Archive News
Councillor says litter strewn childrens’ park ’embarrassing’
Date Published: {J}
By Dara Bradley
A new initiative encouraging city community groups to ‘take ownership’ of parks and playgrounds in their areas will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
City Hall is planning to ask community groups to ‘adopt’ Galway City Council owned parks – the groups will be asked to visit the amenities during out-of-hours times to check for anti-social behaviour. The groups will also be asked to carry out voluntary clean-ups.
The move comes following confirmation from the Council that its cleaning regime at weekends is being curtailed due to a lack of funding to pay for staff overtime.
The ‘adopt a park’ initiative also comes after the state of a popular city playground has been branded as a “disgrace” after alcohol cans and bottles were strewn over it at the weekend.
City Councillor Pádraig Conneely says the Children’s Millennium Park on University Road was covered in litter – including broken Buckfast bottles and beer cans – when he visited it on Sunday morning.
The bins were overflowing and had not been emptied, added the Fine Gael Cllr, who has demanded a report from City Hall into the litter blackspot.
More than 40 young children and their parents visited the park on Sunday and Cllr Conneely said it was an “embarrassment” that the Council has failed to keep the park clean.
The park has been the subject of alcohol-related litter in the past although the problem is understood to have been exacerbated by underage drinking during the schools’ mid-term break.
A Council spokesperson acknowledged it was aware of the situation at the Children’s Millennium Park.
Eyre Square, Salthill and the city centre are cleaned seven days a week but the Millennium Park is cleaned just on weekdays although the Council is hoping, subject to staffing issues, the park will be included in weekend cleaning soon.
The spokesperson said that the park used to be locked every night at 9pm but this is no longer happening due to a shortfall in funding to pay staff overtime. Regardless of whether the park is locked or not, it can be easily accessed at night if people are determined enough to jump the gates, he said. “There’s only so much we can do. We can’t be there all night picking up after them”.
In the short-term, Council staff will continue to clean the park, and hope to extend the cleaning regime to weekends.
The Parks’ Department of the Council also hopes to encourage community groups to ‘adopt’ parks in their areas, which will encourage locals to take ownership of their amenities, he added.
“Linking up with local community groups to adopt parks won’t solve the immediate problem but we are trying to be proactive and its about people taking ownership of public space in the city,” he said.
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
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Date Published: 29-Jan-2013
Athenry FC 1
Kilbarrack United 2
(After extra time)
For the second year in succession Athenry were done in extra time in the FAI Junior Cup as last season’s beaten finalist’s came from behind to snatch an excellent game in Moanbawn on Sunday afternoon.
On a heavy pitch that was only playable following extensive groundwork by club officials all morning, the home side were by far the better side in the opening half, but failed to take advantage of a number of opportunities that came their way.
An Alan O’Donovan penalty gave them a merited advantage just after the restart, but thereafter were on the back foot as Kilbarrack took over, but for all their pressing, the home rearguard were dealing comfortably with their forays.
However they were struck a body blow just six minutes from time, as big striker Keith Kirwan was left all alone at the far post to head the equaliser and from that point on the Dubliners were the better side.
They started off the extra time in the ascendancy and enjoying all the momentum before striking for a good winning goal on 104 minutes. A strong bench allowed them to make some necessary changes and it was not a facility that was available to Athenry manager Gabriel Glavin.
With Gary Forde and Gary Delaney out through suspension following their sending off against OLBC in the previous round, and Seamie Crowe injured, it left their bench rather threadbare with just a number of young squad players available.
Playing with the aid of the slight incline and any wind advantage going, the home side had a Connor Cannon effort on target in the opening minute, while John Meleady was just over with a flick at the other end.
Meleady then tested Andrew Walsh who saved comfortably, before the goalkeeper pulled off a brilliant double save on 14 minutes.
Firstly he went full length to push away a Meleady shot and was then back on his feet to parry David Jackson’s close-range rebound.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.
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