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A major new fundraising drive among the Clare GAA public will be necessary to pay for redevelopment works at Cusack Park, delegates to last Thursday night’s special meeting of the county board heard.

As the county board continues to consider its options after the En- nis Town Council decision to turn down a re-zoning application for the Cusack Park site, county board sec- retary Pat Fitzgerald revealed that “fundraising” was the only way to pay for remedial works at the county grounds in the short-term.

“We are doing the drainage again — it only lasts for a certain amount of time. It is going to be an expensive one,” warned Fitzgerald. “I think we will be putting another fundraising drive in place — that’s the only way it can be done. The money isn’t there, end of story. Once you do anything in a structural situation the money has to be found,” he added.

This plea for financial help harks back to the County Grounds fund- raising drive of 30 years ago when a £200,000 investment in Cusack Park was made possible thanks to a Debenture Loan Scheme among the public that had a target of raising £50,000.

Meanwhile, county board chairman Michael O’Neill revealed work on Cusack Park is an ongoing project, but stressed that the board was still keen to explore the possibility of finding a new site within the Ennis catchment area to develop a new Cu- sack Park.

“We have done some remedial work

on the pitch itself,’ he revealed. “We will have to carry out a lot of work there in the next month to six weeks. We don’t even have that length of time to have the park ready for some big matches in the National League. We have to spend a few pounds, that’s the way it Is.

“We haven’t moved too far yet on looking for other grounds within the environs of Ennis, but we are look-

ing at other potential sites as we were asked to do so by the Ennis Town Sonia

“We are pursuing that, but it is fair to say that we are living in differ- ent times that we were this time last year, but we’re not going to give up on anything. You can take it that Cu- sack Park will be quite good before the year is out and will be well wor- thy of playing matches on it. That’s

all I have to say on the park,’ O’ Neill added.

Marts hope to beat economic downturn

THE crowd disturbance that marred the end of last July’s Munster Under 21 hurling final between Clare and Tipperary has roared to public atten- tion again this week — all because the GAA authorities have issued a stark warning to the Clare County Board to get its house in order or run the risk of facing heavy fines and losing out on big-time fixtures at Cusack Park.

On Thursday, county board secre- tary Pat Fitzgerald admitted to club delegates from around the county that the GAA authorities have rapped Clare on the knuckles over the stew- arding arrangements in place for the provincial decider that ended in a

welter of controversy when Limer- ick referee Jason O’ Mahony awarded Tipperary a match-winning 65-metre free.

‘There was a lot of discussion here about the Under 21 final, but the next time we have a big game we have to have ourselves organised. We will not get away with what we did be- fore,” said Fitzgerald.

“T can tell you that that’s coming from way higher than us and we have to comply. I hope and I know that Clare was never found wanting in the past and we won’t be this time.

“We have given a commitment that there will be a team of stewards put in place and trained and ready for 1

Fitzgerald’s words of warning about

the county board’s responsibility for dealing with potential crowd trouble at Cusack Park were echoed by the chairman of the Clare GAA’s Facili- ties Committee, John Fawl.

“It is coming from other higher au- thorities. We are not going to be let away with what we did with Tipper- ary and Clare in the Under 21. We have to be able to control these situa- tions,” he said.

To this end, the county board have appealed for clubs to come for- ward with names to boost steward- ing numbers at Cusack Park for big games. “We would be asking clubs to go back and look at potential people to help to manage fixtures in Cusack Park,” said Pat Fitzgerald.

“We have some games come up in

the near future. We now have to have stewards who are trained and who know what they are doing. The next two weeks we will be hoping to put together a group of 20 or 30.

‘We would ask that the people are nominated are suitable for the job — not just a name.

“We all realise what happened in the past and it is important that when it does come down to it that we put people forward who are going to be are capable of doing the job when the time is right,” Fitzgerald added.

Prendeville wants return of health boards

IRISH soccer chief John Delaney has confirmed that Dennis Hynes will continue as FAI county develop- ment officer in Clare.

News that Clare County Council cutbacks had forced the local author- ity to opt out of a co-funding agree- ment with the FAI had threatened to jeporadise Hynes’ position.

However, speaking in Ennis on Saturday, FAI CEO John Delaney confirmed to

SPP TMC MOOLUICeB I MaTT BeNOR over ESB breach of contract

THE HSE has warned that visitors arriving outside the new visiting hours at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Ennis will not be allowed enter.

From February 1, the general visit- ing times at Ennis General Hospital will change, with half an hour less being allowed for day time visitors, and half an hour extra allowed at night.

The new times will see people visit- ing patients from 2.15pm to 3.45pm

In the evening visitors can spend time with patients from 6.30pm to Opm. Visitors to the Intensive Care Unit be restricted to family members or carers and will be determined on an individual basis.

Only two visitors at any time will be allowed visit a patient.

A spokesperson for the HSE said

visiting hours would be strictly ad- hered to from now on.

“Visitors arriving outside of these hours will not be allowed admis- sion.”

Currently visiting hours are from 2 pm to 4 pm in the day and 7pm to 9 pm at night.

Meanwhile visiting restrictions are in operation due to an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug at the county hospital.

Four cases of the highly contagious virus have been reported at Ennis General Hospital, with another four cases confirmed at St Joseph’s Ger1- atric Hospital.

Relatives of patients are asked not to enter the wards without informing nursing staff.

Patients are also asked to attend their GP, if at all possible, before presenting at the Accident and Emer- gency Department.

es terday, the National Director of One in Four, Maeve Lewis, said that even the bishops who acted responsibly

should be stripped of all discretion- ary power. She was speaking follow- ing a statement from Cardinal Séan Brady, which said that the Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, should not re- sign as he had learned his lesson.

‘I think that the recent position ex- pressed by the vast majority of the bishops would show that they sim- ply don’t understand the dynamics of sexual violence and the degree to which the offender can manipulate the situation,” she said.

“They simply do not have the ex- pertise to be the judge for these types

of situations and this power should now be taken away from them. ‘When you have a bishop who re- ally understands all of the nuances in relation to child sexual abuse then the protocol will be implemented not only to the letter of the law but also to the spirit of the law. But this is clearly not the situation so we are now call- ing for the power of discretion to be taken away from all bishops.” Despite calling for his discretionary powers to be taken away, the One in Four director praised Bishop Walsh for his commitment to child protec-

tion. “Our experience would be that Bishop Willie Walsh is very commit- ted to child protection and has man- aged cases in the diocese very well in the past,’ she continued.

“We would commend him for this and would also recognise that the Bishop was one of the few to call for Bishop John Magee to consider his position over the situation in Cloyne.

“But we also believe that the bish- ops in the main have not aligned themselves with the thinking of the priests and people who they repre- sent.”

A WEST CLARE man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 16 year old girl had to be extradited from America to come back and face the case, a court heard.

Ennis Circuit Court heard that the 32 year old had pleaded guilty to the assault on the young girl as she lay sleeping in her bed.

On February 9, Judge Carroll Mo- ran was told, the man had been out socialising with the girl’s parents and came back to the house with them.

Around 4am, the girl told gardai, she woke to find the accused naked in the bed beside her. He put his hand under her night-clothes and touched her breasts and private parts.

In a statement to gardai made three days after the event, the girl said she was crying and trying to push the ac- cused’s hand away.

The Judge was told that the girl had to go for counselling for a number of years and was skipping school, be-

lieving people were staring at her.

She is engaged but has had some strain on the sexual relationship with her fiancé as a result of the incident, the court heard.

Speaking in mitigation for his cli- ent, Mark Nicholas BL said he had a severe drink problem, which he has dealt with. “He has voluntarily brought urine analysis which shows week after week that he is not drink- ib ito

Mr Nicholas said the man is “thor- oughly ashamed of this despicable act and I offer and apology to the in- jured party.”

He added that while his client had gone to the USA “he was not hiding. He was working and had applied for a residency permit so he was on the iecTOre hal

Judge Moran said he did not want to make an instant decision and ad- journed sentencing to January 29 to the court in Limerick.

SUBSTANTIAL start up costs have resulted in a regional radio station, which has former Irish rugby captain Keith Wood amongst its directors and main shareholders, incurring losses of almost €1 million.

According to accounts recently returned to the Companies Office Spin South West, which broadcasts to the Shannon region, had accumu- lated losses of €996,341 at the end of 2007.

The station started broadcasting in the second half of 2007 and a spokes- man said yesterday that the accounts are for the initial six months of trad- ing and reflect the high set-up costs involved in launching a radio sta- tion.

“In our business plan submitted to the Broadcasting Commission of Ire- land (BCI), we anticipate losses for the first four years of trading, but we are confident we will not alone reach but exceed targets set out in that busi- ness plan given that we have already soared to the top in terms of listener- ship figures.

‘In the space of just twelve months , we became the number one listened- to radio station and top market share for 15 to 34 year olds in the region, which is unprecedented for newly launched stations and completely bucks the trend for regional radio stations.

“The 15 to 34 year old market is the biggest spending segment in so- ciety and the one the vast majority of

advertisers wants to reach. Because SPIN South West is already the dominant force in that sector in this region means we can look forward to a very bight future indeed.”

The accounts show that Kulla- loe man, Keith Wood has 200,000 Shares in the station and also sits on the board. Also on the board 1s chief executive of Clare FM, Liam O’Shea who owns 100,000 shares.

Other shareholders include the own- ers of Clare FM, Clare Community Radio Holdings plc, Communicorp Group Ltd, Stockbyte multimillion- aire, Jerry Kennelly, John O’Connor and Setanta Radio Ltd.

Spin South West beat off competi- tion from a consortium that included

Red FM from Cork that counted An- thony Dinan, the managing director of Thomas Crosbie Holdings which owns