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Margaret thought she had seen the last of baking for the Building of Hope when she had a cake sale to raise money to come on the trip but for the penultimate week of the project her main station was the kitchen.

A personal tragedy moved Mar- garet to make the trip she had been contemplating for some time.

“My children think I’m a bit past my sell-by date for going on this

trip. But my son, Paul, was killed in a road accident last year. When that happened I thought, you only get one chance at life and you have to do something good with it,’ Margaret explained.

Margaret’s final decision to come was a late one but “people were very generous to us, they really support- ered us”.

Secondary school teacher, Joanne, was originally volunteered for the project by her mother.

“Olive Halpin asked my mother if she would come on the trip but she didn’t think she could at the time and said I would go instead. Then she decided to go as well and we’re both here,” said Joanne.

Joanne’s pupils have been follow- ing the Building of Hope website and she will be filling them in on everything that happeded on the trip when she goes back.

“T didn’t really know what to expect when I came out but the camraderie is fantatstic — it’s such a team effort and everyone is pulling together, with the locals. It’s just an amazing experience.’

MINISTER for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Ea- mon Ryan, joined cycling legend Sean Kelly, and his daughter Stacey for an early morning bike ride to offi- cially launch the 2010 An Post Cycle Series, with Clare one of participat- ing counties in what is a joint initia- tive with the Irish Sports Council.

The series aims to encourage com- munities around the country to get on their bikes. With routes catering for everyone from the serious ama- teur to families, the series has proven to be a great way for family, friends and work colleagues to spend a day of fun together while the serious rider can choose a more challenging KO) b Ken

Clare is one of the five counties (Sligo, Meath, Waterford and Cork being the others) that has been se- lected as regional hosts for the An Post Cycle Series events, which run monthly between May and Septem- ber 2010. Each event is organised by the Irish Sports Council’s Local Sports Partnerships in conjunction with their city, county and cycling club partners. The Tour de Burren will feature a 10k family loop as well as a 60k challenge and the 160k a SIUNSFNDeM > IbuRo) te

This is the second year of the se- ries, which were a huge success in year one, with over 5,500 riders taking part last year. The series is a welcome addition to the cycling cal- endar and this year has the additional support of Cycling Ireland.

“T congratulate all those involved

on the great work they have done so far and I’m positive that the Cycle Series will inspire many more people to ‘get on their bike’. It is an annual event that will undoubtedly go from strength to strength.” Minister Ryan added.

This year’s Cycle Series ambassa- dor is former world number one cy- clist Sean Kelly, who will be taking part in the Clare Tour. “I’m delighted to be an ambassador for this year’s series. The events are unique in that they offer something to every type of cyclist, from beginners and families to the more serious and dedicated enthusiast. On a personal note, I’m really looking forward to getting the series underway in Sligo in May, and

as far as a challenge goes I’m looking no further than the “Burnin Burren’ in Clare.”

The An Post Series gets underway on Sunday, May 9, with the An Post Tour of Sligo. This will be followed by the An Post Tour De Burren in Clare on Saturday, June 19, while the Heritage Cycle Tour of Meath will take place on Sunday, July 25. The already well known Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford event will be on Sun- day, August 29, and finally the Rebel Tour of Cork will be on Saturday, September 11.

THE intellectual disability services in Clare are under severe pressure as frustrated staff struggle to find enough time to treat patients.

Staff shortages and tight budgets have also resulted in long waiting lists of children hoping to access the Clare Early Intervention Service (CEIS).

In 2005 the Government introduced legislation requiring CEIS to carry out an assessment of needs on children referred to the services within a very tight time frame. With the legislation came the promise of more resources but these have yet to be provided. As a result, clinical staff hired to treat children with intellectual disabilities are spending their time assessing re- ferrals and writing reports.

In a bid to ensure some children were seen by their therapists the Dis- ability Services in Clare were forced to ring-fence therapy time .

The situation is less than ideal with the HSE admitting that it is proving difficult to retain staff. Providing equipment for people with intellectual and physical disabilities has also led to difficult decisions for HSE staff.

Last year just €725,000 was provid- ed for appliances and equipment for people with intellectual and physical and sensory disabilities in the county.

With a specialised wheelchair cost- ing €10,000, and communication devices costing up to €15,000, staff have to prioritise cases for essential devices, leaving many without.

The budget for the Clare Disabil- ity Services for 2009 was just under €26.5 million. Of that €17,140,517 went to the service providers who work with the HSE.

THE only way for 11-year-old Mo- ses Moody to come in from school is for him to use his arms to drag his crippled legs across the floor on his one-room home in the township at Migombani.

He has use of a wheelchair in the parish school, built by Fr Martin Keane with donations, but the tiny door is far too small as is the room which he shares with his mother, An- gela and nine other adults and chil- dren, all family.

Angela Naliaka throws her grand- daughter, little Angela, up on her

back and wraps her Africa-style, so she can wash little Moses and mas- sage him with coconut oil to try to keep the his skin from constantly breaking out in sores.

Angela’s husband left when she be- came pregnant again after Moses. He told her it was “too much and he went to another woman”. Now Angela has to fend for herself and her children with two of her daughters and her grandchildren also living in the one Keleee mellem aoe

Angela has a job, cooking for the children at the parish school.

“T am thankful to Fr Martin — he has given me a job so I can earn money

to buy food and pay the rent.”

Baby Angela, who is less than a year old, is coughing loudly. She has had pneumonia, a condition not helped by the fact that all of the town- ship families cook on a tiny charcoal Stove, indoors.

Surgery could have helped young Moses, who was born with an open wound in his back but accessing the mostly charity run health services in Kenya is not an easy task. By the time he got into the hospital system, it was too late for surgeons to save any of the movement in his lower body.

He’s doubly incontinent and An-

gela has to buy toddler size nappies to change him four times a day, a ter- rible drain on family finances.

The disease which has twisted and crippled his body has been eliminat- ed in most of the western world.

It’s possible that proper nutrition would have saved him from being born disabled and the vaccine which would have protected him against infant Polio costs just a few pence. But there is no progamme of immu- nisation in this country. The vaccine which would have immunised his mother and saved him for the birth defects costs just a few pence.

The family home has a little fur-

niture, but the only place to store clothes is a wooden wardrobe which is falling to bits. Angela also stores clothes in an old suitcase, also crum- bling and useless. The only thing she asks of the Building of Hope is that one of the carpenters might be able to fix the wardrobe and if one of the many cases brought purely to carry clothes, toys and sweets for the children might be donated to her for storage.

The latter won’t be a problem but the former might be beyond even the skills of the amazing craftsmen who are on the site.

We promise to do our best.

MICHAEL O’ Dwyer got the man-of- the-match gong; Noel Downes was top scorer and between them they hit 1-5; Stephen Moloney, meanwhile, didn’t score at all, but was the other stand-out figure in the forwards.

That he turned in such a energetic running performance — his best since the Munster quarter-final against Dromcollogher-Broadford was re- markable, given his injury-hit prepa- ele (eyee

“My fitness ran out for a finish,” he admits, “because I hurt my hip the week after the Tir Chonaill Gaels game and my first night training was last Thursday night, so there wasn’t much in the tank, but there was enough for me to last that long.”

By then Kilmurry were on the highroad — off the N67 that runs by the football field in Quilty and on the N7 that leads all the way to Dublin,

a destination that Moloney says was always going to be theirs.

“Everything was good in the camp; the mood was good and Declan Call- inan’s suspension really fired us up more. He was the last man that spoke in the dressing room and to see a man crying before you in the dress- ing room puts the hair standing on the back of your head.

“Portlaoise felt that at the start of the game. Whatever Portlaoise might do we knew we had to stick to our running game. We’ve been relying on our backs since the first round of the Clare championship last year, but we finally gave them a performance KOO hs

“We knew we could beat them. We looked at their results. They’d put up big scores — scores like 2-12 and 2-10 and we knew they weren’t going to do that against our backs. Our backs are too good for that and weren’t go- ing to concede a big score.

‘And Portlaoise hadn’t been in bat- tles like we had. That game over in England was some battle. It was the toughest match we’ve ever played and we knew that they hadn’t that done and it showed today, that game against Tir Chonaill Gaels and what we got out of it really showed. They hadn’t the bottle. They didn’t want to battle like we did to win the All-Ire- land semi-final.”

It means Moloney is one of half a dozen or so who will be back in OO AGIA KEM mobaa note with a Féile na nOg team. “Back then I never thought I’d be back in Croke Park. It’s a long time coming but it’s great to be back with a lot of those same boys. It’s unbelievable really.”

THE barony of Ibrickane has a proud history, but there’ll be no day prouder than St Patrick’s Day when they grace Croke Park on All-Ireland Club final day.

“It’s a dream,” said manager Micheal McDermott after Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final win over Portlaoise in The Gaelic Grounds in Limerick by 1-14 to 0-8.

“It’s a dream this club has had for a long time and now it’s a reality that Croke Park is opening out before us. But we’re not going up to make up the numbers. We’re going there to win the All-Ireland,” he added.

TV duty calls for dancer Anthony

A FEW pennies for John Mulligan’s mind 40 seconds into this All-Ire- land semi-final. His team are down a man, but not just any man. It’s his own flesh and blood, his son Brian whose wild lunge at Shane Hickey has made Portlaoise men everywhere see red.

Surely Mulligan’s Snr’s mind turned to mush after what was surely the most controversial and explosive start to an All-Ireland Club game in the competition’s 40-year history.

By half-time Mulligan Snr moves to remonstrate with the Sligo referee, but by full-time he’s nothing to say to him anymore. Happy days say mem- bers of the Fourth Estate — maybe he’ll get his retaliation via the pages of the press, both local and national.

Well John, what about that? Not the result but the sendings off.

We expect him to let rip, he does to an extent, but it’s not the revolution

we re expecting.

“The sendings off had a huge im- pact. The first one, the game was on only a few seconds and it was a real sucker blow. I don’t want to go into it too much more but they were crazy, crazy, crazy decisions.

“It was a joke. If the man has a conscience, he won’t sleep for a long time. If he hasn’t a conscience, there won’t be a bother on him.”

It’s as far as he’s prepared to go be- fore he comes back with some more: “Apart from that sending off, when we were trying to get back into the game in the first-half there were a few big handpasses given against us. But I don’t want to take from Kil- murry’s win, but let us just say that the referee’s performance left a lot to oom ee USLO

“Frustration came into it, but Kil- murry came at us in waves when we were down to 14 men. If the sending off had come maybe ten minutes in when the game had settled, we prob-

ably would have been able to deal with it better, but at the start like that it was a real sucker blow and very hard to recover from it.

“That’s sport. That’s life. You just have to get up and get on with it. That’s what makes sport so marvel- renin

That was it — the rest was all about Kilmurry Ibrickane. How great they were and all that. How he was in their corner now.

‘“Kilmurry Ibrickane fully deserved their win on the day. I know a lot of things went against us but that’s a different matter. I hope that Kilmur- ry Ibrickane go on now and win the All-Ireland for themselves and for their local community.

“The spirit they have, they’ve a great bond with the supporters; they’re what the GAA 1s all about and I’m sure they’ll give Clare a great boost if they go on and win an All-Ireland. I really hope they go on and win it now.”

CLARE farmers are being encour- aged to consider selling their cattle north of the border if competitive prices cannot be found locally.

That was the message from the ICSA beef chairman Peter Fox who urged Clare farmers to get quotes from three different marts before selling cattle and to seriousely con- sider selling cattle in Northern Ire- land.

‘There are also buyers looking for bulls up to 24 months of age and 750kKgs live-weight for the Italian ex- port market. These bulls are making €180/100kgs live weight which is the equivalent to €3.28/kg to €3.33/kg

dead-weight,” he said.

“All of the above factors will put pressure on home factories to in- crease their prices.

“The first factories that will see a scarcity of stock will be the inde- pendent ones so going forward farm- ers should be able to sell their stock with confidence,’ he concluded.

There was good news however for suckler farmers with the news that quality finished suckler cows were currently making €300 plus along with the weight in many marts.

This 1s according to the ICSA suck- ler chairman Brendan McLaughlin who last week said that now is a good time to sell at the marts.

“Farmers with quality cows should

look at selling them in marts rather than bringing them to the factories,” he said.

“It costs a maximum of €10 to sell an animal through the mart where- as factories charge over €50 to kill cows when you take into account BSE testing, vet fees and insurance costs. There are no BSE testing charges in marts and levy charges are a lot less.”

McLaughlin also reminded farm- ers that the EIF levy is voluntary and they can advise mart managers not to deduct these levies from their final cheque.

He also called for supports to be put in place to protect the Suckler Discussion Groups.

“If the minister can give funds to dairy farmers to facilitate dairy discussion groups why are suckler farmers being discriminated against? Suckler farmers sharing their own experiences and best practices for the improvement of the suckler herd can only be positive for the future of the beef industry and the live export trade,” he said.

“The minister has made €18 mil- lion available over three years to the dairy sector to encourage dairy farmers to participate in discussion groups.

“This money has come from un- spent Single Payment funds that are supposed to be available to all farm- are

MICHEAL McDermott is the first to peel away from the biggest rolling maul that the home of rugby has ever seen — it starts underneath the Mick Mackey Stand and moves quickly in the direction of Thomond Park and Seller shee

Mackey wouldn’t have minded — he loved rugby so much he was a mem- ber of the Vigilante Committee so he could go to games. McDermott doesn’t mind either and doesn’t want to break away, but RTE’s cameras are calling, not to mind a posse of hacks who were giving chase — he’s not about to run away on his great- est day.

“Every player ran himself into a stick and that’s what the club is about,’ he says drawing breath. ‘“That’s what our mantra is about. It’s work ethic all the way. There’s tremendous honesty among the play- ers and everyone involved and that’s what wins out at the end of the day.

‘“There’s a hunger about these play- ers to keep winning, winning and

winning. They have such a belief among themselves — they believe that they’re the best in the country. SU cr TMcMmeetomAW: WAN O Olean ecROO PERO OT:IMCME NOLS way they play.

‘This week, the one thing I noticed as against the Munster final was that there was no fear of today. There was no fear or tension that you’d expect coming into an All-Ireland semi-fi- nal. I never saw a team as ready — I said it Tuesday night, I said it Thurs- day night, I said it yesterday. We were confident coming down that we were going to deliver.”

Confidence, adds McDermott, that was nurtured after their quarter-final win over Tir Chonaill Gaels. Yes, Kilmurry won ugly that day in Ruis- lip, but it was the game as much as the win that mattered.

“Nobody realises what an impact that game had on us. We had a fresh- ness coming into today that was vital. Portlaoise had a long lay-off since December 6. We watched the DVD of Kerry v Dublin in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final and looked at what Kerry did to Dublin in the

first 23 minutes.

“We said we were going to try and do the same. Like Kerry, we were the fresher team and we took the game to our opponents like they did and that’s when this game was won.

‘And we won because of our dis- cipline too. Football is a game of discipline. We held our discipline; we held it all year long and in every game since coming out of Clare, our opponents have lost a player, some- times more than one.

“It’s sad to see the scenes at the end there when a referee who did a very good job. He made a call on what was a very very dangerous tackle — when that happens you have to walk Ke) as nd

As McDermott speaks, Declan Callinan passes by — the suspended left-half-back has given up to walk off the field and instead is being swept away shoulder high by the roll- ing maul that’s finally turning away from Cratloe Hill and heading back towards Mick Mackey.

‘He played a huge huge part,” says McDermott raising a fisted salute. “For a guy that was suspended he was around the team all the time this week. He didn’t train on Friday night, but yet he drove all the way down from Belfast, just to be part of it.

“That guy is what this club is all about. His life, his soul is Kilmurry Ibrickane. Every sinew that he gives is for the club. He spoke to the play- ers beforehand and broke down in tears, as did a lot of the players and a lot of the management. That’s what it means. Deep down there’s a tremen- dous bond between everyone of these EN uce

“This day is acredited to Declan Callinan. We won it for him because we want to give him a day out in Croke Park that he richly deserves after a long career.”

He’s just one of many who deserves that day in Croke Park.