Archive News
Research creates an educated population
Date Published: 30-Jul-2010
DAMMIT, the government actually did something I like. It may be one thing in a million, but that makes it all the harder to ignore. I’ve been saying since forever that we need to invest more in research and development, and at last something seems to be coming of that.
Though the Taoiseach really needs to learn the proper lingo before he goes talking about it. Recently, in a speech before Wall Street’s finest, he’s reported to have described a new technology investment fund as "a honey pot for the best European entrepreneurs". Now as a metaphor, a honey pot means a baited trap. So what he’s telling the world here is that you come to Ireland because it smells sweet, you stay because it turns out to be a sticky mess. Of course, a lot of businesses have already discovered this.
But what interests me more than the new funding is the earlier investment that now seems to be bearing fruit. Immediately before the Wall Street launch, in what I assume wasn’t the least bit of a coincidence, government publicised its involvement in what they’re calling the Exemplar network, an advanced communications test-bed employing an Irish-invented technology called Verisma.
I’m not sure how to explain Verisma – mainly because it’s so cutting-edge that I’ve bugger all idea of how it works myself. But to put it crudely it’s a technology aimed at solving current and future problems with the internet.
With more and more data usage on mobile devices like phones, you just don’t know these days when and where bandwidth is going to be in demand. (Bandwidth being – to get even more crude – jargon for the speed at which the internet can be delivered.) Ten years ago you knew that a university for example was going to have a big demand for data, so you laid a big fat cable to it. These days, 80,000 people all at once might want high-speed mobile broadband in Croke Park. The next day they might want it at the beach. (Or more likely this weather, the pub.)
The Verisma technology is supposed to be able to make bandwidth available in different places at different times, according to demand. How do they do it? No idea; to me it sounds impossible. But it involves colour-changing laser beams, so it’s definitely cool.
But will it succeed? Or what really matters, will it help create an indigenous, cutting- edge industry? That is impossible to say. New technologies fail all the time. They don’t deliver on early promise, they work perfectly but just don’t find a market, they’re beaten to the punch by a competing solution. You never know what’s going to work. But the thing is you have invested in technology. That is a good in itself.
When an idea fails, what are you left with? People who now have more advanced education, more highly specialised knowledge, more real world experience – and probably, a whole bunch of new ideas. When a construction boom fails, all you’re left with is a bunch of crappy buildings that nobody wants to even see. Which makes more sense?
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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