Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30 (Vigil) Martin & Kate Cleary, (Anniv).
11.00: Christina Foy, (Anniv) & David Donovan Coyle, (Anniv).
6.30: Mary Barrett, (Annniv).

Straight from the Horse's Mouth......

The coming week is the most important sporting and social week in the Galway calendar. It is that time of year when we put our feet up and let our hair down. The official "builders' holiday" (and every person associated with that trade) begins this weekend. If you are a visitor to the city, and happen to wander into the Augustinian, you are in all probability in search of St. Jude, the 'Patron of Hopeless Cases.' Bring the race card with you! Jude may be good, but don't push him too far!

Over 120,000 people will descend on the city for the racing festival. Many of these will be returned emigrants, mainly from Britain, with their roots deeply anchored in the west of Ireland. Traditionally, this has always been the case. They came home for the races. As a result, the Galway race festival has a family dimension to it that is not to be found at any other race meeting in the country.

But don't let that fool you. The Galway Races is not primarily about strengthening family bonds, or promoting Catholic family values! Punters will lay (and probably lose!) about €125 million in bets this week; but the festival will generate an estimated €70 million for the local Galway economy. Racing here is a serious business, and always was.

The first racing festival held in Ballybrit was a two-day event, in August, 1869. According to local newspapers, 40,000 attended. The public park in Eyre Square was set up as a campsite. The Great Western Railway agreed to carry all horses to and from the course free of charge. Specifically commissioned trains came to Galway from all over the country. The Lough Corrib Steam Navigation Company ran a special service from Cong. All roads, rails and rivers seemed to converge on Galway.

In 1929, the Galway Plate were broadcast on radio for the first time, and in 1963 television broadcasting begun. Corporate sponsorship of races began in 1959 when the Galway Races was extended to a three-day meeting. Today, of course, the festival is a full seven-day event.

Horse racing, but betting and gambling in particular was not regarded in good light by some religious groups and sects. Low-church Protestants were particularly hostile. But there was something of a social and legal stigma attached to the activities too. Local bookmaker, John Mulholland, was warned by the Gardai in the mid-1960s that his family's betting shop in Galway would be closed if the firm continued to play live horseracing results on the radio on Saturday afternoons! "When I started working you weren't allowed to have anything that would attract the punter in," said Mulholland. "That was against the law. You weren't allowed to have any advertising on the front. You had to black out the window. Nobody could see in." Since then the industry has changed greatly. Mulholland said bookie shops were no longer the dark, smoke-filled recesses, where customers were deterred from entering. However, competition has pushed open the doors, forcing Mulholland and other smaller operators to perform against the larger outfits. Nevertheless, the Galway Races is bigger than the bookmakers. It is a great annual social event where you meet up with your friends and rejoice in the fact that your have all survived another year. Enjoy the week.

-Dick Lyng

Items of Great Interest

Make a Horse Laugh!

A chap at the bookies goes to the screens and checks the prices of the next race. There are only two horses in the race and it seems pretty uncompetitive as the favourite is 10 to 1 on and the other is priced at 40 to 1 against. Nonetheless, he makes his way to the counter and asks to place £250 on the outsider.

Being a friendly sort, the bookmaker tries to put him off the bet and assures the customer that the outsider has absolutely no chance against the favourite but the man is insistent and demands that the bet be placed. The bookmaker tries again to convince the man he'd be losing his money but eventually agrees to take the bet and gleefully deposits the £250 into his till. They both then watched the race on the television and, horror of horrors, the favourite fell at the third hurdle and the outsider casually trotted to the finishing line.

The customer was straight back to the counter and demanding his winnings. "No problem," said the bookmaker, "I will happily pay you what you have won" and counted out the £10,250. As he did so, he confided to the man, "You are amazingly lucky - between you and me, I actually own the outsider that you bet on and he is such a donkey, even I didn't back it".

As he collected his winnings and made his way to the door, the lucky punter replied, "That's a coincidence, I own the favourite"!!!!!!!

The Riders in the Stand

by A. B. "Banjo" Paterson

There's some that ride the Robbo style, and bump at every stride;
While others sit a long way back, to get a longer ride.
There's some that ride like sailors do, with legs, and arms, and teeth;
And some ride on the horse's neck, and some ride underneath.

But all the finest horsemen out -- the men to beat the band --
You'll find amongst the crowd that ride their races in the stand.
They'll say "He had the race in hand, and lost it in the straight".
They'll show how Godby came too soon, and Barden came too late.

They'll say Chevalley lost his nerve, and Regan lost his head;
They'll tell how one was "livened up" and something else was "dead" --
In fact, the race was never run on sea, or sky, or land,
But what you'd get it better done by riders in the stand.

The rule holds good in everything in life's uncertain fight;
You'll find the winner can't go wrong, the loser can't go right.
You ride a slashing race, and lose -- by one and all you're banned!
Ride like a bag of flour, and win -- they'll cheer you in the stand.

(The Evening News, 12 August 1903)

Items of Some Interest

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