Archive News
U-21 hurlers all out to atone for final humiliation
Date Published: {J}
STEPHEN GLENNON
GALWAY’S U-21 hurlers return to the scene of the crime when they face Munster champions Limerick at Semple Stadium, Thurles on Saturday (6pm).
It’s hard to believe that it is almost a year since Galway were torn asunder by a prolific Tipperary outfit in the 2010 All-Ireland U-21 decider at the same venue . . . the young Tribesmen losing that battle to the Premier County on Tipp’s home ground by 5-22 to 0-12.
Manager Anthony Cunningham, more than likely, endured his fair share of nightmares in the aftermath of that harrowing experience and he admits that the road to redemption has been a long one.
The debate on whether that final should have been played in Thurles – given Tipp’s involvement – may have long dissipated, but the memories, no doubt, have been harder to suppress.
“We are raring to go, big time,” says Cunningham. “We have been waiting for this game for a long time, particularly after what happened in the final last year. It was great to get to that final and when you see where Tipperary have gone since! I mean their current senior side is backboned by a lot of those U-21 players. That said, we have a few scores to settle.”
Certainly, Galway should not be short of motivation, with 10 of last year’s starting XV – and another half dozen of the panel – involved again. Those include defenders Declan Connolly (Killimordaly), Paul Gordon (Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry), Gerard O’Halloran (Craughwell) and Niall Donoghue (Kilbeacanty), the versatile trio of David Burke (St. Thomas’), Johnny Coen (Loughrea) and captain Barry Daly (Clarinbridge) and forwards James Regan (St. Thomas’), Niall Quinn (Sarsfields) and Richie Cummins (Gort).
“We have a serious amount of the players from last year and, to be fair, they really have got on with it this year. The lads have been working extremely hard,” praises Cunningham. “There has been some excellent coaching done and Mattie Kenny and Tom Helebert have been putting in some work in the coaching and development of these guys.”
That said, it is still an unenviable task for Cunningham, Kenny and Helebert to get their charges up to speed against a Limerick side that was so impressive in their run to the Munster title. Against Clare in the provincial semi-final, the Shannonsiders swept to a 2-19 to 1-15 victory – Kevin Downes and Michael Ryan scoring the Limerick goals – before playing out a humdinger of a final against Cork a week later.
Limerick won that titanic clash 4-20 to 1-27, after extra-time, with Graeme Mulcahy (2), Declan Hannon and Seanie O’Brien scoring the goals and Shane Dowling tallying 0-7, six from frees. Indeed, it is a very potent Limerick attack, underlined by the fact that Hannon, Mulcahy and Downes also spearheaded the endeavours of the county’s senior side earlier this year.
“We have seen quite a bit of them,” says Cunningham. “They have had two very tough championship games against Clare and Cork and anyone who saw their game [against Cork] recently was very impressed with them. In fact, for many, it was one of the games of the year. So, it will be some test for us, but, at the same time, we have to concentrate on our game and on our own set-up.”
As always with Galway teams, there are the additional worries. One, is that the Tribesmen will not reach the pitch of the game quickly enough; another, is that they will not be sufficiently battle hardened to see out the contest.
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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