Archive News
St. ThomasÕ prove up to the challenge in Parnell Park
Date Published: 13-Feb-2013
FOR a team of complete novices at this level, St. Thomas’ still managed to endorse Galway’s strong standing in the All-Ireland club hurling championship after an epic semi-final battle against Loughgiel Shamrocks at Parnell Park last Sunday. In shades of Clarinbridge’s titanic struggle against De La Salle of Waterford two years ago, this match also went down to the wire and produced a pulsating extra time finish.
In the cold light of the day, St. Thomas’ will be understandably disappointed that they have to go through it all again against the resilient title holders. They got off to flying starts in both halves and were four points up heading into the dying stages of extra time, only for Liam Watson to save the Antrim men with a bullet-like 21 yard free in virtually the last puck of the game.
It was a tough blow for St. Thomas’, but they will still draw great encouragement this week from the overall quality of the team’s display in their first experience of the All-Ireland club championship arena. They showed no signs of big day nerves and produced some exceptional bouts of fluent play which left Loughgiel hanging on by their fingertips. They were undoubtedly the better team and were a little unlucky not to be have carried the day.
But they have scope for improvement too. St. Thomas’ were prone to unnecessary fouling; hit some bad wides and their tactic of not contesting the short Loughgiel puck out strategy was hard to fathom. However, they never once backed away from the physical challenge on a heavy surface and, certainly, proved worthy ambassadors for Galway hurling in an absorbing and fluctuating contest.
It was also the day when Conor Cooney stepped out of the shadows of some of his higher profile team-mates, like David Burke and James Regan. Cooney had a brilliant match, scoring 12 points in total, including seven from play. His rousing effort to draw the game in normal time was all his own work and he was a thorn in the Loughgiel defence throughout the semi-final. Cooney was in terrific form and, in this mood, could also emerge as a key figure for the county team later in the year.
If Cooney stole the headlines, most of his team-mates proved up to the challenge too. Kenneth Burke, especially when moved to the attack and who exerted a critical influence in the third quarter; Bernard Burke, who admirably kept toiling way despite a couple of bad early wides; and Regan contributed ten points from play between them, while substitute Gerald Murray also made a telling contribution with a goal and a point in extra time.
Although Loughgiel’s first goal from Shay Casey ought to have been prevented by a combination of Robert Murray and goalkeeper Patrick Skehill, St. Thomas’ were to get a lucky break of their own when Gerald Murray pounced on a bad error from James Campbell for his team’s only green flag near the end of the first period of extra time. With Cooney, David Burke and Murray himself subsequently firing over points, St. Thomas’ appeared in control when leading by 1-25 to 2-18 with time running out.
There was a final kick left in Loughgiel, however. Watson, who struggled to make an impact in open play, pointed a close range free and he also displayed nerves of steel when planting the ball in the St. Thomas’ net to force a replay. The All-Ireland champions were often exposed by the team-work and fluency of the Galway men, but they never gave up with the likes of corner back Paul Gillan, Eddie McCloskey, Benny McCarry and the excellent Joey Scullion all in terrific form.
Yet, the inescapable conclusion is that Loughgiel are fortunate to be still standing. Apart from St. Thomas’ hitting 14 wides in normal time, they spurned two clear-cut goal-scoring opportunities from Richie Murray, who ought to have carried the ball further, and substitute Conor Cooney. On the positive side, the tenacious Sean Skehill hardly gave Watson a look in and the wing back’s commitment typified St. Thomas’ overall tenacity. They showed why they are the Galway champions and with a little tidying up in their shooting, they will surely advance in the replay.
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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