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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.

A COUPLE and their two young children have been forced out of their Lahinch home because they could no longer put up with abuse from their 68-year-old ‘neighbour from hell’.

As their next-door-neighbour was jailed for six months for harassment of the couple, he was ordered by a judge to “end the bullying”.

The revelations of the abuse emerged in a case before Lisdoon- varna District Court last week, where both husband and wife spoke of how they had to leave their home and put it up for sale.

Robert and Eleanor Kennedy gave evidence in the case of Michael Mc- Namara, of Moymore North, Lahi- nch, who was charged with harassing them, between May 2005 and Janu- ary 2006.

In imposing sentence on McNama- ra, Judge Joseph Mangan said, “It’s time to end the bullying.”

Robert Kennedy, a businessman in Lahinch, told the court that he and his wife Eleanor and their two young sons – then aged five and two – moved into their new home at Moymore North, Lahinch, in January 2005.

He said that prior to buying the house, the previous residents had claimed to him that the next-door- neighbour had abused them. How- ever, he and his wife loved the house and the area and had never met Mr McNamara so they decided to go ahead with the purchase.

He said that everything was fine for the first three months, but when a friend of his went to put a fence around the house, Mr McNamara – a retired builder who hailed from Limerick – became aggressive to- WeNnelaveeee

Mr Kennedy said that Mr McNa- mara later shouted “abuse and ob- ee NLS Coes Ob Nee e

“He called me a w***er, a f***er, a black b***ard and that I should f*** off back to where I came from,” he ALOR

He said this behaviour prompted him to be concerned for the safety of his two young boys.

“My wife feared for her safety. We had to move house. We couldn’t take any more of the shouting, the abuse,’ he said.

“I had a strong fear for the safety of my children. There were cameras pointing over to our yard where our

children were playing,’ he said.

Mr Kennedy denied a suggestion by McNamara’s solicitor Charles Foley that he had moved his client’s fence without his permission.

He also denied that he had hit Mc- Namara. “I didn’t touch Mr McNa- mara,’ he said.

Mr Foley said “the reason the bad blood arose between the parties was because Mr Kennedy erected a high fence.”

Robert’s wife Eleanor told the court she could not believe their neighbour could be so aggressive.

She said McNamara started putting newspapers up on his windows and the only time the abuse would let up was when he was sick.

She said they moved away from the house and after they put it up for sale, McNamara painted his gable wall five or six different colours.

Referring to the fence, she said, ‘People put those fences up in Moy- more. The fence is fine. People actu- ally want privacy nowadays.”

Retired Sergeant Michael Gallery, who investigated the matter, said that in an interview with gardai, McNa- mara said the allegations were all lies. He denied shouting obscenities

and spitting at Robert Kennedy and denied staring at Eleanor.

‘I did not harass her or her husband in any way,” he told gardai.

He was asked, “Did you hear of the term ‘neighbour from hell’?” and re- plied, “If they were telling the truth, I’d say I was the neighbour from hell.”

Judge Joseph Mangan convicted McNamara. Inspector Michael Gal- lagher, prosecuting, said, “This is an awful situation the injured parties found themselves in. You wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

He said the Kennedys would ap- preciate if McNamara cleaned up his house, so that they would be in a po- sition to sell their home. “They want some finality to this,” he said.

Mr Foley told the court that his cli- ent was in poor health and suffers from heart disease.

‘He has no previous convictions in this entire life. He is a single man. What happened was he got upset at the high fence,” he said.

He said his client would undertake to clean up his house.

In addition to the jail term, McNa- mara was fined €3,000. A bond was fixed in the event of an appeal.

CLARE County Council mightn’t be the first organization to spring to mind when it comes to promoting rock music but the local authority is playing an unexpected role in en- couraging new musical talent in the Shannon area.

Through its County Arts Office, the council is giving support for the Shannon Music Project by providing bursaries for thirteen talented young musicians which enabled them attend the Ennis Guitar and Rock School workshops in Shannon last week.

County council’s Traditional Arts Coordinator, Tara Connaghan, who is based in Shannon, said the work- shops provided a great opportunity to work with community groups in stom D acre

The Shannon Music Project (SMP) is a Clare Youth Service project based in Shannon which provides young people aged 15-25 with op- portunities to get involved in musical events, avail of practice space and high quality musical equipment to Lou COwremelee

It has been running for over ten years and this year received some funding from Clare VEC and Shan- non Community Grant Scheme to help with the cost of new equipment purchases. The project has organised bands nights, acoustic performances and competitions in Shannon and also liaises with Ennis Music Project for similar events and workshops.

Last week, the Ennis Guitar and Rock School ran workshops in Shan-

non which included tuition by profes- sional tutors on guitar, drums vocals, CD recording and songwriting.

The Ennis Guitar and Rock School was established five years ago and runs weekly classes throughout the year from its Clonroad Business Park location and will commence beginner classes in Scariff, Kilrush, Shannon and Ennistymon from Sep- tember onwards.

Further information on the Clare Arts Office can be had from www. clarelibrary.ie/arts while informa-

tion on the Shannon Music Project can be had from Cathal Dillon in the Shannon Youth Office www.clarey- outhservice.org.

For information on the Ennis Guitar and Rock School call 065 6822516 or visit www.ennisguitarschool.ie.

THE managing director of Aer Arann has claimed that there has been an exodus of at least six carriers out of Shannon Airport since Rya- nair established its base there.

Addressing the Dail’s Transport committee, Gary Cullen said that the downside to Ryanair’s entry into an airport “is that its sheer strength dis- courages other carriers operating out of that airport”.

Two million Ryanair passengers are expected to fly out of Shannon this year and Mr Cullen said, “It is well known within the industry that other carriers avoid those airports we refer to as Ryanair airports like

the plague because they cannot earn a profit from operating out of them. The seventh carrier to withdraw was Aer Lingus, which withdrew the Shannon-Heathrow route.”

Mr Cullen said, “I am not privy to the books of Shannon Airport and I do not know whether that develop- ment is a good or a bad one. One could argue that Shannon Airport has gone further down the road with Ryanair but it has the transatlantic business as a balance.

“One can observe that Ryanair is a highly successful airline at driving volume through an airport, of that there is no doubt. It is a major suc- cess and good luck to it. There are downsides and other implications.

“With regard to Aer Arann operat- ing out of Shannon Airport, this is linked to what I have just said. We are wary about beginning to operate any UK services out of Shannon because of the strength of Ryanair there.

“We continually talk to long-haul airlines and if we get an opportunity to provide a feeder service contract to a long-haul carrier, we certainly would be interested in doing that.”

Mr Cullen did, however, open up the possibility of Aer Arann putting in place a new Shannon-Dublin serv- ice if it can agree with Aer Lingus to share on the route.

In answers to Clare TD, Timmy Dooley, Mr Cullen said, “Aer Arann operated the Shannon-Dublin route,

but withdrew from it because we could not make any money on tt.

“If we could reach an agreement with Aer Lingus whereby it would operate the morning flight and we would operate the evening flight and we could share in that way, we would do that, as that would make sense. We know that if we were to oper- ate that route on our own without a link with another carrier and had to compete directly with Ryanair, that would not work.”

Only last January, Ryanair pulled its Shannon-Dublin service after only two months on the route. He said, “If carriers co-shared the morning and evening flights, they could make a go out it.”

that St Michael’s Community Col- lege in Kilmihil is the only second- ary school in the county that does not have traffic calming measures.

“Flashing lights need to be put d1- rectly in front of the school and on the approach,” he said.

He said it was a health and safety concern to have a school of approxi- mately 300 students and no measures to reduce the speed of on coming meena blen

Cllr Curtain was a teacher in the school for 29 years, before he retired. The mixed school is close to a junc- tion and on a local road with the ac- quired speed limit.

Cllr Curtain said that he has raised the issue on a number of occasions at County Council area meetings and would be doing so again next week.

He had been told that there was no funding as yet assigned to the project but funding would be sought.

Cllr Curtain believes that the issue is urgent, however, and must be ad- dressed immediately and certainly before the students return to school in September. “It is an immediate concern relating to road safety,’ he said. The area meeting will take place in Kilrush on Monday next.

THE purveyors of doom _ were quick to write Cork’s obituary after their laboured win over Dublin last week. Their lacklustre performance prompted rumours of unrest in the camp and Galway were installed as hot favourites for Saturday’s All-Ire- land qualifier.

But a team is always at their most dangerous when written off and Cork defied the odds and even a numbert- cal disadvantage to overturn a two point half-time deficit and produce arguably their best championship performance in two years.

The final whistle was greeted like an All-Ireland win as players ran the length of the field and thousands of supporters invaded the turf of Sem-

ple Stadium, singing and chanting for over an hour after the game.

Cork manager Gerald McCarthy was equally elated but had also a bone to pick with the media over the treatment of the players in the lead up to the game.

“Tl think whether we won or lost, I think it was very unfair, the press treatment that these bunch of players got from the press during the week. I think the way our players were writ- ten off so completely but not just that, they were ridiculed in some eon

“There were a lot of things said about the style of play, there was questioning whether they would ever last again and some of them mightn’t make it through this year. That was disappointing, that a bunch of play-

ers that they are and what they have given to the game and the determi- nation they bring to their training and everything they do in hurling. Somebody questioned ‘had they lost the love for hurling’ in one of the pa- pers during the week and I think the answer to that was out there for eve- rybody to see today.”

Still, he could understand some of the criticism after the Dublin per- formance but explained that it was fatique that affected his players that day after a hard week of training in order to prepare them for the long road ahead.

“Well it’s easy to do off the back of one or two bad results. People are very anxious to look further down the line and say that this team is fin- ished. When you look at the Tipper-

ary game, we really had that game there for the winning but we went into a valley period after twenty min- utes and that affected us.

“But the way we played for the first twenty minutes, if we could have sus- tained that for most of the game, we certainly would be winning many, many games. SO we were very, very determined and the Dublin game last week really brought the critics out but we as a management took a cal- culated risk. We trained the players hard through that week to look be- yond the game with Dublin and per- haps we could have paid the penalty for it but we had to look at this week to get a bit of rest into the players and that’s what we did. That affected the players against Dublin and that’s not taking anything away from Dub-

lin. They hurled very well and they stayed with us in lots of places but that was the reason for it. Our lads were tired.”

So what about the prospect of meet- ing Clare for the fourth time in as many years?

“Tt will be tough, Clare are always tough but to be honest, we hadn’t re- ally looked past Galway. But I can tell you, we are on the crest of a wave and we are going to drive forward. We are not just satisfied with beating Galway, we want to go all the way in this championship and we are quite capable of doing that.”

The fighting spirit is back in Cork. They tore up the script with their teeth on Saturday after the press had fueled their motivation.

Rebels by name, Rebels by nature.