Month: September 2005

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VANDALS have caused serious damage on the grounds of Ennis Rugby Club. The vandalism was carried out late on Saturday night, when a support railing that runs along the edge of the pitch was up- rooted and dragged across a section of the pitch. Concrete slabs that had held the six uprights and the crossbar in position were pulled two feet out of the ground, before being pulled over the pitch. Three large scar marks have been left on the pitch as a result. “It’s not so much the expense, it’s the mindless attitude of the people that did it” said Tony Guillfoyle, President of Ennis Rugby Club. He went

on to add that the club has suffered from anti-so- cial behaviour on a continuing basis over the past few weeks. “There must have been a large number of people in it and they would needed a tractor to do the damage they did,’ he said. There are problems with trying to build on the current boundary wall that borders the Cahercalla estate, as it may be a pro- tected structure. The club are hopeful of coming to some solution but, until then, there are concerns that anti-social problems will persist. The incident is the second act of vandalism to occur at a rugby ground inside a week. On Wednesday, damage caused to the pitch in Thomond Park in Limerick forced the grounds to close for a month.

FINANCIAL guru, Eddie Hobbs has turned his at- tention from rip-off Ireland to letting smokers know how much they are being ripped off by their bad habit.

The average Irish smoker spends nearly €2,300 a year on cigarettes and for a top rate taxpayer this takes €4,000 off their gross income.

The newly launched Nicorette Freshmint Gum Minting It Guide – which Hobbs compiled – reveals that while the health benefits of giving up smoking are significant, the financial benefits cannot be ig- nored.

Aside from the direct cost of smoking, life cover insurance, life assurance and serious illness cover can often be more than double the price for a smoker versus a non-smoker.

The Guide gives advice and tips for smokers and non-smokers on how to manage their finances, save money and provide for the future.

Hobbs suggests keeping a diary of your spending and taking the necessary steps if you are overspend- ing.

He also advised consumers to “reduce your outgo- ings by shopping around. If you don’t pay your credit card balance off in full each month, move to a credit

card offering zero per cent interest for the first six months, and keep moving until you pay it off!”

Other cash-saving hints include: ¢ transferring your mortgage to an institution offer- ing a lower rate, which could save thousands of euros over the lifespan of the loan.

e Take advantage of competition in the mobile, land- line and internet market by changing providers to avail of better offers.

¢ Claim tax relief, which is available for things like renting a room, being a carer, certain medical ex- penses and contributing to a pension. Make sure you are getting all you are entitled to by checking out Www.revenue.ie.

The guide has been developed to support the launch of the new nicotine replacement therapy Nicorette Freshmint Gum.

According to Hobbs, “It’s hard enough to make ends meet in Ireland’s hugely over-priced economy besides blowing a huge sum of money through your lungs on cigarettes. Consider a pack of twenty a day, pretty close to the daily average of Irish smokers, is now costing nearly €2,300 a year. You put two smok- ers in one household and the combination would fund a small mortgage or a fantastic annual vacation”.

Copies of the guide can be obtained in pharmacies and GP’s surgeries nationwide.

OPPORTUNITY of creating history knocked for the Irish ladies golfers in Dundalk last week as they at- tempted to win a hat trick of Home International titles. However, for the team that included Tricia Mangan and Heather Nolan it wasn’t to be as the Irish team went from double cham- pions to wooden spoonists within the space of three days.

Victories at Cruden Bay and Royal Portcawl may in hindsight have had a degree of luck attached on the final day each year, but with such an expe- rienced team, few would have envis- aged that their performance this time out would have been so much below par.

For Irish Champion Tricia Mangan, it was a mixed week – three comfort- able foursomes victories when playing with Martina Gillen was outstanding work, but her only return from singles play was a halved match with Scot- land’s Jenna Wilson on the opening day.

Indeed, Tricia 1/2 point was the only return from the singles on day one — Ireland lost the remaining five singles matches.

The rot had set in at this stage and Ireland went down to Wales on day two. The day started on a bright note when Tricia Mangan and Martina Gil- len scored decisive foursomes win.

It was downhill from there on as the team went down by 5 1/2 to 3 1/2.

Tricia was beaten by Sarah Jones in the singles — a girl she had decisively beaten in the British Championship ley: (e qn rome e lon

In the final game against England, Tricia maintained her 100 per cent record in foursomes play when her partnership with Martin Gillen scored a fine win over Felicity Johnson and Emma Duggleby. However, Johnson got some measure of revenge in the singles, beating the Ennis golfer by 5 and 3.

Munster Champion Heather Nolan teamed up with a totally out of sorts Claire Coughlan in two matches, los- ing on the 18th on the opening day to the Welsh pair of Sahra Hessan and Breanne Loucks. She had no re- turn from her three matches while Mangan, the European number nine, scored 3 1/2 points out of 6.

LOCAL surfers were on good form in Lahinch at the weekend for the Bics Sports Beginners Classic and the Long- board Classic. Lahinch grommet Dam- ien Conway was is good form taking second place behind Gary Hall from the Kerry Surf Club in the Longboard competition.

Alan Coyle, who is also from Lahi-

nch, finished a good third with David Hanrahan from Clarecastle claiming fourth spot. In the Bics Sports Begin- ners Classic Liscannor surfer Emmet Godfrey claimed top spot ahead of Dublin surfers James Rodgers and Ken Noonan who came first and second re- spectively.

The team competition was won by Kerry Surf Club while Damien Conway also won the prize for best local surfer.

THERE was a huge attendance present at the Galway track on Sat- urday night for the benefit meeting in aid of the Loughrea hurling club. There was some good prizes on of- fer in all evelen races with a big en- try of Clare dogs.

The tenth race on the card, which was the final A4 stake worth €850, went to Danielle’s Gift owned by Danielle Dillon of Cooraclare. The dog has shown good form of late at Galway and running from trap one the winners time was 29.05 sec- onds.

There was another very good run

by Pat Hogan’s Aulton Nikita in race four running from trap four. The Barefield man’s dog recorded a time of 28.89, which was the fastest time of the night.

It was smiles all round after race six when Sean Hehir’s Dunshallagh Woods scored in a time of 29.31 seconds.

Baby Leyton, owned by Bertie and Mary O’Doherty of Ennis, got Clare owners off to a great start with their charge winning race three in a time of 29.40. This was Baby Leyton’s second win of the weekend having won race seven on the Thursday night card in a time of 29.60.

Paddy Conlon of Cree made a

welcome return to the winners en- closure on Friday night with Craga- knock Veri in race one. Ler Soirka had set Clare owners off to a good start winning race one for owner John Fitzgerald of Kilrush. Cree Yank was a winner for Caroline Gould at Kilrush at Limerick on Thursday night.

A SENSE of déja vu wrapped itself around the Clare dressing room in Croke Park around 2.20 on Sunday af- ternoon. All-Ireland final afternoon and for Clare the type of afternoon they’re well used to by now.

The final was there to be won, but they didn’t win it and the sense of dis- appointment was palpable. They lived to fight another day, but this was the day they wanted to win their All-Ireland.

Some of the players were disconsolate — others accentuated the positive and looked ahead to the next day with confi- dence. As selector, you have to be posi- tive at all times and look to the future.

“We’re deeply disappointed not to have won because we felt that we were the better team,” said selector Mick Ma- her. “But when you look at it logically, over the hour we have to be happy with the draw and are happy to be getting a second chance.

“We got a very bad start and that had an unsettling effect on the team — Dub- lin were very physical and that certain- ly knocked us off our stride. It was 20 minutes before got into the game at all,” AYeCeCeM\YENeoe

However, once Clare got going they were the dominant team and clawed their way back into contention and inched ahead for the first time with four minutes to go when Claire McMahon pointed a free.

Clare looked to be on the cusp of a fourth All-Ireland junior success in Croke Park as the game entered injury time, but a Dublin point deep in lost time brought the sides together again.

It was rough justice on the Banner girls — there were only supposed to be three minutes of injury time but Niamh Taylor’s equalising score came in the fourth minute.

However, there were no complaints from Clare — instead they just looked

forward to the next day out. The replay has been fixed for October 8, with Port- laoise likely to be the venue.

Mick Maher is hoping that the three- week break will give time for injury concerns to ease, while he will also be looking for the improvement needed if Clare are to win their fourth All-Ireland junior crown.

“We have a lot of young girls on the team and you have to realise where we re coming from. Clare camogie 1s coming from a base where it was non- existent a few years ago. We’re not the finished article yet but we’re getting there,” he said.

‘We learned another lesson today and I think we will be the better for that in the replay. It’s about the team producing the goods for the hour. We will have to play better than we have before and do it for the whole game to win, but I believe that we have it in us,’ added Maher.

ENNISTYMON_ emerged victorious in the final of the third annual under 10 Michael Greene Memorial Football Blitz which took place in Ballyvaughan on Sunday. The young Ennistymon team squeezed past an unlucky Kilfenora team 2-1 to 0-6 in the final.

Ennistymon had earlier overcome Lisdoon- varna in the semi-final with Kilfenora seeing off Ballyvaughan/Fanore to reach the decider. Teams from Corofin and Michael Cusacks also contested the blitz with each match lasting for about ten minutes a half.

The blitz is play in memory of Michael Greene, former Ballyvaughan footballer and

co-founder of the Burren College of Art, who died suddenly in July of 2001. Mr Greene, who was keenly interested in the development of underage sport and football in particular, be- came ill while playing for Ballyvaughan in a club match against Kilmurry Ibrickane.. Michael was an accomplished footballer and represented Clare at both minor and sen-

ior level. A keen soccer player, he reached an All-Ireland final with his school Summerhill of Sligo in 1974 and also represented Ireland in an European soccer tournament.

A real all around sportsman Michael played club rugby with the renowned Limerick side Garryowen and also won an All-Ireland U-16 wrestling medal.

Clare County Councillors have voted to change the County Development Plan in a move which could see people who have nev- er lived in the county, being given the same planning rights as families who have lived here for generations.

Councillors supported a call from Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) to allow anyone who owned land in the county in January 1999 to apply for planning permission in areas where normally only locals would be considered as special Or Wor

Councillor Kelly said that he was simply

seeking a “wider interpretation” of the regu- lations and he was supported by other mem- eo Ese

They agreed with Cllr Kelly that it would be important to facilitate people who own land and want to help give their children a start.

In reply to the Councillor’s written motion, county officials pointed to Government poli- cy on rural development. The reply stated that to “adopt any person who owns land as being local would undermine the local rural com- munities in the county who are intrinsically linked to the their area.”

The reply went on to say that the “Minister’s policy makes no reference to persons who

have no connection with the rural areas other than owning land.”

The county’s Director of Services for Plan- ning, Liam Conneally, warned that the move would be, ‘in contravention of the rural plan- ning guidelines and also in direct contraven- tion of the Government’s National Spatial Strategy which is why I would like legal ad- vice.”

The director pointed out that the regulations refer to making exceptions in areas where planning permission would not normally be granted.

However, the County Manager said that he would proceed on the vote of the councillors.

PFIZER nurses will be on hand to pro- vide free cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose checks at this years Na- tional Ploughing Championships. This is the second year that the pharmaceutical company will offer health checks as- well-as advice for stopping smoking.

Heart disease and stroke are the two leading causes of death in Ireland today claiming in excess of 10,000 lives a year. The IFA Farm Family Committee 1s sup- porting Pfizer’s efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of high blood pressure and cholesterol.

‘Many people don’t know their blood pressure or cholesterol level,’ said Mary McGreale, Chairperson of the IFA Farm

Family Committee. “Farmers, especial- ly those over 50, need to become more proactive in making sure that their cho- lesterol level and blood pressure are in the healthy range.”

The Pfizer nurses will be joined by nurses from the Irish Heart Founda- tion (IHF) and the Diabetes Federation of Ireland (DFI) who will also conduct health checks on patients and offer a wide range of health information.

Staggeringly almost some 50 per cent of those tested at last year’s champion- ship were required to be referred to their GP for either raised blood pressure or high cholesterol.

“The Health Check at the National Ploughing Championships forms part of Pfizer’s overall health check pro-

gramme, which has actively partnered with the IFA in the past year,” said Ryan Quigley of Pfizer. “As well as a presence at the National Ploughing Champion- ships, Pfizer has also conducted health checks around the country through the [FA’s Regional branch structure.”

“In addition, Pfizer and the IFA are carrying out a detailed survey of the Car- diovascular Health of the Irish Farming Community for the over 50 age group,’ he continued.

Those interested in having a health check during the event should visit the ty Aa mpaetcduelt(crer

Health checks will be conducted on a first come first served basis, though Pfiz- er will do its utmost to accommodate all requests.