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ESSAM Eid was merely a prop in the operation because the State wanted to ‘get’ Sharon Collins, according to lawyers for the Egyptian.

David Sutton, SC, for Essam Eid, said the conspiracy to murder charge was a bridge too far when in reality it was a fraud operation.

“Tt wasn’t “Dial M for murder’. It was ‘Dial M for money’. The State overegged the pudding for Mr Eid, because they wanted to get Ms Col- lins and what patsy are they carrying along? Mr Eid,” he shouted.

“Clearly it was nonsense, because they were trying to get Ms Collins. That’s who they are after. We’re only a prop in this operation,” he added.

He said the case had been “dressed

up to look like the most important case on earth. Yesterday (Thursday), who was brought in to the back of the court? The Howard brothers, here to eyeball you, two live exhibits. .. be- cause no-one was killed here.”

Mr Sutton said the evidence was in- consistent and the State was seeking to rely on an accomplice, Teresa En- gle, who presented “a tissue of lies” to the court.

He said that after she was released from custody at Ennis Garda Station, she “went home on a plane.”

‘Her only purpose for coming back was to give evidence against Mr Eid and Ms Collins. Only for that, we would never have seen this woman again,” he said, in his closing speech to the jury last Friday morning.

“In Las Vegas, Ms Engle comes

to the attention of the law again. In- stead of blagging her way out of it, or scamming her way out of it, she is caught again, using the same website. Another woman was shaken down for money. Who was at it again, but Ms Engle,” he said.

‘That was the reason why we were graced with her presence,” he added.

He said she produced “one of the most self-serving and conniving pieces of perjury I’ve heard in an Irish court. A liar and conniver here to serve her own interests, when she was caught like a rat in a trap,” he SrnCee

“She sat here giving evidence like the stone face of a liar. That is what the State was relying on to tie togeth- er their case,” he added.

He said that in her closing speech,

Ms Ni Raifeartaigh claimed there was nobody else apart from Sha- ron Collins who could have sent the emails, “but the State has never said there was anybody other than Tony Luciano who sent those messages.”

He said in the US, Teresa Engle was involved in the same thing, but there were no conspiracy to murder charges there. “Maybe the FBI take a more hard-nosed approach and they don’t get carried away,” he said.

“The evidence produced by the State is one only that points to fraud. I say it was a fraud operation from Start to finish,’ he said.

Referring to the ricin element of the case, he said, “There is no evidence OVME-TON Arc DeOOLUDel MO) MNMLesUOMMst-nmeCOltOCOM @ND anybody and if there was, I’m sure we’d hear all about that.”

He said that gardai “know in their heart of hearts that what was go- ing on here was a shakedown. They know that the conspiracy to murder charge is a bridge too far.”

He said that Ms Engle claimed the intention was murder, but she hadn’t a notion as to how that was going to happen. “Was she going to follow the Howard brothers around Kilkee with a bottle in the hope that they would get thirsty? It’s at that ridiculous lev- el,” he said.

“You have to be satisfied Mr Eid was there at all and that he was Tony Luciano. I say that evidence is not there and it cannot be welded togeth- er by self-serving perjury,’ he said.

He said the hitman website was a “clownish operation run by clowns in the hope of hooking fools.”

A MOVE by members of Clare County Council to force through a contentious planning permission for an Ennis businessman seeking to build one-off house in the Burren SERENE Coe

Councilors believed that they had secured planning permission for Gerry Danagher to build a home at Bally- cullinan, Corofin after they voted 27 in favour and 3 against contra- vening the Clare Coun- ty Development Plan at WeCoJDMM LUN ComselerelBE Ite

A planner’s report be- fore members recom- mended that planning be refused on a number of grounds.

It was the first time since 1983 that council- lors had invoked special powers in the planning area by tabling a sec- tion 140 motion directing the county manager, Alec Fleming to grant planning permission.

It was also the first time that the councillors had overturned the coun- cil’s own “locals-only” rule that was introduced in 1999 to grant an indi- vidual planning permission.

However, Mr Fleming has refused planning permission to Mr Danagher after securing legal advice.

Prior to voting on the planning ap- plication at the meeting, the members did not deal with the recommended

reasons for refusal. That is believed to form the legal basis for the vote not resulting in Mr Danagher secur- ing planning permission.

At the meeting, Mr Fleming said that by tabling a section 140 motion, the members took over the manag-

er’s duty in a planning case “and when you do that, you take over all the responsibility”.

Mr Danagher has now been refused on two erounds. The council has ruled that he does not comply with the policies of the Clare County Development Plan; because he was not born in the area he does not qualify as a local person.

As a result, the coun- cil ruled that the pro- posal would materially

contravene the objec- tives of the 2005-11 Clare County Development Plan.

Furthermore the council was con- cerned that the proposal would give rise to arisk of water pollution affect- ing the quality of the surface waters. As aresult the proposal was contrary to public health and the amenities of the area.

The councillor who proposed the material contravention at the meet- ing, Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind), said yesterday that he was disappointed with the refusal.

THE lifeblood of any community is its people. Over the last three decades, photographer Peter Rees has docu- mented the lives and times of his peo- ple — the people of Kilnaboy. From the unique vantage of his truck, Peter has marked births and deaths, matches and marriages, the dying of the old and the dawning of the new. From joyous election nights to days of conflict on and off the sports field,

Peter has been there, armed only with the unjudging eye of his camera and a thirst to take the picture that tells the Story.

Of the tens of thousands of images captured by Peter since 1980, just 1,500 have been chosen for an exhibt- tion in the Kilnaboy X-PO.

‘An Udder View – Documenting a Community’ runs until July 13 and of- fers not just a collection of enthralling images, but a family photo album for a whole community.

WHEN a man and woman sat down in Joe Sciascia’s pub, The Old Mill, one Sunday, he thought they were just two more customers for his hugely popular Sunday lunch menu.

When they handed him a card declaring they were judges in the Licensing World magazine’s Bar Awards, apart from being glad that they had enjoyed fabulous food and courteous friendly service, he thought no more of it.

Even when he got a letter telling him the pub had been shortlisted and an invitation to the awards ceremony, Joe and his wife Kathleen thought it

would be little more than a nice night out.

“T couldn’t go so my wife and my step-daughter, Clodagh went up. I was struck dumb when she told me we’d won the Best Country Bar cat- egory ”, said Joe.

Joe and Kathleen took over the pub ten years ago and since have invested €300,000 to bring it back to it’s old world glory.

Joe jokes that it’s not so much a business as a storeroom for his col- lection of original Guinness signs, antique cigarette packets and other memorabilia. “I’m wouldn’t be the greatest barman in the world – the success of this place is down to my

wife and my step-daughter, who manage it, and the hard-working rea

“We wanted to do this place right and the bar food and restaurant are doing very well now but there’s no doubt the pub side of things is very slow. The traditional Irish pub is dy- ing out,” commented Joe.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s best food pub was named as Casey’s of Baltimore having won the Febvre Bar Food aN ENKee

“These are great victories for the province,” said Nigel Tynan, editor of Licensing World and chairman of the judging panel, commenting on the win. He added that The Old Mill

had been chosen from hundreds of pubs visited by judges countrywide. “The rural trade has come through some tough times so it is fantastic to see the trade’s commitment to excel- lence and service being recognised.”

“Country pubs play an integral role in rural society – a hugely important factor that needs to be acknowledged. The Old Mill is an exceptional coun- try bar that goes above and beyond to ensure a quality and responsible drinking environment for its pa- trons,” he said.

Local counveillor, Tony O’Brien congratulated the couple. “It’s a great boost for O’Briens bridge and well deserved.”

RTE 2FM presenter Gerry Ryan was called to give evidence to feed Sha- ron Collins’ ego, according to the prosecution, who said his testimony wasn’t relevant.

Mr Ryan gave evidence at the trial, on behalf of the defence, last Tues- day, in relation to an email Sharon Collins wrote to his show in April, PAU ey

During an eight-minute spell in the witness box, Mr Ryan said to the best of his recollection, he personally did not come into contact with a letter emailed by Sharon Collins.

“To the best of my recollection, no Such document was received, not to me,” he said.

He said that gardai never made any enquiries with him in relation to the letter.

He explained that he received up to 2,000 emails a month for his show and a filtering system operated whereby some letters were broadcast and others were not.

The producer of the Gerry Ryan show, Siobhan Hough, told the court she did not recollect receiving Sha- ron Collins’ letter.

In her closing speech to the jury on Thursday, Ms Ni Raifeartaigh noted that Sharon Collins admitted composing the email, but wasn’t sure if she had sent it to the Gerry Ryan show. “Why on earth was Gerry Ryan brought into the court to say he didn’t see it? Does it matter whether it made it to Gerry Ryan or not? What matters is she wrote it,’ she said.

“In any event, we got the confirma- tion from RTE. Gardai spoke to the IT person, but no, the defence had to pull in Mr Gerry Ryan, who said, ‘I get so many emails but I didn’t see DOD IOMO) soma) OLoMNCT- BIER

“That is feeding the ego of Sharon Collins. She likes to be centre of at- tention. She wants Gerry Ryan in there, giving evidence, even though it bears no relevance,” she said.

However, Michael Bowman, BL, for Sharon Collins, disputed this.

He said, “Much play has been made and unfairly so about Gerry Ryan coming in to give evidence. It has been painted as an unnecessary stunt. I can’t see why it’s fair to say it’s feeding the ego of Sharon Col- Thakseae

THE reintroduction of the Western Rail Corridor moved a step closer this week with trains using the tracks around Gort for the first time.

Jarnrod Eireann engineers are now using sections of the track to ferry equipment and personnel to different points on the line, with the track on the Ennis to Athenry section now set to be completed by October.

‘The trains on the track this week are rail trains as opposed to pas- senger trains,” said Jim Gallivan of Jarnrod Eireann.

“We now hope to have the track itself finished by the end of October and at that point we can begin work on signalling and other issues. We would hope to be able to test com- muter trains on the track by early 2009, possibly around the end of April.”

AND so the wheel of hurling fortune has swung around to 70 minutes in Limerick. Ould enemy stuff – Clare versus Tipp in a Munster final. Hard to believe really, because such a pair- ing seemed very unlikely just a year ago.

Tipperary were beaten by Wexford in the All-Ireland quarter-final; Clare were taken down by Limerick at the same stage. Back then you couldn’t say, with hand on hurling heart, that either team had contended.

They just made up the numbers.

What a difference a year has made though. From the ashes of contro- versy Mike McNamara and Liam

Sheedy have worked furiously at their craft — their greatest achieve- ments thus far being to have sent out teams that are marked out by their unity of purpose.

There are no sideshows which over- shadow the real business of playing the game — those fulminous contro- versies like Considine v Fitzgerald, Babs Keating v Cummins, or to a lesser extent Babs Keating v ‘Man Wonder’ himself Eoin Kelly.

Instead, McNamara and Sheedy have moulded teams in their own 1m- age — hardworking and honest, with fitness levels that Waterford, Limer- ick and Cork could not match up to when the heat came on in the final furlongs of games.

And, both managers have served their apprenticeships before land- ing their big jobs. McNamara with every Clare team from under 16 level right up to senior, not to mention stints with both Offaly and Galway. Sheedy with the minors and inter- mediates, plundering All-Irelands in both grades.

It’s definite advantage Tipperary if you re going on the 2008 year so far. Unbeaten in Waterford Crystal and National League competition and winning both. Then their comeback against Cork showed how far the team have travelled in a year.

Last year Tipperary couldn’t close out games when they had Limer- ick on the rack at various stages

of their trilogy. This year they’ve grown stronger as the games have progressed: Kilkenny in the league semi-final, Galway in the final, the aforementioned Cork game.

What of Clare? These few days are the most important of their lives. So far the breezy outlook of everyone involved has been the most striking feature of their season. They’ve been told all along by McNamara that ris- ing to the challenge in Munster was all-important.

They’ve done that and now must close the deal. That brings with it way more pressure. Munster quarter- finals and semi-finals are a lot differ- ent to finals — for one thing the stay- away supporters will have jumped on

the bandwagon by Sunday, packing the Ennis Road to overflow. They’re expecting.

Such expectation has suffocated Clare teams in the past — the chal- lenge for McNamara and his sideline team is to ensure Clare leave it out on the field.

If they do they can win their seventh Munster title; if they don’t a 37th title awaits Tipperary.

THE High King himself would have been proud of the feasting and fun that was offered to visitors and locals alike at this year’s Féile Brian Boru.

Even the weather mostly bowed to royal command so that people could eat al fresco as well as enjoy the mu- sic mayhem and magic on the streets. When the rain did start, folks took cover in the bars with cultural tours, exhibitions and lectures.

This year the festival had a distinct- ly forward looking flavour, although the history of the town as the seat of the famed High King was not forgot- ten either.

This was the fifteenth year of the festival and more than 2,000 visitors came to the lakeside town to enjoy the pageantry.

Some of the highlights of this year’s festival were the children’s pa- rade, the fabulous Fanzini Brothers performances and the food fair on the green. Local restaurants, produc- ers, and vendors from the farmers’ market combined their considerable talents to give festival-goers a taste of some of the great food that is on offer in east Clare.

Along with the popular dragon boat racing, the new power-boat racing event proved a hit and there was lots of interest in the CELT village which

provided a taster of traditional crafts and skills.

Youngsters danced to acts at the Every Moment Counts Youth Club music festival and those of every age enjoyed the Beat on the Street and the many musical pub events.

And there was the beat on the streets, the art trail, canoe polo, guided tours of the cathedral as well as traditional music, singing and set dancing workshops for all ages and levels of ability.

There were pub quizzes, drumming workshops for teenagers, the clash of the ash, the Feile Feis and every- thing necessary to make the festival an even bigger success than previous

years.

Festival organisers paid tribute to the support which the event got from local people and particularly busi- nesses.

“A lot of people put in a lot of hard work to organise the festival and it would not have been possible to stage half of it without the sponsorship and support of local businesses. They gave us fantastic support”, a spokes- woman said.

THE Wolfe Tones’ under 14 foot- ballers had a marvellous campaign in the Feile Peil na nGael in Cavan last weekend in reaching the final in their division in the cradle of Ulster football that 1s Breffni Park.

The team can be very proud of their achievements as they to a man played to their full potential and only lost in the final to a very strong North Lon- don team that comprised of 16 dif- OKs Me Ll ahe

Based for the weekend in Ballyma- chugh, they played the host club on the Friday afternoon despite the long journey north. It took them a while to find their feet and the host club Bal- lymachugh put up a good perform- ance before goals from Jack Carrig and William Flynn gave the side some breathing space in winning 3-9 to 1-4.

In what was a hectic schedule for all teams, they then went on to Cavan town for the Feile parade in- volved at least 4000 participants.

Saturday morning came and next up were Denn, another Cavan side and again their better footballing skills and teamwork told in the second half with Wolfe Tones racked up their second on a scoreline of 1-9 to 1-1.

Then after a break of less than two hours later the Tones put champions of the last two years, Lancashire, to the sword on a scoreline of 4-11 to O- 1 to advance to a semi-final meeting against Tourlistrane of Sligo.

Under no illusions, Wolfe Tones tore into their opponents in the open- ing half and with a great goal from danien brennan gave the Shannon side a fighting chance at the break, leading 1-2 to 0-2.

A Trojan display by Tino Nzvaura and Dylan Birchall and great points from Jason McNally gave Wolfe Tones a brilliant victory by 1-10 to Q-3 to advance to a final meeting against North London. This was by far their best performance given by the team over the past two years they’ve been together.

It brought the Shannon bandwagon

to Kingspan Breffni Park for the fi- nal. North London went into an early 1-1 to O-O lead before then Daniel Brennan hit 1-1 in two minutes to put the Tones back in contention. At the break, they only trailed by a point but they were playing well.

In the second half the sheer physical presence of the North London team told as they retained possession and gave the Shannon side little oppor- tunity. William Flynn excellent with his athletic ability and helped out the defence no end. Damien Casey in the goals pulled off three excellent saves to keep his side involved, however at the end of the day, the large Wolfe Tones contingent acknowledge that the better team had won.

In all, the Shannon boys performed excellently and to the best of their ability.

Their football was of the highest standard and they were well coached by Mick Riordan and his team of mentors. They were worthy ambas- sasdors for Shannon and Clare in exo ieeel B

CLARE’S Brothers of Charity, which is leading the way in helping people live with disabilities, is now explor- ing changes in the role of education.

The charity, which is the first in the country to assist people to live in the community and make their own deci- sions about where and how they live, is trying to break the mould when it comes to special education.

The organisation held a special con- ference in Ennis last week which was addressed by those who see a more inclusive way forward for education.

Cyndi Pitonyak, a special educa- tion co-ordinator for a school district in Virginia and a lecturer at Bradford University, does not believe that spe- cial education should be a segregated place.

The college lecturer is advocating an inclusive programme for children with disabilities that gets rid of spe- cial units and special schools.

“The relevant question is what do they do in those units? What do they do that they cannot do in regular

classes?” she asked.

For the last 19 years Ms Pitonyak has worked in a school system where both the class curriculum teacher and the remedial teacher work together teaching all students.

Children with special needs take part in the regular class programme by completing lessons that work in unison with the rest of the class.

Ms Pitonyak gave the example that while children are being called to read aloud, a child who may not have very good reading abilities and needs to work on people recognition could call out those that are to read in turn.

Each person is benefiting from the class and learning.

The education co-ordinator admits however that there will be times when a child with disabilities may not be able to find a niche in a par- ticular lesson. At this point the child could leave the class for special tu1- tion in areas of need.

“It is about inclusion. Autism or any disability is just one little piece of who someone 1s,” she said.

At the conference in the Temple Gate Hotel last week 55 people from 13 different organisations joined the Brothers of Charity.

Those attending came from all ar- eas of education including special needs assistants, class teachers and school inspectors.

They heard that while major chang- es cannot be achieved overnight, and trial and error is going to be part of the course, a little change everyday is ee Nm NNR BES.S

Ms Pitonyak believes that if teach- ers and resource teachers agree to work together for 45 minutes, two days a week it could start a new way of education, that would lead to teams teaching a class rather than an individual.

“Tt is about creating a school where everyone fits,” she said.