The Clare People Archive

IN years gone by, Clare entered the Oscar Traynor Cup brimming with hope and it wasn’t without founda- tion. Less than four years back they won the competition – something that stands shoulder to shoulder with the storied Irish Youths Cup success back in 19770 in terms of achievement.

Alas, there wasn’t too much hope in Clare soccer hearts where the Oscar Traynor was concerned in ‘07/08, something Clare League chairman Jim Madden explains away with one word.

“Rebuilding,” he says. *““That’s what it has been about this year. We were

slow in getting going this season and didn’t have Hugh Kelly or Eddie Corry who have managed the side in recent seasons.’

That’s why Jim stepped into the breach, enlisting the help of Denis Hynes and former League of Ireland player Gerry Kelly along the way.

“We were up against it,’ admits Jim, “because we decided to use the competition to blood a lot of play- ers. Evan Glynn, Derek Fahy, Eoin O’Brien, Davy Ryan and Jason Re- gan were all new to this level, but they showed that they’ve much to offer.

‘For this game, it was always going to be very hard to get the result to ad-

vance to the knockout stages. Losing the first match against West Water- ford made it impossible for us, even though we got a good draw against a very good Munster Senior League side in the second game.

“Limerick are a very good side as well, but we certainly put it up to them. What pleased me most was the workrate of the team throughout. After half-time we knew they were going to come out to try and kill the game, but after they made it 2-0 we really showed great character.

“The penalty gave us a chance and even though they made it 3-1 with a scrappy goal we had the better of the closing stages of the game. When

Derek Fahy made it 3-2 they started to panic and in the last ten minutes really had their backs to the wall. That’s a tribute to our players who kept chasing the game until the end and it certainly bodes well for the fu- ture,’ added Jim.

Back to the word rebuilding as the Clare League’s first string looks to the future. In defeat. In transition. Looking to a brighter future though.

ENNIS Town Council has declined to sell its stake in Clare FM, turning down an offer of €10,000 for 500 shares. On Monday the nine-member council rejected the offer, opting in- stead to hold onto the shares.

There were also calls from council- lors for the jobs of the station’s 30 staff to be protected in the event of a takeover.

Mayor of Ennis, Tommy Brennan proposed that the council reject the offer. He said the local authority would be better served by retaining

its shareholding.

“I propose that we hold onto the shares. With another company set to take over Clare FM, the shares are going to get even bigger,’ he said.

Cllr Brennan’s motion, seconded by Fianna Fail councillor Joe Reidy, received unanimous backing. Fianna Fail councillor Tom Glynn said the rights of workers in Clare FM must be protected in the event of a takeo- ver.

“Tm not sure that we can do any- thing to guarantee the rights of work- ers. I would like to see employees in Clare FM protected and they would

be looked after,’ he said.

Fine Gael Clir Johnny Flynn called for Clare jobs to be protected.

Ennis Town Council originally purchased the shares for €500. The recent offer for the shares was set in a letter addressed to the council by Michael Evans, Chairman of Clare Community Radio Holdings plc.

It states that “the number of shares registered in your name amounts to 500 and therefore the total consid- eration for your shareholding will be circa €10,000”’.

The offer values shares at €20 each.

The letter continues, “The Com- pany is recommending acceptance of the offer which is conditional on the Offeror receiving acceptances from holders of not less than 95 per cent of the Ordinary Issued Share Capital of the Company.”

The proposed sale comes against the backdrop of growing profits and listenership figures for Clare FM. It would benefit a number of political and business figures across Clare who were part of a successful share drive in the early 90s.

Clare FM is currently the subject of an offer from Radio Kerry.

WITHOUT doubt the huge success story of this year was the re-emer- gence of Sixmilebridge as a dominant player in underage camogie. Should this development continue they will also be vying for senior honours in the not too distant future.

The ‘Bridge made a clean sweep of underage titles from Ul11l ground camogie through UI12A, UI4A, Féile, Ul16A and UI8B. The club will now have an all A grade status next year which is something they are very pleased about. Great struc- tures have been put in place and this year, undoubtedly, all their hard work paid off. A fitting tribute to all these girls, mentors and club of- ficials was paid recently in the Old Lodge Hotel in Shannon when the camogie club joined with the minor club in celebrating their youngsters achievements. Niamh Mulcahy of Limerick, this years underage player of the year, presented the Sixmile- bridge girls with their huge medal haul. Many of the girls were on the U14, U16 and UI18 panels and had great cause for celebration. This is definitely the club to watch out for in the future and in the next year or two players like Aiveen O’Shea, Ni- amh Corry, Chloe Morey and Aine McNamara will certainly be pushing for their spot in the county set-up. In addition, Rachel O’Halloran, Ciara

Whelan, Tricia Fawl, Ellen Roche, Alison Quinlan and Sinead Tuohy are just some of the younger talents to watch out for in the future.

Kilmaley have been moving up through the ranks in recent years and this season that push came to fruition When they had a narrow win over Newmarket-on-Fergus in the UI8A final. This will help herald a new dawn in Clare camogie as new clubs emerge and press for honours. These two clubs are steeped in talent at this age with Shona Enright, Eimear Considine, Sarah Reidy and Orla Keane of Kilmaley all improving with each encounter while Newmar- ket can boast Iris and Carol Kaiser, Carol O’ Leary and Roisin McMahon amongst their ranks. Deirdre Cassidy was in fine form also and if they can continue their progress in the com- ing years, the Senior Championship will be far from an obvious outcome in two or three years time.

Clooney have been knocking on the door of winning an underage title in the last number of years and this year they overcame that hurdle in fine form with a win in the U14B cham- pionship over Whitegate. They have exciting players coming through the ranks in Orlaith Duggan, Said- bhe and Aisling Corbett, Rebecca Kennedy and Hannah O’Sullivan. This club are putting a lot of work into their underage at the moment

and in another few years will hope to see the benefit of this as they retain their senior status.

St. Joseph’s won the U14B title last year and followed that up with U16B this year so expect more from this team. Louise Woods, Niamh Martin, Catriona Hennessey, Michelle Mc- Mahon, Marie Bell and Emma Casey are all promising players for the fu- ture. Inagh, though, had some say in this and Patricia O’Loughlin, Helen Hehir and Gillian Lafferty will all have something to offer camogie in Clare. Corofin were UI16C win- ners and this title will boost the club who have been very close in the last number of years and were the ones who ran Clooney closest in the U14 competition where Jessie Jordan, Doireann Hanrahan, Aoife Davoren and Brenda Lee made a huge impact teauee

Ballyea are a relatively new club and added to their promise of last year when they won the UI4C title this year. This is a huge boost to cam- ogie in the county to see new clubs emerging and doing well and if they can hold the interest of their young- sters, this will surely help in the fur- ther promotion of the game.

Tulla, who enjoyed huge success of- nthe hurling field this year, will hope that some of their glory will continue to bring new families to the field and

this will benefit the girls also. They won the U12B title this year and that in itself will help in this matter. Where the emphasis is on the youth, the rest will somehow manage to take care of itself and although they didn’t field at senior level, hope is high for the future and the work being car- ried out from the ground up will pay off. As every successful club knows, you must persevere with this even in KFAVOM Oba elon ers DOCG MAO Tom MO) aKo) MAU OT-Lm Br-hYAs most dividends in the long run.

The town of Ennis has been going through a lean patch in recent years and it’s often hard to compete with the more high profile sports but the Eire Og club are fighting back and now look to be back on the road to success. To their benefit they won the U12C competition this year and had a magnificent turn out at the camogie fun day in the week after the All- Ireland Junior Final where up to 100 girls turned up and enjoyed a great day’s camogie. It’s hoped that this SAUD ated OM UeComO UO MDDOMBLAMBKecerm UU LBesTo ILI of girls to the Ennis cause and also some more eager adults who will give of their already hard pressed time to the benefit of these young girls.

With every winner there’s a loser and while Sixmilebridge came out well in the winners enclosure, Feakle will be wondering what they have to do to make the breakthrough. They’ve been knocking on the door of success

over the last two years, reaching sev- en finals but having won none. A club that has worked very hard in keeping camogie alive with very small popu- lation to work from and in need of a break along the way, winning the B section of the U11l ground camogie this year may just be that helping hand that they need.

The breed of young players on the way up in Clare camogie is very strong and more and more clubs are erowing increasingly stronger and will have much to offer in the future.

This year a huge step forward was taken in the U8 and U10 Go Games for girls. There were organised out- ings in O’Callaghans Mills, Lees Road and Gurteen where teams from all over the county got involved. Giv- ing girls a chance to play the game and enjoy it without the pressure of winning was of huge benefit and the emphasis was on all the girls being winners and the game was the big- gest winner of all.

Forward moves like this and the in- troduction of the U13 league – albeit in its infant stages – will benefit the game and credit to all those who are entrepeneuring new ideas into cam- ogie in Clare.

SHANNON’S 19th Munster Senior Cup win last week against Highfield was not only their eighth in the last nine years but it was also an historic personal milestone for flanker Colm McMahon. For the Ardnacrusha na- tive, it was his tenth Munster Senior Cup medal in twelve years, a re- markable achievement in the modern game but he also feels quite fortunate to have actually reached that tally.

“It’s certainly an achievement to be very pleased with and I was de- lighted to be involved. It’s great to get ten medals and it’s something you never really think about but it just happened. After the event you think ‘Jesus, it’s a fair auld achieve- ment alright’ but I kind of only came out of retirement recently. I finished up playing at the end of last season and I said I would go back to play a bit of seconds and the firsts called me up there when there was a few inju- ries. That’s how I got involved so it was very fortunate that I was playing at all.”

To highlight what an accomplish- ment this actually was, it is interest- ing to note that only two other players have ever achieved this feat before — Jack O’Connor with Garryowen in the late 1800s and early 1900s and Shannon manager Mick Galwey. The significance of this is not lost on the Shannon and ex-Munster player.

“IT am absolutely proud of that fact and no disrespect to Jack O’Connor because his achievements stands for itself as he did it at a time when none

of us can really tell what the game was like. But just to be on a List with Mick Galwey is something to be very proud of.”

Colm won the first of his ten medals

in 1996 as an early replacement for Alan Quinlan in what was his first season with the senior team. He went on to win a total of eight medals that year from the Under 20s up, a unique

feat that has never been matched, but McMahon feels that this win will have little impact on their priorities for the season.

“It won’t really change things too

much. The team would have targeted the Munster Senior Cup and also would hope to go a long way in the All-Ireland League.

“IT suppose it shows that when we play well we can certainly compete in the competition. I wasn’t involved in the semi-final but it was a fantastic win over Cork Con. There was also a very good win over Garryowen in an earlier round so credit to all the guys involved. They did come up against some very good opposition on the way to winning it.”

Although this is McMahon’s 12th Season with Shannon, he 1s still only 31 and while the commitment involved has taken it’s toll on the Clareman, he is not totally ruling out another medal.

“I couldn’t really see myself get- ting an |lth because I would never have thought that I would win 10. As I said, I had decided that because of the commitment involved with the firsts, | wasn’t able to give anymore and I had 11 seasons done with them which I felt was enough. I don’t even know how much I will be involved with them for the rest of the year but I wouldn’t see myself being around next year to have a go at it.

‘Andrew Thompson keeps telling me that he has nine and he is look- ing to match it and even go ahead of the record. So he is telling me that I can’t give up or he is going to pass me out.”

TWO Aer Lingus jets were ground- ed for a short time on Saturday after they were both struck by lightning shortly before they landed at Shan- non Airport.

The Airbus A330-300 aircraft were operating scheduled services be- tween the United States and Ireland when they encountered bad weather about 30 miles west of Shannon.

The planes were struck by light- ning, with both sustaining damage to their nose-cones. Thunder and lightning storms were reported over a wide area of the west coast on Sat- urday morning, as well as inland in many parts of Clare.

The flights were the EI-132 from Boston and the EIJ-110 from New York JFK which landed at Shannon at 5.45am and 6.10am respectively. Neither plane declared an emergen- cy, and it is believed that most pas- sengers were unaware of the strike.

After landing at Shannon, the pas- sengers disembarked normally while the aircraft were taken to the air- line’s own hangar where engineers carried out a detail examination of all electrical systems and a visual inspection of the exteriors.

A small hole was discovered in the nose-cone of one jet, but its electri- cal systems were not damaged.

The hole was repaired before both

planes were allowed continue their journeys. The second jet also sus- tained damage to its nose and some scorching on the fuselage.

As aresult of the incidents, neither aircraft was able to continue onto the Dublin leg of their journey.

An extra aircraft was provided to take passengers from Shannon to Dublin. Others due to travel from Dublin to Boston and New York were flown to Shannon to join their flight at that airport.

Both aircraft were allowed return to service on Saturday evening.

The Boston flight continued its journey at 5.45pm more than four hours behind schedule while the New York service, which was due to depart at 2pm, left Shannon at ope LO} oyeek

Itis widely believed that most large commercial aircraft are struck by lightning at least once a year.

Although passengers and crew may see a flash and hear a loud noise, nothing serious should happen be- cause of the careful lightning pro- tection engineered into aircraft and their sensitive components.

Initially, the lightning will attach to an extremity, such as the nose or wing tip before travelling through the conductive exterior skin and structures of the aircraft and exit off some other extremity, such as the ene

A CLAIM by religious order, Sisters of Mercy that a housing development in the seaside resort of Lahinch will be a “concrete jungle” has been re- jected by its developers.

Last year, Brendan O’Doherty, Patrick Montgomery, Paul Mont- gomery and John McInerney lodged plans for 114 residential units, with a number of those holiday homes.

However, in an objection, the Sis- ters of Mercy expressed their opposi- tion to the proposal, describing it as

a concrete jungle.

The development has also attracted opposition from residents and the proprietors of Vaughan Lodge Hotel. It has now been scaled back to 94 units and developers’ planning con- sultants state that the Sisters of Mer- cy claim “is clearly not the case”.

The consultants add: “The propos- als are very carefully designed with careful considerations to the County Clare Rural House Design Guide. The site has been carefully designed in terms of plot widths, building height and material choice.

“The development is predominantly two storey with the only three storey portions located carefully within the development.”

The consultants continue, “The three storey parts are located so as to have no impact upon the residential amenity of existing homes adjacent to the site.

“The fact that local people are find- ing it increasingly difficult to buy houses in their home area 1s an unfor- tunate reality. This scheme provides a wide mix of residence types in an integrated and inclusive scheme.”

Meanwhile, Michael and Maria Vaughan of Vaughan Lodge Hotel have also expressed opposition to the proposal.

“The nature of development in Lahinch over the past 10 years has prevented many locals from fulfill- ing their aspiration to live locally. The transient population of summer house owners creates massive pres- sure on scarce resources for a period of 10 weeks in summer and leaves the village without community for long periods in the winter.

“The result is that it is difficult to

ensure sustainable life in the village as house prices are beyond reach and the developments thus far are not ap- propriate for long term settlement.

“All of the previous developments although they were promoted as ‘permanent’ in terms of planning, have all been built or purchased by short-term seasonable occupiers.

‘We have a real fear that unless the nature of this proposed development is altered, the village will suffer ad- versely.”

A decision is due on the application later this month.

THE Western Development Com- mission’s, (WDC) investment arm, the WDC Investment Fund, invested €6.2 million in 17 projects during 2007.

Since it was set up, the investment fund has made investments totalling €27/m.

Gillian Buckley, WDC CEO, said, “The size of the WDC Investment Fund’s continuing investments 1s ev1- dence of the excellent stock of com- mercially viable projects in the west- ern region. The 2006 census shows the region has been able to attract an adaptable and educated workforce as evidenced by a population increase in line with the national average,” she said.

“There is a high demand for a fund of our kind that is the only source of venture funds specifically available

for enterprises in the western region. Through the fund we are success- fully filling the ‘funding gap’, allow- ing projects to get off the ground, erow more quickly and bring them to a stage where it is in a position to attract funding from the private sec- tor.”

WDC investment fund recipients during the past year include FMC Tech Ltd, based in Shannon, which has developed the Crystal System, which provides electrical utilities with the ability to locate, measure and predict faults on overhead me- dium-voltage power lines.

THE pre-Christmas partial ban on Brazilian beef imports into the EU has been welcomed cautiously by the farming organisations.

Speaking from Brussels, the IFA President Padraig Walshe stated that only an outright ban will fully safe- guard the European Union from the risk of Foot and Mouth Disease from Brazilian beef imports.

However, Mr Walshe had to con- cede that the restrictions decided upon for Brazil, particularly the re- quirement that all holdings for export to the EU must be approved and list- ed publicly, is a significant step for- ward. “The decision of the European Commission indicates that the new

restrictions on approved holdings should limit the number of Brazilian farms meeting the new criteria for export to Europe. These new restric- tions should limit exports to a small number of farms, if properly imple- mented,” he said.

“The IFA campaign over the last two years highlighting the failure of Brazil to meet EU standards has been fully vindicated. The commis- sion again have admitted that they have identified serious instances of non compliance with regard to hold- ing registration, animal identification and movement controls and a failure to respect their previous commit- ments to take the appropriate correc- tive measures.”

The Commission decision goes on

to state that, “it is only possible to al- low imports to continue on a secure basis by strengthening the control and surveillance for holdings from which animals eligible for export to the community are sourced and by establishing a provisional list of such approved holdings”.

“FMD is endemic in Brazil and only a total ban will safeguard the European Union. Previous attempts to regulate Brazilian beef imports to Europe have fallen down due to a lack of traceability and movement controls, ineffective vaccination against FMD and the inability of the Brazilian authorities to implement proper controls,” said IFA National Livestock Chairman, John Bryan.

The ban was also welcomed by

Irish MEP Marian Harkins. **The fact that it took the Irish Farmers Asso- ciation and the Irish Farmers Journal to expose the deficiencies inherent in the Brazilian cattle production and processing industry casts doubt on the efficacy of the EU’s veterinary and food safety system,” she said .

“The investigation of Brazilian controls in the beef sector by Irish in- terests was first rubbished by repre- sentatives of the EU Food & Veteri- nary Office and was not supported by our minister for agriculture. But the pressure maintained by the IFA, sup- ported by the Agriculture Commit- tee of the European Parliament and members such as myself has forced this reassessment of non-compliance by Brazil with EU requirements.”

, the HSE was unable to say which specialist pa- tients in Ennis were waiting to see.

Meanwhile, the National Treatment Purchase Fund, which has helped to reduce the surgical waiting lists, only applies to people who have been seen by aconsultant and are scheduled for treatment or an operation.

The real wait for patients now 1s to see the consultant.

While those close to the hospital services in the region say that an audit of the waiting list is long over- due as many patients may have died or received treatment elsewhere, the wait is still highly criticised.

Fine Gael spokesperson on health Dr James Reilly, said he would be in- terested in knowing how many peo- ple have literally died waiting.

While Ennis hospital has recorded its longest waiting period as four

and a half years, the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle has a waiting list of three years with 13,074 people waiting.

Neighbouring hospital at Portiun- cula has a waiting list of more than four years, while patients have been waiting to be seen at Galway’s two main hospitals since 2000. A total of 18,206 people have been waiting.

These startling figures were re- leased in the same week that top acci- dent and emrgency doctors criticised HSE CEO Prof Brendan Drumm of having “limited experience” in emer- gency medicine and medical care.

The A and E specialists predicted that at least 360 people will lose their lives as a result of A and E over- crowding this year.

The president of the Irish Associa- tion of Emergency Medicine Dr Fer- gal Hickey called on the HSE to fol- low the UK example and introduce a mandatory waiting time for A and E beyond which patients would not have to wait.

A major report into the A and E cri- sis had previously recommended that a limit be imposed on patient wait- ing times in A and E departments nationally.

An analysis of the HSE national figures by emergency consultant Mr Patrick Plunkett found patient delays in A and E had become worse in re- cent months however.

FEARS that a dispute might ground Aer Lingus flights have been allevi- ated after SIPTU agreed to go along with procedures suggested by the Na- tional Implementation Body (NIB). SIPTU shop stewards agreed to

keep working with Aer Lingus to shave another €10 million off the airline’s budget. Agreement has al- ready been reached on how the air- line can save an initial €10 million, mainly through the introduction of flexible start times and new rosters. The union had threatened stoppages

which would have grounded planes at Shannon and other airports. In a statement SIPTU said it has “agreed to remain within the process estab- lished by the National Implementa- tion Body to find alternative ways of achieving the €20 million savings being sought by Aer Lingus manage-

ment”.

Shop stewards considered the pro- posals made by the NIB on Decem- ber 21 and are “happy it is achieving our objective of identifying alterna- tive savings to the proposed cuts in pay being sought by the company, ’ according to Aer Lingus Branch Or- ganiser, Teresa Brannick.

SIPTU has referred the pay freeze imposed by the company on employ- ees on October | to the Labour Re- lations Commission and the Labour Court. A spokeswoman for the union said this does not interfere with the NIB process.

An Aer Lingus spokeswoman not- ed the outcome of the shop stewards’ meeting and welcomed “their leader- ship in this important process.”

She added that the company is “ful- ly committed to continuing to engage positively with the union”.

The row behind the threatened rollover stoppages centres on union claims that proposed airline meas- ures will cost staff €4,000 a year.

The NIB has recommended that negotiations should be completed by the end of this month. The savings so far have been agreed with ground staff. Further savings will be sought from other workers, including cabin crew, pilots and craft workers.

Rolling stoppages had been threat- ened for dates in mid-November. The NIB, the state’s industrial relations trouble-shooting body, stepped in at the eleventh hour to bring the two sides together.