Search Results for 'John Faherty'

On this day 85 years ago, the fourth of July 1929, rowing history was made at Galway Regatta when a crew from the Menlo Emmetts Club brought the Senior Eights Championship trophy to Galway for the first time. All of the crew were from the small village a few miles up the Corrib, were native Irish speakers, and had lived locally and worked by the river all of their lives.

This lane is one of the most attractive in Galway and one of the most historic. There were originally 14 lanes in medieval Galway and this is one of the few that still exist. It dates back to the 16th century. As our photograph shows, it must have been very impressive back then.

One of the great sporting achievements of the last century was the remarkable success of a group of Irish speaking farmers and local men from Menlo. During a very wet spring when they could do little work on their farms or on the bog, as they watched rowing crews going up and down the river, a group of them decided to form a rowing club. They asked to become members of Menlo Emmetts Hurling Club and adopted the name. Many of them would have spent a lot of time on the river, but that did not mean they knew how to handle a racing boat. When they took their clinker out for the first time, it took them a good while to steady the boat. A local man watching, described them as “The Wobblers” and this name stuck for a few years.

In spite of the sunshine, this is a dreary 1960s photograph of Kirwan’s Lane which was originally taken by Derek Biddulph.