Archive News
Streetwise Gort capable of causing minor upset
Date Published: {J}
IT comes as no surprise that Clarinbridge are back in the Galway hurling final. After-all, they were hardly ever likely to fade quickly into anonymity given the exceptional quality of performance which characterised their trouncing of O’Loughlin Gaels in the All-Ireland Club showdown last March. They simply ripped the Kilkenny title holders apart in the second-half in regaining the county’s stranglehold on the Tommy Moore Cup.
For the ‘Bridge, it was all about getting the balance of their preparations right in striving to retain the county title. Even qualifying for an All-Ireland Club final takes a lot out of a team, while every opposition they come up against in the local championship the following year automatically wants to have a real cut at them. Johnny Lee’s squad have obviously come through that minefield now, not withstanding a close shave against Mullagh in the drawn quarter-final.
Their weekend refixture against Craughwell underlines the current confidence and self-belief among the Clarinbridge players. They appeared in some difficulty when only level on five points apiece three minutes from the interval having had the backing of the elements, but they were able to up the ante when the need arose and points from the influential Shane Burke, Eanna Murphy and Alan Kerins helped them to retire three ahead.
Craughwell were still in reasonably shape, but they were caught napping badly early in the second-half as the ‘Bridge quickly established a 0-14 to 0-7 lead with Mark Kerins (3), Paul Coen and Murphy all finding the target. They were never going to lose from such a commanding position despite Niall Healy raising a total of nine white flags for their neighbours. With David Forde a commanding figure at centre back and the movement of their attack a joy to behold at times, the champions were never in real trouble subsequently.
However, Clarinbridge can expect a far more exacting challenge in Pearse Stadium on Sunday. Final opponents Gort are a seasoned and streetwise outfit who should also benefit from having contested the Galway decider as recently as 2008. Their shock failure to come out of the group last year gave them a cause over recent months and Mattie Murphy’s charges have looked really purposeful and driven,
especially in their knock out defeats over Loughrea and St. Thomas’.
By their nature, Gort are tough and they will relish the challenge of trying to lower the colours of the champions. The experienced Andy Coen, Mark McMahon, Brian Regan and Greg Lally won’t concede space easily in their defence while, further up the field, Aidan Harte, the accurate Gerry Quinn, the tenacious Paul Killilea, Richie Cummins, veteran Ollie Fahy and young Gerard Donoghue are all capable of putting Clarinbridge on the retreat.
It took a late Cummins goal to finally fend off St. Thomas’ in dreadful conditions last Sunday week and, on that basis alone, Gort will need to find some more improvement if they are to capture their first county title since 1983 when the likes of current team boss Murphy, Gerry Lally, John Commins, Pearse Piggott, Gerry Linnane, John Nolan, Colie Rock and Sylvie Linnane were in their hey-day. They will be fired up the last and they have the capability (and hunger) to cause what would represent a minor upset.
NEW BOSS
The optics may not have looked great last week when the Hurling Board delayed the announcement of the new Galway senior team manager, but the eventual appointment of Anthony Cunningham caused few shock waves after the seven-man selection committee had run the rule over the St. Thomas’ clubman, Micheal Donoghue and Johnny Kelly in the interview process.
It was unfortunate bad timing for Kelly that the teams he was involved in, Portumna seniors and Killimor intermediates, were both beaten within the space of 24 hours ahead of being interviewed for the Galway post, while Donoghue’s candidature was probably hit by the fact that former Tipperary coach, Eamon O’Shea, wasn’t among his backroom team despite daily newspaper speculation to the contrary.
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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