Connacht Tribune
Tribal warrior Finnerty one of Galway’s finest ever
IT’S hard to picture the great Pete Finnerty – a five-time All-Star winner – as anything other than an uncompromising Tribal warrior in one of the great half-back lines of Galway hurling: Finnerty, Keady, McInerney. A mythical trinity.
Yet, it’s an image of a schoolboy in Mullagh that Finnerty conjures up in the early stages of this interview; of a boy in breeches idly dreaming that one day he may emulate the faces he stares at on a poster on the school wall. He zones in on one face, in particular, and whispers the name: John Connolly.
“In Mullagh National School, we had a picture on the wall: Carroll’s All-Stars. How ironic a cigarette company sponsoring the first All-Stars in ’71! I remember John Connolly and I can still picture him to this day,” begins Finnerty.
“I remember looking at that poster and wondering what would it take to get one of those bronze statues. It was something that people aspired to, although I wouldn’t judge a player by how many All-Stars he had. I’d judge him by his performances, the player he was, and his character.”
His hero Connolly, he remarks, had all that, and more. “Without a doubt. I still look up to him today. Look at the man, look at the physique of him, look at the way he carries himself, look at the way he represented the county and Galway hurling, the way his family have. They are just incredible people. So, he is an incredible man, absolutely.”
John Connolly was not the only one that inspired Finnerty to become the hurler he would be: a double All-Ireland winner in ’87 and ’88 and an all-time great. Closer to his home lived another legend, the great Iggy Clarke. “I remember Iggy playing for Galway and he would have been one of my heroes as well,” says Finnerty.
“In ’75, when they won their first league, he brought the cup to the national school and I got to see it that time. Then, one day, Brendan Hobbins, a neighbour of his, got a broken hurley of Iggy’s and I remember bartering for it with a box of crayons and a few shillings. When I got the hurl, I thought it could nearly hurl by itself. Iggy would have been another huge inspiration.”
Moved to emulate these men, Finnerty embarked on an underage career that culminated in an All-Ireland U21 victory in 1983. He graduated to the senior set-up the following year but injury hampered his involvement. “I was probably fortunate because Joe Dooley ran riot in a league semi-final and I would probably have been marking him if I had started.”
However, in 1985, a rejig was done and Finnerty, who spent much of his underage career at corner-back and full-back, was handed a wing-back berth by the management for the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork on a wet day in Croke Park.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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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.
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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 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.
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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.
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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.
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
