Author: admin

THE value of an insightful analyst is immeasurable. That’s why in the lead up to Kilmurry Ibrickane’s All-Ire- land quarter-final clash with Tir Cho- naill Gaels in the Emerald Grounds in Ruislip this weekend, Paul Hehir’s vast knowledge into both sides can- not be overestimated.

For the uninitiated, Hehir has played at the highest level for both Clare and London, was part of the all conquering Doonbeg side that cap- tured several county titles at the turn of the century as well as a Munster crown in 1998. He has also played a sizeable part of his career for Lon- don side Tara also with brother Sen- an, picking up a London and British championship in 2003. Add in the fact that he played against Tir Cho- naill Gaels in this year’s league final and also represented Doonbeg in the 2008 Clare senior championship and it’s abundantly clear that there is no better judge of this game than Hehir.

First to the strengths and weakness- es of Tir Chonaill Gaels.

“Basically they are a just a well or- ganised club and the best run club in London to be honest with you. They have a good backroom staff with regards to the people running the club and have just got the commit- ment from the players really. Their strength mainly lies with their work- rate coming from the back. Their backs are very good and very tidy and they have a good strong mid- field. Basically the only thing they would be lacking really would be a panel of players. They have got a good 13 or 14 good players whereas the Kilmurry lads would have a good bench which will proably be decisive I reckon on the day.”

Having won four out of the last five London championships, the Gaels have ample experience of All-Ireland

quarter-finals but have been rather

unfortunate not to have advanced further, mainly due to a lack of belief according to Hehir.

“It’s a combination of things re- ally. What it really comes down to, just as in the county team, is whether they believe collectively that they can actually beat a team from home. They have come close in the last few years and it’s never easy for a team that comes over to London whether it’s inter-county or a club match and it would be good for London football in general if they did pull off a shock. Although It wouldn’t really be much of a shock in London because they are a good club team. They have got great backs, a good midfield and as I have said three or four decent for- wards. They are also full of inter-

county experience with lads from Roscommon, Leitrim and Donegal, guys who have played at the highest level back home but it’s just about be- lieving that they can win.”

Kilmurry Ibrickane’s chances of advancing to the semi-final stage have been made all the more difficult by the fact that they will have to take on the perennial London champions in their own back yard, a daunting prospect as Hehir outlines from per- sonal experience.

“Coming over to London is never easy for any team. I know that myself when I came over with Clare. You somehow have it in the back of your head that they are still only based in London and that you should be beat- ing them but any team that comes

over to London never has it handy.”

Still when pushed for a verdict, he gives a slight nod to Kilmurry Ibrickane on their strength of their overall squad.

“IT mean there is no taking away from what Kilmurry Ibrickane have achieved. I think they have only been beaten once in the last two years which says a lot for the quality they have. They have a great youth devel- Opment system coming through and it seems to have extended to the sen- ior team. They have great old heads of Johnny Daly, Odran O’Dwyer and Peter and Michael O’Dwyer as well and then there is the new breed coming through with the likes of Enda Coughlan and Mark McCarthy. There is a great combination and they

seem to mix it very well going all the way up to Micheal McDermott at the atosbene

“At the end of the day, it’s going to be a great game in fairness. They are two good footballing sides, two tough teams and at the end of the day, it’s just going to come down to who wants it more and overall I think that Kilmurry Ibrickane might edge it purely on the strength of the bench they have, despite the massive dent that Odran O’Dwyer’s injury will have.”

TEAM coach Liam McHale takes the subs who saw no action for some exercise, while selector James Foran is with those who had game time for some stretches, while Micheal Mc- Dermott stands in between the two different groups and reflects on a very indifferent day.

‘Few positives,” he says cutting to the chase. “It wasn’t a good enough performance for the Clare public coming into Cooraclare to see what Clare football is going to be about in 2010.

“It wasn’t a good performance — we can’t hide behind anything. The one thing that disappointed me the most, and we’ve been working on it a lot in training, is creating goal chances. We never looked like threatening the goal there and maybe it’s a lack of belief in players.”

Some early doom and gloom then, before McDermott reminds himself that Clare are only two weeks into their season, and University College Cork are at it since the start of the new academic year last October.

‘They were much fitter than us, but the purpose of today was that even though it was a losing situation, we have learned a lot. The most impor- tant match we’re facing into was not this McGrath Cup game but the first league game against Wicklow on /eoje)abe- ba aae)

“This was a bigtime learning ex- perience — it was an opportunity for fellas to show that they were of in- ter-county standard, that they going to be ready for the type of game we wanted to play, that they were going to be ready for a battle.

“We learned a lot today and from

that point of view this was beneficial, but we know that we have a hell of a lot of work to do and two weeks training that we’ve had isn’t going to change that.

“Our use of the ball, or forward play was weak and there weren’t enough guys showing for the ball and hungry enough to win it. We started extremely well for ten or 15 minutes but then ran out of steam and the level of fitness was poor. But listen, fitness 1s something you can work on, but football is the most important thing to get right as well.”

And, to get those frontline players on sabbatical, or on Kilmurry Ibrick- ane duty back into the fold by Febru- aoe

“T would like, depending on what’s going to happen with Kilmurry Ibrickane next Sunday — we don’t want to look beyond that but I’d like to have some of those players avail- able for the Wicklow game,” he says

“We need those two points on the board — it’s our first home match of the season and we need to win it. We have a hell of a lot of work to do, but this is where it starts in the next cou- ple of months is going to be vital as regards the future of Clare football for 2010.

“It’s going to be a tough three weeks. We have learned a lot about individual players; we’ve learned a lot about the team as a unit and it’s about getting things right for three weeks and if we come out with two points in Cusack Park against Wick- low in three weeks time, today will all have been worthwhile.”

A MAIDEN voyage for the good ship Clare under Micheal McDer- mott, Liam McHale and James Foran, but more than that, it was also a maiden voyage for Clare under the new experimental rules in place for the duration of the McGrath Cup and National League.

And, thanks to those new rules implemented by Kerry official John Lynch, Clare can always say that they at least enjoyed one victory on the day — the tag of being more au fait with the rules than their UCC op- ponents.

All because UCC were pulled up on five occasions for handpasses that were given without the closed fist, while Clare only infringed this rule once over the hour. As for the mark, there was a noticeable lack of high fielding on the day, but Clare did edge this stat too by 2-1 thanks to Alan Clohessy and Gary Brennan catching kickouts in the first half.

Still, despite this hollow victory, Clare manager Micheal McDermott believes the mark idea, though good in principle is doomed to failure, gamesmanship even. “The mark is something that I don’t think will

work,’ he says.

“Teams will get clever and there will be more breaking ball than field- ing in the middle of the field. The idea is good to try and introduce high fielding, but I think more teams will concentrate on trying to break the ball to make sure a guy doesn’t catch it and you’re going to be back to the same old situation again.

“But the mark is there for the league and we’ll have to work with it. When you win the mark, you are waiting for the whistle, rather than using the ball quickly. When you do that you give the opposition a chance to fun- nel back. We have no problem with the rule being in place. We have to learn to use the ball quickly when we make a mark. That’s something we have to work on.”

As for the fist pass, the work looks already done. “We were good on the fist pass,” says McDermott, giving the rule the thumbs up. “We worked hard on the fist pass in training, whereas UCC suffered from it be- cause it’s not in place for the Siger- son Cup. But the advantage we got in the game was something we didn’t punish.”

You can’t win them all, one sup- poses.

CLARE senior hurling manager Ger O’Loughlin has called for patience from supporters as he looks to step up the rebuilding process to make Clare a serious force in hurling once rae) Kor

O’Loughlin was speaking after his side claimed victory in their opening game of the year against college side WIT and in a frank assessment, the two time All-Star winner feels that this is a three year development plan due to the low average age and inex- perience of the current squad.

“It’s a very young panel and I hon- estly do believe that this set-up will be three years before we will actu- ally see how good they are going to be. I hope people have the patience because we have only something like five lads over 25 so you can’t expect miracles.”

Clare’s All-Ireland Under 21 suc- cess has brought renewed hope to the county after a disastrous year at senior level but despite calling up a large percentage of that Under 21 squad, assilimilating them to senior hurling will take time according to O’ Loughlin.

“There are new lads on the scene and you could see there today how enthusiastic they were. They wanted to be on there, they were trying hard, they were hooking and blocking and as I say we will all learn as we’re go- ing along I presume.”

Next up for Clare will be a quarter- final clash with All-Ireland finalists and Munster champions Tipperary in what will be a repeat of last year’s final. Clare have played the Premier on five competitive occasions over the last two years, with their only victory coming in last year’s Wa- terford Crystal Cup in Ogonnelloe; Clare’s first senior trophy in eleven years. That game will now take place next Tuesday evening, January 26th in Borrisoleigh at 8pm but for O’Loughlin, game time is still his main motivation at the moment.

‘These matches are great if the weather can improve because you could see there that this 1s what we were lacking there today. We have Six or seven sessions done on the physical side of it and you can even see that the lads were able to hold out there for the 62 or 63 minutes but we need more hurling.”

CLARE TD and Minister for State Tony Killeen (FF) is only too aware of what benefits the National Color- ectal Screening Service can bring to potential cancer suffers in Ireland.

The junior minister who was di- agnosed with bowel cancer last year said the announcement of the screen- ing service by the minister for health was positive, “as the key intervention in cancer of any kind is early diag- nosis”.

“If I went a bit sooner I would have

escaped the trauma and discomfort of chemotherapy,” he maintained.

“If I went later the outcome would be much more negative,” he added.

Announcing the new screening service, Minister Mary Harney said, “The next and most important clini- cal priority for population screening has been colorectal screening. This is acritically important development for both men and women. Colorectal screening has two great benefits – early detection of cancer, improving treatment outcomes, and the detec- tion of pre-cancerous growths.”

The first screening programme will be for people aged between 60 and oe,

“We are starting this year with the detailed preparations, so that the pro- gramme will commence screening in 2012 for the people involved on a national basis irrespective of where people live,” she said.

Minister Killeen added, “This is one of the diagnosis that tends to be very accurate, and with early diagno- sis the recovery rate is very high.”

“When an opportunity like this (screening) is put to people they usu-

ally use it,” he said.

The Clare Minister admitted that men are not the best however for attending doctors for tests, but said there is usually a positive if you go pm Ansar

“There 1s no advantage of going too late,’ he warned.

Colorectal cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among men and women in Ireland.

About 2,200 new cases are diag- nosed every year and approximately 1,000 people die from it.

Free screening will initially be of-

fered to 400,000 people in the 60 to 69 age group. The programme will be operated by the National Cancer Screening Service in cooperation with the Health Service Executive and will be extended to all those aged 55 to 74 years of age “as logistics and resources allow”’.

The 60 to 69 year age group con- tains about 50 per cent of all cases of colorectal cancer in the 55 to 74 year age band, and other countries includ- ing England, Sweden and Finland have aimed their programmes on this 60 to 69 year age group also.

THE freezing weather conditions may be causing havoc across the country but at least one group in east Clare are happy that the big freeze has replaced the big flood.

Work has begun on the playground for Kilkishen after a delayed start because of the heavy rains and flood- ing.

‘“We’re making good progress now. It’s very cold but because the ground is dry, we’re able to get on with it,” said Mike Hogan of the Kilkishen Development Association.

Mike explained that the machinery was on-site two days before Christ- mas to begin clearing work but the ground was too wet.

The play equipment for the facility

has already been delivered and is be- ing stored until the area is ready for it to be assembled.

“We’ve very kindly been given a place to store it. There’s €18,000 worth of equipment there so it has to be kept safely.”

“We were planning to do the groundwork in November but couldn’t because it was just too wet. But if it continues dry and we are able to work on through February and March, then that would be a big help.

We’ve had plenty of volunteers on the groundwork which is going on at the moment and we have more for the time when the equipment needs assembling. People have been very good and are very supportive,” said Mike.

The land for the facility was donat- ed and €43,000 was raised through the local authority Playground Grants Scheme.

The local school and community were also closely involved, with the children themselves designing and selling Christmas cards, stag- ing a concert and locals organising a Thousandaire night and a bumper eNO ECee

The Clare Shout Festival also raised a sizeable sum towards the €60,000 which 1s needed in addition to the money from the county coun- cil’s fund.

The initial play equipment will be for the use of toddlers to 12-year-old and the playground committee hopes to go on and provide facilities for teenagers as well.

It’s hoped that the area will eventu- ally be able to boast basketball and skatebording facilities in addition to the slides, swings and roundabouts.

When the first sod was turned on the facility some weeks before Christmas, local councillors were invited and thanked for their support in getting funding, it wasn’t a politi- can or a celebrity who did the hon- ours. “We asked the children from the school to do the official first sod turning because it will be their facil- ity,’ said Mike.

THE region’s flagship tourism company sustained losses of over €250,000 in 2008 as visitor numbers continued to plummet last year.

Shannon Heritage Ltd operates Bunratty Castle and Folk Park along with King John’s Castle in Limer- ick and accounts just returned to the Companies’ Office show that the Shannon Development subsidiary in- curred losses of €254,476 to the end of December 2008.

This followed the company return- ing a pre-tax profit of €27,745 in 2007.

Confirmation of the losses coincide with the company absorbing a 13 per cent drop in visitor numbers last year to around 440,000. This follows a 13 per cent drop in 2008 resulting in a total drop of 141,000 visitors over two years.

This has resulted in the company — which employs 300 – imposing a 10 per cent pay reduction or 12.5 per cent reduction in hours worked, for staff and management.

Chief executive John Ruddle con- firmed the pay/hours reduction yes- terday, but stated: “Overall, staff numbers remain unchanged during 2009 despite the global downturn. The company is making the retention of its full staff a key 2010 priority in this very difficult climate.

“The Shannon Heritage operation is vitally important to tourism in the Shannon region as it continues to an-

nually contribute an estimated €20 million to the local economy and in- directly supports many more jobs in the wider region.”

In 2008, Shannon Heritage sus- tained a 10.5 per cent drop in gross profit from €9muiullion to €8&million that year. The €245,000 loss sus- tained in 2008 reduced the company’s accumulated profits to €621,237.

Describing 2009 as a very chal- lenging year when the company had to make adjustments to work- ing arrangements, Mr Ruddle said

that some visitor sites had a slightly shorter season, and minor adjust- ments to opening hours were also introduced in 2009. However, all ac- tivities are going ahead as normal for 2010.

“After five years of strong growth to 2007, Shannon Heritage, like most businesses 1n the tourism sector, has experienced the effects of the world recession. While 2009 results are not yet available, a 13 per cent decline in visitor numbers is anticipated. While any loss is disappointing, the

company is satisfied with the results given the dramatic fall in US visitor numbers to Ireland.”

The accounts show that visitor num- bers to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park dropped from 343,675 to 305,557, while visitors to Bunratty Banquets dropped from 65,878 to 57,911.

EDUCATION #£Minister Batt O’Keeffe has issued a ‘call-to- arms’ to rally volunteer engineers to go into schools across Clare to enthuse students about maths as part of Engineers Week 2010.

Speaking at a photocall with busi- ness leaders, Minister O’Keeffe welcomed the Engineers Ireland initiative and called on engineers and businesses to support the day. “T strongly welcome the efforts of Engineers Ireland to promote eve- ryday understanding of maths in schools through Volunteer Day and Engineers Week more broadly. These initiatives support the Gov- ernment’s strategy to move more students into science and technol- ogy-based higher education cours- oe

“Our curriculum reform plan – Project Maths – will begin in all post-primary schools in September as part of efforts to radically re- form the way the subject is taught and make it more relevant and ac- cessible.”

Engineers Week is a campaign held annually by Engineers Ire- land to promote engineering as a career and the importance of the industry to Ireland. Volunteer Day on Thursday, Feb 11, Engineers Ireland’s first national volunteer day, will be a key day in Engineers Week 2010, which runs from Feb 8-13. On that day, it is planned that volunteer engineers, with the co-operation of local schools, will enter classes in Clare and across the country and spend a few hours working with pre-junior certificate students to improve their knowl- edge and appreciation of maths through puzzles and work sheets.

John Power, Engineers Ireland Director General, said: “Engi- neers Week is a critical campaign in the engineering calendar. En- gineers Ireland believes there is a direct link between the decreas- ing numbers studying maths and the shortage of engineers entering Irish industry. Leaving Certificate results showed that just 16 per cent of students took honours maths which is down on the 2008 figures. We need our students to become more comfortable with maths as it is a fundamental building block towards a career in engineering. Ireland already has a deficit of en- gineers and the situation is becom- ing more severe. A ready supply of engineers is critical to the Smart Economy and emerging industries such as the Green sector.”

Business Leaders came out in force today to show their support for the initiative. Representing in- dustry on the day was Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ire- land; Leonard Hobbs, Intel Ireland Research; Eamonn Quinn, Chair- man, Nualight and Paul Mallee President of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

To get involved, please contact the engineering team on O1 665 1340 or email info@steps.ie. Engineers Week 2010 will run from Feb 8-13.

CLARE will learn of their quarter- final opponents in the Oscar Traynor Cup next week with the draw for the last eight round scheduled to take place in the Aishling Hotel in Dublin on Friday, January 22.

The Clare side, managed by Hugh Kelly advanced to the knockout stag- es for the first time since 2004 thanks to taking four points from their two games in Group 5 of the prestigious nationwide competition.

In their opening game with the Limerick Desmond, Clare secured a valuable away point when Rock Rov- ers’ Stephen Hickey grabbed a share

of the spoils with a goal in the 90th minute.

Then in the second game against the Cork Business League at Mc- Donough Park in Newmarket-on- Fergus, an injury time strike from Bunratty’s Con Collins gave Clare a thrilling 3-2 win and safe passage into the quarter-final stage.

Those teams who will be in the draw with Clare are Galway or Mayo from Group 1, Roscommon, Sligo or Don- egal in Group 2, Tipperary Southern & District League in Group 3, Cork AUL in Group 4, Wexford in Group 6, The Defence Forces in Group 7 and Dublin AUL in Group 8.

Manager Hugh Kelly, in resum-

ing the management reins for the 2009/2010 competition said “any- thing is possible and we could go all the way”. The Derryman was man- ager of the Clare team that scored a famous victory in the competition six years ago, when they beat the Dublin Senior League 2-1 in the final played in Ballycasey.

It was Clare’s first national cup suc- cess since the Clare Youths won the Irish Inter League Youth Cup in 1971 thanks to a 2-0 win over Dublin Ath- letic Union League in Ennis Show- erounds. Clare’s Youths are also in the knockout stages of the FAI Youth Inter League for the first time since the 1970s.

2009 presented an exciting new dawn for Clare camogie as they am- bitiously met the double challenge of playing at the top level in both league and championship head on in a bid to establishing the county as a new senior force.

After several attempts during the decade, Clare finally made _ that breakthrough on the back of an un- precedented 2008 in which a Nation- al League Division 2 and All-Ireland AUT eb Ce) MMOL O(c) Rom UITDO A aRcecDuIEsIen

However, the beginning of 2009 also brought great change in Clare camogie. Orla Considine was ush- ered in as county chairperson, Clare subsequently entered two adult teams for league and championship for the first time (one at senior and one at intermediate level) and a new man- agement team of Bertie Sherlock, Catherine O’Loughlin, Kevin Ryan, John Sheedy and Fintan McNamara was introduced to guide both panels into the new unchartered waters.

In hindsight, it was perhaps too demanding to initiate such an ambt- tious two pronged set-up in the first year. The lack of numbers were an constant issue which meant there was a significant doubling up of play- ers and possibly a year at junior level would have served the second team better in their inaugural year.

That said, Clare can feel quite un- fortunate not to have taken more points in both the league and cham- pionship, especially at senior level. Clare entered the league in typical determined fashion but overall, in- experience at the top level was to repeatedly prove their undoing. Des- perately unlucky to be edged out by a point in their opening tie against eventual finalists Tipperary, Clare then led by 0-8 to 0-5 with less than 25 minutes to go against defending champions Kilkenny in Meelick only a week later before conceding nine unanswered points. Unperturbed by such set-backs, Clare finally got their just rewards with a final day 2-7 to

2-6 victory over Dublin in the capital and it was enough to give them re- newed confidence for the champion- ship campaign.

The intermediates on the other hand had a largely fluctuating league debut in Division 2. Going down by seven points in their opening tie against Tipperary in Cashel, the young side actually claimed a major scalp in their next outing by comprehensively beating defending All-Ireland inter- mediate champions Kilkenny by 0-11 to 1-O in Meelick, inspired by Carol Kaiser, Roisin McMahon, Chloe Mo- rey and Danielle Sheedy.

It should have initiated a new level of confidence in the predominantly teenage side but they were soon brought back down to earth by a 3-

14 to 2-04 defeat to Antrim and in fact, were unable to field in their final game against Derry a week later.

The final nail in the second side’s coffin came in their intermediate championship debut against neigh- bours Galway. With a largely experi- mental side, Clare were simply over- ran by a vastly experienced Galway who were ruthless in a 7-13 to 1-03 victory in Athenry. Clare chose to pull out of the competition after that while Galway eventually went on to win the intermediate championship O)binw resale

There was a similar camogie lesson for the senior side that afternoon as Clare supporters were left scratching their heads after totally contrasting halves. Despite being without the

experience of Sharon McMahon, Laura Linnane and Aimee MclIner- ney, Clare more than matched the All-Ireland finalists in the first half, only to undo all that good work with an abject second half display as Gal- way eventually ran out 3-17 to 1-04 victors.

It would have been enough to de- rail most sides but Clare had recog- nised long before the Galway game that their derby tie with Limerick would be the most pivotal game of their championship season. A tense, nail-biting encounter subsequently ensued with both sides craving the points to remain in the race for the semi-finals. In the end, Clare’s resil- ience saw them prevail by the bare minimum after the sides had been

level on three occasions in the final minutes. It was also a significant coming of age performance from Under 16 Chloe Morey who took responsibility for the final, pressu- rised free from 65 metres that sealed victory for the home side. That dis- play would subsequently earn her a national Gala Performance Award and also ensured that Clare’s hopes of advancement hinged on their fi- nal game against league champions Wexford a fortnight later.

Essentially a_ straight play-off in Bodyke, Clare battled hard but were unable to cope with Wexford’s smooth interplay and superior scor- ing ability who eventually ran out 2- 15 to 0-03 winners.

Overall though, Clare will feel sat- isfied that they were extremely com- petitive in their inaugural season at senior level. Wins over Dublin and Limerick, a one point defeat against Tipperary and the fact that they were still in contention for a semi-final place going into the final round of championship games indicates that they were far from daunted by their more experienced opposition. On the flip side however, sizeable champ1- onship defeats against Galway and Wexford mean that Clare still have a bit to learn before they can realis- tically challenge for honours at this Aree

The key to Clare’s future at the top level though could rest with their burgeoning underage system. The county have been consistently knocking at the door of All-Ireland glory at Under 16 and minor level in recent years and much like Kilkenny, that continuous supply to the senior squad, combined with the experi- ence of their more established play- ers means that the future is certainly bright for the county. Consequently it’s simply a matter of when, not if.