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CALLS were made yesterday by a number of shareholders set to benefit in the €7.2 million from the pro- posed sale of Clare FM that the sta- tion’s 30 staff should also profit from the sale.

Yesterday was ‘D-Day’ for the sta- tion’s shareholders to decide on the acceptance of the Radio Kerry offer for the station.

The offer values individual shares at €20 each — almost 20 times what shareholders paid for the shares in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

A cross-section of the Clare public is set to benefit following a success- ful share drive in the early 1990s and three of those who opted for minor shareholdings, Cllr Christy Cur- tin (Ind), Cllr Pat Keane (FF) and Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) yesterday called on the Clare FM Board to en- sure that the station’s staff share in the anticipated windfall.

The station’s only two employees set to profit from the sale are chief executive, Liam O’Shea and the station’s Head of Operation, Susan Murphy.

Mr O’Shea set to receive €407,300 through his 20,365 shares and

Ms Murphy is set to receive over €200,000.

Details of the sale circulated to shareholders show no indication of a bonus scheme for the station’s 30 employees.

Cllr Curtin is to receive €2,000 through his 100 shares and he said yesterday, “I believe that the station’s staff should share in the money from the sale and their interests should be protected.

‘This must be done to ensure that there is continuity and stability in the station’s staff so there must be a mechanism in place to allow the staff access a share of the money.”

Cllr Frankie Neylon is set to receive €4,000 and he said: “I would hope that the staff will profit from the sale and there jobs would be secured.”

Kilkee-based Cllr Pat Keane said: “IT would be disappointed if there wasn’t in place a scheme for staff to purchase shares. They should have been given that opportunity. Staff play an important role and if they were given an opportunity to pur- chase, they would take additional interest in the station.”

Other politicians set to benefit from the sale are Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn (€4,000), Cllr PJ

Kelly (€2,000), Cllr Martin Laft- ferty (€1,000), while retired Fine Gael TD, Donal Carey is to receive €2,000.

Cllr PJ Kelly quipped yesterday,*! thought it was a subscription I was buying back then. It was done with a sense of patriotism. It 1s a fairly good return on the investment made and better than some of the other invest- ments I’ve made.”

The figures show that the Ennis Chamber of Commerce Is set to re- ceive €50,000 from its 2,500 share- holding, while prominent Ennis busi- ness man, Oliver Moylan is to receive €10,000 from his 500 shares.

Cllr Keane said that is glad that he did not take up on the €2 buy-back offer from the Clare FM Board two years.

The share-offer was not widely tak- en up after founding chief executive, Caimin Jones dismissed the offer as “much too low”’.

The move comes against the back- eround of growing profits and listen- ership for Clare FM.

The annual returns for 2006 show that the company increased its annu- al profits to €240,000 on a turnover of €1.9 million.

YOU can show your support for the poorest of the poor on Christmas Day by taking part in the annual Goal Miles event at the Fairgereen in Ennis.

This fun-filled, worthwhile event is an integral part of the season of giv- ing for many thousands of generous people everywhere.

This is the 26th year of the event, with Goal Miles taking place at an unprecedented 65 locations na- tionwide — including nine brand-

new locations. The main event will take place in Dublin’s Belfield and is expected to attract 3,000 people on Christmas morning. But it is the impressive spread of Miles across the country that is the real source of pride for Goal.

Goal’s John O’Shea, who will at- tend the Belfield Mile, as always, says, “I’m urging every single person up and down the country to find their nearest Mile and take part.

“All you have to do is to turn up on the day, complete the Mile in your own time and style and then

make a donation to Goal. You can either make a personal donation or you can line up sponsorship from your friends and colleagues — it is entirely up to you what you do. The Goal Mile is a great opportunity to do something practical for the poor this Christmas,” he said.

Events this year hold a special sig- nificance, as the charity is celebrat- ing 30 years in operation.

Since 1977, the aid agency has spent more than €400 million in 50 countries, responding to virtu- ally every natural and man-made

disaster and implementing massive development programmes during ercLMm ab ealee

Goal’s outstanding success down through the years has been entirely dependant on the unflagging support of the Irish public.

This Christmas, the charity’s Goalies (volunteers) are working around the clock in 12 developing world countries throughout Africa, Asia and Central America, includ- ing Bangladesh, where the organi- sation is responding to November’s devastating Cyclone Sidr.

THE Clare Schoolboys Soccer League, the Munster Football Asso- ciation and the FAI have been writ- ten to this week by the St Pat’s club in Kilmihil, who have lodged a series of complaints over Saturday under 11 Clare Cup semi-final against Money- point.

In a hard-hitting letter, St Pat’s of- ficials Tom Egan, Derek Dolan and Tony Quinn have said when they travelled to Kilrush for the match they “had no idea of the horror which was to unfold”.

‘“Moneypoint managers and a large number of their fans invaded the pitch and verbally abused the referee in front of both sets of teams.

‘Foul and abusive language flowed

unchecked and disregarding the children listening. We gathered our children together to shield them from deh

‘“Moneypoint’s team seeing their parents managers etc abuse the ref- eree themselves began aiming foul language at him to cheers of encour- agement.

“Was this supposed to be a game for kids to enjoy or was it as Money- point’s supporters seemed to think it was life or death,” the letter adds.

Moneypoint won the game 4-3, but according to St Pats’ correspondence, the game descended into a farce in the second half.

“What followed was disgraceful. Our children some as young as eight were being threatened from the side- nase

“Two of our supporters who had children on the team were assaulted by a woman and were told to stand on the opposite side of the pitch.

‘The referee had to stop the game to try and restore order. Some of our boys were now in terror and had tears in their eyes.

“We had to bring any of our players playing on Moneypoint’s supporters side into the middle for their own safety which effectively meant that channel was now fully exposed.

“Having little regard of what was happening on the pitch and listening to foul threatening language from the sideline our team fell apart to howls of derision from Moneypoint Supporters.

“Trailing 4-3 and with ten min- utes remaining the referee told me

he would support us if we wanted to abandon the game. Under normal circumstances I would have said yes but my primary concern was to get our kids off the pitch safely and un- injured and abandoning the game would not have been well received and could have led to even more seri- ous scenarios.

“I agreed that at the games end we would gather our children over to our side straight away and wait for the supporters from Moneypoint to leave. At the final whistle we gath- ered our children and tried our best to comfort them. Losing is a part of growing up but losing like this is nothing short of disgraceful.

“One of Moneypoint’s club officials apologised for the terrible behaviour of their supporters to our lads. Did

he not have a duty to stop this type of behaviour?

Did he not realise that the Code of conduct for players, managers and supporters had all been broken. Were these Codes ever issued and if so were they not understood?

“Soccer at underage level is all about teaching kid’s basic skills and encouraging them to enjoy the game while maintaining good discipline and respecting their fellow players and opponents. When did that change to a win at all costs attitude regard- less of who you hurt in the process? Soccer suffered a terrible blow on Saturday,” the letter added.

The Clare Schoolboys Soccer League are awaiting the referees re- port on the game.

ENNIS woman Imelda King Kennedy has been appointed the national pub- lic relations officer for Soroptimist International in Ireland.

In her new role with the group, Ms Kennedy will be responsible for promoting the work carried out by the organisation around the country.

A long-time member of the Sorop- timists, Ms Kennedy has been in- volved with voluntary work for over 28 years.

Two years ago she released a CD entitled ‘Amazing Grace’ to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society

of Ireland. Apart from performing regularly with the Cathedral Choir in Ennis and the Clare Music Circle in Newmarket-on-Fergus, she practices a form of musical therapy known as Spirit of the Voice.

Ms Kennedy was elected to the position at the 2007 Soroptimists International Conference held in Harrowgate in Britain.

She explained that she is really looking forward to the challenge of the new job.

“There is a lot to the role and I am hoping that I will be up to the challenge. As public relations of- ficer I will be expected to project a

positive image of Soroptimist Inter- national as a professional, caring, committed and aware organisation. I will be working closely with the national association at all times. A big part of the job involves lobbying local politicians and businesses and talking in schools, community and voluntary groups,” she said.

Through international partnerships and a global network of members, Soroptimists aim to create opportu- nities for women and girls by advo- cating for equity and equality.

Ms Kennedy also expressed her support for the women affected by the breast cancer scare at the Mid-

land Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.

She said, “We would like to sympathise with the women who were involved in the recent breast cancer investigations. We sincerely hope that all their results will be favourable.

“It is our firm hope that proper breast check facilities will be rolled out to cover all areas in the country as every woman has the right to have a proper breast check service provid- ed as soon as possible,’ she added.

Soroptimist International has been in Clare for over 40 years and is actively involved in the promotion of education throughout the county.

CLARE ladies football celebrates 25 years in existence in 2008 and with new Chairman of the Clare ladies football county board, Johnny Hayes at the helm, the board hopes to pro- pel the sport forward significantly in the coming year. Hayes, who took temporary charge of the board after the resignation of James Lafferty in October, was ratified to the chair af- ter The Banner’s Paul McKenna and Fergus Rovers’ Mary Keane with- drew their nominations leaving the position open for the Fergus Rovers’ delegate Hayes.

In his speech following the ap- pointment, Hayes placed the provi- sion of a county field for Clare ladies

football as top of his priority list for the coming year. The new chairman also spoke out against the increas- ing threat of drink and drugs in Irish society and felt that everyone must work to eliminate that ‘evil threat’ before it causes serious long term problems for the clubs and games as a whole, stressing the need to support the headquarters promoted drug and alcohol prevention programme.

Mr Hayes also paid tribute to his predecessor James Lafferty who held the position for two years until his resignation in October.

Outgoing county secretary, Michael Fitzpatrick in his report to the delegates outlined the past year’s achievements in Clare ladies football. He praised the Clare U16

team on winning the All-Ireland B championship as well as the West Clare Gaels on their impressive and historic run to the All-Ireland Junior championship final, only losing out to Foxrock/Cabinteely a few weeks ago. He dwelt on the heartache suf- fered by the Clare Intermediate team in their second successive one point defeat in the All-Ireland semi-final and wished them better luck for the year ahead. Finally, he saved spe- cial praise for the work of everyone involved in the sport in Clare from team management, players, match officials, organisers, county board officers from all codes, sponsors and anyone who assisted and promoted the game in the past year.

The finances for 2007 were dealt

with by outgoing treasurer Christy O’Connor who gave a detailed report and of all the board’s funds during the year. At the beginning of the year, the board had an opening balance of €12,169.50. The income for 2007 was €98,626.68 while the overall ex- penditure came to €82,523.55, leav- ing a surplus including the opening balance of €28,272.63.

The income was broken down fur- ther by O’Connor who revealed the main source of revenue was from church gate collections (€9,193.78), race night (€14,088), Flag day (€2,360) and a bucket collection (€2,480) while the main expenses were the central council registration costs (€31,278), Clare Intermediate team (€18,273.55) and the Under 16

B team (€6,898,55).

SINCE the opening of the library building in Scariff last month, hun- dreds of new members have signed up to rediscover the joy of reading.

The library staff are delighted, if a little overwhelmed, with the re- sponse from the public to the airy, state of the art new facility.

‘“We’ve been inundated. It’s amaz- ing,’ said Senior Librarian, Caroline Ahearne.

“We have had literally hundreds of new members joining and a lot of people whose memberships had lapsed have come back to us.”

SU slomebbeKnoi(omrI MBE: bla Comers mmnats new library, which shares it’s home with Clare County Council’s new

offices, 1s tremendous, Caroline ex- plained.

“In the temporary building, the li- brary was only open 18 hours a week – noW we open more than 50 hours, with two late evenings until 8pm and people find Saturday opening from 10am to 2pm good. They can come when the children are off school.”

The new building is home to 20,000 books, a huge leap in the book stock for the Scariff facility, eight internet connected PC’s and a whole range of music and film DVD’s which were never available before.

Photocopying facilities and a full range of newspapers, magazines and other publications are also available.

Last week, the library played host to Christmas storytime, craft and

games sessions for youngsters who came along to enjoy the fun and make their own Christmas cards.

The four full time and one part- time staff who have been brought on board to up the staffing from one part-timer all hope to see many more of these activities in the com- ing months.

“We have an exhibition space so were hoping to stage exhibitions,’ said Caroline. “And we have room for things like regular arts and crafts classes and storytelling so there will be a whole new programme to look ICO) ays: 0 Kem One

In addition to visiting the library, people will also be able to take ad- vantage of the council offices being in the same building to pay bills, col-

lect forms and get information on is- sues such as planning.

“It’s a very exciting new start and we re looking forward to having lots more events for people to attend here as well as welcoming new members,’ said Caroline.

The library will close at 3pm on Friday, December 21 and will re- open on Friday, December 28 at 10 am. They are closing for New Year at Spm on Monday, December 31 and re-opening on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 10 am.

Telephone 061-922893 for details.

CALLS for the abolition of the In- terprovincial Championships in hurling and football are never to far away, but another Clare loyalist has emerged in the shape of Pat Fitzger- ald. The new full-time secretary, Pat Fitzgerald, added his voice to those supporting the competition that dates from 1927.

At this Saturday’s convention, Fit- zgerald, lauded the efforts of Coora- clare man Martin Donnelly at reviv-

ing interest in a competition in recent years through sponsorship to the tune of €500,000.

“The enduring appeal of the Rail- way Cup, or the Martin Donnelly sponsored inter-provincial champion- ships as it’s now known, was placed very much in the spotlight this year with the decision of the GAA hierar- chy to stage the finals under lights at Croke Park,’ Fitzgerald told the an- nual convention.

“The finals were back in a changed environment of GAA headquarters

for the first time

since 1995 and as one who has been particularly sceptical of the Associa- tion’s direction in trying to revive interest in the competition, I have to admit that this year they almost got Lime reanle

“Almost, I say, because with a more orchestrated and better market- ing campaign, the attendance could have been appreciably more that the 10,000 spectators who went through the turnstiles. At that, it was signifi- cant in that it represented the larg-

est attendance at the finals in some thirty years.

That was the encouraging aspect, a heartening indication of a potential resurgence in interest 1n a competi- tion which provides us with a rich sporting legacy. Gone was the public apathy. Had the GAA more time than a mere five days to engage in a sus- tained public relations exercise, the attendance could have been swelled ehKerorm ene) AYA

“Sponsor Martin Donnelly, who has bank rolled the competition for the

past five years, deserves that at least. He said that this year was a missed Opportunity in that he had planned on marketing the event through Cu- mann na mBunscoil, filling the sta- dium with enthusiastic children and donating the proceeds to charity,” added Fitzgerald.

THE Christmas swim in Killaloe this year is a fundraiser for the pro- posed community playground.

Killaloe has an ever expanding population with new families com- ing in to live in the scenic location but the Lough Derg town still has no play area.

The local community in conjunc- tion with Clare County Council have joined forces to provide the amenity next year and local people have a tar- get of €50,000 to raise.

The swim at Two Mile Gate takes place at 12.30pm on Christmas Day. The organising committee are ap- pealing for volunteers to get involved in this worthy cause.

A member of the organising com- mittee, Brendan Ryan said: “the Kil- laloe community needs a playground and the Christmas swim will really put the fun into fundraising for the project.”

Volunteers are currently collecting sponsorship for the swim which has been organised every Christmas for the past fifteen years by three local

men Brendan Ryan, Christy Mc- Grath and Paul McGrath.

They have raised funds over the years for different charities collect- ing thousands of pounds.

Anyone who would like to donate to the playground fund can con- tact Brendan Ryan on 061-376963; Christy McGrath on 061-376245 or Paul McGrath or 061-375195.

CLARE GAA’s campaign to entice more people to take up refereeing is being lost, Saturday’s annual con- vention heard in a report delivered by Clare Referees Administration Com- mittee chairman, Kevin Walsh.

“We are on the verge of a crisis in relation to refereeing numbers in Clare,’ said Walsh. Since the incep- tion of the national recruitment drive in 1999 we are gradually losing the battle of recruiting referees. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main reason continues to be a complete lack of interest shown by some clubs in the county and they are the same year on year.

“Again this year we still have 21 clubs in the county who do not have a referee and have shown little inter- est in addressing this situation. De- spite the efforts of the county chair- man, we still did not get a positive response from any of these clubs.

“When it comes to moaning and suggesting what should be done with refereeing in Clare in order to 1m- prove it, the clubs with no referees make the most noise and always ex- pect to have a referee for the games in which they play, but are doing lit- tle to help the cause of refereeing.

“It is very easy to talk about and suggest what should be done. I be- lieve actions speak louder than words and if club are serious about doing something positive in this important area of our games, then the time is now,’ added Walsh in his hard-hit- ting report.

And, he didn’t leave it there. In revealing that there are only 48 ref- erees active in the county, Walsh said that numbers could dwindle further because the abuse some referees are subjected to.

“The real sad area and the one which I am most concerned over is the referees lost because of abuse. Everyone wants a referee for their

game but no one gives the beginner a chance to develop.

“This abuse factor has an even deeper knock on effect because as referees administrator for the county and charged with responsibility for recruitment of foundation referees, it has become increasingly difficult to convince someone to become a knight of the whistle.

‘The amount of abuse being direct- ed at new referees in these games 1s seriously damaging our effectiveness in recruiting referees and is turning them away from refereeing. This is a sad state of affairs.

‘The abuse of referees has to be severely dealt with each and every time and all our referees have to be protected and get the support they Caer

CONCERNS have been expressed that plans for a new quarry near Ruan will disturb the tranquil environment of patients of a proposed new day- care centre for cancer patients.

A number of locals have expressed opposition to Irish Asphalt’s plan to extract 300,000 tonnes of rock from the quarry site at Ardkearney, Ruan.

In one objection, the EYPO Part- nership of Clonroad, Ennis, points out, “The proximity of the quarry,

with all its associated nuisances, would not provide a tranquil environ- ment for the wellbeing of the patients in the facility.”

It adds, ““We contend that the loss of amenity that will be experienced by all homes in the area far outweighs the granting of the expansion of the CL br Nema

The partnership contends that, “The extraction of 300,000 tonnes of rock from the locality will have damaging effects to agricultural lands to the wider area with noise and vibration

upsetting both to wildlife and farm ZONBOOL-DESE

“If the application is granted, it will significantly lower the value of their investment as there will be ongoing noise and dust pollution, vibrations from blasting, with increased heavy goods vehicle traffic on roads in close proximity.

“The location of this quarry is not suited to the proposed location. This proposed quarry, outside the area that has already been worked, should not be granted due to its location in the

open countryside without the benefit of appropriate zoning.”

In his objection, Philip Comber of Ardkearney, Ruan, claims, “This area 1S a quiet residential part of Clare and there are quite a number of houses within the immediate area of this proposed quarry.

“Tt is my belief that if the proposed quarry was to get permission to go ahead, it would have a significant impact on the quality of life of the residents in the area.”

In their objection, Hugh and Mary

Rice said, “The noise from the crushing and blasting from quarry- ing activities which have taken place to date is unbearable, especially when the prevailing wind is from the south-west and that on regular oc- casions dust covers the windows of their property, trees and plants.”

The Rices’ submission points out that they are “extremely concerned regarding the devaluing of their property as a result of this quarry- ing being allowed to continue and to significantly intensify”.