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Pay and expenses figures from mid- 2004 until the end of 2008 reveal that three of the six most expensive councillors in Clare came from the Ennistymon electoral area.

The six councillors have shared €§83,896.33 in total between them since mid-2004, an average of €147,316.05 per councillor.

Cllr Flan Garvey (FF) topped the list with a total of €167,511.58 in ex- penses and wages.

OT Cra (mao aio eme- ee \y EhVOmmOys Clare and received a special alloca- tion of extra expenses as a result of Wek

Some of the larger expenses claimed by Cllr Garvey include €1,515.64 for

a trip to the Milwalkee Tourism Pro- motion Conference and €1,733.34 for a twinning trip to Australia in 2007.

As well as this, Cllr Garvey, who is currently Chairman of the Board at the Institute of Technology in Tralee, received €2,829.50 for the completion of a Masters in Business hi wACLelor

Second highest earner in the area was Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) whose total of 161,255.20 includes a special allowance for his work as chair of one of the SPC.

Cllr Joe Arkins also serves as chair of an SPC and is third in the list in north Clare with a total of IRE orh Rope

The lowest total of expenses and pay in the area was to Michael Kelly (FF) at €131, 359.58 fol- lowed by Martin Conway (FG) at €133,359.58 and Martin Lafferty at €134,759.66.

Brennan crowned most costly Ennis councillor

Members of Clare County Council expressed shock yesterday to learn that the local authority has increased the number of staff it employs during the recession.

According to figures secured by

HE’S GOT his back to the unplas- tered wall outside the dressing room door and is, by now, changed out of his match day clothes. Addressing the assembled media and playing ab- sent-mindedly with a pair of glasses, Mike McNamara resembles a poet philosophising to a group of stu- dents. His zen-like reaction to the 70 minutes of hurling just passed simply re-enforces his status as laureate-in- chief of Clare hurling and he’s not getting overly-excited by an open- ing game that promised two league points but delivered defeat.

“You know what,” he says, “there’s a difference between the Crystal Cup and a game in the league in the Gaelic Grounds against our friendly neighbours. They’re two different Web eetSace

In the cold gloaming of an early February Sunday, perspective is as valuable as foresight and McNamara takes us back to last year, when Clare travelled to Limerick and returned home, tail firmly between legs.

“The last time, we came out of here with something like a nine or ten point drubbing, maybe going no place, maybe drifting aimlessly to

wherever people drift to,” he said, cryptically enough. “So we’ll take the positives out of today. It was a strange game but when you come to Limerick, as we know to our cost, you can’t just expect to win. It’s a very difficult place to win and that has been proven over the years.”

As for the Clare comeback in the final stages of the game, McNamara was inclined to give little away, say- ing simply that they sat down at half- time, drank a cup of tea and vowed to plough on.

“Maybe we’ll have a closer look at the first half as opposed to the second half. We were twelve points down with 25 minutes to go, but we showed the character we’re looking oe

“We might have made a few mis- takes. We might have introduced some of the newer boys who had been showing well. But we decided we’d go with the full array of strength and take it from there. We were looking for opportunities to introduce some of the young fellas as the match went on but it really didn’t transpire, with the exception of John Conlon. We’d have liked to have used Caimin Mo- rey but he has the flu with the last two weeks.”

With regard to the omission of the injured Niall Gilligan, he said on an- other day he might have been risked.

“If this was the championship, maybe we’d have forced Niall out to play. On a day like this, we took the caution of not playing him.”

And the goals’?

“They were unusual things. We got some of those breaks last year, so we’ll take the bad with the good. We’ll mix it all up. They come and they go. We would have to look at it ayer HOO

“If we were Manchester United we’d look at it with in-depth analy- sis. We’d see where the goals came from. Maybe have a look at the pay- packets of some of them. We haven’t that luxury.”

And Waterford next week?

“Me old buddy Davy and myself back again. Maybe they’re in a deep- er hole than us. It’s a difficult thing to come away from an All Ireland final like that when you know you didn’t play well and the opposition played to the maximum. That’s a difficult thing.

MICHAEL Doherty died from a sin- gle stab wound to the left side of the chest, which was inflicted through “moderate force”.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis carried out a post mortem examination on Mr Doher- ty’s body on June 24, 2007.

He told the trial on Friday morning that the boy had been transfused two units of blood but despite efforts to keep him alive, he was pronounced dead at 12.05am on June 24, less than

an hour after gardai had been called to the incident outside Supermac’s.

He noted that the young boy had been fit and well, was 5’ 9” in height and appeared considerably older than his age. He was of athletic build and had dyed fair hair.

He wore a yellow metal necklace with a pendant, fabric and plastic bracelets and had a condom and a €5 note in the back pocket of his Weel <0 8 Dr Curtis said that Mr Doherty had sustained a single stab wound to the chest, which was located 7.5 centi- metres to the left of the mid line. The wound was horizontally orientated and was three centimetres in length, he said. The stab wound entered the left chest cavity. It entered one wall of the chamber of the heart and went out through the other. “He died as a result of a single stab wound to the chest. It entered the chest on the left and ran from left to right at an angle of 30 degrees from horizontal. It entered the chest cav- ity,’ he said. There were no defence type inju- ries to the body, he said, adding that there had been vigorous efforts to re- suscitate him. Neither alcohol nor drugs were de- tected in the blood or urine. Asked had he drawn any conclu- sions as to the degree of force used, he replied that while he could not answer that in arithmetic terms, “It would require moderate force for this wound to be inflicted” in terms of the scale of mild, moderate, con- siderable and severe. Asked by defence counsel Patrick Gageby SC was the wound consistent with a “swinging” type of motion, Dr Curtis agreed that it was. Mr Gageby also asked had he de- tected any sign of an assault on the face or chin of the deceased and he said he had not. He also said he did not find any wounds or bruising on the boy’s hands. The trial heard details of a state- ment made by a paramedic in Ennis, which stated that the ambulance ar- rived at the scene on O’Connell Street at 11.19pm. CPR was performed en route to hospital and arrival time was 11.26pm.

ENNIS rugby club now have the big guns in their sight. Having travelled to a drenched Newport pitch over the weekend, missing a number of key personnel and having not played since the beginning of January, the odds might have been against an En- nis win, but a disciplined perform- ance saw them overcome Newport.

It sets up a mouth-watering meet- ing with UL Bohemian — one of the favourites to take the Munster Junior Cup — at the beginning of March.

Crucially, the game is to be played at The Showgrounds in Ennis, giv- ing the Clare side a decent chance of causing a significant upset and mak- ing it to the quarter-final stage of the competition.

“IT was anxious enough about the Newport game, simply because play- ers might have been rusty after the few weeks lay off,’ said Ennis coach Richie Murphy

THE trial of a 19-year-old student, accused of murdering Ennis school- boy Michael Doherty, will enter its fifth day today.

John McGovern, of Ballyduff, Barefield, Ennis, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Michael Doherty (14), outside Supermac’s restaurant, O’Connell Street, Ennis, on June 23, 2007. He has also pleaded not guilty to producing a knife in the course of a dispute, on the same date.

The case is being heard at the Cen- tral Criminal Court sitting in En- nis. Over four days last week the trial heard from 47 witnesses. These included gardai, forensic experts, friends of the accused, friends of the deceased and independent witnesses, who were in Ennis on the night of Mr Doherty’s death. The prosecution is expected to conclude its evidence to- day (Tuesday).

The trial, before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of eight men and four women, is due to conclude later this week.

THE people of Spanish Point and Miltown Malbay came out in force on Sunday to support a local hotel’s initiative to clean up the beach.

Rubber gloves at the ready, and woolly scarves and caps on to keep out the cold, more than 100 people scoured the beach for three skip fulls of rubbish.

Among the unpleasant items col- lected was a large amount of house- hold waste and heavy-duty plastics that seemed to be washed up in the tide.

The sun shone down on the employ- ees and management of the Armada Hotel who, joined by more than 90 volunteers, reclaimed the beach from litter and debris.

Spearheaded by Noralynn Murrihy from the Armada Hotel, the clean-up kicked off at 4pm with young and old braving the cold as they reclaimed the natural beauty of the area.

Within 90 minutes, the beach was restored to its former glory with bags of all forms of rubbish collected.

The hard-working group managed to fill one skip every hour, taking thousands of items of litter and rub- bish off the beach.

This was the first voluntary beach clean-up of the year.

Commenting on the success of the event, Ivan Tuohy, General Manager at the Armada said, “We are very proud of our environment and the fact that our hotel overlooks Span-

ish Point Beach. It’s a privilege to put something back into the community that has supported us so well over the years.”

June Burke Curtin, Guest Relations Manager at the Armada, was also on hand to ensure that all volunteers received complimentary hot drinks and food afterwards at the hotel.

She also expressed her thanks to all the volunteers, the local schools, local media and the Clare County

Council for their support on the day. She said the beach clean-up would now be an annual event.

WerLMm OO CoMBEU aC! helicopter would cater for the west coast of Ireland. It is hoped that the service will then expand to cover the whole country requiring three to four helicopters.

He said the idea was based on an initiative in the United Kingdom, which has proven very successful and saved lives.

‘Trustees and fundraisers are busy raising funds to ensure that this life- saving service will be operational

very soon,” he said.

“It is planned to launch the first of the air ambulances as soon as funds are available and progress the service to cover the whole of Ireland. To en- able the charity to achieve this, they need to hear from volunteers who would be happy to join the team of fundraisers who are already actively aueCeue-NISon Toa

“The air ambulance will attend road traffic collisions, horseriding accidents, medical emergencies and any incidents or accidents where rap- id transport to hospital is required or where a remote location makes access to the patient by a conven- tional ambulance difficult,” said Mr Howkins. “It is already proven that air ambulances help save lives and are an essential way of transporting seriously ill or injured patients to the most appropriate hospital to their needs in record time,” he added.

The air ambulance will be at the Shannon Shamrock in Bunratty at 11.30am and Ennis Fair Green from 1.30pm on Tuesday next.

All are welcome to attend the pub- licity launch of the air ambulance and see the helicopter for themselves.

since September. This is the 14th year the school has put on a musical; the last show took to the stage in 2005. The main cast this year is from Transition Year, with some members also coming from second and third

year. The chorus is provided by the second-year students.

As rehearsals reach their peak dur- ing the last weeks, nuns and soldiers can be seen walking around the school as students get into character.

The lead performers on the night will be Mairead Clancy who will play the part of Maria, with Robert Finnu- cane playing the part of Captain Von Trapp and Ellen Downes playing the part of the Mother Abbess.

Teachers and students from all dis- ciplines are also getting involved in the show.

The woodwork, home economic and art classes are working on the set, costumes and make-up.

“It is a whole school endeavour

When it comes down to the last number of weeks,” explained Martin Moloney, history teacher and one of the musical directors.

Claire Carroll has taken on the role of the second musical director, with English teacher Niall Williams pro- ducing the show.

“We are very grateful to the peo- ple who have sponsored ads in the programme and costumes. We are thankful to the whole community and the parents who have helped out so much,’ said Mr Moloney.

Mr Moloney believes that the show broadens the students’ educational experience.

“We see a Side of the students that we did not know was there, and the

students didn’t know was there. They see something in themselves that they didn’t know was there,” he said.

“It also gives people who have nat- ural talent the chance,” he said.

‘For many, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Many will never go on stage again.”

The show will take place in the Community Hall on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8pm. Tickets for adults cost €10 and students €7. Booking is essential at (086) 2432060.