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THE Christian attitude adopted by the family of a young man who lost his life in a road accident a year ago was commended by a judge, at the end of a trial relating to the death.

Judge Rory McCabe paid tribute to the family of Eamon Scully, after they expressed the opinion that they did not want to see a man convicted in connection with the death to go to jail.

James Freeman was acquitted of dangerous driving causing death, but was found guilty of careless driv- ing, arising out of a road accident in which Mr Scully lost his life, one year ago this weekend.

Counsel for the State Stephen Coughlan said Mr Scully’s family did not bear Mr Freeman any “ill will” and had no desire to see him sent to jail.

Mr Freeman’s barrister Michael Collins said the accident was “a low

speed collision, by way of both ve- hicles.” He said his client was genu- NIA U SON uNOROTE

He asked that his clent’s good character be taken into considera- tion, pointing out that he had no pre- vious convictions.

“Vd ask you to take into account the Christian attitude of Mrs Scully and family. The nature of the care- lessness of this case was an error of judgment,” said Mr Collins.

Judge Rory McCabe said the case

was “an enormous tragedy.”

“Life will never be the same for the two families and the two extended JE-VOODU O(c MaN Slomcr-BLOE

“The consequences for the Scully family are enormous. They lost a young man.

“Also for the Freeman family. Mr Freeman will live with this for the rest of his life,’ he said.

“I’m extremely impressed by the at- titude of the family of the deceased. It’s Christian. It’s caring. It recog-

nises the fact there are no winners,” he said.

“IT am not certain in the circum- stances a prison sentence would re- flect the circumstances in this situa- tion,” said the judge.

He fined Mr Freeman €1,000 said he was not imposing a driving ban, because, “I accept what was submit- ted by Mr Collins this was a momen- tary lapse of attention and I really hope it was not his decision to run the stop sign.”

A COURT has heard that a young man who was carrying a _ baton dropped it as gardai arrived at the scene of a late night disturbance in /Syeyeb ay

William Roche of St Michael’s Villas, Ennis, and Colm Connick (31), of John Paul Park, Murlintown, Wexford, appeared in court arising out of an incident at 3am on October DePAUerE

Roche was charged with possession of a baton, while Connick was ac- cused of possession of a knife. Both pleaded guilty.

Garda William Delaney told En- nis District Court on Friday that an altercation took place at O’Connell Street, Ennis.

“An independent witness pointed out Mr Roche as having dropped a baton when gardai arrived,” he said.

“He denied this initially, but admit- ted it later on,” said the garda.

He said that Connick had a knife in his back pocket. Roche claimed to gardai that he had the baton for his own protection as he had been threat- ened by a group of people earlier. He denied that he had used it.

It was, he said, the type of baton you would get on holiday and had the

word *“Lanzarote’ written across It.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that there were no complaints in relation to the use of a baton, while it was not being alleged that the knife was pro- duced.

The court was told that Connick, a tradesman, had travelled from Wex- ford to do work on his friend Roche’s house.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said there was “no inference” that Connick had produced the knife.

She said that Roche was carrying the baton “in case it was needed for protection.”

“It’s an offence to good taste rather

than anything else. There was no evi- dence that he wielded it as such,” she SrnOe

“If anyone was going to attack him, he felt he should have it. If anyone ar- rived at the scene and saw ared baton from Lanzarote, they would prob- ably die laughing. The fashion police might be on their back as well,” said Ms Godfrey.

“T don’t think any self-respecting criminal would be seen dead with that,’ she added.

Judge Joseph Mangan asked what was the baton for, if it was not for criminal activity.

Ms Godfrey replied, “The mind

boggles.”

Inspector Kennedy pointed out however, “A wallop from that would be no different to a wallop from any 0} Tos mm As Ole Oyen balcie a0 bee Ces 01 ime

“Just because Lanzarote was writ- ten on it doesn’t make light of his re- sponsibilities,’ said the inspector.

Judge Mangan imposed a _ four- month jail term on both men, sus- pended on condition that they keep the peace for six months.

He ordered both to enter a bond to behave for two years and fined them €1,250 each.

He fixed a bond in the event of an appeal.

THREE Romanian nationals have appeared in court charged in connec- tion with alleged criminal damage to a bank ATM in Shannon.

The two men and one woman were brought before Shannon District Court last Thursday where the men were remanded on custody and the woman was released on bail. One of the men is also wanted in Mullingar on foot of outstanding warrants.

The three were charged in connec- tion with an ongoing garda investiga-

tion into an alleged ATM skimming operation in Shannon, which could involve tens of thousands of euro.

Pavel Cirpaci (27) whose address is ‘unknown’ gave a false name to gardai when arrested. Garda Kieran Nash arrested the accused on Febru- ary 14, on foot of two warrants is- sued at Mullingar District Court in 2007. The accused told gardai that his name was Paul Negrea.

In evidence, Garda Martin Cham- bers of the Immigration Unit at Shan- non garda station said he carried out tests on an identification card which

the accused had in his possession and found it to be false.

He said he later established that the defendant’s name was Pavel Cirpaci and that he had arrived in Ireland in June 2005.

The court was told by the accused’s solicitor Steven Walsh that the de- fendant had voluntarily offered his real name at 12.45pm. While the garda confirmed this, Judge Joseph Mangan said that he was “not at all impressed that the defendant vol- unteered his real name at 12.45pm” more than an hour after court had

commenced.

Garda Nash also told the court the accused has had 13 bench previous bench warrants issued against him. While he also faces charges in Mull- ingar, he is charged with two counts of causing criminal damage to an ATM at Shannon Town Centre.

The second accused, Craciun Ca- vacio (23), claimed he lived at 21, Dominick Street, Dublin. However gardai could not confirm that the ac- cused lived there.

A third defendant, Ms Gabriella Lupo (20), also with an address in

Dublin and who was on bail from Gort District Court, gave evidence that Mr Cavacio lived at 21, Domin- ick St, Dublin, as he claimed. Asked by Inspector John Galvin how long he lived there, Ms Lupo said “a few rpetoyalee tne

When she was asked when Mr Ca- vacio left that address, she replied “December.”

Ms Lupo also faces one charge of criminal damage to an ATM ma- chine at Shannon Town Centre.

All three will re-appear in court later this month.

show that district court judg- es received on average €23,436 in expenses last year.

Judge Mangan, appointed in July 2001, is likely to be in the upper half of the list as he has a large area to ad- minister, stretching from south Gal-

way to south-east and west Clare.

The highest amount received by a judge was €82,240. It is likely that the judge concerned does not have a designated court district and instead moves from district to district to cov- er for judges who are on leave.

The court sittings over which Judge Mangan presides include those in Ennis, Ennistymon, Kildysart, Kil- kee, Corofin, Kilrush, Tulla, Gort, Athenry and Killaloe.

Judge Mangan’s expenses payments comes on top on his newly increased salary of €158,000, awarded on

the recommendation of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in Public Sector. Judge Mangan’s sal- ary increased by 18 per cent from €134,124.

The figures show that country’s District Court judges spent €596,828 on mileage and €701,391 on subsist- ence.

The figures also show that the judg- es spent €14,211 on judges’ attire in- cluding wigs and gowns.

The FOI Unit has, however, refused to state how much each identified district judge received due to secu-

rity concerns.

The FOI officer states, “Both their security and the risk that any threat to the safety of their families may be used to threaten their judicial inde- pendence may effect the security of the State, particularly those in po- litical cases and those in the Special Criminal Court.

‘There is a genuine concern for the personal security of judges and their families … The disclosure of infor- mation sought on an individual basis will identify those judges who are away from home frequently.”

FIGURES for 2007 show more young listeners in Clare are tuning into new station SPIN South West.

The Joint National Listenership Re- search figures for the period January to December 2007 show that Clare FM remains the most listened to ra- dio station in the county.

The figures show a 42 per cent “‘lis- tened yesterday” figure for Clare FM

and that the station has a 37 per cent market share.

The findings also show that Clare FM’s weekday reach figure for the 12-month period remained static at 42 per cent. Clare FM’s weekday share figure, calculated between 7am and 7pm, was down I.1 per cent to 37.7 per cent placing the station sev- enth out of 16 local radio stations.

The JNLR/TNSmrbi_ study re- vealed Clare FM’s weekly reach fig-

ure to be 65 per cent, a drop of two per cent from last year. In its first five months on the airways, SPIN South West made inroads into the youth market in Limerick, Kerry, Clare, North Tipperary and South Laois. The JNLR figures show the station, along with Today FM, are the most listened to radio stations in the re- gion for 15-34 year olds. The figures were calculated over the period July to December 2007.

Reacting to the station’s first JNLR figures (July to December, 2007), Chief Executive of SPIN South West, Aevann Upton said that the re- sults indicated a successful first five yneloyaleatcy

“We anticipated a strong showing but nothing like this as we were on air for just five months of the year. This is a remarkable achievement and testament to the mix of youth music and talk that we have here at SPIN South West. It is a real boost to our shareholders, hard-working staff and, indeed, our advertisers.

“It is very early days for us yet, of course, but we couldn’t have hoped for better than this.”

The JNLR figures for the “listened yesterday” rating showed that 31 per cent (49,000) of 15 to 34 year olds across the region tuned into SPIN South West. This puts it joint top with Today FM in terms of listener- ship in the region. The station leads in the 7pm to midnight category with Rw mete

SPIN South West shareholders include former Lions, Ireland and Munster rugby star Keith Wood, Clare Community Radio Holdings, Liam O’Shea (Managing Direc- tor Clare FM and Chairman SPIN SouthWest).

REIGNING All-Ireland Minor Dou- bles champions Niall Malone and Diarmuid Nash bowed out of the 2008 race on Thursday night last. They were beaten in dramatic cir- cumstanaces by Limerick’s Seamus O’Carroll and CJ Fitzpatrick.

The tie started in Tuamgraney, but finished in Tulla. The Clare pair led 19-17 in the first game, but lost it 21- 19. In the second game it was Nash and Malone who enjoyed a good start and were leading 12-7 when damp- ness started to show in the alley.

After a Limerick objection, referee

Mike Kelly ruled the alley unfit to continue and the large crowd headed to Tulla, where the Limerick pair eventually turned the tide. Nash and Malone held serve at 19-17 and again at 20-18 only for the Limerick pair to snatch the game and the match, 21-20.

Meanwhile, also in the Munster Mi1- nor Doubles Championship, Trevor Vaughan (Tulla) and Gerry Cooney (O’C. Mills) had a massive 21-2, 21- | win over Tipperary opposition on Friday night last.

In Minor singles, Niall Malone will play Ballina’s Fergal Collins at Nenagh (TBC) and Diarmaid Nash

will face Cappagh’s CJ Fitzpatrick at Tuamgraney (TBC) in their Munster Ist round games next week. In Mas- ters B Singles last week, there was defeat for John Moloney but John Nihill progressed and will tonight (Tuesday) take on Cork’s John Mc- Donagh at Galbally in the Munster semi-final at 8.00pm.

Mike Baker (O’C. Mills) will play Limerick’s Pat Doody in the Munster Novice Singles quarter-final in Cap- pagh this Wednesday (18th) at 8.00. Baker teamed up with Clarecastle’s Finbarr Sheridan to play Limerick in the Novice Doubles but were defeat- ed 21-15, 21-15 on Friday last in Gal-

bally. In the Dalkia Senior Handball Championship, there was defeat in the round of 32 for Clooney’s Fergal Coughlan against Cork’s Tony Healy in Tuamgraney.

Meanwhile, anumber of Clare play- ers are involved in the All-Ireland Schools championships this weekend in Kilkenny and Cavan. Tulla’s Alan Leamy and Trevor Vaughan take on St. McCartan’s College Monaghan in the Intermediate Doubles semi-final.

In Intermediate Singles Tuam- eraney s Diarmaid Nash (Cistercian College, Roscrea) plays the Leinster final against Kells CS, with the win- ner playing the Connacht champion

while in the other semi, Nash’s club- mate Niall Malone (Scariff C.C.) plays the Carrickmore, Tyrone rep- resentative.

At Kingscourt, Cavan on Satur- day (11.00am), Clooney’s Paula and Lisa Loughnane (Rice College) play St. Patrick’s, Armagh, in the Junior Doubles semi-final.

Also at Kuinsgscourt, Sarah O’Donnell (Tuamgraney, Scariff C.C) plays St. Mary’s, Newry in the CISCO DENTS CoO OV EIOUSTDEMAU AONE CoMmEN| Senior Doubles, Ashling Fitzgerald and Edel O’Grady (Tuamgraney, Scariff C.C.) also play Newry oppo- sition in their semi-final.

THIS is neither the time nor the place to throw some balls of mud and play the blame game. This is, as Frank Doherty said on Saturday evening, time to look at the bigger picture.

It’s time to wonder why and how Clare, who were at least competitive in the championship less than three years back, have slipped so grace- lessly over the past couple of sea- Sons.

Taking 2007 and 2008 into consid- eration, Clare have played 11 games in championship and league. They’ ve lost all but three and one of those wins was against London in Cusack Park. So it’s over a year since the county footballers have had any result of sig- nificance — a five point win against Leitrim in the second round of the 2007 league on February 10th.

Just 20 months ago, Clare travelled to Casement Park in the first round of the All Ireland qualifiers and beat Antrim by one point. That day, they played with appetite and courage. On Saturday, Antrim came to Ennis and Clare were made look like a team that belong in another compeition.

Only three of those who lined out in Casement Park started in Cusack Park and that alone tells the story of an unforgiveable and unsustainable turnover rate.

Throughout Clare, players have reg-

ularly turned their back on the county jersey — an incredible fact to compre- hend for anybody from a county with any sort of football tradition. But it’s an inherent fact of football in this county. It’s bred into player’s psyches from early on and the results of that

indefensible approach were laid bare on Saturday.

Last summer, an underage develop- ment county team was shorn of play- ers because some clubs decided to withdraw their players on favour of club games later that week. What sort

of message does that relay? Where’s the love of the county that has kids in other places dreaming of wearing their own county colours?

There’s a spiritual aspect to the game that just isn’t being stoked in Clare and after the Antrim game, Frank Doherty was beginning to see that at first hand.

For sure, Clare played horribly. From the first minute that they walked out onto the field, the player’s body language was all wrong but in a way, it’s understandable given the lack of interest that surrounds them.

Walking around Ennis on Saturday, there was nothing to say the county footballers were facing a must win game to keep their league hopes alive. The same faces, the Clare Football Die Hards, as they’ve come to be known, were the only ones fly- ing the flag at Cusack Park. Do most people in Clare even care about in- ter-county football?

Selection-wise, the make-up of the team didn’t work either and at least three players were operating out of position. It all means the Clare management will continue to scour the county for willing footballers, though with no club games pencilled in over the next fortnight, the task could prove futile and any selection will have to be based on past per- formances.

If, as Doherty said, the McGrath

Cup covered cracks, then other, more intrinsic ruptures were also covered up in the wake of this season’s club championship. Bar a handful of exceptions, most games were sub- standard and the scoring, in particu- lar, was below-par. The county final was woeful and was papered over by Lissycasey’s historic win and the two best clubs in the county over the past two years have between them, two inter-county representatives.

Just prior to the hurlers taking off in 1995, Ger Loughnane correctly identified that the lacklustre nature of club games was contributing to the county under-performing. He deduced that the intensity of match days had to be replicated in training and that’s the task now facing the Clare footballers. Nobody expects a miracle 2008, but the least the 200 Clare supporters who showed up on Saturday deserved was the best team on the field and every man giving a committed performance.

There are no easy answers to games like Antrim, but it’s time to wake vhOR

The long term affect on the confi- dence of Clare football — particularly on the younger players — means the rot has to stop.

FRANK Doherty walks out of the Clare dressing room looking like a man who signed up for a 10 kilome- tre jog but has just been told he’s got two marathons to run.

The job is big, Frank. Bigger, may- be, than anybody ever expected.

For now, he’s still hopeful of entic- ing one or two more players onto the panel and though they’re needed, that invitation after three straight league defeats looks increasingly less se- ductive with every passing week.

That the panel has to be looked at with a sharper, more critical eye is now obvious and Doherty says it’s time to re-assess the value of some of it’s members.

“There are guys who’ll have to be released after today,” he says. “From my own point of view, I’m totally down after that performance and so are the two selectors involved. And so are the players as well.

‘“There’s a lot of cracks out there to be quite honest. There’s no point

painting a rosy picture. People have already spoken about where we are right now and at the moment, we’re down at the bottom. We’re going to have to try and lift the lads and get them up for Waterford on March 2.”

He’s asked about some of the mis- takes Clare were responsible for and says he’s struggling to grasp the quantity of fumbles and dropped or nR

‘The amount of turnovers were un- believeable. I couldn’t count them all myself at times. We haven’t been un- der lights every night of the week to do certain things, but we have trained hard. It’s not an excuse because these are basic errors. We’re talking about club lads at underage, taking balls into tackles with a solo. Hopping a ball in front of a player when you’re about to go into a tackle. It’s basic, basic stuff.”

The cracks that Doherty saw on Saturday are one thing but the length of the road ahead of Clare becomes clear when he speaks of the need to revert to grassroots coaching.

A manager takes a job and expects the base skills to be available, he shouldn’t have to worry about an in- ferior legacy.

“I’ve always said that these guys need to be taught at an early age but we re talking 10 and 12 years of age to be addressing this. If the fututre is going to be bright for Clare — which I hope it will be — then these are things that need to be addressed. The skills have to be there if the next few crops will improve. But from a technical point of view, to be honest, some of the errors out there were schoolboy errors.

“Let’s look at the bigger picture. I’m not here to criticise players. I wouldn’t do that. The guys have abil- ity and they’ve played to the best of their ability. When it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. That’s sport and it’ll knock you on your back every now and then.”

ON THE lengthy trek from Belfast to Limerick, Jody Gormley, former Tyrone footballer and current An- trim manager looked ahead to the Clare challenge and believed his side would find some resistence in Ennis.

VSS UUh CBMs ae aee day night well past midnight, before trevelling to Cusack Park on Satur- day morning and walking all over Clare later that afternoon. The ease of Antrim’s victory eventually sur- prised Gormley.

“The opposition was poor but we weren’t to know that coming down the road,” he said on Saturday. “Our fellas are working hard at the minute and you could see that out there. It’s

a long journey up the road, but we’ll be going back with a smile on our faces.”

The movement of Antrim and their ability to string passes together pleased the manager. “Early on in the first half we had some great moves that ended up with scores, we’re making progress which is what it’s all about. Clare gave us a tough game here last year in the Tommy Murphy Cup and we prepared for this chal- SONSXomMWA LOMO otclmmexeNoatommne meee DU ITC ma

Having also beaten Wicklow and Kilkenny to date, Antrim have the foundation to emerge from Division 4 and according to Gormley, the mo- tivation is there to progress.

‘We had a poor season last year and we re treating every game as though

we have to win it. The Tommy Mur- phy Cup threw us a lifeline because it gelled players together for the rest of the season. It worked well for us. Boys knuckled down and we’ve con- tinued to train hard over the winter. We’re glad to get onto the grass and we’ve started well but we’ve Offaly next and a lot of people are saying Offaly shouldn’t be in Division 4, that they’re too good for this divi- sion. And I’d imagine Offaly will be a step above the three teams we’ve played so far. They’re a big, strong team with some very powerful for- wards, so that’ll be a new challenge for us.”

Off Gormley goes for the journey home. A different set of ambitions than those he left behind in Clare.

THE four-point losing margin cer- tainly flattered Clare, but Mike Mc- Namara gladly took it at the end of his debut league game in charge. An- yway, the result wasn’t of concern to Clare on this day, because winning isn’t everything in the earliest days of McNamara’s time at the wheel.

ed WaTompushiUN mm c-h0 Me mao orsl mm peel oe)me- 001 me McNamara told a posse of reporters after the game. “We were looking for character in players more than any- thing else today. We’re new and we’re on the road now and were looking for character and I think we found it.

“We went a little disjointed when we went down to 14 men. It was a new team, with new boys. An expe- rienced team would be able to cope with a loss like that. We haven’t that experience yet.

‘I would be extremely pleased with the manner of the performance and the character of the players. We’ll have to accept that it’s going to take a while to get a team game going. Individual performances all over the field were quite good, but you have to accept with Clare going forward that it’s going to take a while to put the team effort in place and play as a team, particularly this year when we have no ball-play done at all,” added McNamara.

Character then is going to be the template of McNamara’s steward- ship — his thesis being that only by throwing players in at the deep end will character emerge. Give me the boy and I’ll make the man could be- come a byword for McNamara’s first season in charge.

“We spoke during the week that if we all came through unscathed it

would be a miracle. If you put six or seven debutants on a team and five come through unscathed, you have a ereat day’s work done,’ McNamara revealed.

“We can take a lot of positives from it. don’t know what we scored but 3- 15 (3-17) or whatever, with five lads playing in the forwards who didn’t play league before. It’s going to take time to generate team play, team spirit and a team itself.

“We’re down the road now, we’re up and running and we can only look forward to getting better everyday. I’d be very surprised if the perform- ances don’t increase and the tempo doesn’t increase in Clare hurling and that players, individually and collec- tively, will increase their perform- ances,” he added.

Starting with Laois in Cusack Park this Sunday.