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THE cream of traditional music per- formers are packing their instruments and polishing up the dance shoes for

next weekend, when Tulla will come alive with the second great musical event it has hosted this year.

After a fabulously successful host- ing of the county fleadh, Tulla is set

to stage concerts ceilis and work- shops with some of the most talented performers and teachers available. The organisers say they couldn’t have done it without the support and

generosity of their two main spon- sors, Kiltannon Partnership and Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, along with the other sponsors who have weighed in.

The official opening will be per- formed by Timmy Dooley TD during the youth concert at the courthouse which starts at 8pm on Friday Sep- tember 12.

Catherine McEvoy the well known flute player is MC on the night which will feature a wonderful line up of young talent including her own musi- cal family Na Mothuchan. Seosamh O’Neachtain will be stepping out in the Sean Nos style from his native Connemara in the Galway Gaeltacht Other highly acclaimed performers include Edel Fox , Eimear Arkins, the Burren singers, Kate McNamara and James Conheady.

Ceili dancers will be spoiled for choice over the week-end with a ceili each night.

The line up of the “Master Mu- sicians” at this year’s Tulla Trad Workshops/Master Classes will be definitely hard to beat.

Topping the list is Liz Carroll the renowned fiddle player based in the U.S. who is doing a fiddle workshop in the morning and giving a “Mas- ter Class” in the afternoon. Other household names appearing at the concert at St Peter & Paul’s Church on Saturday night at 8pm _ include Matt Molloy of the Chieftains, John Carty, Arty McGlynn , Mary Ber- gin, Joe Burke, Ann Conroy- Burke, Kathleen Loughnane, Tommy Hay- es, Vincent Griffin. Liz Carroll will also be performing along with Geraldine Cotter on Sunday at 5pm at the Courthouse. This venue has limited seating so early booking 1s essential.

Tickets for all concerts are avail- able from Custy’s Ennis, Tulla Phar- macy, Tulla Post Office and the Mu- sic Room Tulla.

Many of the talented musicians will be playing at informal sessions in pubs around the village all weekend.

A MULTI-MILLION euro lawsuit taken by the husband and family of a woman who died after a facelift will take place in the US next week.

Kay Cregan (42), who had family connections in Killaloe, died after she underwent facial surgery at a Manhattan clinic in March 2005.

The case will get underway at the New York State Supreme Court next

Monday. However, there is a possi- bility that the case will be adjourned for a number of weeks, to appoint a judge and swear in a jury.

Ms Cregan, who lived with her hus- band and two sons in Croom, Lim- erick, underwent facial surgery at the Manhattan Clinic of Dr Michael Sachs on March 14, 2005.

She died just three days later at St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital. She had been rushed there and placed on a

life support machine after the proce- dure at the clinic.

She had paid Dr Sachs $32,000 and had planned the surgery as a surprise for her husband. He was not aware of this until he was notified by the Department of Foreign Affairs that she was on a life support machine. Dr Sachs is the main defendant in the case.

An anaesthetist and a nurse are also UE DOO orem DOM Maem Ny AeEL

A SPELL in a detention centre is frightening a 16-year-old Ennis boy, his solicitor has claimed.

The boy, who cannot be named be- cause of his age, had an eight-month sentence confirmed at Ennis Circuit Court in July, for breaking into a bed and breakfast and kicking two car wing mirrors in Ennis last Feb-

MED ee

He appeared before Ennis District Court last Friday, where he admitted a charge of burglary and also plead- ed guilty to public order offences.

Inspector John Galvin told the court that the boy created a nuisance of himself while gardai attended to the scene of a house fire in Clough- leigh, Ennis, on July 2 last.

‘He refused to leave the area. He

encouraged other youths to start chanting ‘“f*** off’ to the guards,’ he said.

Referring to the burglary offence, he said a shop was broken into and valuable items – including a camera, laptop and jewellery – were taken, on May 27 last.

“The accused admitted his role in the burglary,” said Inspector John GPT bane

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said the circuit court had confirmed the eight-month sentence, after not- ing the boy had failed to maintain contact with the probation services.

“It was very sad circumstances for me as a Solicitor to have my client having a district court sentence of eight months confirmed,’ said Ms Godfrey.

“Spending eight months in St

Patrick’s Institution is frightening him. He is very unhappy there. It’s a terrible place for him to be,’ she Sr HKOe

She asked the court not to add to the eight-month term the boy is serv- ing. Judge Leo Malone imposed a four-month term and said it was not more lengthy as the goods that had been taken from the shop were re- Oho Keren

DRIVERS who treat roads in an east Clare estate “like Mondello race track”, have to be stopped, a local councillor has said.

Cars are tearing along a straight stretch of road in Westbury, endan- gering life and property, Cllr Cathal Crowe told a meeting of the Killa- loe committee of the Clare County SBE MWe.

“There one straight road that’s raced on like it’s Mondello Park at evenings and weekends’, he said.

Cllr Crowe was calling on the coun- cil’s road engineers and the develop- ers to put their heads together and

come up with traffic calming meas- ures for the estate, where there are a number of treacherous stretches, the councillor said.

“On two occasions, cars ploughed through hedges into the boundary of a house. There are a lot of green spaces where children play. This 1s “a ticking timebomb’”, the councillor said. Cllr Crowe was supported in his call by Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald who said there had been a third incident last week in which a car ploughed beers 0 8

“The traffic corps have come out but there’s little they can do. There are some very dangerous areas in this estate and the problem needs to

be addressed before there is a trag- edy.”

Councillors were told that the de- velopers have planned to put pinch points in to slow traffic in the estate but the local authority’s hands are tied until such time as the estate is finished and taken into Clare County Council’s charge, senior executive engineer, Sean Lenihan said.

He warned that the council “is not going to take it in charge if it’s not up to a standard we can live with”.

Mr Lenihan said that it had been hoped earlier this year that it would be taken in charge by Christmas but difficulties with the decommission- ing of the sewerage plant meant that

this now won’t happen’.

Councillors had earlier raised the issue of the traffic lights on the main road causing massive delays to com- muters trying to get out of Westbury, particularly in the morning rush telune

Cll Pascal Fitzgerald said that the timing of the lights meant “very long delays for people trying to get to work. I think the sequencing should be examined again. I have had nu- merous complaints”.

Cllr Cathal Crowe said that the population of Westbury “rivals that of a small town yet it has only one exit. We need a united voice on this. Another access road is needed.”

CLARE’s motor racing season hits top gear this weekend with the stag- ing of the showpiece event of the year, the Clare Stages Rally. A total of 161 cars will take part, while there will be 42 Clare crews in action over the two days.

The Clare Stages Rally is Round 9 of the” Dunlop National Champi- onship’, which is decided over ten rounds and clare welcomes the newly crowned 08 dunlop national cham- pion Patrick Elliott who clinched his first ever national title driving his Subaru Impreza WRC S12B on the previous round the Galway Sum- mer Rally a few weeks ago. Here in Clare his co-driver Paul Goodman can take a major step and possibly secure the Noel Smith Award for the top co-driver.

Patrick won the Clare Stages Rally back in 2006 with Rory Kennedy

also driving a Subaru.Patrick and Paul are seeded at no.2

Topping this years entry list is last years Clare Stages winners Tim Mc- Nulty and Eugene O’Donnell (Sub- aru Impreza WRC S12B). By the end of last years eight stage event, they finished 22 seconds ahead of newly crowned 07 Dunlop Champion, Aar- on MacHale (Ford Focus WRC).

The rally is also Round 5 of “The Top Part West Coast Rally Champi- onship”, which consists of rallies run in Birr, Kerry, Limerick, Galway and ETc

The Clare rally also includes a jun- ior section and this has attracted an extra seventeen entries. The Club have received a huge local entry with a total of Forty two Clare Motor Club Crews taking part.

Topping the list is Ruan’s Anthony O’Halloran with Ennis man Charlie McEnery calling the notes in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. Anthony

and Charlie finished the top two Wheel drive car and best Clare club crew on last years rally in their Opel Manta but for the 2008 season they have made the change over to more modern machinery with the Mit- subishi Lancer Evo 9. The car has been built from scratch at Anthony’s workshop in Ruan. Anthony will be very determined to be on the pace in eroup N and will also be hoping to finish the top Clare driver in order to claim the most sought after award in the club for the best Clare crew on the day, “The Noel McCullagh Award” which is presented in memory of an outstanding club member who was killed in an industrial accident back in 1990. Mike Moloney and Marie Casey will also be fighting for that top clare driver in their mazda rotary engined escort. Mike crashed out on the very first stage on last years eNO Ae

Kilmurry’s Alan O’Callaghan will

also be trying for a top place in this years rally, having already finished 16th overall in Birr, 20th in Kerry and 3lst in Munster so far this sea- SO)0F

Other Clare competitors like Christy Carey, Edward Cogan, R1- chard Casey, Pa Malone, Alan Kel- ly, Martin O’Halloran, Joe Baker, John Leirnihan, Tommy Flanagan, Michael Rodgers, Martin Kelly, Robert Ryan, Al and Pat Meaney, Tom Ryan and Michael Fitzgibbon and also the return of Ruan’s Pat Ca- sey will all be fighting for honours in their various classes.

Clerk of the course for the event is Jim Casey from Ennis and together with his organising team have set out four challenging stages which will be repeated twice, two in the Kildysart/ Ballinacally area in the morning and two in the Ruan/Kilnamona area in the afternoon.

The public will also be able to meet

the famous Russell Brooks who will be competing as OOI course car.

The 63-year-old English driver has been invited over by the Clare Club and he will assist in the running of the event by driving as OO1 course car which is the last car to travel through the stages before the first competing car.

Russell will drive his original Sun- beam Lotus which he used in 1980 and 1981. The car (KK V 394V) was originally built for Russell to use in the 1981 Lombard RAC Rally. Brooks won the 1977 & 1985 British Rally Championships driving a Ford Escort RS1800 and an Opel Manta 400 respectively.He was also Welsh Rally Champion in 1973 and Irish Tarmac Rally Champion in 1989.

FEARS were raised yesterday that Clare County Council may not be able to furnish the debt entered into in order to construct the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience. Responding to a motion put forward by Cllr Martin Conway (FF), the lo- cal authority revealed that visitor numbers at the world famous tour- ism site have dropped by more than

14 per cent all ready this year.

This represents a year-on-year drop of almost 100,000 visitors during August, June and July this year.

Questions have now been raised concerning the local authority’s abil- ity to furnish the debt should the cen- tre struggle to break even this year.

“The Cliffs of Moher has suffered badly because of the global down- turn. In May of this year there was a year-on-year drop of more than

5,000 people. In June that drop has risen to 34,000; more than 30,000 in July and 25,000 in August. This is a massive massive drop of 14 per cent,” said Cllr Conway.

“IT am concerned about this for a number of reasons. Last year the visi- tors experience just broke even. Now with the downturn in the economy and especially in tourism, is there a plan in place to deal with this situ- ation?”

“IT am also very concerned that this is the start of a serious downward trend and I would like to know what the directors are doing. Are they re- marketing this more for an Irish or UK visitor rather than for the Ameri- can visitor?

“Is there a contingency plan to deal with the new private park and ride facility? If that is built 1s there a plan to deal with the financial implica- tions of this? I would hope that we would give this private company stiff competition and seriously consider lowering our prices to make parking very competitive at the cliffs.”

Groresvaaternlebercameyemm seu immosCOla (erm Ovens Joe Arkins (FG) raised questions both about the local authorities abil- ity to furnish the borrowing under- taking as part of the Cliffs of Moher project and the future viability of this Nur

In response, a spokeswoman from Clare County Council said that they were monitoring the situation.

‘The trend here reflects what is hap- pening nationally and internationally at the moment,’ she said.

“We have revisited the marketing strategy and we are looking at under- taking a number of joint promotional initiatives. We are looking at promot- ing the cliffs in France and Germany through the Clare Tourist Forum and also in America.”

THE LIMBS are limbered, the de- termination and focus has been pulled together and if all that fails, participants in next week’s inaugural Scariff 10k will take heart in the fact that a very good cause will benefit.

What could be nicer in the lovely autumnal light than a – admittedly lively – stroll or run in the beautiful surrounds of Lough Derg.

Scariff Community Council – who are hosting the 10k in conjunction with Derg Credit Union and Clare Athletics Association – say they are

‘delighted”’ with the response so far to entries for the challenge on Sep- tember 14. The beneficiaries of the day will be the Raheen Hospice, an institution which has helped many very ill patients and their families from east Clare cope with dignity during difficult times.

“We want everyone to enjoy the day and for the entire community to get involved . This will be a commu- nity event and we welcome all run- ners and walkers, young and old to come out on the day. We don’t expect people to break any records. You can jog, run walk – whatever you like but

come out on the day and enjoy some magnificent views of Lough Derg along the route. All proceeds from the event will go to our local and very worthy cause, the Raheen Hos- pice,’ said Martin Hartigan, one of the organising team.

The route will start at the Scar- iff GAA grounds, up towards Cap- pabane, Sheeaun, Moynoe, Mount Shannon Road and back into Scariff with the finishing line located near the GAA grounds.

Registration forms for the event are available in O’ Meara’s pharmacy or Rodgers Centra shop in Scariff,

online at www.scariff.com ,email scarifflOk@hotmail.com or by post to Scariff Community Council, Market House, Scariff. Registration is €10 per person. Late registration will be accepted on the 14th Septem- ber up to 1:30 PM at a cost of €15 per person.

Details and forms can be had from other members of the organising committee also. They are Eugene Moroney, Eileen Crotty, Paula Har- tigan, Sheila Mulvihill and Marie Crowe. The event starts at 2 pm sharp so all entrants should be assembled by 1:45 PM at the GAA grounds.

CLARE manager Colm Hanley’s track record at this level speaks for itself. Two years, two All-Ireland Junior finals but after suffering heart- break in injury time of last year’s decider against Derry, the road to recovery for Clare this year has been rather smooth. That’s not to say that there weren’t scares along the way, there was in the form of Sunday’s op- ponents Offaly, Antrim and Laois but the initial aim has now been achieved and after a year’s more experience, Hanley reckons that his side are bet- ter equipped this season.

‘The aim for the year as I have said in the past was to get back to Croke Park and once we got there, then to take care of business. There is a mas- sive difference between last year and this year. We are a stronger team this year, there is no doubt about it. The likes of Laura Linnane and Claire McMahon coming back into it are massive additions and not just them alone. Also the likes of Carina (Ro- seingrave), Kate (Lynch) and Chloe Morey and the rest of the minor girls who are now a year older again after playing last year. It has stood to them massively. You can see it even in their minor performances. They are as good a player as there is anywhere in the country.We might have fallen over the line in the semi-final but overall as a team, they are flying it. We also have Fiona Lafferty back af- ter injury and things are falling into place at the right time and hopefully

that is a good sign.”

One of those scares came in their opening championship game against Offaly when they were sternly tested by the resurgent 2001 finalists. Clare eventually weathered the storm in the final quarter and emerged 0-10 to 0-07 winners but Hanley feels that this game was the making of Clare this year as they found an extra bat-

tling dimension that hadn’t existed previously.

“There is no doubt that we were lucky to come out of that game. With- out a shadow of a doubt, the perform- ance wasn’t great and it wasn’t helped by the fact that there was a twelve week lay-off between the league final and that game and without competi- tive matches, it is tough to raise your

game but the performance wasn’t up to par and the girls know that. How- ever, the great thing that we found out that day that we hadn’t last year was this fighting spirit that they pro- duced. The last five or ten minutes they dug in and carved out a result. Last year and maybe in years gone by, things have come a bit too easy for them. Leading into last year’s

final, we had a very handy route to the final, winning games by ten or twelve points so when it was put up to us 1n the final, we couldn’t deliver because we weren’t used to being in that situation.

“This year, every single game has been tough with maybe the excep- tion being the Down match and we have had to grind out results. We travelled to Antrim and had to re- ally dig in and eventually came out with a seven point win, although it was a much tighter game than that. Again in the semi-final, Laois played similarly to Offaly and made it fierce awkward for us but again we man- aged to win.”

And that new found appetite has carried them back to Croke Park for the second successive year and Hanley is determined to finish the job this time around.

‘Everyone in the county knows that this team has the hurling, and mas- sive ability but now they have found this bit of bite and desire and that comes from hunger. After years of losing finals and losing finals, it has to come right eventually and I have no doubt that it will on Sunday.”

His confidence and positivity 1s consuming. And to think he even had to re-apply for his position at the start of the year.

THE allocation of almost €140.000 to two historic town projects in En- nis and Kilrush will enable the town councils provide a range of tourist signage, including orientation, in- terpretive and information boards, along the designated

historic trails.

€112,760 has been allocated to the Ennis Historic ‘Town Trail and €27,080 to the Kilrush Historic Town Trail under Failte Ire- land’s Historic Towns Initiative.

Welcoming the al- location, Munister of State Tony Killeen (right) said the initiative is aimed at the develop- ment of a series of historic walking trails in up to 100 towns around the country and the grants would assist in maximising the tourism potential of Kilrush and Ennis.

“T hope that funding will enhance the overall experience of those who visit Kilrush and Ennis. Clare 1s for- tunate to possess so many important heritage sites. Therefore, we must do everything possible to make them more accessible to members of the local community and visitors to the

respective towns.”

The Historic ‘Towns Initiative forms part of the Tourism Product Development and Infrastructure sub- programme of the National Develop- ment Plan 2007-13. It is also a com- ponent of the Tourism Infrastructure Fund, which supports local authori-

ties and other infra- structure providers to develop facilities for RO) UONMEUG MEE KEYEIe ing and cycling routes, jetties and moorings, angling stands, and ac- cess paths to areas of environmental and sce- nic interest. The funding was also welcomed by Deputy Timmy Dooley who said that the historic town trails were very popular with tourists in other parts of the country and should lead to more tourists coming to visit Clare.

“Tt will also be good news for any businesses along the trail and will help provide an extra boost to the local economies. I hope that other Clare towns will also be considered for other historic trails and I plan to raise this with Minister Cullen and the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism,’ Deputy Dooley conclud- ed.

EXTRA parking in the town of Kil- laloe is vital if the town is to continue to grow and prosper, a local council- lor has said.

Cllr Tony O’Brien asked at a meet- ing of the Killaloe area committee of the council about progress on plans to provide extra spaces for cars while people shop, socialise or visit the amenities in the riverside town.

“We’re not gong to go anywhere

without parking. The centre is con- gested and we’re doing our best to get business into the town but without parking, people are not going to find Killaloe an attractive place to come and do their business or to visit.”

Cllr O’ Brien said traders and resi- dents want to see more facilities to park.

Senior Executive Engineer, Sean Lenihan, said that a potential site has been identified in the town and plans for parking facilities have been drawn

up. He said that funding would have to be provided from the development levy fund and that he is following this up with the relevant person.

‘This is one of a number of things that the development plan clearly outlines the need for. It’s certainly a priority of mine and I have made recommendations that a site be ac- quired”, said Mr Lenihan.

He told the meeting of elected rep- resentatives that he would “raise the matter again and I would hope to

have more information in the com- ing days.”

Cllr O’Brien thanked the execu- tive engineer for his attention in the matter and added that it would be of great importance to the people of Killaloe that they make progress on this issue.

“It’s very important, from every point of view whether it’s busi- ness, residents in the town or people coming to enjoy the amenities, he stressed