Month: May 2007

A JUDGE has said he intends to put an end to a feud between two En- nis families and has advised two of those involved to stay away from each other.

Before Ennis District Court were Mike Molloy (18), of Gordon Drive, Cloughleigh, Ennis, and Anne Mon- gans (43), of Shalee Drive, Ennis, accused of criminal damage, arising out of an incident in Cloughleigh, on September 27 last year.

Molloy told the court he was driv- ing along and the accused and her daughters stood in the middle of the road. He said the accused was carry- ing a baseball bat, while her daugh- ters carried hurleys.

He said something was thrown

through his windscreen and a young child, who was in the car, was cov- ered in glass as a result.

He said he stopped and the accused and her daughters then set upon his mother’s car, which had been travel- ling behind him. He admitted break- ing two windows in Mongans’ car.

Mongans said she was driving along When Molloy got out of his car and started throwing bricks at her car. One of the bricks hit the front wind- screen. She admitted, under cross- examination, breaking a window on Molloy’s car. She denied carrying a baseball bat and denied “standing waiting” for the Molloys.

Solicitor for Molloy, William Ca- hir, said, “This was an orchestrated attack on Mr Molloy and his vehi- cle.”

Mongans’ solicitor Tara Godfrey said, “It certainly looks as if my cli- ent came under attack.”

Garda Declan Keavey, who attend- ed the scene of the incident, said the windscreen and some windows were broken on Mongans’ car, while a window was broken on Molloy’s car. He said he saw bricks on the road at the roundabout.

Judge Aneas McCarthy said he did not believe Mongans was “waiting in ambush” for Molloy.

He convicted both accused, but pointed out that Mongans’ actions were not as serious as Molloy’s.

He asked was there a feud between both families. Inspector Kevin Moynihan replied, “The garda con- tention is that there is. One would hope this would be the end of the

matter.”

Judge McCarthy said, “The State has indicated there are difficulties between those two families. I intend to put an end to those difficulties.”

He imposed a nine-month sentence on Molloy and suspended it. He fixed a bond in the event of an appeal. He bound Mongans to the peace for two years.

“IT am warning both parties if they appear before this court again relat- ing to any matter involving their dis- putes, the suspended sentence will be incurred,” he said.

Mr Cahir asked the judge to suggest that both parties stay away from each other. The judge replied, “It would be in both of their interests to stay away from each other. If they don’t, they will face the consequences.”

SOME 50 experts from 22 coun- tries descended on Clare last week to celebrate the life of one of Ire- land’s leading forestry pioneers.

Robert Tottenham, who spent the majority of his 82 years developing the grounds of his 400-hectare for- est in Mount Callan, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in his home on April 12.

A group from international forest- ry organisation, Pro Silva Europe, visited Mount Callan this week to pay tribute to Tottenham and view the ongoing reforestation work.

Born in 1925, Robert served in Europe during World War II and in India and Burma following the ie

At the age of 24, in 1949, he re- turned to Ireland to run the family farm in west Clare.

The land was rough and moun- tainy and he faced many challenges to simply eek out a living at a time with no farming subsidies.

In the late 1960s, he met with Tom Clear, a forestry professor from UCD, who showed him the possibilities of forestry.

Using his background in engineer- ing, Robert was able to use simple agricultural machinery to help him

plant the majority of his land over the next 20 years.

He adapted an old Massey Fergur- son 135 tractor and a single mole- bore plough to plant the saplings.

The trees grew strong and tall and before long Robert was travel- ling the world learning more about modern forestry techniques.

Following one such trip to Swit- zerland in 1999, he came across the Pro Silva organisation and was so impressed that he established Pro Silva Ireland at the Armada Hotel at Spanish Point in 2000.

Pro Silva advocated a ‘close-to- nature’ forestry technique, where forests are managed in perpetuity with mixed species of all ages.

Robert invited Pro Silva to host its international annual general meeting in Clare this year and was finalising preparations for the trip when he died.

The four-day tour, planned by Robert and sponsored by Pro Sil- va and COFORD, took place last week.

The event saw the international group visit Mount Callan as well as parts of the Burren and forests in Clare, Limerick and Kerry.

Robert Tottenham is survived by his wife Jan and sons Robin, Fred and George.

A COMPANY which did not allow a 17-year-old employee adequate rest periods between shifts has been prosecuted.

Clare Brook Properties Ltd, trad- ing as The Oakwood Arms Hotel, Mount Kennett Place, Henry Street, Limerick, was accused of offences relating to dates last August.

Defending solicitor Louis Kerin told Shannon District Court that his chent was pleading guilty, relating to six Summonses.

Caroline Hayes, of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employ- ment, told the court that a 17-year- old boy worked between 12.06pm and 12.09am, on August 5 last year.

This was 12 hours and three min- utes and was longer than should have

been allowed.

On August 10, he worked between 5.30pm and 11.5l1pm, when he should not have worked after 10pm.

Ms Hayes pointed out that a person aged between 16 and 18 was entitled to a minimum rest of 12 hours be- tween shifts and this was not given.

On one occasion, the boy had a rest period of less than eight hours.

She said when she visited the

premises, the employer wasn’t there and she met the payroll clerk.

‘Legislation in relation to the pro- tection of young persons wasn’t be- ThOrcmreKOl ates us10 KO MMMESJOLoMCT-BLOE

Mr Kerin said the case arose from a “routine inspection’.

“My client co-operated fully. You have assisted them with instructions, to ensure it won’t happen again,” said Mr Kerin.

He said the 17-year-old boy has sought weekend work and his super- visor didn’t realise he was under the age of 18.

‘He was given as many hours as he wanted,’ said the solicitor.

Mr Hayes said this occurred during the summer holidays and the boy was going back to school after the break.

Judge Aneas McCarthy imposed fines totalling €1,600.

THE Shannon Airport Authority is seeking a significant cash injection from the Dublin Airport Authority to upgrade the airport.

In an interview with Shannon Com- munity Radio Jet-FM this week, Ex- ecutive Chairman Pat Shanahan ad- mitted that the airport has suffered from under-investment in recent years.

“Shannon needs some equity now. Up until fairly recently, it was loss- making but with the restructuring we have made it profitable and it will be able to sustain its capital programme

into the future.”

“We have catch-up investment to put into the airport and it is impor- tant we consolidate that and Shannon gets a significant equity injection and moves into an environment where it is profitable and can pay for its own capital programme.

“We are now talking to the DAA about that. It is about putting the company on a good financial footing So it can invest in infrastructure,” he added

Mr Shanahan said the airport has offered discount deals for airlines operating transatlantic services over the winter.

“We are doing our bit from a com- petitive point of view so that these airlines are making money year round in Shannon and if they are making money year round, they will continue to serve Shannon.”

Mr Shanahan also revealed that a customs and borders protection fa- cility will be in place in Shannon by April 2008, when the ending of the Shannon stop-over will be complete.

Explaining the significance of the move, he said airlines could fly into any domestic terminal in the US, without going through international hubs. Shannon would be the first air- port in Europe to have that facility.

EARLY May and the time to dream returns. For the Clare footballers – with the safety net of the backdoor now removed – only a win will pro- long a championship summer.

The Tommy Murphy Cup, the sec- ondary and often ignored champion- ship sibling, will be all that’s on offer for whoever crashes out of Munster this weekend.

It’s an unthinkable fate for a county with Paidi O Sé at the helm, but it’s the result of a league that began well and finished poorly.

Since the beginning of the season,

interest among a number of play- ers had amazingly waned and the withdrawal of Ger Quinlan from the camp last week will be another blow for Clare.

After selector Vincent O’Connor appealed to the cream of Clare talent to come on board for the county team, he didn’t get a positive response.

“Clare are not blessed with a lot of quality players and they need every good player that’s available,” he said TOMEI aAe

Back then, he couldn’t have fore- seen the withdrawal of a player of Quinlan’s standard in the immediate lead in to Clare’s Munster campaign,

but that’s the deck Clare have to play with now and O’Connor isn’t getting or Neu cemr hue W

“We’re going to pick the team on Thursday night and see where we are but bar one or two niggling problems that we should get sorted out, things aren’t looking in bad shape.”

Even with a few bends in the road, Clare will still expect to get past Waterford when they meet in Dun- eee Ne

Should they do so, a trip to Kerry for the next round, televised live, is the prize. The opportunity for Paidi O Sé and his fellow west Kerryman O’Connor to field a team in front of

their native audience would be ap- pealing.

“The prospect of playing Kerry is something which we’re not worried about right now. Waterford went to Kerry this time last year and gave them a real fright. If they hadn’t missed a penalty they’d have pushed Kerry, so they’re a decent team. We can’t contemplate anything else but Sunday’s game. Waterford are in the frame for us, they’re a tough team and that’s all we can see.”

Over in Waterford, manager John Kiely is upbeat about his side’s prospects. They had an even poorer league run than Clare but that hasn’t

dampened his spirits.

“We’ll be ready to give Clare a right good game when they come here,” he said. “It’s fair to say we had a bad run of things in the league but we’re not worried about that right now. We ran Kerry and Longford close last year and we’ve shown the kind of football we can play. We want another big performance against Clare.”

Two teams coming at it from a sim- ilar standpoint. The summer opens and judgement time is looming. It’s May and there’s everything to play oe

THE Clare Junior football team trav- el down to Dungarvan this weekend with limited optimism following dis- rupted preparations due to injury and club commitments.

Clare have been struggling to get players together to get good qual- ity challenge matches recently after been hampered by a long list of casu- alties. Injury to Thomas Madigan in

last Saturday’s O’Gorman cup add him to Clare’s treatment table which also includes Brian Troy, Eoin Cur- tin (finger), Danny Lynch (hand) and Brian Curtin who sustained an in- jury playing for Clare in last friday night’s challenge match against Cork. Cusack, Garry and O’Gorman cup games also limited Clare’s ability to assemble for training and challenges. Nevertheless, Clare managed to play Limerick twice as well as Shannon

gaels and Cork in the run up to this game and had a final challenge game against Eire Og last night in order to make final adjustments for the big game on Sunday.

Waterford on the other hand, look to be quietly confident ahead of Sun- day’s Munster championship game. Senior Manager John Kiely also manages the junior side and he has been preparing the two sides togeth- er in order to get the best out of his

players.

Waterford have a total panel of 30- 35 players and it is felt that the junior team will be made up of the second string of this squad. Asked about the challenge of Waterford, Clare junior manager Micheal McDermott reck- Oy iTere Mm Aer: MmOA WE: TKou CORO MMA OOM Olomm EDO UN fit and extremely competitive. I thnk they have won two junior all-Irelands in the last ten years and any match down in Dungarvan will be a diffi-

cult match but hopefully we’ll do it”.

McDermott judges Clare’s prepara- tions “in the could be better catego- ry’ but he is hoping that some of his injured list could be available.

He admitted, “We haven’t picked our team yet but we will sit down to pick a team on Wednesday or Thurs- day night and see who we have that are free from injury. But hopefully we ll have a team that will be good enough to beat Waterford.”

yesterday. She emphasised that any

urgent problems would be addressed.

“If there is any emergency, we will deal with it. There will be night levels of staffing in areas such as accident and emergency. Work is already un- derway, in conjunction with the man- agement in Ennis, to ensure that all essential services will be maintained,” she said. “We are still hopeful, even at this late stage, that the strike can be averted. It is designed to put further pressure on the HSE but at the same time minimise the inconvenience to patents.”

Ms Fogarty criticised the HSE for extending its planned pay cut to in- clude fourth-year nursing students.

“This has been designed to scare us off. They are looking to break the un- ion,” she added.

Meanwhile, the INO yesterday an- nounced the suspension of all over- time by their nurses from this Friday in retaliation to the HSE pay cuts.

THE amount of litter on the prom- enade at Clare’s premier beach resort has been slammed as “an absolute disgrace”.

Green party election candidate, Cllr Brian Meaney was speaking at last week’s Special Policy Commit- tee (SPC) for the Environment.

“The amount of litter at Lahinch is really shocking and is an absolute disgrace.

“Great care and attention should be given towards ensuring that Lahinch has a positive image. The county council is charging a premium for people to park their cars in Lahinch and that money should ensure that the council keeps the resort clean,” he said.

Chair of the SPC, Cllr Patricia Mc- Carthy (Ind) said, “The issue of lit- ter is out of control right across the county.”

Cllr McCarthy said that the weath- er was particularly good over the past four weeks, but that the council’s summer staff were not in place.

Cllr Meaney said, “If we had clean streets, people would be less likely to throw litter on the streets.”

The council’s Director for the En- vironment, Ger Dollard said, “Clare County Council doesn’t put down lit- ter. It cleans it up and the community needs to take on the problem of lit-

os

Mr Dollard said that litter bins had been placed at all beaches in Clare now.

He also confirmed that the contro- versial ban on dogs at the county’s beaches would be re-introduced on Ait stou e

The council would not shy away from imposing fines on those found flouting the the ban. No fines were imposed throughout last summer.

Mr Dollard said that enforcement “will be up a bit higher” than last summer, although he stated that peo- ple wouldn’t be fined for the first of- fence.

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said that continuous offenders would be fined.

Anyone found on a beach walk- ing their dogs on Clare’s beaches between llam and 6pm will face an on the spot fine of €125, or a fine of €1,270. The fines apply even where dogs are controlled on a leash.

FURTHER details have been an- nounced about the Clare league’s plans for summer soccer.

In a statement the CPSSL say that summer soccer will allow children to have a safer, more enjoyable and cer- tain sporting experience. The ben- efits of switching to summer soccer have also been outlined.

These include; increased playing Opportunities for all; more enjoy- ment for players, parents, volunteers, coaches, managers and referees; chil- dren and families have more enjoy-

able soccer experiences; designated fixture days and timetables; minimal fixture disruption; increase in over- all training and playing standards; increase in volunteers as playing sea- son will be shorter.

According to the league the bad weather experienced during October, November, December 2006 and Jan- uary 2007 influenced the decision.

“It 1s true that the weather experi- enced this winter has led to the can- cellation of most fixtures during this time. This has led to immense frus- tration amongst coaches, parents, and most importantly, the children,

but the decision to play summer soc- cer was made at an AGM in 2005. This decision was ratified at the 2006 AGM. Besides the cancella- tion of fixtures, one of the principle reasons to play in the summer is so that children can train and play in weather that will make it safer and more enjoyable.

“Playing in the summer will also mean that children no longer have to play in slippery mud baths. This will lead to improvement in playing conditions and improve safety and enjoyment.”

There is also full agreement be-

tween all parties on the joint sched- uling of soccer and Gaelic games.

“The fixtures programme has been drawn up and agreed by CPSSL, Bord nOg Peil and Iomaint, so that with local co-operation between the various sports, each code will have fixtures on designated days. It has been agreed not to arrange fixtures on days that have been allocated to other sports.

“It 1s hoped that local co-opera- tion will mirror this arrangement with regard to training and challenge matches.”

The statement continues, “It will be

up to clubs at local level to make ap- propriate arrangements.

“It is understood by those who are involved in management and coach- ing that a child’s sporting ability will improve by playing different sports and mutual respect will need to be given to the needs of all in the com- munity”.

Each club in the CPSSL will hold an information evening in it’s region to further inform players and par- OLE

They will also give a detailed out- line of the season structure and lo- cally agreed arrangement if any.

STRONG wind failed to prevent Kinvara’s Michael Curtin from cap- turing the Ingle Memorial Angling Competition in Ballyreen on Sunday. The annual event, which is run each year by the Lisdoonvarna Fanore Sea Angling Club attracted a large turn- out of anglers from all over the west.

Curtin captured the senior title with a very good score of 150 points. He

was followed closely in second place by Tom Faley of Limerick on 137 points.

Ruan’s Michael Foudy was the lead- ing Clare fisherman claiming third place with 89 points while Clarecas- tle’s Joe Birney finished fourth on 45 points.

The juvenile category was domi- nated by Clarecastle anglers with Sean Copley (34 points), Joseph Bir- ney (22 points) and Liam Potter (10

points) rounding off a one, two, three for the town.

In total 33 fish were landed in choppy waters included Conger eel, Pollack, Lesser Spotted Dogfish, Wrasse. The heaviest fish of the day was a Conger Eel weighing 8kg and was caught by Tom Faley from Lim- eee