Update May 28th

Summer and the Turf Saving Campaign

These lovely sunny days remind me of times past and the various ‘campaigns’ that were part of the cycle of farming life. It all started in early spring with the lambing season. Then came the preparation of land for sowing of crops. We were a ‘mixed farm’, stock and tillage.  Spuds (potatoes came later!), turnips, oats, a little barley and a substantial cabbage garden and vegetable area. The first item was the ploughing. In the early days of the fifties this was done by a team of horses and the skill of the ploughman. The potatoes were set in three seed potatoes wide ridges for the most part and later in ‘drills’. The land for oats was first ploughed and then harrowed. There were two types of harrow that I remember a spring harrow and a solid ‘tooth’ model. The seed was hand spread which was also a skill. Then it was rolled into the receptive harrowed ground. This was easy work in terms of lack of precision. Later on the acquisition of a tractor, a lot changed, it was now an attached disc harrow.  I remember the arrival of the tractor on the farm around 1958. It was a Fordson Dexta with its number being DI 7249 which Tony Murphy from Casey’s garage in Roscommon delivered.  It is still parked in retirement in an old shed on the farm. The graph of its value has probably turned in recent years. When I first came to live in Forest View I could see out my back window some of the land on lower reaches of the Curlew Hills i.e. Deerpark, interrupted by tillage fields which produced oats and potatoes. There is not a single ploughed field to be seen there today.  In national school days there was a poem for nearly every season so I transfer to here the one I remember saluting the practise of ploughing;

   

I Will Go with My Father a-Ploughing

by Joseph Campbell

I will go with my Father a-ploughing

To the Green Field by the sea,

And the rooks and corbies and seagulls

Will come flocking after me.

I will sing to the patient horses

With the lark in the shine of the air,

And my Father will sing the Plough-Song

That blesses the cleaving share.

After the crop sowing the next campaign was that of the turf cutting, the bog. I participate in a relic of that now as I ‘save’ turf on Tonroe bog. Indeed before my trip to Carrick last Saturday it was an early trip to the bog first to ensure that the turf was lifted into ‘footings’ and got the benefit of the sun and wind i.e. good drying conditions, while I indulged in watching Roscommon stroll to victory in Pairc Sean.                                                                                                    

Roscommon Cruise Past Leitrim

It was a beautiful day to travel to Carrick-on-Shannon for Roscommon’s first outing in the Connacht championship but the game itself was a non-event as a contest. After the initial sparring for eight minutes or so the trend of the game became obvious and Roscommon cruised to a very comfortable win. The crowd of over 8 thousand was smaller than I expected as I felt that Roscommon supporters would travel in large numbers since it was a late entry to the championships for them. Perhaps it was because of the good weather and turf had to be dealt with and perhaps some felt that they could wait for the next game!

One has to admire, maybe even to feel for, Leitrim supporters as they follow a team that is very unlikely to rock the boats of the stronger counties in Connacht. I started following football as a ‘child’ in the late fifties and I first saw Leitrim in St. Coman’s Park, Roscommon in 1958 when the lost in a titanic struggle to Galway on the score of Galway 2.10 Leitrim 1.11. They had a great team then with players who became legends of the game in Leitrim and Connacht such as Packie McGarty, Cathal Flynn and Josie Murray. Leitrim contested four Connacht Finals in a row in that period losing all four to Galway. Through the sixties also they could challenge Roscommon and defeated them a number of times. The slide started in the seventies. Their highlight win came  with the great Connacht victory over Mayo, Leitrim 0.12 Mayo 2.4 in Roscommon with a very good team. The county has its dedicated core of supporters who will follow the county team to distant venues in the league encounters and New York and London for Championship games.

Leitrim’s population is 32 thousand but dipped to 25 in the 90s’. (Roscommon’s is 64 but had dipped to 52 in the 90s’).  There has always been significant  emigration from the county and there is a large Leitrim community in New York. (Of course there is a declining Irish community in New York with the bite of immigration controls taking effect). Leitrim people are resilient and like all communities are very proud of their county.  They resent the occasional references in media which suggests that the county is a kind of a lost soul which is only suited to forestry and fracking for gas and such like.

Anyway back to the game. I feel I have rarely seen a Leitrim team as weak as last Sunday’s and it was only when some substitutes came on that they got some impressive scores by which time the result was long decided. Roscommon will not have learned a lot from this encounter but by now the management will know their team. I was impressed by the goalkeeper Colm Lavin from Eire Og, the midfield did well with Cathal Compton having a very good game. Fintan Cregg did very well in negating any potential influence of Emlyn Mulligan while all the forwards did well with Cathal Cregg particularly impressive when he came on. However if Galway defeat Sligo as one would expect they will be a very different and more physical side. Still we are back where we were last year and who knows, perhaps we can emulate that again.             

Round 1 of Qualifiers drawn this Monday morning are: Derry v Kildare/ Meath v Tyrone/London v Louth/ Wicklow v Cavan/ Offaly v Antrim/ Limerick v Mayo/ Westmeath v Armagh/Wexford v Waterford. The two heavyweights are Mayo and Tyrone while the other 6 fixtures are pretty even considering that the first drawn has home advantage. The Championship has thrown up a couple of surprises especially in Leinster with Carlow’s win over Kildare and Longford’s win over Meath. These two wins have not happened for decades for the respective counties. So the Leinster Semi-Finals see Carlow v Laois and Longford v Dublin. Three very unlikely semi-finalists there. But of course the juggernaut that is Dublin rolls on and for Longford it is an intimidating prospect. The heavy defeat yesterday of Tipp. by Cork was another surprise especially in the margin of the win. It illustrates the regular inconsistency (!) of Cork who can surface from time to time with a really good side.   Four teams from the above will qualify for Round 4 where they will be joined by the provincial runners up. The winners of these game will go into the ‘Super 8s’ as below:     

How does the GAA Super 8 work?

The GAA Super 8 will apply to the football championship at the quarter-final stage.

In 2018, the first year of a three-year trial period for the new format, the two groups, each comprised of four teams, will look as follows:

Group 1: Munster champions, Connacht champions, Ulster runner-up (or qualifier team that beats them in Round 4), Leinster runner-up (or qualifier team that beats them in round 4)

Group 2: Ulster champions, Leinster champions, Munster runner-up (or qualifier team that beats them in Round 4), Connacht runner-up (or qualifier team that beats them in round 4)

In the new format, each team will have a home game, an away game and a game at Croke Park. The semi-finals will be comprised of the top two teams from each group.

Hurling to the Fore

The senior hurling championship is providing some cracking games with yesterday’s Galway defeat of Kilkenny showing that a powerful Galway team looks strong enough to go all the way again this year. They certainly outmuscled and out-hurled Kilkenny yesterday and it will be another cracking game next week-end for them v Wexford in Wexford. Wexford too are looking like being contenders also but this will be sorely tested by Galway next week-end. Cork too are possible contenders as are Clare and Limerick. Waterford seem to have run out of resources with a long injury list plus a number of players going abroad. The toll of games 4/5 week-ends in a row is taking its toll and will have to be changed for next year.   

Boyle GAA

Boyle Junior ‘B’ 2.20 St. Barry’s 0. 12.

I have decided to make a decent effort to follow the fortunes of Boyle Juniors this summer. Last Friday night they had an impressive win over St. Barry’s. The first half had many of the elements of raw junior football and at half time Barry’s led by 9 points to 6. Boyle put in a much better performance in the second half and goals from James Bolger and David Kelly –a penalty- saw them run up an impressive total of 2.20 to Barry’s 0.12 thus scoring 2.14 to 0.3 in the second half.

If one could leave the first ragged half aside it was a good show by the team with Ml. Bermingham cool in goal; Furey and Finneran strong in backs, a welcome return for Jim Suffin at midfield. (Jim had been on overseas duty with the Irish Army/U.N mission in the Lebanon) Seamus Kane was prominent in various sectors with some very good frees and fielding and David Kelly with 1.4 also doing well. So hopefully they will maintain the momentum for the remainder of the season.  

The Boyle team was; Ml. Bermingham/Cathal Horan/ Cian Beirne/ Brian Furey/ Shane Battles/ Ryan Finneran/ Jonathan Regan/ Jim Suffin/ Tomas Halligan 0.3/ James Bolger 1.0 / Colin Goldrick 0.4/ Lochlainn Conboy 0.3/ Marc O’Connor/ Seamus Kane 0.5/ David Kelly 1.4 (?) with Donal Kelly and Sean Mullens.

I happened on a wee girls Camogie blitz on Wednesday of last week in the Abbey Park. It  was something to see the enthusiasm and enjoyment involved in it all. Fair play to the ladies who make it happen. Once there was a very limited palate for sports participation of girls and ladies in Boyle but that is changing thankfully. A regret I have is that I did not try to foster hurling (coming as I do from hurling country near Athleague) in this neck of the woods when I first came to Boyle in the early 70s’.   

Champions League More Drama

After the Roscommon v Leitrim fest I parked myself in a bustling Percey/Whelans Bar in Carrick to watch Liverpool v Real Madrid in the Champions League Final. This has provided plenty of drama for the past few months especially in the knock out stages. It was no different in this game. The Liverpool star Mo Salah, who had taken over the headlines, had to go off injured early in the game which distorted the possible progress of the game.  The villain of that incident was the Real Madrid captain Ramos with a cynical drag to ground of Salah. Still the sides went in at half time nil all. Then in the 51^st minute in the second half of the game the Liverpool goalkeeper gifted Real Madrid a goal with a moment of mindless carelessness. This was cancelled by a Liverpool goal by their best player Mane to level matters five minutes later. Then substitute Gareth Bale provided an absolutely stunning goal on 64 minutes to leave Real in the driving seat. The same player-Bale- with a speculative shot, put the result to bed in the 83^rd minute as the goalkeeper added to his earlier huge error with another of equal consequence.

Real Madrid were deserving winners being the better footballing side but the game will be remembered for the Loris Karius goalkeeping errors, which earned a 3 out of 10 assessment from one online pundit. Gareth  Bale’s stunning goal will also be a gem from the game.

As I said around Christmas the Champions League is probably my top television series of the winter.

   Sorry to end on a very different note but there was an interesting article in last week’s Indo by Ewan MacKenna: ‘Murky questions surround Spanish football's golden era - and people might not like the answers’.

P.S. After the soccer game a couple of us walked through Carrick-on-Shannon to link up with transport for home. It being a Saturday night Carrick was buzzing with vibrancy with throngs of people moving along the streets and large groups seated outside various hostelries. It was like the core of Galway City or Killarney and certainly a young person’s magnet.    

  

Update 11th May

Friday 11th Boyle Camera Club carry out their noble project ‘A Moment in Time’ in photographing Boyle people over a single long day. So if you can spare a little time present at the Crescent between 9am and 9pm on Friday. 

Prologue:

Maybe some of you, like me, think through the winter that you will achieve much more when the days lengthen, the temperature rises and the mood blossoms. Put it on the list I say. Then as the long days flit past it is seven/eight o’clock before you know it. Then you tell yourself that this is something that you might better use your time at during the long winter evenings/nights. But then the shades are down on the night and yourself and you reassure yourself that ‘I’ll, I’ll get to it in May’.  

Visitors from the U.S. of A.

We spent a deal of the May Bank Holiday with relations from New Jersey and what a treat it was for us. I know they enjoyed it but so did we, very much. Treating of Mister Trump, Northern Ireland and the international stories of the now showed how much we had in common. The enthusiastic exchange of photographs, the study and teasing out of family genealogy, the gelling of family links were all compressed into that short memorable time. Visiting the remains of an ancestral homestead was an emotional highlight in the ironic way that it is. So…. in the unlikely event that you read these few lines…. Terri and Jay it was a just lovely experience.        

Vótáil 100 Roscommon Commemoration Lecture Series of Wednesday April the 25th 

In my last blog here I wrote on a number of speakers from the Seminar in King House towards the end of April. They were the Chairperson of Roscommon County Council Orla Leyden who gave a very personal account of the challenges of women in politics. Ivana Bacik showed all her experience with an accomplished and humorous address on the Irish Suffragettes including Margaret Cousins. Margaret Cousins was dealt with in greater detail by Boyle’s Marie Paul Egan who has made a special study of her. This was supplemented by her relation Dr. James Cousins. One would recommend to Boyle people that they get to know an overview of this remarkable woman. 

*With a number of local people such as Joe Mahon, David Gillespie, Knockvicar –a relation of Margaret (Gillespie) Cousins- and Frank Geelan a plaque to her memory was placed on the border of two houses on the upper side of the Crescent , since, apparently they had once been one residence when Margaret lived there.

The plaque details reads; “Margaret Cousins (nee Gillespie) Born in this house 1878. Died in India 1954. Irish Suffragette. Wife of Irish Poet Dr. James Cousins. Founder, in 1921, of The Women’s India Association Madras. Co-founder in 1926 of the All India Women’s Conference. First woman magistrate in India (Madras 1923). Plaque unveiled by the President of the A.I.W. C. Smt. Shobhana Ranade 16th Sept. 1994”.   

Other speakers included Mary McAuliffe of UCD who focussed on Cumann na mBan and how active women were in the Revolution years and in the early years of the Free State. She referenced the ‘anti-women’ legislation and tone of succeeding Irish Free State Governments. Especially noted was the requirement –from 1933 to 73-of married women to terminate their state jobs on marriage. Claire McGing talked of the record of the very poor representation of women in the Dail saying that there were more women in the Dail in 1923 than in 1973. (This has currently led to the introduction of the quota system where parties are obliged to have a certain percentage of women on the ballot paper….that of course does not automatically lead to a large increase in their  numbers elected). There was a comment that the Irish Revolutionaries must have been most conservative revolutionaries to carry that label. (Indeed reactionaries might be a contending label). Claire note that of the 15 women elected between ’32 and ’73 nine were the wives of deceased male members and 3 the daughters. In the Labour Party their only T.D. in the early decades was Maureen O’Carroll in ’54. She was the mother of the present show business personality Brendan.   Again the cry of ‘A Lot Done More to Do’ closed Claire’s address.    

Ireland v Pakistan and My Cricket Journey 

On this Saturday I will be present on the second day of Ireland’s historic first five day test at Malahide. I believe that any game played well is worthy. I think that cricket is the game that is most easily dismissed by people generally. Yet during my time with this blog the paragraphs I wrote on cricket some years ago now drew the most comment. At least four people mentioned it. I think that was when Ireland  defeated Pakistan on St. Patrick’s Day 2007 in the West Indies in the World Cup. It was probably the greatest win by an Irish sporting team in any sport and was only rivalled when they defeated England in India in 2011 in the World Cup again. A number of years ago with some neighbouring cricket enthusiasts I went to Headingly in Leeds for a Test, England v Australia. Unfortunately by midway on the first day we could see the trend of the result while we still had maybe two if not three more days to go. 

I got to know cricket and its supposed unfathomable rules when I was a barman (barboy more like) in The Swan Bar on Hammersmith Broadway in London in the mid-sixties. The great West Indies side with Gary Sobers were touring England. During the day the Tests were broadcast by BBC and I ‘worked’ and watched with the bar flies and they taught me the rules and I kept an eye on it ever since. A year or so after  my Swan days I was working with Murphy’s, in London also, with a ‘search and find’ gang at Chadwell Heath. ‘Search and Find’ meant search for gas leaks, find them and repair same. That’s another story with some drama attached. It was the summer of another visiting touring team -perhaps Australia- in England with its Test Series of five matches.  Anyway there I was down in the trench, teasing my way delicately around a smelly gas pipe with the shovel. It was on some of those many sunny London days. The commuters passed on the sidewalk a number of pessimists with bowler hat and umbrella as they headed to and from ‘the city’. At certain times of the day I would accost one of them with the question; ‘What’s the score in the match?”. “What match Paddy?” was the usual response. “The Test match” I’d reply feigning agitation that it should have been pretty obvious. “You follow the cricket Paddy?” “Of course I do, do I not look like a cricket supporter?” “Not really Paddy, if you don’t mind me saying so. The Ozzies are looking strong but Truman is doing well for England”.  “Go raibh maith agat agus slán” added to his confusion. But perhaps I had given him a little anecdote to relate in the bar as he quaffed his glass of bitter with his hard cheese roll. 

So on Saturday I will journey back to the cricket field and writing (a bit of a strong word for me) of it reminds me of my favourite sport’s poem which deals with cricket and the autumn of life and I attach a verse from it here.

AT LORDS  by Francis Thompson   

 It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk,

Though my own red roses there may blow;

It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk,

Though the red roses crest the caps, I know.

For the field is full of shades as I near a shadowy coast,

And a ghostly batsman plays to the bowling of a ghost,

And I look through my tears on a soundless-clapping host

As the run stealers flicker to and fro,

To and fro:

O my Hornby and my Barlow long ago !              

Sports Review

Champions League Drama Continued in Semi-Finals.

If you read this blog ongoing you will know that I really tune in to Champions League and while it is ‘old’ news now what a week last week was. Real Madrid got through in a thriller with so much happening. The Bayern Munich goalkeeper gifted them a very odd goal which he will remember for a very long time. On the Wednesday Liverpool wen to Rome to finish off from the first leg where they won by 5 goals to 2. A Roma goal early in the second game put it  5 to 3 and the fat was in the fire. But a gifted goal to Liverpool meant them leading by 6 to 3. Still Roma pressed especially late in the game and actually won on the night by 4 goals to 2 but lost on aggregate 7 to 6. A Liverpool managerial mistake in taking off Mo Salah early in the first game plus a couple of bad refereeing decisions relating to hand ball and off-side told against Roma all contributed to the drama.  I am pleased that Liverpool have qualified for the Champions League final in Kiev on Sat. May 26th . My own view though is that the two better teams lost in the semi-finals but as John Joe Nerney used to say; “The best team always wins”.   So Saturday evening May 26th is going to be a big evening of sport with Roscommon versus Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon on as the undercard fo4 the Champions League Final.   

The Success of Boyle Teams 

I have attended a number of Boyle games in the past two weeks and was heartened with some fine and very enjoyable games and results. Stephen Tonra , Michael Bermingham and Kevin Mullin the management team of the juniors have worked the oracle getting 27 players out for the game last Saturday night against Kilglass Gaels who had just 13, so it was played as a 13- a –side. This was a league and championship double fixture in Junior ‘B’. Boyle won on the score of 3.17 to Kilglass 0.10. The star turns for Boyle included Conor Boylan, Jack Moran and Niall O’Donohoe. The previous Saturday they had defeated Fuerty by 4.14 to 0.7. On Sunday the minors gave one of their best displays for some time in division 3 (where Boyle teams should not be) defeating Western Gaels on the score of Boyle 3.14 Western Gaels 1.12. The top players here included Tomas Regan, James Bolger, Cathal Feely, Kelvin Morris and David Battles. I am aware that his team has not had the best of times in earlier age groups but they looked pretty good on Sunday and there is room for optimism that some good players are around the corner age-wise. They now meet a strong Tulsk in the next round. Another game I got part of was a cracking U 14s game v Roscommon Gaels and there was quality a- plenty on show here from both sides. 

I’ll finish with the game of the coming week-end which has to be Galway v Mayo in a sold out Castlebar. They are two teams with possibilities and the questions to be partially answered on Sunday are; A, Is Galway an emerging force? And B, ‘Is Mayo on the way down?  There was a good book published last Autumn titled ‘Will Galway Beat Mayo?’ by James Laffey documenting this long term rivalry.  Feichimid le feichimid.     

( There were a few items I had intended to ‘treat of’ but the day wasn’t long enough).