Archive News
RTƒÕs talent show is more about votes than talent
Date Published: {J}
There is something rather sad and almost demeaning about The All-Ireland Talent Show and, indeed, any such show which requires the participants to grovel to the public for support while RTÉ just sit back in the knowledge that while all of this is going on, they are on a ratings winner.
It goes without saying that the families of every participant are out night, noon and morning in an effort to win support for their particular act which is proving a financial windfall for every mobile phone network that exists as well as the suppliers of the very expensive landline number that the public have to call to show their support.
On Sunday night, it was the first of the semi-finals and not being a huge fan of this series I dipped in and out from a curiosity point of view. Most of the acts that I saw were poor to say the least, even if some of them were talked up by the judges.
But that is only minor in the bigger scale of things. Obviously this programme is something of a hit as far as viewers are concerned (I found it torture) and it involves a major whittling down of acts in advance of the televised stage of the competition.
And then when it comes to the small screen, it is audience participation time as they are encouraged, coaxed, charmed or blackmailed into voting for a particular act and this ultimately decides who wins the fifty grand that is on offer for the successful performance.
For example, there were two cousins from Kerry – one played the fiddle and the other the guitar – but they were so incompatible that it was frightening. The judges tried to be kind to them but they were no better than a duo who were asked to perform in a pub and had never played together before.
However, it was not inconceivable that, with the backing that they could generate, they could go on to win the competition. That is how stupid this show is. It has absolutely nothing got to do with talent, it is a numbers game.
And then there are the judges. Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh has more facial expressions than Fianna Fáil had failed policies while Amanda Brunker is probably wondering why she was ever chosen to be on this diabolical excuse for a talent competition.
Dana just speaks but says nothing – she should be in Labour – while Daithí Ó Sé and John Creedon give out an air of triumphalism which is meaningless in view of the fact that they have no hand, act or part in the eventual outcome.
But yet those who are attached to the acts still involved in the competition are out there spending fortunes in trying to promote them at the encouragement of RTÉ or whoever makes the programme.
And why did Gráinne Seoige feel the need to borrow a dress from Corrie’s Bet Lynch?
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.
Galway in Days Gone By
The way we were – Protecting archives of our past
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
Archive News
Galway have lot to ponder in poor show
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.
Archive News
Real Galway flavour to intermediate club hurling battle in Birr
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg