Old stuff

Regular readers will know that I have done a few posts in recent months on some of my old bits and pieces from childhood. 'What do you mean' says you...

Let me fill you in.

I called to my parents house a couple of months back and they weren't in. I was about to turn on my heel, but my three boys were with me and asked if they could see my old room as they like to do sometimes, and so we popped upstairs in my parents house and had a look, and we uncovered some interesting bits and pieces.

Old photos, sticker books, mementos and old equipment, including old cameras and a wireless as they were called then, we call them radios now. I got the old equipment handed down as I thought they looked really cool back in the day.

This post is about the match and racing programs I found and today it's about the match programme from Galway's 1997 Gaelic Football senior championship match against Mayo.

For anyone who doesn't know what Gaelic football is. It was Ireland's answer to soccer Rugby and cricket. These English Sports were played in Ireland in the 19th century. There was a ban on Ireland playing our traditional sports such as hurling and other Irish games back at this time, so a group of Irish people formed an Irish sports league of sorts to revive Irish games, customs and the language. It was a secret society of sorts though, as all Irish customs and traditions were banned by the ruling British empire who still held the reigns of power in 1800s Ireland.

The Gaelic League Reintroduced hurling, as well as inventing the concept of Gaelic football near the end of the 19th century and these games have grown in popularity over the years. Today tgey are a corner stone of Irish society and culture and are held in high regard.

Now back to the match program from 1997.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a good day for Galway, with Mayo running out comfortable winners in the end on a scoreline of

Galway 0-15 Mayo 1-16

Here's how the teams lined out that day

Here's the team photos

Anyone familiar with Connacht senior football from those day will recognise from the team photos I shared above Val Daly. Val was a player manager at the time. You don't see that you too often any more, as managing a modern day team is multi faceted, so trying to juggle being a player also is all but impossible.

The Curtain raiser for the senior football match was the club championship hurling final between Clarenbridge and Liam Mellows. I'm sure it was a great game, though I don't remember if I'm being completely honest.

Here are the starting teams from that hurling club championship match that day.