of whom were journalist John Waters and former MEP Kathy Sinnott. And yet, despite all the money, all the information, all the airtime, the gap was only 14 per cent.
In fairness to Gilmore, the statement he issued might have been pre-cooked, prepared beforehand, primed to be released once the results were announced. But even so, the sentiments expressed are an affront to reality.
I’m not going to dwell on the ins and outs of the referendum – like many other people I took a view that its effect would be marginal but perhaps a little beneficial – but look at what the result may mean for the Government’s big ambitious for Constitutional reform and change.
On December 1, the long-delayed new vehicle for delivering this change, the Constitutional Convention, will hold its first meeting in Dublin Castle. It has been asked to examine a number of issues (about seven in all) in the Constitution and then make recommendations.
A few of the issues are relatively weighty but most are Mickey Mouse in the context of the all-encompassing document drawn up for Eamon de Valera 75 years ago – such as reducing the voting age to 17; reducing the term of the presidency from seven years to five.
The one massive Constitutional change – the abolition of the Seanad – will not be discussed by the Convention but will be put to referendum sometime during the lifetime of this Coalition. And given what happened last weekend, I would say it’s not going to happen anytime soon.
So what are the lessons from last weekend? Well number one is that if you really want the citizens of Ireland to engage and come out in big numbers to vote in a referendum you need to be a bit engaged yourself.
It was unusual that all the parties were voting Yes but the evidence was that while they dutifully put up the posters and wheeled their spokespeople onto radio and TV, there was no ground war – or hard-graft knocking on doors. Part of that was to do with the fact that there was no real No campaign (with the exception of the last week of the campaign).
The lack of an opposition meant a lack of debate, which meant a lack of scrutiny or criticism of the amendment. It was like looking at a football game where only one team turned up and it ended up having a practice game. There was no engagement. Everybody thought it was a walkover and didn’t bother to vote.
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
