Category: Uncategorized

MODERN-DAY warriors will march through the mists of time in Killaloe this summer to contend for NOUN CeN ONO A CO

On August 8, hundreds of tri-ath- letes will contest the title Ard Ri on territory adjacent to the ‘Forth of Brian Bort’ and ‘Greenanlaghna’ the seat of the great Munster Dalcas- sians.

The inaugural Brian Bort Triath- lon Challenge will require different skills to those which sustained the ancient warriors, but endurance and preparation will still be needed.

“The intensity and heat of battle over the course of one day’s racing will produce the worthy heir. There will be a winner and the heir will be bestowed with the crown and title

Ard Ri Cill Da Lua,” a spokeswom- an for the organisers said

Keith Wood and Anthony Foley, International Rugby legends and Killaloe’s modern day warriors were on hand to launch the triathlon at the Kincora Hall Hotel last week.

OW slommbets) ovbeclaCeyemm Cem seUKMmnur-l#el ley! stemmed from a challenging charity cycle, which is currently under way. Thaireland is a charity cycle from Thailand to Ireland by three Killaloe lads who aim to build a holiday vil- lage for sick children and the Share a Dream Foundation.

Brothers Brian and Michael Cul- hane from Killaloe, and Paul Ryan from Ogonnelloe, set out from Bang- kok last December with the goal of cycling 14,000 km back to Ireland. They are currently in Turkey and expect to arrive back in Killaloe in

CRU RAM LeU A

Any proceeds raised from this tri- athlon will go towards the €50,000 target the three cyclists have set themselves. Their adventure can be followed on www.thaireland.1ie.

Triathalon swimmers will take their marks on the lakeshore at the Twomilegate and, on completion of the open water 750 metre swim, competitors will then race over a 22 km cycle course on the most scenic roads overlooking Lough Derg, pass- ing by the Brian Bort oak tree and St Cronan’s 10th century church, loop- ing around the East Clare Memorial Park at Tuamgraney before return- ing through the picturesque village of Ogonnolloe.

The challenge doesn’t end there, on completion of the cycle, a 5km run still awaits any would be Ard Ri.

The run will take place on the steep slopes of the peaceful forest at Bally- cuggeran. Having surmounted these challenges, first over the line will be ceremoniously crowned Ard Ri 2009 on the ancient site of Kincora, the seat of Brian Bort: Killaloe and Ireland’s last high king.

Those who are developing their skills in swimming, cycling or run- ning can enter the relay event with three individual warriors participat- ing and covering the same course.

THE availability of free legal aid for people with multiple previous convictions represents an “absolute abuse” to taxpayers and victims of crime, a meeting has heard.

Cllr Tony Mulcahy (FG) was com- menting at yesterday’s monthly meet- ing of Clare County Council, where he called for an urgent reform of the free legal aid system.

The Shannon councillor raised the matter in a motion calling for the Minister for Justice and all relevant ministers to review the possibility of removing the facility of free legal aid from serial criminal repeat offenders.

Cllr Mulcahy proposed that a limit be placed on the amount of times se- rial offenders be allowed to avail of free legal aid, possibly three times.

Cllr Mulcahy also said that these in- dividuals should be means-tested and asset-tested prior to be being granted full legal aid. Cllr Mulcahy told the TPaeceL BD OTSMNOT:LMOCOMWE RM ECU DOTSMO Sem NOreLAKo because of a “serious lift in the level of violent crime and assaults”.

He said that under the current sys- tem, taxpayers were underwriting the cost of violent crime. “As long as

we are going to continue to pay we are not going to get criminals behind bars and they are going to go on giv- ing the two fingers to justice,” said Cllr Mulcahy. He said the system was in need of urgent reform. “They (se- rial offenders) are not means tested or asset tested. We need to put a stop to this activity,’ said Cllr Mulcahy.

He added, “We have a duty to pro- tect people from this abuse. I believe this system is an absolute abuse. We have to put a stop to this”.

Cllr Pay Hayes (FF) said the cost of free legal aid was being picked up by taxpayers. He said the system had contributed to a “constant merry go- round of crime”.

Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) said that while there were cases where people were genuinely entitled to free legal aid, the system was being abused by “thugs and gurriers and people with a catalogue of crime”.

“It’s hard to defend the indefensi- ble. I don’t see why taxpayers should have to pay for it.”

Cllr Mulcahy said he appreciated the views of the legal community on the matter and acknowledged that those charged with breaking the law were entitled to representation.

TWENTY-SIX auditioned and now it is down to 16 finalists in West Clare’s Got Talent.

Last year a group of people set up the competition to raise money for the ISPCC under the umbrella “chil- dren helping children”.

Following on from the success of the 2008 event, the talent show has now become an annual event.

In total 26 acts performed for judg- es Charlie Killeen, Linda O’Gorman, Karen Hogan and Paddy Hohnan,

who had the unenviable job of pick- ing just 16 acts for the grand final.

On May 16 the final acts will battle it out for the title in the Community School Kilrush, from 7pm sharp.

The participants are aged 10 to 18 years old and their acts include, hip hop and Irish dancing, set dancing, singers ranging from sopranos to al- tos and musicians playing the harp and accordion.

The new judges for the night – Anne Marie Doyle, Doonbeg; Mor- gan Roughan, Michael Vardin form the Ennis School of Rock, and Mary

Corry, along with guest adjudicator and last year’s winner Cooraclare girl Lisa Falsey will decide who will win the shield on the night.

Last year’s winner, Lisa will also perform on the night and will be joined by two special guests – Bert and Victor from the All Ireland Tal- ent Show.

The singers’ mother hails from Kilrush and the talented teens will be back in her old school performing again for those who supported them during the talent competition.

Last year West Clare’s Got Talent

raised €2,000, and this year the or- ganisers are hoping to double that sum.

Tickets on the night cost €5 for OAPs and students and €10 for adults.

There will also be a raffle and spot prizes.

Main organiser Kilrush woman Teresa Carrig said that the commu- nity has really got behind the event.

“Tt is very much community driven and it is great to see all the commu- nity involved in something like this,” said Ms Carrig.

LIFFORD B asked their big broth- ers in the A set-up for a pre-season friendly last August — the story goes that the A team declined the invita- tion, but when they then went knock- ing on Rineanna Rovers’ door they were met with a more positive re- sponse.

Rineanna didn’t bring their strong- est side to the Fair Green for that friendly, but they fielded a team as they used it as an exercise to free the cobwebs after a summer of inactiv- ity.

Rineannna were taken aback by what greeted them — Second Divi- sion Lifford B had a huge squad out and beat their Premier Division op- ponents. The game itself will have no bearing on Saturday’s cup final, apart from the fact that Rineanna are certainly taking nothing for granted.

“You look at it,” says Rineanna Rov- ers manager Colm Ryan “and you see a Premier team against a First Divi- sion team. That makes us favourites in a lot of people’s eyes, but we’re looking on this as a 50/50 game. They’ve had some huge scalps along the way — Lifford A in the semi-final, Newmarket Celtic in the quarter-fi- nal and Mountshannon Celtic before that. We’re not taking them lightly, they’ ll be very confident coming into 1d aComeeeDoatemr-00(6 mI Mere] UNG mxO Mss 10 0(o) MAUR Val adds Ryan.

It’s not a case of Ryan talking up the Opposition, more a case of treading carefully as Rineanna Rovers stand on the brink of history. For years they’ve laboured in the shadows of illustrious neighbours — around them

Bunratty, Newtown and Newmar- ket Celtic have won league and cup titles, Rineanna have been close but the eternal bridesmaids.

“Last year in my first year as man- ager we reached the semi-final and went down 2-1 when Rock Rovers got a very late goal. Five of the squad were on the 1999 team that reached the final. They were Hugh Kelly, Pa Fahy, Brian Kelly, Declan Devitt and John Earls. They’ve been around a long time with the club and given great service. It’s been a long road back to the cup final for them.

“This year we’ve done well in cup competitions. We got to the last 16

of the Munster Junior Cup where we went down to Fairview Rangers by a goal, while the previous round we had a great win against Gran- ville. Hopefully that good cup form will continue for another day,” adds Raven

Ryan and everyone associated with the club are also hoping that front- line players like Stephen and Enda Kelly, Kieran Devitt and Daithi O’Connell will be able to play, even though they’re involved in Saturday’s senior hurling championship clash between Newmarket-on-Fergus and Wolfe Tones.

“There’s be a bit of a hullaba-

loo about the hurlers, but we can’t be worried about that,’ says Rayn. “When they’ve been available for training they’ve been with us. We have a squad of 20 players and hope- fully we will be ok. We have to con- centrate on the game.

“It’s going to be a great day. Being in a cup final is something to enjoy and hopefully we will come out on top. It’s going to be hard though.”

Cup finals generally are.

, that parts of Drumbiggle had been affected by the feud, Ferdie O’Donoghue of the Drumbiggle Residents Association, said the area had not experienced any problems. “In no way has it affected our area. We had our problems in the

past but the area is settled now. There are some small things, but they are the usual things that happen in any privately run council estates. If it does come to our area we will deal with in an appropriate manner.”

The Drumbiggle area covers over 300 houses in Clancy Park, Water- park Heights, Waterpark View, Wa- terpark Court, McHugh Villas, Rad- hare na hInse, Ard Carrig and Stone Court. Mr O’Donoghue said that the actions of a “small minority” had cre- ated difficulties for residents and had given some housing estates in Ennis,

“a bad name”.

He said, “We do have sympathy with the people living in Cloughleigh and what they have had to go through. It’s terrible what a small minority of people can do to an estate. I’m sure that the residents, the Gardai and En- nis Town Council are doing the best they can to sort out the problem. If there is anything that our residents groups can do to help them, we will be more than willing to help.”

Mr O’Donoghue continued, “It’s a small amount of people that are caus- ing the difficulties. It only takes one

or two people to give an estate a bad name. 99 per cent of the people liv- ing in estates around the town are law-abiding people. It 1s that one per cent that gives a place a bad name and that’s not a fair reflection of what a place is actually like. But that’s the way it is, | suppose. All it takes is one bad apple.

“It’s important that everyone works together, the residents, the council and the Gardai. But you’ll find that as estates get older, things start to settle down. Time is a healer for all these things,” said Mr O’Donoghue.

WITH only one round of the group stages remaining in the Under I4A championship, there are still two semi-final places up for grabs with Sixmilebridge, Clarecastle and In- agh/Kilnamona all vying for the coveted spots. St Joseph’s Doora/ Barefield and Eire Og have already oLereana(crel but Inagh/Kilnamona need to win both their final games against Eire Og and Clooney/Quin this week if they are to knock either the Bridge or the Magpies off their perch, If the Combo do manage to beat Eire Og on Wednesday, it will all come down to Friday’s games but crucially Sixmilebridge and Clarecastle are still in control of their own destiny and should they beat Clonlara and St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield respective- ly, they will automatically qualify for the knock-out stages.

The B championship semi-finalists have already been decided so it’s just a matter of jostling for positions for Feakle/Killanena, Cratloe, Scariff/ Ogonnelloe and Ballyea as they enter the final round of games this week- end. Feakle/Killanena take their per-

fect record to Scariff for what prom- ises to be the tie of the round against the Scariff/Ogonnelloe amalgama- tion while Cratloe and Ballyea take on bottom sides Crusheen/Tubber and O’Callaghan’s Mills/Bodyke re- spectively. All the semi-final places in the C championship are still up for grabs with the top seven sides still eligible to qualify with two rounds remaining.

Meanwhile in the D championship, Ogonnelloe eased past Eire Og’s sec- ond string in last Friday’s semi-final with a 4-5 to 0-2 win on home soil. Playing with the wind at their backs, the winners got off to an ideal start with early goals from Cian Fitzgerald Bradley and James Kiely and hold- ing the Townies scoreless for the en- tire half, they added two more goals before the break through Aaron Fit- zgerald Bradley to lead by 4-2 to 0-0. The second half was a much closer affair as both sets of defences domi- nated and this kept scoring chances to a minimum as Ogonnelloe eased into the final where they will meet St Breckan’s who edged a high scor- ing semi-final against Bodyke on a scoreline of 3-11 to 5-02.

Fleadh Nua 2009 gets underway

BurrenLIFE will continue but who will fund?

THERE’S a certain symmetry to 1996 that has caught the attention of Wolfe Tones’ Johnny Markham. Back in the mid-90s, when Clare hurling in general was riding the crest of a wave, Wolfe Tones made huge inroads in the domestic game.

In 1995, the year when the sport caught fire in this county, the club from Shannon picked up a Junior A title. It probably passed un-noticed in most hurling communities outside the airport town, which, consider- ing the summer that had just passed, wasn’t surprising.

The thing was, the club used that win not just as a foundation for the following season but used it as a springboard for the big prize.

Half a dozen players from that Jun- ior A winning side made the step up to the senior panel the following year and helped the club to their first ever county title.

This year, with a Junior A success behind them last season, Markham hopes the portents are favourable once more.

“Landing the Junior A last year certainly was a boost to us,” he says.

“Winning a title, no matter what level it’s at, does a couple of things. It gives players valuable experience in the latter stages of a competition and it gives them confidence as well. So we’re looking to bring through a few lads from last year’s Junior A side. We’d be hopeful of three or four making the move to senior and hav- ing a good championship this year.”

The Clare Cup has _ provided Markham with that platform. So far, he’s used a handful of last year’s Jun- ior As in the league and he’s been 1m- pressed with what he’s seen so far.

‘“That’s been our philosophy in the league, to bring those lads in and give them an opportunity, give them a chance to gain some more experi- ence. We didn’t start off too well in the league, but we’ve been steady since the first game. So yeah, I’d say we’ve found two or three guys who can add something to our team come the championship.”

Come this weekend, there will be a couple of notable absentees from the Wolfe Tones outfit. Given the trend towards emigration in Clare these past few months, most clubs have been affected 1n some way or another. Wolfe Tones are no differ-

ent but luckily, they’ve lost only one player to foreign soils, though it’s an influential one in the guise of Der- mot O’ Rourke.

Retirements have come by as well, Denis Riordan and Paul O’Rourke have hung up the boots and this year is the first in what seems like an age that Brian Lohan won’t tog out in the club colours.

“It’s almost impossible to replace a player of Brian’s standing,’ contin- ues Markham. “He’s been an inspi- ration and a leader to the lads on and off the field but it’s up to us to keep those qualities now. We have plenty of other lads who are well capable of being leaders and they’ll stand up and bring the younger lads through re) a

Though the club may have been quiet on the underage scene in recent times, Markham sees good work being done at root level, something which he says is both inspiring for the senior players and crucial to en- sure a conveyor belt of talent emerg- es to feed the senior teams down the line.

“We haven’t competed at some lev- els for a while, but there’s tremen- dous effort being put in, especially at

Under 8 and Under 10 level. And the hope is that this will put us in a posi- tion to get back to the top in terms of underage competition, where we feel we belong.”

As with any club, striking the bal- ance is the key — keeping a focus on the emerging talent and prodding the senior standard bearers forward. This year, a good run in the championship would ensure the younger members of the club will retain a strong focus themselves.

THE mountain may be in their way, but Clare will travel to Tralee on Wednesday with their climbing gear ready for action. Half of the starting 15 come from outside the traditional Western belt of football in Clare and as such, the green and gold jersey on its home patch should hold less fear.

“We’ve a confident bunch of play- ers and we’ve a Serious carrot dan- eling in front of us in that if we can beat Kerry, we’ll be playing football for the summer,’ says manager Colm Collins. “The bottom line from our perspective is that our lads go out and put in a performance that does justice to the dedication they’ve shown so far and to the talent that we know they have.”

That talent of which Collins speaks was seen most vividly in a stun- ning second-half performance in the opening round of the Munster championship against Waterford in Dungarvan. Clare showed heart and ability to see off the home side on a notoriously difficult ground to get a Kone 0 |

“Tt’s crucial to have that win under our belts,’ continues Collins. “For a couple of years the work was be- ing put in but the results just weren’t coming. So the Waterford game was good for morale and not just because we won, but because we put a decent score on the board.”

Since then, preparations have con- tinued for the Munster champion- ship, despite the encroachment of exams. And injuries have also begun to improve.

Collins confirmed that Micheal Malone, Seamus Lynch, Aidan Malone, Conor King and Jan Lyons are all on the bench for Wednesday evening’s game and are fit to play if called upon.

‘There’s no doubt that this is going to be a big step up for us. But our lads feel they’re as good as anybody else and that’s half the battle.”