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THE latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, has found Munster employers remain the most optt- mistic in the country with seven per cent of employers planning on hiring more staff in the next three months. Regionally, Munster employers re- corded the highest outlook recorded by any region for the quarter. Ac- cording to the employment agency figures, this figure was “closely fol- lowed by Dublin employers (five per

cent) and Leinster employers (four per cent) who are, as a whole, remain- ing optimistic about future growth. In contrast, Ulster has reported the weakest employment outlook of mi- nus eight per cent, which shows a significant decline of 20 percentage points since last quarter. Connaught employers have also reported a dis- appointing employment outlook of minus two per cent.

Despite serious job losses and a sig- nificant number of business closures in Ennis. Official figures show that

Clare had just half the number of company failures in the six months to the end of June 2008 that it had in the same period in 2007.

Between January and June 2007, ten companies went to the wall in the county, This year, just five have closed their doors in that time.

The Manpower survey also shows that Ireland’s Net Employment Out- look for the next three months is just three per cent, the third weakest forecast of hiring intentions reported across the globe for this quarter.

The figure of three per cent is Ire- land’s overall ‘Net Employment Outlook’ figure which is calculated by taking the percentage of employ- ers anticipating total employment to increase and subtracting from this the percentage expecting to see a de- crease in employment at their loca- tion in the next quarter.

Ireland’s Net Employment Outlook of three per cent is second only to Spain (0 per cent) as the weakest em- ployment outlook while India (47 per cent), Peru (40 per cent) have report-

ed strongest employment outlooks. The Manpower Employment Out- look Survey, which measured 686 Irish employers’ intentions to in- crease or decrease their workforces over next three months, reveals that employer confidence in the mining and quarrying and the construction industry sectors has weakened by 33 and 27 percentage points respec- tively since last year. The restaurant and hotel sector has also undergone a steep decline, with employers report- ing a 22 percentage point decrease.

This year the talented singer wal be joined by Anthony Kearns of the

Irish Tenors.

This has been described as a real coup for the area as Anthony now spends much of his time performing in the States.

Described as a true lyrical tenor, he has an incredible agility and flexibil- ity of voice and the ability to colour notes gracefully and beautifully.

Kearns has a deep love of opera and a devotion to the genre, and feels that French and Italian operas best suit his voice.

His work includes a variety of music from the classics to traditional music. He was born in Kiltealy in County Wexford at the foot of the Blackstair Mountains.

The Wexford man came to promi- nence in 1993 when he won “Tre- land’s Search for a Tenor”.

After winning the competition, Anthony studied for three years with voice teacher, Veronica Dunne, at the Leinster School of Music.

He has toured Germany, Italy, Ire- land, and the United States to an en- thusiastic response and this August he will join Ms Nathan in Labash- rere

Regina’s career in opera, concert and recital has taken her from her native Ireland across Europe, and as far as Kuala Lumpur and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

She has appeared in some of the most famous opera houses in the world and sung major lyric soprano roles throughout her career.

A devoted recitalist, Regina’s tal- ents also embrace everything from classic Lieder to traditional Irish

eyes

She recently performed at the American Embassy in Dublin for the fourth of July party in front of 1,500 guests

SW stoma Come Dletlkmm sll mereyeCom Keyxcls sles for a must hear performance in St. Kieran’s Community Centre, La- basheeda on Saturday, August 9.

Accompanying music on the night will be provided by piano player Mairéad Hurley.

Due to seating requirements there are a limited number of tickets and those interested are asked to ensure they get their tickets early to avoid disappointment.

Tickets cost €35 and are available from Paul at 065 6826578; Patricia at O87 6370223; Liam at 087 2220289 and John at 087 2941556.

GER Loughnane has witnessed many ups and downs in his managerial ca- reer but perhaps none were as bewil- dering and demoralising as Galway’s defeat to Cork on Saturday.

Rumours of intense preparation were backed up by a National League final appearance in May and opti- mism was widespread in the stands on Saturday that Galway finally had a side to match the likes of Kilkenny.

That confidence only grew by haltf- time as Galway led by two points with the strong wind to come, and Cork had been reduced to 14 men af- ter Donal Og Cusack was dismissed for a second yellow, but with only Joe Canning proping up a toothless attack, Galway failed to emerge after the break.

Their overreliance on Canning was well founded as the teenager racked up 2-12 over the 70 minutes and de- servedly took the man-of-the-match award but it was a poor reflection on the rest of the forwards who only managed three points between them.

Standing by the team bus, Ger Loughnane appeared a shellshocked

figure. In full view of his players from their seated position on the bus, dis- illusionment was the key phrase he repeatedly used to describe Galway’s collapse but he was just as willing to praise Cork’s qualities.

“At half time and even early in the second half when we were four points up, it looked good but you have to hand it to Cork. The fellas they have, the drive they have, the physical power, the quality of their hurling and their support play.

‘That is the most susceptible mar- gin of all time, two points, because at least twelve points would have been the real difference between the two teams because only that we had Joe Canning, we would have been beaten off the field.

“It was a complete and utter col- lapse when you think of the amount of training that we have done, the quality of training that we have done, to see a team going down like that, it is absolutely disillusioning when you produced a display like we produce in the last 25 minutes when the game was really there to be won and lost.

“So it was very, very disappointing but you had to admire Cork. When

their backs were to the wall, all their big men came up trumps and that’s what champions do. Unfortunately, only one of our big men performed and he gave a fantastic display at full-forward but too many other of our players just didn’t perform on the day.

“Now you can as have as many reasons as you like for that. I know that they will all say about having no matches but that’s for another day. But I suppose when you see Cork getting beaten by Tipperary and then having another game against Dublin and we play just Antrim and Laois, I mean that is crazy, absolutely cra- zy. Io go into a game of that inten- sity, the players didn’t know what hit detoye0 a

The subject inevitably turned to where he and Galway go from here.

‘“That’s for another day but the road back for the players I think de- pends on the decisions that the hurl- ing board will make now. Are they going to go for matches early on in the year or are they going to cling to this system of just dropping in a team at the end of July when every other team has already played one or two

or three big matches and hoping that you will pull off one big display and get on the road after that.

“What was I was hoping there at the end is that we would get a draw and then you would have a replay and then you would see where you are going.

“But we didn’t deserve a draw, there is no question of deserving it, it would have been total robbery if we had got a draw.

“I’m just totally and utterly disil- lusioned. Completely disillusioned. You know we have had disapoint- ments before with teams but that was inexplicible when you see how we were playing in training and the qual- ity of the hurling in training and then to come down and play like that, you just look out and say ‘this isn’t the team that has been training with us for the last seven or eight months’.”

Another probing arrow came from the pack, enquiring whether he re- gretted saying when he took over the job that it would be a failure if Gal- way didn’t win an All-Ireland in two years?

“No. I don’t regret it whatsoever. It is a failure. There 1s no other way of

saying it. I went up to Galway for two years and I said I would give it two years to win an All-Ireland and we didn’t even win a quarter-final, we didn’t even get to a semi-final, we got nowhere in two years.

‘The very same problems as we had in the league final against Tipperary where only one or two forwards per- formed, happened again today after all the training we have done so in any man’s language, that’s a failure.”

The final missile was launched when he was questioned whether he would give it a third year, to which Loughnane quipped.

“Have a guess.”

With that, more tactical questions ensued but the bus wasn’t willing to wait any longer and with a beep of the horn, Loughnane promptly exited through the doors in what appears to be his last journey with Galway.

SPENDING caps look set to be 1m- posed on the candidates that will con- test the local elections in Clare next June.

With no spending cap in place, can- didates in other areas last year spent around €100,000 in order to get elected.

Speaking on the issue, the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley said, “This is not tolerable. It is like the United States, with the best de-

mocracy money can buy. We must get away from this.”

“We had examples in the past where there were expenditure figures for local election candidates of approxi- mately €100,000, which is ridicu- lous,’ he said.

Minister Gormley said that he is seeking all-party consensus on the is- sue. “I am sure we can make progress on this,’ he said.

Minister Gormley said that the re- cently-published Green Paper “‘out- lines a range of issues for considera-

tion, including the establishment of expenditure limits at local elections”.

“The submissions made in _ the course of the preparation of the Green Paper were generally supportive of some expenditure limit. The Green Paper outlines two main options with regard to such limits for local elec- tions, to introduce a fixed expenditure ceiling or to link limits to a propor- tion of Dail expenditure.

“It states that care needs to be taken to ensure against overly bureaucratic rules and suggests that it may be use-

ful to engage on the issue on a cross- party basis. In this regard, I have written to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government with a view to engaging with the committee and to explore the scope for an all-party approach to this issue,” he said.

Green party councillor, Brian Meaney said that he is aware of in excess of €20,000 being spent by a candidate in Clare in the last local A Cetera Coys ens WACO. ms

‘There is a real need to have spend-

ing limits in place and to ensure that the limits do not only apply to the three weeks in which an election is officially called,’ he said.

Cllr Meaney said that the failure to have a spending limit in place in general elections for more than three weeks has been abused and favours that the parties who have warchests and can spend limitless funds.

Cllr Meaney said that the recent ref- erendum campaign on Lisbon also al- lowed obscure candidates to publicise themselves.

THE chief executive of Aer Lingus has confirmed that he cannot give any absolute guarantees to Shannon in relation to the future of transatlan- tic services.

Addressing the Dail’s Transport

Committee, Dermot Mannion stated, “On the question of whether we can give an absolute guarantee to Shan- non in regard to long-haul services, the honest answer is “No”, just as we cannot give a guarantee to Dublin on long-haul services or to Belfast or any other place on short-haul serv-

ices.

“We must make decisions that are commercially focused. To put it mildly, we are very aware of the so- cio-economic factors associated with long-haul routes, especially given the loyalty of the Irish-American com- munity in the United States to the

Shannon route. We are very aware of that and it will weigh heavily on our deliberations on the Shannon routes, as it will on other long-haul routes.”

Mr Mannion ruled out for the mo- ment any plans for a direct service from Shannon to Chicago.

On the Shannon-Heathrow contro- versy, he said, “I regret the damage caused to our reputation in the Shan- non area during three or four months of last year. I would say, and Deputy Timmy Dooley acknowledged it, that a huge effort has gone in recently to rebuilding confidence, rebuilding the reputation of the Aer Lingus brand at Shannon and, although it is early days, we are beginning to see some positive effect from that.

Mr Mannion said that “we have not ruled out future short-haul opera- tions from Shannon”.

“I can assure the committee that Shannon, and the potential of Shan- non routes, are given every consid- eration in those deliberations. The deployment of long and short-haul aircraft requires similar analyses to determine the optimal deployment between Shannon, Dublin and other potential destinations.

“Just as we deploy long-haul air- craft we are doing a similar exercise in terms of determining the optimal deployment between Shannon, Dub- lin and other potential destinations,” he said.

THE Eigse Mrs Crotty festival will be relying on the saying that 13 is lucky for some as the 13th year of the TTA eB Ne sll molocar mee materalhy| ey

The traditional music festival has grown to incorporate music, sing- ing and dancing workshops, open air céili, a Mrs Crotty memorial con- cert, singing sessions, recitals and a vibrant session trail.

Each year the festival welcomes more and more returning visitors to the annual event, which honours one of the town’s best-known daughters.

This year, as had been the trend for the last decade, organisers are hop- ing for even more visitors to the west Clare capital for the five-day festi- Vee

A unique atmosphere can be expe-

rienced in the market town, as the open air céili in the square become the focus on the event. This year “At the Racket” will headline at the Mrs Crotty memorial concert, which will also feature Dympna O’Sullivan and friends, Conor McEvoy and Padraic O’Reilly. The Eigse Session Trail is a new venture added to the festival this year.

The pubs in Kilrush will welcome sessions led by Tom Carey, Eamonn Cotter, John McEvoy and John Wynne, Chris Droney and Jacinta McEvoy, Dympna O’Sullivan, Joe Carey and Des O’Halloran, Paddy O’Donoghue, Mark Donnelan and Cyril O’Donoghue. There will be many other sessions ongoing in town throughout the festival.

Singing has grown to take a central part in the Eigse Mrs Crotty pro- gramme. Tim Dennehy, who is well

known for his classes at the Willie Clancy Festival will bring his sing- ing workshop to the mix and also lead what is considered a very popu- lar singing session in O’Brien’s Bar.

This year the festival will also be adding a sean nos singing workshop with Eamonn O Donnchadh.

The concertina workshops and mas- ter classes have been the backbone of the festival since it began and have been growing since. This year fiddle, flute, traditional and sean nos sing- ing, set dancing and sean nos danc- ing will be part of the line-up.

The open-air céili at the Square are warmly welcomed by the people of Kilrush and visitors to the festival as it hails the opening of the festival on the Wednesday evening. Céili also play an important part of the festi- val right up to the two ceilis on the LUTITOE Me

The five-day festival would not be possible without the hard work of the local committee and the influence of the talented Mrs Crotty.

Born Elizabeth Markham in 1885 near Cooraclare, Mrs Crotty, was the youngest of the large Markham fam- ily. By the time of her death in 1960 she had become recognised as one of Ireland’s foremost exponents of the concertina.

She married Miko Crotty and to- gether they established Crotty’s Pub- lic House in the Square, Kilrush. It was from this House of Music that Elizabeth Crotty’s reputation quietly erew. Ciaran MacMathuna’s first ex- cursion to rural Ireland in 1950s with RTE’s mobile unit was to record her talent for the first time.

The festival celebrating her legacy has grown steadily since the first weekend of music in 1995.

THE Clare managerial diaspora had at least one success story on Satur- day as David Fitzgerald guided his Waterford side to victory over Of- faly. While it wasn’t a vintage Wa- terford performance, there were still significant signs of improvement since the Sixmilebridge man took over. Iwo successive victories in as many weeks has instilled a renewed optimism amongst the Waterford faithful but with less than a week to go before their next challenge in the quarter-final against Leinster fi- nalists Wexford, manager Fitzgerald acknowledges that there is still room for refinement.

‘No-one needs to get carried away yet because both on the sideline and on the field, we have stuff we can improve on and if we are to battle Wexford, we are going to have to im- prove.

“You can’t fault the lads workrate. If they weren’t up for that game, Wa- terford were out of the champion- ship. You could see by Offaly how up for it they were, the good scores they got were some of the best scores I’ve seen all year so we did well to come out of that, I can tell you that but we will have to improve.”

The most significant change that the three time All-Star has made since his arrival in the aftermath of Wa- terford’s 2-26 to 0-23 defeat to Clare in June has been the switch of Ken McGrath from centre-back to full- back. It has received constant media scrutiny but Fitzgerald is more than content with his defensive line, who have not conceeded a goal since his hoy eLeyesleeetesel

“I am happy with the boys back

there. We did give away too many scores but as I have said, a lot of their scores were good scores.

“Listen Offaly were awesome and do you think it will be any different against Wexford the next day’? It’s go- ing to be the same ding-dong again. Pll tell you it’s a lot easier being out-

side there 1n the field than it is stand- ing up on the sideline, that’s for sure. It’s a win, I enjoyed it but I am not fooled. I know we are far from the finished article and we would be well down the peaking order as regards the contenders for the All-Ireland.’ Wexford have been knocking at the

door for several years now without making any real substantial head- way. They have contested the last eight Leinster finals but with Kilken- ny’s total dominance in the province, their only final victory came in 2004 when they defeated Offaly. Last year, they surprised many by beating Tip-

perary to reach the All-Ireland semi- final and having played against them for Clare only two years ago, Fitzger- ald knows the potential danger that they possess.

“For Wexford, we know ourselves we will have to improve if we are to beat them. We know that, we are not stupid. They are a decent team but in saying that, we won’t be throwing in the towel too easy ourselves.

“The one thing that the lads prom- ised me is that they will fight every game for seventy minutes and I ex- pect that out of them. If I’m driving down from Clare, the one thing I have asked for is to give seventy min- utes of honesty. If they are honest for seventy, then I believe they will be there or thereabouts with a chance.

‘These boys are very anxious to do well and maybe put too much pres- sure on themselves. We will see next Sunday what the story is. All I am focused on is Wexford next Sunday and I know they probably won’t be too afraid of what they have seen to- day but we will give it a go.”

If anyone doubted David Fitzger- ald’s full commitment to the Wa- terford cause, they were certainly convinced last Saturday. Five min- utes after half-time, a brief wrestling match broke out after a hefty chal- lenge by Ger Oakley on Eoin Mc- Grath in which both Fitzgerald and Offaly manager Joe Dooley got in- volved. In typical passionate fashion, Fitzgerald jostled with Dooley before turning to the crowd and lifting his arms to inspire the crowd. Waterford may not be the finished article yet but they certainly won’t lack spirit and determination under Fitzgerald’s watch.

CLARE competitors dominated the list of prizewinners at the Munster Fleadh Ceoil in Kenmare over the weekend with no less than 48 first places being taken by musicians from the Banner county.

It means that Clare will be well

represented at this year’s All-Ireland Fleadh which will be held in Tullam- ore from August 22 to 24 next.

Leading the Clare charge was young Fergal Breen from the Doora- Barefield CCE branch who took first place in five competitions and fin- ished third in two others.

Competing in the under-12 age cat- egory, his dominance began with the flute competition and continued with winning performances in the piano, uileann pipes (open and slow air) and trio competitions before adding to his tally with third places in the whistle and trio events.

There was another outstanding per- formance in the under 12 age cate- gory from Aisling Lyons of the Tulla CCE branch who took first place in the concertina, harp and musical ac- companiment competitions.

THE chief executive of City Jet said that his colleagues in Air France asked him if he was mad establishing a Shannon-Paris Charles de Gaulle Service.

Addressing the Dail’s Transport Committee, Geoffrey O’Byrne White said, “When we mentioned Shannon Airport to our colleagues in the Aur France planning department, they did not know where it was. They looked up Shannon on the internet and asked

if I was mad because nobody lives there. They were not aware of it. It 1s not on the globe as far as the rest of Europe is concerned.

He said, “We may find that hard to believe, but it 1s a fact. There are 500 million people in Europe who know about Connemara, but who do not know about Shannon. There is need, therefore, for a significant marketing and branding exercise.

He added, “Shannon has benefited from the investment in road infra- structure and should be seen as a

gateway, not just for the Shannon re- gion, but also for Galway. If the work can be completed on the Gort bypass, that would be a great step forward. Such initiatives are very important. A rail network is also significant.

Last year, in the fall-out of the deci- sion by Aer Lingus to end its Shan- non-Heathrow route, City Jet estab- lished its Charles de Gaulle route to compensate for the loss of connectiv- ity as aresult of the Aer Lingus deci- sion.

Mr O’Byrne White said that he sees

Shannon as the major western gate- way. He confirmed that City Jet will have a Shannon-based aircraft in October and that flights from Shan- non will leave earlier, and also said the airline have “a Shannon-London City Airport connection under active consideration.”

Mr O’Byrne White said that the Shannon-Charles de Gaulle route “‘is developing well and we plan to in- crease capacity by introducing 100- seat jet aircraft – our own Avro air- craft – as soon as they are available”.

THE Kilrush Art Group is making history as well as beautiful paintings this year.

The talented group are in their 25th year and are looking forward to an- other successful exhibition begin- ning at the end of the month.

A mixture of founding members and new citizens welcomed to the town from abroad makes up a dy- namic group with a variety of sub- jects and techniques.

For the first time ever the exhibi- tion will display work in ink, thanks to its newest member Annette Pasz- Zkowsta.

The Polish national has settled in the west Clare capital with her part- ner and baby and brings a new lease

of life to the group.

Avril Brand also brings an inter- national flavour to the group. The South African born artist will exhibit a number of paintings inspired by her homeland.

Cheetahs, lions and other animals not usually seen in west Clare will now adorn the walls in the Kilrush Library thanks to her vivid paint- TbNTSaSe

The number of new Irish in the group bring with them not just their talent but stories of their home Ee TiteKe

The Kilrush Art Group was formed by Connie Farrell. Three of the origi- nal members – Breda Clancy, Dodo Kelly and Jackie Black – are still painting with the group.

Of the 15 members in the club a

dozen will be exhibiting.

The paintings include acrylic, oil, water and ink and prices range from €65 to €1,/00.

“There is quite a few people that follow our paintings and will be some of the first through the door,’ said group member Pauline Dunleavy.

Many of these collectors follow the works of these keen amateurs and each year add a new painting to their growing collection.

The paintings that make up the 2008 exhibition feature scenery, ab- Stract, humans and for the first time ever animals.

Most if not all of the scenery paint- ings are inspired locally.

“You can’t go outside the scenery in west Clare. It is breath taking,” said Ms Dunleavy.

The Kilrush Art Group meet every Friday evening for three hours, and have a tutor visit twice a year. Some- times the group venture to east Clare for classes and workshops.

All new members are encouraged to join the sociable and friendly club by contacting Pauline in Anchor Crafts, Kilrush.

The exhibition opens in Kilrush L1- brary on Thursday, July 31, and runs until August 22 during library open- ing hours.