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THE father of Clare handball, Pat Kirby, has hailed the achievements of the latest world champions to emerge from the storied Tuamgraney club in east Clare — the old seat of the game in the county.

Kirby’s endorsement comes in the wake of the stunning triumph of Barry Nash and Ciaran Malone who won the Boys Doubles in the 15 and Under category in Portland, Oregon, over the weekend.

The Tuamgraney club duo stormed through the top half of the draw to tee up a west of the Shannon battle in the final against Michael Lalor and Donal Wrynn from Galway. Their toughest game on the way to the decider was against Martin Mullins and Ryan Harkin from Cork in the semi-final, when they were pushed all the way before getting home by 21-18, 21-17. The final proved to be much easier as they coasted to world glory on the back of a 21-3, 21-12 tri- vueeheee

“Tt’s a brilliant achievement for the two boys,” said Kirby, who put Tua- mgraney handball on the world map when winning his first world title in Croke Park in 1970. “I was repre- senting America back then because I was exiled in America and nearly 40 years on it’s great that Tuamgraney is still turning out world champions. It makes me very proud that this con- veyor belt is there,’ added Kirby.

And the Tuamgraney success story didn’t end there — Nash just failed to pull off an historic double after he was edged out in the Boys Singles 15 and Under category, going down by 21-18, 21-19 to Padraig McKenna in WeCom EUITAUE

Elsewhere, the Coughlan _broth- ers from Clooney, Fergal and Ger- ard were other Clare finalists — they reached the Men’s Doubles 35 and Over final, but were edged out by the US/Canadian partnership of David Vincent and John Bike.

A DELEGATION from Ennis Town Council will travel to Langenfeld in December to mark the start of a new partnership between Ennis and the German town.

Town manager Ger Dollard told last Monday’s meeting of Ennis Town Council that representatives from the office of the mayor of Langenfeld had written the council with a view to establishing a partnership between the towns.

“They are very enthusiastic about this. There have been articles in the local media, a lot about the visit by Ali. It’s presented a very positive image of Ennis. They have invited councillors to visit the town in the first week of December and I think,

given the positive image portrayed of Ennis, the council should accept,” said Mr Dollard.

Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) told the meeting that the council should avail of the opportunity to “build links to Europe”.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) asked how much the trip was likely to cost. Mr Dollard responded by saying that the letter received from the mayor’s of- fice stated that the total cost of flights from the German airport of Weiss to Shannon, was likely to be around €60.

Langenfeld is located between the cities of Cologne and Dusseldorf in the German state of Nordhein-West- fallen. It has a population of 59,000 residents.

The link was first proposed in May

when Franz Kolzer, Town Twinning co-coordinator, wrote to Ennis Town Council, on behalf of Mayor of Lan- genfeld, Magnus Staehler.

“This year Ireland is represented in the “Wilkommen Irland/Failte Eire cultural programme, and the people of Langenfeld are getting to know Ireland better through a broad range of cultural, academic and entertain- ment initiatives,’ wrote Mr Kolzer.

He continues, “Langenfeld has been searching to initiate a partnership with an English speaking town for a number of years, but has been so far unsuccessful in this regard. What could be a better result for our Ire- land year than to find a partner town in Ireland? For this reason Ennis has come to our attention.

According to Mr Kolzer, “The

town of Langenfeld would envisage a multifaceted exchange, including at schools level, between sports teams and on a private basis, and we would be delighted if the town of Ennis SJ aT-Nacre Mr mCyBO OBOE: Duma (oA. VA

Ennis is already twinned with the American city of Phoenix and the French town of Saint Paul de Fe- nouillet.

Ennis has been twinned with Phoe- nix, Arizona since 1988. A special Ennis/Phoenix Twinning Board has been in existence since this time with the aim of strengthening the links between the two communities. A successful Student Exchange Pro- gramme is organised annually, which allows students from both communi- ties the opportunity to learn about the others region and country.

TO say this was pedestrian stuff is putting it very mildly to say the very least. A senior county final of sorts, but in name only such was the tame nature of the spectacle that unfolded over an hour of largely forgettable football.

There were the exceptions though — little nuggets that lifted the dross from a tepid encounter, the fielding ability of Timmy and David Ryan, the industry of Mark O’Connell in the full-forward line and six of their points that came from play.

It was just as well that these lit- tle moments of magic came from

Kilmihil, because Ennistymon were truly awful, save a semi-circling of the wagons in the last 20 mintues when they put a scoreless first 40 behind them by putting four points on the board. The wonder is how En- nistymon were able to peg it back to a three-point game with five minutes remaining.

That they ultimately came up short had nothing to do with great defen- sive work on the part of a Kilmihil team, but more to do with Ennisty- mon’s wide tally of the second-half that numbered six.

Two of those bad wides came in the final five minutes when only a goal separated the sides — had they been

converted to bring this game right down to the wire, and had they some- how grabbed a remarkable victory it would have marked this one down as a travesty of football justice.

It never happened, but still it was much too close for comfort for a Kilmihil side that dominated this game for the first 50 minutes. The 2008 intermediate champions led by O-4 to no score at half-time, having taken up where they left off against Lissycasey when they held them scoreless for the hour.

A brilliant opening point from left- half-back Rory Mohally after good work in the build up by David Ryan and Declan Downes had Kilmihil on

their way in the seventh minute.

Nineteen minutes passed before there was another score, but Kilm1- hil then finished the half with a flourish of fine points from play by David Ryan and Karl Downes before Timmy Ryan floated a free over in the 30th minute to give them a com- manding lead.

After Timmy Ryan thumped over the score of the game off his left a minute after the re-start and David followed up with another six minutes later, captain Mark O’Connell could safely start rehearsing his cupla fo- cail in his head.

Maybe that’s what happened, be- cause from there Kilmihil suddenly let their guard down and a point from Joe Dowling from a 40-yard free in the 40th minute broke Ennistymon’s duck and was the cue for a spirited display in the final 20 minutes.

Shane Mangan’s point in the 46th minute had Kilmihil 0-7 to O-1 ahead but from their the backed off into de- fensive and flirted with throwing this game away. Three Brian Conway points between the 52nd and 55th minutes brought it back to three.

Then there were Ennistymon’s wides, before Laurence Healy and

Timmy Ryan were red-carded before the end.

CLARE County Council is using a Dublin debt collection agency to ob- tain development contributions from individuals – some of whom may al- ready have paid their debt to the lo- cal authority.

It emerged at yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Council that the lo- cal authority has employed a Dublin agency to collect contributions for a range of small scale development and one-off houses stretching back for more than a decade.

It has also emerged however that the local authority may not have any documentation to prove that the con- tributions have not been paid.

‘Tam surprised that the council has not heard about the uncertainty out there as to who has and who has not paid,’ said Cllr Patricia McCarthy COND}

“The big problem here is that we don’t know. We can’t prove that they haven’t paid, they can’t prove that they have paid. When we are not 100 per cent sure we should have taken a softer approach to this instead of

going down the heavy-handed route of going to a debt collection agency. It shows a terrible lacking in the sys- one

According to Clir Pat Keane (FF), some people have received bills from contributions due more than 10 years ago which are now dramatically more expensive then they previously had been.

“It is unfair to be going back over ten years to people looking for this money. These people are getting a bill that might have been £170 or £180 at the time and now they are

getting bills for €1,500. I know for sure that there are a lot of people out there who paid in cash at the time and do not have the receipt and may now be receiving letters from debt collectors.”

A spokeswoman from Clare Coun- ty Council said that any confusion over who owes the money will be handled quickly.

‘Tam not aware of any issue around the uncertainty with regards pay- ments. If there are issues around un- certainty of who has and has not paid I will deal with that as a matter of

urgency, she said.

“The provision in our budget this year for the collection of debt collec- tion is €1.5 million and the collect so far is €1.25 million. So it would appear that we are on target so far to meet these projections.

“We took a twin approach to debt collection, some were pursued through Houlihans [county council solicitors, Michael Houlihans] and some were pursued by an outside group, and that was just to maximise the collection of money. I must stress that this money is legally due to us.”

GARDAI in Shannon are being asked to investigate the origin of fireworks which are in circulation in the town, after a firework was put through the letterbox of the local family resource centre.

The call from Labour Council- lor Tony McMahon came during a debate by local elected representa- tives on how Halloween should be celebrated in the town.

The idea of holding a party, to in- clude a fireworks display, bonfires and games for children, was raised by Fine Gael Councillor Mary BIKINITADOR

However, Independent Councillor Gerry Flynn said while he would support the idea, he could not back the suggestion to organise a bon- nae

“IT cannot support bonfires. It’s against the legislation,’ he said.

Labour Councillor Tony McMa- hon asked could special permission be obtained to have a bonfire.

“While they are nice to look at, fireworks are dangerous. Some ani- mals are badly frightened by fire- works,” he said.

He expressed concern about the easy availability of fireworks.

“They are supposed to be ille- gal and yet there are a lot of them

around town. They are going off al- ready. It is only a matter of time be- fore a child loses an eye or a limb or something. They should be treated a lot more seriously than they are,” |ntemncreBLOe

He called on gardai to investigate Where the fireworks have come from.

Councillor Patricia McCarthy (In- dependent) said that a firework was inserted into the letterbox at the family resource centre in the town KAN

“All of us are vulnerable if fire- works get into the wrong hands. There is no control. I’d ask that peo- ple be vigilant. We hear every year

that people are getting seriously in- jured,” she said.

Labour’s Greg Duff said that a small minority of people engage in anti-social behaviour around Hal- OW (eroe

“We have to work with the legisla- tion, but I’d hate to see it losing the momentum that we started in previ- ous years in working with groups in the community,” he said.

The mayor of the town, Councillor Sean McLoughlin said a fireworks display could be arranged success- fully, if handled by professional people.

“We definitely should have some- thing for Halloween,’ he said.

THE celebrations were far from wild, but when Kilmihil manager Mick Darby took a few minutes out to reflect on some more silverware heading out the Kilrush Road, be- fore hanging a right at Downes’ pub, skirting by Knockalough and on its way to Declan’s Bar, he was keen to reflect on what had been another mission accomplished for his emerg- ing side.

“We are a couple of years away from being a real force at senior lev- el,” he admitted, “because we have a lot of young lads coming through but I believe that it will happen for us in due course, so it’s about trying to improve with every year and this win is part of that.

“The lads themselves made the de-

cision that they wanted to stay train- ing. We had two games to play to try and win this Senior B title and we did that. It’s about keeping up the momentum for this Kilmihil team after winning the intermediate title last year and winning the Senior B was important.”

Just as important was being part of county senior final afternoon for the first time in nearly two decades. “It’s a long time, 19 years since the Kilmi- hil club has been here in Cusack Park on county senior final day,’ reflected Darby, who was manager back in 1990 when they were beaten by St Joseph’s Miltown.

“It meant this was a big day for the club and an occasion for the players. They needed to settle in and they did that in the first-half when get- ting those points near the end of the

half to go in with a good lead at half- time.

“The two Ryans caught great ball and kicked great scores, but I wouldn’t be one for singling out in- dividual players because everyone on the panel has worked hard. It was a panel effort, just like it has been all year.

“Mark O’Connell had a problem with a groin injury, but that wasn’t the reason he was moved in. He was moved in for a different reason and he’s a hard player to stop when he’s on form and going forward.”

Kilmihil are going forward them- selves.

SERIOUS questions have been raised over the way in which Clare County Council deals with inter- nal industrial disputes, following heavy criticism of the Local Govern- ment Management Services Board CRIN SD Ema (cio cer hmmm enleolBnttcame) i the local authority.

Speaking yesterday, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (IND) said that the op- eration of the council’s Human Re- sources and the LGMSB was been shown to be a flawed system.

“If you take the cost of LGMSB by itself then it would appear to be working and saving money. But when you go deeper into the debate you see that there are anomalies there and faults in the system which are not addressed,” she said.

“It seems that our system, wheth- er it’s because of the advice of the LGMSB, has something wrong with it and it is costing us money. If our HR unit 1s operating on the advice of the LGMSB then it would seem that this system would be faulty.

‘There are a lot of things concerned to this which are not clear and need to be tightened up. If we add up the costs of our own department and the

LGMSB and ask are we getting value for money, the answer would be no.

“IT have serious serious concerns about this. At the end of the day we have a picket outside of here today, and with all avenues in the labour court exhausted. Things should never be allowed to get to this stage. PW elem cer NOI Atm ome et-nimie(osuomsKmCoyon (oi en ets. wrong and it needs to be tidied up,’ the councillor said.

Commenting on the motion, Coun- ty Manager, Tom Coughlan said that the objective of the LGMSB is to save money for the local authority into the future.

“We are questioning every euro which we spend at the moment in the context of the budget in 2010, which is going to be a very difficult budget. In relation to our overall approach to industrial relations, my view is that we try and meet as many disputes as possible on a local level,” he said.

“We are going through a very dif- ficult time in relation to budgets. We are negotiating at the moments with unions and I must thank the unions for their cooperation in that process.

“The overall objective of the LGMSB is that we will be saving money in the future as a result of this board.”

VISITORS to Limerick’s Milk Market in recent weeks have been astounded to hear perfect sean nos singing by a Chinese American lady who calls east Clare home.

Singing is Penelapai Ni Tiung’s passion and she has been behind the very successful Singers’ Club which meets every other month in Lucas’ Pub in Whitegate. It has proved so

popular that she and the singers who Support the club are considering starting a singers night in Scariff.

“I’m happy to travel long distances to sing and I go busking in the mar- ket on Saturday. I thought, why not have a club closer to home?” said Penelapai.

She started the club in Lucas’ and it has become a night that is very well supported. “Someone always brings a guitar and there are all styles of

singing, depending on who’s there. It’s a lovely night and even the bar staff join in. It’s also family friendly as children can come along. It’s free, and the bar is very supportive, lay- ing on some food. Everyone enjoys the night.”

One of the regular singers at the club is Robbie McMahon, who is in his 80s and has won 17 All-Ireland singing competitions. “He comes all the way from Spancill Hill and he

just embodies the spirit of the mu- sic.” she said.

In previous years, there was a small amount of funding from the Arts Council for the club but this year it has yet to materialise.

But that’s not stopping the club from considering holding a night in Scariff and going monthly with their nights between Scariff and White- gate. “We will be meeting this week to consider it,’ said Penelapat.

THE backbone of Sunday’s victory was laid in the weeks and months of the earlier part of the year. Back in Quilty, half an army trudged regu- larly to Pairc Naomh Mhuire to take part in training. Strength in num- bers.

“There’s been great competition at training,’ says Dermot O’Brien. ‘“There’s a dozen players you could pick our forwards from. Even against Doonbeg we brought on five subs and they made the difference. It was the same thing again today.

“Over the last few years we lacked a deep panel. We seemed to have only 15 players and that was it. It’s different now. We have 33 lads train- ing every night and it’s so intense at training. Before, maybe you could only manage a game of backs and forwards. This year we can have 13 or 15-a-side at training every night and that pushes everybody along.”

O’Brien was involved in two of the most important incidents in the opening half, Kilkee’s two goals.

“The first goal, I caught a high ball and I saw two lads outside me. I went to hand pass it and I’m not sure if I slipped, but I fell down, the ball slipped out and it seemed to re- bound into the net. I can’t make any excuse. I caught the ball, so it wasn’t the sun.

‘For the second, I came out against him [Geardid Lynch] and thought

he was going to round me, which is what he did. I just spread myself and blocked it and for a split second I lost where the ball was. Then, I just saw the ball going past me and into the goal.”

O’Brien’s initial save from Lynch was one of the few highlights of the game and like the first goal, consid- ering where the ball dropped, luck wasn’t on the goalkeeper’s side.

In the end, it didn’t matter though.

“T still think we haven’t reached our peak this year. We reached our peak for ten minutes against Doonbeg and ten minutes against Kilkee. It’s been a long year and it can get to lads but we Il have no excuses.”

O’Brien described the game as both mentally and physically tough, made difficult by Kilkee’s insistence that Kilmurry Ibrickane wouldn’t have Omer aan E

“We had a game plan going out but we never stuck to it. We had planned to drive the ball in long and hit our two or three men inside but any time you looked up there seemed to be lots of Kilkee players up there and we seemed to drift up there with them instead of staying back. So, instead of kicking ball into four or five lads, you were then kicking it into to ten or twenty lads. So the game plan went O) ULM aTomy Yau eLeCO)\ ee mm Melo On acl must.) Fame

Even when the now back-to-back champions went three up near the end, O’Brien wasn’t taking the result for granted.

“T didn’t figure we had won until the final whistle to be honest. I never thought we had the game won. When we went up two, we pushed on to three but they had a free in the last few seconds of the game. If a high ball went in from that, anything could have happened. They could have got a goal.

“Before, we might have been com- placent but that’s not the case any- more. Little things like that can make a huge difference.”

A SENIOR Clare county council- lor expressed hope yesterday that a decision by An Bord Pleanala to re- ject an appeal by the National Roads Authority (NRA) concerning a one- off home represents an “outbreak of common sense”.

Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) made his com- ment after the planning board gave the go-ahead for Sean Hill to build a one-off home along the main Ennis to Kilrush route near the village of BSS eos

Cllr Kelly has been a long-time

critic of the NRA opposing one-off housing development on national secondary routes in Clare.

Earlier this year, the council gave Mr Hill approval for the proposal in spite of NRA claims that it was con- trary to national policy.

The NRA appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanala, stating that the proposal would endanger public safety and would adversely affect the use and safely of road users.

Yesterday, Cllr Kelly said: “I would hope that this represents a turna- round in An Bord Pleanala policy.

“This is part of the consistent 1n-

conistency in planning issues. Only a few months ago, a house on an ad- jacent site was refused planning per- mission by An Bord Pleanala.”

The board gave the go-ahead for the proposal after its own inspector recommended that planning permis- sion be refused.

In his report, Kenneth Moloney stated that “the development would contravene the objectives of the Sus- tainable Rural Housing guidelines where direct access from future de- velopments should not be permitted to national roads outside of the speed limit zones for towns and villages”.

Mr Moloney stated that the devel- opment would endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard.

However, the board over-ruled his report “having regard to the avail- ability of adequate sightlines, the local housing need and the lack of al- ternative access from the applicant’s land onto a public road.

“The proposed development would not seriously injure the amenities of the area, would be acceptable in terms of traffic safety and would therefore, be in accordance with the proper planning and development of the area,” the ruling concluded.