Archive News
Se‡n talks the talk in seven languages
Date Published: {J}
Ever since he was in national school, Seán Ó Riain always loved learning – and unlike most pupils, he didn’t have a favourite subject. He was what might be called a swot.
But, being wise, he kept his passion for learning quiet, realising that most people didn’t share it. Nonetheless, he studied on, and at the age of 16, went to UCG to study Arts.
Because he was so young the Tipperary born student was sent to stay with his uncle’s family in Galway. For two years Seán lived with Michael Leahy – Fianna Fáil Mayor of Galway on several occasions, notably during US President Ronald Reagan’s visit in 1984 – and Michael’s family in Renmore.
Seán did his degree in Galway, followed by a H Dip in Education and an MA in Irish. He subsequently went on to take a PhD in Irish in Trinity and has since built a successful career in the Department of Foreign Affairs, currently being based in Brussels. He speaks Irish, French, German, Polish, Welsh, Scots Gallic . . . and Esperanto.
Esperanto is a topic, which causes Seán – the current president of the European Esperanto Union – to bubble with enthusiasm, and he says he could talk about it for hours.
This language was invented at the end of the 19th century by Dr LL Zamenhof (1859-1917). He lived in what is now Poland, but was then divided between Russia, Germany and Austria, explains Seán. Zamenhof grew up in Warsaw, a city of 30,000 people, where five languages were spoken – Russian, German, Polish, Ukranian and Yiddish, with Yiddish being most common.
This situation left a lot of room for misunderstanding and conflict, and Zamenhof wanted to change this. He felt a neutral language that would allow people to communicate on terms of equality, would prevent powerful nations such as Russia imposing its language on weaker neighbours.
It was a vision that struck a chord in early 20th century Ireland, a country with a powerful neighbour which also imposed its will. Two of the 1916 leaders, James Connolly and Joseph Mary Plunkett were fluent Esperanto speakers.
Many of the root words of Esperanto come from European languages with Latin, French, German and English all contributing. But, says Seán, its grammar is easier than any of the languages from which it is drawn.
In the beginning, it was called Lingva Internacia – the International Language. But when Zamenhof introduced it publicly, he used the name Dr Esperanto, which means ‘Doctor who hopes’, and eventually it just became known as Esperanto.
Seán first heard of Esperanto as a 14-year-old schoolboy at school in Roscrea in 1969, when an international conference on the language was held in Dublin. He and a group of fellow students clubbed together and bought a ‘Teach Yourself Esperanto’ book.
“But the general attitude among the teachers was negative,” he recalls, and the boys’ enthusiasm waned. He paid off the others and kept the book.
However, it was many years later – with several other languages under his belt – that he returned to it.
For more, read this week’s Galway City 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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