Archive News
Tough experience of 2002 can stand to Clarinbridge
Date Published: {J}
I REMEMBER the day well. March 17, 2002 and a biting cold one it was too. Clarinbridge were in Thurles to contest their first ever All-Ireland Club hurling final against a mighty team from Birr. The first-time Galway champions had knocked out the reigning title holders Athenry in an epic county final the previous October and were still riding the crest of a wave having also dumped Ballygunner of Waterford out of the chase for the Tommy Moore Cup the following February.
That match had also gone ahead in Semple Stadium and hopes were high that Clarinbridge would round off a momentous campaign by coming out on top in their showdown with the aristocrats of Offaly club hurling. I was team coach back then, working alongside team manager Billy McGrath and selector Donal Walsh, but within 60 seconds of the match starting, we were rattled in a manner few had envisaged.
I still put it down to experience, or more precisely the lack of it. While the Clarinbridge players were in a huddle waiting for the National Anthem, their Birr counterparts were filing into their positions. They knew what we didn’t – that the Soldier’s Song doesn’t be aired for the first game in the club finals double bill – and it was to prove an expensive oversight. Within 30 seconds, Birr’s Declan Pilkington had the ball stuck in the net as the Clarinbridge defence was still trying to sort itself out. In retrospect, the match was already over.
Sure, the Galway men fought back and actually led by 1-4 to 1-2 at half-time, but we had played with a howling wind and that narrow advantage was never going to be enough as Birr finished convincing winners by eight points. At least, Clarinbridge, won’t be making the same mistake again next Thursday against O’Loughlin Gales of Kilkenny at Croke Park – this time, they will be ready when the ball is thrown in, and that’s the value of experience.
Last July as Clarinbridge struggled to earn a draw against Beagh to avoid tumbling out of the championship in the groups stages, not even the most fervent supporter could have imagined that they would end up in the All-Ireland Club final the following March, but their progress since then has been that of a team making gradual improvement, culminating with their thrilling victory over De La Salle of Waterford last month. In a classic cliff-hanger, the ’Bridge broke their opponents’ hearts thanks to Eanna Murphy’s dramatic extra time winning goal after an absorbing match had swung one way and then the other with almost reckless abandon.
It can’t have been easy for the Clarinbridge players to come down off that incredible high as it was a game from the ages and, frankly, it will be difficult for them to reach the same pitch of performance against a much more rugged O’Loughlin Gaels outfit which – and we mustn’t lose sight of – ended the reign of defending All-Ireland champions Ballyhale Shamrocks in the Kilkenny semi-final last Autumn. They are physical too and in county players, Brian Hogan and Martin Comerford, the Gaels will not be lacking in onfield leadership either. For a long time, they struggled to keep tabs on Oulart-the-Ballagh in the Leinster club final, but ended up winning comfortably after wearing down the flattering Wexford men.
It’s difficult to imagine the All-Ireland final being as open and free-flowing as Clarinbridge’s encounter with De La Salle. For a start, O’Loughlin Gaels will be determined to keep it tight, not just to exploit their own physicality, but also to deny the Galway title holders the time and space they require. The fact that they weren’t spectacular against Loughgiel in the All-Ireland should also work to their advantage in terms of motivation.
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
images/files/images/x3_Courthouse.jpg
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
