Author: admin

FLOODING may have postponed the visit of two of the biggest names in Irish soccer to Clare this week but one World Cup hero 1s expected to be in the county on Friday.

Football Association of Ireland (FAT) chief John Delaney along with the Technical Director Packie Bon- ner were due to attend a workshop in Ennis tomorrow to launch Clare’s hosting of the 2011 FAI Annual Gen- eral Meeting.

However in an email last night Clare District Soccer League secre- tary, Oliver Fitzpatrick, stated that the event has been postponed due to bad weather.

The occasion would have marked one of the first public appearances

for Delaney since the FAI’s request to have the controversial World Cup play-off between Ireland and France replayed was knocked back by FIFA.

One man on his way to Clare is Ray Houghton. The hero of Giants stad1- um in 1994 will at the Clare Inn to officially launch the new website of Ennis Town football club.

Houghton will also present players with the club’s new jersey. The man who famously ‘put the ball in the English net’ visited Ennis last year.

“IT just think its great in counties like Clare; so many youngsters are given the opportunity to play soccer, which wouldn’t have been the case quite a few years ago. It’s changed dramatically”, he said at the time.

COLM Honan’s reaction to Clon- lara’s shock county final defeat to Cratloe was to let his players go. His reckoning was that the mileage in their legs to reach county final day would have to do, because the stom- ach for getting back to the grind just wouldn’t be there.

However, lack of appetite for train- ing could in no way be construed as being equal to lack of interest — Ho- nan wanted this and so did his play- ers, simply out of a fear of the dam- age a second big-game defeat could do.

“Tt would have been very very hard to take another loss. Playing in two county finals and to lose both would have been a disaster for us,” admits Honan.

“We didn’t really drive them on for this game. We didn’t make a huge

deal of it beforehand but at the same time once we were out on the field we were very anxious to win it. I thought that they played fairly well at times.

“We hadn’t met at all after the county final, apart from meeting on Friday night for a chat. There are a lot of leaders on that team and it showed at various times during the game when we wanted it most.

“We won the last three puck-outs having conceded the goal. They were puck-outs that were hard to win against the wind but we won them. They got a few chances but our workrate put them under savage pressure. We finished out the game strongly.

“The pitch was in beautiful condi- tion, but conditions were very diffi- cult. Fellas found it very hard to turn, Sometimes the ball would bounce, other times to would just go plop. First touch was difficult, passing was

difficult. It was hard to judge where it was going to end up so it was a bit of a lottery at times.”

Clonlara won that lottery and so in part exorcised some of their county final demons — of course they will never fully go away until Canon Hamilton is back where they feel it belongs, but Honan for one is look- ing forward to trying to meet that challenge.

“You don’t get too many chances to win county finals,’ he admits, “but having said that this Clonlara side are young enough. There’s a young enough squad there and they’ll come back strong again. I know they’ll come back again in the champion- ship. It’s onwards and upwards, go for a few pints and winter well and come back again next year”’.

THE biggest and most important day in the history of Spa GAA Club is about to dawn.

With the days, minutes and hours to Sunday’s Munster intermedi- ate football final in Mallow ticking away, it’s almost show-time for Sean Moynihan’s men who are now just 60 minutes away from their place in lo- cal football folklore.

Not only is this the first time that a team from the club has contested a provincial football final, but Spa are also the first East Kerry club to compete in a Munster intermediate decider.

Having watched Cratloe at first hand, Moynihan is aware of the task I OT-LMrEhY ECDL ACM OD CHESS LO (OR

“They looked impressive. They are a small bit like ourselves — a young team, lively, extremely fit and they wouldn’t have any stars but have a massive work-rate,’ says Moynihan.

“Cratloe look like a really good side. They use the ball very well. They actually seemed to play better against the wind than with it and, overall, I was impressed with what Sa

With no injury worries to report, Spa will look to their star duo of Mike ‘Stam’ O’Donoghue and Niall

O’ Mahony for scores, with the former being the main source of scores.

“The likes of Mike O’Donoghue and Niall O’ Mahony have got us over the line on numerous occasions but I have always stressed that we are very much a team effort,’ he adds.

‘There have been days when the two boys might have an off-day and that’s when Tomas Lynch could step up, or if he had an off-day, Conor Glesson or Cian Tobin or Pa Murphy or one of the other lads could step up to the plate.

“We will need an unbelievable ef- fort from all the lads on Sunday if we want to win the Munster title. It’s what we want. We know how close we are but there is a seriously hard game of football ahead of us. We have to match their intensity other- wise we will be in trouble.”

His team is on a high at the moment and the spirit is great, as Moynihan explains.

“There is a serious belief in our squad at the moment. The work-rate is there, the determination and a de- sire to achieve something special. There is a special spirit there.

“Even away from the football, they are all good friends. They head off out on the town together and just get os aer VORA oll E

“The camp is buzzing and I think

that will stand to us on Sunday. When you are representing your county wearing the Spa jersey, well, that’s the ultimate for these players. Focussing on the game is not a prob- one

“We are up against a team that put out the favourites so we have it all to do. This is very much like the Cur- row game (the county intermediate final) when we both went in with ht- tle to choose between us. Whoever performs on the day will take the trophy and that’s going to lend itself to a fantastic game.”

Interestingly, under Moynihan, Spa have never lost a final. A lucky omen ahead of Sunday, perhaps.

“We have played four finals since we took over as a management team and we haven’t lost one yet. Touch wood,” he says.

“We won back-to-back East Kerry leagues, we won the county interme- diate and we won Division Two (of the county football league) outright as well so that’s four trophies.

“We know how to win together and that will be invaluable in a big exh on

“ANOTHER one bites the dust.” One of Queen’s signature tunes that could easily describe the significant number of teams who have fallen on Cratloe’s powerful sword. Despite the hurling season coming to an eventual end last weekend in Waterford the footballers have at least one more big day out after this stirring victory. “Tt’s absolutely wonderful,’ ex- claimed jubilant selector Ger Lawlor afterwards. “We showed great char- acter and heart out there. We fought hard and gave them nothing easy. I’m so pleased with this fantastic result.” And who would blame him? Crat- loe’s achievement of taking another scalp along their road to success can’t be underestimated. They were the better side overall and only for a brief period of wind aided domi-

nance for Rovers this game would have been long wrapped up before the final whistle.

“The start of the second-half saw them take some control and they started getting on top,’ admitted Lawlor, “however we responded per- fectly. We didn’t lie down and then Padraig Chaplin came on and took his goal well. Then a few minutes later and McGrath got our third. They say goals win matches and they certainly helped us today. They re- ally killed off their challenge in the end.”

His post match analysis was very accurate indeed. Chaplin’s and Mc- Grath’s goals in the final quarter se- cured progression into next week’s Munster final against Kerry champi- ons Spa. What an amazing bonus for the Munster Club of the Year. They were so close in reaching a similar

position with the hurlers but now the footballers have dealt with this sem1- final hurdle and only one more game stands in the way of yet another his- toric final success for Cratloe.

“What a great year we have had? And now we have a Munster final to look forward to next week. Hope- fully our much congested year will be rewarded then. It’s not going to be anyway easy of course. I don’t think a bad football team has ever come out of Kerry and I don’t next weekend we will come up against the first. With a bit of luck we will be cel- ebrating again this time next Sunday as well.”

That would definitely be the icing on the cake. For their efforts alone this year in both codes they deserve another piece of silverware. It could happen, because this Cratloe team doesn’t seem to entertain defeat.

CLARE GAA chairman Miuichael

O’Neill has resolved to have the 1m-

passe between county senior hurlers

and their manager Mike McNamara

sorted out by next week at the latest. Speaking to

CLOSE on 50 certificates were formally presented in Ennis Adult Education Centre to learners who took part in Clare Campus Skillnet courses. They were conferred by the Further Education and Training Awards Council of Ireland following courses of studies completed in the Ennis area in management develop- ment, presentation skills and English as a second language

By tar the biggest individual busi- ness representation was from the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis. All non-nation- als, this major group took its course in English as a second language in- house as well as at Ennis Adult and Community Education Centre.

They were joined for the occasion by the hotel’s manager, John Maher, as an expression of appreciation of their achievements.

Clare Campus Skillnet collabo- rates with County Clare Vocational Education Committee in the delivery of a diverse range of courses from basic skills to project management and green belt masters in technology management.

Its courses are original in that they are devised as the result requirements identified by local businesses and en- terprises who form a local network.

Clare Campus Skillnet Network 1s about 18 months in existence. In that time it has delivered programmes to network members in Clare that,

among other subjects, covered man- agement development, health and safety, manual handling, project de- velopment and softer skills such as presentation programmes and stress management courses.

What happens is that the network of local businesses and enterprises defines its own training needs and sets out a programme of training and education activities.

In this regard, deep appreciation has been expressed of the steering group comprising Barry O’Brien and Kevin Moore, Vitalograph; Corey Downes, Billpost; David Deighan, Shannon Development; Michael Byrne, Acton BV; Alan Flynn, Old Ground Hotel; Carmel Mitchell, Loyalty Build, and Richard Morton, Time to Market.

“Without this group, we would have been floundering without direction,” acknowledged Dr Sean Conlan, edu- cation officer with County Clare Vo- cational Education Committee, who formally presented the certificates. He also thanked Clare Campus Skill- net Network’s co-ordinator, Sinead Mellett and the network’s adminis- trator, Ina Reddan.

Dr Conlan went on to say that at this time of great challenge for all businesses, when unemployment has risen dramatically, the learn- ing agenda comes into more focus for everybody. Those receiving cer- tificates on the occasion, he urged, should see the occasion not as an end of the road but rather the beginning

of a new learning route.

“Then, maybe together, we can learn our way out of this recession and be well prepared to take advan- tage of the upturn when it comes, as it surely will in a year or two or ab Reromean OComcT-n (Gm

That was what Clare Campus Skill- net was all about as it set about putting together a funding application for the coming two years. Priority areas had been identified nationally as transfer- ability of skills and key competencies

for lifelong learning. This was what the organisation would be working on in the coming weeks with a view to getting a budget to continue the work at local level into the future.

Looking at the broader picture, he noted that at the last count there were 123 training networks in the Skill- nets programme overall, showing it had come a long way since its incep- tion in 1999 as a pilot project in en- terprise-led training.

The success of the concept of busi-

nesses, small and large, identifying and delivering in a shared way on their own training needs had ensured that the Skillnet Training Networks Programme had become a key player in training and learning delivery in Ireland.

RETAIL Ireland, the IBEC group that represents the retail sector, has called on all local authorities to cut commercial rates when voting on the matter later this month.

Retail Ireland has written to the Chairperson of every local author- ity as well as all City and County Managers to ask for a reduction of 20 per cent. In addition, the group has written to An Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD, Enda Kenny TD, Leader of Fine Gael, and to Eamon Gilmore TD, Leader of the Labour Party, to request that their councillors support such a move.

Retail Ireland Director Torlach Denihan, said, “Over the last year 30,000 retail jobs have been lost and the sector is struggling to avoid fur- ther redundancies over the coming months. Local authorities must play their part in the retail sector’s efforts to regain lost competitiveness and safeguard employment. As can be seen from the Consumer Price Index released last Thursday, retailers have cut prices aggressively over the last year.

“Over the last decade local authori- ties have been able to fund many projects through development levies and commercial rates paid by the re- tail sector. They now need to act re- sponsibly and help the sector retain

employment in view of the threat posed by the collapse in sales, aggra- vated by cross- border shopping.

‘Since 2000 the annual rate on valuation has increased by a cumu- lative 57 per cent nationally. Last year some local authorities took the incredible decision to increase the annual rate on valuation (Clare 3.8 per cent, South Dublin 3.63 per cent, Fingal 3.5 per cent, Wexford 3.5 per cent and Dublin City 3.35 per cent) despite the fact that the retail sector was in crisis. We are particularly dis- turbed that a revaluation exercise in South Dublin and Fingal is further aggravating the problem, resulting in some retailers facing increases of up to 50 per cent.”

TOP energy experts at the TOP Ideal Home Show in the RDS in Dublin proved that going green re- ally doesn’t cost the earth for Clare households by highlighting the mas- sive savings to be made by becoming more energy efficient in the home.

Detached properties, the most frequent home type across County Clare, have the potential to be much more energy efficient and owners of this housing category could knock more than €1,000 of their home heating bills. With over 22,000 such property types in the county, Clare households could be missing out on substantial savings.

While detached properties offer the greatest saving potential, ‘greener’ energy behaviour can also offer sig- nificant reward for other home types,

such as one or two bed apartment cir- ca 750 sq foot – €742; 2 bedroom ter- raced house circa 950 sq foot – €898; 3 bedroom semi detached house cir- ca 1,250 sq foot – £1,070

TOP Tips reflecting the company’s mantra, ‘going green doesn’t cost the earth’ were given to visitors at the TOP Ideal Home Show this year and expert staff were on hand at the TOP Biodome to suggest specific recom- mendations on how people can make some small inexpensive changes and save up to €1,180 per year, depend- ing on their house type. TOP is high- lighting to the people of Clare that they are literally burning money by not making their homes more energy efficient, as well as the environmen- tal implications.

TOP is Ireland’s leading fuel im- porter and distributor and this is the second year the company has been

the title sponsor of the Ideal Home Show.

Speaking at the opening of the TOP Ideal Home Exhibition, Gener- al Manager of TOP, Gerard Boylan, said, “Changing people’s attitude to going green is hard but the environ- mental experts at the TOP biodome will be making it clear in financial terms, that being environmentally Savvy is a sensible choice.”

Mr. Boylan continued, “Unfortu- nately, having a home that is energy efficient has always been viewed as the expensive option but we’re trying to educate people that the opposite is true by showing the actual savings they could be making. We’re trying to put the savings in perspective for people – going green in 2010 could be the difference between going on holiday and not. It’s that simple,’ he concluded.

A CLARE businessman, who along with his partners is paying ©20,000 in interest on a planned retail park in Shannon, has made a last ditch at- tempt to save the development.

Last month, Clare County Council refused planning permission to Sean Halpin and Greenband Investments for the neighbourood component of a €60m retail park planned for Smith- stown in Shannon.

Mr Halpin confirmed that he and his business partners purchased the 17.5 acre site zoned for commercial development for €8 million in 2005 and have since paid ©2 million in interest.

Confirming that interest payments are costing ©20,000 per month, Mr Halpin said, “The interest is some- where north of €2 million. This is not some cosy arrangement with the bank where we have interest rolled up.”

In all, Mr Halpin estimates that the exposure to date is €10.5m.

Now, in a last ditch bid to save the development, they have lodged an ap- peal with An Bord Pleanala against the council’s decision to refuse plan- ning to the neighbourhood compo- nent of the scheme.

The council stated that the centre would have an adverse impact on the vitality and viability of Shannon town and contravene Department of the Environment retail guidelines

relating to the location of neighbour- hood centres.

The Greenband development was due to create 250 direct jobs, 200 in- direct jobs and 180 jobs during the construction phase.

In their appeal, the developers “se- riously contest the reason for refusal of the neighbourhood centre of the proposed scheme.

‘The proposed development would in fact not detract from the town cen- tre but serve the remainder of the proposed development and immedi- ate surrounding areas.

“The reasons for refusal cited by the council do not accord with the retail planning guidelines, which specifically recognises the local role

neighbourhood centre’s play in the retail hierarchy.”

However, the plan faces outright rejection, with the McAllen family lodging an appeal against the coun- cil decision to grant planning to any aspect of the development.

The local family state that their health and safety is of paramount importance and “any detrimental environmental impacts in the area, that put our health and safety under threat, will be subject to full legal ac- tion on our behalf.”

‘There 1s an over-intensification of commercial use on the site; loss of privacy and the design is of poor ar- chitectural quality.”

A decision is due in 2010.

AS the close of the Clare camogie season comes in, Clare Camogie Board in conjunction with the Clare Camogie Suporters Club are hosting an awards night this Satur- day, November 21, at the Auburn Lodge Hotel, Ennis.

Medals will be presented to the Munster U16 Camogie Champions on the night, along with the U14 In- ter-County Blitz winners from the Galway Blitz.

As this is the 75th Year of Clare Camogie, the board have intro- duced the inaugural Club Star Awards. “These are a small to- ken of the appreciation which the board has for those who work so hard at club level but may never reach county teams, but without whom clubs would not survive,’ explained a spokesperson.

The medal and award recipients have been asked to be in the Au- burn Lodge for 7.30pm for a photo call, and presentation to begin at 8pm with buffet and disco after- SE K6 he