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CLARE County Council has ex- pressed “serious reservations” about the first ever hotel proposed for Sixmilebridge.

Gerard and Martha Kearney lodged plans for the construction of an hotel on Sixmilebridge’s Main Street ear- lier this year.

Their consultants state that the Kearneys wish to transform an un- sightly fuel merchants and commer- cial yard into a development that will enhance the town.

However, revised plans will have to be lodged if it is to secure planning eau NUIT (OOF

The council, requesting revised plans, states that it welcomes the development of a modern hotel facil- ity within the centre of Sixmilebri- dge but has serious concerns about the proposed development under a number of headings.”

Specifically the council says it is not satisfied that the design and lay- out 1S appropriate for the prominent location of the site within the heart of an Architectural Conservation Area and fronting the Owengraney River.

The council said the proposed de- velopment would not be permitted and a significant alteration in layout

and design was required and this could involve a new planning appli- cation.

“The development of this piece of land in isolation to the undeveloped zoned land immediately to the west is contrary to the proper planning and development of the area.

The council panners also main- tained that the proposal represented “piecemeal and haphazard develop- nates laee

“It is the view of the council that these lands should be developed to- gether to form one comprehensive development which links to both sides of the town.

The council also point out that the development represents “over-devel- opment of the site’, and will result in significant overshadowing and over- bearing of the adjacent properties to the west fronting Main Street.

Expressing concerns over the project, local resident, Anne Casey States, “I believe that the mass and scaling of the proposed hotel is ex- cessive in relation to the site area and the construction of a three sto- rey structure in close proximity to the rear of my property will result in a serious reduction of natural light and leave the rear of my house over- shadowed during long periods of the or hae

NEXT week, Clare will travel to London and will record their fourth league win on the trot. It will bring some clear comparisons to Clare’s league run in 1990/91 when another relatively unknown Connaught man- ager came to the county and em- barked on his first league campaign.

Back then, John Maughan’s Clare began poorly, lost the opening half of their league games, then turned things around in the latter half of the competition. Incidentally, both campaigns included important wins against fancied Wicklow sides. It may be a sign.

On Sunday afternoon, with the warm down over, Frank Doherty was basking in the late afternoon sun gushing onto the Cusack park grass, but was still focused on next week- aKeb

“We’re going to take a professional view about the London game,” he says. “We’re not going away to have a bit of fun, because I want to finish the campaign having won four on the trot. I want to send a shock wave down to Waterford to say we’re not gone away, we’re here and we’re able to do business when they come to Cusack Park [in the championship] in five weeks time.”

The turn about in Clare’s league, he says, can be attributed to two com- ponents — one mental, and the other on the field.

“Confidence and training,’ he says. “I still believe if we beat Carlow we’d have been pushing the latter end of the league. This could have been a league final here today. But we lost our confidence after Carlow and then Antrim came here and gave us a wake up call and there were games

there we could have won.

“Then training was important as well. We didn’t have time to knuckle down and do some championship pace training but when the [one week] break came [just before Clare began to win again] we got back to solid training.”

The return of confidence and the opportunity to train at a pace Do- herty was happy with, provided the springboard for this hat-trick of vic- tories, culminating with Sunday’s defeat of Offaly.

“The big thing for me today was that we showed a lot of bottle and a lot of character at the end. Once they drew level, we stayed going and went down and kicked the winning point. Questions have been asked of this team and today, some of those were answered.’

After 40 minutes, with the score level, there came the odd bellow from the stands, calling on the man- ager to move things about around the centre of the field. Though Doherty didn’t heed any of those cat calls, he says Clare could have gripped mid- field with a stronger hold.

“We can do better at midfield, but we had two young lads there today, Frank [O’Dea] and Garry [Bren- nan]. David [Russell] came out and we moved Garry across, but we were missing [the suspended] Ger [Quin- lan’s] strength and presence in there as well.

“We basically have four competing for two positions. I have to put David on the team because he’s working hard and his effort has been mighty. Ger would have horsed into Ciaran McManus if he was there and that would have freed up either Garry or Frank. In fairness, the lads today are young and we have to compliment

them and drive them on rather than be hitting on them.

He’s asked about his decision to withdraw his captain, Michael O’Shea, before re-introducing him.

“I think it was obvious why he was taken off. Michael will give every- thing, he was winning ball but we were giving away ball too softly. I didn’t want to sit around and wait, so we brought on Sean Collins and he was just on a minute or two and kicked a point.

“T can never doubt Michael’s com- mitment to Clare, but turning ball over and losing it is a cardinal sin. But I put him back in and he kicked a score. I don’t want to be unkind to anybody but at times, you have to do that. You can’t kick a ball into a goalkeeper’s hands after commit- ting playing forward. It allows them re-group and leaves your team ex- posed.”

He goes on to explain that Rory Donnelly had just passed a fitness test on Saturday night and as his hamstring problem re-surfaced, the manager felt it was wiser to take him off than risk further injury. He also says the decision to play Gordon Kel- ly at corner back was a tactical deci- sion, made with the scoring threat of Niall McNamee in mind.

“Gordon did well again, he kept McNamee quiet. You can’t ask for jeeKO)KommM er: DaMAer-limae

London next week before the crunch visit of Waterford on May 25. From here, there’s no reason why Clare can’t string five wins together.

NEW Ennis Chamber President Niall Garvey has identified Cusack Park, Shannon Airport and pedestrianisa- tion as the key issues impacting on businesses in Ennis.

Mr Garvey, of accountancy firm Niall C Garvey Accountants and Co, was speaking after he was elected president at the recent Annual Gen- eral Meeting of Ennis Chamber, held at the Old Ground Hotel.

The meeting consisted of a review of the activities of Ennis Chamber during the past year by Outgoing- President Michael Evans and CEO Rita McInerney.

Michael Evans outlined the coor- dinated approach undertaken by the

Regional Chambers of Limerick, Shannon, Ennis and Galway in the wake of the announcement on Shan- non – Heathrow Services in August 2007.

He said he believes that this coop- eration 1S necessary in order to de- velop an economic counter pole to Dublin.

Mr. Evans went on to say that he had liaised with the Local Authori- ties over the past year and stressed the importance of the rapid comple- tion of the permanent Water Treat- ment System in order to ensure a reliability of the source.

The outgoing president also called for the fast-tracking of improved in- frastructure for the town including the road network and parking par-

ticularly in light of discussion around the pedestrianisation of O’Connell Street and Abbey Street.

The meeting then proceeded to elect the new officers and executive of the board with the following re- sults: President: Niall Garvey, Niall C. Garvey Chartered Accountants; Vice-President: Guy Flouch, New Idiom; Treasurer: Tony Barrett, AIB; Secretary: Margaret Neylon.

In his acceptance speech, incom- ing – president Niall Garvey said he looked forward to continuing the work of his predecessors in leading the chamber for the forthcoming year.

In particular, he would continue to co-operate with other bodies to pro- mote the greater good of Ennis, par-

ticularly as a place to do business.

He said the chamber must remain positive in promoting Ennis in an in- creasingly negative business climate, and he looked forward to dealing proactively with the known forth- coming issues, including the pro- posed development of Cusack Park, proposed pedestrianisation, and con- nectivity for Shannon Airport mov- ing to the future.

The additional members of the Ennis Chamber Executive for 2007 – 2008 are Michael Byrne, Wil- liam Cahir, Dervilla Evans, Mary Jo Duffy, Gerry Flynn, Paul Flynn, John Galvin, Grainne Hassett, Roger Leyden, John Madden, Diarmuid Mc Mahon, Oliver Moylan, Paul Mul- lane and Con O’Callaghan.

CLARE farmer Michael O’Brien will represent the county at the an- nual Macra Na Feirme Mr Personal- ity competition to be held this Friday and Saturday in Kilkenny. The fes- tival which is in its third year will be held in the Springhill Court Ho- tel and will again be sponsored by Kilkenny Carlow and District Farm Relief Service.

Clare hopeful Michael Carey is a

26 year old farmer from the Kincora Club whose interests include Macra, hurling, socialising and he is also a big supporter of Manchester United HIG ON E-buer

He also feels he will be a good Mr Personality because he’s very ap- proachable and he gets on well with everybody.

The competition consists of a two day schedule of activities in which the contestants will be judged on their ability to interact and display

their individual personalities.

They will be interviewed on stage on Friday night by former Macra president Matt O’Keeffe followed by music by Domino Effect and DJ till late.

On Saturday morning, the contest- ants will participate in challenges and in the afternoon, they will be interviewed by an esteemed judg- ing panel — Helen Carroll present- er on RIE’s farming programme Ear to the Ground, Seamus Phelan

former Macra President and Sinead O’Sullivan former County Person of the Year in Kilkenny.

On Saturday evening there will be an informal gala banquet followed by music by Loaded and the Mr Per- sonality 2008 will be announced at approximately 12 midnight.

The winner will be presented with the perpetual trophy, a cheque for €500 and a weekend which is beigng sponsored by the Springhill Court ee)roe

THE champagne flowed amid the glitz and glamour of the foyer of the West County Hotel on Saturday night – and this was even before the official proceedings of the night kicked off.

It was the prologue to Avenue Unit- ed’s big party to celebrate 25 years that took the form of a champagne reception.

As the bottles were uncorked, there were Samba dancers on hand to add a little bit extra colour to the occa- sion.

Then the long night that stretched

into the late morning hours began in the Liam McCarthy Suite.

It all took place 25 years to the day that Avenue United was established – it was 12 April, 1983 and time had now raced on to 12 April 2008.

The maiden voyage was in Mickey Kerins’ bar in Lifford with a meet- ing chaired by Gerard ‘Paddlers’ O’Grady from Marian Avenue. What to call the club was one of the most important items on the agenda. Some said Marian Rovers, the mouthful of Boreen Rambling Rovers had a few supporters, but in the end Avenue United was adopted unanimously.

Paddlers lives in Mayo now, but just as he journeyed down to the old town for the launch of Ollie Byrnes’

CLARE BASED writer Nuala O Faolain revealed over the weekend that she has cancer and will soon die. In an emotionally charged interview, the Lahinch based journalist and author revealed that she learned of the diagnosed six weeks ago in New York.

The cancer, which began in her lungs but has now spread to her brain and liver, is incurable and Ms O Faolain has turned down the option OMe Toate

Ms O Faolain owns a house in Bar- tra outside Lahinch and has lived between Clare and New York for the last two decades. ;

During those years, Ms O Faolain spent much of her time in Lahinch

with fellow journalist Nell McCaf- ferty and was a regular contributor to the Merriman Summer School in Lisdoonvarna.

“T lived for years with Nell McCaf- ferty and lets say 12 of those were the greatest fun and I owe so much to them and in fact, as far as I am con- cerned, Irish women owe so much to Nell and I was dead lucky to live with her. But then again it ended up not so hot, but now it is my great pleasure to be in email contact with Nell and to thank her,’ she told RTE radio.

“Let poor human beings believe what they want, but to me its (the af- terlife) meaningless. I waited on the radio the other day to hear poor John O’ Donoghue, knowing that he is very important to many people, but to me it is utterly meaningless.

“And yet I want to mention one thing that you might play at the end, particularly for dying people, some- thing I picked up little bits here and there about Ireland, largely at the Merriman Summer School, which is one of the great things in my life.

“It’s a song I heard a few years ago called Thois I Lar an Glanna. It’s a kind of modern song sung by Albert Fry and other Donegal singers. And the last two lines are two things, ask- ing God up there in the heavens, even though you don’t believe in him, to send you back even though you know it can’t happen. Those two things sum up where I am now.”

€83,000 will be spent by Ennis Town Council to slow down speed- ing drivers in Ennis.

That is the amount allocated to traffic calming works in Ennis under the council’s Draft Programme for Special Roadworks 2008.

In addition to outstanding works for 2007, the locations targeted in the programme are Hermitage, Shalee Drive, John Paul Avenue, Gordon Drive, Turnpike Road, Drehid- nagower, laneway beside St Josephs, Collins Park, Summerhill, Connolly Villas and Bridge Court.

However, despite concerns from local residents, traffic calming meas-

ures will not be installed in Ivy Road. A speed survey conducted by Ennis Town Council found speed limits in the area were not high enough to warrant the introduction of traffic management controls. Inbound, the total number of vehicles surveyed was 442.

The average speed recorded for vehicles travelling into Ivy Hill was found to be 36km/hour and the 85th percentile speed was recorded at 46.02km/hour. Outbound, the total number of vehicles surveyed was Tyee

The average speed recorded was 39km/hour and the 85th percentile speed was 49.55km/h.

The 85th percentile mark is the

speed below which 85 per cent of the vehicles were travelling and is a method used in determining the need for traffic controls.

The survey was carried out over a 24-hour period between 4pm on Jan- uary 10 and 4pm on January 11

In his report Town Engineer Tom Tiernan stated that as the 85th per- centile didn’t exceed 50km/h, in e1- ther inbound or outbound situations, traffic calming measures wasn’t jus- abELsee

In total, €720,500 is available to the council to implement the road- works programme.

It is proposed to spend €150,000 on road surfacing works at 10 locations around Ennis at Corrovorrin Grove;

Cappalawn, Roslevan, Laneway at Dalcassian Park; Avondale, Kilrush Road; Castlewood Park; College Green (A); College Green (B); Clau- reen Drive; Road by Golf Club; Lane at rear of Lifford Road.

A total of €145,000 has been allo- cated for footpath upgrading works while a total of €150,000 has been set aside to cover loan charges and CCAS hea eec Dele mr: Delea OED mYmere Nims Colm Nelom ENT.) stage of the Ennis inner relief road.

Ennis’ laneways will also get a makeover with the upgrade of Chap- el Lane and Cookes Lane. The next phase of the scheme involves the laneways linking the pedestrian sec- tion of Parnell Street with the Parnell street car park.

FARMFEST °08, the major Teagasc open day of the year was launched in Athenry on Friday. The festival in- corporating Bioenergy ‘08, will take place in Athenry, on Friday, 20 June. Announcing details of the event, Teagasc director, Professor Gerry Boyle said: It has been 10 years since a major Teagasc open day was held in Athenry. The full range of Teagasc activities in advisory, research and education will be showcased. The best technical advice for dairy, beef, sheep and tillage businesses, along with the latest research from young scientists will be available.” Professor Boyle continued: ”The Irish economy and rural Ireland has changed dramatically over the last ten years and this is reflected in the emergence of innovative rural-based

businesses right around the country. Farmfest °08 will reflect this new ru- ral Ireland, bringing together these rural innovators to display their novel range of products including many artisan foods. The rural devel- Opment opportunities are many, and visitors will have the opportunity to find out more about some of the best and most promising ideas to develop in rural Ireland in recent times at this upcoming event.”

“I am particularly pleased that Bioenergy *O08 will be a significant part of the event, and we welcome our partners, Sustainable Energy Ire- land and COFORD, to work with us in highlighting the potential of this exciting and emerging new sector,’ he concluded.

Exhibits at Farmfest *O8 will in- clude a dairy exhibit which will fo- cus On opportunities for new entrants

and expansion, a major beef breeding display, a tillage exhibit will include newly established cereal trial plots in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and an education exhibit will see all the colleges mount individual practical skills displays in an interesting for- eatele

The Teagasc national sheep re- search programme is based on the Athenry campus so the sheep exhibit will be particulalry significant.

Bioenergy ‘08 promises to be even bigger than last year’s event, bring- ing together all stages of the supply chain, from producing energy crops, through the processing stage, to the options for the final consumer.

Covering over six hectares of eround, the environment exhibit will feature the main environmental chal- lenges facing Irish agriculture, while

providing practical demonstrations for the thousands participating and interested in REPS.

Artisan food, scientific research, forestry, equine and Health and life- style together with farm safety and reducing labour and Land use op- tions including organic production, tourism and other enterprises will all play a prominent part at Farmfest ’08 which promises to comprehensively cover all aspects of Teagasc’s activi- lene

A FIGHT between two brothers end- ed in one fatally stabbing the other, a jury at the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Patrick McDonagh (27) of Bridge Court, Roslevan, Ennis, denied mur- dering his brother Charlie (30), at Bridge Court, on January 28, 2007. He also denied the alternative charge of manslaughter and a further charge of producing a knife in the course of a fight.

In his opening speech, prosecuting counsel Tom McConnell SC told the jury of seven women and five men that, after an evening of drinking, a row between the brothers developed into a “serious, almost gladiatorial fight” that led to a “fratricidal kill- Thea

After a fight involving a knife and a hatchet, Charlie McDonagh received 12 stab wounds including the fatal wound to his stomach.

Anthony Ward said he had been staying with Charlie McDonagh

while his sister, Charlie’s wife, vis- ited her mother in Galway.

They started drinking cans of Guin- ness and Red Bull at around 8.30pm. After about three cans they opened a bottle of vodka.

Mr Ward said that Charlie rang the accused to bring over a bottle of coke for a mixer.

They later went to Patrick’s house, Where they continued drinking. Patrick’s wife Donna joined them. Some time later that night, a row developed between the brothers, in

Patrick’s house.

Mr Ward said that Charlie McDon- agh had a volatile temper and had once bitten his ear. He said Charlie left to move his van and he went back to Charlie’s house and locked Watomelereye

A few minutes later Patrick arrived and started banging on the front door and shouting. Mr Ward said he was “frightened, terrified’, so when Patrick disappeared round the side of the building, he ran across the road to arelation’s house.

Patrick meanwhile started breaking the windows of Charlie’s house. The gardai and an ambulance were called and Patrick was taken to hospital for treatment to his injuries.

Some time later Charlie returned and saw the damage to his house. He attacked Patrick’s car, which was parked on the street outside his Olen en

Mr Ward said a neighbour, Ms Cara Moylan, came out and brought them into her house for a cup of tea and a glass of wine.

THE gymnastics club in Shannon has been basking in glory after one of its members won a medal at a prestigious international event.

12-year-old Becky O’Donnell won a bronze medal, after she came third in the Coimbre Open in Portugal.

Becky, who is one of the top eight tumblers in Ireland, was selected to participate in the event in the wake of a string of impressive performances in Clare and the wider Munster area, over the past year.

She was delighted to come third in the Coimbre Open, where she fought off stiff competition from more than 10 other entrants, in the under-13

category.

This follows on from her success last year, when she competed in Lithuania and was placed in the top ten in a world cup event in Poland.

Her coach Elaine Ryan said Becky deserved the honours and everyone in the club was thrilled for her.

“She has been building up, with good performances in past competi- tions,’ said Ms Ryan.

“This is the first international med- al the club has every got. We are very proud,” she added.

Becky travels from her home in Kildysart for training at the Shan- non club and hopes are high that her fine achievements will encourage her club colleagues.

“There are 80 members in the club and hopefully this will encourage the others,” said Ms Ryan.

The club has been busy over the past few months and after being without a permanent home, it has re- cently secured a new base.

It is currently located at the Stone- hall Business Park, but will move to a permanent home near Newmarket- on-Fergus later this month.

“We are delighted with this. There is a great backing from the parents,” said Ms Ryan.

“Children travel from all over to the club, from as far as Gort and from Raheen in Limerick, three to four times a week,” she added.

While Becky is still absorbing her

latest success, she is already plan- ning her next trip and is hopeful that she will be selected for future inter- nationals which are due to take place throughout the year.

Her ultimate aim promises to be a huge challenge, which she is ready to tackle. “She will be hoping to go to the world championships in 2009,” said her coach. No doubt she will do her best to ensure qualification for this event.