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Connacht Tribune

Sunday the most dreaded day of the week in GAA lockdown

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Beagh hurler Patrick Earley who is itching to get back on the playing fields after the GAA season was thrown into turmoill by the coronavirus.

Freelance journalist PATRICK EARLEY is a member of the Beagh senior hurling panel, but when the coranavirus led to sport being halted virtually overnight, he was one of thousands plunged into a strange and challenging world. In this feature, he outlines the difficulties of the     last three months when isolated   from the game he loves.

WHEN approached initially about writing this piece a couple of weeks ago, I thought to myself how am I going to put some sort of a positive spin on life in lockdown as a club hurler?

Lockdown was a hugely difficult time for us all for totally different reasons and as sports lovers with no games to watch, attend or play, there was a huge void in our lives.

Sunday became the most dreaded day of the week, and when John Horan appeared on the first episode of The Sunday Game on May 10, we began to consign ourselves to the possibility of there being no GAA at all for the remainder of the year.

That period in the weeks that followed was certainly the toughest of my time during lockdown but now, thankfully, the GAA have changed their stance and the outlook is far brighter – we all desperately needed that bit of hope.

The roadmap is becoming clear at last – a return to training on the pitch on June 29, contact training on July 20 with games to follow on the first weekend of August all going to plan, all of which makes this article an awful lot easier to write now.

I’m a 23-year-old freelance sports journalist who had been splitting my time between my writing and work on the family farm. On top of that, I play with the Beagh senior hurlers so for me, lockdown took both my work and my hobby away from me.

We’re a small, rural club with nothing to boast other than a church, a pub, a funeral home and our hurling grounds so for our parish, the pitch is central to everything that’s so good about our community.

To have that taken away has left a huge void in the parish over the last couple of months but like everywhere else, we have pulled together and that sense of community has never been so strong.

At first, the GAA instructed club bars and gyms to close in addition to the suspension of games, something we were all disappointed by but willing to accept given the spread of the virus throughout the nation.

But when the GAA’s stance heightened to the complete shutdown of all pitches and club activities on March 25, the reality hit home of just how serious the battle to quell this virus was and that our lives were set to drastically change.

Our last training session as a group came on March 9 and when it quickly became clear that our facilities weren’t going to re-open anytime soon, lads began making their way to the club gym to take away whatever equipment they needed to try keep themselves ticking over, though most of ours ended up in the possession of our county man Adrian Tuohey!

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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Connacht Tribune

West has lower cancer survival rates than rest

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Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.

A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.

For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.

These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.

“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.

In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.

Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.

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Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents

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Galway's Aaron Niland is chased by Cillian O'Callaghan of Cork during Saturday's All-Ireland Minor Hurling semi-final at Semple Stadium. Photo: Stephen Marken/Sportsfile.

Galway 3-18

Cork 1-10

NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.

The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.

Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.

Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.

Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.

Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety

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Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche

GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.

Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.

Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.

“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.

“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.

He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.

“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.

“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.

He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.

The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.

“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

 

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