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THERE will be no big screen put up for public viewing of the All-Ireland hurling final replay on September 28.

A crowd of between 1, 500 and 3,000 people watched the drawn match between Clare and Cork on September 8 on a big screen in the Abbey Street car park.

The screen was erected at a cost of € 8,000 to Ennis Town Council.

However in a statement last week, town manager Gerard Dollard the timing of the replay for an evening throw-in on a Saturday evening presented “a different set of circumstances”.

He explained, “The logistics associated with the replay are significantly more complex than a Sunday afternoon showing. The revised ticket prices for the replay at Croke Park should make it more accessible to families with the reduced price for all tickets, including juvenile tickets at € 10. The cost and weather factors must also be taken into consideration. The council was delighted to stage such a family-friendly occasion last Sunday but due to cost, logistical and weather factors does not plan to repeat a similar open-air event for the senior replay.”

Local community activist Dermot Hayes is calling on the council to re-consider the decision. He said, “The big screen does not have to be in Abby Street car park. It could easily be in the Fair Green and remain erected until the home coming on Sunday. Our elected councilors should support the citizen, hurlers and fans.

We have seen many dark days in Clare in the last few years. The hurlers of both under 21 and senior have brought us great joy and excitement. It unites us as citizens of county and it brought so many families and friends together. A gathering in Ennis would bring to life a real passion that could be captured on film and used world wide in promotion.

The council has confirmed that a joint homecoming for the Clare senior squad and the All-Ireland winning under 21 panel will take place at Tim Smythe Park (Fair Green) on Sunday, September 29.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of one of Clare’s biggest GAA clubs has written to the President of the GAA requesting that a portion of the gate receipts from the replayed All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final between Cork and Clare on September 28 be allocated towards the respective county holiday funds. Pat Daly, who is Chairman of Éire Óg GAA Club, Inis, and is a former Mayor of Clare, said the players had trained nine months of the year to provide the people of Ireland with one of the most memorable sporting displays ever seen at Croke Park and should be rewarded for their efforts.

The sitting member of Clare County Council has suggested that funds of € 200,000 and € 100,000 respectively be provided to the All Ireland Hurling Championship winning and losing sides.

AN INTERNATIONAL run in memory of two young Clare people has raised € 28,000 for two local charities.

The Hurley-Hoey Memorial Run/ Walk and Jog took place on March 9 this year in Doora-Barefield, while simultaneous events under the Hurley-Hoey banner were held in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Dubai, Capetown, New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires.

The event was organised in memory of Eilish Hurley, who died from cancer aged just 30 years old, and Ger Hoey, who died suddenly while out running aged just 40 years.

The proceeds from the event went to two organisations – St Anne’s School in Ennis, which provides education to pupils who have special educational needs and the Children’s Ark Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick.

Each charity received € 14,000 each.

Eilish’s sister Fiona is a nurse on the children’s ward.

“As a children’s nurse working in the Ark, I nominated this unit as I could see first-hand how the money raised could be used to make the lives of parents and children a little easier in particular the parents of children with oncology or life life-limiting conditions who spend prolonged periods in hospital,” said Ms Hurley.

“The event was an enormous success with in excess of 2,000 people registering and taking part,” she added.

“Much of the success of the event was attributed to the excellent organisation and dedication of a committee chaired by Lorcan Hassett. I would like to thank to all those who supported the event and thus contributed to its success.”

THE world’s most famous middle distance runner is waking up in North Clare this morning, and preparing for a leisurely jog around Ennistymon. World and Olympic 800 meter champion, David Rudisha, will today pay a visit to all three secondary schools in Ennistymon – starting in the vocational school, before taking on the big climb to the Ennistymon CBS and finally on to Scoil Mhuire. Rodesia and his wife Lizzy are the guests of Ennistymon couple Pat and Neilus O’Doherty, who have hosted a number of Olympic champions in Ennistymon over the years.

On August of 2010, Rudisha broke Wilson Kipketer’s 800 metre World Record and was also the first man to run under one minute and 41 second for the event. Indeed, so complete is the 23 year old’s domination of the event that h- has now ran the three quickest 800 metres ever recorded.

Rudisha is famously trained by Irish Christian brother Colm O’Connell. Brother O’Connell first arrived in the Rift valley from Cork in 1976 on a two-year placement to teach at a Catholic boarding school and over the last 30 he has helped establish kenya as the powerhouse of middle distance running. O’Connell first spotted 14-year-old David Rudisha in 2004, running the 200 metre sprint at a provincial schools race.

“He only came fifth, but I noticed he was a tall, elegant runner, and that he was focused, so I made a mental note to watch out for his progress,” he said.

“He had never run an 800m before so I wasn’t expecting anything. Then the surprise came.”

The young Rudisha ended up beating the then Kenyan national champion and record a time just eight second off a world record – in his first ever 800 metre race.

A HIGH tech badger-baiting operation has been uncovered in East Clare with people using underground tracking devices to locate and kill families of badgers.

A small black terrier dog, equipped with the powerful mobile transmitter, was discovered in the O’Briensbridge area of the county yesterday. According to Clare County Council’s ISPCA dog warden, Frankie Coote, the dog was being used to ferret out the badgers and lead groups of “hunters” to their sets.

It is understood that this sort of equipment would be used by serial badger baiters who would travel the countryside searching for badger sets to attack. The baiters could be invited by a farmer on the land, but, according to Mr Coote, they often enter property uninvited in order to kill badgers for the illegal blood-sport.

“I have the dog and the collar with the tracking device and this dog was clearly used for digging out badgers. This is a very high tech device – they track the dogs movements underground and then they go in and kill the older badgers and the younger defenseless badgers in the set,” said Mr Coote. “We can tell that the dog has been used for this a lot. She is blind in one eye and has several old wounds and more recent wounds. This is an underground blood sport in the same way that dog fighting is underground.

“It is a problem. We believe that there are four or five underground groups that participate in this in Clare. Sometimes they would be invited in by farmers to remove the badgers, because the farmers are worried that they [the badgers] might be carrying TB, but in some cases they go in without the knowledge of the farmers.

“These people are just doing this because they get a kick out of killing the badgers. The are the same people might set two dogs to fight each other and bet on which dog would win the fight.

“This is cruelty for the badgers and the dog. This dog is destroyed from the fighting. She has a lovely temperament but she has been trained to be involved in this awful thing.”

Badgers are naturally docile creature but when cornered they can turn into dangerous fighting animals. Badger baiting has been illegal in Ireland for decades but the NPWS has secured ten convictions for the illegal persecution of badgers since 1993.

EXPLORING sacred places around her native Ennis provided the inspiration for Caitriona Sheedy’s contribution to Culture Night.

“The process begins with a silent walk, while observing any sensations, thoughts, feelings and then drawing a map of first impression,” she reveals.

“Then an area that you feel drawn to is chosen as the place that you carry out the next stages for the rest of the process,” she adds.

The Old Mill in Ennis became the focal point of Ms Sheedy’s study and for his exhibition she has created a wheel. “The overall feeling at the summing up was one of ‘hopelessness – afraid to die, afraid to live’,” she says.

“The wheel sits idol and I learned as a result of the project that there has been efforts by two different parties to get this place in motion again.”

The first stage of this project was undertaken by way of exploring the energy of place.

Ms Sheedy’s work already explored energy and she had decided to deepen this work by learning more about what it is her work communicates and how the energy of a particular subject could be channeled.

“Drawn to explore the energy of sacred sites, I was delighted to take part in a Goethean study of place which gave her the steps she felt would be hugely beneficial to her own work.

“On the walks in the first stage I knew that it was a huge space to take on and thought to repeat the process on my own again in different areas.

“However it seemed much more logical to invite other artists to get involved and so a call for artists was sent out and part two of the project began in May,” she adds.

FUNDING cutbacks has forced Clare Youth Services to close two popular youth cafés in Ennis, it has emerged.

The cafés, which are located in Ennis town centre, were both drug and alcohol free areas. One of the buildings has closed completely, while the youth services have been forced to reduce the opening hours of another facility for young people.

Speaking at a meeting to discuss issues around alcohol misuse, Clare Youth Services CEO, Margaret Slattery said the Government must invest more money in preventative services.

She said the service had suffered a 40 per cent cut in funding over the past three years, a situation that forced the closure of alcohol-free facilities for young people in Ennis.

Ms Slattery said three groups have approached the service appealing for the cafés to be re-opened.

“It would cost around € 14,000 to re-open the cafés but we just don’t have the resources,” explained Ms Slattery.

Retired consultant psychiatrist, Dr Moosajee Bhamjee told the meeting there is a chronic lack of treatment programmes for young people in Ireland with alcohol and substance misuse problems.

He said, “We have all these young people on Saturday night and Sunday morning having all these problems but where do you go for your detox.

Dr Bhamjee continued, “How do you get detox? The GPs will put you on a detox programme but that’s only for certain selected people. The psychiatry hospitals don’t do it anymore. The Department of Health has no policy on treatment programmes. The mental health commission doesn’t see alcohol and drug abuse as their responsibility. So who is responsible to help these people? I know we have Bushypark and other places but first you have to detox the person and there is nowhere to go.”

Former Labour party councillor and now Independent councillor Paul O’Shea described as a “dis- grace” the lack of treatment centres for young people in Ireland.

Cllr O’Shea said the situation with alcohol abuse has grown so bad in Ireland that the HSE should consider using separate Accident and Emergency units for people presenting with drink related problems.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) called for the off-trade sale of alcohol to be priced out of the market. He said pubs, restaurants and other businesses are being forced to deal with the effects of high volumes of alcohol consumed before 10pm.

A GRANDMOTHER blew a whistle and claimed to be a whistleblower on war crimes as Ennis District Court was disrupted for a brief period on Wednesday.

Anti-war activist Margaretta Darcy (79) shouted, “there are US warplanes at Shannon. The Irish Government is guilty of complicity and if you are against war, say ‘no to war’.” during the brief hearing.

Ms Darcy, with an address at St Bridget’s Place, Woodquay, Galway, and her co-accused, Niall Farrell (60), received loud cheers and a round of applause from supporters following their actions.

Earlier, Mr Farrell, had been ordered to leave the courtroom after making a number of statements.

Mr Farrell, with an address at Ballynacloghy, Maree, Galway, claimed “murder is being committed at Shan- non Airport” and that there is “blood” on the hands of all Irish people.

There was an eruption of laughter after Mr Farrell pulled on a rubber mask of US President Barrack Obama as he was escorted from the courtroom by gardaí.

Both Ms Darcy and M Farrell wore orange Guantanamo style jumpsuits.

Both accused are charged with two offences under the Air Navigation and Transport Act.

It is alleged that Mr Farrell and Ms Darcy on October 7 (2012) and September 1 (2013) interfered with the proper use of Shannon Airport by going on the runway without permission.

Outlining the alleged facts, Insp Kennedy said the pair was discovered by airport security on the runway.

The accused were conveyed to the terminal building, charged and brought before Limerick District Court on September 2.

Judge Patrick Durcan accepted jurisdiction. Insp Kennedy said the pair had declined legal representation. He said the State would transmit all papers relating to the alleged offences to the accused.

Mr Farrell asked Judge Durcan to strike out the charges, claiming, “these were not actual crimes, it was an act of humanity.”

At a court appearance in July, court was adjourned for a few minutes after Ms Darcy, who walks with the aid of a walking frame, jumped up on a bench and demanded her case be heard.

On Wednesday, Judge Durcan adjourned the cases to October 2. The accused were accompanied by a large group of supporters including a sketch artist.

Judge Durcan ordered that one man put down a sign reading “War Is The Crime”.

AS TOWN councils resume this month for their last ever term, and the county council regroups for the last time in its current format, political parties must now begin to look seriously to next summer’s local elections.

The two largest political parties in the county both agree that the county’s hurling success has somewhat delayed the party conventions and the only sport the people of Clare are interested in these weeks is hurling. The blood sport that is local politics will have to wait another day.

That day for the Government party, Fine Gael is most likely November or perhaps late October as the party are anxious to get the process of selecting their candidates started.

Fine Gael currently has its strongest ever membership in Clare County Council, while also dominating the town councils.

There are also some new names being considered as candidates for the party, with the final election candidates being selected at four different conventions – one for each new Municipal Electoral Area.

Each member of more than two years will have a vote at convention.

Regional organiser Jim McMahon explained that a local committee has been set up to consider dates for the conventions, which they will then propose to the party’s National Ex- ecutive Council.

Fianna Fáil, who are promoting a new look party at every opportunity and insisting there is change since Michael Martin took over as leader of the party, must have their new candidates selected soon too if the public are to get to know the new blood ahead of polling day.

Local representatives are to meet with Mr Martin in Galway on Thursday at his request, followed by a second meeting with the National Director of Elelections Michael Moynihan in Ennis.

Fianna Fáil constituency organiser Michael Neylon said the party intends to have five selection conventions in early to mid-October.

As well as having a convention for the new Ennis, Killaloe and Shannon electoral areas, it plans to have two conventions for the West Clare area dividing the selection process between the outgoing Ennistymon and Kilrush Electoral Areas.

“Our intention and desire is to have a female in each area, even if it is not yet a requirement. Gender balance is very important in itself,” said Mr Neylon.”

“We are looking for a balance of youth and experience and we have to get that if we are in the process of reforming.”

For the first time ever, every Fianna Fáil member of a year or more will have a vote at conventions, with sitting councillors also required to go before the members for selection.

TWO Clare men have appeared in court charged separately with possession of child pornography.

Both men are charged with offences under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1988. The alleged offences are alleged to have been committed in two different parts of the county.

A 33-year-old man is charged that on June 28, 2013, at a location in County Clare he did knowingly have in his possession child pornography featuring naked male images.

He was previously brought before Kilrush District Court before making his serious court appearance at Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that gardaí are awaiting directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Defence solicitor William Cahir said his client was reserving his position with respect to bail. Judge Patrick Durcan granted a State application to change the date of the alleged offence on the charge sheet. Mr Cahir did not consent to the application. The man was remanded in custody to appear again at Ennis District Court on October 2.

Reporting restrictions have previously been placed on the case. Superintendent Seamus Nolan (Kilrush Garda Station) previously requested that the court impose reporting restrictions. He said the investigation is ongoing and to identify the accused or the location of the offence would impede the investigation.

Separately, a 48-year-old Clare man has appeared in court, charged with possession of images of child pornography.

It is alleged that the man, on dates unknown in September 2009 in an area of Clare, did knowingly have in his possession child pornography, to wit, five images of a child under the age of 17, engaged in illicit sexual activity or witness to illicit sexual activity. Detective Garda Frank Browne gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that a Book of Evidence is being prepared in the matter. He said the Book would be ready for service by October 16. Legal aid was approved for solicitor Daragh Hassett.

Judge Patrick Durcan granted Mr Hassett’s request for reporting restrictions to be placed on the case.

RESIDENTS in the Shanaway Road area of Ennis say they are prepared to erect a human barricade if work is not stopped at an “unauthorised” Office of Public Works (OPW) site.

Contractors have been carrying out work at the site on behalf of the OPW for the past six weeks.

Materials from the site, which is near three residential areas, are being used for the Ennis Flood Relief Scheme on the River Fergus.

Residents have written to Clare County Council urging them to shut down the development.

They have cited the safety risks to children of the work and the high volume of lorries travelling to and from the site on a daily basis.

In a letter Woodstock Drive resident, Conor Smith says, “There are little or no safety procedures in place and the site is surrounded by private housing with young children everywhere. It is possible for anyone to enter the grounds freely and without hindrance nor restriction, whether during the day during the work, evenings or over any weekend. With little or no safeguards, it can only be a matter of time before a child is seriously injured or much worse, which someone will have to answer for.”

In a statement yesterday, Clare County Council said its Planning Depart- ment has been made aware of issues in relation to works at Shanaway Road and has served a Warning notice under the Planning and Development Acts.

“Compliance with the Warning Notice is currently being followed up by the Planning Department,” added a spokesperson.

A spokesperson for the OPW stated it had been made aware that the “extraction and deposition of material from the site in question in connection with the Ennis Flood Relief Scheme was in breach of planning legislation”.

The OPW says it had not been notified about the issue by Clare County Council but that it understands that a cessation notice will issue imminently.

The spokesperson explained, “The OPW has asked the contractor for the flood relief scheme to clarify the position immediately. In the interim, the contractor has been requested to cease the removal and deposition of material in connection with the scheme.”

Residents of Woodstock View, Woodstock Hill and Woodstock Drive met with OPW representatives over the weekend.

Woodstock View resident Robert McCarthy said locals are prepared to block the entrance as a “last resort” if work does not cease this week.

“To have a major development like this between three residential estates, where you have around 200 children, is crazy. It wouldn’t be allowed to happen anywhere in the world,” he added.