Ups and downs for South Galway in 2009

Review

Flooding in South Galway and across the country in late November caused widespread disruption and damage. As well as costing millions of euro to local authorities, the deluge resulted in flood damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure, buildings and rendered thousands of acres of farmland inaccessible or unusable. The flooding caused closures of sections of the N18 Galway to Limerick Road and detours were implemented for motorists.

The floods also resulted in further delays to the already behind schedule Western Rail Corridor. The rail route linking Gort to Galway and Limerick had been due to open in January 2009 but was delayed by a year to January 2010. However, Iarnród Éireann announced in late November that the WRC would not be opened on schedule due to flooding on the line. It is not now known when the line will reopen.
Long before the winter rain, there had been palpable anger among residents and business people in Gort about issues relating to the town’s water supply and the lack of public toilets. Two public meetings attended by local representatives were subsequently held where residents heard that the Gort regional water scheme was “a long way away”, that there was no money for the upgrade of the N18 through Gort and there was little hope of receiving funds for public toilets in the town.
In June’s local elections, local independent councillor Ardrahan’s Michael ‘Stroke’ Fahy topped the poll, while Fine Gael’s Bridie Willers, also from Ardrahan, secured one of four seats in the area for her party. First-time candidate Fianna Fáil’s Gerry Finnerty, manager of Gort Mart, secured the Government party’s only seat in the constituency.
Despite the flooding that dominated the news in November and the subsequent heavy frost in late December, South Galway had much to celebrate in 2009.
The second Forge at Gort festival was held in March, with well-known writer, critic and poet Ulick O’Connor headlining the event.
Though well attended, Gort’s inaugural Rí Rá Festival held at the end of August was badly affected by the weather and one of the flagship events, a concert by The Blizzards, which was part of the Rí Vibe section of the festival, had to be rescheduled.
2009 was a milestone year for the Cooley Collins Traditional Music Festival. As well as marking its silver anniversary, two of the festival’s organisers retired from the committee after two decades of continuous involvement. Mary Coen joined the organising committee in 1989, while Ann Walsh, the festival’s treasurer, also retired.
Another organisation marking an anniversary was the Beagh Integrated Rural Development Association. It celebrated 20 years restoring sites of historical significance. As well as launching Beagh, A History and Heritage in May, the group held a public mass in August to mark the restoration of Tobar Rí an Domhnaigh on the Galway-Clare border.
Another group attempting to improve the appearance of their area worked throughout the year in the South Galway village of Kinvara. A group organised clean-ups every second Saturday and identified an area that was particularly problematic, cigarette butts on the ground outside pubs. To beat the butts, the group organised for painted buckets to be placed outside a number of licensed premises in the town in order to encourage smokers to bin their butts, rather than drop them on the ground. The initiative was supported by public houses in community. The effort was aimed at bringing the village to a standard where it could take part in the National Tidy Towns Competition.
During the year, a new extension was opened in Lurga National School, while Mary Hanafin, the former Minister for Education, now Minister for Social and Family Affairs, officially opened the new extension to Ballyglass National School, Ardrahan later in the year. St Joseph’s National School in Kinvara opened a new playground, along with community tennis courts and all-weather pitches.
2009 proved particularly successful for students and teachers involved in sport at Gort Community School. As well as two students winning All-Ireland medals on the same team as their teacher, two classmates took home All-Ireland titles for different counties and one of the graduating Leaving Cert class scooped a regional engineering award for the second time.
The school’s physical education teacher, Aoife Lynskey, along with pupils Noreen Murphy and Rebecca Hennelly were on the Galway panel that won the All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Championship.
Two young men who completed their Leaving Certificate exams in June marked another unusual sporting feat for the school. Classmates Patrick O’Connor from Tubber and Richie Cummins from Gort both won All-Ireland medals for hurling for their respective counties in their respective age groups. Patrick was on the Clare team that this year brought the national U-21 title to the Banner County for the first time, while Richie was on the Galway minor squad that once again basked in All-Ireland glory.
Indeed, Gort saw huge celebrations in early September when the victorious Galway minor hurling team returned to a crowd of more than 1,500 supporters. South Galway was well represented on the panel. Gort boasted the manager Mattie Murphy, as well as captain Richie Cummins, alongside his teammates Jason Grealish, Albert Mullins and Ger O’Donoghue. Not to be outdone, neighbouring St Thomas’s also sent four forward to meet the cats in the final, with James Regan, Conor Cooney, Patrick Skehill and Cathal Burke all donning the maroon and white to represent their county. Craughwell had two representatives on the panel, Mark Horan and Cathal Greaney. Ardrahan, Ballinderreen and Tommy Larkins each had a single club man in the Galway colours, Cormac Diviney, Kevin Lane and David Hickey respectively.
Seamount College, Kinvara was leased by the Department of Education this year, resulting in the continuing of second-level education in the school. However, this resulted in the remaining Sisters of Mercy moving from the premises to Gort in August.
There were a number of firsts in South Galway during 2009. Gort became a Fairtrade town in the autumn and the official launch took place in October. Kinvara hosted a 5.5 Aquathlon in August, consisting of a 5-kilometre run and a 500-metre swim. The event raised money for MS Ireland and St Joseph’s National School, Kinvara. Labane’s Martin Whelan became the first man from the parish to be ordained a priest in more than 50 years in June. The 27-year-old man from Grannagh was later appointed to the parish of Galway Cathedral.