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CLARE owners enjoyed big suc- cess at an exciting day’s coursing in Cloncullen last Thursday.

Favourite Clare Man was pipped in the final of the South Clare Cup by Valverdes, owned by Anthony and Denis Clohessey and Michael and Martin Madigan from Killimer.

Valverdes had earlier received a bye run to the final after the Clare- castle owned Murty’s Shadow was withdrawn while Clareman edged

out Caeser Mac in the semi-final to book a final spot.

There was success for the SAM syndicate from Clarecastle when Bird’s Baby clinched the Oaks ticket for Clonmel.

Trained by Gerry Holihan for John Quinn, Woodpark Rebel was again in top form, winning out the South Clare All-aged Bitch Stake.

The win over Crafty Montico books a place in the Champion Stake in Clonmel for Woodpark Rebel.

Former Clare hurling manager

Anthony Daly is another who will be heading to Clonmel. Murty’s for One, owned by the ATM syndicate of Anthony and Michael Daly and Tommy Howard had already guar- anteed a place in the Boylesports Derby after winning at the Galway and Oranmore meeting.

Daly, along with fellow owners Stephen and Martin Sheedy will have another interest in Clonmel after the SAM syndicate owned Bird’s Baby beat of stiff competition for a spot in the Clonmel Minealla Oaks.

In the final Bird’s Baby saw off the challenge of the Miltown Malbay owned Dalcash Shannon by three lengths.

The reserve derby was won by the Scattery Syndicate from Kil- limer with Scattery Hyland which beat Siena’s Steel owned by Co- oraclare brothers John and Michael O’ Donoghue.

However there was joy for Coora- clare when Riverdale Honcho won the Cloncullen Stake for one and two course dogs and bitches, for owners

Michael and Fiona Meaney.

Fisherman’s Ace won the final of the working members stake for Kil- kee owner Joe Harte.

this week that she is still optimistic that the mys- tery into her brother’s death will be solved. She has appealed to anyone with information on the killing to come forward. “It seems to have been left there, shelved. There doesn’t seem to be

anything new. It is maddening, gall- ing. You keep thinking you might get a phone call but there is nothing,” said Ms Horgan.

“However we can’t give up hope and we hope that something will happen yet,” she added.

Ms Horgan lives in Ballyheigue, County Kerry and has not had direct contact with gardai probing the death. However her brother, Ray, who re- sides just 100 yards from where Sean lived in Ardnacrusha has liaised with the investigation team. But there has been no breakthrough as of yet.

“I am appealing to anyone with information, anyone who knows something and if they were afraid to say anything all along, to go to the guards now, five years on,’ she said.

“I know there might be fear in- volved as well. It could be that, but if they went to the guards they would never be known. Is it that they don’t understand what the family is going through?” she asked.

She said she firmly believed some- one was staying quiet and was refus-

ing to disclose information which might lead to the murder being solved.

‘There is not a hope that someone doesn’t know something. It is fright to see an innocent man left there. We don’t even have a proper idea why he was killed. Along with not knowing who, we don’t know why,” she said.

“They (the killers) are out there free. They could do it to anybody else. Have they any conscience at all’? How do you live with that?” she asked.

‘All we know is he was kind and soft-hearted. A lot of people wouldn’t have cars without him. He more or less told them to pay whenever they had money,’ said Ms Horgan.

“It doesn’t get any easier for us. It is like a burden you are carrying around. Maybe if there was some bit of closure it might help, but it is not going to bring him back,” she said.

One month before Sean was gunned down, Limerick nightclub bouncer Brian Fitzgerald was murdered at his home in Corbally, Limerick. Four

men were tried in relation to this case at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin this year. That trial concluded in November. Three of the men were acquitted, while the other, a 24-year- old, was found guilty of murder.

Ms Horgan said the breakthrough in that case left her with some hope that her brother’s killers would be caught.

“Brian Fitzgerald was killed just a month before Sean. We kept hoping that something might come out of Sean’s case, even though they were completely different cases,’ she said.

Mr Poland was born in Portum- na, County Galway and his family moved to Ardnacrusha several years ago. Sean had lived at the family home when he was murdered. His father and brother have since moved back to Clontuskert in east Galway.

DISBELIEF, amazement, agony, glory turned into depression. Just some of the expressions used to de- scribe the Clare Junior team’s year in review. Camogie in Clare enjoyed new heights in popularity as the Jun- ior team forged its way to an All-Ire- land final appearance in Croke Park. The coverage that camogie got this year opened the minds of many to the game and the girls playing it.

This coupled with the live coverage on the final day and the lead up to it allowed the sporting people of Clare watch and enjoy what was a skilful game of camogie and wait in hope of that elusive All-Ireland title. This seemed to be in the offering as the final few seconds ticked down but the announcement of six minutes of injury time which turned into eight did little for the nerves.

Then within 30 seconds of that eventual full-time whistle the pow- ers that be in Croke Park had to whip the saffron and blue ribbons from the New Ireland Cup and re-adorn it with the red and white of Derry as a last gasp goal denied the girls of the Banner.

Strange as it may seem, this loss

has awoken the plight of camogie to an even greater number of people within the county as support over- flowed in the county. Those who never before batted an eyelid at the mention of camogie were now inter- ested and expressed their wishes for Clare to succeed.

That team, after losing the All-Ire- land, went on to win a Munster title, proving their mettle and gave some consolation to the deserving players.

The management of the Junior team was only established in February and with games fast approaching there was little time for settling down.

The team quickly got into training and markers laid down for all. The team had wins in the League over Kildare, Offaly, Derry, Antrim and a draw with Down which gave them a place in a play-off with Down for the league final. With little between these teams in the last number of years, Down edged this encounter by a one point margin. Clare threw themselves into preparations for the championship and with easy home wins against Antrim and Down, Clare then had a thirteen week wait to the All-Ireland semi-final, after Kildare failed to field and the sem1i- final dates were changed.

Clare were impressive winners over Waterford in that semi-final and faced an All-Ireland final appear- ance with Derry, one point losers the year before. Clare were confident of their ability heading into that final and many will say that they were extremely unfortunate to have lost in the way that they did.

With a young squad of players and six of the panel Under 18, the fu- ture 1S positive for this team. There are no retirements from the team at the moment, there is the return of Laura Linnane and Claire McMa- hon to look forward to and they also possess many strong underage play- ers. This will make competition for places very tough in the coming year which should be extremely beneficial for the Junior team.

This team represented Clare in the Munster Intermediate Final in Octo- ber and while the team was largely comprised of the All-Ireland squad, there were additions to the panel as some were unavailable. Shona En- right, Chloe Morey, Mary Clune, Ci- ara Lynch were all part of that panel and should be amongst those pushing for places this coming year.

Captain Deirdre Murphy and corner forward Claire Commane were both

nominated for All-Stars and although they were unsuccessful in that chal- lenge, the nominations were merited after solid displays from Deirdre at centre back who was a driving force for Clare throughout the campaign. In a position where she was unaccus- tomed to, Deirdre quickly settled in and was easily the best centre back in the Junior Championship.

Claire was Clare’s top scorer and added 1-6 in the All-Ireland fi- nal and received the player of the game award. Just some of the stars that shone through were Catherine O’Loughlin who had had a strong campaign at centre forward and Kate Lynch, Carina Roseingrave who made huge contributions as younger players. Dee Corcoran was very re- liable at full back while behind her Denise Lynch had kept Clare ahead in the semi-final with some fine saves and catches. Aoife Ryan had a great campaign as did Sharon O’ Loughlin, Amy Colleran, Sharon McMahon, Cathy Hally and Jane Scanlon.

The panel was then bolstered by the presence of Siobhan and Fiona Lafferty, Helen McMahon, Aimee McInerney, Aine O’Brien, Stehanie Moloney, Maire O’Halloran, Jane O’Leary, Edel Keating, Aiveen

O’Shea, Aoife Griffen and Rachel Lynch.

Clare are now ready to re-group and are anxious to start into a new campaign. They’re again setting their sights on preparing for a challenge on the All-Ireland title and the hope to lead Clare to the Senior ranks.

A CLARE politician has accused the HSE of telling lies in its response to a query from Kilrush Town Council.

Outspoken Councillor Deirdre Cul- ligan (Ind) was reacting to a response to a query about the future of Ennis General Hospital and its services, presented to councillors at their De- cember meeting. In the letter the HSE reiterated its statement that the mam- mography unit at Ennis would not be recommissioned.

It said its decision was driven by the “need to provide the best possible clinical practices for patients in the mid-west”.

The letter added that, as a stand- alone unit, Ennis would not have the benefits and protections of a centre of excellence with the associated “checks and balances”.

Cllr Culligan asked, “If the mam- mography machine at Ennis General Hospital is not to be recommissioned, why does the planning application for the re-development of the hospital make provision for a Mammography Unit at the Hospital – with separate offices for two radiologists?

“The HSE refuses to accept that dig- ital mammogram equipment at Ennis would enable women to have the con- venience of having a mammogram in Ennis – and it could be relayed digit- ally for analysis by teams working at

the cancer centre,’ she said.

“It 1s worth noting that Prof Tom Keane, who 1s heading up the cancer programme, has said he accepts the case of localised cancer services sup- porting the cancer centres.”

The town council also asked the HSE what its plans were for the hos- pital. The HSE replied that it had en- gaged an “independent management consultant” to review the services and visit the hospitals in the mid-west. In addition to site visits, a number of fact finding interviews were held with consultant representation from each of the hospitals, senior nurses, GP representatives, ambulance, risk management staff were interviewed.

“Individuals or bodies were encour- aged to forward written submissions in relation to the scope of the current and future service activity for consid- eration. The management consultants are currently finalising their report,” the HSE said.

“The HSE reneged on public under- takings that the Teamwork consult- ants (independent consultants) would consult widely with all stake-holders. SW sleavas nate Mm sl Oe MnO elomm elo yo)lesDemere)ecuseNI tee for just 30 minutes. It is com- pletely untrue to claim Teamwork invited public submissions – no pub- lic notices inviting submissions were advertised,” said Cllr Culligan.

“I don’t agree with that response. I think it is a heap of lies.”

A NEW era for Clare GAA was ush- ered in at the Auburn Lodge Hotel in Ennis last Saturday as a new county

board executive was elected, while outgoing voluntary secretary Pat Fit- zgerald officially assumed the role in a full-time capacity.

Before a packed attendance, new

chairman Michael O’Neill looked to the future, while paying tribute to those who have gone before him. He

was formally proposed for the top job in Clare GAA by his Ballyea club-

mate Tom McInerney and seconded by Clondegad’s Seamus O’Reilly.

“We face major challenges ahead,” said O’Neill, “but we face them with energy and enthusiasm and I will not be found wanting when it comes to giving the level of leadership that is required for my position,’ he added.

“The best way forward is to draw up a Strategic plan that embraces all aspects of the GAA structures within the county. This plan will take a lit- tle time but it is vital to the future workings of the association within the county.

“Everything I have mentioned can only be achieved by inclusiveness. This means everyone having an input from grassroots level to county board and national level. Working together we can achieve our goals and I will no stone unturned in our quest for success on and off the field of play,” added O’Neill.

His vice-chairman for 2008 will be Lissycasey’s Johnny Hill — the out- going Development Officer defeated Tony O’Brien of Smith O’Briens by 99 votes to 69. In the two contests for positions on the executive, Ger Hickey from Feakle defeated Clare- castle’s Martin Reynolds by 131 to 34, while Corofin’s Tom Burke beat Domhnall O Loinsigh by 127 to 41 in the contest for Oifigeach Gaeilge. Burke, along with Michael O’Connor (Crusheen) and Ger Hickey make up the three new members of the county board executive for 2008.

ONE MORE beginning.

Just like last year, a fresh dawn will fall over Clare next weekend when the county footballers and hurlers begin their season under new man- agement.

Mike McNamara gets the opportu- nity to lead out his county on Sunday when the hurlers take on the Univer- sity of Limerick and Frank Doherty gets a taste of inter-county manage- ment with Clare as the footballers come up against University College Cork on the same day.

While results this early in the year won’t count for much in the summer and while Sunday, mainly, represents the chance to wipe the slate clean, two wins would lift a cloud that has lingered since Clare left the national scene at the height of summer.

Last year was one of the poorest in for the GAA in Clare at All Ireland level. The Tony Considine reign will be remembered for the wrong rea- sons — the spats, the county board interference and ultimately, the poor results.

To be fair, it wasn’t all negative. Philip Brennan, Kevin Dilleen and

Brendan Bugler all represent the fu- UN Ken ;

Under Paidi O Sé, Clare started well but came undone after their sec- ond league game. The defeat against Waterford represented the worst day in Clare football history and the de- mise of football in the county was copper-fastened by the withdrawal of three key players shortly before that game.

Again, the emerging talent, in the form of the Under 21s 1s there and it’s now about transferring that to some- thing meaningful at senior level.

That’s why decent showings this

winter are more important than they normally would be.

Neither the Waterford Crystal Cup nor the McGrath Cup will tempt numbers to the terraces in any mean- ingful way, but a decent run in both competitions would shine some sun on the situation in Clare.

Only the die hards will come out of hibernation on Sunday and all will hope to claim they were there on day one of the revolution. It remains to be seen if the uprising happens, but right now, at least, the only way is up.

THE Clare Schoolboys Soccer League, the Munster Football Asso- ciation and the FAI have been writ- ten to this week by the St Pat’s club in Kilmihil, who have lodged a series of complaints over Saturday under 11 Clare Cup semi-final against Money- point.

In a hard-hitting letter, St Pat’s of- ficials Tom Egan, Derek Dolan and Tony Quinn have said when they travelled to Kilrush for the match they “had no idea of the horror which was to unfold”.

‘“Moneypoint managers and a large number of their fans invaded the pitch and verbally abused the referee in front of both sets of teams.

‘Foul and abusive language flowed

unchecked and disregarding the children listening. We gathered our children together to shield them from deh

‘“Moneypoint’s team seeing their parents managers etc abuse the ref- eree themselves began aiming foul language at him to cheers of encour- agement.

“Was this supposed to be a game for kids to enjoy or was it as Money- point’s supporters seemed to think it was life or death,” the letter adds.

Moneypoint won the game 4-3, but according to St Pats’ correspondence, the game descended into a farce in the second half.

“What followed was disgraceful. Our children some as young as eight were being threatened from the side- nase

“Two of our supporters who had children on the team were assaulted by a woman and were told to stand on the opposite side of the pitch.

‘The referee had to stop the game to try and restore order. Some of our boys were now in terror and had tears in their eyes.

“We had to bring any of our players playing on Moneypoint’s supporters side into the middle for their own safety which effectively meant that channel was now fully exposed.

“Having little regard of what was happening on the pitch and listening to foul threatening language from the sideline our team fell apart to howls of derision from Moneypoint Supporters.

“Trailing 4-3 and with ten min- utes remaining the referee told me

he would support us if we wanted to abandon the game. Under normal circumstances I would have said yes but my primary concern was to get our kids off the pitch safely and un- injured and abandoning the game would not have been well received and could have led to even more seri- ous scenarios.

“I agreed that at the games end we would gather our children over to our side straight away and wait for the supporters from Moneypoint to leave. At the final whistle we gath- ered our children and tried our best to comfort them. Losing is a part of growing up but losing like this is nothing short of disgraceful.

“One of Moneypoint’s club officials apologised for the terrible behaviour of their supporters to our lads. Did

he not have a duty to stop this type of behaviour?

Did he not realise that the Code of conduct for players, managers and supporters had all been broken. Were these Codes ever issued and if so were they not understood?

“Soccer at underage level is all about teaching kid’s basic skills and encouraging them to enjoy the game while maintaining good discipline and respecting their fellow players and opponents. When did that change to a win at all costs attitude regard- less of who you hurt in the process? Soccer suffered a terrible blow on Saturday,” the letter added.

The Clare Schoolboys Soccer League are awaiting the referees re- port on the game.

CLARE ladies football celebrates 25 years in existence in 2008 and with new Chairman of the Clare ladies football county board, Johnny Hayes at the helm, the board hopes to pro- pel the sport forward significantly in the coming year. Hayes, who took temporary charge of the board after the resignation of James Lafferty in October, was ratified to the chair af- ter The Banner’s Paul McKenna and Fergus Rovers’ Mary Keane with- drew their nominations leaving the position open for the Fergus Rovers’ delegate Hayes.

In his speech following the ap- pointment, Hayes placed the provi- sion of a county field for Clare ladies

football as top of his priority list for the coming year. The new chairman also spoke out against the increas- ing threat of drink and drugs in Irish society and felt that everyone must work to eliminate that ‘evil threat’ before it causes serious long term problems for the clubs and games as a whole, stressing the need to support the headquarters promoted drug and alcohol prevention programme.

Mr Hayes also paid tribute to his predecessor James Lafferty who held the position for two years until his resignation in October.

Outgoing county secretary, Michael Fitzpatrick in his report to the delegates outlined the past year’s achievements in Clare ladies football. He praised the Clare U16

team on winning the All-Ireland B championship as well as the West Clare Gaels on their impressive and historic run to the All-Ireland Junior championship final, only losing out to Foxrock/Cabinteely a few weeks ago. He dwelt on the heartache suf- fered by the Clare Intermediate team in their second successive one point defeat in the All-Ireland semi-final and wished them better luck for the year ahead. Finally, he saved spe- cial praise for the work of everyone involved in the sport in Clare from team management, players, match officials, organisers, county board officers from all codes, sponsors and anyone who assisted and promoted the game in the past year.

The finances for 2007 were dealt

with by outgoing treasurer Christy O’Connor who gave a detailed report and of all the board’s funds during the year. At the beginning of the year, the board had an opening balance of €12,169.50. The income for 2007 was €98,626.68 while the overall ex- penditure came to €82,523.55, leav- ing a surplus including the opening balance of €28,272.63.

The income was broken down fur- ther by O’Connor who revealed the main source of revenue was from church gate collections (€9,193.78), race night (€14,088), Flag day (€2,360) and a bucket collection (€2,480) while the main expenses were the central council registration costs (€31,278), Clare Intermediate team (€18,273.55) and the Under 16

B team (€6,898,55).

CALLS for the abolition of the In- terprovincial Championships in hurling and football are never to far away, but another Clare loyalist has emerged in the shape of Pat Fitzger- ald. The new full-time secretary, Pat Fitzgerald, added his voice to those supporting the competition that dates from 1927.

At this Saturday’s convention, Fit- zgerald, lauded the efforts of Coora- clare man Martin Donnelly at reviv-

ing interest in a competition in recent years through sponsorship to the tune of €500,000.

“The enduring appeal of the Rail- way Cup, or the Martin Donnelly sponsored inter-provincial champion- ships as it’s now known, was placed very much in the spotlight this year with the decision of the GAA hierar- chy to stage the finals under lights at Croke Park,’ Fitzgerald told the an- nual convention.

“The finals were back in a changed environment of GAA headquarters

for the first time

since 1995 and as one who has been particularly sceptical of the Associa- tion’s direction in trying to revive interest in the competition, I have to admit that this year they almost got Lime reanle

“Almost, I say, because with a more orchestrated and better market- ing campaign, the attendance could have been appreciably more that the 10,000 spectators who went through the turnstiles. At that, it was signifi- cant in that it represented the larg-

est attendance at the finals in some thirty years.

That was the encouraging aspect, a heartening indication of a potential resurgence in interest 1n a competi- tion which provides us with a rich sporting legacy. Gone was the public apathy. Had the GAA more time than a mere five days to engage in a sus- tained public relations exercise, the attendance could have been swelled ehKerorm ene) AYA

“Sponsor Martin Donnelly, who has bank rolled the competition for the

past five years, deserves that at least. He said that this year was a missed Opportunity in that he had planned on marketing the event through Cu- mann na mBunscoil, filling the sta- dium with enthusiastic children and donating the proceeds to charity,” added Fitzgerald.

CLARE GAA’s campaign to entice more people to take up refereeing is being lost, Saturday’s annual con- vention heard in a report delivered by Clare Referees Administration Com- mittee chairman, Kevin Walsh.

“We are on the verge of a crisis in relation to refereeing numbers in Clare,’ said Walsh. Since the incep- tion of the national recruitment drive in 1999 we are gradually losing the battle of recruiting referees. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main reason continues to be a complete lack of interest shown by some clubs in the county and they are the same year on year.

“Again this year we still have 21 clubs in the county who do not have a referee and have shown little inter- est in addressing this situation. De- spite the efforts of the county chair- man, we still did not get a positive response from any of these clubs.

“When it comes to moaning and suggesting what should be done with refereeing in Clare in order to 1m- prove it, the clubs with no referees make the most noise and always ex- pect to have a referee for the games in which they play, but are doing lit- tle to help the cause of refereeing.

“It is very easy to talk about and suggest what should be done. I be- lieve actions speak louder than words and if club are serious about doing something positive in this important area of our games, then the time is now,’ added Walsh in his hard-hit- ting report.

And, he didn’t leave it there. In revealing that there are only 48 ref- erees active in the county, Walsh said that numbers could dwindle further because the abuse some referees are subjected to.

“The real sad area and the one which I am most concerned over is the referees lost because of abuse. Everyone wants a referee for their

game but no one gives the beginner a chance to develop.

“This abuse factor has an even deeper knock on effect because as referees administrator for the county and charged with responsibility for recruitment of foundation referees, it has become increasingly difficult to convince someone to become a knight of the whistle.

‘The amount of abuse being direct- ed at new referees in these games 1s seriously damaging our effectiveness in recruiting referees and is turning them away from refereeing. This is a sad state of affairs.

‘The abuse of referees has to be severely dealt with each and every time and all our referees have to be protected and get the support they Caer