Oranmore-Maree 0-21

Ardrahan 0-15

By Eanna O’Reilly at Kenny Park

ORANMORE-Maree recorded their first win in Group 4 when overcoming an Ardrahan side which fell to their second defeat in the Senior A Championship on Sunday in Athenry. In a much improved performance from their heavy round one defeat to Castlegar, Ronan Heffernan’s charges showed their quality, particularly in the second half, and had too much on the day for Ardrahan.

The sides were well matched during a competitive first half. Playing with the aid of the wind, Ardrahan started well and scored the opening two points of the game. Eoin Murphy sent over a long range point to get them off the mark, before Sean Gardiner pointed his first free of the afternoon to make it 0-2 to 0-0.

Oranmore-Maree were level within three minutes. Patrick Burke tallied their first score, before the lively Ryan O’Donnell pointed from the left corner. The next ten minutes saw the sides go score for score, and they were level at 0-5 apiece as the match remained evenly contested.

Ardrahan points from Gardiner (free), Cathal Walsh, and a terrific long range effort from Cianan Fahy were matched at the other end by the accurate Niall Burke (0-3, two frees) to leave the sides level after 17 minutes.

Two frees from Gardiner edged Ardrahan into a 0-7 to 0-5 lead, before the momentum swung in the opposite direction. Oranmore-Maree asserted themselves impressively with five points on the spin during the next seven minutes.

Niall Burke (three frees), Anthony Keady, and Rory Burke chipped in with the scores, as Heffernan’s began to dominate. Oranmore-Maree’s half back line of Ross Malone, Mark Hanniffy, and Colm Burke were having a big impact on proceedings and allowed them to supply their forwards with good possession.

Gardiner pointed a free for Ardrahan’s first score in 12 minutes, before Conor Hanniffy responded with a point at the other end, after displaying impressive pace down the left wing. Ardrahan full back Mike Walsh landed a superb range score shortly after to leave two between the teams at the interval.

Pictured: Cathal Walsh of Ardrahan eyes up his options against Oranmore-Maree’s Colm Burke during Sunday’s Senior A Championship clash at Kenny Park. Photos: David Cunniffe.

By DARREN KELLY

The intermediate hurling championship claimed its first victim as last year’s Junior A champions Skehana/Mountbellew-Moylough were eliminated following their defeat to Rahoon/Newcastle.

With Ballygar and Meelick/ Eyrecourt going to three points following their draw, it means the north Galway team can’t break into the top three in Group 4.

While five other sides also suffered a second loss, they still have pathways into the preliminary quarter-finals. Two final round fixtures (Abbeyknockmoy vs Kilbeacanty, Annaghdown vs Craughwell) are shoot outs for survival.

Kinvara, Ballygar, Meelick/ Eyrecourt, Rahoon/Newcastle, Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry, Clarinbridge, Carnmore and Sylane are all guaranteed knockout action but nobody is assured of a quarter-final place yet.

Killimor 6-23

Turloughmore 2-13

Killimor responded emphatically to their first day defeat to Kinvara, beating Turloughmore in Group 2 on Sunday in New Inn by 22 points.

Jack O’Meara’s early goal gave them the initiative but a Gary Burke strike left Turloughmore just 1-4 to 1-3 behind on 11 minutes. Cian Treacy got Killimor’s second goal before the break, giving Dessie O’Brien’s team a 2-10 to 1-7 cushion.

Afterwards, three Brian Horan goals and one for Eoin Horan pushed Killimor 6-18 to 1-11 clear with five minutes remaining.

Eoin McEvoy contributed 0-10 for Killimor while Barry McDonagh notched 0-11 for Turloughmore. Gary Burke got a late consolation goal in injury time.

Pictured: Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry’s Conor Jordan lining up a shot against Michael Molloy of Abbeyknockmoy during Sunday’s Intermerdiate Hurling Championship clash in Loughrea. Photo: David Cunniffe.

A Galway project two years in the making has brought the rich history of Travellers together in an archive which provides a new insight into this forgotten part of the story of Ireland. BERNIE NÍ FHLATHARTA talks to the driving force behind the initiative.

There are 30,000 Travellers in  Ireland, yet there’s little or nothing being taught in schools about the country’s own indigenous people.

But, more than likely, that will change thanks to initiatives involving archive material that will throw a light on a people who have experienced discrimination and hardship in their own country — an odd position in a country known for its generosity, hospitality and support for other challenged nations around the world.

The University of Galway was quick to support an idea from one of their own graduates, a Traveller himself, to document his tribe’s rich history.

A Galway city man, Owen Ward, was encouraged by his Alma Mater’s backing and two years later, the college has launched its newest archives, the Mincéirí Project, now available to the public in both physical and digitised form.

Ward, an honours BA graduate and Masters in Post Primary Education, couldn’t be happier or prouder. “As a history teacher myself, I realised that our (Traveller) history was missing in the teaching of Irish history.

“I had often thought about it but never thought it would happen. Of course, there’s no point to all the best ideas in the world, if there isn’t the backing and support.

“The first step of receiving content was very encouraging as it showed how rich Traveller history is. The next step is including it in the teaching of history,” says Ward, an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Programme Manager for Race Equality on college campus. He is also a committee member of the college’s Governing Authority.

Along with Kieran Hoare, Archivist, Ward oversaw the material before it was physically and digitally archived. The collection contains items related to Traveller human rights, education, employment, housing, music, folklore and photographs of the community. It also includes material from current resources located within existing catalogues and collections including the Ritchie-Pickow and Joe Burke archives.

The Mincéirí project began in November 2021 as part of the celebrations which followed on from the 175th anniversary of the foundation of the University in 1845.

It was one of six projects sponsored by the Office of the University President through a special fund to record and share the country’s institutional history.

Mincéirí Archives is a growing collection of all types, complemented by historical documents and scholarly texts. This collection focuses on Irish Travellers from the 1960s when Ireland transformed socially, economically and culturally; its impacts on the nomadic indigenous community and the dawn of the Traveller Rights movement in Ireland and Europe.

In an office surrounded by boxes of documents and photographs on all kinds of subjects, not all of them related to the Mincéirí Project, Hoare explained that the first step was to put a call out, initially among the Traveller community, for material that would be a record of how they lived in Ireland since the 1960s.

“We were pleasantly surprised at the response and the abundance and richness of what came in to us. Owen always hoped that these archives would be a record, not just of how Travellers lived but show their heritage and culture. He had always hoped too that the archives would be an education tool in primary and secondary schools.”

One of the strongest contributions has come from a Cork native, Sr Collette O’Dwyer, who taught in England before returning to Ireland, where she became a Traveller Rights activist.

She campaigned for everything from literacy classes to the provision of accommodation. This was long before the establishment of Pavee Point, a Traveller led collective community which promotes human rights.

Documents in her papers includes correspondence between her and Government departments as well as her own field handwritten notebooks. One leaflet dating back to the late ’70s shows a photograph of Traveller children with the tagline, ‘A Third World on our Doorstep’.

Pictured: Owen Ward who started the project on Irish Travellers. Photos: Joe O’Shaughnessy.

1924

Cheerless weather

The cheery optimism of those people who told us a few weeks ago that the weather would come right, and that there would be a good, if not abundant harvest, has given place to a brooding pessimism.

We have every reason to be alarmed at the harvest prospects. Reports from all parts of the country go to show that the corn crop, which usually at this time of the year makes happy music as the golden heads nod peacefully with the western wind, has “lodged” so badly that resort will have to be had to the old-fashioned scythe to cut it.

Hay in many places has been rotting for weeks in waterlogged fields. The potato crop is beginning to show symptoms of disease. In the Connemara country, the blight is general, and the yield of the crop is expected to be about a quarter of that of last year.

In this connection it is significant that a Galway flour mill which has always had a big trade connection with Connemara is kept going at full pressure to supply the demand for flour.

The failure, or partial failure of the potato crop in Ireland, has always synchronised with winters of poverty and want, and the prospects for next winter are not at all cheer.

Pictured: Saving the hay near Terryland Castle on the Dyke Road.

It’s a walk back through history and one of the world’s most wondrous landscapes; Joe Queally’s annual Burren Ramble in aid of the RNLI Lifeboats.

The historian and author from Fanore leads the annual 8km ramble to the Famine Road at Rock Forest, Tubber, this Sunday, taking the walkers to one of the most precious of places in the Burren Landscape or, as he says, the whole wide world.

“A beautiful feature of all the Burren Rambles down the years has been the ‘healing experience’ lying on the flat stones of the Burren, this of course will be part of this year’s ramble,” says Joe.

The story of the Famine Road goes back close on 200 years when people walked the road from Kilkeedy, Tubber, Boston, Corofin and surrounds, to try to make it to America and further afield, to escape the Great Hunger of 1845.

“Many didn’t make the journey and their gentle souls rest on the famine road. It is our privilege to walk in their footsteps, to be part of their journey, and to be part of them and let them be part of us,” says Joe.

“Stand on the famine road facing the great windswept mountain ranges of Mullaghmore on your own, or with a friend, and let the winds come at you, to give you a feeling of belonging to the soil, the rocks, the flowers, and the fauna, it is all by your side just reach out and touch it. It is a day and a memory you will never forget.”

The location to get to for parking is R460 Road from Corofin to Gort (Eir Code H91 RH3E) between 11am and noon.

The 8km ramble itself leaves for the famine road at 12 noon, and Joe describes it ‘as easy to moderate’.

“Bring good runners or walking boots and the rain gear, just in case of a shower. There will be the taste of black pudding and brown bread as well,” he advises.

Pictured: Burren Ramble….Joe Queally.

Country Living with Francis Farragher

There are times when I’m seriously envious of people who possess a strong faith if only for the hope it gives them of sustaining some sort of link with life when our bodies decide to pack up.  Religion for all its establishment problems over the years does offer a certain reassurance and sense of place . . . and especially so at times of great family joys and sadnesses.

Irish Catholic funerals are for the most part very consoling and reassuring for those left behind with the coldness of the grave or the heat of the crematorium at least temporarily cast aside.

There is a lot to be said for the ‘decent send-off’ of a loved one and while the more scientifically minded of my associates tend to mildly scoff at my occasional reference to a greater power, I’m not certain either, that they’re fully right.

What prompted this thought tributary was a little coincidence last week as I went to pick up a new vehicle, in the process making that big transition from diesel to a petrol hybrid.

Insurance cover and changing cars scares me just a little bit with the ever-present fear that you’ll get delayed and a gap will occur with the cover just at the point when a van jams into you back-bumper. Slightly paranoid, I’ll have to admit, but we all have our irrational fears.

Sometimes with car registration numbers, they hit you straight away. I bought a new car in 2017 which by complete chance had the reg. plate of 171G2017 so last week, I thought to myself, ‘well maybe here I go again, could it be a 2024 to match the 242.

Alas, the very affable Hyundai sales executive called out the new plate number and as digits go, it topped the bland list, a humble 1459. If it was even 1460, it might have some kind of ring to it.

The drive out from the Liosbán Estate towards the dual carriageway in the afternoons is always a pretty tedious affair and as usual there was a tail of traffic heading out the Monivea Road.

The Clifden Arts Festival is set to return this September, offering an extraordinary blend of visual arts exhibitions, performances, and events that capture the essence of contemporary creativity.

Running from September 18 to 29, the festival will bring together internationally acclaimed artists, local talents, and immersive experiences, all against the breathtaking backdrop of Connemara.

One of the highlights of this year’s festival is the exhibition of Mick O’Dea’s powerful ‘Portraits’. O’Dea, a renowned Irish artist hailing from Ennis, is celebrated for his ability to capture the very essence of his subjects.

Another compelling exhibition comes from Olga Magliocco, whose work ‘How Far Have We Come?’ tackles the global and national crisis of homelessness with a deeply personal and innovative approach

The festival will also feature ‘Here, the Considered Line,’ an international group exhibition that focuses on contemporary drawing. Curated by Lenka Sýkorová, this exhibition brings together artists from Ireland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the Czech   Republic.

In addition to visual art, the Clifden Arts Festival will host the Woodland Symposium, which includes a special screening of the short film Forest/ry by Noelle Gallagher. Accompanied by a live cello performance from Eimear Reidy, the film focuses on the restoration of biodiverse woodlands in the Inagh Valley.

Another noteworthy piece is Carrying Wood, an experimental dance film by Linda Schirmer that explores our reliance on rural resources and reflects on the complexities of the energy

Pictured: Artist Mick O’Dea… Portraits for Clifden Arts Festival.

Inside Track with John McIntyre

All the talk ahead of this year’s senior hurling championship focused on St Thomas’ quest for an historic seven-in-row. Nobody was speculating about the prospect of the county champions being dragged into a dogfight to even qualify from their group.

But that’s what lies ahead of Kenneth Burke’s charges after their shock stumble to Tommy Larkins at Duggan Park on Sunday evening. This was no fluke win either. It wasn’t as if the Woodford men burst into an early lead and weren’t for catching or took the spoils through a late goal

The reality was that Tommy Larkins were significantly the better team. Inspired by the Murphy brothers, Eanna and Ronan, together with big contributions from the likes of Conor Gardiner, Jason Flynn and Cathal Tuohy, they produced arguably the club’s best display of the modern era at this level.

St Thomas’ knew they were in a spot of bother at the break despite leading by two points. What followed was a long interval debriefing in the dressing room, but Conor Cooney and company were raging against the tide as Larkins took flight midway through the half, with Ronan Murphy’s goal propelling them to a 1-24 to 0-19 victory.

Not alone did the result shake up St Thomas’, but it has shaken up the championship. Of course, the title holders made light of an even heavier group loss to Turloughmore in 2022, but the team is two years older now and the miles continue to tick up on the clock.

On all known form, St Thomas’ will recover some lost ground when facing Gort in a local derby in their final group outing. A defeat wouldn’t be fatal provided Killimordaly don’t beat or draw with Tommy Larkins, but suddenly there is some pressure on the title holders, and they have work to do.

Gort haven’t really been a factor in the championship for years, but they should relish getting stuck into St Thomas’. I saw them playing against Killimordaly last Friday, and they weren’t great. Sure, Greg Lally, Jack Grealish, Richie Cummins, Aidan Helebert and Jason Grealish could be inspired by that challenge, but some of their younger players are still in the development stage.

The big question is, however, are St Thomas’ finally creaking at the seams or was the Larkins result an aberration? They have been a long time on the road and there were many games during their sustained run of dominance when they had to dig deep to keep the show on the road. My hunch is that they will quickly get back on the wagon.

Pictured: David Hickey of Tommy Larkins on the attack against Evan Duggan of St Thomas’ during Sunday’s Senior Hurling Championship clash at Duggan Park. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy

World of Politics with Harry McGee

Every day a Minister appears in Merrion Street and dutifully declares – with a poker face – that the Government will last its full term. And every day, somewhere in the country another selection convention is taking place, as parties rush to get their slate of candidates full before the general election.

The two contradict each other. Parties say they want to prepare well in advance of March. The reality is that just about everyone is predicting an election in mid-November and nobody wants to be caught with their political pants down once an election is called.

The slide rule we all use is the local elections and the opinion polls. Problem was that both were worse that useless as guides in 2020. The form book was thrown upside down by the election. Sinn Féin pulled a rabbit out of a hat and dominated the campaign.

Hindsight is foresight. Its two main rivals, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, came to believe that the timing of the general election was wrong and gave Sinn Féin too much time to repair its hands after poor local and European elections.

For its part, Sinn Fein identified its strongest spokespeople and its strongest issues – housing and rents; the sense many people had that they were not feeling the recovery. A few other issues played into its hands: the proposed RIC commemoration; proposals to increase the pension age; and the exclusion of Mary Lou McDonald from the RTÉ leaders’ debate. The last one was huge.

But Sinn Féin did not feel overly confident going into the election. It pared down its number of candidates sensing it might lose a few. The party could have won between five and ten additional seats if it had run bigger slates.

Not noticed so much was that Fianna Fáil ran too many candidates. The party was targeting seat gains that could bring it close to 60 seats so had a multitude of hopefuls. Problem was when its vote spiralled downwards, the candidates split the vote in some constituencies with not enough transfers coming back to the best prospects for winning a seat.

It’s a notoriously tricky exercise deciding how many candidates to run. You base it on how well you think you do.

But if you are doing well now, it’s not necessarily the case that you will be doing well in two months’ time. Politics has become like a churning sea, with an unpredictable swell ready to engulf you at any second.

Pictured: Cynthia Ní Mhurchú… starting a celebrity candidate trend.