Archive News
West End Rocker to deny Galway big race raiders
Date Published: 11-Apr-2012
IT’S almost hard to credit that three Galway owned horses are set to face the starter in National Hunt racing’s most famous race at Aintree on Saturday when Black Apalachi, Chicago Grey and Seabass will be endeavouring to follow in the hoof-prints of Bobbyjo, owned by the Burke family of Mountbellew, which won the Liverpool spectacular in 1999.
As a result, Galway based bookmakers are likely to report record turnover for the Grand National as punters latch onto the local horses for the four-mile marathon, with both Chicago Grey, owned by John Earls from Killimordaly, and Seabass, running in the colours of the Dunmore based Gunners Syndicate, among the market leaders to give Ireland its first victory in the race since 33/1 outsider Silver Birch five years ago.
Remarkably, that was then fledgling trainer’s Gordon’s Elliott’s first ever racecourse winner, but the Co. Meath based handler has since progressed to being a potent force on the Irish and cross-channel scene, and the fact that the yard has already saddled a Grand National winner will add even greater confidence behind the challenge of inmate Chicago Grey, already successful at the Cheltenham festival in 2011 when the currently sidelined Derek O’Connor did the steering.
If we thought that the parish of Killimordaly went mad when the local hurlers – captained by John Earls’ brother Michael – won the Galway senior hurling title for the only time in 1986, the place will go ‘ballistic’ altogether if the popular grey, a best priced 14/1 chance, can use his undoubted stamina (he won the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham over four miles) to fend off the other 39 starters.
Chicago Grey has been specially prepared for the race and the horse’s ‘warm up’ run saw him finish a 16 lengths second to Rubi Light in the Red Mills Chase over an inadequate trip at Gowran Park in late February. Trainer Elliott is optimistic that the nine-year-old will give a good account of himself in Aintree provided he doesn’t get detached from the field in the early stages of the race.
Possibly the last thing on the Gunners Syndicate’s minds at the start of the season was a crack at the Aintree Grand National, but such has been the rate of progress of Seabass since last November that the Ted Walsh trained nine-year-old has gone up over three stone in the ratings after extending his winning sequence to seven when landing the Paddypower.Com Chase over the minimum trip in Naas in late February.
Around 16/1 for the National, Seabass has won over three miles in the past and connections are positive about his prospects of staying the marathon trip in Aintree. Most effective when there is some cut in the ground, the horse has already proven a prolific money-spinner for the Galway syndicate comprised of Pat Glynn, Robbie Byrne, brothers Niall and Donal Collins, Pat Gleeson and John Harte whose pride and joy will be seeking to crown a fairytale season.
Though Seabass and Chicago Grey will be making their virginal assaults on the Grand National, the third Galway contender, Black Apalachi, is a veteran of the unique Aintree-style fences. Winner of the Beecher Chase at the track in 2008, the 13-year-old came within five lengths of landing the big one itself when runner up to Don’t Push It in 2010 despite clouting the third last. The previous year, however, was possibly the real missed opportunity as he was tanking along in front when coming to grief at Beecher’s Brook.
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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