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Wegians captain Naughton celebrates his biggest ever win as city men promoted
VICTORIOUS Galwegians captain Ja Naughton says the city side’s promotion to the top flight of Irish club rugby is a ringing endorsement of the pool of talent that currently exists in Galway and its surrounds.
With their epic 17-13 win over Limerick outfit Garryowen at Crowley Park last Saturday, Galwegians clinched their second promotion in as many seasons and have now jumped from the third to first tier of club rugby in just 24 months.
In many respects, it reflects the significant work being done at local level in Galway at the moment. Naughton agrees. “It was a massive victory for the club, especially with the amount of local talent we have now compared to previous years where we had to go outside the province to get players in.
“That is my proudest thing. I think there are six or seven of us alone from the junior team that won in 2008 who are now playing senior rugby at this club. That doesn’t really happen to be honest or it hasn’t happened very much in previous years.”
In his 15th season with ‘Wegians, Naughton confirms Saturday’s win was the biggest he has had with the club and, again, reiterates that it was all the sweeter because the majority of the team are players he has come up through the ranks with.
“Most of us played 20s together. Just take the front row there, myself, ‘Fitzy’ (Ross Fitzgerald) and Doran McHugh all played 20s together and then from the junior team you have Brian McClearn, Barry Lee and Brian Murphy and you had a couple of lads on the fringes of that squad as well. So, we have been playing together since we were 18s and 20s.”
Certainly, Galwegians have played their part in the promotion of the game in the West of Ireland and this can seen by the huge number of children heading to Crowley Park week in, week out. “It is definitely down to the structure the club has put in place,” continues Naughton.
“You can see the amount of kids coming through the youth system at the moment. You will have 500 or 600 kids up there on a Saturday and during the week and by just sticking to the young players and giving young lads a chance the club has progressed.
“Obviously, we have lost players through the recession over the years – some players have had to go abroad – but anyone at home in Galway can see the standard we have at this club.”
Indeed, the 29-year-old says the team has really turned itself around since being demoted a couple of seasons ago and this has largely been due to the mix of young and old now in the squad. “To me, the majority of the squad has matured and there is a good blend there. It has just gone well.
“Our target at the start of the season was, possibly, just to stay up but I knew myself with the experience and youth coming through the club we could go on and challenge. The players are quite a committed bunch of lads to be giving up their time on a Tuesday and Thursday night and giving up their weekends to play. I just knew we had something in us to go again this season.”
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Some 60 tourism companies from Ireland attended ‘Flavours of Ireland’ 2022 in London last week – including Connemara Wild Escapes, DK Connemara Oysters and Killary Fjord Boat Tours.
‘Flavours’ is Tourism Ireland’s annual B2B tourism workshop, where tourism companies from Ireland meet and do business with top global inbound tour operators.
Now in its 20th year, ‘Flavours’ took place in the Guildhall, in the City of London, and was attended by around 100 global inbound tour operators who deliver business from all over the world, including the United States, Mainland Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa.
‘Flavours’ provides an excellent opportunity for the participating tourism providers from Galway and Ireland to highlight and sell their tourism product and build valuable relationships with the key decision-makers in attendance.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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From the Galway City Tribune – The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has asked Galway City Council to roll back material alterations to the new City Development Plan proposed by councillors.
In July, elected members voted through a raft of changes to zonings in the Draft City Development Plan 2023-29, which went out on public display.
But the Planning Regulator has now warned City Hall that many of the proposed changes do not comply with the OPR’s recommendations, and are contrary to national planning guidelines.
The OPR specifically highlighted problems with proposals to rezone as residential land deemed at risk of flooding.
Anne Marie O’Connor, Deputy Regulator, wrote to the Council’s Planning Department outlining the OPR’s fresh advice on the changes to the draft plan proposed and approved by councillors.
The draft plan will come before elected members again this month.
Councillors will be asked to row back on some of their previous material alterations, which ran contrary to advice of the OPR.
Ms O’Connor said the OPR welcomed many of the changes made by the City Council in its draft plan. She said, however, that the OPR “has a number of outstanding concerns relating to the response of the planning authority to its recommendations and to a number of proposed material alterations relating to the zoning of lands”.
These relate to changes that conflict with national and regional objectives for compact growth; with legislative requirements regarding climate action and core strategies; and with rezoning land at risk of flooding.
The OPR highlighted a dozen or more material alterations by councillors that are “not consistent” with the National Planning Framework for compact growth.
These include re-zoning of land from agricultural or recreational and amenity to residential.
The changes voted on by councillors, the OPR noted, were done against the advice of the Council’s Chief Executive Brendan McGrath.
The OPR said the changes proposed by councillors represented a “piecemeal approach” to zoning and were “inconsistent” with national policy.
These comments related to proposed rezoning of land at Rahoon; Dublin Road; Quarry Road, Menlo; Ballindooley; off Circular Road; Menlo village; Roscam and Barna Woods.
The OPR also raised “significant concerns” over five material alterations proposed for residential zonings of land at Western Distributor Road; Terryland; Menlo Village; Headford Road and Barna Woods which are located within flood zones.
The approach by councillors “may place people and property at unnecessary risk from future flood events”, the OPR warned.
Ms O’Connor told planners that if the draft plan ignores the OPR advice or is at odds with its recommendations, the Council Chief Executive must inform the OPR in writing the reasons for doing so.
Save Roscam Peninsula in a 33-page submission to the draft plan echoed many of the concerns outlined by the OPR.
The Council has pencilled in four dates in November and December to approve the plan.
It will meet on November 21, 24 and 28 and December 1 when material alterations will be voted on individually.
This article first appeared in the print edition of the Galway City Tribune, November 4. You can support our journalism by subscribing to the Galway City Tribune HERE. The print edition is in shops every Friday.
JOHN HARNEY from Mountpleasant first joined the Ballinasloe Horse and Agriculture Show Committee, all of 60-years ago, on April 24, 1962. Both John and the show are still going strong as they celebrate their 183rd event on this Sunday. Here, he looks back on his involvement with this iconic show through the years.
THE Ballinasloe Show back in the early 1960s was going well with both the Showgrounds and Duggan Park both used for running the competitions.
My first introduction to the show was stewarding the pony competitions in the Mountpleasant end of the Duggan Park with the rest of the GAA field being used for trade stands.
At that time, it was a very big show with horses, ponies, cattle and sheep, pigs and fowl – also there was a big garden and farm produce section as well as a home craft and baking section with flowers and plants supported by a very large women’s committee.
At that time, showjumping took place in the afternoon with the top riders in the country taking part. I was elected Chairman at the AGM in 1975, a position I held for ten years.
During that time, the Duggan Park Committee approached the Show Committee for a piece of the showgrounds behind the GAA Stand for dressing rooms.
This was brought up a number of times at our committee meetings, and at first, the view was that the Duggan Park Committee would buy the ground.
However, after much deliberation it was decided by the Show Committee to ‘give the ground’ for the sum of £1 with the proviso that the dressingrooms could be used on show days by the local ICA to do catering for the event.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
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.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
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.
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