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TWO Fianna Fail councillors are keeping their fingers crossed that a little-known oil company may strike it lucky in remote Siberia. According to Clare County Coun- cil’s Ethics Registrar, Cllr PJ Kelly and Cllr Michael Kelly both have shares in PetroNeft Resources plc. The registrar shows that Cllr Kelly purchased 8,/50 shares, at 32 cents a share, last October, following a con- versation with his Tubber colleague. The registrar doesn’t say how many shares Cllr Michael Kelly has in Pet- ronNeft, but it does state that Cllr

Kelly also has shares in Providence Resources, the Gresham Hotel, Bal- timore Technologies and a pharma- ceutical company called Alltralel. Cllr Michael Kelly was unavailable for comment yesterday. However, Cllr PJ Kelly said that buying the shares was like betting on a horse. “After a chat with Michael, I said that I would take a chance. For the amount of shares I bought, I won’t be getting rich from it,” he said. According to the chairman’s report from the most recent accounts of Pet- roNeft, Mr G. David GaMer said, “It is 18 months since the concept of Pet- roNeft Resources plc was developed

and started to become a reality. Now the company is fully structured and funded, has a clearly defined path to production from the two proven oil fields and has an exploration sched- ule to expand the reserve base.”

The chairman’s statement said that the company was to set out a fast- track to purchase a licence for “one of the best packages of known oil fields and prospects to became avail- able in the West Siberian Oil and Gas Basin in a long time”.

The licenced area is extensive at 4,991 square kms, setting up the potential for a ‘core area’, with long- term production and an extensive ex-

ploration base for future discoveries.

The statement went on, “The first year of the company’s existence has been an exciting time. The next 12 months promises to be equally excit- ing. “By July of 2007, it is hoped that the company will be able to take the decision to begin field and infrastruc- ture development, leading to produc- tion in 2008.”

The only other councillors to have shares in companies are Cllr Tony Mulcahy (FG), who has shares in Ballycasey Dev Ltd and Cllr Oliver Garry (FG), who has shares in Ab- bey Contractors Ltd.

COLLEAGUES and friends of Shan- non Town Clerk Tomas MacCormaic gathered last week, to mark his 25 years in his job.

Tomas joined with his colleagues for a night out, under the pretence that the reason for the celebration was the birth of his granddaugh- ter Aoife. Aoife is the newly-born daughter of Tomas’ son Padraig, who works alongside his father at Shan- non Town Hall.

“They decided they would catch me out. The Town Manager Ger Dol- lard raised a glass and said ‘Every- one knows why we are here, except one person…that was me,” laughed Tomas.

A native of Kilkishen, Tomas first began working in Shannon 54 years ago. He worked in the duty free sec- tion of Shannon airport and with tex- tile company Lana Knit for a number of years.

“T cycled in to Shannon for my first three years working in Shannon,’ he recalled.

He and his wife Eithne (who passed away in 1994) had nine children and the cost of rearing them prompted Tomas to take up a part-time post as Town Clerk, in 1982.

“T did it initially to supplement the income. Now I am doing it as a hob- by. I enjoy it tremendously. I wouldn’t do it otherwise,” he said.

“I go to the States every year, with the mayor, as a representative and I

go to different parts of the country. I love it. There are occasions when you have bad days, but there are not Kolo meek DALVOvMnAal sss MMB A oMCT-BLCE

Tomas is very outgoing and his fa- vourite part of the job is mingling with people in Shannon.

‘The best part is working with the community. You feel as if you are doing something with the communi- ty. All of my nine children are living and working in Shannon,” he said.

‘I have seen several changes over the years. The biggest change was in 1959, when Shannon Development was formed and industry came to the place. Before that, it was just the air- port,’ he said.

“The take over by Clare County Council three years ago was a huge

thing for the town and for the coun- cil. Ideally the town should have been given full town council status, like Ennis and Kilrush,’ he said.

Tomas leads a very busy life. He enjoys around of golf and is very in- volved with Wolfe Tones GAA club. He is a former chairman of the Youth Council and has been involved with various residents associations in Shannon over the years.

Tomas was presented with a piece of Genesis, in the form of an owl, to mark the milestone, which he proudly displays on his office desk at Shannon Town Hall.

CLARE’S most prolific jockey, Ki- eran Fallon issued a battlecry this week when he said he was raring to go with the weeks ticking down to his return to the racecourse in June. The six time champion jockey will be allowed race in Britian in early summer having failed a drugs test in France last year.

At present, his licence has been suspended pending a corruption case set to be heard in the autumn.

In the interim, the Clare man is keeping himself fit and ticking over. The break from competitive action may even have sharpened his desire and could prolong his time in the saddle.

‘Towards the end I wasn’t riding as sharp as I can,” he said. “I rode some bad races. In a way, this time might work to my advantage. I had started to feel a little bit bored. I was only concentrating on the big races.”

His omission from the sport at

the moment isn’t the first time he’s courted controversy. In 1994 he was banned for six months after pulling another rider from a horse but his time away has always driven him on to further success. Since then, he’s had major wins on Kris Kin, Ouya Board and Alexandrova.

He said once he gets back to racing he’s going to appreciate the experi- ence a lot more for his absence. “I’m not using any energy now,’ he add- ed. “Maybe because of that I might get an extra year or two more than I would have done had I been going all over the place.”

Fallon concedes that there were moments when he began to worry.

“T was worried at the start,” he said. ‘For one, I didn’t think I would have a job. But now I feel I have so much to look forward to. I have really good people around me and I can’t wait to get back in June.”

He hasn’t long more to wait and racing will be more colourful and competitive because of him.

THE skeletal remains of what ap- pears to be at least six individuals, possibly dating back to pre-Christian times, have been discovered during the archaeological monitoring of 1m- provements to a local water network outside Newmarket-on Fergus.

The remains and up to four further possible burials have also been de- tected during monitoring of ground works for a water reservoir at Barn- hill. Clare County Council has sus- pended work on the affected part of the site subject to the issuing of an excavation licence later this week.

An initial assessment of the area

has been undertaken by osteologist Camilla Lofqvist who concluded that the remains appeared to represent at least six articulated skeletons, with another four possible burials.

According to Eoghan Kieran of the Moore Archaeological Group, ani- mal bone was also detected in con- nection to the burials but no datable finds were recovered. Some of the burials were laying in an East-West direction, which may indicate Chris- tian burial. However, burials in all different directions were represented on the site, possibly indicating a pre- Christian date.

The archaeological landscape around Barnhill wood and New-

market-on-Fergus exhibits several features from the Bronze Age, Ear- ly Christian period and onwards. There are several Fulachta Fiadh, ringforts and Anglo-Norman castles in the vicinity, as well as the largest known hillfort in Ireland, Mooghaun hillfort. This trivillate fort is located in the grounds of Dromoland Castle and is dated to 1260-930BC.

The site, which covers an area of ap- proximately 20×30 metres, had been cordoned off pending completion of the archaeological excavation and to prevent additional disturbances.

A 2003 report commissioned by the Heritage Council reporteded that some 15-20,000 individuals were ex-

cavated from archaeological sites in Ireland from 1989 to 1998. The New- market-on-Fergus find is somewhat different, however, as the burial site was not marked.

To archaeological specialists, all such skeletal discoveries constitute a valuable historical and scientific resource, inscribed with evidence of the working life, living conditions, diet, traumas and diseases of past generations.

RESIDENTS in Drumgeely will meet with Shannon council officials today, in an effort to find answers to questions regarding the local com- munity hall, which was destroyed by fire four months ago.

The blaze totally destroyed the derelict building last November. The hall had been the property of Shan- non Development until 1992 but was taken over by a private company then, which sparked mixed reaction.

The fire brought to an end con- troversy which had raged over the years, as locals were concerned that the hall was taken away from them.

The Drumgeely Residents Asso-

ciation now wants to know what the future of the hall will hold.

They have requested the meeting with council officials and council- lors in the Shannon area. They are concerned that the site has been in a poor state since the fire gutted the olepelennerce

They say that it is not safe and a valuable site is left in a disused State.

Chairperson of the Residents As- sociation, Beatrice Keville said they just want answers.

“We are very unhappy that the remnants of the fire are still there. The major part has been cleared, but there is still debris on the site,’ said Ms Keville.

“It had been lying unused for years and is such a shame,” she said.

‘Four months on, the site has not been totally cleared and is again derelict. The residents wrote to the gardai expressing concern about the fire and asking for information. They were told “investigations were ongoing”, nothing has been heard since,” she said.

She said that some locals would love to see the area converted into a tennis court, which it was previously used as.

“We are hopeful they will let us know what is happening. It has been going on for sO many years, and is in a state of limbo,” she said.

“Something has to happen. We

asked them at the last meeting, but we got no reply. The only thing we have been told is that it is privately owned,” added Ms Keville.

“Before shops and schools were built in the then new town of Shan- non, Drumgeely Community Hall was where these and social needs were met. Drumgeely was the first residential area of Shannon and was a thriving place, with a great com- munity spirit. There was an active tennis club, one of the first sporting clubs in Shannon,” she said.

Prior to last year’s fire, the hall had been damaged by another fire, in August 2001.

Only the annex was left standing ANAK amo etelme pales Ce(oyNlm

LONDON in the league — not the game to set football pulses racing for Paidi O Sé or anyone associated with Clare. It meant this game was always going to be the undercard in the inter-county doubleheader at headquarters. ;

And so it was for Paidi O Sé who must have taken a few seconds out during the game to reflect life on the undercard when he has been used to topping the bill for over 30 years now.

Such was life in Cusack Park in a game that was nothing more than a fixture to be fulfilled for Clare, a game to try and rack up points and

goals to boost their scoring rate.

That’s what happened in this mis match. Clare could have won by 20 points but had to be content with a 13-point advantage when Chris Donnellan — brother of All-Ireland winner Michael — flashed home two goals in the final minutes.

It bothered Paidi, but not unduly as he reflected afterwards on a mis- sion accomplished. “Good win, good win,’ went his opening gambit.

“It was a very difficult game to prepare for. It was a game we had to win, score difference came into the equation as well but we didn’t look PAM LOTT MAA

“Certainly they didn’t play well in the second half and I can understand

that. It’s a difficult game to play. You have a game put away at half time and you go out and try to do it again in the second half and that was dif- ficult.

“We just wanted to get the game out of the way and play our remain- ing game, hoping that we can beat Longford,’ he added.

Longford in two weeks time in Pearse Stadium. Paidi’s successor as manager of Kerry, Jack O’Connor, went up there three years ago and came away with nothing. In victory over London, Paidi put it up to his players.

“The whole thing rests on the Longford game now,’ he said, “‘and that’s going to be good for the team. We just have to go out and win the bloody thing now and give us a chance to stay up.”

With that Paidi was away, still standing with Longford to come. With the long journey to Ventry ahead of him, he didn’t stay for all the hurling game, to find out that his footballers are the only Clare team still standing in the league.

TRAVELLER culture occupies pride of place locally and nationally this week thanks to projects undertaken at the St Joseph’s training centre.

The coppercraft group at the cen- tre have completed work on a copper vessel that will be used to hold the Easter vigil fire in the Ennis cathe- dral.

The three foot high vessel was a collaborative effort between men working at the centre and the Ennis diocese.

Fr Damian Nolan approached the centre six months ago with the idea of making a copper structure that could be utilised during the Easter oo KerselO eBoy

At first a competition was held to determine which group would take

the lead role on the project, though input was ongoing from all men tak- ing the coppercraft course at the cen- inden

The group’s foremost concern was to ensure the vessel was practical and safe. When those requirements were met, the group, aided by metalcraft instructor and teacher Brian Crossen, introduced a stylistic element to the process. The group also consulted with Fr Nolan throughout the proc- ess.

Mr Crossen explained, “Fr Dam- ian had approached us about making something for Easter. We wanted to make sure it did exactly what it was supposed to do, that it was safe and also that it looked good. There were about three or four different stages from design right through to com- pletion. Fr Damian has always been

very supportive of the centre and the lads really enjoyed making it”.

The centre also earned recogni- tion on a national stage when a three man group from the centre travelled to Cork last Thursday to take part in the 4th annual Cork lifelong learning festival.

Martin Maughan, Thomas Keenan and Peter Keenan gave a live dem- onstration of traditional copper craft at the Cork public museum as part of the week long festival.

Last year the centre donated seven copper items including buckets, pots and scuttles to the museum for a per- manent display.

It is the first time a permanent ex- hibition of Traveller culture has gone on display in a national museum. The Cork Traveller Women’s Network and the Cork public museum invited

the copper craft group to take part in the festival.

“It kind of grew legs after we do- nated the copper projects to the mu- seum. It was a pretty big event, there was a lot of craftsmen there. We set up in a gazebo and it worked out re- ally well. It was a great day. They were very impressed. They invited us back for next year, so we’ll see how ereLme x Olona

STAFF at Shannon company, Hali- fax Insurance, have taken part in an eight-week Slimathon, to raise mon- ey for The Mid West Deaf Associa- tion’s new community centre, which is to open in Limerick shortly.

Three teams of seven colleagues followed sensible eating and exer- cise plans, losing a total of 155 Ibs between them. Their fellow workers showed their support by sponsoring them €1.27 per lb, for their efforts raising much needed funds for The Mid West Deaf Association.

The Community Centre will pro- vide extra facilities for deaf people

in the Mid west region such as Deaf Adult Education, seminars, social activities, recreational and internet activities. The money raised by Hali- fax has gone towards furnishing the community centre.

The three teams, “The Slim Shadys’, ‘The Love-Handlers’ and “The Little Bit Xtra’ were weighed in weekly and aimed to lose the highest percentage of weight collectively. “The Little Bit Xtra’ were declared the overall win- ners of the Slimathon, losing over 5 per cent of their collective body weight, so they had the privilege of nominating the charity.

“We feel healthier, raised a lot of money for charity and had great

fun,’ said Joe McGauley, captain of ‘The Little Bit Xtra’.

Jerry White, Managing Director at Halifax said, “As a Company, we are constantly trying to find new ways to give something back to the com- munity. Colleagues here are fantastic at coming up with creative fundrais- ing ideas and are always willing to dig deep in support of worthy causes throughout the year.”

Colleagues at Halifax in Shannon raised over €1,600 and the HBOS Charity Foundation contributed a further €700, bringing the total funds raised to over €2,300. The HBOS Foundation operates as an independent company to HBOS plc

and works with charitable and not for profit organisations across the UK and Ireland, supporting people and their local communities through national grants and regional grants, colleague fundraising and HBOS No) LUtslKotom pte

A SECOND home defeat and Tony Considine slipped back to default mode after the game. He was look- ing ahead, referencing May 27 as the date on which his Clare team will be judged. Cork loom once more then, a red beacon in the distance amid championship days and the white heat of summer.

The league is tucked away now, a building block Clare must hope to what’s to come this summer. Sunday was a little taster. Sun belting down and spring almost done with. Little beads of sweat forming on the punt- ers who gathered behind either goal. Clare will hope for more change from Cork when they meet them next time ‘round.

The visitors came to Ennis, gave Clare a head start and slowly, with- out fuss, lifted things a notch. Just when Clare ducked back into the game, Cork pulled away again.

The Clare boss drew a luminous highlighter across Clare’s wasted Oit-b leone

“We went out and gave it every- thing but when you have 16 wides you don’t deserve to win a game. I thought we played well – the two teams went at it. There’ll probably be a lot of other things on the 27th [of May] that wasn’t there today. Maybe we lacked a bit of sharpness around the goals. You can’t be disappointed with the performance, they gave it everything. As I say 16 wides, you’ll always suffer when you have those kind of wides.”

At the other end, Gerald McCarthy cast his glance across the hard sod of Cusack Park and wondered with a half smile how Cork managed to get out of the group.

“I’m kind of surprised we’re in the semi final but we worked hard for it,’ he said. “We got off to a particu- larly bad start. Didn’t get our game together for quite a long period in the first half but eventually we got a cou-

ple of good snappy balls in. We got 1- 2 off of some very good ball and that turned the game for us. Up to that we looked very vulnerable really. They fought hard, even when Clare came back at us in the second half.”

It’s Cork who wander on, but all throughout this campaign, Consid- ine has spoken like a manager who doesn’t put too much stock in the national league. It’s eight weeks now before Clare play another competi- tive game, but the boss isn’t worried.

“Clare have got playoff games be- fore and they didn’t do us any good. There’s no beating matches and at the end of the day we wanted to win the match and make progress. But the height of real hurling is starting now. We’ve a lot of physical training and we’re getting the great evenings like today. I suppose we’ll look at to- day and learn from it. I think it was a fairly good competitive game. We’re without a game for seven or eight weeks but we’ll try to do something. We’ll have fellows a lot sharper on the 27th and so will Cork. It’ll make for a great game on the 27th.”

Get that marker out. Circle the date. Eight weeks and counting.

, a diverse collection of work by the Finnish born artist is currently on show at the the Burren College of aval

Kaiya Poijula was born in Northern Finland and now currently lives and works in Ennis. She holds a Master of Arts from Helsinki University of Art and Design.

Kaiya works mainly with mixed media, sculpture, installations and

oLau Cee serNeGom-vam

Death, loneliness, shadows, the in- visible world and macabre humour all come into play in her ethereal and minimalist work. She works with materials such as textiles, skulls, glass, and water.

The colour white runs like a thread through the exhibition and is used to simultaneously express joy and sor- row.

These themes and materials will be seen in her sculptures and instal- lations on display during the exhibi- tion.

She has had several public and pri- vate commissions, the latest one be- ing in the Cultural Centre of Beth- lehem, in Palestine, designed by

renowned Finnish Architect Juha Letviska.

Since 1992 Kaiya has had several solo and group exhibitions around the world. Some of her solo shows include, St Paul’s Church at Smith- field, Dublin in 2004, Gallery of the Institution of Finland and Berlin in 2004 and Gallery Katarina, Helsin- ki in 2003.

She has also exhibited in the Em- bassy of Finland in Washington, DC, USA in 1999 and Gallery Maronie in Kyoto, Japan (together with Sato and Rokumura) 1n 1997.

In 2005 she participated in the Soho Chelsea International Art Competition, in the Agora Gallery in New York and in the 175th Annual

Exhibition, RHA (Royal Hibernian Academy) Dublin.

Awards and grants include; Sculp- ture in Context, Dublin in 2005, Project Grant (The Arts Council of Finland) in 2003, Public Display Grant for Visual Artists in 2002 and The Arts Council of Uusimaa in 2000.

All the work will be available for sale throughout the exhibition. The exhibition will run until April 12. For further information on this ex- hibition, please contact Limerick Printmakers Studio and Gallery at 061 311806.

The gallery is open Monday to Fri- day llam to 5.30pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm. All are welcome.