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ALLEGATIONS that a man was sub- jected to an unprovoked attack as he walked through a boreen in Shannon have been aired in court. Dominic Hayes (18), of Inis Ealga, Shannon, is accused of assault causing harm.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told Shan- non District Court that it would be alleged the accused punched another man into the face, breaking his nose in the process. He said the injured party was walking through a boreen in Shannon at midnight on July 27 last when he met the accused.

“The State will say he was attacked

in an unprovoked fashion,” he said.

‘He was headbutted by the defend- ant into the face. Dominic Hayes then Started to hit him in the face, five or Six times, with his fist and he was kicked on the ground,” he said, in reference to what would be alleged.

The court was told the matter would be contested by the accused.

Judge Joseph Mangan asked was the accused on his own at the time and was told he was in a group of four or five people.

The judge declined jurisdiction and adjourned the case for preparation of the book of evidence for hearing in WeomOvuRCUDL COLE ae

JUST as the three quarters point of this final was passing, Sixmilebridge pulled the trigger and rattled home 1- 2 in less than three minutes.

Before this, the teams were locked together at 0-9 each and once that deluge of scores rained down from the Bridge’s front six, Crusheen couldn’t react or, more accurately, they weren’t allowed react.

For the remaining 15 minutes, Sixmuilebridge — who hadn’t won this competition since 2003 — defended with serious authority. They allowed Crusheen just one more score, a point from Conor O’ Donnell a minute into injury time.

That Crusheen played most of the final 20 minutes of the game swith- out scoring wasn’t entirely surpris- ing. They went through a similar drought in the opening half, failing to put a score on the board from the 17th minute until just after the re- eae

It typified the game and in fairness, the real beauty of the hurling over the hour lay in the sound defening of both sides. Strong and fair chal- lenges, effective hooking and hard blocking pockmarked the evening in Clarecastle and in the end, it was Sixmulebridge’s forward line tha picked most locks through their op- posite defence.

They opened up a quick two- point lead with a score from Barry O’Connor along with a free, half way out the field, from Caimin Mo- rey. But from there, Crusheen settled into the momentum of the game, found their rhythm and blasted off five unanswered points with Joseph Meaney orchestrating and executing the bulk.

After his side’s fifth score, though,

the Sixmilebridge defence really closed for business and though Ci- aran O’Donnell’s presence at centre back for Crusheen was immense in that opening half hour, neither he nor his colleagues could prevent Sixmi- lebridge going in at half time two points to the good.

Speaking after the game, Sean Stack, Sixmilebridge manager said

he was pleased with the first half and content to lead by two but waiting for the game to resume and with the wind to come for Crusheen, it was easy to speculate that Sixmilebridge may not have made the most of their dominance of the final 10 minutes of Werle nee

When Crusheen started with a blaze of scores, that theory was bolstered

but Stack knows his team far better than us sideline speculators.

With thirteen minutes of the game to come, the best move of the game arrived and produced the defining moment. All evening it looked as if Declan Morey could open up at any moment and in possession on the right wing, he dropped his shoulder and headed for goal. Having sla-

lomed past a handful of Crusheen de- fenders he let fly from 20 yards out. In the first half, a similar shot from Morey was brillianlty saved from Donal Touhy but this time, Morey’s precision was flawless.

His shot nestled in the top corner of the net and at last, Sixmilebridge had some daylight. Crucially, they immediately followed up with two more points, a 65 from Caimin Mo- rey and a lovely point from substitute who showed sublime control of the ball before firing over from a tight enough angle.

Lynch’s point meant Sixmilebridge scored three off the bench, a tidy haul in a game that at times, looked like an extra score or two could make all the difference. In the last ten, Sixmi- lebridge tacked on a smattering of points and eased their way over the line. A soft enough finish to a game that never lacked intensity or heat and a result that will be celebrated with zeal in the Bridge.

A MAN behaved like ‘a madman with a knife’ during an early morn- ing incident at a house in Ennis town, after enormous amounts of alcohol had been consumed.

JJ O’Brien (22), with addresses at Main Street, Kilteely, Limerick and Grange, Kilmallock, Limerick, and Darren O’Grady (23), of Fahy’s Lane, Ennis, were charged arising out of the incident.

O’Brien faced a number of charges, while O’Grady was charged with possession of an iron bar.

Garda Shane O’Connell told En- nis Circuit Court yesterday that a number of people congregated in a house at Station Court in the town in the early hours of June 9, 2006.

Among them were the accused men, who were invited to the house after a night out.

He said that a lot of alcohol had been consumed by everybody and the drinking continued at the house.

He said that while they were there, Ian Hassett, who was a tenant at the house, was concerned that Darren O’Grady was going to wreck the property. He then asked both accused to leave. He said that they left, but Mr Hassett saw them at the back of the house a few minutes later, fight- ing with another man.

O’Grady had what appeared to be an iron bar. The fight was broken up, but then, “all of a sudden, JJ O’Brien pulled a knife on Mr Hassett.”

He said the knife was a 12-inch bread knife with a jagged edge. Gda

O’Connell said O’Brien put the knife to Mr Hassett’s neck and told him he would cut his throat. He said that Mr Hassett grabbed the knife and as he did so, it ripped backwards and cut his finger. O’Brien again swung the knife at Mr Hassett.

“Mr Hassett said JJ O’Brien was acting like a madman with the knife,” said the garda. The two accused men fled the scene on foot. He said that O’Brien threw the knife away and it was never recovered.

The court heard that both men have several previous convictions.

O’Brien’s barrister, Brian MclIner- ney, BL, said his client had consumed an enormous amount of alcohol on the night in question.

He said the accused was taken into care when he was young and ap-

peared to have “gone off the rails over a relatively short period of time, but has emerged from that fog. He’s off the radar.”

He said he had been addicted to drugs at one stage but was not abus- ing them any longer.

Mark Nicholas, BL, for O’Grady, said his client’s father died when he was young and he had been taken into care for a period of time. He said he had fallen into bad company in his teenage years and has struggled with orabteace

Judge Carroll Moran said that while the matter would normally merit a “lengthy prison sentence,” he was prepared to review that after hearing that both men had “turned their lives around.”

He remarked that garda evidence

was “‘very fair” in relation to O’Brien who had undergone a course of treat- ment for his addiction and was, ac- cording to the evidence of an after- care worker with the Health Service Executive, “unrecognisable” as the man who had been abusing drink, drugs and getting involved with criminality.

Similarly, O’Grady had “pleaded, changed his life and co-operated.”

Judge Moran imposed three-year suspended sentences on all four counts against O’Brien, each sus- pended for three years, on condition he commit no crime and continue under the direction of the probation Service.

The judge imposed a two-year sen- tence, suspended for three years, on O’Grady on the same conditions.

WHEN Richard Moloney threw the ball in to start what was his first sen- ior inter-county fixture there were only 43 customers who had paid their way into Cusack Park — that was a commentary on the level of interest in this tie and the current plight of senior football in the county.

The stay away supporters and those present knew this was going to be a nothing game — a final day away for the exiles, a day for Clare to hoover up two National League points and end what has been a depressing cam- paign on a winning note.

That about sums up what happened — apart from an early spurt from Lon- don when a fourth minute goal from Enda Gallagher gave them 1-1 to O-1 lead this was a one-sided miss-match as Clare strolled to a facile win.

Then manner in which Clare hit back after Gallagher’s goal was a telling portent of things to come — straight from the kick-off they worked the ball down the field and a slick move in the final phase of the field involving Enda Coughlan, Michael O’Shea and David Tubridy yielded a goal within 35 seconds of London’s shock opener.

Tubridy slammed the ball to the empty net on his way to a top-scor- ing tally of 1-5 as Clare ran riot for the rest of the game. Indeed, but for some very wayward shooting which contributed to 13 wides over the 70 minutes the gap would have been much bigger than the 20 points that separated them at the end.

They’d stretched it to seven points by half-time — points by David Tubri- dy (4), Enda Coughlan and Michael O’Shea had them 1-7 to I-1 ahead by the 20 minute mark before an Enda Coughlan goal on 23 minutes and points by Michael O’Shea and Tim-

my Ryan brought their tally for the half to 2-9.

London did rally towards half-time thanks to three Kevin Downes points to raise their total to 1-5, but any hope that the revival would continue after the break was quickly quashed by an avalanche of Clare points.

Timmy Ryan, David Russell, Enda Coughlan and Liam Markham had points within five minutes of the re- start as the game degenerated into nothing other than a _ slow-paced training game a panel of players might have after a three-hour physi- cal session.

London were dreadful, so much so that it was hard to credit that they had beaten Waterford earlier in the cam- paign. They only managed one point in the half, an injury time effort from Kevin Downes.

Clare, meanwhile, racked up 1-11 in the half. The flurry of points at

the start of the half was taken on by substitute Cathal O’Connor who grabbed a brace by the 44th minute, while Sean Collins finally got his eye in when knocking over two by the 56th minute.

By this stage London were offer- ing no resistance and were finally put out of their misery by Richard Molo- ney’s final whistle — however, before it came Clare notched up a further 1- 6 in the final ten minutes.

Enda Coughlan grabbed four points, Liam Markham and David Tubridy got the others while Gary Brennan goal with virtually the last kick of the game.

THE lack of adequate broadband coverage 1s “deeply frustrating” for communities across Clare, according to the Minster for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Ea- mon Ryan.

Speaking in Ennis on Thursday last, Minster Ryan said Ireland has been “playing catch-up” with the rest of the Europe in terms of broadband connectivity.

He said a multi-pronged approach was needed to deliver better broad- band services, particularly in rural Weer

He said, “Okay, while we’ve been playing catch-up and there is no doubt about it, the availability wasn’t available the way we want it. It has been deeply frustrating for people in areas who couldn’t get broadband. But we’re working on that. We’re putting in mechanisms where we can actually provide it and slowly catch- ing up. Our aim now is to get ahead of other countries and other similar rural areas in particular.”

Minster Ryan was commenting fol-

lowing recent statements by Eircom that communities living more than 5km from a telephone exchange may not be able to receive high-speed broadband access, because of the limitations of Eircom’s DSL technol- ogy.

“Their type of broadband, DSL, works up to about five miles from an exchange. If you’re not near that then the speed starts to lower and the quality doesn’t work as well,” said the Green Party TD.

Minster Ryan continued, “That’s only one of the options, in terms of broadband, that are available. There are a whole variety of others – wire- less technologies, fixed wireless. We have our new national broadband scheme, which is providing mobile broadband to areas that otherwise previously hadn’t got it, and a range of other operators apart from Eir- com. What we’re aiming to do Is to have broadband available across the country and across the county of Clare. And, on the back of that, to keep pushing the competition to get other operators in and to get systems available.”

PLANS for the development of a quarry near the village of Ruan have received a setback with Clare County Council demanding a year long sur- vey into bats on the 40 acre site.

Deferring the application by Lagan Bitumen Ltd, the council raised no serious concerns over the proposal and highlighted few of the concerns outlined by residents opposed to the development.

Documents lodged by Lagan Bitu- men Ltd show that Tony O’ Donoghue of 27 Cloughleigh Road, Ennis; Noel O’Donoghue of Ardcarney, Ruan and Gerard O’Donoghue of Ardcar- ney, Ruan entered a deal in agreed to sell the lands to Lagan Bitumen Ltd on January 29 last.

Letters of support for the quarry came from a number of areas includ- ing Ruan, Barefield, Ennis, Shannon and Sixmilebridge. Two previous planning applications to develop a quarry at the site were not successful after facing stiff opposition locally.

Putting the new plan on hold, the council stated that the proposed de- velopment was located within a’7km radius designated for the conserva- tion of the rare Lesser Horseshoe Bat, which is protected under the EU Habitats Directive.

“It 1s estimated that there are 600 breeding Lesser Horseshoe Bats within a night commuting route of this extensive aera of suitable bat

foraging habitat.

‘The Environmental Impact State- ment (EIS) states that habitat loss from the proposal will directly 1m- pact on them and landscape con- nectivity will be lost as the site is developed, particularly detrimental to Lesser Horseshoe Bats.

As aresult of a submission from the Department of the Environment, the Council is requesting an ‘appropri- ate assessment’ to include mitigation measures proposed for the site in re- lation to bats.

The four season bat survey is to in- vestigate bat usage at the site to in- clude foraging, hiberation and night roosting. The developers have also been asked to address traffic issues at the existing quarry entrance. A decision is not due to be made on the application until next year.

Rival cave will bring job losses, claims Ailwee

WHEN Tulla woman Una Fitzger- ald and a group of supporters set out trestle tables and sold fruit and veg in the main street in Tulla three years ago, little did they know that they were paving the way for a de- velopment which could bring visitors from all over east Clare to shop in the village.

Una and her friends set up the stall for one day after she discovered that trading had to take place on at least one day before the ancient market charter for the town expired.

While the proposal to have a coun- try market in Tulla did not necessar- ily need a charter, if a meeting held

in the courthouse last night leads to the setting up of a market, having the charter means that the venture could eventually have an outdoor market going as well.

Local people interested in setting up a farmers market went along to the meeting last night to hear two representatives from Country Mar- kets Ltd outline what needs to be done.

It is hoped that the courthouse will be the venue for a new indoor market which will features stalls selling lo- cal produce and crafts.

Traditionally, local people would use the markets to sell produce such as eggs and vegetables, to bring in a bit of extra cash.

The people behind the new market idea say that there 1s again a big de- mand for the country market, both from shoppers who want to buy lo- cally-produced or organic foods and from people who are growing or pro- ducing foods and crafts.

“This is an idea I have had for a long time,” said Siobhan Mulcahy, who set up last night’s meeting.

“T talked to people about having a market and I got nothing but positive responses.

“There is such a great group of people here in Tulla – they have such energy and it is time to tap into that and get this going.”

One important aspect of the mar- ket would be a coffee shop, Siobhan

feels.

“The country market also has an important social function. While we have lovely restaurants, we don’t have anywhere in Tulla where people can just go to meet friends and have a cup of coffee, so this has an impor- tant social function.”

Already, producers of vegetables, plants, fresh eggs, baked goods, knitwear, artwork and woodcrafts have expressed an interest in taking part.

“And if the country market be- comes established, there’s every possibility in the future that an out- door farmers market might grow up around it so it’s brilliant that they kept the charter.”

FORMER Garda Sergeant Ciaran Sheehan’s solicitor, Michael He- garty, outlined for a public meeting in Scariff the series of events which culminated in his client being dis- missed from the force.

The dismissal followed a complaint made by a local man in September 1995 that Mr Sheehan had allegedly

asked that man to withdraw a state- ment he had made regarding an in- cident in Scariff on St Patrick’s Day in 1995.

This complaint was adjudicated upon by the Garda Complaints Tri- bunal in June 1998 which issued a recommendation to the Garda Com- missioner that Sgt Sheehan should either resign or face dismissal.

Sgt Sheehan did not participlate at

this Tribunal on legal grounds. Fol- lowing an unsuccessful High Court application to review the decision, Sgt Sheehan appealed to the Supreme Court, which in February 2009, dis- missed his appeal.

After the first complaint, the Garda authorities directed Sgt Sheehan not to make any contact with the com- plainant. A second complaint was made by the same person in March

1996 against Sgt Sheehan, following which Sgt Sheehan was immediately suspended.

A 10-day garda enquiry took place at Ennis Garda Station between No- vember 1997 and January 1998 into the second complaint. During this, it was established that the man making the complaint had a criminal record for assault, that he had a grudge against Sgt Sheehan and wanted “to

nail him” and that a senior garda had arranged a job interview for the com- plainant with a security firm shortly after he had made his first complaint against Sgt Sheehan.

Commenting on Mr Sheehan’s cur- rent situation, Mr Hegarty said, “He now has no income and no pension after being the member subject to the longest suspension in the history of the force.”

A YOUNG man yesterday recalled being dragged a mile, while attached to a car, being driven by a man who had almost twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

The horrific evidence emerged in the case of a Kildysart man, who pleaded guilty to charges in connec- tion with a hit-and-run accident in which two pedestrians were struck, in Ennis, on January 13, 2008.

One of the victims was trapped as he was unable to detach himself from the car, as it took off at speed.

Moments earlier, his friend was struck by the same car and flipped up into the air.

Donal Holohan (23), of Aylroe, Kildysart, admitted a charge of dan- gerous driving, thereby causing seri- ous bodily harm to Tommy Walsh.

Holohan, a plumber, also admitted failing to stop at the scene, at Clon- roadbeg, Ennis; driving with excess alcohol in his breath at Friar’s Walk, Ennis and driving dangerously, at Clonroadbeg.

Garda Dermot Siggins told En- nis Circuit Court that Sean Cud- dihy, Tommy Walsh and two of their friends were walking along Clon- roadbeg at 3.10am.

They were en route to Tesco, in pursuit of cigarettes, when the first incident occurred.

This involved Mr Cuddihy, who

was struck by the defendant’s Nissan Almera, before being flipped into the Za

Mr Walsh and another man pursued the Almera and tried to prevent it from leaving the scene. Gda Siggins said that Mr Walsh stood in front of the car and put his hand on the bon- aoe

However, the vehicle took off at speed and Mr Walsh’s leg became entangled with the car. His chest got caught under the right wheel and he was unable to release himself from the car.

As the car took off at speed, he was dragged along and was trapped un- der it. The car travelled a distance of 1.7 kilometres before he became

detached.

Mr Cuddihy told gardai all he could remember was waking up in hospi- tal, while Mr Walsh said he and his friends were practising marching up the road – as some of them are mem- bers of the defence forces – and he could see Mr Cuddihy being struck by a car.

“He was flipped into the air and landed on his head,” he recalled.

He said he himself was caught under the vehicle and could not get EEN

He said the car kept moving and failed to stop. He remembered wak- ing up on a roadway but had no idea where he was.

Mr Walsh (21) suffered multiple in-

juries – including injuries to his chest, abdomen, shoulder, elbow, groin and a severe injury to his left hand – and underwent surgery on a number of occasions.

He is still undergoing medical at- tention and requires further surgery. Medics say he may never fully re- cover from his hand injury.

Taking the witness stand, he told the court he has lost more than a year in the army and has missed out on duties on overseas missions.

He said he returned to work a month ago and must undergo tests to ascertain if he is capable of rejoining the army.