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MIDFIELD on the stand side of Cusack Park and Fiach O’ Loughlin is locked in an embrace and goes on and on. It’s longer than the couple of minutes injury-time allowed by Rory Hickey at the end of this All Souls Day county final.

Given the day that was in it, he was surely thanking some higher power from the hurling heavens. Whatever, the streams were stream- ing now as the realisation at what Cratloe had achieved shine through the rain clouds.

“Tm stuck for words,’ he says after a few minutes. “I can’t really talk, give me a few more minutes”.

Meanwhile, Barry Duggan’s words flow as he addresses the Grecia elem ntl eCOeMOKeyeoMe)OmmONEAMBNOMENAL™ Ard Comhairle. “There’s a man who came in when we were down,” says Duggan. “He’s played for and captained Ireland, he’s captained Shannon to an All-Ireland League title and he picked us up after being beaten by Newmarket and made us believe what we could do. It’s Fiach O’Loughlin and I salute him.”

It’s the perfect cue for O’ Loughlin to explain his role in this romantic hurling story. The 125th year of the GAA’s founding. The 125th year to the day, to the afternoon. Cratloe. First time champions in their first ever senior hurling final.

“Belief,” he says. “It’s all about be- lief. That’s what this team is about. We had great faith in our guys all season and knew that we could win this title. It came down to belief at half-time. In the dressing room we said to the lads, ‘we believe in ye, we know ye believe in yourselves and it’s a matter of going out and winning it’.

‘They showed the belief they have as a team out there. The one thing I’ve said to the guys, whether it’s at half-time in games, the start of games, or 1n training 1s just “believe in yourselves because you are win- ners’. Anything we asked of them they did. They’re amateurs but they did it like a group of professional athletes. That’s the commitment they gave to the cause this year.

“We were never going to give up, whether we were one, two, three, four points down or whatever. The belief was there in the team that we knew we’d come good and win this championship. Never say die, that’s what did it for Cratloe today. We never said die and that’s why we got there in the end.”

At once you know this means as much as anything O’Loughlin has achieved on the rugby field.

And, why not. He’s Cratloe after all and this was with his own. The parish. The pump. The very rocks on which the GAA was built 125 years ago.

BEAMING and panting, Sean Chap- lin is coming to terms with the hour he has just logged and the trophy he has helped secure for Cratloe’s al- ready crowded cabinet.

‘This is beyond my wildest dreams,” he says. “As a young lad myself and the lads would go down and watch the Cratloe seniors. We were about ten or 12 and we would follow those guys every season. To us they were the next big thing when they won the intermediate and things died down for a while after that but it’s great to bring success to the club again.

“We had had so many years of los- ing but when you get that winning feeling it’s very hard to stop it be- cause that feeling 1s unreal.”

Sunday was the club’s 13th game in 14 weeks and the winning percent- age from that butcher’s dozen — in both codes — has been phenomenal.

“We have massive momentum in

this club. We had the football to build on and I’ve heard that some people have said football should be banned in Cratloe. I don’t believe that.

“We’re mad for football, we’re mad for hurling. These fellas are mad for action. I don’t care if we’re playing every week from here until Christ- mas. That’s what we want. We want to play and we want to train. That’s what we get the buzz from. That’s our life.”

From beginning to end, Chaplin was at the core of Cratloe’s win but for the midfielder, the final score of the game proved the sweetest mo- ment.

“The end was unbelievable, it was just a great way to win a county final and I didn’t know how long was left. It seemed like a fast second-half. I thought there would be more left in it because even after the goal it was backs to the wall time for us.

‘When the ball hit the net I was still cautious though because Clonlara

have some fantastic players and they had the ability to come back down and get another goal.”

A familiar refrain surrounded Cratloe both before and during the game.

“We had to work and work and be disciplined. That was the target we set. At half-time we said we had to be patient as well, that the breaks would come and that’s exactly what hap- pened. We were getting tired towards the end of the first-half because there was a lot of hard hitting but we kept going, we wouldn’t back down.

“Inside in the dressing room there were no mad speeches. We just de- cided we would stick with what had got us this far, stick with it. We knew were fit and we believed in ourselves. That counts for something.”

THE victim of an assault has told a court that he was attacked with wheel braces, while he exercised at an Ennis leisure centre.

Anthony McDonagh told Ennis Circuit Court that he was training in the gym at Ennis leisure centre on the evening of July 3 last year.

He was preparing to finish up and go for a shower when he said that the door was pushed in and a number of

men arrived at the gym.

One man was holding a machete, which, he said, was swung at him. “I put up my arms. I got a wheel brace to the side of the head. I fell to the ground,” he told the court.

He said he was also cut with a knife and was struck to the face and body. “IT was ducking the machete and I just got attacked by wheel braces and stuff,” he told the jury.

Asked by counsel for the state, Stephen Coughlan, BL, what the ac-

cused did to him, he replied, “I’m not 100 per cent sure what he did. It happened so fast. He was with them.”

The court was told that Anthony McDonagh sustained head and wrist injuries and cuts to his left arm.

Under cross-examination by de- fence counsel Pat Whyms, the wit- ness said he is currently in prison. He admitted that he had carried out a revenge attack for the incident in the gym.

“What did you do?” asked Mr Whyms. Mr McDonagh replied, “I went to a barber’s and attacked him (a man other than the accused) with an axe.”

Details of the garda interview with the accused were read to the jury. He admitted going to the gym and said he went there to train.

“One of the lads handed me some- thing. I didn’t use it. It was a Stanley knife. There was a blade sticking out of the end,” he said.

Asked by gardai why he had a knife in a gym, he replied, “I don’t know. A fella gave it to me.” Asked why it was open, he said, “I don’t know.”

He told gardai that he threw away the knife after leaving the leisure centre.

Mr Whyms put it to one of the in- vestigating gardai, Mike Kelly, that his client “at all times manages to position himself away from the ac- tion.” Gda Kelly replied, “For most of it.”

IT’S as if Barry Duggan didn’t want to leave the field. Long after the ball- game was over he was still out there, Canon Hamilton in one hand, the other working overtime as he shook all comers’ hands. Centre stage after all these years. Young and old sought captain and cup out — wanting to touch the cup, and see it up close. Duggan was hap- py to oblige, the sponge for everyone for those few minutes as he stood there in his own elevated world. Taking it all in. Living it. Nirvana. “County champions,” he says. “It’s brilliant, isn’t it? It’s unbelievable. To think we’ve won a senior champion- ship and the way we won it makes it even more unbelievable. When we went a point down with a couple of minutes to go the heads were down. It looked as if we might have missed our chance.

“But there’s something in this team this year. Going a point down brought us back to the Broadford game when we were a point with a minute to go. We got back to draw that day and today we said to ourselves that there was nothing more going past and we ll get a chance down the other end. We believed that. That’s what happened.”

Belief that manifested itself for a number of reasons, admits the in- spirational captain. Mike O’Gorman and John Gleeson telling them all year about he work they clocked up; Mike Deegan’s unfettered belief in their ability to deliver; the profes- sionalism from the world of rugby that Fiach O’ Loughlin brought to the eles

“Coming together 112 times speaks for itself,’ he says. “It shows we worked savagely hard all year — run- ning in Cratloe Woods in the hail, sleet and rain. That was back in Janu-

ary and back then we didn’t believe we’d be here in November, but once we reached the semi-final we said we were ready for anything that would be thrown at us.

“Tt was one big roll. We never had time to think about the next game that was coming up. One game was over and another game came on top of us. We just kept on thinking about the next game when it came along. Like Clonlara last year we didn’t have time to think about the hype of being in a county final. It was just a matter of going out there and treating it as another game. We did that after getting over a Slow and nervous start WOCO MO ODM OOo Kon ED Ln

Canon Hamilton was beaming up at him. Telling him he was thirsty. The dressing room was calling were the champagne was already uncorked.

THERE was blood on the floor and walls of a room at Ennis leisure cen- tre in the immediate aftermath of an attack there, a court has heard.

A leisure centre employee told En- nis Circuit Court that she was work- ing at the poolside when she was alerted by a colleague to what was happening in the gym.

‘He said there was a fight going on

in the gym with knives. I grabbed my phone and went up,” she said.

She said she saw that a man was in- jured in the aerobics hall.

“T just saw blood. There was a good bit of blood. It was on the floor and on the walls,” she recalled.

She said that she rang gardai and attended to the victim.

Garda Saran Butler told the tri- al that he was using the gym that evening. At around 7.45pm a group

of men burst in the door.

“T could see Anthony McDonagh getting hit on the head with a wheel brace,” he said. He said that the ac- cused was holding what appeared to loLome SL E-DIU CONAN @ NDE ISe

“A lot of people in the gym started rushing for the door,’ he said. Asked by counsel for the state, Stephen Coughlan, BL, did the accused come into contact with the injured party, he replied, “Not from what I saw.”

AS part of a special commemora- tion, Clare casualties of World War II will be remembered at the Clare Armistice Day multi-denomination- al service at Ennis Cathedral at 8pm next Wednesday, November 11.

The service will honour the memo- ry of Clare service men and women, and civilians who lost their lives in

both the First and Second World AEN ace

At the service, a special address will be given by retired Col. Michael Shannon, from Kilrush, former Chairman of the Irish Peace Institute. Col. Shannon served with UN forces in the Congo, Cyprus and Lebanon Where he was Commanding Officer of the UNIFL force. He also worked with the OSCE and EU monitoring

elections in Boznia- Hertzegovina, South Africa and Russia.

The commemoration committee is currently appealing for names and details of other casualties, as the com- mittee is raising funds to erect a me- morial wall to all casualties. Names may be given to the local libraries, Fr. Hogan, Ennis, Tom Prendivelle, Kilrush, Rev. Bob Hanna, Ennis and Peadar M Namara, Inch.

In total, World War II resulted in the death of 24 million military service personel and over 40 million MANET Oh

The war started on September 3, 1939, and ended on September 2, ee

Over 100,000 Irish served in the British Forces of which 10,000 lost their lives. Over 150,000 Irish worked in Britain during the war — in

factories, building aerodromes, nurs- ing etc.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record the following Clare dead by name, rank serial number, unit regiment, date of death, age, parents, home address, grave/ memorial, and cemetery location.

The names listed here are not a full record of the Clare World War II casualties.

AN ADDICTION to heroin was at the root of a break-in to a hotel room in Ennis, a court has heard.

Mark Mulcaire (32), of Luifford Lodge, Ennis, admitted entering a room at the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis as a trespasser and stealing goods, on June 16 last.

Ennis District Court heard last week

that a room was entered through a ground floor window, which was left open by a guest.

A laptop and other items, whose to- tal value amounted to €1,350, were taken. The accused and another in- dividual were identified on CCTV ort oe- ke

Defending solicitor Daragh Hassett told the court that the accused hails from a respectable family in Ennis.

He said that he developed a “very nasty habit; addiction to heroin” and got sucked in.

“This was a simple but a nasty crime. It was perpetrated with the intention of taking the laptop and Sswopping it for heroin,” he said.

He said his client is now drug- free and is committed to staying off ora breae

He said that when an individual is

addicted to heroin, ““You can’t work; you can’t live and everything else you do is focused on a need and greed for WeComebue tone

‘He broke into a hotel room in his own home town and was caught red- handed,” he said.

An eight-month jail term was im- posed and a bond was fixed in the event of an appeal.

ENNIS Chamber Business School in conjunction with Chambers Ireland and FAS, has announced details of training courses for November to as- sist businesses with managing their credit and getting paid in order to support cash flow.

Rita Mc Inerney, CEO of Ennis Chamber said: “Cash flow is the life- blood of any business, particularly at a time when it can be difficult to ob- tain credit. Therefore Ennis Cham- ber felt a need to address this head

on by providing businesses with an opportunity to up-skill themselves or their staff by providing one and two day intensive training courses.”

The first course “How to Get Paid” is branded as having the potential to turn a businesses fortunes around in the current climate. This course takes place on Wednesday, Novem- ber 11 and will cover topics such as spotting the risks, proper documen- tation, approaches to collections and legal options as well as handouts on forms and layouts, and terms and Fey aTen TBO) e tse

Secondly a two day course on “Managing Credit for Profit” is de- signed to bring the credit manage- ment function into the 21st century. Taking place on Wednesdays, No- vember 11 and 18, this course intro- duces the positive benefit of excellent credit management and how to effec- tively manage credit exposure while also teaching some accountancy skills and prioritisation.

This training is delivered by the Chief Executive of the Irish Insti- tute of Credit Management, Declan Flood, who is a regular contributor

to the national media. He has gained a reputation as a leading visionary in the area by combining the latest thinking with his 20 years of hands on credit management.

Both courses qualify for Continu- ous Professional Development (CDP) hours and run from 9.30am-5pm on each day at the Old Ground Hotel, O’Connell Street, Ennis, County Clare at a cost of €175 per day per participant.

For bookings please contact Marga- ret Neylon at Ennis Chamber on 065 684 2988 or info@ennischamber.ie

Local FF TDs will vote with the Government

THE Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh has expressed “a great sense of pain and shame” about clerical abuse and said, “I do believe it is right that it should be exposed”’.

The outspoken Catholic bishop of more than 15 years was awarded with the Reality Lifetime Achieve- ment Award on Friday last ahead of his retirement next year.

As the Redemptorist Community paid tribute to the man they described as a “Bishop and social justice cam- paigner”’, the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh was only too aware that “these are the best of times and the worst of times” for the Catholic Church in Ireland.

As the Church braces itself for the release of the report into clerical child sex abuse allegations involving a sample of 46 priests in the Archdi- oces of Dublin, and in the wake of the Ryan Report, Bishop Walsh said these were part of a process that was

badly needed in the Church.

“I think that this is a whole proc- ess which the Church needed – and needed badly. We had gone through a period where we were overconfident. We thought that we were the best Catholics in the world – the island of saints and scholars.

“I thought when I was growing up that we were reliving that and I think that sadly it has taken something like this to bring a bit of reality to the Church.

“It makes us humble and reminds us of our fragility. I think that our position will be much closer to what Christ was about – weak, humble and a servant. And if the Church is about anything, it is about serving people. It is not about dominating people’s lives. So while it is tough going and it is painful for those of us, certainly for the clergy and bishops – I know that I certainly have a great sense of pain and shame about the whole thing, I do believe it is right that it should be exposed.”

He added that the “forthcoming report isn’t just about Dublin. It is called the Dublin Report but it is a report about all of us and our Church about how far in some areas we moved away from gospel values.

“Of course the Ryan Report has been devastating and the Dublin Re- port will be devastating,’ he said.

‘Having been a bishop for over the past 15 years, in some sense I have talked to a lot of victims and indeed I’ve talked to some abusers as well. There is no doubt, it is a devastating story. Yet I’ve always felt privileged when someone who is broken and has been abused tells their story. It is a privilege to listen to them, even when it is heart-breaking.”

But all is not lost, according to Bishop Walsh.

“These are the best of times and the worst of times. I think there are lots of wonderful things like Sha- ron Commins and the concern that has been shown for Columban Fr Michael Sinnott. And they simply

represent a fraction of the wonderful work being done all over the world by missionaries, priests, religious and lay and the wonderful work that people are doing every day of their lives – parents raising their children in love,” he said.

“T think sometimes we divide and talk about the secular and spiritual. Whatever is good is spiritual, that’s the reality of life and it is unwise to make these sorts of distinctions.”

Bishop Walsh was presented with the reality Lifetime Achievement Award for “his outstanding service and contribution to the Diocese of Killaloe and the Irish Church as a bishop and a pastor.”

There were six awards in total pre- sented in a number of different cat- egories in recognition of “individual and collective contributions to the Church and Irish society”.

The other winners of the Reality awards were Fr Peter McVerry who was named Person of the Year for his “consistently insightful analysis of the

Celtic Tiger and the impact the reces- sion has had on Irish society as well as his championing of the rights of the most disadvantaged in society”, and the Catholic Guides of Ireland re- ceived the Youth Organisation of the Year on this, its 80th anniversary.

Rev Ruth Patterson, OBE, was hon- oured for her book