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A TWO-WEEK jail term has been handed down to a woman was got involved in a scuffle at Ennis court- Ce) btstes

Mother-of-three Margaret McDon- agh (29), of Dun na hInise, Ennis, was charged with engaging in threat- ening, abusive or insulting behaviour at Ennis Courthouse on January 12 last. Ennis District Court heard that the accused was involved in ex- changes, described as “scuffling and shouting” at the courthouse.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said her client’s maiden name was Mongan and she has married a Mr McDonagh.

“Her parents house was burnt down in Shalee Drive. There was a lot of difficulty between them and

other families. My client spoke out. She shouldn’t have shouted. She shouldn’t have roared. She would maintain they had been under se- vere provocation all day. The entire Mongan family and who they were married to and their children upped sticks and left Ennis. They moved to Cork. They live in caravans on the side of the road. Their entire lives were turned upside down as a result of what had been ongoing. She was at the end of her tether,’ she said.

“She told the other side of this dispute exactly what she thought of them. Unfortunately it wasn’t in very nice English,” added the solicitor.

Judge Joseph Mangan imposed a 14-day prison sentence and directed the state to inform the HSE of the or- der. He fixed a bond in the event of an appeal.

PFera tera iscercm i awterm Cerone:

THE case of four people charged in connection with a row outside Ennis Courthouse last month will be heard in September.

The four initially appeared before Ennis District Court on June 8 last, following a row earlier that day and re-appeared in court last Friday.

Inspector John Galvin, prosecut- ing, told the court on Friday that one of the accused, John McDonagh Jun- ior (21), of Nashes Boreen, Fairfield, Cork, is accused of damaging a car outside the courthouse, while three others are each facing a public order 8 Ko Neen

Judge Joseph Mangan asked, “Will

the State be saying this incident is part of a feud?”

Inspector Galvin replied, “Yes, it will be, but the property has nothing to do with it.”

Asked was the property caught in the crossfire, Inspector Galvin said, ‘The car was parked in the vicinity of the incident.”

Judge Mangan asked was the car in the wrong place at the wrong time and was told that it was. The judge said he would accept jurisdic- tion of the case in the district court. Inspector Galvin said it would take 90 minutes to hear the case, but the accuseds’ solicitor said it would be likely to take three hours. “We have a lot to say,” she said.

The case was adjourned until Sep- tember. The solicitor then asked for a relaxation of bail conditions, so that her clients could go on holidays during the summer. Judge Mangan said, “Bail conditions are bail con- ditions.” Inspector Galvin then said, “With the present circumstances, if these people were to leave the area it might cool the situation. However I’d like to know the dates they are going and the dates they are coming back.” The application was adjourned until later this week.

CLARE’S long puck specialists will be going for glory this weekend in Munster final action as they bid to reach the All-Ireland finals that take place in the famous Cooley mountain range in Louth. Three county long puck titles were decided last week, at under |6 level and senior level as well as e-laalesellcn

At under |6 level nine were involved in a close contest, with the winner by the distance of less than two foot being Kerth Hogan from Clooney/ Quin. Keith is in goal at all levels for his club and was a very Impressive Forrestal custodian last Sorel a)

His effort was just ahead of Killian McNamara from Kilmaley whilst a yard behind Killian was Frank Melody from Newmarket-on-Fergus who put in a huge last effort that very nearly won the honours.

Others to go close were Rory Halpin (Crusheen), Kevin O’Callaghan (O’Callaghan’s Mills), Aaron

Gaule (Cratloe), Kevin Kearney (Corofin), Paul McArthur (Killanena) and Michael Mcilnerney (Broadford).

The senior contest involved some of the better known hurlers in the county and once again huge efforts were witnessed by the leading contenders. Brendan McNamara from Scariff won the senior crown from reigning champion Bernard Gaftney (Newmarket-on-Fergus) with Shane O’Neill (Bal- lyea) a close third.

The other four competitors were Christy O’Connor (St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield), Mark Regan (Wolfe Tones), Aidan Lynch (Ruan) and Kevin Ryan (Broadford). Inagh/Kilnamona’s Fiona Lafferty won the camogie title in Tulla, edging Clare captain Deirdre Murphy (Clooney) and Chloe Morey (Sixmilebridge) into second and third place respectively. Others to take part were Edel Griffy (Kilmaley), Ailish Considine (Kilmaley) and Aine McNamara (Sixmilebridge).

The Munster finals take place at Thurles race- course on Saturday next.

Council barriers cause disruption

IT was edge-of-the-seat stuff, quite literally for those who took advan- tage of the stand in Bodyke, as these east Clare neighbours battled it out for Supremacy in the Under 14C fi- nal on Friday evening. With less than twenty minutes remaining, Scariff held a six point advantage and it seemed as if they were finally about to break their final hoodoo after nar- rowly losing out in the Under 14B equivalent after a replay with amal- gamation neighbours Ogonnelloe as well as the Division 3 schools final a few weeks back.

However, Scariff were unable to close out the game and it allowed Tulla a glimmer of hope that they took full advantage of, with goals from Diarmuid Murphy and Luke Corry to level up the game by the 52nd minute. In fact, Tulla actually took the lead three minutes from time through Mark Lynch before be- ing clawed back by a Ronan Carey 65 on the hour mark.

It set up a nervy grandstand fin- ish that could have really gone any- way before centre-back Barry Nash picked up a break in the Tulla half to claim the winning score.

On the balance of play, Scariff porbably deserved their victory af- ter building up a 2-2 to 0-4 half-time lead against the conditions. Tulla had all the early pressure but Scariff were much more economical, grab- bing two goals with their first two meaningful attacks, both coming in almost identical fashion through the lively Rickie Bolton, who crept in be- hind the Tulla full-back line to pull to the net. Meanwhile, Tulla picked off points through Mark Lynch (2) and a Niall Bolton free.

With Niall Bolton and Barry Nash dominating from their centre-back positions, both forward lines were constantly frustrated but Scariff did add points through Rickie Bolton and Adrian O’Grady before the break to hold a four point advantage.

With the slight breeze at their backs for the second period, Scariff took

control but could only muster points from Martin Cunningham and John Scanlon in that ten minute period. Chief goalpoacher Rickie Bolton was unlucky with two goal bound oppor- tunities, the first shot hitting the side

netting and the second, only a minute later, came back off the post.

Tulla’s challenge appeared to be fading under such pressure but in the 45th minute, they received a inspi- rational shot in the arm when Colin

Corbett’s shot was finished to the net by Diarmuid Murphy to cut the defi- cit to three.

Suddenly, the game altered and became much more open, with both sides passing up goal opportunities at

either end before John Scanlon eased Scariff’s nerves with a point to re- store a four point lead.

Still, that Tulla goal had instilled Some renewed belief in their side, particularly after being humbled by Scariff at the group stages, and they replied immediately after Luke Cor- ry’s shot from distance found the net, and from the next passage of play gained parity through Colin Corbett.

Now in the ascendency, Tulla laid sige to the Scariff half but after see- ing a Colin Corbett shot come back off the post, eventually a crossfield pass from Pariac Mulconroy found Mark Lynch in space to put Tulla in front for only the second time in the game.

With time running out, Scariff threw everything at their opponents in search of an equaliser and after a few near misses, it was the captain Ronan Corry who kept a cool head to convert a 60th minute ’65.

A draw now looked inevitable but after losing out in the B final re- play, Scariff were unwilling to leave things to chance and it eventually paid dividends in the 62nd minute when Barry Nash pushed forward to clinch the winning point.

AER LINGUS hopes to increase services on the Shannon-London Heathrow service within a matter of weeks.

The airline recommenced flights on the route at the end of March with a morning and evening flight each way but reduced capacity ensured it was the least popular service for passen- gers travelling to London during the months of April and May.

An Aer Lingus spokesman said the Shannon-Heathrow route “is performing well and is in line with our other bases in Dublin, Cork and Belfast”.

The question of additional flights on the Shannon-Heathrow route “is subject to securing the slot. We don’t have it nailed down, but we expect to confirm it very soon”.

The confirmation could come about in a matter of weeks.

Figures from the UK Civil Avia- tion Authority show that because of the limited capacity, a total of 11,381 travelled on the Shannon-Heath- row route during the month of April — its first month back in service. This compares to 44,820 travelling to Heathrow from Cork during the Same month and the 137,233 travel- ling to Heathrow from Dublin.

23,/78 travelled on the Ryanair service to London Stansted during April and a further 16,246 travelled on the Ryanair service to Gatwick the same month.

11,838 travelled on the Aer Lingus Shannon-Heathrow service in May and this compares to 24,536 flying with Ryanair to London Stansted and 17,160 to London Gatwick.

The Aer Lingus decision to end the Shannon-Heathrow service in August 2007 provoked a storm of protest in the Dail and the mid-west region.

Fianna Fail TD, Timmy Dooley said yesterday that the addition of new flights on the Shannon-Heath- row route “will significantly add to the level of passenger traffic on the route”’.

“At the moment, the time slots are

not good. The first flight 1s at around Qam and the business community would need a much earlier flight.”

He said the addition of a mid-morn- ing flight would allow transatlan- tic passengers coming into London make an onward connection to Shan- tee

‘At the moment, the flights are good on a point to point basis, but the new schedule will bring about more suit- able times,” he predicted.

A TALE of contrasting confidence on Saturday evening as Crusheen easily held off the challenge of Inagh/Kil- namona to push themselves into the race for one of the two knock-out places. Down the other end, Inagh/ Kilnamona are struggling to keep their heads above water with only two wins from seven games but re- ally they didn’t do themselves any favours here by leaking two avoid- able goals while their first touch and self-belief seems to have all but dis-

appeared. And it was those two goals that separated the sides throughout,

with the first coming after only 14 minutes with the sides locked at O- 2 to 0-2. Paddy Meaney gathered the ball about 40 metres from goal and was allowed to weave his way through the defence before pulling the ball back across the square for Joe Meaney to finish to the net after a goalmouth scramble. The second followed only four minutes later and it was infinitely more sloppy, with the Inagh/Kilnamona defence failing to clear their lines on the left wing before Sean Dillon swooped in to in- tercept an Eamonn Glynn handpass and just as it seemed as if his shot was destined for a point, goalkeeper

Patrick Kelly climbed to retrieve the ball from over the crossbar, only to see it trickle over the goal-line. Those two goals were to haunt In- agh/Kilnamona for the remainder of the contest as they would never get to within less than four of their op- ponents. Instead, Crusheen, led by another star turn from county Under 21 player Cian Dillon, and Alan Tuo- hy’s frees, played within themselves to hold that clear advantage, leading

by 2-6 to 0-6 at the break.

Inagh/Kilnamona did have impres- sive displays of their own in Cathal Lafferty and David Hegarty but without support, the second half descended into a scrappy affair that was dominated by frees. Crusheen could even afford to hit eleven wides over the hour and still maintain their healthy advantage.

By the 50th minute, Crusheen had edged seven points clear at 2-11 to 0-

10 after a brace from Cian Dillon and a point apiece from Conor O’ Donnell and the returning Cronan Dillon, but even though Dermot Gannon restored some respectability to the scoreline with three successive frees before the final whistle, they were only mere consolations as mentally, Inagh/Kilnamona were already half- way to the dressing rooms.

MUSIC lovers from all over the world have turned their attention on Miltown Malbay this week for the Willie Clancy Summer School. As the summer school approaches it’s 5Oth year in operation, thousands of music lovers have descended on west Clare for what is the highlight of many peoples traditional music year.

Almost 1,000 musicians and danc- ers, young and old will attend classes on each day of the school – with mil- lions of euro likely to be generated for local businesses.

Some of the remaining highlights include tonight’s whistle and flute recital featuring Mary Bergin, Paul McGrattan and a host of others, a lecture by Len Graham on the Ulster song tradition in English on Wednes- day night and a night of old style dancing led by Michael Tubridy on Thursday night.

On Friday night Noel Hill and Mar- ty O’Keeffe will host a concertina recital while on Saturday the Ceol- choirm Mhor will feature a top class line-up of traditional musicians, like- ly to be the highlight of the week.

Meanwhile, those not fortunate enough to be able to make it up to Miltown Malbay for the week can still get a flavour of the festivi- ties by tuning into RTE Raidio na

Gaeltachta will be broadcasting live from the festival all week.

Indeed, Raidio na Gaeltachta have a long association with the festival, having broadcast live from Miltown Malbay each year since the festival started back in 1973.

‘There were no live broadcasts in the early days, but that changed in the eighties with improvements in technology,’ said Meaiti Jo Shéa- muis, Music Editor at RTE Raidi6 na EF YOlerel alee

“I remembers broadcasting live from a national school six miles out- side Miltown Malbay, Scoil Naisiun- ta Sliabh na Leice, because it was the most elevated place they could find — which we needed to be able to get a good signal.

“I remember on another occasion recording a traditional singer in out- door toilets, as it was too windy to record in the open air. As technology improved, live broadcasts were pos- sible from the town, and Raidio na Gaeltachta used to broadcast from a caravan situated outside the hall.

STRATFORD is known as William Shakespeare country, but last Tues- day it became better known as the home for one of the biggest betting coups landed in many years, one that came all the way from Clare.

Bookies and betting exchanges in Ireland and England were hit to the tune of over €500,000 when the Clare-owned King Keano trained by Liam Burke in Cork landed a mas- sive gamble when winning the 6.45 maiden hurdle at Stratford.

“Tt was a fantastic coup,’ one bookie told