Archive News
Scores are scarce as Junior decider ends in stalemate
Date Published: 28-Nov-2012
Ardrahan 0-7
Killimor 0-7
Darren Kelly in Ballinasloe
STALEMATE! The County Junior B hurling championship didn’t crown a winner in a cold Duggan Park last Sunday as Ardrahan and Killimor cancelled each other out in a low scoring encounter.
For different reasons, this wasn’t the best outing for either team this year and only two players scored from play (five in total). But to their credit, cold November finals in this grade are about results and while nobody prevailed, neither team contemplated defeat.
Character was shown during the final quarter of a difficult afternoon’s hurling and the supporters were fascinated about who could succeed. In truth, Ardrahan will be most aggrieved as they dominated the opening 30 minutes, but only went in 0-6 to 0-3 ahead.
Eight first half wides was a poor showing which included six in the opening 10 minutes when they effectively owned the sliothar. Six more wayward shots in the second half didn’t improve their standing.
For Killimor, their opening half was probably their poorest of the season though they had some hard working defenders, and they didn’t make the most of some more opportunities after the restart. But while the game was played at a much slower pace normally associated with the small ball game, one had to admire their determination that eventually secured a stay of execution.
It didn’t look like that at the start as Ardrahan set the pace. Their half backs were clearing everything, the midfielders were mobile and the forwards had no scarcity of chances. But as the umpires at the town goal continued to wave their hands wide, Jamie Larkin’s side could well have been feeling that this would be one of those days.
They did look threatening. Jason Kennedy’s sideline cut in the first minute required keeper Darren McDonagh to make two touches, David Holland nearly pulled the trigger only for James McEvoy to intervene in the 12th minute and as the first quarter concluded, another move involving Michael Lynskey and Kennedy saw Keith O’Grady rescue Killimor.
Killimor were struggling and had only sent the leather down towards the opponent’s goal once but in the ninth minute, they went ahead when David Daly sent over his opening free.
Eventually, Ardrahan found a white flag when Kennedy converted in the 14th minute and he made it a hat-trick by the 18th minute. They were starting to settle again and Lynskey made it 0-4 to 0-1 in the 22nd minute after taking the breaking ball when Darragh Callanan was smothered by the Killimor backs.
But other chances dropped short and with the rations scarece, Killimor nibbled back two points through Daly by the 28th minute. Ardrahan deserved more and Kennedy and Lynskey registered two minors for their three point interval advantage, but they had expended much energy for little reward.
The third quarter was more akin to the territory and possession battles normally reserved for rugby. Both teams tried to gain control and this period did produce scoring chances and some good passages. But now Killimor were also failing to be economical though Daly did get their fourth point in the 39th minute.
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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