Archive News
Tipperary underline why they are the team to beat
Date Published: {J}
TIPPERARY may not have retained the All-Ireland senior hurling title since 1965, but the odds against the Premier county finally emulating that feat this year have tightened after their hard earned victory over Cork in the provincial quarter-final at Thurles last Sunday. The reigning champions didn’t perform consistently over the course of a high tempo match, but still had eight points to spare at the finish.
The crisis time came for Tipperary with about 14 minutes remaining after Cork had drawn level in retrieving an eight point deficit. The momentum and the wind were with the Rebels but, significantly, the title holders responded to the challenge in a clinical and unflustered style. Lar Corbett, the Hurler of the Year in 2010, displayed his leadership with a critical point, while half-forwards Noel McGrath and Seamus Callanan burst back into life again.
The outcome, however, still wasn’t settled until Patrick Maher robbed Cork full back Eoin Cadogan before releasing substitute Benny Dunne for his team’s third goal in the 66th minute. Undoubtedly, the margin of victory flattered Tipperary in the end and their backline wasn’t entirely convincing, but nothing happened in Thurles last Sunday to suggest that Declan Ryan’s squad still aren’t the team to beat this summer.
Having been ambushed by Cork 12 months ago, Tipperary had a score to settle with their great provincial rivals and despite stretching into an early lead, it was already clear that the men in red were not daunted in the slightest by the task ahead. Denis Walsh and his mentors fielded a largely young team, backboned by the likes of the long serving John Gardiner, Niall McCarthy and Ben O’Connor, with the latter pair picking off six points from play between them.
In fact, Cork could have raised two green flags in the opening minutes, Firstly, Paudie O’Sullivan was bravely denied by Brendan Cummins before the excellent Pat Horgan whizzed his effort just wide of the opposition ‘keeper’s left hand post. Still, Tipperary had eked out a 0-5 to 0-2 lead by the 15th minute with the revitalised Callanan picking off two of those, including a glorious effort from the sideline on the old stand side of the field.
But Cork hadn’t come to Thurles to genuflect to the champions as they reeled off five of the next six points with McCarthy, O’Connor, Horgan (two) and Cian McCarthy all finding the range. By the 21st minute, the teams had been level for the fifth time only for Tipperary to make the decisive break on the approach to half-time. Two goals in the space of three minutes from that deadly duo of Eoin Kelly and Corbett help to power the home team into a comfortable 2-11 to 0-10 advantage.
They were far from out the gap, however, as Cork would have the advantage of the strong wind on the resumption. Tipperary did hit early second-half points from Callanan and John O’Brien, but the Rebels gradually built up a head of steam as Gardiner, Horgan, O’Connor and Niall McCarthy landed some wonderful points. Pa Cronin was also winning a lot of primary possession around midfield and by the 56th minute, Cork was level, their players were visibly animated and the team’s supporters could sense an upset.
Tipperary should have been well rattled, but they didn’t look it. Instead, in a calm and nearly methodical fashion, they regained their grip on the exchanges in impressively outscoring Cork by 1-7 to 0-2 over the remaining 15 minutes. The introduction of Conor O’Mahony helped to shore up their defence as well with Dunne’s opportunist strike the highlight of Tipp’s strong finish. At the other end, the Cork full forward line played too far out the field as Cummins fielded a number of wasteful long range efforts with not a red jersey in sight.
Overall, however, this was an encouraging effort from Cork. Walsh was justified in going with the youth even if the decision to replace Horgan near the end of the match was baffling. They weren’t overawed at facing Tipperary and while the personnel may have changed, Cork still strung together some excellently crafted team points which were a hallmark of their successful outfit in 2004 and ’05. They will be dangerous opposition in the qualifiers.
Naturally, Declan Ryan will be relieved that his squad have surmounted this difficult opening summer hurdle. It’s not easy to take over a team which are All-Ireland champions, but the new Tipperary management aren’t lacking in either ambition or organisation. Some of their defenders were occasionally caught out by Cork’s traditional craft and support play, but they will surely get better as the campaign drags on. Clare are up next for Tipperary and that should prove a relatively routine challenge for the title holders.
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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