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FINE Gael Town Councillor Johnny Flynn has been nominated to contest the Ennis East electoral area in the upcoming county council elections.

Initially it had been suggested that Cllr Flynn, who is also nominated to contest the Ennis Town Council elec- tion, would be nominated to contest both Ennis East and Ennis west.

At the Fine Gael convention on Fri- day night, sitting Fine Gael county councillors Sonny Scanlon and Paul Murphy were also nominated unop-

posed to contest the election in Ennis west.

Cllr Scanlon is no stranger to the hustings, but it will be the first coun- ty council election contested by Cllr Murphy who was seconded to the local authority last year when Joe Carey was elected to the Dail.

Tony Mulqueen is currently the sole campaigner in Ennis West for Fine FTO E

Sources close to the party have said that once all of the conventions are over, Fine Gael hopes to add another name to the Ennis West ticket and

the Shannon Electoral area.

Meanwhile, Mr Mulqueen is look- ing forward to representing the party in the new electoral area of Ennis west.

“TI will stand for the interests and needs of the people of the Ennis area, be it Ennis Town, Inch, Kilmaley, Toonagh Kilnamona or Barefield,” he told delegates.

This Government needs to get a clear message from the people of Ennis West and Clare that we have had enough. We have had enough of empty promises, we want action not

spin,” he added.

Last night in Killaloe under the chairmanship of North Tipperary Counciller Phil Butler, newcomer Pat Burke from Whitegate was nominat- ed beside the two sitting councillors – Joe Cooney and John McInerney to contest the Killalloe area for Fine FTO E

On Monday, November 3, the En- nistymon area Fine Gael convention will take place. Sitting councillors Joe Arkins and Martin Conway were the only names put forward when nominations closed.

AS the Ballyvaughan/Fanore Walk- ing Club prepare to bring their year to a close at this weekend’s AGM, members have been looking back at one of the most busy and successful years in the club’s history.

From Las Vegas to Ben Nevis, the club have taken on some of the world’s most challenging walks in the year the culminated in the staging of Clare’s first ever walking marathon.

The walking year started back in November of 2007, with a new pro- gramme of weekly walks and a trip by some of the club members to Las Vegas, where they took part in the

Las Vegas Marathon. While there the group also walked the Grand Canyon and visited Monument Valley and Navajo Tribal Park in Arizona.

In April, club chairperson, Kevin McCormack, led a group of mem- bers on the challenging Camino De Santiago pilgrim route in Spain. The 550 mile trek over the Pyrenees saw walkers move through snow, rain and blistering sunshine until they reached Santiago after 29 days of walking.

Back in Ireland however, the other member were not idle. Weekly walks around the Burren proved very suc- cessful with the club also venturing farther afield to the Aran Islands, Tory, Mt Errigal in Donegal, Croagh

Patrick and Carrauntuohill.

Inspired by the this success 26 club members decided to take on Ben Ne- vis, the highest mountain in Great Britain and Ireland, as the groups last challenge of the year.

Led on this occasion by Gerry Rei- dy, all members of the club reached the top of one of the most challeng- ing walks in northern Europe.

During the year club members took part in a marathons in Cork, Galway, Longford, Inverness, Miami, Vegas and Dublin as well as the first ever Clare Burren Marathon Challenge.

This marathon, organised by the club, attracted 1,000 participants to the Burren to take part in the big-

gest event organised by the club to date. It attracted walkers and runners from all over Ireland, as well as par- ticipants from UK, Norway, Nether- lands and USA.

The club have just announced that they will be staging the marathon again next year with May 23 already earmarked for the event.

The Ballyvaughan Fanore Walking Club will host it’s AGM on October 25 in the Conference Centre, Bur- ren Coast Hotel, Ballyvaughan from ool] 0) 008

Anyone interesting in joining the club should contact www.bally- vaughanfanorewalkingclub.com for more details.

CLARE bookmakers will be forced to close up shop because of the hike in betting duty imposed in the budg- et, the [Irish Bookmakers Association (IBA) has warned.

The association spokesman was commenting on what he described as the “irrational and disastrous de- cision to double the rate of Betting Duty” from one per cent to two per cent in last week’s budget.

“This move will immediately force the closure of sole trader bookmak- ers and make it extremely difficult for small companies to survive,” he HOR

The IBA is seeking an urgent meet- ing with the minister to discuss the matter and has called on him to re- verse the decision.

While understanding the difficult situation facing the country, the spokesman said, “it must be recog- nised that far from being in the na-

tional interest, this anti-business and anti-consumer move will result in even greater losses to the Exchequer and the economy. It penalises small independent businesses to the benefit of online and telephone gambling which is operated through offshore companies making no contribution whatsoever to the State.”

The IBA pointed out in it’s state- ment that since 1999 the bookmak- ers’ share of the Irish gambling market has fallen from 91 per cent

to about 50 per cent. By contrast, an analysis of Paddy Power’s most recent financial data shows that 53 per cent of its operating profit comes from non-retail sources like online and telephone gambling – with no contribution to the State.

“Betting Duty is unique in Ireland as the only double taxation levied on any business in any sector,’ the spokesman added.

Irish Bookmakers Association Chairperson Sharon Byrne said,

“The IBA is fully committed to the national economy and the support of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund, but increasing an already un- fair tax which will drive small opera- tors out of business is not the way to achieve these objectives.

“We have proposed a number of measures including the capture of online gambling revenues and the introduction of modern technologies to allow independent bookmakers to compete on a level playing field.”

BLACK and amber as well as blue and gold colours have been affixed to the Canon Hamilton Cup this week.

All in readiness for the big day out When the senior championship cup will sit on its perch in Cusack Park’s Ard Comhairle, waiting to be taken home by either Newmarket-on-Fer- gus or Clonlara.

The colours will have an extra sig- nificance this year — all because of Canon Michael Hamilton, the col- ourful cleric who in a long, distin- guished and sometimes controversial

GAA career ruled the Clare County Board with an iron fist, commentated on an All-Ireland football final for Radio Eireann and famously brought the 1947 All-Ireland football final to New York.

It’s 39 years since Canon Hamilton fell 11] during a county final between Clarecastle and Newmarket-on-Fer- gus in Cusack Park and later died in Ennis General Hospital, but he’d loved to have lived to see the day when Newmarket-on-Fergus and Clonlara clashed in a county final.

You see, Hamilton was a man of both Clonlara and Newmarket-on-

Fergus. Born and reared in Clonlara; parish priest in Newmarket-on-Fer- gus for many years. He was in Trea- cys Field in O’Callaghan’s Mills when Clonlara beat Scariff in the °19 final; he was there for most of New- market’s triumphs from the ‘20s to the ‘60s; he would have seen the East Clare final between the two in Fr Murphy Park in ’36, but the day he would have yearned for most of all would be Clonlara v Newmarket-on- Fergus for his cup in Cusack Park. On leaving Clare to take up a new clerical post in Nenagh in 1956, Hamilton showed that modesty

wasn’t part of his make-up, by buy- ing acup, naming it after himself and presenting it to the county board for the senior hurling championship.

It was as important to him as the the Polo Grounds All-Ireland — but a contest between Clonlara and Newmarket for his cup would have definitely put Polo Grounds men like John Joe O’Reilly, Joe Keohane, Mick Higgins and Paddy Kennedy in the shade.

Clonlara have never been Canon Hamilton contenders, apart from the contribution from Colm Honan and co to the St Senan’s team beaten by

Newmarket in the 1972 final; the Blues meanwhile filled their former parish priest’s cup 13 times from 1963 to 81.

Sixty minutes on Sunday will see where the Canon Hamilton gets its first fill of drink. Clonlara? Newmar- ket-on-Fergus?

Wherever it is, it’s true to say that the Canon Hamilton will be going home.

TULLA fundraiser extraordinaire, Kitty Leyden, is celebrating having hit the €100,000 fundraising mark by taking off for South Africa to- morrow to walk miles in the blister- ing sun to help sick children.

72 year old Kitty – who has raised the massive amount for charities over the last 25 years – says she is going to hang up her walking shoes after this trip.

But she admits, she’s said that be- fore!

Kitty will walk 60 kilometres in

Capetown to bring in money to fund equipment and research in Crumlin Children’s hospital in Dublin.

‘It’s bad enough to get sick in your 50’s or 60’s – at least you’ve lived and done things. But when you see these poor sick children, who have seen nothing of life yet.

‘The money people give so gener- ously is needed to keep these chil- dren alive’, said Kitty.

Kitty has raised €9,400 for this trip alone but her one regret about the trip is that she “can’t fly from Shannon – I have to go to Dublin’.

In her time, Kitty has raised money

for numerous causes through mara- thon step dancing, walking, organis- ing music sessions and even shavea- thons, one of which is coming up in December.

‘People and businesses have been sO very, very good to me. They’ve given me pennies when that was all they had and they all mount up and they’ve given me huge amounts as well. I remember when I started rais- ing money for Crumlin, a man from Tulla came up to me in the street and handed me €300 – I ran after him, I thought he had made a mistake, but he said no, that was what he was giv-

ing me.”

But even while she says she’s plan- ning to hang up her shoes, the deter- mined Tulla woman is plotting more fun and fund-generators.

She is organising a night in Novem- ber in Cois na hAbhanna in Ennis, where the Kilfenora Ceili Band have offered their services free of charge and the above-mentioned shaveathon will see several hairy sons of the soil have their limbs shaved.

“It’s all good fun and the important thing to remember are the people who need every penny we can raise”, SJ aTomcy BOR

ALARM, chaos and anger. That was the reaction among residents in Shan- non as word filtered through that the components of a bomb were discov- ered at a house in the town last week. The very idea that somebody in the town could consider, and worryingly, get their hands on such deadly equip- ment has caused grave concern.

Gardai have made no secret of the fact that this find was related to crim- inal activity in Limerick and was in- tended for use in the city. This is not the first time that concern in Shan- non in relation to Limerick has been aired in recent weeks.

The people of Shannon, through their elected representatives, have vehemently opposed the relocation of criminal elements from Limerick into Shannon. A debate by Shannon town councillors last month later danced its way into the national me- dia. The message was clear. Shannon would not play host to criminal ele- ments from Limerick.

A priest in Moyross took exception to comments from some councillors and wrote to Shannon Town Coun- cil to voice his concerns. But Shan- non councillors held firm: they will accept non-locals – as the town has regularly done for decades – but only those without criminal connections.

Troublemakers are not welcome.

Fuel was added to the fire when a riot broke out at a birthday party in a licensed premises in Shannon a number of weeks ago. Punches were thrown, glasses were fired at random and regulars at the pub were forced to flee for their own safety as all hell broke loose.

The people of Shannon do not want to see this type of activity in their back yards. People who have lived in the Slaney Park and Fergus Road housing estates for several years were scared when the area became a maze of Garda vans, patrol cars and detec- tive branch cars on Thursday night of last week.

They were initially unaware of what was going on. As the significance of it emerged, locals were horrified. Al- though reservations have been aired about unsavoury elements moving in to the area, nobody could have envis- aged what took hold last week.

As the Garda investigation into the startling discovery continues, lo- cal fears intensify; they are fearful that further incidents will take place in the immediate vicinity of their homes. The safety they have enjoyed in their homes for decades has been transformed to terrifying fear. As Limerick’s problems spread to Clare, it is the people of Shannon who are forced to bear the brunt.

THERE were a few years there when it looked as if the golden generation of Kilmurry Ibrickane footballers that were farmed and nurtured on Pairc Naomh Mhuire in Quilty were letting the best years of their sport- ing lives pass them by.

They were the supposed bluebloods — the most richly talented group of underage players ever produced by a club in the county, but a harvest that had failed to deliver ever since throwing away a glorious opportuni- ty to reach the All-Ireland Club final welt ey

That February day in Pearse Sta- dium, Kilmurry Ibrickane should have beaten Ballina Stephenites in the All-Ireland semi-final, but when they didn’t deliver on their All-Ire- land potential they seemed to stop delivering on their own stage back home in Clare.

Until October 19, 2008 that is.

This was the day that a band of brothers in green and red finally stood up and delivered a county title back to the barony of Ibrickane. It’s true that in the four years since their last championship success they’ve produced some stunning displays of “Total Football’, but as the Dutch found out in ’°74, ‘Total Football’ doesn’t necessarily win silverware.

The “Total Football’ came in the semi-final win over St Senan’s Kil- kee, but that counted for nothing

until the Jack Daly Cup was brought back to Mullagh, Coore and Quilty.

As captain Shane Hickey put it from Cusack Park’s Ard Comhairle when accepting the cup, “the Jack Daly has wandered around from parish to par- ish for the last four years but its back to where it belongs tonight”.

It was hard to argue when you con- sider that Kilmurry Ibrickane have been unbeaten this year. And, they’re not finished yet as the prospect of a Munster Club final appearance opens out before them.

“We’re really looking forward to Munster,” said a jubilant Kilmurry Ibrickane manager Micheal McDer- mott minutes after the final whistle. ‘““Kilmurry have a great tradition in Munster, they were in a final in the early 90 and then they won it the last time they came out of Clare in 2004. That’s the aim for this team. We’ll enjoy the next few days and then start focussing on the next game. That’s what we’ve done with all games this year. It’s been from one game to the next.”

You believe McDermott, except you think that the celebrations back in the barony of Ibrickane might last longer than just a few days.

They’ll last for the week.

SCARIFF native Margaret Hoey, could teach us all a thing or two about recessions, depressions and upswings.

Margaret celebrated her 105th birth- day, and enjoyed cutting her cake to share with family and friends while doling out a dose of common sense about the budget which was an- nounced the same day.

On hand to help her blow out the candles were five children, 15 grand- children and 11 great-grandchildren.

The secret to her long life, she be- lieves is to “forget about yourself and live away”.

The spry pensioner like watching sport on TV, particularly hurling and rugby and she keeps abreast of cur- KS) 01 MEAN BEAD BuCe

Margaret’s take on one the harshest budgets in her lifetime is that there was too much money being flung around anyway.

Margaret has lived through world events that most have only read about in the history books, including the hard times that the State suffered

during the Anglo-Irish economic war of the 1930s. Born in 1903, the year St Patrick’s Day was made a na- tional holiday, she has lived through the sinking of the Titanic, the end of British rule in most of Ireland, the roll-out of electricity, two world wars, the advent of television, eight Irish Presidents and the rise and de- cline of the Celtic Tiger.

The native of Poulnagower, Scar- iff, believes that much of the coun- try’s current woes stem from the fact that “everyone is too well paid..the salaries and wages are too high for a

small country and the borrowing is too much for people these days with their big empty homes. We just can’t afford it. The good days didn’t last long, it wasn’t permanent,” she said.

Sr Christine Murphy of the Carrig- oran nursing home where Margaret is currently resident, described her as “‘a true lady and an inspiration to Oe

COMPONENTS of a pipe bomb, a revolver, a round of ammunition and cannabis resin were seized during a major operation involving 30 gardai in Shannon last Thursday evening.

Gardai believe there were plans to assemble a bomb and it would be launched in Limerick, as part of feud-related activity. The items were found during searches of two rented houses in the Drumgeely area of Shannon – one at Slaney Park and the other at Fergus Road.

The revolver was found concealed in a hedge at the back of one of the houses and was, like all the other items taken, sent for technical exam- ination to garda headquarters. The amount of drugs found at the scene was understood to be small.

A 27-year-old Limerick native was arrested at the scene and was taken to Ennis Garda Station for question- ing. Several other people were in the houses at the time of the operation, but no-one else was arrested. The suspect was later released without charge and a file is being prepared for

the Director of Public Prosecutions, who will decide whether charges will be brought.

The searches were carried out as part of a massive garda operation, 1n- vestigating criminal activity in Lim- erick and Shannon. Thirty gardai – from Ennis, Shannon and the re- gional armed support unit – were in- volved in the operation.

“What we found was component parts so there was no danger to any persons.

“We suspect it would be going in to Limerick, when assembled,” said a

Garda spokesman.

The house at Slaney Park was pre- served overnight and further search- es were carried out there on Friday. However, nothing of evidential nature was recovered the following day.

This operation follows several complaints from members of the public in Shannon about activity in a number of rented houses in the town over the past number of weeks.

Gardai have been monitoring the situation and say their investigations into last Thursday’s operation are continuing.

THESE 16 exclusive and very luxu- rious detached houses in Blackwater are marketed as ‘bespoke’ proper- ties, in other words all of the proper- ties are totally unique and tailored to each individual client.

According to the developer Seamus Danagher “We deliver the highest level of workmanship which is per- sonally supervised from inception to

completion”’.

The exclusive development is situ- ated in a sylvan setting, close to all amenities and within a few minutes drive of Limerick city. It is also with- in easy access of the N7 for those traveling regularly to Dublin.

Selling agent Lisa Kearney of Rooney Auctioneers, Limerick com- mented, “We are confident that this exclusive development will spark the imagination of potential buyers and

demonstrate that a Springhill be- spoke property is the perfect choice for their new home”.

Buyers can choose from a four or five bedroom option, each with sig- nificant, well appointed living ac- commodation.

These houses offer a real sense of presence and substance. The highly impressive exterior of each house is matched by the equally stylish inte- ule)e

“The houses deliver a_ definite “wow factor’, said Lisa, who added, “while the finishing touches differ with each individual property, own- ers can expect Georgian style sliding sash timber windows, external and internal solid wood doors and hard- wood fascia and soffits.

“They come with solar panels and old style slate and ridge tiled roof. A cobble lock driveway, with in-set up- lighters, and paved patio are includ-

ed, plus the lawns are seeded”.

Apart from the super high standard finishes, the houses can then be fitted out to the requirements of the indi- vidual buyer.

The show house has just opened, viewing of which is by appoint- ment only through selling agent Lisa Kearney of Rooney Auctioneers, Limerick. You can contact them by ringing 061 413511 or by email at lkearney@rooneys.eu.