Archive News
St. ThomasÕ survive thriller
Date Published: 13-Feb-2013
St. Thomas’ 1-25
Loughgiel Shamrocks 3-19
(After Extra-Time)
STEPHEN GLENNON AT PARNELL PARK
SAY what you like but Galway teams do have this wonderful ability to light up the All-Ireland club senior hurling championship as St. Thomas’ – like so many standard bearers of the county have done in the past – continued that fine tradition in an absorbing semi-final at Parnell Park on Saturday.
That is to take nothing away from reigning All-Ireland holders Loughgiel Shamrocks, who once again, proved they are worthy champions and contributed generously to what was an incredible game of hurling. However, this St. Thomas’ display was up there with the best that previous Galway teams, most recently Clarinbridge and Portumna, had to offer.
So many times, both sides looked to be on the brink of bowing out but fuelled by spirit and courage, fought their way back. The most dramatic, of course, was Loughgiel’s late, late rally in injury-time of extra-time when Antrim sharpshooter Liam Watson hammered home a placed ball from 20 metres to tie up the game and take the contest to a replay.
The free itself may have given rise to debate – it was difficult to identify the foul such was the chaos that took place in the goalmouth scramble – but, in fairness, the officials were close to the action and were definite in their views.
Watson’s wonder strike, though, saw St. Thomas’ lead – which had stood at four with just over two minutes of normal time remaining in extra-time – wiped out unceremoniously and while the Galway men were left to bemoan their ill-fortune, it was, quite simply, an unbelievable finish to a breathtaking epic.
For just as St. Thomas’ could have won this tie, they could also have lost it and it took an equally remarkable effort from their centre-half forward and man of the match Conor Cooney – who tallied 12 points on the day – in injury-time of normal time to force the extra period.
That was not the end of the excitement either as both Loughgiel’s Mark McFadden and St. Thomas’ James Regan had chances deep in injury-time after the 60 minutes to snatch the victory but it was not to be and extra-time ensued.
The opening 20 minutes proved to be a microcosm of the game as a whole. St. Thomas’ shot out of the blocks with three points in the opening two minutes through Cooney – a wonderful sideline cut after 30 seconds and an effort from play – and a Richard Murray strike following a swift counter attack.
However, over the next nine minutes, PJ O’Mullan’s charges weathered the proverbial storm and found their feet to outscore their opponents by five points to one. Benny McCarry, Liam Watson (two frees), Eddie McCloskey and Joey Scullion all found the target for the champions while Cooney was continuing to lead the Thomas’ forward line with another superb score from play.
Three points from St. Thomas’ trio Kenneth Burke, James Regan and Cooney (65) subsequently wrestled the lead back – 0-7 to 0-5 – but when their defence failed to deal with a Barney McAuley delivery, corner forward Shay Casey bundled the ball to the Thomas’ net to swing the advantage back in Loughgiel’s favour on 20 minutes.
The remainder of the first half played out in similar fashion with Watson (two frees) and Cooney – another memorable sideline cut – trading scores. At the break, though, it was the Ulster champions who led 1-7 to 0-8.
Interestingly, just as Loughgiel struck for their opening goal after 20 minutes of the first half, they did the very same in the second period – and, once again, it undid a great deal of St. Thomas’ fine work.
For more, read this week’s Connact 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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