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AS CLONLARA captain Paul Collins waited to collect the cup from Munster chairman Seamus O’Gorman, he smiled and shook his head in disbelief. In his acceptance speech, he confirmed this incredu- lous feeling by stating that it has been an unbelieveable year. That feeling was echoed all over Cusack Park by the 2,000 plus crowd who were still coming to terms with what they had just witnessed.

Clonlara have done so well this year that they have actually sur- prised themselves by getting this far. Collins himself may have missed the semi-final against Tipperary champions Lorrha due to a family bereavement but in typical Clonlara fashion, he slipped seamlessly back into the side on Sunday as if he had

never been away. Two vital first half blocks emphasised his importance to the team and set them on their way to a first Munster crown. An achieve- ment which he still finds difficult to sink in.

“The whole thing is just unbelie- veable,” said Collins. “How do you describe it? It’s like a dream and we are just waiting to wake up.

“It was strange today compared to the other matches where we tended to get out ahead then drop back and lose it and then having to fight hard to get back in it. But today thank God we got out in front and we stayed out in front. There was always a danger that they could come back and we could run out of time but thank God, we had the luck on the day.”

Luck certainly played it’s part but essentially Clonlara deserved this title more than Dromin-Athlacca. In

what has been one of the most excit- ing runs in the competition’s history, Clonlara were just too strong for the Limerick champions and played with an added spring to their step after famous wins over Carrigtwohill and Lorrha.

“The previous games stood to us,” agreed Collins “It’s great because there was no pressure going into the Munster competition. It’s a great competition and it lets lads play their own style of hurling and it’s a bit freer. It showed there when we were hurling well again today.”

THERE are people in east Clare who will forever have cause to be grateful to Kevin Canny.

In the 41 years plus that Kevin has been delivering letters and parcels to his native Feakle and surround- ing areas, he’s brought a lot of good news.

And some bad. But for Kevin, who followed in his father’s footsteps as postman and whose daughter is now taking up the reins as he retires, it is, in his own words, “in the blood”’.

“IT remember 35 years ago, going to the house of a man who was known to be a good man to swear. He said to me ‘well Canny, I suppose that’s another feckin’ bill?’ I joked with him that it was a letter from the Prize

Bonds office. As I walked back to collect my bike he let a shout out of him for me to come back. He asked me how did I know what was in the letter — he’d won £100.”

Kevin took over as postman from his father, John Canny, who earned a princely £19/23 when he started out in 1929.

Kevin’s route took him on a daily 27 mile journey, delivering letters to more than 400 homes on a bike.

‘People used to wait to see you coming, to see were you bringing a letter they might be waiting for from a child or relative who had emigrated to England or America. The Amer1- can parcels that used come brought huge excitement. They were clothes of amazing colours and materials and money sometimes. I remember one

Christmas, when we’d just got our first post van, a Renault, we had four American parcels for one house. We packed the four boxes into the van and you wouldn’t have got a pound of butter in with them. You can imagine the excitement in that house.”

Some days were not so happy. “You’d bring telegrams and people would ask you to open them because they were so afraid of what was in there. Telegrams were very often bad ea AS

He describes the days of delivering the post as “the happiest days of my Th tome

While getting motorised transport made the job physically more com- fortable, Kevin says he missed the bicycle.

“When we got the van, we were

pressured for time. Before that you’d stop for a chat with people, sit up ona ditch or go in for a cup of tea.”

As the people of Feakle parish gathered last Friday, along with rep- resentatives of An Post to celebrate Kevin’s years of bringing the news to homes in east Clare, Kevin himself had a proud boast.

With his daughter, Martina, now working a route round Killaloe he can say “there has been a Canny de- livering the post in east Clare since 1929.”

FOUR of the 50 counts against the proprietor of a créche in Ennis, relat- ing to the running of the premises, have been dismissed by the judge hearing the case.

Martina Baker, of Hopscotch Child- care and Montessori, Quin Road, En- nis, faced seven summonses, divided into 50 counts, relating to various inspections on dates between March 2006 and January 2007.

Judge Tim Lucey heard evidence relating to six of the counts on the first day of the hearing at Ennis Dis- trict Court yesterday and dismissed four of the six, while he has yet to rule on the two others.

Three of the charges he dismissed relate to keeping records while the other was an allegation that Ms Baker failed to ensure adequate ar- rangements were in place to summon medical assistance promptly in an emergency.

Among the remaining counts due

to be contested in court today (Tues- day) include that she is alleged to have failed to ensure the premises

was adequately heated, failed to se- cure the gates in the play area and failed to ensure there was sufficient

nutritional and varied food available for the children. Among the allegations against Ms

Baker include that she failed to take all reasonable measures to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all pre- school children; that she failed to en- sure every child had a suitable means of progression and development with books, games etc, regarding his/her age and stage of development.

She is accused of failing to ensure there was a sufficient number of com- petent adults to supervise preschool children in the service at all times.

She is also accused of failing to provide a suitable equipped First Aid box and failing to ensure there was adequate means of ventilation pro- vided on the premises.

She is further accused of failing to ensure all waste and refuse was dis- posed off frequently and in such a manner as to not cause a nuisance.

THE SAFETY of children and par- ents travelling to school in Shannon Banks is at risk from the huge vol- umes of traffic which now pass their homes and school gates, local coun- cillor Pascal Fitzgerald has warned.

He was speaking at a meeting of the Killaloe area councillors last week, having asked the director of services to provide safety railings across the bridge at Shannon Banks.

“This would go a long way towards ensuring the safety of residents and children in the area. It has been re- ported to me that there have been a number of potential accidents there in the last few weeks. Young kids just run out on to the road and there will be a tragedy if we don’t do some- thing,” the Labour councillor said.

Cllr Tony O’Brien seconded Cllr Fitzgerald’s motion to have railings erected.

“You have Scoil Ide National school

and St Munchins on that route and it is heavily used. I know we would have to have agreement with Limer- ick City Council but we need to move on this,” he said.

Senior Executive Engineer with Clare County Council, Sean Leni- han, told councillors that part of the area in question comes under the re- sponsibilty of Limerick City Coun- cil, as the bridge straddles the border betweent the two local authorities.

“IT have a meeting lined up with

city council staff for November 27. We have agreed to do this, it’s just a case of getting down and doing it in the new year. We’ve taken on board what the councillors have said and this is a high priority for us,” he told the meeting.

The senior engineer also told the meeting that there were a number of issues which Limerick City Council and Clare County Council needed to discuss and these would be on the ta- ble at the meeting later this week.

FOUR babies slept in a room in an Ennis creche where the smell of must was “overpowering” – according to HSE inspectors who called to the Eee

HSE pre-school inspector Carmel Devane told the court yesterday that as a result of an anonymous com- plaint, she and a colleague arrived unannounced at Hopscotch Child- care and Montessori in March 2006.

She said she got a “strong smell of urine from the sanitary accommo- dation area, despite the fact that the Windows were wide open”.

“There was no hot water in both wash basins and the bin attached to the wall was dirty,” she said.

Asked was it satisfactory, she re- plied, “No it wasn’t. Proper cleaning procedure wasn’t in place.”

She said she noticed a musty smell from a sleeping room where four babies were asleep. She also saw two dirty cloths on a radiator in the elrentoee

“IT was concerned about the sanitary accommodation,” she said.

Her colleague Margaret Neylon said the strong smell of must from the sleeping room was “very over- OXOuios ub area

“Ms Baker said the smell was due to a child having a soiled nappy. We didn’t accept that. It was a smell of must,” she said.

She said the toilet bowls were dirty and hadn’t been flushed.

Defending solicitor Niall Casey said, “There was a smell of urine. What do you expect? It’s a toilet fa- cility.”

He said he was concerned there was an over reliance on an anonymous complaint.

“The complaint to me was an over- riding misconception that they had when they arrived at the premises and that has tainted their evidence,” he said.

“No child was prejudiced. No child was injured,” said Mr Casey.

Cathal Minihane, representing the HSE, said there was ample evidence

that the sanitary facilities were in a dirty condition.

“I’d certainly prefer to have a smell of a cleaning product rather than urine,’ he said.

“The HSE 1s not looking for perfec- tion but a certain level of hygiene and cleanliness. A creche should have hot running water,’ said Mr Minihane.

Mr Casey applied for the charges to be dismissed. Judge Lucey dismissed the case relating to the record-keep- ing, but did not rule on the other two counts until later this week.

One of those is an allegation that Ms Baker failed to ensure that fix- tures and fittings were in a clean and hygienic condition, while the other relates to an alleged failure to ensure there were adequate suitable sanitary facilities provided.

CONTRACTS for the €12.2 million sewerage scheme for Scariff are be- ing signed tomorrow (Wednesday).

Councillors for the area had it con- firmed last week that after years of campaigning for the scheme and much wrangling over funding, it is now certain to go ahead.

News that the contracts have finally been brought to the table broke at the opening of Clare County Council’s Scariff area offices last week, when Mayor of Clare, Patricia McCarthy, announced that she had a date for the signing.

At a later meeting of the elected

members for the area, senior execu- tive engineer, Sean Lenihan, con- firmed that the contract had been awarded to Mayo firm, G and D Ley- CaF

“It’s a twelve month contract and all three elements definitely have to be finshed in that time,” said Sean.

Once complete, the scheme will result in a major reduction in the amount of pollutants which are flow- ing into Lough Derg.

It will also open the doors for ex- pansion and development in Scarilff, Feakle, Tuamgraney and Whitegate.

The announcement that the scheme will now defintely go ahead was warmly welcomed by the elected

members for the Scariff area.

“I’m very pleased that the long road to making this scheme a reality 1s at an end. It’s been a long time com- ing but I’m delighted to hear that we are at last at the signing of contracts stage,’ Cllr Pat Hayes said.

Cllr Hayes also asked that the coun- cil should now look at issues such as working on the problems with water pressure in Juamgraney. “We were advised not to rock the boat while the process of getting funding was on-going but now, when we have the contractors on-site would be the time to tackle some of these issues,” he said.

Cllr Colm Wiley said there are

“houses out the Mountshannon road which should be included. I can’t un- derstand how we didn’t have them included in the first place”.

The council engineer agreed with members that it would “be a good time to look at some of the other needs, when the town is excavated for this project’, Sean Lenihan said.

He added that while talks could be had with the contractor on some 1s- sues, Others might come under the remit of funding for small schemes.

“Tm looking at alternative ways of funding and getting work done while we have the workers on site and I’ll do all I can on the issues that have been raised,” he told the meeting.

MARTINA Baker told the court yesterday that her duty was “for the care of the children” and denied the AT Neone ree Rem eoe

Ms Baker said she had run the creche, which was located on the Quin Road in Ennis, for more than 10 years.

She said that there was not a musty smell from the room where the ba- bies were asleep.

“I dispute that. There was at least one child with a soiled nappy, if not two,’ said Ms Baker.

She also disputed the allegations regarding the sanitary accommoda- tion of the créche.

“The building is vented. They are young children you are dealing with. We would have let the older ones use the toilets on their own, for privacy and they may not have flushed after,” said Ms Baker.

She said a cleaning regime pro-

gramme was in place on the premises and that the Health Service Execu- tive (HSE) did not offer any specific guidance on cleaning.

Referring to the allegation that the running water in the bathroom was cold, she said the water is thermo- statically controlled and was spe- cially installed when the créche was olebn te

“I wasn’t told there was no hot wa- ter. I don’t know whether or not it was. I didn’t check it that day. I can’t

comment whether it was hot or not,” she added.

She also denied that there was dust or dirt on a floor in a playroom as had been alleged by HSE staff who visited the premises in March 2006.

She said she used floor cleaning solution and hot water once a day to clean the floors.

Solicitor for the HSE – which is taking the case – Cathal Minihane asked her if the sanitary accommo- dation was cleaned regularly, would

it be fair to say there wouldn’t have been a smell of urine.

Ms Baker replied, “I could not say Whether an unflushed toilet would smell or not.”

Mr Minihane said that there was a musty smell from the sleeping room and not the smell of a soiled nappy, but she denied this.

“I wrote to the HSE looking for a definition of must but I never got a reply. I don’t know what the chemical composition of must is,’ she said.

A WEST Clare building contractor has secured yet another major public contract. Kilmihil contractors L & M Keating have been commissioned by Limerick County Council to develop a major new public park and amenity area at Castletroy.

Work will commence on the €2.2 million project in early December.

Pat Quinlivan, commercial director for L & M Keating Ltd said, “This is a prestigious contract for the compa- ny as it is one of the largest purpose- built public park and amenity areas in County Limerick. The challenge to complete the park to the highest standard within six months is one that we are looking forward to.”

L & M Keating Ltd, with an annual

turnover of €40 million, currently employs 105 permanent staff and is best known for constructing the five- star lodge and clubhouse at Doonbeg Golf Club.

The company, which recently won a national award for its refurbishment of St Senan’s Church in Kilrush, was also involved in the construction of the newly opened University of Lim- erick Living Bridge across the River SJerVeveceyee

The west Clare-based firm is currently constructing the breakwa- ters for a new marina at Knightstown Harbour in Kerry, harbour devel- opments on Inisboffin, car parking facilities at Milford Care Centre and a mixed development at Quay Mills in Kilrush comprising apartments and offices.

It was also awarded the contract to refurbish the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church at Church Street, Cahirciveen.

The development of the 17-acre park in Limerick was designed by Nicholas de Jong Associates of Ur- ban Design in Limerick, following an extensive public consultation with the Castletroy community and local school children.

It is anticipated that construction work on the project will be completed by the middle of next year.

Castletroy Park will feature a fully equipped children’s playground, a skateboarding area, 1.2 kilometre of pedestrian pathways, a circular cycle route and a central perform- ance/exhibition area with covering Sea bCoLAe Ken

The development will also feature an array of natural habitats including a 4,300 square metre lake, wetlands, wildflower grass areas and wood- lands.

PUPILS could be walking to school this Friday after SIPTU served strike notice on Bus Eireann in a demand for increased pay and conditions for more than 200 school bus drivers seeking proper pay and conditions.

The union is calling a one-day stoppage, which it says will be just the first if demands are not met.

Talks are scheduled for the Labour Relations Commission tomorrow to try to avert the dispute.

Pay and condition in the job are

So unattractive, SIPTU claims, that the company found it impossible to recruit new drivers in Limerick and Galway to fill vacancies recently. The drivers currently earn €11.66 per hour. “They have no pension, sick pay or other benefits. They are amongst the lowest paid workers in the public transport or education sec- tors. For example, school caretakers earn €14.38 per hour and other Bus Eireann drivers have a payscale run- ning from €13.15 to €15.23 per hour. SIPTU is seeking parity with full- time drivers and the same benefits as

all other Bus Eireann employees.”

SIPTU National Industrial Secre- tary, Michael Halpenny said that, ‘Employment conditions are so poor that it proved impossible to recruit new drivers recently in Limerick and Galway, when vacancies arose”.

Meanwhile, Bus Eireann said in a statement that it welcomes the deci- sion by SIPTU to enter talks with the company at the Labour Relations Commission on Wednesday, adding that it is hopeful that strike action can be averted.

A spokesperson for the company

said, “We welcome SIPTU’s deci- sion to participate in talks at the LRC and hope that Friday’s planned strike can be averted.”

The spokesperson added, “Any ac- tion would cause unnecessary dis- ruption and inconvenience for school children and their families.”

The company said that the pay claim had already been examined by the Rights Commissioner and reject- ed. SIPTU subsequently appealed the decision to the Labour Court and in May the court disallowed the ap- peal.

A WEST Clare secondary school is leading the way in developing an international relationship with Italy.

Fourteen transition year students from St Joseph’s Secondary school in Spanish Point made their way to the north of the country as part of a stu- dent exchange, bringing with them samples of Irish culture.

The school reinstated its transition year this September after six years.

The list of programmes, modules and events outlined by the school for this year’s students is likely to ensure the class attracts a lot of interest dur- ing the next number of years.

The class began the term with an outdoor pursuits trip to Mayo and are now organising a trip to Paris.

In the interim the 14 young people, along with transition year co-ordi-

nation Deirdre Comber and deputy principal Harry Hughes, travelled with the class to Luino on the shores of Lake Maggiore.

Ms Comber struck up an alliance with the local ‘middle’ school during the Willie Clancy Weekend when one of its teachers Lorella Gallo and her husband Bruno attended the festival.

Armed with their musical instru- ments, the seven boys and seven girls from Spanish Point made the trip to link up with the “Scuolo Meda’ and were hosted by the local families and teachers. During their stay 1n the pic- turesque area of Italy the group vis- ited the city of Milan.

As well as a walking trip they also took to the lake for a day of sailing and visited the island owned by the Boromeo family.

While in the island’s palace, the

Irish group saw local historical treas- ures including Mussolini’s signature.

The Irish students played tradition- al music to more than 600 people in the local concert hall.

Iseult NiChoitir sang an_ Irish song, Sean O’Malley sang a Thin Lizzy song, Roisin Lillis and Aoife O’ Riordan played the fiddle and then Aoife joined Aisling O’Ryan for the brush dance, which almost brought the house down.

Anxious to forge links with west Clare, the Italians invited the teach- ers to a gala night where they were presented with gifts. A group of stu- dents from the school and some lo- cal dignitaries are now planning a return visit to Spanish Point in April. Ms Comber said that the school was proud of the pupils.

“They left a good impression of our

school and our area,” she said. “It was a very positive experience and we hope to make it an annual feature of transition year.”

The class is now really looking forward to a trip to France and a course studying local history. They will also take part in a 10-week driver education course.

Deputy principal Mr Hughes said the transition year can facilitate courses and study subjects that would not be possible during other years.

Italian is also back in the school as a subject for the first time since the 1970s, opening up another language and culture to the students.