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, It makes it much more dif- ficult for Irish ministers to transact business as successfully as in the

past.

“The wider European view is that we have been by far the biggest ben- efactor and they do not understand why we would make it more difficult for Europe to function more effec- tively and efficiently.”

While disappointed with the over- all ‘No’ vote, the Clare Fianna Fail TD was happy with the Clare posi- OA om USI EO Le

“Tt certainly indicates that the ma- jority of the people of Clare realise that Europe needs to have systems in place that allow it to operate more ef-

fectively.”

Asked if there 1s likely to be a Lis- bon II, as in the case of Nice, the jun- ior minister said he believed that was not likely at the moment.

“If we see a few more countries ratifying, then the threat to Ireland is much greater. If no one else rati- fies it, then maybe we can find more common ground.”

Meanwhile, Fine Gael’s Deputy Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Deputy Pat Breen said that the Gov- ernment must accept responsibility for the rejection of the treaty.

“IT welcome the decision by the people of County Clare to support the Lisbon Treaty. I thank the people of Clare who have risen above their local concerns because they recog- nise the important role that Ireland’s membership of the EU has played since we joined the union in 1973,” |aTemsy-H (6b

‘Fine Gael played an active part in the campaign here in County Clare and I take this opportunity to especially thank the Fine Gael vot- ers in County Clare who once again showed their true party patriotism,

putting the future of the country ahead of their own frustrations with this Government’s failure to deliver.

“While Clare has said “Yes’ to Lis- bon, the decision by the people of Ireland overall to reject the treaty is disappointing. The credibility of the political system is being destroyed by fairytales of the previous Taoiseach at the Mahon Tribunal and they are further undermined by the unques- tioned support that was given by the current Taoiseach and his band of ministers for these fairytales,” said the Fine Gael TD.

A POLISH man who has spent the past two months in custody has been granted bail after a court heard that a voluntary group for homeless people would support him.

Piotr Baran (30), of no fixed abode, appeared before Ennis District Court on Friday, on public order charges.

The court was told he has spent the past two months in custody and was seeking bail.

Josephine O’Brien told the court that she set up a voluntary organi- sation called ‘Help’ and supports homeless people in Ennis.

She said that she was aware of a place where the accused could stay, over the weekend, if granted bail. It was hoped that the Health Service Executive would then be in a posi- tion to find accommodation for Mr Baran.

“T’ll take responsibility for him. He will have to stay away from his old drinking partners. They don’t do him any good. I’m certainly not giving him any more chances,” she said.

Defending solicitor Daragh Has- sett said that Ms O’Brien had made a very good point in relation to the company the accused keeps.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said he supported Mr Hassett in his applica- wlOyee

“Mr Baran has a dreadful addic- tion to alcohol. He seems to be off it now,” he said.

Judge Joseph Mangan granted bail to Mr Baran, to re-appear in court on Due hs

THE family of murdered Clare wom- an Emer O’Loughlin have begun a campaign to bring the Ennistymon woman’s killer to justice.

To mark the third anniversary of Emer’s killing, her sister Pam – now based in the UK – and her brother Raymond have appealed to the pub- lic to help solve the long-running mystery.

The pair have compiled a video fea- turing images of Emer and details of how members of the public can come forward with any information that might be of assistance. The video has received almost 2,000 viewings since it was uploaded on the Youtube website just seven weeks ago.

As part of the campaign a Facebook site has also been created in which members of the public are warned against taking action into their own hands.

“The third anniversary of my little sister’s murder has just passed. Her killer is still out there shielded and helped to escape by his family and friends. Myself and my brother have decided to do our best to achieve via the Internet what Interpol, the gardai and the Irish media have failed to do and that’s track him down,” it says.

“There are hundreds of people on these lists and they know hundreds of other people, maybe someone might spot him. It is a long shot but it is the only shot we have. Remember, this is a call for information leading

to an arrest and not for action.”

The body of Emer O’ Loughlin (23) was discovered in a burnt-out cara- van in Ballyborna close to Tubber, on the Clare/Galway border in April of PAU thy

The chief suspect in the case, a Galway man in his 40s, disappeared some time after the murder and gardai investigated the possibility that he may have fled to the UK.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Gort Garda Station at 091 636407. The video tribute to Emer is available to view at www.youtube. com/watch?v=Hm5BJKCKPQ¢g

SINN Féin in the county was in jubi- lant mood this week, despite losing the local battle on Lisbon.

While the referendum was narrow- ly accepted in the Banner County, an overall “‘No’ throughout the country gave the party much reason to cel- Ce) elkon

Sinn Féin’s county spokesperson Cathy McCafferty thanked the par- ty’s members and supporters.

Ms McCafferty said, “We are de- lighted with this result. The people

have spoken and their views must be respected. Our activists in Clare and throughout the State have put in an enormous amount of work in recent months to secure this result and I would like to thank them all on be- half of all the party in Clare.

“In addition, our supporters who helped with canvassing, pestering, did a wonderful job and deserve to be commended.

“It would have been the icing on the cake of this win if we had won in Clare as well, but given the size and resources of the larger parties,

it was a major achievement to have come so close to securing a ‘No’ in Clare,” she said.

‘Politicians are duty-bound to both provide leadership and to reflect the wishes and opinions of the electorate and it now falls to the Government to address the concerns of the peo- ple instead of trying to push through proposals which are not in the peo- ple’s interests.

“This result has shown that the electorate share our concerns over the direction of Europe and also that they agree with us that our place in

Europe is secure and will continue to be. The Government now has a clear and strong mandate to renegotiate this treaty.

‘They need to use the opportunity to get back around the table with our EU partners and secure a better deal,” she added.

“Throughout this referendum cam- paign, three key issues came up over and over again – Ireland’s loss of power in Europe, neutrality and the lack of information.

‘People were also concerned at the race to the bottom in wages and con-

ditions and the opening of key public services to competition. The Govern- ment now have a huge responsibility to secure a better deal which will ad- dress these areas of concern.

“We believe that a better deal is possible and Sinn Féin will give any assistance we can to Government as they undertake this task and we will also be engaging with the trade union movement, farmers, business and civic society to encourage them to use their influence to ensure that the Government secures the best deal possible.”

AN Irish soldier has told the trial that he contacted a website advertising contract killings because he thought it was a joke.

Private Brian Buckley told prose- cuting counsel, Una Ni Raifeartaigh he had found the site Hireahitman.us while searching for cheat codes for the Hitman computer game.

Pvt Buckley said he was using the computer at his mother’s house in Ennis when he came across the web- site. It was top of the list of Google

search results so he assumed it was the site he was looking for.

He said the homepage of the site made him think is was an internet prank. “I saw a cartoon animation of a man with a gun. He was wearing a hat, sunglasses and had a pistol. It was a cartoon drawing.”

Pvt Buckley said he looked further into the website until he came to a kind of application form. “Out of my own curiosity or my own stupidity I decided to fill out the form.”

Using the email address Judas69@gmail.com he filled out

the form, giving a false telephone number and a false name, Will Buckimer.

He said there was no significance in either name and the number 69 meant nothing.

Using the application form on the website he filled in fictitious skills. He listed handgun, rifle, sub machine gun, shot gun, sniper, heavy gun, heavy machine gun, grenades, basic booby traps and limited poisons.

He said this was not a true answer, with the exception of rifle and gre- nades.

He said he made first contact with the website on July 29, 2006 and re- ceived a reply from a Tony Luciano on August 10.

The reply read, “I have a job for you if you are interested. Two males in Ireland and one in Spain. ASAP. Let us know. We will try and call you. Thanks. Tony Luciano.”

Pvt Buckley agreed that he had provided his mobile number, but had never at any stage thought the website was serious. He said he “just wanted to see where it would go”.

On August 28 he received another

email from Tony Luciano. “Please help us out for this. I need some strong poison. One of us will be in Shannon. We cannot shift this stuff for security reasons – you know that – so please help us out. Will pay and I will owe you favourite. Thanks brother. Tony.”

Pvt Buckley said that this email made him feel uneasy and he decided to distance himself. He received sev- eral communications from the man calling himself Tony Luciano but would not talk to him and kept tell- ing him he had the wrong number.

has scooped a major medi- cal journalism award, ahead of stiff competition from writers and broad- casters in the national media.

Claire Gallagher won the Young Irish Journalist of the Year award, winning a specially commissioned sculpture by leading silversmith Sea- mus Gill as well as a financial prize, at the seventh annual GlaxoSmithK- line Irish Medical Media Awards.

Gallagher won the award for her sensitive treatment of the controversy surrounding breast cancer screening services in Clare.

Announcing the win, chairman of the judging panel and MC, Dr John Bowman said she won the award “for her sensitive treatment of the contro- versy around breast screening serv- ices in Clare and for well-researched articles which provided her readers with all sides of the argument”.

This is the latest in a long line of awards for the newspaper, which is celebrating the third anniversary of its first edition this week.

The newspaper’s managing editor, Gerry Collison, paid tribute to Gal- lagher’s standard of journalism in the publication.

“Claire is an extremely dedicated and talented journalist. She constant- ly raises the bar in terms of journal- istic excellence with her work. We

have a very talented, hard-working staff of whom we are very proud,’ he said.

THE General Secretary Designate of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, Eamon Devoy has welcomed the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish people. “The na- tional executive of our union recom- mended a ‘No’ vote in the referen- dum and it now seems clear that this has happened,” he said.

“The TEEU favours a social Eu- rope, but unfortunately recent key judgements by the European Court

of Justice show that the pendulum has swung against workers’ rights and in favour of big business. In the circumstances, it would be foolish to provide the institutions of the Euro- pean Union with any more power,’ | aTemncy-N (6

Devoy added that the union’s con- cerns were heightened by the refusal of the Government to give any com- mitment to SIPTU to vindicate the right to collective bargaining of Irish workers if they voted for the treaty.

“We have seen a sustained attack on

working conditions since the adop- tion of the Nice Treaty. Why would workers vote for more of the same?”’

He added that until such time as the Irish Government is “prepared to recognise the right of workers to collective bargaining and the con- comitant right to organise and take industrial action in defence of their living standards, the TEEU will not support institutional reforms that only strengthen big business.”

The TEEU is the country’s largest craft union with 45,000 members

and the largest such union in manu- facturing, construction, energy, engi- neering and electrical contracting.

Meanwhile, SIPTU is expected to talk to the members before making any official statement on the matter. Union sources said yesterday that the fact that the Taoiseach Brian Cowan “was able to give assurances to the IFA but couldn’t reassure trade union members speaks volumes”.

The source said that SIPTU’s posi- tion is still that the treaty as is stands is flawed in relation to issues such as

collective bargaining.

‘People’s suspicions were re-in- forced that this was going to be a treaty in which business interests would be fast-tracked and workers’ rights put on the back burner,’ the source said.

SIPTU made its initial recommen- dation on the treaty after consultation with members “and taking on board their concerns in relation to workers’ rights”, the source added.

It is expected SIPTU will make no immediate public statement.

yesterday that the recent dramatic rise in the cost of diesel has increased his costs by almost 20 per cent, meaning that he is now operating at a loss.

“It’s an absolute joke that the Gov- ernment can just merrily take their percentage. They are going to have to take a cut. At the moment the Gov-

ernment of Ireland is getting more for the oil than the Arabs are get- ting for selling it. That doesn’t make Sense to me,” he said.

‘The fishermen in France and in other European countries all get a big cut on the tax on diesel. There has to be some way in capping the amount of money that the Govern- ment is taking on this. The business is not sustainable at current prices. So either I’m going to have to put up prices drastically or the price of diesel is going to have to be brought down somehow. I cant keep doing it under the current situation.”

Like many other Clare boat owners, Mr Aston was forced out of the com-

mercial fishing business a number and years ago. He took advantage of Government funding made available from Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) to diversify into chartered sea angling.

“IT was commercially fishing here in Carraigaholt until about five years ago and at that time we would have been the biggest boat fishing out of Clare. But it just wasn’t viable for us to keep going,” he said.

“We were lucky enough to get a di- versification grant from BIM to set up some marine tourism. I know that there are big boats out there that also received Government grant aid that could now easily go out of business. It doesn’t make sense.”

Clare TD and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture with special responsibility for fisheries, Tony Killeen, revealed yesterday that he has requested an early meeting with the European commissioner re- sponsible for fisheries and maritime PNR N Dace

“I am cogently aware of the dif- ficulties being experienced by the fishing industry at local and national level,’ he said.

“IT have requested a meeting with Commissioner Joe Borg to discuss these difficulties. I am aware that the issue will also be discussed at next week’s meeting of the Fisheries Council.”

FARMERS in the heart of the Bur- ren are inching ever closer to taking possession of their heritage and in the process, offering a totally unique tourist product.

Members of the Burren Farmers Eco-Tourism Co-op have already begun hosting a limited amount of farmer led guided heritage tours and the business is set to expand through- out this Summer and into next year.

The philosophy of the co-op is to bring local farmers into the very centre of the tourism product in the Burren. Small groups are taken on tours to some of the real hidden gems of the Burren with local farmers as their guides.

Key to this approach is creating a form of tourism that works with the natural environment and the concept of Leave No Trace.

“What we had here last weekend was the first ever training programme specifically geared for farmers – and all the farmers who took part were members of the Burren Farmers Eco- Tourism Co-op,’ said Ruairi O Con- chuir of the co-op.

‘The farmers were being trained as trainers in the concepts of Leave No Trace. This is about leaving no im- pact on the area where we visit.

“It’s about ideas like walking on du- rable surfaces to minimise erosion, to being careful about how we light fires if we are camping. But it’s about things like not blocking farmers ac-

cess with huge busses or camping in places where you won’t be disturbing the locals.”

A number of themed tours are be- ing designed focussing on local cul- ture, archaeology flora and fauna and interpreting the Burren landscape.

“Farmers have a huge knowledge of their own land. No-one knows it better. The farmers might not always know the Latin names for all of the flora, let’s say, but they have a much deeper, more interesting knowledge. They know the importance of the flora, how they were used in olden times for cures and things like that,” continued Ruairi.

‘Besides the tours there is a de- mand for authentic Burren holiday accommodation in the Burren and

also working farm holidays. Believe it or not there is a demand for people to come here and do traditional farm work.”

Last week each farmers received their Leave No Trace certification and qualified as LNT trainers.

The farmers were joined on the course by interested locals people such as a teachers from the Outdoor Education Centre in Bellharbour. For more information on the guided tours contact burrenecotours@gmail.com.

CLARE on the radar. Two years ago, a sopping, soggy Fitzgerald Stadium housed a little over 6,000 punters for Kerry’s opening game in the 2006 championship. Waterford visited and brought almost as many fans as those that showed up for the home side.

It was late May and one of those days when the mountains behind the stand can only be felt and not seen, when the slate on St Finian’s Hospi- tal beyond the terrace turns black.

Nobody knew it at the time but that wet May afternoon was the begin- ning of Kerry’s shot at what has now become a three-in-a-row possibility.

It was difficult to predict the suc- cess that the two years since then would bring because for parts of that game, Waterford caused problems Kerry and in fact, should have been closer than the eight point winning margin that Kerry recorded. At one stage in the second half, Waterford could have drawn level but Andy Hubbard’s penalty was saved by D1- armuid Murphy and Gary Hurney’s follow-up was brilliantly taken off the line by Seamus Moynihan.

That game is recalled merely as a Starting point for all that has hap- pened for Kerry in 2006 and 2007. Even leaving the All-Ireland of 2004 aside, the current Kerry side has evolved into one of the finest teams to ever play football.

They’re fluid and powerful in at-

tack, composed and dogged in de- fence and since 2006 their approach has again evolutionised the game. Those qualities of power and com- posure were seen several times over the past two seasons but particularly at different stages of the Dublin and Monaghan games last year.

Against Monaghan, the ball was never passed laterally in their own half and against Dublin, only very

rarely. During both games, they dic- tated the pace at key moments as time was running out and they man- aged to score goals at crucial times. It’s unfair to say that the Clare chal- lenge doesn’t register on the Kerry radar this week and that alone, high- lights the approach in the county. Twenty years ago and as recent as ten — even including ’°92 -, Clare was seen as little more than something to

swat away.

Now, there are senior players who genuinely feel as though they’re play- ing for their place on the panel, not to mind the team. Two weeks back, a handful of Kerry players were gath- ered for extra training in Killarney. It was a backflip to Mick O’Dwyer’s days but shows that Kerry are taking the Clare challenge on board, if for no other reason than to nail down places for later in the year.

“There are potential pitfalls out there. I have always maintained that,” sayS Kerry manager Pat O’Shea. “Look at Wicklow beating Kildare in the Leinster championship. Look at Fermanagh beating Monaghan. They are two prime examples of teams getting turned over unexpectedly this season.

“*T have said that to the lads and they know that. Clare will come down here with nothing to lose and they will be full of confidence after their win against Waterford.

“Tt’s a tricky tie for us because we will, obviously, be that bit ring rusty while Clare will have the benefit of their game against Waterford. But the bottom line is this is a match that we are treating very seriously, like we do with all our games. If we don’t perform then there is a good chance that Clare will beat us. We have to be at our best.”

Down the tracks, the prospect of that third title looms, strange as it sounds considering that only two

years ago, the prospects of any coun- ty achieving back-to-back titles was considered slim.

“Being honest, we haven’t spoken about that [the three-in-a-row bid] in training and we don’t have any say in regards to what people write and what people say. All we can do is concentrate on our own game and take it match by match, one step at PIB une lee

‘“That’s what we did last year and we see no reason to change a win- ning formula. The only match on our horizon is Sunday’s against Clare.

“We try to make sure that the panel is stronger every year and I think that the Under-21’s All-Ireland win is a big boost.

“The league was encouraging also with a lot of players making a claim for starting spots so the task for me 1s to now find the best balanced 15 that can Start.”

“There were times in the league when we saw the fight, heart and hunger that a team that wants to be successful needs. It was very heart- ab eehee

“These lads have always proved that they can rise to the occasion, and they will have to do that against Clare. That’s the first step in what we hope will be a long journey.”