Archive News
Spirited footballers show they are far from a spent force
Date Published: {J}
Galway 0-13
Cork 0-16
Dara Bradley
STRUGGLING – it’s the new prefix that increasingly precedes mention of the Galway senior football team.
On Sunday morning, listeners to national radio stations’ sports bulletins of a round-up preview of the day’s National Football League action were told that All-Ireland champions Cork take on “struggling Galway” in Salthill. Cork weren’t playing Galway or Tomás Ó Flathartha’s Galway. No, it was “struggling Galway”. The implication was clear: this will be a cakewalk for the visitors.
Maybe it helped to breed complacency in the Rebels; maybe being written off fired Galway up; but at times in the sunshine at Pearse Stadium, if you didn’t know otherwise, you’d be hard pressed to pick out which of the two teams was “struggling Galway” and, which was the best team in the land in 2010.
Backs firmly against the wall, the Tribesmen produced by far their best display of Ó Flatharta’s reign. It wasn’t good enough to take the spoils, probably won’t be enough to retain Division 1 status, but it should restore some much-needed confidence to the players and will give hope to fans that maybe, just maybe, Galway are getting back on the right track.
Fifteen minutes in, Cork were cruising and Galway were, well, struggling to get a foothold as Conor Counihan’s men cantered to a 0-5 to 0-1 lead with scores from Daniel Goulding, a free and two classy points from play, Fintan Gould and Patrick Kelly (free). Same old Galway we thought, and at that stage the talk was all about how much of a cricket score Cork would win by.
It could have been a lot worse when a long ball into the danger area wasn’t dealt with by the Galway defence but full-forward Colm O’Neill’s shot was clinically stopped by Adrian Faherty.
Then there was a stoppage to allow O’Neill, who took a knock to his ankle, receive assistance leaving the pitch, and once play resumed minutes later it was a completely different match. Cork nodded off, Galway sprung to life.
Inspired by the energy and enthusiasm of Matthew Clancy in particular, Galway conjured up their most purposeful and exciting 20 minutes of football all year. Clancy commenced the fight back with a point after linking up with Cathal Kenny, and the Oughterard man was involved again minutes later when he combined with Fiachra Breathnach to release Cormac Bane for his second white flag of the day.
At 0-3 to 0-5, Galway had the perfect opportunity to hit the front when a one-two with Paul Conroy put Breathnach through on a one-on-one situation with Cork custodian Ken O’Halloran but the wing forward, having done the hard work by rounding corner-back Ray Carey, didn’t even force a save from the ‘keeper and sliced it badly wide with his right foot when using his left peg was the more sensible option. A howler of a miss that proved costly in the end.
Still, Galway kept going and with Joe Bergin and Finian Hanley fielding more than their fair share around the centre, the Tribesmen had enough possession to keep the Cork rearguard under pressure, which led to two frees that were converted by Bane and Eoin Concannon, bringing the sides level at 0-5 apiece.
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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