Month: September 2008

WITH this year’s Munster 60×30 championships now well under way, Clare players have experienced mixed fortunes in the latest Munster first-round matches, while the next fortnight sees numerous fixtures of interest including the start of Mun- ster juvenile championships _ this weekend.

At Under 21 grade, Cathal Han- non scored an impressive win over David Hickey of Waterford, putting him through to a Munster semi-final clash against Cork’s Thomas O’ Neill which the Clareman duly won.

After narrowly losing out in the first game (19-21), Hannon powered back to take the next two games 21-17 and 21-10, becoming the first Clareman into a Munster 60×30 fi- nal this year. Hannon now takes on Waterford’s David Walsh in the final this Thursday and is due in action again Monday night when he part- ners Shane Hayes for their Under 21 Doubles semi final.

Thursday night last saw a Munster Championship quarter-final dou- ble-header at Tuamgraney as Fergal Coughlan (Clooney) opened his Jun- ior B Singles account with an impres- sive 21-16, 21-7 win over Limerick’s

Patrick Frawley.

Coughlan was in semi-final action in Hospital las tnight against Wa- terford and the final is fixed for this Thursday, on the same bill as the U- 21 Singles final.

Tommorrow night (Wednesday) will see Shannon’s John Cawley take on John Herlihy of Cork in the Sil- ver Masters A Singles semi-final at Hospital (8.00pm). Also on Wednes- day, Clarecastle brothers Declan and Liam Frawley are in action in their Junior Doubles quarter-final against

Kerry or Limerick at Broadford at 8.00pm with the winners due in a semi-final two nights later.

Next Tuesday night, Shane Walsh and Fergal Coughlan travel to Ballina for a Junior B Doubles quarter-final against Kevin Kennedy and Declan NS Aeyn

On the underage front, Clare’s 2008 60×30 challenge gets under way this Friday at Munster semi-final stage.

Clare players at the various age groups (under 12-under 17, boys and girls) will meet the winners of Cork

v Waterford quarter-finals at Limer- ick venues this Friday at 7.00pm.

Meanwhile, Ballina Handball Club has tasted much success recently with Ger Coonan winning both Munster Intermediate Singles and Doubles titles. Indeed, Coonan and his part- ner Martin ‘Mags’ McInerney (also Ballina) are in the All-Ireland dou- bles final after a 17-21, 21-10, 21-10 semi-final win over Mayo.

Fergal Collins also reached the Munster Minor Singles final after victory over Limerick’s CJ Fitz- patrick but went down narrowly in the final after a tie-breaker to Fitz- patrick’s Doubles partner, Seamus O’Carroll. After a very comprehen- sive 21-2, 21-10 semi-final win over Mayo’s Stephen Cooney, O’Carroll is now red-hot favourite to claim both Minor Singles and Doubles All-Ire- land titles.

Finally, the Clarecastle Handball AGM takes place next Monday, Sep- tember 7 at the Sports Complex in Clarecastle. All are welcome to at- tend in order to see what the club has to offer.

ROYAL Portrush confirmed their elite status in women’s club golf win- ning their fourth title 1n just six years after defeating The Island in the final of the 2008 SUZUKI Senior Cup at Galway Golf Club on Saturday.

Having already won back-to-back titles from 2003 to 2005, the northern side were beaten at the Irish semi-fi- nals by Irish winners Cork in 2006 and in last year’s final by first-time winners Ennis, at Milltown.

It was a disappointing defence of the title for Ennis, as they bowed out at the quarter-final stage on Saturday when they were beaten by Kilkenny by 3 1/2 to 1 1/2.

All this after the day started so well for Ennis when Sarah Cunningham in the lead singles scored a great 4 and 2 win over former Irish cham- pions and Irish international Eileen Rose Power.

However, it was Ennis’ only victory as Pamela Murphy, Maura McNicho- las and Ciara Pender were all defeat- ed, while Daindra O’Connell halved

her match. The quarter-final swung decisively in Kilkenny’s favour when Ann Smee beat Maura McNicholas after a titanic struggle — the match went all the way to the 19th before Smee prevailed.

The Ennis side showed a number of changes in personnel from the side that won the title in such thrilling fashion on the corresponding week- end last year. Tricia McDonnell and Valerie Hassett didn’t play.

In the final Royal Portrush scored a 4-1 win over The Island.

AVENUE served notice to all other teams in the division that they’ll be a real force to be reckoned with this term, while Corofin Harps learned in this baptism of fire that nothing will come easy in the top flight.

It was as one-sided as the scoreline suggests, with the Avenue killing this game off and collecting the three points on offer thanks to a blistering first half in which they bagged a hat- trick of goals.

And it was their deadly duo up front in the persons of Barry Nugent and Mikey Mahony who did the damage in both halves, bagging a brace of goals each to give newly promoted Corofin a very inauspicious debut in the premier division.

And, in getting off to a perfect start, Avenue, who last won the league ti- tle back in 2004, played some of the stylish football they seem to have had a patent on in Clare over the past 25 years.

Corofin on this day had no answers and were fighting a losing battle from as early as the eight minute when Ave- neue hit the front. The breakthrough goal came from a Set-piece — a corner being headed home by Barry Nugent to get Avenue off to a flier.

Nugent doubled his and Avenue’s tally by the 20th minute — his sec- ond coming at the end of beautiful move in which Avenue showed the full breath of the footballing pow- ers. It started on the left side of mid- field — the ball was then transferred infield and out to the right flank to the elusive Mikey Mahony, who gave an inch perfect centre to Nugent and

he slammed to the net. Any hope of | Brendan Rochford got on the end of

a Corofin recovery was killed off before the half-time whistle when

a cross from the right to head in at the far post. It got worse for Corofin

in the second half — this time it was Mikey Mahony, the main provider of goals in the first half, who turned

poacher.

Mahony, who was top scorer in last year’s league bagged his side’s fourth in the 62nd minute, while he rounded off his morning’s work six minutes from time when he showed a clear pair of heels to the Corofin defence and then slotted the ball home from ten yards.

Corofin’s only cheer came when Gavin Dinan finally pierced the stonewall Avenue defence to score what was a mere consolation goal 20 minutes into the half. That brought the game back to 4-1, but a couple of missed after Dinan’s strike ended the slim hopes they had of a miraculous recovery.

Then enter the game’s marquee players Mikey Mahoney to put four between them at the end.

that the election process be- ing used “does not allow for adequate communication on a countywide ba- sis between various and community groups that make up the voluntary community pillar in county Clare.” Three members from the public and community groups will make up part of the board, but the selection of these three members is by invitation of nominees rather than using the voluntary and public umbrella group. He also questioned the potential geo- graphic balance in the system used. Clare Community Forum was set up by the Department of Local

Government to represent the com- munity-voluntary pillar, and today represents approximately 500 groups on a number of state and semi-state bodies.

“This was set up by the Government but another hand of the Government is choosing to ignore it,” he said.

“If it was set up as acommunity and voluntary pillar to be part of all bod- ies, why is it not there for all bodies? Why is one body choosing to ignore it?” asked Mr Cahill.

“And why is it being allowed to?”

CLDC has meanwhile reminded community and voluntary groups around the county that the deadline is approaching for receipt of nomina- tions and voter registration forms for electing three community and volun- tary Directors to the Board.

“A good deal of interest has already been shown by the community and voluntary sector in the election,” a statement said.

Monday, September 8, at noon is the deadline for receipt of nomina- tion and registration forms. Groups who have an interest in rural devel- opment, social inclusion, the envi- ronment, culture and community development are being encouraged to get their forms in on time and get involved in the election.

Ballot papers will be sent out by post to registered groups after Sep- 00 aoe

THE ICSA has joined in a protest against a requirement from Tesco that farmers should disclose detailed and sensitive information from their accounts, as part of the supermarket group’s new contract stipulation.

The protest, which involved farm- ing organisations that are part of the FFE umbrella (Fairness for Farm- ers in Europe), was held outside the Tesco group headquarters outside London last Tuesday.

According to ICSA president Mal- colm Thompson, “this new contract clause, which currently applies to British farmer milk suppliers to Tes- co UK, 1s the thin end of the wedge. ICSA is deeply concerned that this clause must be opposed before it be- comes the norm for all suppliers of farm produce to Tesco, not just in the UK but in Ireland as well.”

“T want to send a very clear signal to Tesco and other retailers that Irish farmers will not wear any such de- mands. It is absolutely unacceptable that Tesco should demand the disclo- sure of detailed information on costs and profitability from a farmer’s accounts to any third party agency. The clear implication is that Tesco is looking for justification to squeeze

farmer margins even more. Such in- formation is a private matter for farm families and is commercially sensi- tive.

“I don’t see Tesco offering open

and transparent information on how much margin they are making on farm products such as milk, beef or lamb. But we do know that the farm- er’s share of the final retail price has

dropped substantially over the past 25 years and this is the primary reason why so many farmers are no longer able to make a fair living. For ex- ample, in the case of beef, Irish farm-

ers were obtaining over 75 per cent of the final retail price in 1973, the figure now is about one-third. This indicates clearly that farmers’ mar- gins have been squeezed to the point of no return and this trend coincides with the increasing dominance of the retail trade across Europe by a hand- ful of very dominant multinationals.

‘There is no need for Tesco or any other retailer to obtain such sensi- tive information from individual farmers. If Tesco want a handle on farming profitability, they can eas- ily get overall industry figures from sources such as the Teagasc National Farm Survey which will demonstrate the tight margins that farmers oper- ate on. In the case of beef and lamb, farmers are actually losing money on production and are using their Single Farm Payment to survive. This is not sustainable.

“ICSA will not stand for such inva- sive clauses in contracts and we are determined that this approach will not be allowed to be mainstreamed into Irish retailing. Today is the first step in our declaration of opposition to this,’ he concluded.

CLARE IFA members were among the large crowd of milk suppliers who marched in protest to the Kerry group headquarters in Tralee last week to express their dissatisfac- tion at the group’s failure to lift its June and July milk price, and at Ker- ry’s slippage down the milk price league.

Addressing the suppliers, IFA Dep- uty President Derek Deane said the

protest was being staged to ensure that the Kerry Group clearly under- stood their anger at Kerry’s recent milk price policy.

“Kerry used to be a milk price leader, setting the pace for the in- dustry, and always paying a top price. They have since fallen back to ninth position out of 13 in the 2007 Farmers Journal/KPMG audit. This July, Kerry has slipped once again, and is paying its suppliers less than the other two big milk purchasers,

Dairygold and Glanbia. Kerry’s own suppliers now feel their company is more committed to the stock market than it is to them,’ he added.

‘Kerry has scale, efficiency and a diversified, high value product mix that puts it in an strong position to pay a leading milk price – indeed it used to have a proud record of doing so in the past. Kerry must immedi- ately pay an extra 2c/I for July milk, and commit to pay a leading milk price for the rest of 2008 and for the

future,’ Derek Deane said.

IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Richard Kennedy added, “Kerry is letting its suppliers down at the worst possible time. Farmers are now faced with massive cost in- creases threatening their profitabil- ity, which they are in no position to pass back. Now more than ever they need Kerry to deliver the strong- est possible milk price – but Kerry is deliberately dragging its heels on the July price, paying 1.6c/l less than

Glanbia (allowing for their recent 2c/ | top up), and Ic/I less than Dairy- gold.”

“Kerry milk producers are sending a clear message to all the directors of the PLC board today: Kerry must ur- gently revise its milk pricing policy. Kerry suppliers are demanding to be back at the top of the price league. Kerry must pay an additional 2c/l for July, and regain its once proud place as a strong milk price leader,” Rich- ard Kennedy concluded.

THE ICMSA has called for an im- mediate and co-ordinated response from Government to the recent floods in terms of the health and safety is- sues involved.

ICMSA Rural Development Com- mittee Chairman John O’Donnell said the piecemeal approach current- ly favored to what is rapidly becom- ing a matter of national emergency is completely inadequate to the scale of the threat posed.

“We have to be much more sys- tematic, both in terms of short term actions to repair damaged infra- structure and longer term measures to lessen the effects of the flooding that all the forecasters are saying 1s going to become a permanent feature of our lives,’ he said.

Mr O’Donnell pointed out that me- dia and official attention tended to focus on the damage floods inflicted on urban environments with rural areas receiving much less attention and, consequently, much less aid.

‘There has been considerable dam- age done in both towns and country areas with biting losses suffered by farmers through damaged crops and saturated land.

“While a lot of the media attention is focused on urban areas, people should not forget that many people living in country areas have also seen their houses flooded as well as ruinous income losses through the inability to farm because of the flooding.

“It is clear, as well, that there are massive health and safety issues as- sociated with flooding and it is es- sential that the Government address these as a matter of priority and not simply forget them once the floods have subsided,’ pointed out Mr O’Donnell.

“A great deal of the damage relat- ing to these floods stems from out- dated infrastructure, such as bridges, culverts, and various types of debris obstructing rivers and the failure to maintain rivers in an appropriate condition — and that failure is the

clear responsibility of the Govern- ment and its agencies.

“It is ICMSA’s view that a special fund should be established to address these infrastructure deficits immedi-

ately in a way that will minimise the Stress and losses to families, who are facing the prospects of this type of chaos every year,’ concluded the IC- MSA Chairman.

LAHINCH’S growing reputation as a top international surfing venue will be further enhanced on September 13 and 14 when the West Coast Surf Club will host the 2008 Longboard Classic which has become one of the most hotly anticipated competitions in the Irish surfing calendar.

Started in 2003, the event — the only of its kind in Ireland — attracts long- boarders from all over Ireland and is particularly resonant in the closing wake of the Bejing Olympics as surf- ing is widely tipped to feature in the 2012 Games.

Ireland – and Lahinch – holds its own on the world stage in terms of the quality of surf available and also given the standard of Irish surfers which is again among the best inter- nationally.

Last year saw a record number of entrants, the overall winner being Garry Hall from Kerry with Ben Hanna from the West Coast Surf Club in second place.

This year’s event is set to attract an even greater response with organ- izers Cliodhna Fawl, Dave Flynn, Alan Black and David Collins over- Whelmed with the level of applica- tions to date.

Stating that the event had attracted a record number of sponsors, Cliodhna Fawl said, ““We’ve always been great- ly impressed with the level of interest and support we’ve attracted since the inaugural event in 2003.

‘In addition to an enthusiastic level of support from local businesses, we’re also delighted that Sony are signed up as a sponsor for this year’s classic.”

Subject to weather conditions and swell, it is anticipated that Septem- ber 13 will see the initial heats and quarter finals run off with the sem1- final and finals being held on the fol- lowing day.

Interested participants may down- load an entry form off the West Coast Surf Club’s website (www.westcoast- surfclub.com) while the deadline for applications sent by post – to Lahinch Surf Shop, Old Promenade, Lahinch, c/o Chodhna Fawl – is Thursday, September 4.

A non-refundable entry fee of €15 is required on application as 1s cur- rent Irish Surfing Association mem- bership.

For further details on the compe- tition contact Cliodhna Fawl 086 3366023, David Collins 087 8036963 or Dave Flynn 087 629 2335, or visit www.westcoastsurfclub.com.

YOUNGSTERS at the Corofin Harps club showed last week that they can put their best foot forward and not just to play soccer.

Members as young as five, their older clubmates and parents set out on a sponsored walk to buy kit and equipment for the underage teams.

The little lads needed tracksuits, goals, and footballs – all the paraphe- nalia which will be necessary when they take to the field this coming

season.

The members and their parents set out to cover five miles and have already raised ©2,500 with more money coming in from sponsorship all the time.

“We’re hoping to raise about €5,000 in total from it to kit the kids out properly,’ said manager Keith lee

This will be the first year that the club will have an under eight team and they are also taking part with the under 11 and 12 teams in the soccer

blitz this year.

Soccer aS a game is growing fast in popularity amongst the Corofin youngsters.

Last year, Keith and fellow man- agers, Wille Treacy, Alan Higgins and Alan Cherryman, had just ten youngsters in training with the under -8s. This year, that’s grown to 60.

“We’ve also been invited to take part in the half-time National League game with the Limerick 37 at home in the under-10 blitz,’ said Keith.

The young footie fans have already

been measured for their new kit and are looking forward to having it de- livered while they continue with a busy training schedule on Wednes- days and Saturdays.

‘It will be great to see them kitted out. Everyone made such a huge ef- fort to support the walk and the par- ents are absolutely fantastic. They give 110 per cent.’

TO celebrate National Organic Week, St. Tola’s Organic Farm will host a farm open day on September Key

National Organic Week will take place from September 15 to 21 and a host of events, including a tasting session at Wilde’s Organic Choco- late, will take place throughout County Clare to celebrate it.

The week, funded by the Depart- ment of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and co-ordinated by Bord Bia, aims to continue to raise consumer awareness of organic food, how to

recognise it and where to buy it.

St Tola goat’s cheese has been made in Inagh since the early 1980’s. Originally made by Meg and Der- rick Gordon, the business was taken over by their neighbour Siobhan Ni Ghairbhith in 1999.

Since then, new premises have been built, the process has been brought up to the highest standards and in 2001, St. Tola became a registered organic producer with IOFGA, the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association.

Both the farm and the cheesemak- ing operation are inspected individu- ally, by IOFGA inspectors, twice a

year.

Although more expensive and la- bour intensive than conventional farming, organic farming promotes principles and methods which co-ex- ist with natural ecosystems to help protect and enhance the environ- ment.

The 65-acre organic farm (none of which is treated with any fertilisers) provides herb rich grass and hay for the goats.

They also receive a supplement of organic grains for the winter, the price of which is around three times that of conventional feed.

In 2007 St Tola’s won Overall Best

Product at the National Organic Awards and Overall Cheese Cham- pion at the Irish National Cheese Awards.

The farm has won a Gold Medal at the Great Taste Awards and further prizes are hoped with the results of the World Cheese Awards in Dublin and the British Cheese Awards in Wales announced in September.

Teresa Brophy, head of Home Mar- kets Bord Bia, commented, ““Nation- al Organic Week encourages people to buy locally produced food but it also provides a great opportunity for consumers to learn about the origins of their food.”