Month: February 2008

THERE was good news for Munster rugby fans when Ryanair confirmed it would provide extra flights to Bris- tol from Shannon and Cork for the province’s Heineken Cup quarter fi- TDM Ee MOM Grell (Geni (om NIM INDI oMNU ole) es wbeelee

Following Munster’s emphatic pool-topping victory over London Wasps at Thomond Park on January 19, desperate fans began scouring the internet for flights to the quarter final encounter with Gloucester on PN eee

Airlines were quickly accused of upping their prices to cash in on the demand but Ryanair denied the claims and said it was simply a case of whoever got on first got the cheap- More LINE

While the cost of the few remaining seats on the scheduled service from Shannon to Bristol for the weekend of April 4 to 6 were well over €400 return, seats on the extra Ryanair flight were going for less than half that on Thursday.

NAW Ue B Respectable Beene im ome for a Cork-Bristol round trip.

Ryanair already operates a daily service from Shannon to Bristol and will add two extra flights for the quarter final clash. On April 4, the additional service will depart Shan- non at 4.50pm, while on the follow-

ing day the extra aircraft is scheduled to leave at 6.55am.

The additional flights from Bristol back to Cork and Shannon are sched- uled to depart at 5.35pm and 9.35pm respectively on Sunday, April 6.

If Munster beat Gloucester and are not ousted from the competition as they were by Llanelli Scarlets in last year’s quarter final, the 2006 Heineken Cup Champions will meet either Ospreys or Saracens for an away semi-final clash.

Many Munster fans, confident that the men from Munster will reach the last four, have already booked flights to Bristol or Luton in the hope that they will beat the rush.

AN BORD Pleanala has rejected a planned €24 million housing devel- opment for Ennis.

Last year, Clare County Council refused planning permission to one of the county’s best known build- ers, McCarthy Brothers, to build 94 |aLeyenteherslmm oY VU oleae r mse oMmOlUlNeouE environs of Ennis.

In their appeal, McCarthy Bros pointed out that the site was zoned for residential development in the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

While surrounding lands were sim- ilarly zoned, there was no guarantee that the development of these lands would take place at any time in the near future, they argued.

The open space provision also met the requirements of the development plan, with a total of 16.4 per cent of the site given over to open space, while the Ballybeg Road was ad- equate to cater for the level of traffic the development generated.

But after assessing the application, the appeals board’s planning inspec- tor concluded that it “would repre- sent a haphazard and non-integrated piecemeal development which would

preclude the full and comprehensive development of the entire area of residentially zoned land at this loca- tion”.

The appeals board also stated that the proposed layout of the develop- ment was “substandard due to the general layout and disposition of public open space and the overall lin- ear emphasis in terms of the layout of access roads and adjoining hous- ThOTSan OODLES

The board inspector concluded that the development would seriously in- jure the residential amenity of future occupants of the estate and would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.

The inspector also found that the proposal, which included the utilisa- tion of an existing cul-de-sac road to serve the eastern portion of the pro- posed development, would seriously injure the amenities of the residents. This was because a more suitable access which would serve the entire area of residentially zoned lands at this location was located approxi- mately 120 metres further west.

As aresult, the inspector found that the development would endanger public safety by reason of a traffic hazard.

SUNGIS LOM M Someta cmolcc rm eeliiunitcani cee Ruan’s Gerry Daffy who lost his life tragically on his farm in Lismugna last week. Mr Daffy, who was laid to rest in the New Ruan Cemetery on Sunday, has been hailed as a selfless community volunteer who will be a “tragic loss” for the area.

Mr Daffy, who is survived by his wife Annette and daughters Ciara and Aoife, died when his tractor rolled towards him while he was feeding cattle on his farm in Ruan on Thurs- day evening.

“The hallmark of Gerry Daffy in the community is that he was al- ways willing to help others, even to the detriment of his own work,” said

neighbour and friend, Cllr Joe Arkins Cal G}

“He is a tragic loss to his family and to the whole community. It brings it back to mind that farming can be a very dangerous occupation and this freak accident has brought that back to the whole community out here.

“Gerry was a man who was very talented, both in farming and in

building, whatever he set his mind to he could do it.”

This is the second tragedy to strike the Daffy family in recent years. It follows the death of Gerry’s sister, Maura Daffy (54), in a road traffic accident in Clarecastle in 2005.

A keen sportsman, Gerry’s farm was home to Ennis soccer clubs Av- enue United from 1995 to 2004 and Lifford FC from 1998 to 2006.

This incident has highlighted the dangers that exist on all farms, with 11 people dying in farm accidents in Ireland in 2006 and 18 in 2005.

The chairwoman of the IFA’s Na- tional Farm Family Committee, Mary Sherry, has urged Clare farmers to remain vigilant and take the time to assess the potential dangers.

“We all know that farms are dan- gerous places. Farmers can be work- ing alone, working under pressure and working in a hurry.

“People need to be reminded of the potential for accidents all the time,” she told

THE team of volunteers who worked with Gerry Daffy on building a hos- pice in South Africa formed a guard of honour for his funeral at the week- end, along with members of the Tur- key Trotters and the Clare Hounds.

And his family bravely insisted that the church gate collection which he had organised to raise money for the Sr Ethel Normoyle Building of Hope Project should go ahead.

His grieving widow, Annette, told friends that her husband had been so moved by the plight of the people in

the townships at Missionvale that he was adamant to continue fundraising.

Gerry, who died in a tragic farm- ing accident, had just returned from spending 10 days working to raise the building in the centre run by the Lisseycasey nun outside Port Eliza- lreiteF

When news of the tragedy broke in Port Elizabeth, stunned volunteers placed a picture of Gerry on the seat in the children’s playground where he used to sit to have lunch.

As candles burned before the pho- to, children from the township came to say prayers and thank the man

who had worked tirelessly on their ont ee

Sr Ethel said that she could not believe that “such a bright light has left us. He worked so hard and gave everything while he was here to help bring hope to people. We are so shocked and our hearts go out to his Ie DObeAVA

‘He was a lovely, caring man. He will be reaping the rewards of his kindness and hard work now.”

‘He was a hero for those 10 days,” said project organiser, Olive Halpin. “When he was getting on the bus to leave I hugged him and he said, ‘Ol-

ive, those were the best 10 days of my life’.”

Fellow organiser, Maureen Mc- Carthy said that the team are “abso- lutely stunned. He was such a vibrant person and so lively”’.

Ennis priest, Fr John Molloy said Mass on Sunday in Missionvale as Gerry was being laid to rest in Ort

Gerry and his wife Annette organ- ised a charity performance night with traditional music star, Sharon Shannon. The night raised more than €6,000 for the Building of Hope Ke) elm

CLONLARA and Patrickswell in Limerick are today trying to come to terms with the deaths of two friends who shared a passion for sport.

William Quane from Monaska in Clonlara and Sean O’Donoghue of Patrickswell in Limerick were look- ing forward to supporting Ireland in the Ireland—Italy clash in Croke Park When their car was involved in an horrific head-on collision between Borris-in-Ossory and Roscrea on Saturday morning.

Niall Furlong, from the Canal Bank

in Limerick, who was also travel- ling to the Six Nations match was the only survivor in a crash which claimed the lives of four people. Last night he was in a Serious but stable condition at the Midlands Hospital in Tullamore.

Both Mr Quane (34) and Mr O’ Donoghue (37) died at the scene of the accident, described by Fr Jackie Robinson, who administered the last rites, as “the worst I have ever seen’’.

All three men who were travel- ling from Limerick were employees of Dell, who have opened a book of condolences at the plant in Raheen.

The Quane family had moved from Limerick to Clonlara about 30 years ago.

‘William was very much into sport and followed the rugby in particu- lar,’ said Fr Brendan Cleary, Clon- lara, who described the incident as a “terrible tragedy”.

William, who had followed the for- tunes of the national team at home and abroad, had driven to Birdhill on Saturday morning to be collected by his friends.

The accident also claimed the lives of Polish man David Dziemianowicz (21) and his Italian girlfriend Marika

Rossi (24) who were travelling in a rented car from Dublin when the ac- cident took place.

According to a Garda spokesman, the accident took place while one car was attempting an overtaking ma- noeuvre.

The head-on collision took place on what the spokesman described as a “very wide, straight part of the road” where the “hard shoulder was nearly as wide as the road itself”.

Gardai are appealing for any wit- nesses to the accident as they don’t expect Mr Furlong to regain con- sciousness for a number of days.

deserve great credit for exposing the fact that EU farmers were not playing on an even pitch with Brazilian producers and for persisting in their campaign against the background of scepticism by the EU Food and Veterinary Office,” she

SrHLGe

ICSA president, Malcolm Thomp- son also welcomed the full ban but said that the campaign against Bra- Zilian beef was only beginning.

“ICSA has always maintained that restrictions were inadequate and nothing but a full ban was ever go- ing to be enough, until the Brazilians produce beef to EU standards,” he Sr HLOe

“ICSA has delivered this temporary ban for Irish farmers by initiating the campaign to ban Brazilian beef in June 2002, and it has been a long and hard fought campaign, but we do not necessarily believe it 1s over, and it will not be over until the EU finally

concedes that imported food must be produced to the same high standards as domestically produced food.”

Speaking before the announcement of an all-out ban, Clare TD Timmy Dooley (FF) welcomed the action against Brazilian beef imports and said that is only right that the same rules that apply to EU food produc- ers should apply to companies seek- ing to sell their products in the EU.

‘This debate has been ongoing for some months now and the EU gave the Brazilian Government numerous opportunities to clean up it’s act with regard to the operation of the beef in- dustry,’ he said.

“Every time EU veterinary offi-

cials visited Brazil, they came back to Europe with more questions than answers. This was simply an unac- ceptable situation and the European Union had to respond accordingly.

“EU Governments and the EU Commission together have taken the decision to significantly curtail Bra- Zilian beef imports into the European Union and it starts this Thursday.

“It 1s only fair that there is a level playing pitch and that the same rules apply to farmers and the food sec- tor outside and inside of the EU. No other decision would have been fair to farmers and beef producers in Ire- land, or indeed to the consumers of beef in Ireland.”

MUSICIANS from all over Galway and Clare descended on Kinvara this weekend for the launch of the debut CD of the Kinvara Area Music Col- lective (KAM).

The CD, which was officially launched at a concert in the village on Saturday evening, features a host of local talent, all of whom turned out to play at the launch ceremony.

It features a cross-genred selection of musicians and is designed to show off the wealth of musical talent that exists in the locality.

KAM was established last year fol- lowing a series of public meetings to

“IT’S hardly a week since I left Gal- way and I’m already in Donegal. Yes- terday, I had the Donegal GAA boys, Niall McCready and David Walsh, pushing me along – and a good job they did too.

“IT met this mad DJ in Bundoran who’s changed his name to Pat Mus- tard and he’s even had the gobshite’s name tattooed up his arm. There is no sign of Daniel yet but I’m living in hope.

“Last week I was taken in by the guards in Castlebar. Lovely fellas they were too and all of them going onto cyberspace to look at me on my website.

“So far I’ve had pushers from Bos-

find ways in which local musicians could help each other and the local community.

“We started talking about how dif- ficult it was to find places to do gigs and places to see gigs in Kinvara. We realised that Kinvara, which has al- ways had a great reputation for trad sessions, had changed, something had happened,’ said musician John Martin.

“The gigs just didn’t happen as of- ten. Besides the music, we were los- ing out in a social way too. People were not meeting up in the pubs any- more, the community spirit was suf- fering as a result.”

After hosting more than 12 concerts

ton Scientific and Western Fire in Tuam and, Jesus, those Polish fellas can push a milkfloat!

“I can’t wait to get back to Clare though, back to my real home in Kil- fenora. Just 21 days to go!”

On ‘Tuesday, February 26,

last year, KAM decided to celebrate the years anniversary of the organi- sation by launching the CD.

“Kinvara is saturated with musi- cians of all different kinds. Part of the idea of this was to try and find a way that musicians could help each other out instead of being in compe- tition with each other,’ said KAM member, Rosaleen Tanaham.

‘The musicians featured on this CD are really only scratching the surface of the talent that is out there.”

Besides running gigs and making CDs, KAM would like to involve as many local people as possible in whatever music-related activities that they can dream up.

“Organising concerts and making CDs is only one part of what KAM can be doing. We would like to see more and more people get involved in the group and hope that it will evolve along with the interests of these people. Whether that means more gigs, music workshops for youngsters, talks or more CDs,” continued John.

“If people want something to hap- pen, then we say go ahead. Talk to us and we will help you as much as possible, but you will have to be will- ing to do the work.”

The CD is currently available from most shops and pubs in Kinvara and from www.openear.ie.

THE memory and music of Crush- een’s Joseph Browne will be the cen- tral focus at the second annual Joseph Browne Spring School of Traditional Music.

The school, which takes place in Gort from February 14 to 17, is or- ganised each year in memory of Joseph, who lost his life tragically in 2006.

“Last year was a great success re-

ally, maybe because Gort is such a central location. We had people here from Clare, Galway, Tipperary – we had people here from as far away as Mayo,’ said organiser Maire O Ke- BTR

“The concerts were great but the school itself was phenomenal. I re- member us sitting in the foyer and we could hear the strains of music from every different classroom. There was just a lovely feeling of passing on the music and the tradition to the next

generation.”

This year’s event will include a number of new elements, including a Special evening of music in Crush- een.

“We have extended it this year a little bit. The whole thing began be- cause Joseph died very tragically and he was such a great musician. It was first put together as more of a project. We applied to the Arts Council for funding and they were fantastic to us and helped us get it off the ground,”

continued Maire.

“But we did always intend to ex- tend it. So this year we have a project called Bridging Traditions. We have the West Ocean String Quartet, who marry classical and tradition music, and they are going to do a concert in Crusheen Church. This was Joseph’s church and I think this concert is go- ing to be really special.

“They are also going to do a col- laboration with the children who are learning at the school. The children are going to work on three tunes and come together with the quartet.”

A whole host of musical talent will be in Gort for the school with the likes of Nollaig Casey, Arty McG- lynn, Paddy Keenan, Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill, Tommy O’Sullivan, Brock Maguire Band featuring Paul Brock, Manus McGuire, Enda Sc- ahill, Denis Carey and the Kilfenora Céili Band.

Traditional session will take place over the weekend in Hennelly’s Pub in Gort, the Highway Pub in Crush- een and the Lady Gregory Hotel in Gort.

Se oer Duome- AVNET: lo) (om Oke) O GIN AYARS in Ennis or, for more information, call 087 0674335 or visit joseph- browne.org.

THE past and future of Ennistymon basketball came together in Dublin last weekend as a group of young players from the Clare Cascaders Club met with one of the leading lights of the Claremont Admirals in the 1980s.

More than 40 young boys and girls travelled to Dublin to watch the fi- nals of the National Senior Mens and Ladies Cup. After two hugely enter- taining matches, the youngsters from north Clare got to meet Ed Randolph, former Claremont Admiral and play-

er coach with Killester who won the senior men’s final.

Randolph, played basketball in En- nistymon in the 1980’s and has a long and happy relationship with north OE

“This was our first year heading off to the finals. We had two really good games. The ladies’ final was a great match,” said Vincent Leigh of the Clare Cascaders

“Of course, we have the connection with Killester through Ed Randolph. After the game, he gave loads of time for all the kids with the cup. He talked to them and posed for pictures

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The club has been going from strength to strength in recent years and is attracting hundreds of local young people back into the sport. The increase 1n participation is start- ing to yield some success for the club orm aetemee)loue

‘In the last week we have had a few of our players called for trials for the north Munster boys team, that’s Michael Leigh and Ian Cuddihy. We have also had two girls called for trials, Jenny Canavan and Mairead Healy,” continued Vincent.

“As well as that, we have Ciaran

Devitt, who has been called for a trail for the Irish U-15 boys team. We have good hopes of him getting onto the main Irish panel and ever repre- senting his county.

“It’s great to have players who are making an impact on Munster and even Ireland teams. It gives great en- couragement for the younger players to see where they can get. In terms of matches the U-17 boys got to the final of an U-17 tournament in Cork just before Christmas. They beat a few Cork teams along the way and did very well. The U-12 and U-14 teams played two games each last week.”

TRANSITION-Y EAR students from Ennistymon VEC have proven that pollution from the town is disturbing the ecosystem of the Inagh riven and could actually be responsible for the disappearance of the otter locally.

As part of the school entry for the Eco-Unisco Project, the students un- dertook a series of test to determine if pollution from the town was dam- aging the local river.

“We have entered the Eco-Unisco project for two years in a row now. The first year we built a solar panel and the second year a windmill,’ said teacher, Mary Joyce.

“So I asked the students what they

wanted to do. They started talking about the river, and wondering where the otters in the river had gone.”

This led the students to undertake research on the otter, and to discover that pollution is one of the main fac- tors which drive otters out of certain areas. Not content with this, howev- er, the transition-year students took to the river last Thursday, attempting to prove beyond all doubt that pol- lution from the town was damaging the river.

“We went down to the river with large nets and started collecting the insects that were in the water. We were trying to find out whether the bugs in the river were mostly ones that needed high oxygen or low oxy-

gen. High oxygen insects is a sign of good quality clean water and the presence of low oxygen insects is a sign of polluted water,’ said student, Michael McCormac.

“We caught more than 20 speci- mens altogether. There was much more high oxygen insects in the wa- ter before the town than we found after the town. This, we think, is be- cause sewage from the town is pol- Leiseetem atom eAiole

“We have brought the insect back to the school now and we are going to study them and see what else we can learn from them. After than we need to put together a 3,000-word re- port on our findings.

“The whole reason for this work

is to see why the otters have left the river. They like clean water and they used to be very common around here but not anymore. If we could treat the sewerage better before it goes into the river then we might be able to get the otters back.”

When they have completed their work, the transition-year students plan to bring their findings to the at- tention of Clare County Council.