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A SPECIAL musical event is set to take place in Teach Cheoil in Kilrush on Saturday, August 8. It comes with news that renowned soprano Regina Nathan will make an appearance at the Grace Street location.

Performing French and Irish show pieces, she will be accompanied by Padhraic O Cuinneagain and the event kicks off at 8pm.

It’s something of a coup for the west Clare venue to secure the sing- ing voice of Nathan and her career in Opera, concert and recital has taken her from her native Ireland across Europe, and as far as Kuala Lumpur and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

She has appeared in opera at Ma-

drid’s Teatro Réal, Brussels’s La Monnaie, the Hamburg Staatsoper, Opéra de Genéve, Luzern Stadttheat- er, Israeli Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera de Nice, Opéra de Nantes, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Opera Zuid, Stadttheater Giessen, as well as Opera Ireland.

Nathan has sung major lyric so- prano roles throughout her career. Her repertoire ranges from the title role in Cavalli’s “La Calisto’ to the world premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage’s “The Country of the Blind’ for the Aldeburgh Festival/English National Opera. Regina has ap- peared as Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, Moore’s Baby Doe, Gluck’s Eurid- ice, Verdi’s Violetta, Bizet’s Léila, Offenbach’s Antonia and Amelia in

Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera’. Her portrayal of the role of Puccini’s Cio Cio San in ‘Madama Butterfly’ for Opera Ireland and at the Stadttheater Giessen was hailed with critical ac- claim as was her role of Cleopatra in Handel’s ‘Julius Caesar’ and Norma in Bellin’s ‘Norma’.

“IT have worked with conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Edo De Waart, Kent Nagano, and Frans Bruggen. Mahler’s Eighth Sym- phony has taken me to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Royal AI- bert Hall, and the opening concert of Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall; Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and Mo- zart’s Exsultate Jubilate to Brussels and Israel, and Rachmaninov’s The Bells to London’s Royal Festival

Hall.”

A devoted recitalist, Regina’s talents also embrace everything from classic Lieder to traditional Irish song. She has enraptured audiences throughout Ireland, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room, the Théatre du Chatelet in Paris and famously with Placido Domingo in a sold out audi- ence at Dublin’s Point Theatre. Her recordings include Britten, Complete Folk Song Arrangements (Hyperion), Mahler’s Symphony No.8 (BMG), Donizetti’s Maria de Rudenz (Op- era Rara) and of course Faith of our Fathers, alongside Frank Patterson. She has also recorded two solo CDs,

A MAN who was taken into custody for arriving in court half an hour late was found not guilty of theft by order co) rei Le rexes ;

Judge Sean O Donnabhain told defendant Patrick Murphy (20) of Tiermanna, Mullagh that he had “no right to keep the members of the jury waiting.” The judge ordered him to be taken into custody when he ar- rived at llam for a case which was due to go ahead at 10.30 am.

Mr Murphy told the judge that he had to “thumb a lift” into court and that was why he was late.

He was before the circuit court on a charge of stealing a mobile phone valued €200 in Mullagh on January 4 last. But when the case was due to start, Stephen Coughlan, BL for the State, asked that the woman who made the complaint about the theft, Fiona Hoey, be called.

Mr Coughlan said that she had not been seen in the court and was not answering her mobile, although she had been contacted by gardai. As she was the only witness for the State in the case, the judge directed the jury that he should be found not guilty.

Islam needs to be part of society

A CZECH national, who burgled the home of his former employer, has been handed an 18-month suspended sentence.

Ivan Toth, of Acha Bhile, Lahinch Road, Ennis, pleaded guilty to bur- gling a house in Tulla and using a cheque.

Another accused, Vladimir Hop- jan, of Castlerock, Tulla Road, En- nis, admitted using a cheque.

Ennis Circuit Court heard that Hopjan tendered a cheque at Ulster Bank, Ennis, on September 12 last. This was a stolen cheque.

Garda Niall Naughton told the court that a premises was subsequently Searched and a camera, lenses and a flash were found there.

Gda Naughton said that Toth and Hopjan — who are both from the Czech Republic — were previously employed by Mr O’Dwyer, whose house was burgled.

Pat Whyms, BL, for Toth, asked the

garda who was the ringleader and was told that Soltes was the driver of the car.

Elaine Houlihan, BL, for Hopyan, said her client has pleaded guilty to one charge, relating to an Ulster Bank cheque and had admitted fill- ing in the cheque.

“He wouldn’t come across as a criminal mastermind, by the way he cashed the cheque,” she said.

The court was told that Toth has been in Ireland for the past eight years, while Hopjan has been here for the past two years. Both were em- ployed on a farm in Tulla, but both nm belem (elem ro)relectel ns

Judge Sean O Donnabhain said the more significant charge was bur- glary. He imposed an 18-month jail term on Toth and suspended this.

He fined Hopjan <€600. He said he accepted that he was not charged with burglary. “I accept it was a very naive under- taking by him. He’s likely to have learnt his lesson,’ he said.

DAVID Browne can trace a series of events that provided him with the right amount of optimism for this year’s crop of minor ladies.

The first arrived in 2007 in Balli- nasloe. Browne was involved with the Clare Under 16s that day and watched from the sideline as his side captured the All Ireland B title. Af- ter the game, he lingered for a while to catch some of the game that fol- lowed, the A clash between Cork and DYeyterex0

The opening 30 minutes of that game provided enough evidence for Browne to conclude that his group of players could compete in the top tier two years down the line.

So it has come to pass but even be- fore this, Browne was sure the graph was moving in the right direction. The win over Kerry in Kilrush at the beginning of the summer, he says, was proof that his side could turn po- tential into something tangible.

“That win gave us a lot of confi- dence, particularly coming after we were beaten by Cork,” he says. ““When we played Cork once more, we had that little bit extra. We played them down on their own home turf and though they got off to a good start, we dug in and found our rhythm.”

That good start for Cork came in the form of a flurry 1-2 early in the game but the response from Clare points to a team that has a strong backbone.

‘There was only one point between us at half time and I knew by the way the girls took to the field for the sec- ond half that they weren’t going to be beaten. They came back out before

Cro d ear TilC Meet AW KomRN EDU eri rcamyalinl purpose, they were talking to one an- other and you could sense that they were going to dig in and carve out a Then E Dn

Clare controlled the tempo of the game and at one stage led by seven points. Against a strong Cork side, though, they couldn’t allow them- selves to switch off and eventually, Cork did claw themselves back into the game. Still, Clare hung on and kept their heads to come away with a one-point win.

“In our last outing against Dublin, you could see again that we were strong. They went ahead on us by four points but we didn’t panic. When N1-

amh O’Dea blasted home a goal from 20 yards that was the turning point. The game was there for us once more in the second half and we went out and took the opportunities.”

Some of that steel, Browne says, is due to the fact that a number of the panel were involved with the cam- ogie minors who were defeated in the final last year.

‘They have shown great resilience and have bounced back brilliantly. We’ve seven girls involved with the camogie set-up this year and we en- courage them to get involved in both codes. They’ve always been available to us when we’ve needed them.”

Browne is now looking to an im-

portant week in terms of the future for the GAA in Clare.

‘“There’s a big game on Wednesday with the Clare Under 21s involved in the hurling Munster final. ’’d wish all the lads the best of luck in that and I’d hope that a win would set us up for another positive result. It would be great to get the people of Clare behind both sides.”

THE nineteenth annual South East Clare show was a big hit at the week- end, despite the heavy rain. The gal- lant show-goers turned out in Bridget- own to enjoy a great family day out.

The first show was in 1990 and the event has only missed one year and that was because of foot and mouth.

Now highly regarded among the show fraternity, the South East Clare Show has a place in the top 10 shows in the country.

On Sunday, visitors enjoyed 22 classes in the horse show, show jumping the dog show and a vintage car show. There were 27 classes in the cattle section.

There were the firm favourites: a home produce section, best dressed

lady, little miss and bonny baby and, for the youngsters, there were dodg- ems, swings and fancy dress.

The dog show portfolio was looked after by Jim Lonergan and this year there are 13 qualifiers, including the Gain Dog Food All Ireland Champi- onship qualifier.

Everyone enjoyed the beautiful- ly preserved vintage cars – which formed a new section in the show this year – looked after by enthusiast, Joe English.

And when the rain came down or the feet became weary, visitors to the showgrounds were delighted to be able to retire to the refreshment tents and enjoy the wonderful spread laid on.

HUNGER is a wonderful weapon ZNO MAY Z- 0c O Olom OPM ODUB Ko EO NG oMOLe AY (oe) f these two sides on Sunday evening at county headquarters as Cooraclare landed their first Cusack Cup title in five years against a shell-shocked Kalmurry Ibrickane.

The county champions and outgo- ing Cusack Cup holders were in this state of mind because they had just tasted defeat for the first time in 40 games across the three senior com- petitions up for grabs in Clare – the Cusack Cup, O’Gorman Cup and county championship – that lasted as far back to September 2007 when they were beaten by Wolfe Tones at the county championship quarter-fi- OED MSL beXes

They lost because they kicked some very bad wides and spurned two gilt- edged goal chances in the last three minutes, but they also lost because they couldn’t summon the same hun- ger as Cooraclare.

Their raw enthusiasm for this game, from start to finish was the real win-

ner, while the backing chorus of a raucous support from the stand also helped get them over the line.

Put simply, this final meant more to the men in blue than it did to those in green and red – you could go so far as to say that it was Cooraclare’s great- est Cusack Cup performance since the winter’s day in 1992 when they beat Doonbeg in a memorable final on their home patch.

This was equally as memorable from Cooraclare’s point of view, pri- marily because of where this team has come from in such a short space OME BD baler

Remember, they were champion- ship chumps for five years from 2005 to 2008, but now they’re back with a bang as Cusack Cup champions for the 11th time and real challengers to Kilmurry I[brickane’s championship throne.

Once they recovered from a slow and nervy start when Mark McCa- rthy and Michael Hogan put points on the board inside four minutes, Cooraclare showed a real steel about them in bringing Kilmurry’s remark-

able run to an end.

Thomas Donnellan’s crunching shoulder on Stephen Moloney set the tone early on, while Cooraclare really settled down to their Herculean task when Sean Maguire opened their ac- count in the seventh minute pointed a rebound off a good goal chance for Hughie Donnelly over the bar.

Peter O’Dwyer burst through the middle in the ninth minute and fired over a great point to give Kilmurry a Q-3 to O-1 lead, but points by Declan McMahon and Cathal Lillis by the 11th had the sides level.

Kilmurry were now awake to the reality that this would be a real con- test and with a championship fervour about it, but they still looked com- fortable when Ian McInerney non- chalantly knocked over a free from 55 yards and when Mark McCarthy did likewise with a 45 to give them a O-5 to 0-3 lead by the 15th minute.

However, what happened in the closing 15 minutes was where this Cusack Cup final turned. Mark Tu- bridy landed two monster points by the 23rd minute – one from play and

another from the sideline to square matters.

They were maximising the chances, Kilmurry were most definitely not as Stephen Moloney, Johnny Daly and Peter O’Dwyer were all guilty of bad misses before Conor Marrinan raided from wing-back in the 29th minute to point Cooraclare into a 0-6 to 0-5 half-time lead.

You sensed that collectively all of Cooraclare believed and that went for those on the field and those looking on. And, this feeling was hammered home in the first four minutes after the restart when the sky blues took to their task of playing against the wind with gusto, landing points through Mark Tubridy and Pauric O’ Looney to move 0-8 to O-5 clear.

Kilmurry were rattled for the first DDONCoD UM OUC- Tucan SUO Cem OelemO)eloueNDOTcamOrcDEN hour against Kilkee in their 2008 championship opener, and in truth they never really recovered from this early Cooraclare blitz.

They were always playing catch-up, and though they knuckled down to this task admirably and drew level

with points from an lan McInerney free in the eighth minute, a point from play by Enda Coughlan in the tenth and another free from Johnny Daly in the 17th minute, Cooraclare were always going to come again.

They did in the 20th minute when Declan Keane pointed a 21-yard free to put them 0-9 to 0-8 ahead entering the last ten minutes.

It was then that they rode their luck, weathering the Kilmurry onslaught for seven minutes before the inevita- ble equaliser came through Michael O’ Dwyer – it should have been a goal though as he blazed over when put through by Paul O’Connor.

A Kilmurry win looked on the cards at that stage but credit the fighting qualities of Cooraclare once more, with two points from two raids VOM MaomEloOr

Substitute John O’Looney got both of them, the first from play, the sec- ond a free as Cooraclare moved two points clear in the 62nd minute.

There was still time for Kilmurry and one last attack coughed up their best goal chance of the day – Mark Killeen was one-on-one with his namesake Joe Killeen.

TM Tom eloec nee hana HOMO BU U BEDI aT- Ae as he turned the ball over the bar to keep Cooraclare ahead.

All that was left was the final whis- tle that greeted his kickout after that score.

Cooraclare’s celebrations were big- gining – Kilmurry’s great run was finally over.

It could be the making of Kilmurry Ibrickane though, albeit that Coora- clare are convinved it could be the making of their championship chal- lenge.

AT a time when most people are wearing hairshirts, Clonlara man Noel Murphy has bet his shirt on a new Killaloe business.

Boru Fashions is a new leisure- wear store on Killaloe’s main street which, apart from selling quality and affordable leisurewear, will custom- ise any t-shirt, polo or sweatshirt.

“We do fun t-shirts for stag and hen’s nights, t-shirts for corporate promotions, polo-shirts with compa-

ny logos and names, fun t-shirts and fantasy t-shirts, pictures of your dog, your cat, your boss – you name it, we can do it!” said Noel.

Noel took a big leap of faith in these dismal times and invested in the lat- est machinery to get the business off the ground.

“IT saw a gap in the market in this part of Clare. There are lots of bou- tiques in Killaloe stocking fabulous fashions and couture clothing. Boru Fashions aims to be quality but af- fordable. The most expensive thing

in the shop is a 100 per cent cotton man’s tracksuit for €35.”

Open just a few weeks, the shop is steadily growing its trade, particu- larly among younger shoppers.

“The young people who shop here tell me that they’re delighted to be able to buy locally. They say that if they go into Limerick, they have to pay €10 bus fare, then you pay out to have something to eat and that’s all before you buy a stitch,’ said Noel.

Noel decided to set up shop in Kil- laloe because “it’s a very good catch-

ment area, between here and Ballina, and so far things have been fairly good.”

Another boost for the shop are tour- ists who want shirts with pictures of the historic and scenic parts of Kil- laloe to bring home as gifts and sou- venirs. “If they have their own digital pictures with themselves in the pic- ture, I can even put that on a shirt for them,” said Noel.

after the 2-24 to 2-18 win

over Wexford in O’Moore Park.

“Tt

that’s what Clare and the County Board wants [ll be around. I’ve al- ways been around for Clare. I want to be around,” he added in putting the onus back on the county board that has called a special meeting in Au- gust to discuss both the senior hurl- ing and senior football management positions.

“It would definitely be my last year involved with the team — I’ve been 20 long years involved with Clare teams since the minor team of 1989, so maybe we will make it a 21st an- niversary, he continued.

Two years ago the county board top table led a successful heave against Tony Considine and his senior hurl- ing management team, even though they had recorded three champion-

ship victories that year and reached the All-Ireland quarter-final.

However, Considine’s fate as manager was sealed because of the controversy over the departure and subsequent year-long exile from the senior squad of two-time All-Ireland winner and three-time All Star win- ner, Davy Fitzgerald.

Now, two years on from that Civil War, the only thing standing in the way of McNamara could be Fit- zgerald’s prodigal son-like return to Clare to take up the management reins – a job he stated as recently as three weeks ago that he wants.

However, McNamara remains con- vinced that his management team is ideally positioned to build on what has been achieved since they as-

sumed control of the team in 2007. “I would be surprised if we couldn’t build on what we’ve done,” he said.

“We didn’t have a good year, but results and performance often didn’t marry very well. I think a point or two either way in a couple of league matches could have changed our whole year.

“The flurry at the end of the Mun- ster championship match against Tipperary, one bit of luck on that day and maybe we could be in an All-Ire- land semi-final now.

‘“That’s how it goes — it’s that little and it’s that close. After Kilkenny there’s so little between the next six or seven teams behind them. All those teams could beat each other on any given day,” he added.

COMMUNITY pride and friendship has prompted a group of local people to take it upon themselves to clean up one of Clare’s oldest eyesores.

The site, which is located on the Liscannor harbour, has been a virtual dump for more than 30 years.

It was purchased last year by Clare County Council but the local author- ity has had insufficient funds to de- velop the site after the purchase. This prompted a group of locals to take ac- tion into their own hands earlier this year.

“The people here have done fan- tastic work. Everyone in the whole parish is so proud of all the people who have worked so hard,” said Pad-

raig Blake of the Liscannor Harbour Amenity Organisation.

‘The people who have been coming here to help clean up each Wednesday have gotten so much out of it. There has been a great sense of friendship throughout the whole thing. We have done so much work that from now on, we only have to meet every second Wednesday.”

The project began in May when the Liscannor Harbour Amenity Or- ganisation approached Clare County Council with a proposal for the area.

“The place had essentially been a dump site for the last 30 years and it was very unsightly, especially for the tourists who come through Liscannor on their way to the Cliffs of Moher,” he continued.

“The site came into public own- ership in the last year or so and we approached Clare County Council about the possibility of bulldozing it and cleaning the whole place up.

“When Clare County Council agreed, we spoke to three local build- ers – the Atlantic Group, Guerin and Considine and the McNulty family and they all agree to donate Hi-Macs, lorries, dumper trucks and all sorts of machinery to help us out.”

After removing 42 full lorry-loads of rubbish and other material from the site, another meeting was held to allow the local people to decide what should be done with the new commu- nity area.

“We held a public meeting back in June and more than 40 people came

along. There was still a lot to be done at that stage. The next day we went down to the harbour and started work and we have worked there every Wednesday since then,” he contin- ued.

“Over the first three Wednesdays, more than 100 bags of rubbish were collected each day. We had some great support from Clare County Council and were allowed to dispose of all the rubbish at Ballyduffbeg with no charge.”

The group are now restoring stone- work at the site and plan to develop further in the coming week and months.

Anyone interested in getting in- volved should contact Patrick Blake at 086 1932872.