90 TRIBUTE TO KAY WILLIAMS GLINSK CELEBRATES 100 YEARS On September 29th 2009 we lost our most honourable and respected member our club has had, Kay Williams. Kay’s contribution to this community is untold. Her dedication to her family was immense and she carried this same commitment with all her colleagues at work. However, one of the most endearing aspects of her life was her contribution to sport but more so with the under age. Along with her husband Paddy they devoted the best part of 30 years in the promotion of sport in the parish of Abbeyknockmoy. While they followed all sports they had a great fondness for hurling and they helped immensely in all aspects of running a club from fundraising, coaching teams, but it’s also fair to say that they were the main instigators of having a proper under age structure set up which would compete on an equal basis similar in line with most senior teams which we have in place today. It was quite poignant that on Kay’s last day, she and her husband Paddy along with their granddaughter attended one of the most important hurling fixtures in the Parish, the Fr. O’Brien Cup & Shield tournament, involving all the local national schools where she witnessed top class action and in a way it was a fitting tribute to all her efforts over the years. Her sad and untimely passing touched us all which is why we as a club found it only fitting to hold the ‘Kay Williams Perpetual Tournament’ to commemorate this wonderful lady who we hold in very high esteem. This was and U12’s tournament which saw Ahascragh/Fohenagh defeat Tuam in the shield final and Skehana narrowly defeating Abbey in the Cup Final. Abbey had the better of the exchanges during the match but failed to take advantage and were caught in the closing minutes by a goal to lose out by two points. Overall the competition played over two weeks was a great success and a fitting tribute to the late Kay Williams. This is now an annual event set in the club calendar and we hope next year our boys can win back the trophy. On the week-end of the 24th – 26th August 2012, the north Galway community of Glinsk came together to celebrate a special centenary. Most of the families who now live in the parish moved to their present locations in 1912, and the week-end activities celebrated the ‘re-settlement’ process. The week-end was officially launched by well known RTE western correspondent Jim Fahy and the celebrations included a seminar looking at the history of the parish with the launch of a book documenting the history of each family in the parish. The celebrations concluded on Sunday the 26th with a GAA football match between a team from Glinsk parish and a team from the neighbouring parish of Creggs. This match was unique in it’s own way in that it was played under the 1912 playing rules of the GAA , - a half page list of 10 regulations governing the size of the playing and goalmouth areas, the number of players, the duration of the game and the powers (few) of referee and umpire. In the rules, references to foul play are restricted to – ‘ pushing, tripping from behind, holding from behind or butting with the head, and in these circumstances the player ‘ shall be asked to stand aside and take no further part in the match and he cannot be substituted, (rule 6). Also at rule 10, -‘the referee or umpire shall have the power to disqualify any player or order him to stand aside and discontinue playing for any act that they deem unfair. How about that for an all-encompassing rule? One can only imagine the comments that implementation of such a rule, if it were in use today would engender. Rule 9 states that when a ball is kicked over a sideline it shall be thrown,- yes thrown. - back into play by an opposing player. If kicked over one’s own goal line it shall be thrown back by an opposing player. That’s it, no mention of advantage, dissent, divots, red or yellow cards, square balls, incursions, pick up, handpass, melees, penalties or technical fouls and one can only imagine the attitude to a player who would ‘feign injury’. The absence of any reference to anything other that what is listed probably reflects the strong attitude of fair play that existed at the time and an all round understanding that this attitude would never be infringed by any of those taking part. An old brown laced football was produced, but purely for photographic purposes. Such was its condition – as dry as a match stick and as light as a balloon, that a strike by either a boot or even a fist would have resulted in its immediate disintegration. It took both teams quite a while to adapt to the new rules and there were some ‘hairy’ moments. The immediate impulse upon gaining possession was to solo or hop the ball, but since there was no reference to this in rule, this was not allowed and this did cause some irritation to say the least to begin with, resulting in some unprintable comments from offending players. However this was balanced by players in possession being allowed to run for up to ten steps with the ball before playing it and players became more acquainted as the game went on. There was no reference to points in the rules so they were ‘outlawed’ too. However it was decided before the game that in the event of draw the points tally would decide the winners –an Irish solution to an Irish problem if ever there was one. Creggs took an early lead – three goals to nil, but Glinsk came back to level the match at 4 goals apiece. The game became quite competitive going into the last quarter, and one final attack by Creggs secured the vital score. The game ended on that score – Creggs 5 goals to Glinsk 4 goals and thankfully (well from the referee’s point of view anyway), the points tally was not required. A sizeable crowd, supporting both sides enjoyed a very competitive and sporting encounter, and while the final result did not find favour with everybody, Creggs were not complaining. A fitting end to an excellent week end of unique celebrations in the parish of Glinsk.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzM2OTY=