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EXPERIENCED Kerins O’Rahillys defender Barry O’Shea has played in plenty of big games — All-Ireland senior football finals, Munster decid- ers, National League finals, Sigerson Cup finals and two county senior football championship finals — but Sunday’s Munster senior club final against Kilmurry Ibrickane is prob- ably the most important of them all.

O’Shea, who is playing some of the best football he has played in the last two years when he was plagued with injury, admits that this Munster club final will be the biggest day in his ca- reer to date.

“Tt’s always great when you achieve something big with your club and I would think that if we could beat Kilmurry Ibrickane in Sunday’s fi- nal, that would top anything else that I have achieved so far,’ O’Shea said.

‘IT know we won the county final in 2002 but a Munster final 1s another couple of notches higher again so winning would be massive for eve- ryone involved and the entire Kerins O’Rahillys club.

“Anything you win with the lads you grew up with and _ socialise with beats anything you might have achieved with your county or with your school or college.

‘“That’s why there is such a big buzz

around the Strand Road area at the moment because everyone realises that the club stands on the verge of history, but getting across that win- ning line is not going to be easy.”

O’Shea is quick to dismiss the fa- vourites tag and maintains if any- thing Clare opponents Kilmurry Ibrickane should be favourites.

“TI think that the 4/7 being offered about Kerins O’ Rahillys is a joke and in no way reflects the even nature of the contest that will probably go right

down to the wire,’ O’Shea said.

‘The only reason we are odds-on 1s because we are a Kerry team play- ing a Clare team, so they assume that it’s a similar story to the inter-county scene where Kerry would always be favourites to beat Clare.

“Look at the facts — Kilmurry Ibrickane were in last year’s final and only lost by a point and they are also county champions in Clare.

“We were never in the final and didn’t win a game in Munster until

we beat Clonakilty this year and we did not win a game in our county championship — we qualified via the club championship, so how could you make us favourites.”

O’Shea, who did a superb marking job on Declan Browne in the Mun- ster semi-final, also points to the fact that of all years for O’Rahillys to reach a Munster club final, this is the year when they have haemorrhaged WEN ace

“T can tell you one thing — if there is a god of football there, then he is not from Strand Road,’ O’Shea laughed.

“When you look at the team that finished the last day against Moyle Rovers, we were missing seven from the team that lost last year’s county final in injury time.

‘Just look at the year we have had. We lost the lads (Tommy Walsh and David Moran) to Australia, Brian Moran and his dad have been sick during the year and now Brian is doubtful for the final having popped his elbow in the semi-final.

“Danny O’Sullivan is out with his cruciate, Pat Madden has emigrated and Giles O’Grady had to miss the semi-final and is an injury doubt for the final.

“T think any club that would have to play without that number of qual- ity players would struggle, yet we are still in there and preparing for a

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“I think that it shows the battling qualities and the resolve of the squad to be able to overcome such adversity and we will be giving it our all the jie. ¢ me rh Val

How does O’Shea, who will be lining up with his brother Morgan alongside him, think O’Rahillys will do in the final?

“It’s winter football this time of the year so it will be low scoring and a battle all the way,’ he pointed out.

“We need to hold onto possession more than we did the last day and also make better use of the ball when we have it.

‘“Kilmurry Ibrickane are a strong side with a good record in this com- petition and they will know that they are only 60 minutes away from win- ning a Munster final.

“We will have to play at the top of our game, take all our chances, work hard as a team to back each other up and hope that we get a break on the day.

‘As I said earlier, the gods have not been on our side since last year’s county final almost 12 months to the day so let’s hope we are back in fa- vour. I would take a one point win this minute,” he added.

THE late Archbishop of Dublin, Kevin McNamara was one of the leading personalities in the Catholic Church in Ireland in his lifetime, but in death he now stands indicted as a figure who singularly “failed to 1m- plement canon law rules on dealing with clerical child sex abuse’.

The Clareman who was 38 years a priest before dying in 1987 after a serious illness has also been ex- posed as a church leader who facili- tated known child abusers such as Fr Ivan Payne and Fr William Carney to continue working as priests in the community.

“Bill Carney is a serial sexual abus- er of children, male and female. The commission is aware of complaints or suspicious of child sexual abuse against him in respect of 32 named individuals,’ the Murphy Report SEA

It adds, “He (Archbishop McNa- mara) restored priestly faculties to Fr Carney despite his having plead- ed guilty to charges of child sexual abuse in 1983 and despite the fact that there were suspicions about him in relation to numerous other chil- dren. He failed to ensure that Fr Car- ney obeyed instructions and allowed him, in effect, to flout the wishes of his superiors’.

Archbishop McNamara’s_ reputa- tion has taken another hammering

with the Murphy Report finding that one of his first acts as Archbishop of Dublin was to promote Fr Ivan Payne to a post of responsibility within the

church.

‘He promoted Fr Payne to the po- sition of Vice-Officialis of the Mar- riage Tribunal despite the previous

refusal of Archbishop Ryan to do so,’ the report says.

Subsequently in 1998, Fr Payne pleaded guilty to charges of indecent

assault on ten victims and was sen- tenced to six years’ imprisonment.

The shocking findings of the Mur- phy Report into child sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese published last Thursday has also revealed that Mc- Namara was one of four Archbishops of Dublin from the 1960 through to the 1980s who “failed to report his knowledge of child sex abuse to the Garda”.

“All the Archbishops and many of the auxiliary bishops in the period covered by the Commission handled child sexual abuse complaints bad- ly,’ the Murphy Report says. “Dur- ing the period under review, there were four Archbishops – Archbish- ops McQuaid, Ryan, McNamara and Connell. Not one of them reported his knowledge of child sexual abuse to the Garda.”

TEAM trainer Ger Lawlor wasn’t looking to hear any talk of moral victories or hard luck stories, but you know deep down he felt that this was an opportunity lost.

The seven point differential didn’t tell the story of this Munster final, of that he was convinced, albeit he didn’t really say so directly in his post-match reflections.

“We were back in it when it was down to two points. They were hav- ing a real go but they came back and hit some great points near the end,’ he said.

“If we had got a goal in the second- half we could have won this Munster title. We had them under the cosh. We took them on but at times were afraid to take them on and we went for a few impossible scores when we could have worked our way in more towards goal,” he added.

Mention of goal and he came to Spa’s goal, but at either end of the first-half that represented the two biggest hammer blows to Cratloe’s hopes of becoming the first side to win a Munster intermediate title.

“We gave them too much respect starting off. We stood off them too much in the first ten, 15 minutes of the game.

“We let them get the ball first, showing too much respect for them

– whether it was because they were from Kerry, I don’t know. You can’t do that with a team from Kerry and they punished us with that first goal that meant we had a terrible start. “They’re natural footballers” – they’re playing football since they’re out of the cradle and they’ll punish you if you give them too much space as we did at the start. The goal before half-time really killed us. We should

have only been two points down at half-time.

“But you have to admire our lads. They showed great determination and heart. They never gave up and you couldn’t ask them for any more. They’re unbelieveable. They’re great. A credit to their club and credit to their families.

They all stood up in that first-half when coming back and again in the

second-half.

“It was always going to be very hard to recover from five down but we brought it back to two again and with seven or eight minutes to go I really thought that we could kick on ANG MY eU0mHsom BLO loe

“We were playing the better foot- ball and they were getting very edgy, but it wasn’t to be when they kicked a few points.”

A SHANNON man who was con- cerned about teenagers gathering outside his house slapped a 14-year- old boy in the face, fracturing his nose, a court has heard.

Father-of-two Mark Murphy (39), of Cul na Gréine, Shannon, admitted assaulting a 14-year-old boy causing him harm, on March 21 last.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told Shan- non District Court that the boy was outside the accused’s home. “Mr Murphy got annoyed with the boy and hit him into the face and frac- tured his nose,” he said.

Defending solicitor John Callinan said there was a “somewhat longer story”’.

He said his client, who has never come to Garda attention before, has had difficulties with regard to teenag- ers gathering near his house. He said he has complained to gardai about damage to his car. “Things were so bad that two-and-a-half years ago he installed CCTV,” he said.

He told the court that his client had never seen the 14-year-old boy be- fore that day. He said his client had a few drinks while watching a rugby

match and youths had gathered out- side his house.

‘He had no idea that the boy was only 14. He was taller than Mr Mur- phy,” he said.

The accused is very remorseful and was in a position to offer compensa- tion to the victim, said Mr Callinan.

Judge Angela Ni Chonduin ordered that €500 compensation be paid and

this was done in court. “You don’t take the law into your own hands. Young people hang around. I do ap- preciate this man got a bad fright. He paid for it,’ she said and dismissed the charge under the probation of of- oe(oucm lee

NEXT Thursday, students from the Ennistymon CBS will ‘Go hungry for Gloria’ as they take part in this year’s annual Concern Fast.

Two fifth years from the school, Daniel McInerney and David Car- roll, were chosen to visit Kenya last year in recognition of the schools long history of supporting Concern.

The students were joined by teacher Gerry Sexton on the trip, which took them to see the good work being done on the ground by Concern in aviulere

A host of students from the school will join more than 250,000 young

people from secondary schools all over Ireland on December 3.

Last year, the school raised more than €5,000 through their participa- tion in the fast.

Liam Slattery, Cathal McMahon and Thomas Nagle were the top col- lectors for last year’s fast.

This year’s trip to Kenya saw the students and teachers in Ennistymon join the Irish National Debate Cham- pions in their visit to Concern com- plexes in Kenya.

The trip allowed Concern the op- portunity to thank schools for their JON KG MAY LO)e QUE MBAUUNCCDU-HKSDOTcMmClUDUDO roam Nels ele

“Kenya spans an area about 50

times the size of Ireland and the pop- ulation has grown rapidly in recent decades to nearly 38 million,” said Gerry Sexton.

“IT feel that Kenya is at a crossroads. Almost every sphere and sector of life is in crisis. Over 10 million peo- ple face hunger and starvation. That number is set to increase as the cur- rent crop season has failed.

“Urban life is facing imminent dan- ger. Water shortages have persisted. We saw hundreds of water tank- ers bringing water to every part of the city; to those who could pay of course,” he said.

“In the slums of Mukuru and Ko- rogocho, we saw long queues of poor

people waiting with large containers to get water. Even this water is often contaminated and water related dis- eases are areal problem.

‘Most poor people survive on less than a euro a day with the average wage being €7 or €8 a day for those fortunate enough to have a job. HIV and TB have become huge problems for the population.

“Commodity prices are at an all time high. Most basic goods, such as food are beyond the reach of many. Agriculture faces collapse. Tea farm- ers are uprooting their crop,” added Mr Sexton.

The Concern Fast takes place on Dien lelo wer

A COURT has heard an allegation that a young man called to a neigh- bour’s house in Kilrush looking for a ‘top-up’ of money, telling the man ‘You don’t need me as an enemy.”

Arising out of this, Martin Blunnie (21), of Beech Park, John Paul Estate, Kilrush, was charged with assaulting John Naughton, on April 17, 2009.

John Thomas Naughton told Kil- rush District Court last Wednesday week that he was at home at Beech Park, on April 17 last. He said there was a knock on the door at 8.20pm and his wife answered it.

He said that Martin Blunnie was at the door and was looking for a loan of €20. “I told him I had no money to give him. He said he wanted a top- up. He had €50. He said, ‘You don’t need me as an enemy. I’m a big man’ and kicked me to the leg. My knee was bleeding,’ Mr Naughton told the court.

The case was adjourned on that date for a week after Mr Naughton told the court he did not have his read- ing glasses with him. Judge Joseph Mangan told him to return, with his

glasses, last Wednesday, so that he could read a statement.

However, on the adjourned date, Superintendent Michael Comyns said Mr Naughton wished to with- draw his statement.

Solicitor Joe Chambers, on behalf of Mr Naughton, said, “I’m satisfied

his attitude to this is solely related to the fact the defendant’s mother is in hospital.”

The case was then struck out by Judge Joseph Mangan.

SPANISHPOINT was the scene of two daring rescues in the past year, and the heroics of the people in- volved was recognised by the Irish Water Safety last week.

In total six lives were saved due to the bravery of four people, among them a ten-year-old girl from Quilty.

Courageous Emily Luff received a SEIKO Certificate of Courage for saving her little sister Isabelle’s life.

In September 2008, the sisters had been bathing at knee depth when they got caught in a rip current, which pulled them out to sea beyond the surf break.

Despite the frightening ordeal, Emily had the presence of mind to hold her sister up while they waited

for help.

Those that came to the young girls assistance were also praised for their eae

Thomas Thompson and Peter Brad- bury who received a Rescue Appre- ciation Award heard calls for help from the beach. They ran onto the beach to assist the two girls. Upon as- sessing the situation, Peter Bradbury called the coast guard while Tho- mas Thompson paddled out to reach them on his surfboard. Meanwhile Peter stayed with the mother of the children. Due to poor light Thomas could not see the children however he heard their shouts for help and went to their assistance. Upon reach- ing them he reassured them and with the use of his surfboard he brought them safely to back to shore.

Surfers also played a major role in the second rescue in July this year.

Four swimmers became caught in a rip current and were carried out from shore and beyond their depth.

Miltown Malbay man Mark Flynn borrowed a surfboard and entered the water. He then took two casual- ties to shore. With the help of a pass- ing surfer the third person was en- couraged back to shore safely.

Then Clarecastleman and off duty lifeguard Norman Cleary reached the scene and with Mark Flynn entered the water and continued to search for the fourth person. Mark felt him un- Clan d eToys No me-DIO MY BINOMCeuert-TImcwIlote they placed him onto a surfboard and took him back to shore where he re- gained consciousness.

Minister of State at the Department

of Environment, Heritage and Local Government Michael Finneran (FF), presented the SEIKO Just In Time Rescue Award to these rescuers.

“Tragically 158 drowning occurred in Ireland last year,” he said. “One reaches for the word tragic, but it doesn’t seem adequate when the most heartbreaking aspect of drown- ing deaths is that they are prevent- able. This high figure would be even higher but for the dramatic efforts of these individuals who saved oth- ers from drowning and the ongoing work of volunteers teaching swim- TPODN Orca Dele mush YOU ome

A COURT has heard that a man threatened to break a traffic warden’s face while he took photographs of cars parked on a green area in Kil- Met ep

Aidan Carrig (34), of St Patrick’s Terrace, Kilrush, pleaded guilty to engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour on November 5, 2008.

A traffic warden told Kilrush Dis- trict Court that a complaint was made to the town hall in Kilrush in relation to parking on the green at St Patrick’s Terrace, on November 5 last year. He said he was asked to go there and take photographs. He went to the area and while there, he encountered Aidan Carrig.

“He threatened me to smash my face if I used the photos as evi- dence,’ he said. He said the accused later apologised to him.

Defending solicitor Eugene O’ Kelly

said his client’s behaviour was totally out of order and that the traffic war- den’s job “is difficult enough without people speaking to you in that man- ner”.

He said his client’s recollection of what was said was somewhat differ- ent. “There was reference to putting the camera where the sun don’t shine,” he said.

He said his client did not realise he was doing wrong by putting his car up on the green. “The width of the roadway is insufficient for the number of cars parking there. Had he been asked not to park there, he wouldn’t have parked there,’ he said.

He said his client reacted very bad- ly and does not have any animosity towards the traffic warden.

The court was told the accused has a number of previous convictions and a one-month jail term was im- posed. A bond was fixed in the event of an appeal.

THERE was a time when Anne Moloney was content to frame her talented husband’s works of art and the prints of those works on the kitchen table of their home outside Feakle. But thanks to the success of their business, Glendara Art, Anne and ‘Tim have had to think again.

“Tt got to the stage that I wondered, where can I work from that won’t involve me having to move stuff off the table to serve family dinners or go crawling under the bed to find a particular kind of mounting board,” said Anne.

For a time, the couple had space in the Tulla Stables community arts centre and having had that experi- ence, Anne said they wanted to have somewhere that “people can come and relax to look at the paintings and the prints. I think there’s terri- ble pressure on people if they come to your family home, they feel they have to buy something”’.

On the land where the Moloney’s made their home, there was an old building which was once used to house cattle. “It’s right beside the riv- er and I always loved to walk down there. It was ideal for a studio but needed a lot of work,” said Anne.

One restoration later, the Molo- ney’s have made the Glendara studio and exhibition space a reality.

Anne is based at the studio dealing with orders for prints and mounting prints and paintings for customers as well as showing people around.

“We want people to come at their own pace so they can ring anytime, weekends or evenings, but we are having a special open week from No- vember 23 to 28 and we would love for people just to come and have a look around.”

Time finds inspiration for his col- ourful works in the countryside and

the people around him.

“Born to a farming family in Clare, I grew up with a deep respect and love for my rural setting. I experi- enced all the old ways, cutting the turf, saving the hay, tilling the land and selling the cattle at the fair day. These experiences have influenced

my painting. In recalling times past, I hope that my use of colour and tex- ture leave people with the good feel- ing of romanticism and nostalgia. “If you are searching for spiritual- ity, there is nothing more awesome than a glimpse of nature, and if I was painting for a thousand years, I would

have but a cameo of that beauty.”

Glendara Art can be found on line at www.glendaraart.com or contact Anne on 087 2204635.

THE continuing difficulties posed by flooding led to the early adjournment of an inquest at the Coroner’s Court in Ennis yesterday.

County Coroner Isobel O’Dea ad- journed the inquest into the death of a Tubber man after being told that a garda due to provide a statement would be unable to attend as he was currently on vital flood relief duty.

After initially calling a temporary adjournment, Ms O’Dea then stated that she was adjourning the inquest entirely. She told the court that the garda in question was assisting with flood relief efforts and would be un- able to attend.

A jury had earlier been sworn in for the inquest into the death of Michael Conroy who died following a tragic accident at his farm on July 12, 2009. Prior to the adjournment, the inquest heard details of the incident that led to Mr Conroy’s death.

Inspector Michael Gallagher read

the deposition of Tim Walsh who had been visiting the deceased’s home when the accident occurred.

The Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Walsh, who lives in the American State of Massachusetts, had been in Ireland to see his sister.

The inquest was told that Mr Walsh arrived to Mr Conroy’s farm on July 12. Mr Walsh stated that Mr Conroy wanted to show him a new tractor. He said that when Mr Conroy turned the key, “the tractor jumped forward”.

He said that Mr Conroy was stand- ing beside the tractor. “I think the big wheel ran over his chest,’ said Mr Walsh.

The court heard that Mr Conroy’s daughter identified her father’s body to gardai later that day.

No further depositions were heard and Ms O’Dea adjourned the in- quest.