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MICHAEL Considine was an ani- mated figure on the Gaelic Grounds sideline on Saturday afternoon.

It was a combination of trying to get his team going, exhorting them to ereater heights and venting his anger at some of the decisions that didn’t go his team’s way.

The latter is something that Con- sidine was thinking about after the game – the injustice done to Clare twice in the first half when they were playing catch-up after Limerick scin- SD UE-lenerea eva

“T’m not making excuses but I thought the refereeing was a dis- grace, said Considine about Mau- rice Condon’s handling of the game.

‘The decisions that went against us were unbelieveable. Gary Leahy was pulled up by the referee after he took a free, while Enda Lyons should have been awarded a penalty. He was defi- nitely pulled back. When those things gO against you it makes it harder. We needed scores badly at that stage but didn’t get them,” he added.

However, the refereeding aside, Considine admitted that it was a very disappointing display by his charges after they play some fantastic foot- ball in the drawn game three days previously.

“We were flat, very flat,” he admit- ted. “The start killed us, to concede 2-3 of a start to Limerick meant we were chasing the game and it was al- ways going to be very hard to come oye) que ueyeemset.le

“But we battled hard and I can’t fault the lads for the effort they put in the game. They got it back to four

points with four minutes remaining which showed the character that’s in this side,” he added.

This character will be needed in spades on Wednesday when they re- turn to the Gaelic Grounds to take on a Tipperary side that went down by 3-7 to Q-10 in their opening round tie in Limerick.

“lve watched the DVD of Tip- perary’s game against Kerry last Wednesday. They are a typical Tip- perary team – they’re big and strong and will be very hard to beat. We know that they will be hard to beat, Tipperary teams always are at under- age level,’ said Considine.

‘“We’re hopeful that the lads will lift it now but it’s crazy that they’re being asked to play a third cham- pionship game in seven days. The GAA have established a committee to look into player burn-out yet they wouldn’t consider putting back this game by a few days.

“But were going to get on with it. We have injury worries that we carried into Saturday’s game, Dav- id Connole has a rib injury while Michael McDonagh has ankle trou- ble. Your midfield is crucial and we ll just have to wait and see how they are on Wednesday.”

Clare’s preparations for the tie started after their defeat on Saturday when they had a pool session in The Bunratty Shannon Shamrock Hotel. “We’ll have another pool session be- fore Wednesday and then take our chance,” said Considine. “If we can get over Tipperary, we have Water- ford to look forward to and we could yet reach a semi-final against Cork. That’s what we have to aim for.”

AS the summer sunshine has been making itself feel very much at home in recent weeks, businesses 1n north Clare have been dusting them- selves off in preparation for the tour- ist deluge that the next few months will surely bring.

One business’ which probably doesn’t need too much of a spring clean however is Kennedy’s Centra on Church Street in Lahinch.

The shop has just been awarded an Excellence Ireland National Hygiene Award for it’s ongoing commitment to hygiene and food safety.

The award, which was presented by Minister of State at the Depart- ment of Agriculture and Food, Mary Wallace, is the highest independent verification of hygiene standards and food safety in Ireland.

“It is very important that such achievements are acknowledged and applauded and so become an incen- tive for others to strive to reach the same high standards,’ said Minister AWE TEE Teron

“These awards acknowledge the ongoing year-round daily commit- ment throughout the Centra stores. The Musgrave SuperValu-Centra eroup has a well-deserved reputation

for high standards as well as being a huge supporter of the Irish food in- dustry with over 75 per cent of goods sourced from Irish suppliers.”

Throughout Ireland the Cen- tra group invests in the region of €350,000 annually in its hygiene programme.

“The Hygiene Mark indicates that a business has the highest standards of hygiene and safety in Irish industry and complies with all Irish and Euro- pean legislation,’ said Martin Roper, Technical Director, Excellence Ire- land Quality Association.

‘The retail market currently leads the field in compliance in the Irish

food sector, so consumers can be re- assured whenever they see the EIQA Hygiene and Food Safety Certificate displayed.”

Centra have a total of 400 stores in the Republic of Ireland, employing 12,000 people, with stores independ- ently run by local owners.

“Being awarded the highest ever number of National Hygiene Certifi- cate awards highlights the fact that the Centra retailer is consistently achieving the highest retail standards in the country. Hygiene is number one when it comes to customer care,” said Donal Horgan, Centra’s Manag- ing Director.

IARNROD Eireann has apologized after commuters were left stranded in Ennis yesterday.

The scheduled 6.45am service be- tween Ennis and Limerick did not operate as planned forcing passen- gers to make their own travel ar- rangements.

A mix up in driver rostering has

been identified as the reason for the no-show.

Passengers were offered a place on a min-bus hired from a local tax1 firm after larnrod Eireann were un- able to locate a bus to bring passen- gers to Limerick.

However, many had already paid for taxis in order to catch a connect- ing train leaving Limerick for Dub- lin. Subsequent train services ran

as normal throughout the rest of the Cr MA ;

A spokesperson for larnrod Eire- ann apologized to customers for any inconvenience caused.

“We do apologise to passengers for what happened with the mix up. It was an unusual situation that I can’t remember happening before.”

He explained a mix up in the roster- ing of drivers was the reason for the

nen p.qnel oy

“It appears there was mix up in ros- ters and that there was no driver there in the morning. Inspectors in both stations contacted both Bus Eireann and local coach operators but weren’t able to get a bus at such short notice.

“They managed to get a mini-bus from a local taxi firm, but by then some people had made their own ar- rangements. That taxi left Ennis at

oer: 100 a

He added there was no further dis- ruption to services during the day.

“It was just the one service in the morning that was affected. Normally we have a back up arrangement in place either with our sister company Bus Eireann or with local operators. But it was particularly difficult to get one at that hour of the morning at such short notice.”

THE massive increase in the local population has paved the way for the establishment of a new creche which is due to open in Corofin in the com- TP OTSMR ets) Oe

The Butterfly Kisses Childcare Centre, which will cater for up to 20 children as-well-as offering an after school care service, will host an open day next Saturday, April 21.

The purpose built facility, which is located in the Laghtagoona Es- tate, will then open for business on Monday, April 30. The créche is owned and operated by Ken and

Olga O’Malley, who are a long es- tablished provider of childcare in County Clare.

“Corofin’s landscape has changed in recent years with many couples opting for a less hectic way of life in this idyllic country setting,” said Olga.

“We believe that the childcare cen- tre will be a valuable asset to the community in supporting its contin- ued development. Great work is been done as we have seen with the recent opening of a public playground.

“We look forward to offering the very best in childcare into the future and supporting the development of

that all important foundation to the future of this community, its chil- elo

The créche itself is 250 square me- ters in size and includes two main rooms, Little Treasures which caters for children up to 18 months and fea- tures a remote viewing sleep room and the Adventure Room which ca- ters for children up to school age.

The project was made possible through the support of a number of agencies including the Clare County Childcare Committee, the Clare En- terprise Board and the Health Serv- ice Executive.

“We are very excited to be involved

with this venture in Corofin, having family in the area. The clear need for such a centre in the community makes it all the more exciting. We are very proud of the way the build- ing has evolved from a blank canvas to what we see now,” said Ken.

“We would especially like to thank local Minister Tony Killeen for his support of this project in his com- munity. We would also like to thank Cronin Nagle Construction for work- ing with us to build such a centre to this exceptionally high standard.”

For more info contact 6831834, 087 6780253 or omalleyken@hotmail. ore) on

THE council’s practice of leaving eravel margins on the side of roads Where they have acquired land for road improvements is providing an opportunity for illegal parking, a lo- cal councillor has claimed.

Cllr Joe Cooney told a meeting of Clare County Council last week that

the practice of leaving such land open gives carte blanche for illegal park- ing and in some cases, dumping.

“IT had asked that Clare County Council maintain and fence off all waste ground which the council ac- quired for road improvements on the sides of roads throughout the county. I’m not happy with the reply,” he Sr HKOe

In reply to his motion before the council, officials told Cllr Cooney that “in many cases, on relatively mi- nor road improvement schemes, ad- ditional land is acquired to make the road safer by just providing addition- al sight distance. In these situations it would not be appropriate to erect any fencing as this would interfere with the available sight distance. In other

cases the improved section can have CBN Arc Da rca eneeCcoOlMmrstseMmAeCoMB Koni UOLMmOerelI a lay-by remains.

‘There are a number of such lay-bys around the county and in many cases they have been treated to discourage unauthorised parking. Where prac- tical, in carrying out re-alignments nowadays we endeavour to return the by-passed section of road to agricul-

tural use.”

The officials added that if there were any specific locations where action 1S needed, these would be as- sessed on an individual basis.”

Cllr Pat Hayes said that the illegal parking of Travellers caravans in some areas 1s becoming a problem. ‘In one place there were 15 caravans parked along the side of the road.”

GORT is gearing up for a major addi- tion to the regional festival calendar with the inaugural Changing Colours Festival. The festival, which will take on May 27, has been designed to reflect the changing nature of the town, to celebrate the new alongside the old.

The central focus of the festival will be a large carnival parade through the streets of Gort but it will also in- clude an arts exhibition, original CD launch and a farmers market.

“The festival is designed to cel- ebrate the new multi-cultural Gort and the changing landscape around the area as well. There is an awful lot of building going on so the landscape

here is changing and the inhabitants of that landscape are changing as well,’ said Niamh Clune of Grace, who are organisation the festival.

“We want to try and develop some performance art and street theatre so we have gotten all the local schools involved, and they will perform three minute loops along the streets enact- ing the history of Gort from King Guaire extending his hand to the stranger right up to the arrival of the Brazilians.

“That 1s carnival time, we have dancers, drummers and all kinds of performers. We have some capoeira, which is a form of martial art and we have a really authentic Brazilian samba band. I will be very colourful and a lot of fun.

Another important part of the fes- tival is the Changing Colours Music Project.

“The music project consists of a number of special pieces of music that we are writing. We are trying to include as many local musicians as we can,’ said Niamh.

“We have some wonderful Irish musician playing with Brazilian drummers and we have sampled dig- ital sounds and hip-hop rhythms. It’s all mixed in and it’s all coming out so well. It’s about mixing rhythms and mixing styles. We hope that this will be the beginning of a community record label and we will be releasing music on Coole Records. We hope to help develop talent in the area and we would be looking for locals mu-

SICGAE-UOLSME- NOLO MN Oy- NOLO MUO KO)OO MEADE MESXo)IDKSI ILO help develop their work.”

Local artist Frank McCann will be one of the main focus points for the artistic element of the festival which will take place in the court house and in the streets of Gort themselves.

‘He is a very special local artist and he will be co-ordinating the art exhibition along with the Sharon Kelly and three other arts. We have asked all the shops to allow us to use their shop windows as exhibi- tions space for local people to exhibit their works. Anyone can get involved from new artists to professional art- ists,” continued Niamh.

For more information on the festi- val contact GRACE at 091 – 631203.

A TUBBER inventor has come up with a system of letting doctors know at a glance what medical conditions a patients suffers from and what me- diction they are taking.

The Medical CV is the brainchild of Michael Quinn and can even include such information as blood groups

and organ donor requests.

Michael has just finalised design- ing the website for his medical CV at www.mymedicalcv.com

The idea behind the CV is that it gives a pre-designed form which pa- tients can download for themselves, fill in their medical history and then print it out to be carried around with Wetoeee

“I got the idea to do something when I was in a hospital waiting room one day and a woman was having difficulty remembering what medication she was being prescribed and what dose.

“The doctor had to get hold of her GP who had to consult her records. I was thinking, there must be some way to record information like that

and have it to hand.”

The idea of how it could be done struck Michael sometime later when he was delivering a CV to a recruit- ment agency.

“T thought, if you can put your ca- reer details into a CV then why not have some form that would hold all your medical details? Then, if there’s an emergency, doctors know imme-

diately if you have something like epilepsy or what blood group you are without any time being wasted,” Michael told

FURIOUS business people in east Clare have slated the lack of fa- cilities for boaters and visitors to Mountshannon Harbour.

As the first Bank Holiday weekend of the season was blessed with sun- Shine last week, visitors flocked to the lake-shore village in boats and or NaS

But members of the East Clare Tourism Group were “appalled” to discover that all the bins intended for boat users have been removed and piles of smelly, unsightly rubbish were left piled up beside the recy- oA Tb aheam ey bake

The group says that the special pump-out stations, used by hire-boat tourists and boat-owners, haven’t worked in years.

‘This was the first busy week this year and there were hundreds of peo- ple in Mountshannon,” said Theresa Browne of the tourism group.

“It’s a disgrace that there were no disposal facilities for people. And the pump-out stations still aren’t working so people are going out into the lake and emptying the septic tanks from their boats. The harbour has mooring for 150 boats, which 1s a major asset to Mountshannon. It’s beyond belief that the county council can’t provide such basic facilities,”

said Theresa.

As the tourism group met last week in the wake of the sunny Bank Holi- day weekend, they learned that “the situation was no better at Two Mile Gate. There are no litter bins there either’, said Theresa.

“Lough Derg is the jewel in the crown of natural assets in this part of Clare. If we can’t provide the most basic of facilities for people, they won’t come here,” she said.

Local councillor, Colm Wiley, who is a member of the Tourism Board, said that he has met with officials of the local authority to discuss the matter.

“They are going out to inspect the

facilities and see what can be done,” said Cllr Wiley.

The local councillor said he spoke to the councils’ Director of Services, Ger Dollard, about the problems with the pump-out facilities.

“The engineers say they are work- ing. The system is that people on boats have to buy cards for the pumps from local shops, It does seem that this system is not work- ing successfully and it will have to be looked at again,” the Clare county councillor said.

THE Drumbiggle Residents Associ- ation is to meet next week to discuss an ongoing dispute with Ennis Town Council.

Last month the group opted to with- draw from participating in the RAP- ID funding scheme. The group cited a number of issues regarding housing policies, illegal dumping, unfinished road surfacing and anti-social behav- ior among the reasons why.

According to Ferdie O’Donoghue, Chairman of the Drumbiggle Resi- dents Association (DRA), the group want further dialogue with the coun- ote

“They haven’t come to us yet. We are not budging until they come to us. We are going to have a meeting next week to discuss the matter. This has been going back for years. All of these things should have been sorted out years ago.”

The DRA represents eight areas in the town Clancy Park, Waterpark View, Waterpark Heights, Waterpark Court, Radharc na hInse, Ard Carrig, Stone Court and McHugh Villas.

Mr O’Donoghue added “People might think that we are against RAP- ID, but we are not. Our fight is with the council they should do what they are supposed to do. They say they are going to start the showgrounds road now and that is going to take six months. It’s up to them to contact us.

We are waiting to talk to them. It’s up to them to make the move.”

Ennis Town Council and RAPID delegates have urged the DRA to re- engage with the process.

Ennis RAPID area comprises six residential areas. The areas include Drumbiggle, Dalcassian/Turnpike, Old Military Barracks, Hermitage, Clancy Park and Cloughleigh. RAP- ID Projects rely on an inter-agency (HSE Midwest, Ennis Town Council, Clare VEC, Dept of Social & Family Affairs, FAS, etc) and are based on a strong partnership with the commu- nity and voluntary sector.

The programme aims to ensure priority attention is given to tackling the spatial concentration of poverty and social exclusion within the 45 designated areas through targeting state resources

Under the scheme, communities in Ennis have benefited through the provision of amenity projects. Im- provement works carried out include landscaping, improvement of open Spaces, white lighting and _ traffic calming measures.

ESB officials told members of Clare County Council that there is little they can do to prevent further major flooding in Clonlara.

Pat Naughton, Manager of the ESB’s Hydro Stations gave members of the council a detailed explanation last week on how the power com- pany deals with outflow from Lough Derg and the volume of water going through the Ardnacrusha turbines.

Shocked councillors, who had made representations on behalf of house- holders who had to be evacuated from heir homes last Christmas, heard that there is every chance that the flood- ing may happen again.

Rainfall during December and Jan- uary of last year was “exceptionally high” with almost a metre of rain fall- ing, he said.

A major problem in dealing with water levels in the river Shannon, he said, is that the power company is dealing with narrow. channels and large lakes.

“In flood conditions, the ESB has to spill water down the river. If we don’t match inflows with outflows, we are in breach of our statutory duty,’ he said.

While the company make every ef- fort to anticipate what will happen us- ing advance weather forecasts, it can be “unpredictable, with wind and lo- cal rainfall affecting conditions. With

sustained rainfall, the ESB’s influ- ence on flows is marginal,’ he said.

In December and January last, the power company started spilling water as soon as levels rose and continued to do this on an increasing basis as rain became heavier, members were Ke (en

Records show that the Shannon has flooded on a cyclical basis going back to the 1930s, and the floods experi- enced recently are not even the worst that have happened, Mr Naughton Sr HLee

“The power company 1s co-operat- ing with the Office of Public Works in cleaning out the section where the Mulcair meets the Shannon, but there is no way of telling if this will help

the situation,” he added.

Councillor Cathal Crowe said that it seems “the statutory requirements in relation to levels in Lough Derg seem to need revising. Homes three quar- ters of a mile from the Shannon were under water. There were fish in back gardens and slurry and sewerage in contact with fresh water.”

He added that the ESB “needs to re- view its system of communication to warn people about flooding”.

Cllr Paschal Fitzgerald asked why the power company “only told people in the area six hours after the water had been let out”, while Cllr Tony O’Brien said that there should be “a single advisory body dealing with flooding on the Shannon’.