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A NATIONWIDE carers support group, whose foundation and base is in Ennis, is growing in strength thanks to its hard working staff, ded- icated volunteers and the determina- tion of carers to finally speak out.

Family carers throughout the coun- try who had been overlooked by the Government and society for decades are finding their voice thanks to Car- ing for Carers Ireland.

That strength was in numbers at the organisation’s 18th National Carers Conference and Respite Break at the Gleneagle Hotel, Killarney.

As many as 84 delegates from nine Caring for Carers groups in County Clare were among the 500 family carers who took part in and contrib- uted to the conference.

Training and Development Officer Susan Hogan – who, among her many roles, oversees the nine branches of the organisation in Clare – hailed the conference a success.

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Sustaining Care in Challenging Serato

Ms Hogan explained that acute disappointment was expressed at the decision by the Minister of Social and Family Affairs not to publish the National Carers Strategy. Caring for Carers had made a submission to the Carers Strategy Consultation Forum, which sought to advocate the enact- ment of a Carer Act, to improve sup- ports and services into the future.

The National Conference, repre- senting the 161,000 family carers in Ireland, called on Minister Hanafin for the immediate publication of the Carers Strategy, pointing out that its implementation need not necessarily mean increased funding in the cur- rent economic climate, but to put ex- isting funding to better use.

‘We believe that the strategy should still be published. A lot of what is in it would not cost a lot, if anything,” said Ms Hogan.

Those taking part in the conference also argued that family carers are the backbone of community care and should be supported in every way possible, not only to maintain their own health and well-being, but also those for whom they care.

Caring for Carers Clare was repre- sented strongly at the weekend con-

ference through its 85 members and the newly elected chairperson.

Chairperson Margaret Scanlon who hails from Cranny, is expected to provide strong leadership for the 4,671 family carers in Clare.

Tributes were paid to the outgoing chairperson, Helen Kelly, who pro- moted the position of family carers in County Clare for the past three ert ae

THIS was a must win for both teams and for very different reasons. Lif- ford, on the back of a disappointing loss to Newmarket on St Patrick’s Day, had to win to stay in with any kind of chance at league honours. The Newmarket defeat meant they missed on the opportunity to close the gap on leaders Bunratty and a successive defeat would almost cer- tainly have dashed their title hopes.

Moher, on the other hand, are bat- tling the long arm of relegation and needed to get something from the game to ensure they stayed in touch at the bottom of the table.

In the end, the game went accord- ing to league standings but it came with a scare for Lifford as well. Twice Moher lifted their game to reel in Lifford but eventually, Lifford had enough class and composure to see them through to securing that much needed victory.

In the early stages, it seemed as though Lifford could run away with the game as they took control of the game and on five minutes they were rewarded for their hard work when Ryan Boyle was on target.

Moher didn’t he down though and Johnny Daly popped up to direct a free kick to the net with a fine header that equalised proceedings. It an ac- tion packed first half, Lifford once more pressed forward and Roberto put them back in front after a neat dribble from the edge of the box saw him drive the ball low and accurately into the corner of the Moher goal.

But the away side still weren’t finished and just before the break, Shane Keane headed home Moher’s second goal to leave the sides locked at 2-2 at the break.

Just when it looked like Lifford could become frustrated with the lack of a breakthrough, David Mc- Carthy popped up with a superb strike. David McCarthy latched onto a cleared header and volleyed to the top corner from the edge of the box. From there, Lifford dominated and took the points to ensure they could still have a say in this year’s league.

A GROUP of volunteers and home- less people will camp out in Ennis this afternoon and tonight (Tuesday) to highlight the plight of the home- less in the county amid claims that the largest national provider of emer- gency accommodation for homeless men still refuses to recognise them.

Homeless Education Learning Project (HELP) was set up last year by local woman Josephine O’Brien and two others to provide support to the homeless in the town of En- nis. To date, the service has helped a number of Polish men and members of the Travelling community to find accommodation.

Ms O’Brien said yesterday, “It wouldn’t be fair to say that nothing is being done but not enough is being done for the homeless in Ennis or in County Clare. The biggest problem is the bureaucracy and the endless pro- cedures people have to go through to get help. Also, there is a huge lack of information and someone who has nowhere to sleep has no idea who to go to or who to contact.

‘No one wants to know the people we are dealing with, some of whom are foreign nationals. The people we deal with are the real homeless and no one wants to help them. We have been to the homeless forum at Clare County Council but they tell us that for someone to get accommodation they need a PPS number. But for someone to have a PPS number, they

have to have an address. It’s a catch- 22,’ Ms O’ Brien said.

Speaking about today’s planned ac- tion, Ms O’Brien said, “We are go- ing to camp out in the People’s Park near the Courthouse in Ennis today and tonight to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless in the county and the fact that not enough is being done to find places for them. There are about eight people sleeping on the streets in Ennis on any given night, while there are dozens more depending on friends and relatives on a night-to-night basis for some

place to sleep.”

According to Clare County Coun- cil’s Homeless Unit, “At present, emergency B&B accommodation may be provided where the accom- modation needs are immediate, acute and unforeseen. Assistance in sourc- ing private rented accommodation is given through the Homeless Unit.”

LIFFORD B march on after spring- ing a cup surprise against Mount- shannon Celtic on Sunday.

The Ennis side progressed to the quarter finals thanks to two assists from goalkeeper Joe Burke and two razor sharp finishes from Adrian McDonagh.

Admittedly, Lifford were helped along the way by some very careless defending from Mountshannon.

Having been the superior side throughout the second half, Lifford still hadn’t found a way through when their fortunes turned in un-ex- pected fashion.

Lifford goalkeeper Joe Burke launched a long kick out at the Mounthshanon back four in the 77th minute.

His opposite number, Christopher Jones, rushed out but failed to hold the ball. Lifford’s Adrian McDonagh drilled home from a tight angle to give his side the lead.

Six minutes later, Lifford had one foot in the quarterfinals. The second goal was almost a carbon copy of the first with McDonagh again latching onto Burke’s goal-kick to lift the ball into the net.

Mountshannon will be sick at be- ing knocked out in such elementary fashion. Both goals were prevent- able. But take nothing away from McDonagh. Both strikes were well executed and indicative of Lifford’s

Superior cutting edge upfront. The roots of Lifford’s victory are prob- ably to be found in the decision at half time to switch formation from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2.

First division Mounthshannon had given their second division oppo- nents a bit of run around in midfield in the first half. In response, Lifford manager Lenny Franks teamed Pa Mannion, Darren Daly and Adrian Walsh in the centre of the park with

instructions to shut down Mount- shannon’s passing game.

The move worked a treat. Lifford saw more of the ball and gradually took a grip on the game.

Mountshannon, even with Cathal and John Moloney working like de- mons in midfield, rarely troubled Lifford’s well-organised defence.

The east Clare side might reflect that they should have done better with their earlier chances. 18 minutes

had elapsed when Burke got down smartly to tip away Arthur Burzyn- ski’s low drive.

Burzynski flashed a half volley just over the cross bar soon after as Mountshannon raised the tempo. Lifford’s best chance of the half ar- rived when Francis Franks teed up Stephen McGuane who squeezed a shot away from five yards that was held by Jones. Q-0 at half time and it was Lifford who seized the initia-

tive thereafter. McGuane lifted over from a tight angle in the 48th minute before Darren Daly’s drive from 20 yards trailed just wide.

The home side were clearly on top and should have taken the lead in the 57th minute when McDonagh headed over from Eoghan Judge’s cross.

Burzynski made Burke work with a curling shot soon after. That was as good it got for Mounthshannon.

Minutes later Burke and McDon- agh teamed up to give Lifford the lead before the duo combined again to rubberstamp Lifford’s place in the quarter-finals and who knows, maybe a crack against their clubmates from Lifford A.

TRADING stalls at the Matchmak- ing Festival in Lisdoonvarna could be a thing of the past as Clare Coun- ty Council is preparing to severely curtail casual trading licences issued in the area this year and are to ex- amine a complete ban on traders in the square.

Following a proposal put forward at yesterday’s north Clare area meet- ing of Clare County Council, the lo-

cal authority is to arrange a meeting with local business people and the Gardai to discuss how to limit li- oiler

Speaking on the proposal, Cllr Ri- chard Nagle (FF), said that a number of tourists visiting Lisdoonvarna have had to leave their hotels in the middle of the night because of noise and disruption coming from the trad- ase

“The business community of the town need to be consulted on this.

There is a lot of noise and distur- bances from the traders and this is giving a very bad impression of Lis- doonvarna,” he said.

“T would propose that only a few licences should be given out and no licences be given in the area of the square. I know that visitors were so disturbed by the noise that they said that they would not come back to the town and demanded their money back for their accommodation.

“A meeting must take place with

the business people in Lisdoonvarna but it is important that the Gardai are at that meeting. In the past the Gardai have said that they are not in a position to move the people who are causing a nuisance on but under the new by-laws that does not seem to be the case.

“It seems that everyone who wants to come and park up in the middle of Lisdoonvarna has the right to do it. When there is an idea out there that there is no laws then people will treat

it as such.”

According to James Barry, Senior Staff Officer of the Ennistymon Area Office, new by-laws introduced last year mean that the council and the Gardai now have the power to drasti- cally reduce the number of licences and add a number of conditions to each license.

Despite this however, fortune tell- ers will be allowed to continue in Lisdoonvarna as they do not fall un- der the remit of the new by-laws.

BARON de Coubertin’s Olympic ideals of “Stronger, Faster, Higher” could well have been borrowed by the other Olympic on Sunday morn- ing — the Shannon version that is, as they sent shock waves around the county in dumping eight times cham- pions and competition favourites Av- enue United out of this year’s Clare Cup race.

“Everything clicked for us,” said manager Jason Stretton afterwards. “We put everything into it and it hap- pened for us,” added the former Clare Cup winner with Newtown.

Conversely, it didn’t happen for Avenue United as their roller coast- er form of the past month contin- ued over a depressing 90 minutes. Dumped out of the cup at the last 16 stage and facing an uphill battle to prevent Bunratty from claiming the league title, 1t could be another trophy-less year for the bluebloods of the Clare game.

Olympic, meanwhile, are now genuine contenders for the cup title, while they’re hot on the heels of cur- rent champions Rock Rovers in the promotion race out of Division 1.

This cup tie effectively turned seis- mically in Olympic’s favour in the first half — a chance missed at one end by Avenue and an amazing goal

down the other end by Olympic.

Opportunity knocked for the home side after 25 minutes when star at- tacker Mikey Mahony burst into the area — on another day Mahony would have applied a clinical finish, but on this day he was thwarted by Kieran McCarthy.

From Avenue’s point of view this miss was compounded 15 minutes later when Wayne Regan whipped a right footed inswinging corner from the left all the way into the top corner of the net beyond the flailing arms of Colin Smyth.

It was a hammer blow, but one Av-

enue looked like recovering from when they dominated the early ex- changes of the second half. Ten min- utes in Eamon O’Reilly was denied by the crossbar, while in the resulting scramble the ball was cleared off the line.

It was as close as Avenue came to

levelling things up — the Olympic defence in which Paul O’Connor and Jan Hogan were outstanding soaked up everything Avenue could throw at them before they broke out of de- fence and struck for the all-important second goal ten minutes from time.

With centre-forward James Fit- zgerald causing Avenue endless problems, a second goal was always likely, but in the end a mistake by Eamon O’Reilly let in Ray Quigley who skipped past a few defenders be- fore rolling the ball underneath Co- lin Smyth to book Olympic’s quarter- final place.

THE parents of Roman Vysochan, the Ukrainian teenager who was al- legedly stabbed to death in Corbally last year, were present in Limerick District Court yesterday where two people were charged with the murder of their son.

The 16-year-old was found dead at the entrance of Carraig Midhe on the night of May 10, 2008 after suc- cumbing to his injuries allegedly in- flicted at a house in the estate.

John O’Loughlin, 20, with address- es at Cecil Street and Carraig Midhe, and a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be identified, were charged with the murder of the teenager. The pair are also accused of assaulting another 16-year-old boy on the same date.

Detective Garda Enda Haugh from

Mayorstone Garda Station gave evi- dence of arresting Mr O’Loughlin at an address at Cecil Street at 7.50am yesterday morning. Det Garda Haugh told the court that the accused gave no reply to the charge when cau- tioned at Mayorstone Garda Station.

The 20-year-old was granted legal aid and John Devane was assigned his defence solicitor.

Detective Garda Kieran Crowley gave evidence of arresting the 17- year-old boy at 8.l5am at Bishop Street. The teenager also made no reply to the charge after caution.

He was also granted legal aid and Ted McCarthy was assigned his de- fence solicitor.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy remanded the pair in custody to appear before the court again this Thursday, March 26.

WITH their hopes of retaining their league title all but over, the cup now becomes the main priority for New- market Celtic. The ten times winners may not have been in the winners enclosure since 2000 but they eased their passage into the last eight on Sunday with a comfortable victory over Bridge Celtic B.

Off the back of two battling results against fellow title contenders Av- enue Utd and Lifford, and barring the shock of the tournament, New- market were always fancied to easily account for the third division side as they had already beaten Celtic’s first side in the previous round. However, it did given stand-in manager Paudie Cullinan the opportunity to test out some of his fringe players and they responded with an assured display.

Still, Bridge Celtic’s second string didn’t make it easy for their Premier Division opposition and while they never really looked like breaking the deadlock themselves, they did frus- trate Newmarket sufficiently in the first half. Had they held out until the break, it would have given them great confidence but a Keith Power goal just before half-time, finally settled Newmarket and from that point on, it was only damage limitation for the O’Briensbridge side.

Eased by that breakthrough goal, the floodgates opened for Newmar- ket in the second period with two Siullery headers and a second from

Power guiding them to a 4-0 advan- tage. Worse was to follow for Bridge Celtic when the impressive Sillery was taken down in the area and Sea- mus Considine converted the penalty and Newmarket’s Grand Slam Sun- day was completed when substitute Jimmy Houlihan grabbed the sixth.

With Avenue’s surprise exit to Shannon Olympic on Sunday, New- market are now installed amongst the favourites for this year’s Clare Cup along with Lifford and holders Rock Rovers. From here on in, it will come down to the luck of the Friday night’s draw as Newmarket look to secure some silverware out of the Tere) IF

A FUNDRAISING initative to help a new service developed by the Brothers of Charity is a walk in the park – or in the Burren, to be more sepecific.

Walkers are asked to help raise funds for Home Share Clare by tak- ing part in a six- or nine-kilometre sponsored walk from Flaggy Shore, Newquay on Sunday next.

Registration for the event is at 12pm.

Sponsorship cards are _ avail- able from Patricia O’Meara on 0876680081 or those taking part can make donations on the day.

By spending the extra hour this weekend on the walk, participants are supporting Home Share Clare, a service developed by the Brothers of Charity.

The service offers respite and holi- day breaks to children and adults with an intellectual disability. The uniqueness of this service is that it is provided by families in their own

home as opposed to residential res- pite group homes. The family takes a child or adult with a learning disabil- ity into their own home for a short period of time.

The child/adult will enjoy a break or a holiday in a homely atmosphere and their parents and siblings will have a break from their full-time or Nu patea Ke) lon

Home Sharers get the opportunity to learn more about disability while caring and sharing in their own teva ston

Home Share families are assessed and supported by Home Share Clare. Each child or adult is matched care- fully to the caregivers and strong relationships can develop. Home Share Clare has successfully placed a number of adults and children with JeTeOb UB Cone

This service is open to anyone with a learning disability. It is hoped that families who offer to Home Share can do this for overnight stays, week- ends, short breaks or a weeks holi- days.

Interested people from a wide range of backgrounds can apply and Home Sharers can be single, married, older, younger working or retired. Formal qualifications are not necessary but it is desirable to have qualities such as common sense, warmth, patience and flexibility. An allowance is paid to families who participate in Home Share Clare.

Home Share Clare receives no stat- utory funding. It is totally reliant on charitable donations, which are man- aged by the Clare Federation of Vol-

FOR the second successive match, Cratloe held the upper hand in this local derby but they had to endure a real scare before finally collecting the Opening points of the season. With both clubs still involved in the Under 21 championship and county senior action dominating the weekend’s fixtures, selections were hampered but it was Sixmilebridge who missed their big guns most as Cratloe dom1- nated for the majority. From the out- set, Cratloe were hungry and sharp while the Bridge appeared sluggish and at times static when striking and that combination meant that Cratloe were never behind over the hour and at times looked all too comfortable.

However, after building up a 0-13 to O-08 advantage by the 40th minute, perhaps a grain of complacency crept in as a rejuvinated Sixmilebridge tacked over five unanswered points to draw level by the 55th minute. They couldn’t take full advantage though as Cratloe finally recovered to score the final three points and avoid a ma- jor slip-up.

The early season rustiness was ful- ly evident throughout the match, em- pitomised by the amount of needless and lazy frees given away on both

sides that rival marksmen Damien Browne and Stiofan Fitzpatrick gob- bled up with ease. However, aside from Fitzpatrick and occasionally Danny Morey, Sixmilebridge never really carried a threat up front and had too many passengers while Crat- loe had a strong launching pad from their half-back line and midfield and seemed to have more options in the final third. That was essentially the difference in the first half as Cratloe, despite facing into the breeze, took the game to the Bridge and had six different scorers in their 0-10 to O-7 half-time lead while all but one point from the Bridge came from Fitz- patrick’s placed balls.

Sixmilebridge made changes at the break, introducing John Reddan at centre-forward and pushing Fitz- patrick to full-forward and that part- nership would prove fruitful later in the game. However, it would get a lot worse before it would improve for the Bridge as two Browne °65’s and a point from Gearoid Ryan cancelled out Danny Morey opening point and gave the home side a O-13 to 0-8 cushion by the 40th minute.

Then out of nothing, the game be- gan to turn. An Adrian Chaplin pull was excellently blocked by goal- keeper Hayes, John Reddan began

to win vital possession around the centre and Stiofan Fitzpatrick looked increasingly threatening inside and it gave the Bridge momentum as the lead began to topple. Points from Fit-

Zpatrick (3), Danny Morey and sub- stitute Eoin Quinn restored parity by the 55th minute and all of a sudden, it was the Bridge who looked the more likely winners.

However, ringing the changes and finally coming to life once more, Cratloe hit back and it was Gearoid Ryan who eased the tension in injury time when he pointed over his shoul- der and that relief was manifested further when Damien Browne was presented with two easy frees to ce- ment the win and continue their new- found hold over their local rivals.