Category: Uncategorized

, Mc- Namara has put it up to his players to deliver Clare from its abysmal record in Munster in recent years.

“The players are in no doubt that this is D-day, this is the day they must deliver,’ McNamara said.

Clare have only won one Munster

championship tie since 1999, a first round win against Tipperary back in 2003. Now, McNamara is deter- mined to bring an end to that four- year losing streak.

“Our performances in the Munster championship in the last few years have been poor to say the least. We need to start levelling that out and need to start presenting perform- ances — hopefully winning perform- ances.

“We have presented players of qual- ity for a number of years now, but teams of quality seem to be absent.

It’s now time for players to present themselves as a team.

“We now have a new system in the championship — it’s two strikes or you’re out. There’s no easy passage, irrespective of performance in the last couple of years, you finished up at worst in an All-Ireland quarter fi- nal.

‘That was the old system – it’s now defunct and gone. So our best foot must be put forward on June 1, which would be unheard of for the last cou- ple of years.”

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Ni-

all Gilligan is winning his battle to be fit for the big game, which would be his 50th senior championship ap- pearance.

‘He has more than a 50/50 chance of making it,” revealed McNamara.

“Waterford have been the high kings, the strongest team in Munster over the last couple of years. The challenge is huge, the target is high. We have had an incredible amount of sessions put in plus commitment and courage — everything has gone in from the players. Now is the time to deliver a performance.”

GIOVANNI Trapattoni may be look- ing to west Clare for future interna- tional stars as the county’s newest soccer club goes from strength to strength.

West Clare United Soccer Club takes its players from Cooraclare, Cree, Doonbeg, Mullagh, Quilty, Milltown Malbay, Kilmihil, Inagh and has two players from Ennis.

The club is based in Mullagh vil- lage with the sports field in Mullagh as the home pitch. There are more than 100 children – boys and girls – involved with the club.

“We are delighted with the phenom- enal response we have received in

getting the club off the ground in an area which would by many have been viewed as a GAA stronghold,” said one of the organisers Tom Egan.

This year the club is training teams at Under 8’s, 10’s, 11’s and 13’s level.

“We have three teams entered into the Clare Schoolboy League, two at under 11 and one at Under 13. We have brought in experienced coach- es, one of whom is Derek Dolan who has previously managed the county’s Kennedy Cup team, along with local people from the community with an interest in soccer to assist in training the children,” said Mr Egan.

“The committee of the sports field in Mullagh have been wonderful in helping us organize training and

match days and maintained the pitch in great condition which has been re- marked upon by all who have played on it. Our sincere thanks go out to them for all their help,” he said.

Mr Egan also paid tribute to local businesses that helped in the initial stages with sponsorship, particularly John McInerney Construction who paid for new goalposts.

The club’s jerseys, bibs, balls, first aid kits and other training equipment were all funded as a result of gener- ous donations.

“We have established a link with Avondale United in Cork who trav- elled to Mullagh to provide us with our first game. It gathered a large crowd for what was an entertaining

match played in great spirit and en- joyed by all.”

“We are also working with League of Ireland club Athlone Town and will be bringing children to Athlone for some training and some chal- lenge games against local opposi- tion,’ added Mr Egan.

This Sunday night the busy young club will hold its only fundraising event.

The fundraising Race Night will be held in the Quilty Tavern on Sat- urday, May 31 beginning at 9.30pm Serna oy

Anybody interested in any further information about the club or who might like to help in the coaching can contact Tom Egan at 085 7455391.

AS THE WTO grows ever closer, Clare man, Eddie Punch, was at the centre of all the action this week, leading an ICSA delegation to met with EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel in Brussels on Thursday,

Punch and a number of top level ICSA delegates highlighted a number of concerns of Irish farmers regard- ing WTO and the EU health check proposals. The delegation consisted of Punch alongside Malcolm Thomp- son, ICSA president, sheep chairman Mervyn Sunderland and Gabriel Gilmartin, ICSA rural development at-boweet-nee

ICSA emphasised the threat posed

to the beef and lamb sectors by the WTO proposals and_ underlined that even the sensitive status clause would not be sufficient to keep these sectors viable. ICSA also outlined its concerns over modulation proposals that would result in an eight per cent cut in the Single Farm Payment for all payments in excess of €5,000.

“The WTO is now an outdated re- sponse to the issue of global food se- curity. We must first insist on main- taining the viability of the maximum number of EU farmers,” said Mr Punch.

“Europe must retain the ability to feed itself, rather than allowing itself to become over dependent on im- ports. ICSA believes that this WTO round needs to be replaced by a com-

pletely different approach and we will continue to insist that the Irish Government vetos a bad deal.”

He also highlighted the particu- larly difficult circumstances facing the sheep sector and emphasised the importance of implementing key recommendations in the Aylward report. “The priority message that we delivered was that sheep farming would not survive in Europe without a commitment for additional sup- port. However, even this may not be enough if the WTO deal goes ahead,’ he continued.

ICSA also briefed the commis- sioner on the impossibility of get- ting work completed under the Farm Waste Management scheme by the deadline of December 31, 2008.

Following the release of further re- vised papers on Agriculture and Non Agriculture Market Access under WTO, Catherine Buckley, Macra na Feirme National President said it 1s time for the Irish Government to call a hault to Peter Mandelson’s solo run on WTO.

“Mr Mandelson has exceeded his mandate from the European Com- mission and the Irish Government must intervene and put a stop to it, he is failing to recognise the views of all the commission and the heads of state. Mandelson’s open door policy will mean a race to the bottom on production standards, as the market will ultimately be left to imports re- sulting in a Worst Trade Outcome for farmers and consumers,” she said.

SHARON Collins was interested in inheritance and often sought infor- mation on this on computer websites, according to the prosecution.

Prosecutor Tom O’Connell told the jury on the second day of the trial last Thursday, that Ms Collins ar- ranged a marriage to PJ Howard, but he did not go through with it.

“She was keen to get married to Mr Howard. She was very much

concerned with inheritance and fre- quently visited various websites in- terrogating the computer about her position,’ said Mr O’Connell.

He said that after Mr Howard’s wife died in 2003, Ms Collins was “anx- ious and agitating to get married to Mr Howard.

“It seems he didn’t wish to marry her as it would complicate inherit- ance matters. He wanted whatever fortunes he had to go to his two sons.”

“Apparently a marriage was. ar- ranged, at her instigation, to take place in Rome in 2005,” he said.

However, PJ Howard “pulled out” of this, but the couple went to Sor- rento in Italy, where they pledged themselves to each other, “but no marriage took place”.

When the couple returned home, Ms Collins told people that they had got married and a wedding reception took place in Spanish Point in No- vember 2005.

The same year, she “conceived and organised through the internet, a proxy marriage, under Mexican law, that was done without the knowledge of PJ Howard,” said counsel.

He said that Ms Collins paid $US1,295 for a certificate testify- ing to the proxy marriage. The cer- tificate was sent to her accountant in Kilrush, Matt Heslin, and she later collected it there.

On February 22, 2006, she trav- elled to Cork and in due course she

obtained a passport under the name of Sharon Howard.

“She admits obtaining the proxy marriage certificate,” said Mr O’Connell. “It is the State’s case that she intended to use the marriage cer- tificate to stake a claim in PJ’s estate on the death of him and his sons,’ he added.

“It could be inferred by using the documents, she was trying them out to see if they would pass official scrutiny,’ said Mr O’Connell.

THE public will be alerted if water quality in Ennis deteriorates or the risk posed by consumption increas- oe

Town Engineer Tom Tiernan was speaking at the May meeting of En- nis Town Council. Called to defend the council’s handling of a recent En- vironmental Protection Agency re- port critical of water management in Clare, Mr Tiernan said, “When you go out with a message about crypt- osporidium, you create panic”.

Mr Tiernan said that since the in- troduction of a temporary treatment plant, “The risk has not increased, it has reduced. It is absolutely mini- mal”.

Mr Tiernan said on the day the EPA

audit was carried out 17 per cent of the water supply for Ennis did not pass through the filtration system.

Mr Tiernan said, ““We manage the risks, people get the facts if the sup- ply deteriorates or the risk increases. 100 per cent of the water supply is going through the filters for the past few weeks”.

Mr Tiernan said that while certain sections of the community remained vulnerable, the risk of illness from drinking the public water supply had been exaggerated.

He said, “I opened up a prominent tourism website and it stated that En- nis water is unsafe to drink. Some of the pictures put up there send out a scare message about Ennis”.

Town Manager Tom Coughlan said, “If there was an increased risk

the HSE would implement the boil notice. We are trying to manage the situation without provoking panic.” |

Green Party councillor Donal O Bearra criticised the council’s reac- tion to the EPA’s findings.

He said, “In a town that has had water problems for the past 16 years any EPA report should be sent to all councillors. It 1s the public interest that guides us.”

Fianna Fail councillor Tom Glynn said, “I would agree that our image has been damaged. We should be in- formed”.

Fine Gael councillor Johnny Flynn said the EPA report “highlighted the benefits of external auditing”.

A pre-cautionary boil notice re- mains in place in Ennis for vulner- able groups including people with

immuno-suppression, children under five and visitors.

TENSIONS within an Ennis Travel- ler family have escalated since one brother killed another last year.

The revelation emerged during the sentencing hearing of Patrick Mc- Donagh for the manslaughter of his brother, Charlie, in January 2007.

After hearing prosecution and de- fence submissions at the Central Criminal Court yesterday, Mr Justice Paul Carney adjourned sentencing until this (Tuesday) morning and re- manded the accused in custody over-

night.

McDonagh’s | barrister, Brendan Nix, SC, said his client’s family has ostracised him since the incident.

Sergeant Darragh O’Sullivan told the court yesterday that “there were numerous allegations of incidents on both sides”.

However, Mr Nix replied to this, “On both sides? I suggest not.”

He said that the windows on his client’s caravan, which has been lo- cated on the Bishop’s grounds in En- nis for several months, “were put 1n” Ais CO)M nents glare

Caroline Biggs, BL for the Prosecu- tion, told the court that the DPP takes the view that this case came “at the higher end of manslaughter”’.

The accused’s wife Donna — who is pregnant with the couple’s fifth child — told the court she and her husband “deeply regret the death of Charlie and miss him very much”.

“Patrick used to love Charlie to come down to the house,” she said. ‘Patrick is the best husband there 1s. He does everything for me and the kids. His kids are his life, his prior- ity,’ she sobbed.

Psychiatrist Dr John O’Mahony said the accused suffers from post- traumatic stress disorder and depres- sion and is currently on the maxi- mum dose of anti-depressants.

He said he would have “grave con- cerns” about the availability of such treatment in “an average prison” in Ireland. “There is no forensic psy- chiatric service outside the Pale,’ he said.

Asked did McDonagh have remorse for killing his brother, Dr O’Mahony said, “I have no doubt. He sees my- self and a psychologist and a recur-

rent theme is he would do anything he could to bring his brother back. He has frequently expressed a death wish, if he could be dead and his brother alive.”

Mr Nix read out a letter from the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, who referred to the incident as a “dreadful family tragedy”.

Mr Nix said, “People set out to have a few drinks and enjoy each other’s company. Nobody went out that night to cause any insult or injury to any- body. Tempers certainly got the best of everybody.”

show that €352,836 was spent on 24- hour security at the Ballaghboy site which is ongoing and €116,532 was

spent on security at the Glenina site.

The requirement for 24-hour secu- rity at Gleninagh was part of a deal with local residents and this has been replicated at the Ballghboy site.

The Ballaghboy site is due to be de- molished before the end of the year as part of an agreement with local residents and it will be replaced by a permanent site for six families.

The council spent €219,000 on legal costs arising out of the capital element of its Traveller accommoda- none) EIeF

The largest amount was spent in relation to a halting site at Bally- macraven on the outskirts of En- nistymon where legal fees amounted to €163,000 with €34,457 going to

James Connolly SC and €23,777 go- ing to Patrick G Quinn BL.

The biggest beneficiaries were council solicitors, Michael Houlihan & Partners, who received €126,747 on dealing with legal issues on five Traveller accommodation sites and one house purchase.

€3.589 million has been paid to consultants as part of the building programme.

The local firm to do most construc- tion work on the Traveller accom- modation programme was Keco Ltd who received a total of €2.139 mil- lion.

SU clon cnwecmmpuce kore Ot UL mm epeeeLeye| for work on the Ballaghboy site; €254,158 for the temporary site at

Glenina and €85,228 for the halting site at Ballymaley .

M Fitzgibbon & Co. received €330,290 for refurbishment of the Ashline site on the Kilrush Road in Ennis, while L&M Keating received €678,214.

Architectural firm, Dermot & Sean Merry received €135,377 for design- ing seven Traveller accommodation sites, while other companies to work on the programme included Erina- ceous Consult Serv (Ire) Ltd who were paid €132,639

Michael Lillis & Co Ltd was paid €64,930 for work carried out at the number of sites, while consultant engineer Paddy Coleman was paid €21,140.

ANemail account lyingeyes98 @yahoo. ie was set up by Sharon Collins ‘for the purpose of hiring a hitman’, ac- cording to the Prosecution.

The State alleges the account was set up on August 2, 2006 on a desk computer at the Howards’ business premises at Westgate Business Park in Ennis.

Senior Counsel for the Prosecution Tom O’Connell told the jury that on August 8, 2006, that email address established contact with an email ad- dress ‘hitmanforhire@ yahoo.com’.

Telling the jury the email address would be “engraved in your memo- ries by the end of the case”, Mr O’Connell said it is the State’s case that Essam Eid operated that email using the alias Tony Luciano.

‘Emails were sent from that email address, signed Tony Luciano. Serv- ices offered by hitmanforhire were contract killings,” he said.

He said that after August 8, 2006, several emails were exchanged between the two email addresses and on August 15, “a contract was made between the person behind ‘lyingeyes’ and ‘hitman’ to kill PJ

Howard and his two sons at the price Oy LOR O00 ne

He said that $50,000 was the “‘nor- mal price” but because there were three, it was $90,000.

He said that on August 15, Ms Collins made a downpayment of €15,000, on foot of that contract.

“She sent the €15,000 in cash on that date by FedEx courier services from Shannon,” he said, adding that €13,000 was withdrawn from her own bank account and €2,000 from the credit union. She sent the money to Teresa Engels in Las Vegas, he PALO

“At that time, Teresa Engels ap- peared to be his wife. She lived with Essam Eid in Las Vegas at that ad- dress, with his previous wife, Lisa Eid,’ said Mr O’Connell.

He said that Essam Eid travelled to Ireland on September 24, 2004 and booked into the Two Mile Inn Hotel in Limerick. He said that the Egyp- tian native burgled the Howards’ business premises at Westgate Busi- ness Park in Ennis on September 25.

“It was an inside job. There was no evidence of any forced entry. Who- ever entered the premises that night had the keys and also had the alarm

code. It would seem the purpose of the burglary was to get rid of in- criminating evidence. The following day when gardai carried out a search of a room at the Two Mile Inn, they found keys to the office premises. It is the State’s case these were provid- ed by Ms Collins. They were left in Ennis to be picked up and used then to remove the potentially incriminat- ing computer,’ he said.

IN an effort to catch up on the air- miles clocked up by their colleagues in Clare County Council, members of Ennis Town Council are packing their bags to travel to Hungary at the weekend.

Leading the charge is Town Mayor Tommy Brennan (Ind) and he ex- plained yesterday that the trip is at the invitation of the Mayor of Erzsé- betvaros, which 1s a district in Buda- pest.

According to Cllr Brennan, the trip

is part of a twinning initiative by Erzsébetvaros.

The district of Budapest is no stranger to twinning with other towns and is already twinned with Sveti Vlas, Bulgaria; Po’ega, Croatia; Nevers, France; Stavroupoli, Thessa- loniki, Greece; Siedlce, Poland.

According to Cllr Brennan, Erzsé- betvaros is paying the accommo- dation bill for the Town Council group over the bank holiday week- end, while Ennis Town Clerk, Eddie Power confirmed yesterday that the trip is costing the Council €7,000

and funds have been provided in the 2008 budget to cover the costs.

Those travelling to Hungary include four other councillors, Cllr Mary Coote-Ryan (FG), Cllr Taiwo Mat- thew (Ind), Cllr Tom Glynn (FF) and Cllr Donal O’Beara (Green) along with Town Manager, Tom Coughlan; Town Clerk, Eddie Power and Senior Staff Officer, Liam O’Connor.

One councillor who will not be trav- elling is Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) who said yesterday: “Unless it 1s demon- strated to me that there is a benefit for the local community, I won’t go.”

He said that at the moment, re- sources are scarce with 900 people on the housing list.

“T have no problem with officials going to learn from others or the mayor representing the town, but I am focused on local priorities and I believe that the solutions to our own problems can be solved from within our own area.”

According to Eddie Power, the in1- tial contact came through the Hun- garian Embassy in Dublin and the visit will allow an opportunity for both Districts to exchange informa-

tion and to learn from each other’s experience and culture.

Noted for his singing ability, Cllr Brennan said if called upon, he will sing a song for his hosts.

“We are honoured and privileged that the District of Erzsébetvaros in Budapest has identified Ennis as a possible twinning partner. We are indeed pleased to accept the Mayor’s kind invitation to visit his district and look forward to exploring the twinning potential and the possibil- ity of developing links between our respective areas’, he said.

“THAT Sounds Like Music’ is the project being proposed by a Killaloe after school group who are hoping to scoop the €10,000 which is up for grabs from the AIB Better Ireland aN VETO e

The project aims to make a real dif- ference to the music experiences of the children of Killaloe.

The Killaloe Out of School Project has been operating since August 2006. It started life as a pilot initia- tive and received short-term funding from the Local Development Social Inclusion Programme.

More than 30 children attend the project, the focus of which is “to provide high quality care and crea-

tive learning opportunities for each child,” according to the organisers. Over thirty children attend the after school group each week. During the after school sessions, the youngsters get to listen to classical and world music which they’ve grown to like. “Using music in this way can help children to learn as it helps to focus their attention. How easy it is to learn off Westlife lyrics or the rap tune – so why not the maths tables? Compos- ing music can help with a child’s self-expression, while at the same time improving listening and pro- moting creativity. Learning a musi- cal instrument can help to build con- fidence and to increase self esteem,” a spokeswoman for the project said. If they get the funding, the project

plans an initial ten week period, dur- ing which the children will be in- structed by two members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra to compose and to learn to play music.

Both music facilitators have previ- ously worked on successful children’s music projects. The funding pays for music tuition, and the purchase of musical instruments, computer, computer software, and recording equipment.

‘That Sounds like Music’ aims to uncover untapped musical talent in the young students and to allow the children themselves to learn about reading, writing and playing their own musical compositions.

“The after school team believes that offering children this intensive,

fun, creative, way of experiencing and expressing themselves through music is something that will surprise them and is something that will en- rich the community. The team will use this initiative as a building block for future programmes and will of- fer the use of the music equipment to other community groups work- ing with children in Killaloe,” the spokeswoman said.

The AIB will award the cash to the group which gets the most votes in a text vote. Each group voted for will get a contribution for every text sent. Texts cost 60 cents each.

To help the Killaloe youngsters to make beautiful music, supporters should text the word ‘Killaloe’ fol- lowed by the letter °C’ to 53099.