Search Results for 'Tom Browne'

Queen’s College Galway Rugby Club was founded in 1874, 150 years ago, making it the oldest rugby club in Connacht. They have a long and proud history and have helped nurture and boost many rugby careers helping players to the highest levels. They were a founding club of the Irish Rugby Football Union. They won their first Connacht Senior Cup in 1897 and have managed to hold that trophy aloft many times since. Their first victory in the Dudley Cup, played for by the three Queen’s Universities, was in 1905. They have featured many times in the Bateman Cup, an exclusive competition in which clubs participate by invitation only.

It is fairly certain that rugby football was being played in Galway before the formation of the IRFU, but the lack of surviving minutes of meetings or records makes it difficult to pinpoint the actual beginnings of some clubs. We know that in 1886 there were four clubs in existence, Queen’s College (now UG), The Grammar School, Galway Town, and Old Galwegians. These latter two clubs amalgamated in the 1909/10 season and called themselves Galway Town. They were a successful club. World War I and its aftermath ruled out competitive rugby but in the resumption, in 1921/22 they again won the senior cup and then, for some reason, decided to change the name again, this time to Galwegians RFC.

The Lake County Movathon fundraising initiative officially ended on April 5 but the Go FundMe page established to receive donations is still active to facilitate those who wish to make late contributions.

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.

The county senior ladies' football final between Kilkerrin-Clonberne and Corofin outfit takes place in Moyullen on Saturday (3pm).

The good summer weather brought large numbers out to the golf clubs around the county last weekend.

The Irish Environmental Researchers' Colloquium (ENVIRON) is the largest annual gathering of environmental researchers in Ireland, regularly attracting in the region of 300 delegates.

An intriguing report appeared in the Galway Express of March 21 1903 which stated: “At Prospect Hill on St Patrick’s Day, two hurling matches were played between the Gaelic League v Queen’s College, and Castlegar v Bohermore. The National Independence Band, The Forster Street Fife and Drum Band and the Industrial School Band, with several thousand people, attended. In the match between the Gaelic League and Queen’s College, the League won by 3 – 3 to 2 – 0. Castlegar beat Bohermore.”

One of Galway’s most enduring, most enjoyable, and most enjoyed institutions is the community based musical group, St Patrick’s Brass Band. The band was founded in Forster Street in 1896 and they have been entertaining Galwegians since.

The first team to represent Connacht in rugby played against Leinster on December 8 1885. At that time, the game in the west was played by just a few schools. In the city, it was really only UCG and the Grammar School who played with any regularity. By the beginning of the last century the Jes, the Bish, and St Mary’s were competing. The growth of the game was interrupted by World War I and by the War of Independence, but it improved a lot after the truce.