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FOURTEEN players representing Clare clubs will take their chance in the 108th South of Ireland Golf Championship that gets underway in Lahinch on Saturday. The strongest Clare field in the oldest of the provin- cial golf championships in a number of years will be headed by Lahinch’s Patrick Collier,

Meanwhile, Ennis’ Noel Pyne will continue his remarkable associa- tion with the event by competing in his 47th consecutive championship when he goes into action against Doneraile’s Damien Carey on Satur- CR ham enlewenterce

Pyne is one of ten of the Clare con- tingent in action in the first round — the others are Mark Feane (La- hinch), Patrick Sheehy (Lahinch), Cathal O’Connor (Woodstock), Tho- mas Neenan (Lahinch), Padraig Mc- Grath (Dromoland), Ian Morrison (Lahinch), Ed Hickey (Shannon), Ni- all Woods (Dromoland) and Patrick OO liome Re

Collier is one of six former cham- pions in the 192-strong field for the 2009 event — the others are Barry Reddan, Padraig O’Rourke, Simon Ward, Peter Sheehan and defending champion Niall Kearney.

O’Rourke from Kilkenny is a two- time winner, winning the title for the

first time all of 28 years ago when beating John Carr in the final by 2 and |. He followed it up with another win in 1985 when scoring a 3 and 2 win over Ennis’ Pat Lyons who was playing out of the Nenagh club.

Reddan beat Mark Gannon in an all-Co Louth final in 1987 — it went all the way to the 20th before Reddan got the better of his fellow interna- tional and clubmate. Peter Sheehan, who now plays out of Ballybunion was the winner in 1993 when beating Michael O’Kelly on the 19th, while Collier was playing out of Limer- ick when he won the title in 1997 by beating Andrew McCormick of Scrabo on the home hole.

Niall Kearney and Simon Ward are the most recent champions in the field — Ward was 2006 champions thanks to victory over Darren Crowne form Dunmurry by 2 and 1, while Kearney scored a decisive 4 and 3 win over The Curragh’s Paul O’Hanlon in last year’s final.

MEMBERS of Clare County Council were updated on progress of a review which could lay the foundations for Clare being one of the wind energy centres of Ireland.

The presentation on progress of the revised wind energy strategy for Clare was given by Ruth Minnogue of Minnogue and Associates, the consultants appointed by the council

to up-date the strategy.

Ms Minnogue told the meeting that in reviewing the existing strategy, one of the important aims Is to “iden- tify robust areas, which meet the re- quirements of wind energy genera- tion” where there is a good chance of obtaining planning permission for AUD u Oy EA oe

She told the council that while there are problems when it comes to connection to the grid as it is “ona

first come, first served basis, we are well placed in Clare having access to Moneypoint.”

In surveying the county, the con- sultants were putting various areas into one of four categories: strategic areas where there is a good likeli- hood of generating wind power, areas which are acceptable in principal, ar- eas which are open for consideration and areas where permission would not normally be possible.

Which category an area falls into would depend on a number of factors, including wind-speed, proximity to houses, geological and environmen- tal considerations and the archaeol- ogy of that area.

Councillors asked questions con- cerning various aspects of the review and concerning planning regula- tions.

After Slieve Aughty was mentioned in the presentation as a possible lo-

cation, Cllr Pat Hayes asked whether the review would look at individual townlands and was told it would not. Rather there would be an overview of an area as broadly suitable with each application still having to go through the planning process.

Councillors were also told that the review should be completed by this September and members were invit- ed to raise any issues with the con- Sultants.

THE scoreline says it all really — this was as free-flowing a football game as one could hope to see as Clare stormed to a thrilling victory over the reigning All-Ireland champions thanks to a brilliant second half dis- ENE

Clare hit the net twice in the first half through Ailish Considine and Niamh O’Dea but still found them- Selves in arrears at the break, but there was no denying them on the turnover as goals by Aoife Murphy and Ailish Considine put them on the high road to an All-Ireland date against Donegal on August 2nd.

It was end-to-end stuff all through as the force was with each side at various intervals. Ailish Consid- ine’s eighth minute goal, which was quickly followed by points from Sa- rah Bohannon and Considine again gave Clare a three-point advantage by the 15th minute, but a Dublin pur- ple-patch that saw them hit 1-5 with- out reply in ten minutes turned this game on its head.

The goal came in the 22nd minute

when Rebecca Davey ran on to a long delivery and flicked the ball beyond Edel McMahon to the Clare net. It looked like giving Dublin a decisive half-time lead, but on the stroke of the interval Nimah O’Dea struck for a crucial goal that left them only a point adrift, it being 1-8 to 2-4 in Dublin’s favour.

It inspired Clare, but not before Sinead Cullen, the sister of Dublin senior star Bryan Cullen, tacked on the first point of the second half to edge her side two points ahead.

It was Clare’s second half goals that won the day — the first arrived eight minutes into the half when a high ball into the square from Sally Glynn led to consternation in the Dublin defence and allowed Aoife Murphy pounce for a goal.

Murphy added a point two minutes later to put Clare 3-5 to 1-9 ahead, before the Considine sisters from Kilmihil effectively put the game out of Dublin’s reach when hitting 1-3 in- side six minutes.

The goal came in the 39th minute when a penalty, awarded after the hugely effective Sarah Bohannon was

fouled in the area, was hammered to the net by Ailish Considine, while Eimear followed up with points in the 40th, 43rd and 45th minutes to put Clare 4-8 to 1-9 to the good.

Clare looked set to run out comfort- able winners but Dublin never said die and had the better of the scoring exchanges in the closing quarter, out- scoring Clare by 1-7 to 0-4 as they played catch up.

There were only three points be- tween them in the end, but Dublin’s goal came in injury time and just made the result more respectable from their point of view.

It puts Clare through to their first All-Ireland Minor A final in 18 years — they won back-to-back titles in 1990 and ’91 beat Dublin and Laois respectively.

THE Civil and Public Service union has warned it will not allow public services be damaged by any attempt to force through staff cuts and other changes on foot of the Bord Snip Nua report

The union, one of the largest in the public service warned that it would not accept any attempt by Govern- ment to force through staff cuts and other changes proposed in the report of the so-called Bord Snip Nua. The union said protecting the highest standards and availability of public services was “paramount and a core principle that could not be compro- mised”.

Noting the publication of the re- port, CPSU Deputy General Sec- retary, Eoin Ronayne said it would require further detailed analysis but stressed ’’we have always questioned the purpose and intent of the Bord, as these so-called ‘experts’ repre-

sent the failed recent economic past – consequently anything they have to say about our public services will not be likely to impress”.

He added, the union’s initial ex- amination of the report did little to dispel its concern that this would be a ‘slash and burn’ exercise. “There is past history here, we didn’t share the assessment of the original Bord Snip and it won’t be a surprise that we have yet to find anything in this which suggests our view will be any CUPS CoRo sl mneN Iman salem

Mr. Ronayne said that ultimately it would be up to Government and unions to work through the difficult weeks and months ahead and the CPSU expects “nothing less than the processing of any proposals by the employer through the normal indus- trial relations procedures.”

Meanwhile, SIPTU will hold a press conference in Liberty Hall to- morrow to give it’s “considered re- sponse” to the proposals.

“The recommendations of An Bord Snip Nua represent an exercise in fantasy,’ SIPTU General President Jack O’Connor said following the publication of the report. “In fairness to the group their terms of reference focused exclusively on reducing ex- penditure without regard to the eco- nomic and social implications, or the viability of alternative approaches.

This is graphically highlighted in that the Government’s own projec- tions envisage reductions of €1.5 bil- lion in current expenditure for 2010 and the same again in 2011, whereas this report recommends an incred- ible £5.3 billion. The Government’s targets are not achievable without the most severe measures. The recom- mendations of this report are entirely unworkable, unnecessary and down- right counter-productive.”

BACK in 2000 Ger Loughnane made a special guest appearance at the July meeting of the Clare County Board in the West County Hotel as a denouement to retirement after six years on the inter-county manage- ment carousel.

Loughnane addressed delegates and the county board top table that evening, in what was largely a night of mutual appreciation between eve- ryone in the hall and a celebration of all things Clare hurling.

Loughnane talked about the salad days, Clare’s unforgettable fire, how everyone worked together, how Mun- sters and All-Irelands were won and Ome er-l

However, there’s always a news line with Loughnane and there was that night in his final few words just before the appreciation of the crowd rained down on him.

“No tributes lads,’ he said. “Down to the future. Think of that and think of it fast,” he added.

Of course Loughnane was talking about the small ball, but he could have been talking about the big ball too.

Regardless of the code, there was no one listening – the results of which are where Clare GAA finds itself with its two flagship teams.

In football terms, things have never been so low – player indifference and a tacit acceptance of the county’s lot as being one of the worst in the coun- try is a damning indictment.

It shows up Clare as a football county totally lacking in ambition, pride and overall sense of purpose that goes hand-in-hand with wearing a county jersey.

Individual pride from the likes of Conor Whelan, David Russell, Michael O’Shea and others in repre- senting their county is without ques- tion, but collectively, the bald facts of the matter are that Clare couldn’t muster even a handful of training sessions between the defeat to Lim- erick in Cusack Park on June 7 and the All-Ireland Qualifier against Donegal on July 13 in Ballybofey.

That’s simply not good enough and

is worse than all the poor perform- ances over the last few years put to- exons

And all this after Clare had shown enough in a first half display against Limerick in Cusack Park to suggest that there could be some light at the end of the tunnel.

There was a belief in their play when they ran at Limerick, but rather than take the positives from the game and try to come again in the Qualifi- ers, they collectively turned the other cheek.

Contrast this attitude to how teams like Sligo, Tipperary and Wicklow approached the Qualifiers. Tipperary got back to training under manager John Evans (surely a Kerry manager

of the future) after their defeat to Limerick in the Munster quarter-fi- nal, went up to Louth and beat them.

Then they served up a brilliant second half display against Sligo in Semple Stadium, only to come up short by a point. However, even in defeat they showed enough in 2009 to believe that they will contend for Munster titles in the coming years.

As for Sligo, they didn’t throw in the towel after being beaten by Gal- way in Connacht – after all, it would have been easy for this to happen as many of the team could have been sated with their Connacht medals from two years ago.

No, they came again and beat Tip- perary in Thurles and should have

beaten Kerry on Saturday in serving up the greatest championship per- formance against the bluebloods of the game in Tralee since Clare drew there in 1950.

And, as for Wicklow – another D1- vision 4 team like Clare and Sligo – not much needs to be said about their All-Ireland Qualifer wins over Cavan, Fermanagh and Down in Aughrim.

Mick O’Dwyer will suffice.

Looking at Sligo, Tipperary and Wicklow, even another Division 4 team like Antrim who were only six points adrift of Tyrone in an Ulster final shows what can be achieved if WAMBO MAS (use

At player level across the county,

not just among the players who never fail to answer the county’s call.

At administrative level when you actually have a county board that really, deep down, wants to achieve Wen betcace

The only consolation is that things were just as low when John Maughan took over the Clare team in the Au- tumn of 1990 – they had just been beaten by Waterford in the first round of the National League and only 13 players turned up for Maughan’s first training session in Crusheen.

Maughan came to that session wear- ing a Mayo jersey, but ceremoniously took it off in the dressing room and put on a Clare geansai.

“We were instilling a little bit of discipline and a small bit of direction and it took off,” said Maughan.

Time for another lift off, but as Ger Loughnane said, “Down to the future, think of that and think of it fast.”

It’s in Clare football’s own hands.

CONCERNS have been expressed about the safety of the county’s first ever motorway.

Councillor Johnny Flynn (FG) has written to the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey (FF) asking him to direct the National Roads Authority to carry out a safety audit on the N18, before the speed limit is increased on almost 21 kilometres of the main Galway-Limerick road.

The Ennis councillor, who is a qualified civil engineer, said he was also drawing on his experience as a fire chief attending motor accidents when highlighting his concerns.

“Before making a final declaration on the speed limit, I am asking the minister to direct the NRA to carry out an audit on size and layout of the slip roads on the Ennis bypass. The signage also needs to be reconsid- ered,” he said.

Cllr Flynn that the lead-in to the Barefield and Tulla road slipways 1s not adequate for motorway speeds of €120 kilometres per hour. He said there should be adequate land take available to rectify this potential hazard. The councillor said the NRA

should also improve the signage on the dual carriageway to give motor- ists adequate notice of turn offs.

The Minister for Transport declared a total of 294km of national roads as new motorway sections to take af- fect on August 28. Among these new motorways is the N18 Oranmore to Limerick route.

The 12.5km of the Ennis bypass will be considered a motorway come the end of August, as will the 8.3 kil- ometre dual carriageway from Shan- non to Ennis. The Gort to Crusheen dual carriageway currently under construction will also be a motor- way, as will the Oranmore to Gort route currently in planning.

The designated speed of 120kph will apply to all newly declared mo- torway sections unless special speed limits are in operation. In addition, the new status will also serve to pro- tect the route against inappropriate development, including multiple ac- cess points, which would have road safety implications and affect the ef- ficiency and service life of the route.

DIU uMENy Delcam Na leRer OK nb ITO) elo ENIoer tions of these routes should note that until August 28, the current speed limit will apply.

CLONLARAY’S season continued on an upward trend on Thursday when they held off fellow promotion rivals Eire Og to top the division and more importantly, qualify for the last four of the Clare Cup for the second suc- cessive year.

This latest victory was made all the more impressive by the fact that they had to do it without key players such as Nicky O’Connell, John Conlon and Donal Madden for this winner- takes-all clash that also came only twenty four hours after five of their players had played in the Munster

Under 21 championship semi-final against Limerick.

One of that contingent, Darach Ho- nan, was outstanding for the county on Wednesday and continued his rich vein of form here by scoring the two goals that eventually sunk a stubborn Eire Og side.

Clonlara raced into an early lead, with Honan’s goal pushing them 1-6 to 0-1 clear by the turn of the open- ing quarter but credit Eire Og for not dropping their heads as they fought back with the aid of a Damien Mc- Mahon goal to only trail by two at the break at 1-8 to 1-6.

SU et Tae oy liu tie K elem ONO ERE ILS restart but this time Eire Og actu- ally took a slender lead with only ten minutes remaining. However, the home side who had built up a 16 match unbeaten run before this tie, were not about to let the defence of their title falter at this late stage and duly responded with Honan grabbing 1-1 in a late flurry to send them into the last four and subject Eire Og to a promotion play-off with Whitegate.

THE final countdown to this week- end’s Powerade ‘Never Give Up’ challenge is underway as a Quin man is gearing up to put his name on the marathon map.

23-year-old Trevor Lee is one of just three people across the country selected to take on the Swiss Alpine Challenge in Davos, Switzerland on Sunday.

He decided to give up hurling for a few months and instead concentrate on running the marathon. The past few months have been a whirlwind for Trevor, who works as a chemi-

cal engineer at Roche pharmaceuti- cals in Clarecastle. He has featured prominently in Powerade advertise- ments on RTE television and has subsequently become a recognised face throughout Clare.

He is pleased with his training, which, apart from a few niggly inju- ries, has gone very well. He ran his first ever marathon in the Mourne mountains in County Down last month and was happy with his per- formance on the day, finishing the tough route in just over five hours.

“We came in in the middle of the pack. We were happy with that, but my legs were in bits after it,” he said.

Prior to that he ran a good race in the Clare 10K, in which he finished in the top 100 of some 1,400 partici- pants.

The training has tapered down since that, as he prepares for Sun- day.

The money raised through the chal- lenge will go towards SAD (Sudden Adult Death syndrome) and Trevor is also hoping to raise money for Can- cer Research. He is delighted with the generosity from those who have assisted him through sponsorship.

He is getting used to the celebrity status he has achieved since he first appeared on television.

“The feedback has been good. I’d be shocked by the amount of people who recognise me. The running 1s going well. The hard work is done now. I am trying to keep the legs fresh for Sunday,” he said.

“It has been a great experience and a great laugh. I have made good friends out of it,” he added.

Anyone who wishes to contribute to the fund should email Trevor on trevorleeO3 @ gmail.com.

COLM Bonnar has won everything in the game but in all his years of playing and managing, has never had to endure the tension of a champion- ship relegation battle. However, that is what befalls his Wexford side this weekend as they prepare to take on Clare in Portlaoise.

All four sides are in unison in their aversion of the new system that pro- poses to relegate one side from the McCarthy Cup for 2010 but Wexford have good reason for their outrage as the Leinster side actually won a game in the championship against fellow relegation rivals Offaly before going down narrowly to Dublin and then Limerick in their subsequent outings. And the Tipperary native in only his first season in charge can- not fathom why the GAA are intent on punishing any side when instead, they should be promoting the game in these counties.

‘Really the players cannot under- stand why they have been brought down into a relegation battle after

winning our first game against Of- faly and were in a Leinster semi-fi- nal. Having said that, that’s what the rule is, even though we thought that the GAA would show sense and not ask any of the four teams to play in a relegation battle as there are so few teams playing for the McCarthy Cup. It’s just ridiculous in the extreme and when we actually get together for the first time this evening (Tuesday), I’m sure that the response will be very poor because there is huge apathy for these games. “When you see the foot- ball championship and they have the likes of London and New York into the Sam Maguire and here we have four hurling teams battling to avoid relegation. Antrim are doing so much work up north to try and keep hurl- ing alive and it’s encouragement and promotion they need rather than be hit like this. The other three teams, Wexford, Offaly and Clare are the only teams outside of the top three that have actually won All-Irelands in the last fifteen years. It just doesn’t make sense, I don’t know why they are forcing this on the players. The

players are just so disillusioned themselves having to play this, hav- ing just been beaten in the qualifiers. They were trying to get as far as they could in the McCarthy Cup and that was only a week and a half ago and to ask the players now to play a rel- egation series with the bottom side going down to the Christy Ring Cup is just an absolute joke.

“Clare are now in a similar boat to us in the sense that they have gone down to Division 2 and those games are not worth a shite to anyone. If they are trying to do anything for hurling, they should keep 14 or 15 teams together and let them try to promote it among each other. They just seem to want to go for an elite eight or ten teams for the McCarthy Cup and that’s it which is a crazy, crazy system and they are saying that they want to promote hurling in oth- er counties. I still can’t get my head around it.”

So caught up with the will they- won’t they scenario surrounding the Antrim situation, Bonnar hasn’t had time to conentrate on his opponents

Clare but after the sides met in a chal- lenge game before the championship, he admits that this game could really go either way.

“IT haven’t even thought one bit about the game really because [| al- ways thought that the GAA were going to see sense and that com- mon sense would prevail even up to last Saturday evening. I thought that surely something would happen that these four teams are not going to partake in this competition. We would have played Clare in Rathnure six weeks ago before both played the first championship matches. We know Clare are a tough physical team, they are strong, very fit and hugely commited and from what I gather, Wexford always had trouble playing Clare and their type of hurl- ing. We are rebuilding after we lost a lot of players through injuries and retirements and they are a huge loss and it’s kind of telling on us in terms of losing tight games. As regards Clare, they are disappointed with the year being relegated to Division 2 and did well enough against Tipp,

coming back and giving themselves a chance of going for an equaliser and then I would have given them genuine hope of beating Galway in Ennis but Galway did well again on the day. So nobody really knows the strength of Wexford or Clare hurling at the moment and this competition isn’t helping anyway, that’s for sure. You won’t see their best in this com- petition.”

With the clock ticking down though and Wexford now actually embroiled in the relegation series, Bonnar is de- termined that they must finish their campaign this weekend, rather than leaving it to the lottery of a final rel- See elem OE h are) ee

“Undoubtedly, the sooner you are out of this competition the better and the only way of doing that is to win the first game because at this stage, players just want to get back to their clubs. The ideal scenario for either team if this game is forced upon them is to win that game and you don’t have to worry about it anymore because if you don’t, it will just turn into a dogfight really.”

A NEW strategy has been unveiled to promote commercial activity in the Ennis area. The document, released by the Ennis Development Forum, targets five sectors of the local econo- my. They are: retail; tourism and hos- pitality; industry, manufacturing and infrastructure; professional services and education.

Five separate groups were estab- lished following the Bright Ideas workshop help in Ennis in April.

The aims include promoting Ennis as an attractive destination for shop- pers, exploiting the full tourism po- tential of the town and dealing with issues such as anti-social behaviour.

Various initiatives, including adver- tising campaigns, the establishment of a Twitter page, “Shopping in En-

nis, schools art competition and a free parking initiative, have already been advanced by forum members.

Details are contained in the latest re- port from the Ennis Development Fo- rum. In it, forum co-ordinator Teresa Dalton states that the group remains disappointed with the response of En- nis Town Council to suggestions it put forward.

“Regardless of the disruption of the recent local elections, the response from ETC on the key Ennis Forum is- sues of rates, water charges, parking, taxis, casual trading and infrastruc- ture continues to be extremely disap- pointing,” she states.

The report continues, “After final- ly securing a meeting with the town councillors on May 12 we made the following points; we asked the coun- cillors to give a five per cent reduc-

tion in rates for prompt payment. The dates for prompt payment have now passed and we have not as yet heard back from the council though, at the time the councillors seemed keen to progress this idea.”

The report continues, “We asked the council to urgently address the infrastructural deficit in Ennis, which is preventing future development of both housing and commercial activ- ity. The council explained that this was a joint matter with Clare County Council but councillors undertook to address this issue.”

Ms Dalton also states that many lo- cal businesses were not in a position to pay “recent massive increases in water rates and we sought a signifi- cant reduction in these water rates”. She adds, “We have not had any re- sponse to this proposal.”

The forum 1s also looking for the 1s- sue of taxi services at Parnell Street car park to be re-examined while the report also states that casual trading byelaws have been “poorly imple- mented”.

The forum is also requesting that the council appoint a small group of coun- cillors to liaise with them as “meet- ings at which there were a very large number of councillors did not tend to get a great deal of business done”’.

A reduction in commercial rates ap- pears unlikely following recent com- ments by town clerk Eddie Power. Mr Power told last week’s monthly meeting of Ennis Town Council that has rates had already been adopted, there was no “legal scope” to reduce them. However Mr Power added that it could be possible for businesses to pay rates on a phased basis.