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EVEN the weather was kind for the launch last week of the first currach to be made in Quilty in 32 years.

After day of rain and high winds, the skies cleared for enough time for the craft to take to the waters.

Ten members of Quilty Currach Club built the boat from scratch.

It was built under the supervision of boat-builder James Madigan and erant-aided by the Clare VEC.

It was launched at Seafield pier and

blessed by Fr Pat Larkin.

“Thirty-two years ago, the late Austin Boyle – better known as Au- tie – built the last currach, which was later shipped to Chicago and today hangs on display in Fado’s Irish pub, which is owned by a Limerick man,” explained currach club member, Ter- esa Egan.

The only woman to work on the building of the boat, Teresa traced the last currach built to Chicago.

‘“Autie’s son, also called Austin, worked on building this currach, so

the skill has gone to the second gen- eration now,” she said.

The Quilty area was once a strong- hold of the currach. In the 1940s, the boats were used for drift-net fishing for mackerel and herring.

The sea gave work of other kinds as well. In the 1960s there was a sea- weed factory in Kilrush and Galway and the walls at Seafield were always covered in seaweed drying in the Oeone-te

“In the mid ‘20s there were 50 cur- rachs in the area of Quilty and each

currach was named after a saint,” said Teresa. ““We don’t have a name for our currach yet. We still have to decide,’ she added.

Now the club are in training to row in the upcoming regattas.

The currach’s first venture out to sea will be in a charity row from Kilrush to Carrigaholt on Saturday, March 14.

THE hurlers of Kilmaley and The Banner/Ruan were left 1n no doubt as to what their hosts Eire Og thought of them on Saturday afternoon when shunted on to the unlined second- ary pitch to play this championship game.

It wasn’t good enough — if the club agreed to open its facilities for a championship game in the first place, the least it should have done was to have made the club’s main pitch available, instead of having the county board fixture play second fid- dle to a challenge game.

However, this state of affairs wasn’t

for Kilmaley and Banner/Ruan to kick up about — that’s the county board’s job. All they could do was make the best of their ungenerous hosts and get on with it.

In this regard, Kilmaley certainly made a better fist of it, romping to an eight-point win on the back of a blis- tering start that saw them race into a O-6 to no score lead inside the first ten minutes and the overall display of sharpshooter Daire Keane who scored 11 points over the hour.

This opening salvo was all the more noteworthy as Kilmaley were playing against the breeze that was blowing down the field towards the St Flannan’s handball alleys. And it

was virtually the single-handed work of right-half-forward Keane, who bagged five of the six scores.

Two came from play, while he also converted two frees and two 65s as The Banner/Ruan were left reeling by the early onslaught. However, they threw themselves a lifeline as early as the 15th minute when Eoin Hanrahan ran on to a long delivery from Brendan Lyons and pulled a low ground shot to the net from sev- TUE NK Oe

The Banner/Ruan looked like mak- ing areal game of it when Pat Keegan drove an 80 yard free over the bar in the 19th minute, but 1t was the cue for Kilmaley to hit another purple patch

and a flurry of six more points to a lone reply from Keegan gave them a Q-12 to 1-2 interval lead.

Again it was down to Daire Keane — this time he bagged four more points within the space of five min- utes while John Cabey and Mickey O’Neill chipped in with a couple to put Kilmaley seven clear at the break.

The Banner/Ruan started the sec- ond half with early points form Pat Keegan and Finchra Hayes, but five points was as close as they got. Kil- maley steadied themselves once more when the impressive Stephen McNamara pointed and were never troubled thereafter, outscoring Ban- ner/Ruan by O-3 to 0-1 in the closing 20 minutes as the game petered out to its inevitable conclusion.

Poet donates book proceeds to charity

WHITEGATE staged a remarkable comeback against Corofin on Satur- day to book a place in semi-final of the under 21 B championship.

Trailing by ten points at half-time, Whitegate were still six points adrift with seven minutes left.

It looked like their efforts would be in vain until George Waterstone buried two stunning goals to tie the game at 3-9 to 3-9.

With the wind and momentum howling in their favour, Whitegate edged home with points from Stephen Malone and Michael Dooley.

Corofin must still be wondering how it all happened. Playing with a strong wind in the first half, Corofin

had racked up a hefty 2-8 1-1 lead by ne VOM Bb pales

Their players, notably Kevin and Stephen Heagney, Luke O’Loughlin and Damian Ryan were all perform- ing strongly.

But Whitegate weren’t about to exit without a fight. Goalkeeper Andrew Fahy kept them in touch with four sweetly struck frees. Malone and Dooley kept plugging away in the forwards before Waterstone supplied two moments of real class.

Even the loss of a sloppy seventh minute goal to Whitegate’s Michael Dooley failed to halt Corofin’s first half charge.

Stephen Heagney had already erabbed two points before Declan Lee slammed home Corofin’s first

goal in the 14th minute.

Heagney tipped over a free before his older brother Kevin goaled to make it 2-3 to 1-0 in the 21st minute.

Dooley picked off a point but there was no respite for Whitegate. Corofin piled on five more points through Ea- mon Malone, Kevin Heagney (2) and Stephen Heagney (2) to lead by ten points at half time.

Whitegate had the wind in the sec- ond half but 10 points looked a for- midable challenge.

They quickly got to work. Fahy walloped over two long-range efforts leaving two shorter ones for Dooley to covert. Malone pointed in that pe- riod also as Whitegate cut Corofin’s lead to five points.

Kevin Heagney smashed home

Eoin Malone’s pass for Corofin’s third goal in the 47th minute.

The score stood 3-9 to 17. It mat- tered little to Whitegate. Fahy con- verted a free and a 65’. Waterstone retrieved a pass out wide in the 54th minute, cut inside and found the net from 20 yards.

Whitegate re-claimed possession from the resulting puckout.

The sliotar dropped to Waterstone. This time his strike was defter but the outcome was the same. Goal. 3-9 to 3-9.

Points from Malone and Dooley pushed them into the lead.

GOO ITs MC SUUMDRc BD ITcMBOKO)OOMNeCoMIECO den loss of their comfortable lead, cut the deficit to one point through Stephen Heagney’s free.

Seconds later Whitegate players and coaches were leaping around the pitch, celebrating a victory that de- serves to be remembered for a long, long time.

“THE seven luckiest divers in Eu- rope’ was how the group rescued from the water in Kilkee on Saturday was described.

The group had a lucky escape af- ter very strong currents swept them 600 metres out to sea, at lunchtime

on Saturday.

The group, members of the Athlone Sub Aqua club, spent two hours in the water, before being taken to safety.

The group went diving off George’s Head in Kilkee Bay at around mid- day and had only intended undertak- ing a 30-minute dive. However, the alarm was raised some 45 minutes

later, after they failed to resurface.

One of the group, a 20-year-old man, suffered from hypothermia as a result of the incident, but has made a recovery. None of the others suf- fered any consequences of what hap- pened. They were visiting Kilkee for a weekend trip.

The rescue operation got underway

through contact with Valentia Coast- guard. The Irish Coastguard helicop- ter was then contacted, while Kilkee Marine Rescue was then notified of the incident.

Kilkee Marine Rescue Service spokesman, Manuel Di Lucia said

conditions were atrocious on the CENA “Visibility was so bad. They

wouldn’t have been able to see where they were going. The waves were all over the place. They were thrown around by the swell and ended up 1,500 metres from where they went in,” he said.

After being dispatched to the scene, the coastguard helicopter spotted the group in the water and two of the men were airlifted to safety. The other five were picked up by the res- cue boat, which was in the area at the time.

“They were very lucky. They can count themselves the seven luckiest divers in Europe. If the helicopter hadn’t spotted them, they would have been in serious trouble. Even the diver boat coming back found it very tough,” he said.

‘This was one of the more serious incidents in Kilkee, but as it turned out, it wasn’t tragic, thankfully,” he Crate

PLATO MidWest, Supply Network Shannon (SNS), Limerick Insti- tute of Technology (LIT) and the University of Limerick have joined forces to host a seminar for start up entrepreneurs and established SMEs to focus on the supports available to assist them to invest in R&D and in- novation.

The seminar, entitled “Knowl- edge Economy Research, Supports for Third Level and Companies to Facilitate Commercialisation and Collaboration” is to take place at Thomond Park on the April 2 from 2.30pm until 5.00pm.

Plato MidWest is a business sup- port forum for owner managers of SME’s. It is funded by the Enter- prise Boards of Limerick City and County and Clare. Through a unique partnership with large ‘parent’ com- panies, it provides its members with facilitated group learning, specialist expertise and advice and networking opportunities.

Commenting on the forthcoming seminar, Eoin Tynan-O’ Mahony, Re- gional Manager, Plato MidWest said, “We are delighted to be working in collaboration with LIT and SNS to bring this seminar to SMEs in the mid-west region. Both Plato and SNS members believe that there needs to be a greater awareness amongst companies in the SME sector of the supports available and easier access to funding opportunities open to them for R&D and innovation.

“The aim of this seminar is to pro- vide SMEs with the opportunity to see the value of and understand how research and technology transfer in the knowledge economy, can work for them and identify the routes to those supports. The starting point is to know who to contact in the third- level sector, Enterprise Ireland and other agencies and to learn about the success of other small companies in this field.”

Keynote speaker, Dr Siobhan Moane from LIT will provide an overview of Ireland’s drive to en- hance research linkages between enterprise and third-level education. Dr Moane, a native of Caherdavin, has worked as a science lecturer at LIT since 2000 and was recently appointed to the post of head of re- search and technology transfer to further develop links between re- search at LIT and industry.

SNS is an industry led, open, sec- toral network of manufacturing and service providers located in the Shannon region. Its aim is to rep- resent, promote, develop and inter- connect manufacturing and service companies in the region, regardless of size or activity.

Other speakers at the event will include Mr Liam Brown, National Contact Point NMP FP7, Enterprise Ireland (EI), Tom Bannon and Deir- dre Brougham, Enterprise Ireland

For further information and to reg- ister for this event contact Eoin Ty- nan-O’ Mahony, Regional Manager, Plato MidWest, mob: 086 303 5664 or email eoimn@platomidwest.ie. There is no charge for the event.

THE ability to make an instant im- pression was put to the test in Dro- moland Castle last week, when over one hundred business people stood face-to-face and pitched their re- spective businesses at each other. This business networking evening, organised by the Chambers of Com- merce in Shannon, Limerick and En- nis, was the first initiative of its kind jointly organised by the respective chambers to encourage their collec- tive membership to pitch their busi- nesses at each other.

Organisers and attendees were delighted with the outcome of the event. Claire Bannon of Indigo Signs, Smithstown, Shannon described it as the most impressive networking event she had attended, “It was easy to chat and make contact and emails have been flying in since.”

The evening was facilitated by ex- perienced networker and award-win- ning business coach Derek O’Dwyer of ActionCoach Ireland.

Turn in fortunes for west Clare company

THE Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce mid-west re- gion said that “economic conditions will remain extremely challenging in 2009 and 2010 and that the mul- tinational community in the region, like every other business sector, will be focused on costs and productivity improvements to enhance competi- UA Nee

Speaking at a members briefing in Dromoland Castle, Mr Bill Doherty said, “In the current climate every business has to focus on the bot- tom line and on delivering value to its customers. There is pressure on all businesses to achieve improved productivity, increased efficiencies and a more prudent cost base. In the multinational environment, where individual country subsidiaries are competing against each other for in- vestment from the global parent, it is imperative that subsidiaries located here are cost competitive.

“There are challenging times ahead for the mid-west and the first priority must be to retain the strong base of existing companies in the region.”

_ Which was broadcast live on RTE on Sunday night.

The Mulkerrin Brothers, who have strong family connections in Ennis, played traditional music and perform sean nos dancing at the final.

The three brothers, Padraig, Ea- monn and Sean, from Inis Mor, beat seven-year-old break-dancer Jack

Lynch in the final showdown of the Series, to claim the €50,000 first prize.

“Getting through to the final was amazing, we thought that was a big achievement, and even got through to the final we didn’t think we had a hope, so it’s massive shock. I am speechless,” said Padraig Mulkerrin following the win.

“Thanks to everyone who voted for us, because without them we wouldn’t have won.”

There was disappointment for the county’s other two acts which made it to the grand final. ;

Both Bert and Victor and Daithi O Dronai failed to make it through to the final two.

Ballyvaughan fiddler Daithi had been many peoples favourite for the competition after he became the first person to qualify for the grand final last month.

Bert and Victor, who have strong links to Kilrush, were also hotly fan- cied to make an impact in the final.

O’Brien Boys represented Dublin in the final but are grandchildren of Kilrush couple Ted and Marga- ret Wright, and the sons of Dolores O’Brien (nee Wright) who grew up in Pella Road.

The other contestants who took part in Sunday evenings final were Donna Marie Sludds and Clidna Hagan.