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IT NOW lies in ruins on the streets of Port-au-Prince, a concrete grave for countless nameless souls, but three years ago it was a happy home for a group of Burren travellers on a mission from Ireland to Haiti.

In July of 2006, Sr De Lourdes Fahy and four students from Gort

Community School were the guests of Concern in Haiti. While there they made friends, and saw firsthand the work done in one of the poorest countries in the world.

They were joined in Port-au-Prince by a group of Haitian teenagers, or their “twins” as they were called. Since the earthquake, Sr Fahy has spent much of her time trying to

track down her lost Haitian friends.

“My own twin’s name was Cas- sandra, and all she wanted to be was a lawyer so she could help her poor people. I’d love to know where she is right now. We haven’t heard what has happened to any of the twins who became our friends when we visited over there. We don’t know if they were killed or not,’ she said.

‘‘T haven’t been able to contact any- one over there. I have been searching for information on the internet and I was able to get some information on some of the people that we knew.

“The students really enjoyed their time over there. They had great fun and slept on the roof of the hostel where we were staying. That hostel is now rubble.”

Even before the earthquake, most people in Haiti lived in poverty.

“The conditions that we saw over there were atrocious even then. There was terrible, terrible poverty. We vis- ited all of the poorest parts, especial- ly one area of Port-au-Prince which was called San Martin. The whole area was terribly poor but the people were So nice,’ continued Sr Fahy.

‘That whole area of the city was to- tally neglected. To me, it seemed that the government over there was very inept, useless really. It was also a dangerous place, gangs would roam the streets every night but most of the crime over there was fuelled by pov- erty, aS well as corruption and bad government.

“Concern have done excellent work over there. They set up a lot of water purification projects and run a clinic which looks after HIV patients and a school which they set up.” To donate to Haiti, visit www.concern.net.

A TEENAGER who threw a brick through his mother’s window has asked a judge to let her stand bail for him. The 16-year old was before Judge Joseph Mangan having plead- ed guilty to a number of charges, including criminal damage to his mother’s house.

A probation officer told the court that a psychological report would be advisable. “ADD is suspected” the boy’s solicitor, Tara Godfrey said.

The teenager was accompanied by his mother during the hearing and in setting bail for six months at an in- dependent surety of €200, the judge asked the accused if he wanted his mother or some other person to stand or DU Koy muDOOE

When he replied that he wanted his mother, the judge warned him, “If your mother feels you might breach your bail, she can come in here and withdraw her bond and then you will go to jail.”

The 16-year-old had pleaded guilty to criminal damage and breaching the peace in December at his moth- er’s home in Shannon.

He also admitted stealing a hat and gloves – valued at €4 – from Dunnes Stores, SkyCourt, on December 18.

AFTER two years of fundraising, the first 50 of the 200 volunteers with the Building of Hope Project have arrived in Kenya.

Fr Martin Keane is pictured laying the foundation stone for the training centre which the Clare volunteers will build over the next eight weeks.

Celebrating Mass for the newly arrived volunteers on Sunday, Fr Martin told them that the founda- tions were made not just of sand and mortar, but of the hope that will help rebuild lives.

The Cranny priest ministers to the poorest of Mombasa’s people in his parish of Migombani.

The centre will be a place where they aquire work skills and qualifi- cations which can rescue them from a life of degradation and hunger.

THE issues of fixtures will be ad- dressed at the upcoming Ladies Football convention. According to the Secretary, Michael Fitzpatrick, fixtures continue to be a problem, particularly at minor level.

“Again this competition [minor] did not finish until November because some clubs did not stick to the fixture plan,” he points out in his report that will be delivered at the annual con- vention on Tuesday.

He said he feels the Junior A cham-

pionship should be played before the B, the intermediate before the junior and senior before the intermediate.

He added that the fixtures com- mittee must look at rule 339 of the official guide of 2007 or rule 347 of 2009, which states ‘A team failing to fulfil a championship fixture may forefit its place in the competition and the game may be awarded to its opponents.”

He also pointed out that the team is liable to a suspension of six months. “As we are on rules another which we may have to look at for 2010 is

rule 156 of 2007 which states that the county committee may fine a club for not attending county board meetings.”

In his report, the secretary points out that some clubs are inclined to play unregistered players at under- age. “This is a very dangerous habit, as if a player should receive an injury and are not registered, they are not covered.”

As part of his report, he will also go through, in detail, the on field mat- ters of ladies football in Clare, which experienced a very successful year.

A CLARE woman yesterday told a court that she had a “volatile” rela- tionship with the man accused of raping her at gunpoint.

She revealed she “stopped count- NOTA DACs OOOO MB DO CommO OCoummO TUN] left her house during the first year of their relationship because “it was getting ridiculous”.

A 44-year-old man has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to three counts of rape, two counts of anal rape, two counts of oral rape and one count each of false imprison-

ment, threatening to kill by shooting, threatening to disfigure with a knife, ageravated burglary and possessing a shotgun with intent to endanger life. He pleaded guilty in December 2008 to assaulting the woman but CLSeDCe Me OUIABU NISMO MMU BINOME NO CoMEcAIDO yA UE| the offences are alleged to have oc- curred at her Clare home on Septem- ber 9, 2007.

Under cross-examination yester- day, the woman agreed that there were many “fallings out” between her and her ex-partner which were generally followed by their love life resuming.

She denied she was drunk during their first argument around Christ- mas 2004 shortly after he had moved in with her and she had told him she “felt” pregnant with their child.

She denied she hit the man with a brush on that occasion but admitted throwing one at him around the time of the alleged rape when he turned up at her house without her consent.

It was put to the woman that gardai intervened during another “furious argument” with the accused about selling property on eBay around eight months after the birth of their oF

The woman agreed the accused phoned gardai after she had kicked some of the property arranged on the living room floor, but explained she did no damage and smashed her own vase against the kitchen wall in reac- tion to the Garda summons.

She said that she and the accused had been in financial trouble at the time and that she was “extremely an- noyed” with him selling the property since he had already spent the sales money on a motorbike and used car.

She said a neighbour dropped her baby back to the house after she locked her ex-partner outside and

when gardai arrived he “gave them the impression” she’d locked both fa- ther and child out.

She agreed that gardai let her choose between letting the child stay with a social worker or giving the baby to her partner for the night.

She agreed she had been drinking earlier that day but denied she was drunk. She said it was Garda duty to call a social worker when responding to domestic incidents where there al- cohol is involved.

The trial continues before Mr Jus- tice Paul Carney and a jury of seven women and four men.

THE value of an insightful analyst is immeasurable. That’s why in the lead up to Kilmurry Ibrickane’s All-Ire- land quarter-final clash with Tir Cho- naill Gaels in the Emerald Grounds in Ruislip this weekend, Paul Hehir’s vast knowledge into both sides can- not be overestimated.

For the uninitiated, Hehir has played at the highest level for both Clare and London, was part of the all conquering Doonbeg side that cap- tured several county titles at the turn of the century as well as a Munster crown in 1998. He has also played a sizeable part of his career for Lon- don side Tara also with brother Sen- an, picking up a London and British championship in 2003. Add in the fact that he played against Tir Cho- naill Gaels in this year’s league final and also represented Doonbeg in the 2008 Clare senior championship and it’s abundantly clear that there is no better judge of this game than Hehir.

First to the strengths and weakness- es of Tir Chonaill Gaels.

“Basically they are a just a well or- ganised club and the best run club in London to be honest with you. They have a good backroom staff with regards to the people running the club and have just got the commit- ment from the players really. Their strength mainly lies with their work- rate coming from the back. Their backs are very good and very tidy and they have a good strong mid- field. Basically the only thing they would be lacking really would be a panel of players. They have got a good 13 or 14 good players whereas the Kilmurry lads would have a good bench which will proably be decisive I reckon on the day.”

Having won four out of the last five London championships, the Gaels have ample experience of All-Ireland

quarter-finals but have been rather

unfortunate not to have advanced further, mainly due to a lack of belief according to Hehir.

“It’s a combination of things re- ally. What it really comes down to, just as in the county team, is whether they believe collectively that they can actually beat a team from home. They have come close in the last few years and it’s never easy for a team that comes over to London whether it’s inter-county or a club match and it would be good for London football in general if they did pull off a shock. Although It wouldn’t really be much of a shock in London because they are a good club team. They have got great backs, a good midfield and as I have said three or four decent for- wards. They are also full of inter-

county experience with lads from Roscommon, Leitrim and Donegal, guys who have played at the highest level back home but it’s just about be- lieving that they can win.”

Kilmurry Ibrickane’s chances of advancing to the semi-final stage have been made all the more difficult by the fact that they will have to take on the perennial London champions in their own back yard, a daunting prospect as Hehir outlines from per- sonal experience.

“Coming over to London is never easy for any team. I know that myself when I came over with Clare. You somehow have it in the back of your head that they are still only based in London and that you should be beat- ing them but any team that comes

over to London never has it handy.”

Still when pushed for a verdict, he gives a slight nod to Kilmurry Ibrickane on their strength of their overall squad.

“IT mean there is no taking away from what Kilmurry Ibrickane have achieved. I think they have only been beaten once in the last two years which says a lot for the quality they have. They have a great youth devel- Opment system coming through and it seems to have extended to the sen- ior team. They have great old heads of Johnny Daly, Odran O’Dwyer and Peter and Michael O’Dwyer as well and then there is the new breed coming through with the likes of Enda Coughlan and Mark McCarthy. There is a great combination and they

seem to mix it very well going all the way up to Micheal McDermott at the atosbene

“At the end of the day, it’s going to be a great game in fairness. They are two good footballing sides, two tough teams and at the end of the day, it’s just going to come down to who wants it more and overall I think that Kilmurry Ibrickane might edge it purely on the strength of the bench they have, despite the massive dent that Odran O’Dwyer’s injury will have.”

THE Slieve Callan Wind Farm will generate more than €750,000 a year for the 30 farmers whose land could form part of the proposed de- velopment. According to documents lodged with Clare County Council last week, the proposed wind farm will generate at least €775,000 for the land owners – who will retain ownership of their land, as well as €40,000 to local community groups and €500,000 for Clare County Council.

This means over the first 20 years of the project the local landowners stand to gain more than €15 million while Clare County Council will benefit to the tune of €10 million.

The proposed development consists of 31 wind turbines, each 80 metres in height and with a three blade ro- tary blade with a diameter of 90 me- BKey

Should this project go ahead in it’s current form it would become the largest wind energy facility on the is- land of Ireland, dwarfing the overall output of the current largest, the Al- tahullion windfarm near Dungiven in Northern Ireland.

According to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) lodged with Clare County Council last week the plant has the ability to generate elec- tricity for 59,189 homes, or roughly the combined number of households in Clare and Limerick City.

This would mean that the entire site would produce roughly the same amount of electricity as the Ard-

nacrusha Hydroelectric plant, which is currently Ireland main source of green energy.

Construction on the site 1s likely to cost in excess of €200 million with more than 40 per cent of this outlay,

or €80 million to be spent in relation to on-site works. It is envisioned that in excess of 250 people will be em- ployed on site during the 18 months of construction.

According to the EIS, the declining population and low socio-economic standing of the Slievecallan study area make it the ideal spot for the de- velopment of such a large scale wind energy facility.

“The analysis of census data for the study area shows that population growth has been significantly lower here than at county and national lev- el, with population decline recorded between 2002 and 2006,” it says.

“Overall, the electoral division that make up the study area were catego- rised as being in the ‘20 per cent most extremely deprived’ and °*20 per cent somewhat deprived’ groupings.”

TEAM coach Liam McHale takes the subs who saw no action for some exercise, while selector James Foran is with those who had game time for some stretches, while Micheal Mc- Dermott stands in between the two different groups and reflects on a very indifferent day.

‘Few positives,” he says cutting to the chase. “It wasn’t a good enough performance for the Clare public coming into Cooraclare to see what Clare football is going to be about in 2010.

“It wasn’t a good performance — we can’t hide behind anything. The one thing that disappointed me the most, and we’ve been working on it a lot in training, is creating goal chances. We never looked like threatening the goal there and maybe it’s a lack of belief in players.”

Some early doom and gloom then, before McDermott reminds himself that Clare are only two weeks into their season, and University College Cork are at it since the start of the new academic year last October.

‘They were much fitter than us, but the purpose of today was that even though it was a losing situation, we have learned a lot. The most impor- tant match we’re facing into was not this McGrath Cup game but the first league game against Wicklow on /eoje)abe- ba aae)

“This was a bigtime learning ex- perience — it was an opportunity for fellas to show that they were of in- ter-county standard, that they going to be ready for the type of game we wanted to play, that they were going to be ready for a battle.

“We learned a lot today and from

that point of view this was beneficial, but we know that we have a hell of a lot of work to do and two weeks training that we’ve had isn’t going to change that.

“Our use of the ball, or forward play was weak and there weren’t enough guys showing for the ball and hungry enough to win it. We started extremely well for ten or 15 minutes but then ran out of steam and the level of fitness was poor. But listen, fitness 1s something you can work on, but football is the most important thing to get right as well.”

And, to get those frontline players on sabbatical, or on Kilmurry Ibrick- ane duty back into the fold by Febru- aoe

“T would like, depending on what’s going to happen with Kilmurry Ibrickane next Sunday — we don’t want to look beyond that but I’d like to have some of those players avail- able for the Wicklow game,” he says

“We need those two points on the board — it’s our first home match of the season and we need to win it. We have a hell of a lot of work to do, but this is where it starts in the next cou- ple of months is going to be vital as regards the future of Clare football for 2010.

“It’s going to be a tough three weeks. We have learned a lot about individual players; we’ve learned a lot about the team as a unit and it’s about getting things right for three weeks and if we come out with two points in Cusack Park against Wick- low in three weeks time, today will all have been worthwhile.”

THE proposed wind farm at Slieve Callan will have a number of “slight” impacts on the elements of the sur- round environment, according to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) lodged with planner at Clare County Council last week.

Along with some short term dif- ficulties during the construction phase the EIS has flagged some

longer term environmental concern in relation to the project.

These concerns are in relation to the noise generated by the windfarms and traffic flow in the Baer.

In addition to this the proposal ar- gues that the windfarm will have a significant positive impact on tour- ism in Clare.

According to the EIS, noise pol- lution from windfarms can come

both from the internal workings of the wind farm as well as the noise of the blades cutting through the wind.

‘Advances in turbine technology and design have resulted in reduced noise emissions. Above wind speeds of eight to twelve metres per second, background noise begins to exceed turbine noise.

“Therefore it is within wind speeds range of four to eight metres per sec-

ond that turbine noise is typically most audible,” read the EIS.

“At wind speeds greater than eight metres per second, noise generated by wind has the effect of largely masking wind turbine noise.”

The document also states that there is a slight possibility of injury to humans as a result of frozen ice building up on the turbines.

“The guidelines state that there is a very remote possibility of injury

to people from flying fragments of ice or from a damaged blade,” read the EIS.

“However, most blades are com- posite structures with no bolts or separate components and the danger is therefore minimised.”

Each windfarm will also be fitted with a special anti-vibration sen- sors, which is designed to detect any imbalance caused by icing on the blades.

A MAIDEN voyage for the good ship Clare under Micheal McDer- mott, Liam McHale and James Foran, but more than that, it was also a maiden voyage for Clare under the new experimental rules in place for the duration of the McGrath Cup and National League.

And, thanks to those new rules implemented by Kerry official John Lynch, Clare can always say that they at least enjoyed one victory on the day — the tag of being more au fait with the rules than their UCC op- ponents.

All because UCC were pulled up on five occasions for handpasses that were given without the closed fist, while Clare only infringed this rule once over the hour. As for the mark, there was a noticeable lack of high fielding on the day, but Clare did edge this stat too by 2-1 thanks to Alan Clohessy and Gary Brennan catching kickouts in the first half.

Still, despite this hollow victory, Clare manager Micheal McDermott believes the mark idea, though good in principle is doomed to failure, gamesmanship even. “The mark is something that I don’t think will

work,’ he says.

“Teams will get clever and there will be more breaking ball than field- ing in the middle of the field. The idea is good to try and introduce high fielding, but I think more teams will concentrate on trying to break the ball to make sure a guy doesn’t catch it and you’re going to be back to the same old situation again.

“But the mark is there for the league and we’ll have to work with it. When you win the mark, you are waiting for the whistle, rather than using the ball quickly. When you do that you give the opposition a chance to fun- nel back. We have no problem with the rule being in place. We have to learn to use the ball quickly when we make a mark. That’s something we have to work on.”

As for the fist pass, the work looks already done. “We were good on the fist pass,” says McDermott, giving the rule the thumbs up. “We worked hard on the fist pass in training, whereas UCC suffered from it be- cause it’s not in place for the Siger- son Cup. But the advantage we got in the game was something we didn’t punish.”

You can’t win them all, one sup- poses.