Back be one of the oldest sports played

Back in the city of Galway, city clubs like LiamMellows, Castlegar, Salthill were beginning to grow and gather members. AlsoTuam Stars a local football team, was found in 1888, were the most popular andsuccessful team at this time winning the championship seven times in a row. Tuam Stars football are still high regarded in the football communitynowadays.  Sport and culture at this time was now seen as a wayof life.

It was just more than a sport or a game it suddenly became an identityof the Irish in the late 1800s and an addition to this ‘ identity’ was thebanning of British games by the GAA and the Irish were being to grow their ownsports and culture and didn’t want to be influenced by the British anymore. Eoin Kinsella often wrote about the imagery of Gaelic Games and said how thesesports were now becoming “ loosely associated with Catholic political agitation” and how that “ support for the Irish Nationalism both cultural and political” was growing (Mullan 2012 & Kinsella). The Irish people took pride in theirsports and culture and as all clubs around Ireland it was all voluntary whichmeant that people took things very seriously and wanted the best. The re-birthof sport and the GAA was now in full swing across Galway city and county andnew clubs being founded. As the GAA was now so popular others sports had tofight back almost to gain support again. A revolution was needed for otherssports like soccer, rugby, cricket and golf as these sports were now beginningto lose out to hurling and Gaelic football. Cricket was just one of the sports that managed tocross the River Shannon into Galway.

Cricket was famously played in theClonbrock estate near Asharagh-Fohenagh and in Ballinasloe where it is believedto be one of the oldest sports played in the town. Cricket was a popular andsuccessful sport played among the landlords and as there was many estatesaround the towns this lead to many clubs being established. Rivalry among teamsand estates, Earl of Cloncarty and the Clonbrack estate, was then built up andcelebrations after winning the game were seemed to be “ all paid by the club”. In the 1830s a Dublin team decided to played Ballinasloe in a match on thegrounds of Garbally Mansion, home of Earl of Cloncarty. The game indeed wasvery heated but the results of the it remains unknown. Many people thought thegame of cricket would grow more and more after this game but it never reallydid and interest levels faded over time.

1 Cricket in Galway city wasseemed to be played on the grounds on the college, UCG at the time, from about1838. The ‘ Galway Express’ reported a game being played in August 1874 in Eyrebetween Galway City Cricket Club and Gort which Gort won. It was the last matchat this venue as building for a new Roman Catholic Cathedral commenced. Galwaydid go on and be represented at international level in cricket at this time , A. D. Comyn , F. G.

Kempster , Robt, Gregoryand Derek Kennedy all represented Ireland in Cricket from about 1890-1925. 2 As cricket was a victim ofclass and politics it went downhill with the “ growth of nationalist sentimentwith Irish political and social systems”.(McArdle 2015) Golf on the other hand was firstly majorly establishedin Renmore where a British Officer designed a nine-hole golf course in1895.  After a few years Galway Golf Clubmoved to Gentian Hill in Barna leased by Marcus Lynch., again after a few moreyears it found its home in Salthill were it remains.  There is reports of golf being played inGalway as early of 1572 by the Connacht Rangers but it didn’t really getpopular till the 1800s. Golf was seen as a high regarded, almost posh sportwhere the uniform was a red blazer with a “ buff collar”.

Entry fee was £1 aswell as paying an annual membership fee of £1. Many Golf course were thenbeginning to be set up i. e., Glenlo Abbey and Connemara Golf Clubs. A lot ofthese golf course at the time were only nine-hole course.

Women in golfing wasslow to take off and in 1898 they had 10 lady members in the Gentian Hill GolfClub in Barna. 1 https://www. cricketleinster. ie/archives/articles/cricket-in-the-west-of-ireland2 https://www. cricketleinster. ie/archives/articles/cricket-in-the-west-of-ireland