Month: January 2008

A MAN who was suffering from de- lusions and believed he was being fol- lowed stole two cars and tried to take another, in three different towns, all in the space of a few hours.

Timmy Casey (30), of 3 Clonlong, Southill, Limerick, stole cars in Shannon and Ennistymon, and tried to take another in Lahinch, on May 29, 2006.

Ennis Circuit Court heard yester- day that Casey, who has 59 previous convictions, stole an Audi from the forecourt of a garage in Shannon, at 9.30am.

He had called to Shannon and

Roxboro garda stations that morn- ing and said he felt he was being fol- lowed in what was described in court as “a cry for help.”

He drove from Shannon to Corofin, Where he attempted to buy petrol. The alarm was raised after a petrol attendant in Corofin became suspi- cious when Casey was unable to find the petrol tank in the car.

He then drove to Ennistymon where he ran out of petrol and parked up that car.

He then stole another car in En- nistymon, where he told the owner he had a gun and demanded the keys.

That car was later seen speeding around Lahinch and Ennistymon.

“It was weaving in and out of traf- fic. There were school children on the road at the time,’ said Gda Alan Keane.

Shortly after 12 noon, he crashed that car into a BMW at Dough, La- hinch, where he tried to take another car and assaulted its owner.

He tried to pull the driver, a mid- dle-aged woman, out of the car, but she managed to hold on to her keys. He was arrested as he sat in the driv- er’s seat of that car.

Garda Keane said that he was “very incoherent and didn’t know what he was saying, at the time.

While he was sober, he was “defi- nitely under the influence of drugs”

and was “suffering from delusions,” said the garda.

Casey’s barrister said the incident “verged on a rampage on the roads.” She said her client could offer €3,000 in compensation.

Judge Carroll Moran accepted the money and directed that it goes to one of the victims.

“What would concern me now is that there would be any repetition of Wek

“It is important that he keep taking his medication, but how do you po- lice that,” said the judge.

He imposed a two-year jail term, suspended on condition that he co- operate with his doctors.

A DEFENDANT who has been in custody for more than four months pleaded with a judge not to send him to Dundrum mental institution in Dublin.

David Mulcaire, 31 St Senan’s Road, Ennis, told the Ennis District

court that he would “never be able to get on outside again if I went there. I’d never be served in a shop or a pub. No one would want anything to do with me. It would ruin my name.” Judge Joseph Mangan had suggest- ed sending Mulcaire to Dundrum af- ter reading an assessment of him. Previously the court had heard that

Mulcaire, who is facing charges of theft, suffered a serious brain trauma in 1999, when he was hit in the head with a concrete block.

Two psychiatrists gave conflicting evidence on that occasion on whether or not the accused was fit to plead.

He has been in custody since his ar- rest more than four months ago.

‘Surely the whole thrust of what we are trying to do here is to take this man out of the criminal justice sys- tem and get him into the psychiatric system?” Judge Mangan said.

He remanded Mulcaire to Clover- hill prison for two weeks to be as- sessed by a psychiatrist from Dun- drum mental institution.

AFTER an almost flawless start, Clare now await the winners of Thursday’s preliminary round be- tween LIT and Cork. UL provided sturdy resistence on Sunday but the real test of this young Clare side will come this Sunday when they face far more experienced opposition in the form of either Fitzgibbon Cup hold- ers LIT or perennial superpowers Cork.

The current strike involving the Cork footballers and hurlers means that the Cork County Board is con- sidering fielding an Under 21 side in Thursday’s rescheduled fixture but

this will only happen if the proposal is agreed to by the striking players and manager Gerald McCarthy. It’s a perilous situation for the Rebels who are unwilling to send an alternative senior side in case it enflames the sit- uation further. However, the county board equally does not want to give a walkover either for the first time in their history.

This situation can only benefit LIT who are currently the Fitzgibbon and Higher Division 1 League holders. Managed by Davy Fitzgerald, assist- ed by Cyril Farrell, LIT are on a rich vein of form as they prepare for this year’s Fitzgibbon Cup campaign. Drawn in a potentially tough group

with UL and WIT, the Waterford Crystal competition provides ample competitive preparation for that tour- nament and therefore, LIT will be keen to progress. They have exited at the quarter-final stage for the last two years but with confidence high in the camp, they will be optimistic of go- ing a lot further this year.

Aside from Davy Fitzgerald’s in- volvement, there are also several Clare connections on the playing side. Enda Collins (Killanena), Gary O’Connell (Wolfe Tones), Jona- thon Clancy (Clarecastle), James McInerney (Newmarket-on-Fergus), Bernard Gaffney (Newmarket-on- Fergus) and Blaine Earley (Tubber)

have all featured prominently for the college this year while they also can call on Ivor White (St Josephs Doo- ra/Barefield), Conor Tierney (Kilna- mona), Eamon Glynn (Kilnamona) and Andrew Fahy (Whitegate). All will want to make an impression on the new Clare management team if they can overcome the Rebels on Thursday. Add in Galway stars Joe Canning and Niall Healy and on pa- per at least, they should prove to be a very tricky obstacle to the Banner’s advancement.

Whoever emerges from the re- scheduled fixture will be worthy opponents but Clare side will be de- termined to remain in the competi-

tion with coveted league places up for grabs for their first round game against Galway on February 10.

WHAT a difference a year makes. This time last year, Tony Consid- ine began his tenure in earnest with a three point victory over UCC but that day events off the field proved to be just as important than those on it as before the game a number of non-players including sponsor Pat O’Donnell were asked to leave the dressing room. In hindsight, it was a storm in a tea cup but it did prove to be the beginning of the end of an ar- duous and controversial reign for the Cratloe man.

A year on and Mike McNamara and his new management team have learned the lessons of their predeces- sors. It may have been the same result in the same venue but it was a much more satisfying win for the county as a fresh, young Clare side recorded a four point win over UL. The result was always going to be important but not as crucial as the performance. Despite the poor weather, it was a jo- vial Mike McNamara who addressed the waiting media to evaluate Clare’s first competitive game of the year.

“It’s always nice to win but I sup- pose the manner of the victory was

probably more pleasing. To know that some of the younger players have what is required even in Janu- ary 1S very pleasing and the fact that UL put up the challenge they did, made it a nice game.”

In addition to a confident, hungry performance, Clare scored 20 points over the hour, an impressive tally on any day but especially so against such a talented side as UL, something that McNamara also noted.

“Well, you have to be talking about a 20 point tally if you want to win matches in the league and further down the road in the championship. Twenty points in an hour is a good tally but we have a lot of work to do, of that there is no doubt. If we could pick real pluses from today, it was that nearly all of the new boys were the fellas who performed well on the day.

“By this time next year, they won’t be new boys anymore so they will have to take a step forward now but we will be using the competition for that purpose.

“Again we have quite a large panel so it’s important that fellas are allowed a chance

to show what they have before we have to reduce the panel. It is vital that newer members get experience which will benefit them a year or two down the road.”

While McNamara was obviously impressed with Clare’s display, he was also quick to praise UL who put up such a strong challenge over the tolune

In particular, the two Clare players who represented their college over county as part of the competition MUN she

“The college players are the stars of the teams, you only have to look at the line-out of UL today to see that they are starstudded. Everyone in their own right will play a part in their own county including our own few out there today who were promi- patos 01d

With that a wry smile broke out on his face as he quipped: “So eve- rything about it was pleasing and I suppose the fact that we can get away without controversy was pleasing as well.”

HIS first steps as an inter-county manager and though Clare didn’t ex- actly take a scalp at Miltown, Frank Doherty and his players walked away under a heavy sky with a victory. Job done and the importance of the win is noticeable.

After more than two months on the training fields of Clare, defeat against UCC could have dented morale and

stifled early season progression and Doherty recognises the importance of a healthy start.

“I think it was clear to everyone that we tried to play football when- ever we had the chance,’ he says. “I thought for the first outing of the year, the lads did reasonably well. I knew we were physical enough and we had the fitness work done, but you never know how lads are going to perform. The first 20 minutes we were well on

top and had four or five points of a lead built up and then lads kind of slipped into the comfort zone.

“They sat back and coasted for the rest of the half and that gave UCC the chance to get back into the game.”

If there was any lingering fear that Clare might be turned over in the second-half, it slowly became obvi- ous that Clare’s grip on the game wouldn’t slip. Again, Doherty drew confidence from this.

“We tagged on three points in the second-half and UCC only got one, SO we were well on top. We didn’t give them much opportunity to cre- ate anything from play but the second half was tough going. The pitch cut up, it was difficult to hop the ball.

“UCC will have high aspirations for the Sigerson Cup and they’ve a lot of work done themselves. That’s why I felt we needed to have a couple of months training to compete with the colleges. In ways, it’s easier for students to train compared to inter- county players. The Clare lads have jobs to hold down and training to go to and the physical demands are tougher.

“IT know from my own time with NUIG that colleges have a lot of training done before Christmas and in fairness to Clare, the lads bat- tled hard and the work paid off. Our forwards ran hard and closed their backs down well. Fitness wasn’t an issue for us.”

David Russell, who watched the game from the terrace, hasn’t been part of the Clare set-up to date this season and Doherty is asked what the situation is with the Kilkee player.

“T’ve nothing to add really. I haven’t made any contact with David Russell and I’ve always said that the panel hasn’t been finalised. The door is open for everybody in Clare. If some- body plays well in the club league or wherever, we’ll give them an oppor- aUb av AA

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