Archive News
Treatment of club players in Galway a disgrace
Date Published: 12-Aug-2011
THE demon inside me just wants to scream. I put my head in my hands, as my fingers search for the little men who have taken a tango hammer to my brain. The throbbing eases and I contemplate resigning – even reconciling – myself to the situation. After all, you are dealing with Galway GAA.
However, the demon inside me screams again, wildly. The message is clear: ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.’ I reach for the keyboard and hit the reply button to the email to the club’s juvenile chairman, before indulging in a rant. I punch the keys so hard my fingers threaten to bleed. My nostrils are flaring. I am beyond anger; beyond rage. I sign off the email: “It’s a ******* disgrace.”
To explain my ire, I have to reach for my other hat . . . that of Craughwell U-16 hurling manager.
Breaking point came the other morning when the email arrived from our juvenile chairman, when he informed me that in the middle of the U-16 hurling championship, Galway Juvenile Football Board were running their league finals, in which Craughwell are involved. It’s not enough to be running their U-16 football championship simultaneously (it begins for Craughwell on August 16), but, as a matter of urgency, the league finals have to played in this timeframe as well!
Just to put it into perspective what next week is like for a number of Craughwell’s U-16s. This Saturday, our county players can either travel with Galway to play a challenge match against Dublin or field for their club in the Division 2 West U-16 League Shield Final at 1:15pm. Come on lads, make a decision!
Next day, the club will offer them a rest day, because on Monday they face Oranmore/Maree in the hurling championship. Then, on Tuesday, they will face Dunmore McHales in the opening round of the football championship; on Wednesday, they will train with the county U-16s in Athenry; on Thursday or Friday, they will have either hurling or football training with the club; before they face Clare in a challenge in Gort on the Saturday.
Of course, that all is dependent on either Board not fixing another game of some sort for later in the week! By the way, did I mention that they have already had to play two hurling championship games this week, along with fulfilling their county duties?
Sure, we might as well publicly flog these kids altogether and be done with it. Still, they won’t – or can’t – complain, because who will listen to a 14, 15 or 16 year-old? And if they do say something, what will be the consequences?
It’s crazy. Nothing for almost seven months and then you try and squeeze every U-16 hurling game – and, in football, any outstanding league games – into the same four to six week time period.
It’s a disgrace. What about player burnout? In addressing issues of verbal abuse, in particular to referees, the GAA has adopted the slogan ‘Give Respect, Get Respect’. But how about showing some of that same respect to our stars of the future?
No wonder there is so much discontent, frustration and anger among the genuine GAA folk in Galway, at both juvenile and senior levels. Most clubs are fighting tooth and nail to promote our great games, but at times like this you just feel it is a losing battle. As a journalist, as a club official (PRO), as a coach and club coaching officer, as a new parent, I say enough is enough.
It’s time to get the FIVE boards to pay attention. And it’s time for the clubs – juvenile and senior alike – to demand the respect their players deserve. All clubs should threaten to withdraw all support of inter-county activities until the serious issues of this county are addressed. Or set up the equivalent of the GPA (Gaelic Players Association) by establishing the GCA or Gaelic Clubs Association to have their grievances heard.
For, at the moment, the clubs of this county seem to have little or no rights and that, quite simply, is a FIVE star shambles.
For the full article see this week’s Tribunes
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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