Category: Uncategorized

BEATING Kilkenny at any level is a memorable feat. Beating the cur- rent All-Ireland intermediate cham- pions Kilkenny in only their second game therefore has to go down as a momentous achievement and finally gives the management, players and even the county board justification for their forward planning of enter- ing a second team.

This was as good and surprisingly comfortable as it 1s every going to get for Clare’s second string. Last time out, they perhaps lacked some leadership as Tipperary eased to a seven point victory but that fraility was rectified on Sunday with the in- troduction of six new starters. Carol O’Leary, Aiveen O’Shea, Niamh Corry, Louise Hayes, Aine O’Brien, Chloe Morey and Roisin O’Brien were all brought in to add more ex- perience and balance to the side and it certainly had the desired effect as Clare were far superior and sharp- er than their Leinster opponents throughout.

Chloe Morey, who was playing her second game in as many days, was utilised as a third midfielder and along with partners Louise Hayes

and Niamh Corry, Clare really con- trolled this tie. Another highlight was the performance of Carol Kaiser who really began to come into her own when switched to centre-back to curtail Kilkenny’s playmaker Eileen Fitzpatrick, who had got Kilkenny’s only score of the game in the 34th minute.

Aside from that scare, it was a straightforward stroll to victory as Kilkenny’s expected fightback never really materialised. Clare can only beat what’s put in front of them though and really that fear of a Kil- kenny recovery benfitted Clare who remained focused right up to the fi- nal whistle.

Clare were 0-6 to 0-0 ahead at the break, taking advantage of a slight breeze that blew towards Limerick. Danielle Sheedy opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a free and inadvertently turned provider for the second, sending in another long free that was batted by goalkeeper Siob- han Murphy to Roisin O’Brien who continued her impressive scoring run with a point. In all, the Ogonnelloe player hit four points of Clare’s to- tal, making her Clare’s only scorer from play in the league so far with Six points.

Danielle Sheedy almost secured a goal for her side in the 10th minute when she caught a Niamh Corry pass over the top of the Kilkenny defence and took on her marker before un- leashing a shot but it was saved by Murphy for a *45 that Chloe Morey converted.

Kilkenny did have their fair share of possession but a lack of a reliable freetaker and some aimless shooting frustrated them in their endeavours. Instead, Clare kept plugging away and frees from Morey, Sheedy and an injury time point from O’Brien eased Clare to a six point half-time lead.

The only real tension for Clare came four minutes after half-time when a revitalised Kilkenny attempted to grab a lifeline. Three early wides were eventually made up for when Niamh Byrne’s shot was saved by Denise Lynch and Eileen Fitzpatrick was on hand to hit the rebound to the am

Fitzpatrick was by now starting to pull the strings for the Leinster side and had another shot on goal in the 38th minute but this time Lynch was equal to the effort. It caused Clare to switch Carol Kaiser to centre-back and it proved to be the turning point

of the game as the Newmarket player nullified her threat for the remain- der.

From that point on, Clare gradually regained their confidence and the trio of Chloe Morey (2), Roisin O’Brien (2) and Danielle Sheedy were again on target as Clare eased up to victo- ry. A significant result that will give Clare great confidence for the rest of the campaign.

THE winter vomiting bug has closed a third-level facility in the mid-west for almost a week.

Last week, a number of students presented themselves to the Med1i- cal Centre at Mary Immaculate Col- lege with gastric flu-like symptoms including diarrhoea and vomiting. The college immediately contacted the HSE who, following their inves- tigations, have confirmed seven in- dividual cases of norovirus (winter vomiting bug) amongst the students.

The college, in consultation with the HSE, moved to control the out- break last Wednesday, suspending all college activities in order to facilitate the intensive cleaning and sanitisa- tion of the campus to prevent a sec- ondary introduction of the virus.

The college expressed their grati- tude to the HSE for the “swift and professional manner in which they dealt with this matter and thanked them for their advice and _ assist- _N Nome

The college will re-open today but student activities, including lectures and tutorials, are postponed until 9am on Wednesday, March 18.

The HSE said that “preliminary results of their investigations sug-

gested that the outbreak of gastroen- teritis at Mary Immaculate College was caused by norovirus, the source of which has not been identified. Precautionary measures are being implemented by Mary Immaculate College to minimise the risk of fur- ther transmission.”

Norovirus is often known as ‘win- ter vomiting disease’. Outbreaks af- fecting hundreds of people have been reported. Cases occur in all seasons although it is true that there is an in- crease in winter.

The illness characteristically starts with the sudden onset of severe and dramatic vomiting. This can occur with such force that it is termed “pro- jectile”. The virus is so small that there are millions of them in parti- cles of vomit which can be widely dispersed in an area.

“Tt is vitally important to clean a very wide area when cleaning up after a person who has vomited,’ a spokes- woman for the HSE said. Some peo- ple also develop diarrhoea.”

In general, the symptoms usually last for about 24 to 36 hours after which the person feels washed out for a day or so. There are no long- term effects of norovirus infection and, even in the frail or elderly, eve- ryone makes a full recovery.

TAKING the medical card office out of Ennis will destroy the flexibility of the service and could leave many people who are entitled to medi- cal cards without them, it has been warned.

The Health Service Executive has announced that it is to close the medical cards office in the Sandfield Centre in Ennis, where 11 staff are currently employed.

The service will be centralised in Dublin as part of the HSE’s plan to Am eKe ys ASF

But Ennis councillor Joe Arkins, has warned that centralising the

service in Ennis will take away vital flexibility.

‘‘A person may be over the earnings limit for a medical card but they may still qualify. If someone lives in Mul- lagh and drives to Ennis to work, that is the kind of thing that can be taken into consideration and that takes lo- cal knowledge. We now have to try to translate that information to some- one in an office in Dublin. It won’t work,” the councillor said.

STAs Cima sc bunce mm sit mmenomm Els. ibility of the service will be seriously WOK oee

‘At present you can go to the office in Ennis, outline your circumstances and have an emergency medical card

in a matter of hours. That will be gone. This is a totally retrograde step and flies in the face of the Govern- ment’s decentralisation policy.”

The decision comes following a stark warning from the head of the HSE, Professor Brendan Drumm, that required cost-cutting measures will soon begin to impact on front- line health services.

11 staff are employed in medical card and drug payment services at the Sandfield centre which is one of 32 offices across the country.

The jobs in Ennis and other centres are now under threat following con- firmation from the HSE that it plans to centralise primary care re-im-

bursement services to Dublin to save €10 million a year with temporary staff to be made redundant and other staff redeployed to other jobs.

Staff in Ennis say they are also concerned about the loss of personal contact with members of the public and IMPACT union spokeswoman for Clare Sinead Wynne said there is more than administration services being lost.

Ennis staff are now looking to their union to open negotiations with the HSE in a bid to reverse the plans and IMPACT has called on the public to support it’s members “before the people of Clare lose another impor- tant service”.

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

GERRY Adams has said that voters are “waking up to the fact that they have been fooled” as he set the elec- tion machine in motion at the week- end in Clare.

The Sinn Féin leader was in town for the Ennis Book Club Festival but he also met the party’s local election and European candidates and appear at a public meeting.

Speaking in a one-on-one inter- view with

THE NATIONAL Water Activity Centre at Killaloe is celebrating a new arrival this week.

In January the NWAC received an amazing piece of luck when a very kind benefactor decided to donate a yacht to the centre for the training of young people. The centre is used by scouts and sea-scouts from all over the mid-west.

The NWAC camp chief, secretary and quartermaster took a trip to Skibbereen, in County Cork, to see ‘An Ron’ in the flesh and plan how it could be transferred to Lough Derg.

After some discussion it was de- cided to have the boat transferred on a specialist low-loader with inbuilt crane. The boat was lifted on to the truck and An Ron started the long journey to the mid-west. After an overnight stop in Patrickswell, it was at Lough Derg marina for transfer to new waters.

The newly acquired vessel was transferred to the lake by crane and sling and An Ron was soon floating in Lough Derg.

An Ron made it’s maiden voyage in freshwater without a hitch and is now is moored at the NWAC, ready for eager young hands to learn how to crew a Sail vessel.

“When our benefactor offered us the boat, we thought he was giving us a row-boat so we were stunned when we realised what it actually was,” a spokesman for the centre said. “His own children had grown up and he wanted the boat to be put to good use teaching young people, so that was our good luck.”