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THE deadline for entries for the first ever Burren Marathon Challenge is fast approaching – and event organ- isers are expecting a great crowd to turn up for this historic walking event.

The marathon, which takes place on Saturday May 24, will take in some of Ireland’s most spectacular NEMA

Crossing the heart of the Burren, walkers will trek from Ballyvaughan to Fanore through the Cahir Valley before returning to Ballyvaughan via Blackhead.

The deadline for entries is this Sat-

urday, May 10.

“Preparations are all in place and we are delighted with all the support we are getting locally – from the resi- dents and the farmers to all the peo- ple who have come on board to do stewarding for the day,’ said Mary O’Brien from the Ballyvaughan-Fa- noe Walking Club.

“We need at least 30 stewards on the day and I’m delighted to say that we have the most of them already. We will be looking for help. To make this a success we will need lots of help on the ground on the day but we are getting great support.

“We’d love for as many people to get involved as possible – we really

want this to be a event for the whole locality.

“Entries have been coming in the whole time but in the last 10 days or so the pace has really upped. We will do our best to take any entries after the closing date but we really would like to avoid that if at all possible for logistics reasons – so that everyone can have a T-shirt and so that we can have everything ordered and printed Ko) mn na om eth VA

The marathon has been organised by the Ballyvaughan Fanore Walk- ing Club with the support of Clare Sports Partnership, the Atlantis Group including the Burren Coast Hotel and various local businesses.

Registration for the event takes place on Friday May 23 from 6.30pm to 8.30pm and on Saturday May 24 from 6.30am to 8.30am at the con- ference Centre of the Burren Coast sloroe

Each participant has a choice of full, half or mini marathon. All three challenges start at the Burren Coast Hotel in Ballyvaughan at 9am sharp and all three routes will take you back to the finish line at the Burren Coast Hotel for an evening of enter- Bb On eetes OL

For more information or to down- load an entry form check out www. ballyvaughanfanorewalkingclub. com.

THE Lord Mayor of Cork, Donal Counihan, has paid a warm tribute to the late President Hillery, describing the Clare man as “the epitome of all that was statesmanlike”’.

Mr Counihan, who, for three years, lived in Corrovorin, Ennis while working for Clare County Council, said Dr Hillery was characterised by ‘“‘an impeccable integrity”’.

“His innate decency and humil- ity and the qualities of being able to ‘walk with kings’ while at the same time relate so sincerely with ordi- nary people.”

Mr Counihan praised Dr Hillery’s work as minister for education when

he paved the way for the establish- ment of regional technical colleges.

“In his next role, as minister for industry and commerce, he saw the move for greater protection and safe- ty in industry for workers and the then vexed issue of industrial rela- tions. This led to the establishment of a Department of Labour and his appointment as the first minister for labour.”

Mr Counihan said that, while ex- ternal affairs minister, Dr Hillery showed a steely resolve by turning up on the Falls Road in Belfast at the height of the Northern troubles. Thereafter he travelled to the UN in New York, drawing the attention of the world to the plight of Northern

Nationalists.

“This personal mettle was again demonstrated when he faced down at a Fianna Fail Ard-Fheis a group who did not fully share his democratic national instincts on the resolution of the Northern question.”

Mr Counihan went on to praise Dr Hillery’s term as EU Commissioner and his decision, despite personal reservations, to become President of Ireland in 1976.

“He fulfilled this role with dignity and commenced a process whereby the President became much more en- gaged with Irish society and particu- larly with communities throughout the country. His display of profound loyalty to the State and the proprie-

ties regarding the Presidency in par- ticular became manifest when he granted a dissolution to a Taoiseach despite pressure from his political colleagues not to do so.

“On a personal level, I had the great pleasure of meeting him intermit- tently over many years past and have gladly accepted invitations to Aras an Uachtaran. On these occasions, he felt most relaxed when recounting anecdote stories of political and per- sonal events and it was a great pleas- ure to have had the rare opportunity O) Ml oLesuNTcam bem Obmere)esl Oy: DEhVA

“As a presidential couple with his wife, Dr Maeve Hillery, both set an excellent example and were univer- sally admired.”

A PERCEIVED lack of choice is pushing customers away from Ennis and towards larger urban centres, ac- cording to Retail Excellence Ireland.

Commenting on the findings of a re- cent survey, Crest Retail Excellence Ireland CEO, David Fitzsimons said shoppers wanted big-name brands like Marks and Spencers and River Island.

Crest Retail Excellence Ireland was commissioned by the Aisling

Chiosoig Partnership to survey at- titudes of Ennis residents to current shopping choice in Ennis, as well as shopping habits and attitude of resi- dents to the Cusack Park project.

The Aisling Chiosdig Partnership plans a €350 million mixed-use de- velopment to be known as the Riv- erSide Quarter. The 10-acre Cusack Park site is currently the subject of a rezoning submission to Ennis Town Council by Clare GAA.

The survey was carried out in En- nis town over the period March 1-8

last. A sample of 839 respondents were interviewed on three separate days. The survey found that there are 757,500 habitual ‘Out of Ennis’ shopping trips made by Ennis resi- dents annually and that 83 per cent of Ennis residents believe the town re- quires a stronger selection of stores. Mr Fitzsimons said, “The figures are pretty unequivocal. You have al- most 800,000 shopping trips made outside of Ennis and the average spend is close to €100. Ninety per cent of people spend more than €50

on an average shopping trip outside of Ennis. And when people travel they are more likely to buy more. It does appear, or the findings of the Survey appear to indicate, that an aw- ful lot of money is going out of the town because of a perceived lack of selection.”

The survey found that when ques- tioned on their preferred retail out- lets, there was an overwhelming response from shoppers in favour of big-name stores.

Mr Fitzsimons said, “It cuts up pret-

ty differently between age groups but definitely the most favoured selection was Marks and Spencers. Prompted, or when given a Selection of stores to choose from, Marks and Spen- cers came out on top by a fair old bit. Women tended to go for stores like Brown Thomas, while men went for shops like Homebase and Argos. Younger people indicated that they would like to see shops like River Island or Jack and Jones, which was popular with young men, in Ennis.” Limerick and Galway were cited as

“Irrespective of the influx of the Muslim immigrants over the years, these people still want to hold onto the power. They have the financial backing, they have Government backing and they have the backing of the National Consultative Commit- tee and groups like that.

‘These groups are funded by tax- payers’ money and they have chosen to keep this exclusive group of Arab Muslims in power in Ireland. They represent a very extreme form of Is- lam and that needs to be challenged. I challenge it as a Muslim. But what made my challenge look stupid, so much so that they started to de- monise me, is that those who do not know anything about the dynamics of Islam jumped in – the Government jumped in.

“In other words, the Irish are quick to criticise themselves but they are too quick also to turn a blind eye to others. I don’t think that it is the correct way to go, because you are turning a blind eye at the cost of the citizens.

“In the media, Islam is portrayed as areligion of violence, but Islam is not a religion of violence. However,

there are small extremists within the fold of Islam – like bin Laden, like al-Qaeda and Hamas – that come out of the Muslin Brotherhood.

“T don’t know if people realise it but the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood has his headquarters in Ireland. Yusuf al-Qaradawi has his headquarters in Dublin at the Clon- skeagh Mosque.

‘He promotes suicide bombing and Oppression of women, slapping of women, female genital mutilation – nonsense like that all comes out of the same womb in Dublin.

“T challenge the extremists, but I am demonised for it. That is a prob- lem, if you don’t know anything about the dynamics of Islam and you jump in because those extremist are the friends of the powers that be and

they give great banquets and great gifts. That’s nonsense. You have to face this problem head on, take the bull by the horns, before it gets too late.

“In Ireland, the extremist groups are not small – they are in power within the Muslin community here. The moderates are a mute majority. Established Islam in Ireland, the face of Islam in Ireland is the Clonskeagh Mosque in Dublin. They are taken as the true face of Islam in Ireland which is just not true. Arabs con- stitute less than 14 per cent of the Muslim population of the world – yet these extreme Arab Muslims are the face of all Muslims in Ireland.

Dr Satardien, who is a South Af- rican Muslim, believes that honest and open dialogue is the only way

forward.

“T think that conferences like this one in Ballyvaughan are long over- due and very important. We need to be frank and open about the problem and not treat it like an elephant in the room”.

“Everybody wants to make the problem invisible, to whisper the problem. And that does not make the problem go away. Especially in Ire- land, we are very politically correct here – we don’t want to be called na- tionalist, we really don’t know what we want to be called at the end of the day. We are not taking a stand and that stand has to be taken at some time. This is a great opportunity.

‘The people in the street are gen- erally ignorant about Islam and what Islam is about. The perception of

Islam has been gathered from the media and from programming from American films. But the Muslim community here in Ireland haven’t reached out – they haven’t come out to the Irish people and told them what they are about. Dialogue is long overdue. Frank, honest discussions is the only way forward.”

A BRAND new solo exhibition of paintings from north Clare artist, Sara Foust takes up residence in he Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon this week.

The exhibition which is entitled The Other Place, includes a number works painted by Sara over the last 12 months. After focusing on coast- al areas in her last exhibition, Sara has decided to turn her attention to woodland for this latest collection of V0) 0.@

‘“T wanted to explore a different sub- ject matter with this exhibition. One of the main reasons that I focussed

on trees was that it can be really hard to find a nice woodland around here – it’s fairly barren. They’re there but they’re tucked away,” said Sara.

“My own way of working with colour is far more vibrant than what you might see with your own eyes. At times it’s riding that line between representation and abstract – a lot of people are scared of abstract art, but my work can straddle that line a lhit- tle bit.”

The exhibition features a number of scenes taken from woods in the Clare area. The paintings span dif- ferent times of the year and attempt to capture the woods as they pass through the different seasons.

This collection attempts to create the feeling that the woodland is a distinct arena to other areas.

‘The idea of the other place was a combination of a lot of other ideas that I have been playing with. One of the main ones is that we are still here in Clare, we’re still in a local place but it’s a very different feeling out in the woods. It a completely different personal feeling of nature,’ contin- ued Sara.

‘There is so much a sence of pro- tection, enclosure and quiet. It’s a really different feeling and experi- ence of nature. I learned a lot as I was working through the exhibition and different aspects became really

fascinating.

“In some painting the interesting thing was to focus in on something small like a section of bark and it’s texture, while in other ones I became fascinated on the dabs of light locat- ed underneath the tree. To see how the shadows of the trees flutter down in the undergrowth and the play of the different shades of light.”

‘The Other Place’ runs in the Court- house Gallery until May 24, from Tuesday to Saturday each week.

FIVE staff members of The Lodge at Doonbeg Golf Club have skilled up on information technology through a special upskilling course.

They were presented with cer- tificates from FAS, whose Skills for Work computer-based course was facilitated by the Clare Vocational Education Committee.

The staff members – Harry Crowe, Anna Cooney, Dermot Healy, Len

Wilson and Michael Ryan – took the course for 15 weeks at the West Clare Resource Centre in Miltown Malbay where training was provided by Jenny Bostock of Clare VEC.

Doonbeg General Manager, Joe Russell and HR Manager, Patrice Scanlan facilitated their employ- ees in attending training during the LO) 0. GOTO ENA

Commenting on the development, Joe Russell said The Lodge at Doon- beg was committed to its employees

and their professional growth. The programme provided the training necessary for them to enhance their skills, further improving what has always been a wonderfully talented team. ;

Skills for Work, a new FAS Serv- ices to Business programme, is being offered to people in employment at a number of Clare locations.

It is designed to provide easy access to training for employees, improving essential information technology

and communications skills as well as educational levels in the workplace.

Training is fully subsidised by FAS and focuses on _ industry-specific topics, such as health and safety, customer care, familiarisation with computers, personal and interper- sonal skills, etc.

Classes are usually on-site and fully funded. Certification is through the Further Education and Training Awards Council of Ireland but op- wLOyat-N B

With a workplace Skills For Work course, employees can avail of train- ing to start on the one-step-up cycle. In gaining enhanced confidence and skills, participants can go on to ac- cess a broader range of training op- tions.

This in turn assists the employer in taking one-step-up in terms of effec- tiveness.

Several such courses are running successfully in companies around Clare.

MORE than eight in 10 Ennis resi- dents believe that the town needs a stronger selection of stores to shop in and the same number are proving it by going to shop elsewhere at least once a month.

Nine in 10 of those shoppers spend more than €50 on their away trips, while 83 per cent of those surveyed believe that Ennis will benefit from the development of a world-class shopping centre and 83 per cent say that a new retail development at Cu- sack Park would add to the town’s economic prosperity.

Questions asked in the survey de- termine that “the provision of world- class retail and entertainment serv- ices 1n the heart of Ennis will retain customers within Ennis town, break habitual spending habits outside the confines of the town and will add significant revenue to the local econ- omy’, according to the summary of the findings, conducted and drawn up by CREST Retail Excellence Ire- land.

76 per cent of those questioned for the survey felt there should be better restaurant and entertainment choices in the town.

Of the stores currently operating in Ennis, women aged 30-50+ years said that Dunnes was the store they most liked, while 20-30-year-old fe- males most like Cornucopia.

Willow was the retail outlet of choice for 14-20-year-olds.

Men aged between 14 and 30 years named Manix as their favourite store and those aged 30 to 50-plus chose Dunnes.

The total sample used for the survey was 839 residents or 4.15 per cent of the population of Ennis, as recorded in the 2006 census.

The sample included 518 women and 321 men who were interviewed on three separate days between March 1 and 8 last by trained re- searchers conducting face-to-face interviews.

The report concludes that an “in- town development of scale would substantially benefit the economy” of the town and the “vast majority

of Ennis residents are fully support- ive of a new in town retail develop- jee 8 i

Reacting to the survey, a spokes- person for the Aisling Chiosoig Part- nership described the results as a remarkable vote of confidence in the proposed RiverSide Quarter.

“Clearly the people of Ennis want this project to go ahead. They want the range of retail outlets that the RiverSide Quarter will provide and they recognise the prosperity it will bring to the town in terms of jobs and increased retail spend.

“With the people of Ennis behind the concept, we feel very confident about the future. We also believe that the incredible support shown by the survey will be consolidated when the detailed plans and illustrations become available for all to see,” he SrBKOe

QUERRIN National School is very proud of its pupils who have ensured national recognition for the west Clare school.

School principal Elizabeth O’Shea paid tribute to Michael Duffy and Ronan Allen who were crowned Clare winners of the Engineers Ire- land STEPS to engineering K’NEX Regional Challenge, which took, place last week in Limerick Institute of Technology.

The two fifth class pupils will now represent Clare at the Engineers Ire- land K’NEX Challenge National Fi- nal in Dublin in June.

They will compete with other pri-

mary school children from across Ireland for the prestigious title of Junior Engineer of Ireland 2008.

Under the watchful eye of the schools other mainstream teacher, Mairead Allen, fourth and fifth class boys and girls entered the competi- nO

The school has been involved in the competition for a number of years.

The two-teacher school with one special education teacher was de- lighted when the two boys secured the regional title, as were the boys themselves.

“T can’t believe we have won. We have been practicing for the last three weeks non-stop. I love playing with K’NEX. You can make any-

thing from it,” said Ronan.

“T am very proud of them. They are excellent children, not just those two children but all of them and their parents are also very supportive,” said Ms O’Shea.

“This success was a joint effort from everyone in the school.”

John Power, Chartered Engineer and Director General of Engineers Ireland, congratulated Michael and Ronan.

“We wish them well in the national finals. The STEPS to engineering K’NEX challenge is a fantastic op- portunity for young people to expe- rience first hand how creative and interesting engineering is. The stand- ard of entry of the K°’NEX models

from Clare was very high and this is just one of 21 regional finals that will take place before the final in the Helix in June,” he said.

This year’s K°’NEX Challenge has taken place in 750 primary schools and has involved 1,500 primary school pupils from across the country. Each team of two children competed against the clock using their imagi- nation, creativity and skill to plan, design and construct an engineering model. The pupils worked under the theme, ‘celebrating the past, creating the future’, with the educational con- struction toy, K°NEX. The Clare Re- gional Final was officiated by judges John Culligan from Eircom and Ci- aran McManus from ESBI.

THE story of one of north Clare’s least celebrated superstars will be brought to dramatic life this evening at Glor in Ennis. “Submarine Man” tells the story of Liscannor’s John P Holland, inventor of the submarine and one of Ireland’s most remarkable engineers.

Written by Aidan Harney and di- rected by David Horan, the play tracks Holand’s life from his time as a school teacher in Clare to his in- volvement with the Fenians in New York, and his development of the submarine with the US navy.

“Holland, to me, is as intrepid an explorer as Sir Edmund Hillary on

Mount Everest, Neil Armstrong on the moon or Ernest Shackleton the great Antarctic explorer.

“Towards the end of the 1800s in the United States, in particular, but around the world there was a real race on to see who could conquer the mistress of the deep,” said writer Aidan Harney.

‘His story 1s simply the story of a man who had a dream and pursued it until he achieved it – although it nearly killed him along the way. I decided to write the play to try and make the life and times of this little- known man more accessible to peo- ple and to explore his contribution to Irish history.”

Harney’s early career was as a

journalist and actor, but he is now with Engineers Ireland. This love for engineering, writing and the stage made him the perfect person to bring Holland to the stage.

“It’s really an amazing story and the Fenian connection is incredible. When he arrived in New York in the 1870s, he got involved with Clan na Gael and, particularly, the famous O’Donovan Rossa.

“Rossa was so fascinated by Hol- land’s constant ramblings about the submarine and its potential as a weapon to solve the Irish question that he gave John Breslin, another very famous Fenian, and John De- voy, another huge figure of Irish his- tory, the job of working with Holland

to see if it was possible to build,” LoyeTebaLeCcremawlerIF

‘Fenian backers got nervous when Holland’s early prototype sank to the bottom of the Hudson river and almost killed poor Holland himself. They claimed he had built himself a coffin.

“When Holland spent a huge sum re-surfacing and repairing the sub- marine, the Fenians had a falling out and John Breslin, one night, actually stole the submarine from its moor- ings. Breslin forgot to seal the turret, the Fenian Ram, as it was known, subsequently flooded and sank.”

Submarine Man takes place in Glor this evening, May 6. Tickets are priced €18/€16.

MEZZO-soprano Naomi O’Connell from Ballyvaughan and tenor Dean Power, a native of Clarecastle, will perform at a free lunchtime concert on Friday at European Commission headquarters in Dublin to celebrate Europe Day.

Naomi is completing her final year of a BA in performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, while Dean is in the final year of the Bachelor of Music “Performance Course’ at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Both Naomi and Dean began their vocal studies with Archie Simpson in Clare and now study in Dublin WA LOM\Z EV aYas BIESONITTEE

Over the last four years, Naomi has won 11 first places in Feis Ceoil and last year won three prizes in the Veronica Dunne international singing competition, including the

Dame Joan Sutherland prize for the most promising young singer as well as overall fourth prize in the com- petition. Next September, she will continue her studies with a Masters Degree at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York.

Dean has also won numerous priz- es at Feis Ceoil and this year was overall winner in the Ballymena Feis as well as coming joint first in the Male Voice Repertoire and Grand Opera competitions. He has travelled widely, singing in the Irish dance show, “Rhthym Of The Dance’ and has sung tenor solo in Handel’s OW SSE

The Dublin concert takes place from | to 2pm on Friday at the EC building in Dawson Street.