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BOTH entrances to the town were lined with signs of encouragement for the Gaels. ‘Beware of the girls from the Gaels’ was one such notice and as a sea of blue and white sup- port huddled in the main stand, the atmosphere was building towards eaCeCOh Ver. Caiconsoele

Unfortunately for the crowd, aside from a battling first fifteen minutes, the Gaels were always playing catch up and when they went 10 behind with less than twenty minutes to go, they could sense that it was not going to be another famous Gaels win.

The inexorable nature of the elec- tronic clock system gave the likely- hood of defeat a more definite time- line and as the seconds ticked away so did any hope of a recovery.

The goal they craved never came and the Dublin side held out for their first All-Ireland title.

As the wind and rain blew through

the ground after the game, the play- ers gathered around the centre of the field and after consoling his players, co-manager James Troy attempted to voice his obvious sadness.

“It was disappointing. We thought that we had played a good first half against the wind but things didn’t go right for us in the second half. The goal came at a bad time because we needed to get it at that stage.”

The murmurs of the crowd after the game were all about referee Eamonn McElroy and his handling of the game. At several stages throughout the match, the supporters chanted and sang of their displeasure to his bizarre decisions and manager Troy was equally as irritated about the Down offical.

“The ref didn’t help things at all. He made things very hard for the whole game and made a lot of stupid decisions. But we can’t be blaming the ref at the end of the day but we were just unlucky and things didn’t

O Our Way.”

This result aside, it has been a great run for the Clare side who won both Clare and Munster titles in style and Troy was quick to praise the efforts of the girls durling the year as well as the quality of the Foxrock/Cabint- eely side.

“They are a good team and they were handpassing well out of defence in the second half. They played well against the wind but we are proud of the girls because they had a great year. They deserved to be in the final anyway but it was just disappointing on the day. But they deserve great credit for the work they have put in all year.”

SHANNON Airport is ideally placed to exploit the vast opportunities aris- ing from the EU US ‘Open Skies’ Agreement which will come fully into effect at the end of March next year.

That is the view of the transport minister, Noel Dempsey, who de- clined to answer directly questions from Clare’s two Fine Gael TDs, Pat Breen and Joe Carey, on the Aer Lingus commitment to retain serv- ices on its transatlantic routes out of

SJerveveceyee

Minister Dempsey’s predecessor, Martin Cullen, stated that he had received assurances that Aer Lingus would maintain transatlantic passen- ger levels to 400,000.

However, rumours abound that Aer Lingus may reduce or even withdraw completely its transatlantic services for the winter 2008-09 period.

In a written Dail reply Munister Dempsey said: “It is understood that Se eV U OUD M ae fort to ensure that year-round trans- atlantic services are maintained. I

would be confident that the airport authority, with the continued support of business and tourism interests in the region, can respond to the chal- lenges and opportunities presented by Open Skies.

“I understand that several studies have projected that the Open Skies agreement will lead to considerable economic benefits for Ireland, for the business sector, for the tourism industry and for the air transport in- dustry itself.

“On 7 November, Aer Lingus an- nounced that it would for summer

2008 maintain daily direct flights between Shannon to New York and Shannon to Boston and a daily flight to Chicago via Dublin. This re- flects a continuation of the schedule now being operated over the winter 2007/2008 period.

“In comparison with the 2007 sum- mer schedule the difference in the 2008 schedule is that the Chicago service 1S Operated not on a direct basis but indirectly via Dublin.”

In relation to the appointment of a further two appointees to the Aer Lingus board, Minister Dempsey

said “the State’s appointees will seek to ensure that all future decisions of the company, that have significant implications for wider government, aviation or regional development policies, including issues impacting on the mid-west regions, are consid- ered at board level”

On the business plan for Shannon airport, Minister Dempsey said that “I await the DAA’s overall consid- ered views on airport separation to enable the plans to be examined by the Minister for Finance and myself,’ the minister said.

A THERAPY that promotes the prin- ciples of relaxation is now available in Clare with Mountshannon man Wolfgang Wiesmann at the helm. Originally from Germany, Wolf- gang moved to Clare a number of years ago and Mountshannon be- came his new home. After working for various organisations and groups like the Council for the Blind, the Brothers of Charity, St Anne’s School

in Ennis and the Steiner school, he branched out into the relatively new field of therapy autogenic training.

The core of autogenic training is a training course during which clients learn a series of simple exercises in body awareness and relaxation de- signed to switch off the stress-related ‘fight and flight’ system of the body and switch on the ‘rest, relaxation and recreation’ system.

Autogenic training has been used by people of all walks of life to en-

hance healing, performance and creativity.

It has been taught to international sports men and women to enhance performance, to airline pilots and crew to combat jet lag and fatigue, and in the business environment to optimise performance and concen- tration and reduce stress. It has even been used to help astronauts make the necessary environmental adjust- ments in space travel.

Wolfgang teaches autogenic train-

ing and emotional freedom tech- niques at his office at Bank Place in /Syaebay

‘“Autogenic training comes from re- laxation without exercise,’ explained Wolfgang. “It is particularly helpful for people who might not be able to exercise, like people who might be disabled or in wheelchairs.”

He continued, “For physical health your mind needs to be relaxed fully. It is used a lot in England where it 1s a fully recognized therapy.”

ONE final scrum developed out on the field after the final whistle, then it morphed into a rolling maul that went up the steps to the presentation area in the Gaelic Grounds. It where David Kennedy joined his team mates in celebration.

Before that he had broken away from the scrum to be feted as TG4 man- of-the-match — it was an easy call for match analyst Donal O’Grady, such was Kennedy’s dominance of this game from centre back.

Kennedy more than anyone else was responsible for Loughmore- Castleiney’s Munster final victory — the impenetrable wall in their de-

fence who swatted Tulla attackers out of his way all day.

He caught more ball high ball than everyone else on the field put togeth- er, Something that moved some sages of Tipperary hurling in the stand to it was Kennedy’s greatest ever per- formance on a hurling field.

If so, he picked a great day to pro- duce his very best. Maybe it was the level of his own performance and the significance of Loughmore- Castleiney’s victory that left Kennedy slightly shell-shocked after the game. Certainly he was stuck for words.

“T don’t know what to say really,” he said seconds after Cathal McAI- lister’s final whistle. “It’s very hard to believe that we’re Munster cham-

pions. A year ago we were nowhere, we had nothing, that’s where we’ve come from.

‘This means everything for Lough- more-Castleiney. This is going to se- cure hurling in the parish for a long number of years.

‘We’re a very small club and win- ning this title is great going into the jaUiaet Ken

“It’s way beyond winning an All- Ireland. With Tipperary every year, no matter how bad things were go- ing you expect to be in Croke Park. With Loughmore you don’t expect anything.

‘This year we didn’t expect to win a county title and a Munster title — we didn’t expect to be hurling at

this time of year. This is a different universe,’ added Kennedy warming to his subject.

Then he turned to vanquished Tul- la. “They gave it everything and were really attacking us near the end, but our defence held firm.

‘We knew it was going to be a real battle out there and with the condi- tions there was never going to be pealecelemsneme ie

“We knew at half-time that the game was far from over, even though we were only a point up having played with the wind. It was almost as difficult to play with the wind as against it. We showed something in us today — I don’t know where it came from.

“It was important that we didn’t concede a goal, while the goal we got in the first half from Evan Sweeney was very important.

We missed a few other chances in the half but in the second half really played well at the back and got the crucial scores to win the game.”

With that Kennedy rejoined his team-mates — Munster Council chair- man Seamus O’Gorman presented the cup to Loughmore-Castleiney captain Johnny Gleeson. The singing started in the Mackey Stand.

It was cold, wet and miserable, but no one in the green and red of Loughmore-Castleiney minded. It was theirs and most of all David Kennedy’s day.

DEPUTY Joe Carey (FG) has called into question the commitment of the minister of transport to the people of the mid-west, following the min- ister’s response to Dail questions by Deputy Carey last week.

On ‘Tuesday last, Deputy Carey raised the issue of the designation of the Shannon-Heathrow route as a public service obligation route (PSO).

Deputy Carey said that the minis- ter’s response confirmed that “the Government is continuing to treat the Shannon-Heathrow issue with a slight hand, laden with political am- bivalence.

The designation of Shannon-Heath- row as a PSO first needs to be raised with the British authorities, and then a case made to the EU and for the ap- plication to be published in the EU

Journal,” said Deputy Carey. “The response | got from the minister was to the effect that contact with the EU has been requested at an early stage. There was no sense of urgency in the minister’s response, just further fob- bing and prevarication.”

Deputy Carey is now calling for contact with the British authorities to be made, and a genuine and pressing case made to the EU within weeks.

The Fine Gael deputy said that “Both industrialists and tourist bod- ies in the mid-west are facing an un- certain new year as the Government continues to drag its heels on this.

He added: “If this route were to be designated as a PSO, it could facili- tate continued connectivity for the west of Ireland to the world’s largest hub at Heathrow.”

KILRUSH’S Yacht club has returned to the past in the same week it looks to anew modern future.

At the 2007 AGM of the Western Yacht Club, the club voted to revert to the title the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland. During the same meeting Ireland’s first ever Com- modore of a Royal or Ancient Yacht Club was also appointed.

Maeve Howard made national his- tory when she took over the most senior position in one of Ireland’s oldest clubs.

At the November AGM the clubs most acclaimed sailor Ger O’Rourke (skipper of Chieftain) proposed that the name of the club be changed from the name adopted in 1984 to

the original name going back 180 years.

The vote to return to the older name was not unanimous however but was carried by a two-thirds majority in Ie AVOlul

A spokesperson for the yacht club said that it was felt that not many people would know about the West- ern Yacht Club when it was men- tioned on the international stage, but the royal yacht club was more pres- tigious and had more recognition.

The Royal Western Yacht Club was formed in February 1828 by a group of men, among them the Earl of Dun- raven and two of Daniel O’Connell’s sons Maurice and John.

Years later the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland was issued with an Admiralty Warrant giving it permis-

sion to fly a defaced White Ensign – normal procedure at the time, as the Admiralty controlled all use of TLRS Teae

At the time the Royal Western Yacht Club had considerable mate- rial resources, it kept offices at 113 Grafton Street, Dublin, a clubhouse afloat in Dun Laoghaire on a ship called the Owen Glendower and had agents in the Eastern Mediterranean and in Scandinavia.

In 1984 it was revitalised as the Western Yacht Club, which was very active in both international and na- tional sailing.

In the international arena the West- ern Yacht Club consistently punched considerably above its expected weight when Mr O’Rourke distin- guished himself worldwide by win-

ning many prestigious yacht races and becoming the first Irish person to win the Fastnet Race.

One unique feature of the Royal Western Yacht Club is that it has at least two families as members who are direct descendants of the origi- nal founding members. The club’s flag is the Irish commercial ensign, blue flag with the Irish tricolour in the hoist and a crown surrounded by a wreath of shamrock in the fly. The original 1832 Burgee, which is used by all members, is the cross of St George on a white background with a crown surrounded by a wreath of Shamrock in the centre.

TULLA are old stock. Clichéd and all as it may sound, they hurl from the heart and it’s taken them to a Munster Final.

Think of that. A Munster Final!

At the start of the summer that con- cept wasn’t even part of their thought process and before the provincial de- cider on Sunday, Jim McInerney said as much. He looked back to where Tulla were at this time last year — having been dumped out of the Sen- ior B Championship — and said that a Munster Final would barely have registered as a dream.

But that’s where they were on Sun- day and the club has provided some of the only positive vibes in Clare hurling this year — particularly since they took the county final back at the end of October.

Before that, they went quietly about their business, taking out a couple of big guns on the way to a novel final against Crusheen. If that game didn’t live up to expectation, perspective gives us the opportunity to reflect that in hindsight, maybe both sides went in hoping not to lose rather than aiming to win. The hurling didn’t set the world alight and word was out that Tulla had won a soft enough

championship.

War NmmyeclyeM mba OCcmrcn ele Mm iMmy schol mn r-b be either. In ways, it probably has more to do with the usual swelled crowd at the final compared to the numbers present to see Tulla dispose of New- market and Clarecastle.

The county took Tulla to their hearts but it wasn’t a rapid process. Word was seeping out that the Kerry champions could take a Clare scalp in the first round of Munster but Tulla came out that day in Tralee all guns blazing and had the game killed off before Lixnaw could even shake the cobwebs from their bones.

Then Ballyduff came to Ennis and

Tulla played some of the best hurling Cusack Park has seen all year. Flags and banners with the claret and gold have popped up all across the county since then.

In a year of let downs on and off the field for the county hurlers, it was Tulla, along with Clonlara who car- ried hopes through the latter half of the season.

That Tulla failed to take a provin- cial title shouldn’t ruin the next few months for them. Since the county fi- nal, celebrations have been cut short as they seriously went about taking a Munster title. All year they’ve been proving their critics wrong and the

attitude was — what’s the point in stopping with a Clare title.

When they’d finally relinquished the game at the Gaelic Grounds, a large knot of Tulla supporters moved onto the field to commiserate with them. It was a shared pain. Through- out the game, it was the Tulla fans who displayed most energy and colour and they too will have some warm thoughts to keep them going over the cold months now upon us.

THE top official in the Department of Transport has moved to quell re- ports that the Shannon Airport Au- thority and Shannon Development are to be merged.

In response to a question from Fine Gael TD Pat Breen at the Dail’s Transport Committee, the Secretary General at the Department of Trans- port, Julie O’Neill, said: “I have heard suggestions along those lines.

It has not been raised as an explicit proposal at this stage.

Ms O Neill was speaking at the Dail ‘Transport Committee last Thursday where senior officials from the department explained why Min- ister Noel Dempsey was not told of Aer Lingus plans to withdraw from the Shannon-Heathrow service.

She added that there was “no spe- cific proposal on my desk or in the department in regard to that issue.”

On the work being done by a top

level Government inter-departmen- tal group on Shannon, senior official, John Murphy said: “A number of de- velopments are being examined in other areas in terms of institutional reform and the investment that needs to be made, whether under Transport 21 or in other areas. Work will pro- ceed on that.

Mr Murphy said in answer to a question from Mr Breen on the €53m economic and tourism development plan for the Shannon region that it

would “be finalised shortly”.

As part of the committee’s plan to produce a report on the future of Shannon, chairman of the Shannon faVbu led maULNeLO UIA CS¥a Ua Ne erclme)er:Net- ce han is to also appear before the com- mittee in the near future.

Ms O’Neill acknowledged that in the context of other challenges facing Shannon airport, the SAA needed the loss of its Heathrow slots “like a hole in the head”.

Deputy Timmy Dooley said that

he was “still baffled as to why they failed to communicate this critical information to the minister”.

He said: “It has had an impact on the region which I represent and, in my mind, will have an extremely se- rious impact in the coming years.

‘While the members of the delega- tion might believe their actions blind sided the minister, those actions have devastated or have the potential to devastate an entire region,’ Deputy Dooley added.

A WARNING of local drastic ac- tion was dropped at a meeting of the Clare Vocational Education Com- mittee this week as it listened to a delegation from St Michael’s Com- munity College, Kilmihil, on the frustrating absence of progress on a most urgently needed extension for the school.

Helena Keane, Principal, told the committee that the board of manage- ment had exhausted every avenue and still there was no progress for several years.

“Refurbishment is vital if we’re not to slip backwards in our quality of

education delivery. The college has zero failures in course subjects and examination results are regularly well above national averages,’ she ene

“Our teachers give a huge commit- ment and our pupils deserve better than working in a 20th century build- ing in the 21st century,” she added.

Martin Moloney, a teaching staff representative on the board of man- agement also addressed the meeting.

He first read a letter from staff addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of the committee, George O’Callaghan, and the Chairman, Councillor Tommy Brennan, and the other vocational education commit-

tee members.

The staff, the letter stated, had be- come increasingly uneasy at the ap- parent lack of movement from the Department of Education and Sci- ence in the past year on the expan- sion and updating building issue.

“It’s a whole year since a delega- tion met the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, on the matter, and staff have been most frustrated by lack of any momentum meantime,” he said.

‘This is despite continuous efforts of the chief executive officer and the committee’s infrastructure group.”

Martin Moloney added that in his eight years in the college Depart-

ment of Education officials had been there with their measuring tapes but draft reports and plans of proposed buildings appeared to have caused recession rather than progress.

“Our staff,” he noted, “are begin- ning to say what other action is re- quired by them to get movement. We can’t say as yet what way amid a growing sense of frustration.”

George O’Callaghan of the com- mittee said not a week passed when he was not in touch with the Depart- ment of Education and Science on the matter.

It had the project placed on band 2.4, a low priority rating for atten- wee

AT THE start of the year, Michael Browne and Mike Murphy sat down for a chat. Murphy was captain for the year but nobody would have known where the road was going to lead.

The two came up with a strategy that has served Tulla well and high- lights the approach they’ve taken to the season. Murphy would act as one of the prime ball winners for the Tulla forwards, he’d put his body into whatever fight for possession that presented itself and even if he only moved the sliotar three yards in the direction of the Tulla goal, that would be enough.

That Al Pacino speech in Any Giv- en Sunday, the one about inches has been thrown about for most of this new century — and taken on board particularly by the Cork hurlers – but Tulla and Murphy have personified that system this year.

TMENo aioe meee de

In the end, they didn’t get the Mun-

ster championship that they craved since taking down Crusheen in the county final, but the season has been the greatest in living memory in Tulla.

After the game on Sunday, the disappointment in Murphy’s face is obvious but it shows just how far the club has come over the course of the season.

“The way that wind was blowing,’ he says “it didn’t have any advantage for either team. It was so strong out there that it just carried the ball.”

Even as he’s talking, the cold is still seeping into him, his teeth are rat- tling and his body is shivering. It was that kind of day.

“Tn the first half, the wind was blow- ing for them but it didn’t seem to be a great help. We knew coming down here that we’d be up against a strong team and that’s how it was. The goal gave them a bit of a cushion and on a day like today, that could always swing things in one direction.”

Right to the end, Tulla didn’t die and they hung on still within touch-

ing distance.

“We did have chances even late on. They just wouldn’t go over for us and even at the end, when Andy Quinn dropped the 65 into the danger area for us, we still could have snatched a win.

“But it just wasn’t going to be our day. The bottom line is that it’s been a great season for us. To come out and win a county championship was a dream come true. It would have been fantastic to have come down here and won a Munster title for Tul- la, but it didn’t happen. We’ve got the county to keep us going through the winter.”

Not just that. While the disappoint- ment of the Munster final might have been there on Sunday, it’s sure not to linger.

Last week, Murphy became a fa- ther. A boy.

“Another Tulla hurler on the way,’ somebody reminded him on Sunday. Because of the year just finished, he’ll be part of a club with a whole new set of ambitions.