Month: October 2008

SENTENCING in the Ennis con- spiracy to murder case will take place in three weeks’ time at the Central Criminal Court. Sharon Col- lins and Essam Eid appeared in court last Wednesday, when a date for their sentencing was set.

Collins (45), formerly of Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, was found guilty by a jury in July of so- liciting to murder PJ Howard and his sons Robert and Niall.

Eid (52), a native of Egypt and for- merly of Las Vegas, was found guilty of demanding €100,000 from Rob- ert Howard to cancel a contract on

his life and the lives of his father and brother. Eid was also convicted of handling stolen property.

At the end of the eight-week trial on July 9, sentencing had been adjourned as psychological reports were to be carried out on Collins and medical reports were to be made available in the case of Eid. The three-minute hearing last Wednesday was told that psychological reports on Collins were ready, but medical reports in the case of Eid were not yet available.

Collins’ barrister Paul O’Higgins SC, said there had been some confu- sion in the matter. He said that the Courts Service had acquired a psy- chologist to see Collins the week

before. This, he said, caused confu- sion as the defence had previously arranged with the Department of Justice to have Dr Brian Glanville see her. He pointed out that Dr Glan- ville’s psychological reports were at hand. However, David Sutton, SC for Eid, said he was having difficulty assembling medical reports for his client and he was seeking another four weeks to complete this. Una Ni Raifeartaigh BL for the prosecution said the State was ready to go ahead with the sentencing.

Mr Justice Roderick Murphy fixed Monday, November 3, as the date for the sentencing to take place.

THE bravado was back. Sharon Col- lins’ beaming smile returned to the Four Courts for a brief sojourn last week, exactly 13 weeks after her pre- vious appearance that had culminat- ed in her being led away to prison.

On the evening of Wednesday, July 9 last, Collins, aka ‘Lying Eyes’, left the building in custody, having been found guilty by a jury of soliciting and conspiracy to murder her multi- millionaire partner PJ Howard and his sons Robert and Niall, in En- nis, two years ago. Despite her de- nials, a jury found her guilty of at- tempting to hire a hitman over the internet – through an email address lyingeyes98 @yahoo.ie – to wipe out the Howard family, in order to get her hands on PJ Howard’s wealth.

At the end of the eight-week trial, She was taken to Dochas, the wom- en’s section of Mountjoy prison, where she has remained since, await- ing sentence. Her departure for the prison in July was laced with tears, but as she returned to court last Wednesday – for her sentence date to be fixed – her radiant smile had also re-emerged.

She faces a wait for her sentence – November 3 is d-day for the mother- of-two – but her mid-week appear- ance was comparable to that of a woman without a care in the world.

The 45-year-old has gained a small amount of weight while in prison. Her neat black trouser suit is less roomy, while her gaunt face has be- come plump and rounder.

Throughout her life, image – and retaining her petite frame – has been a priority for Collins. She has al- ways been eager to remain slim and even took Reductil slimming pills at one stage. Undoubtedly her weight gain, albeit slight, will not come as a source of comfort to her in the lead-up to her sentence being handed Cleni0e

Nevertheless, there was no sign of any concern as Collins displayed a healthy glow on Wednesday. Her well-groomed blond bob – which has grown in length from her high- profiled trial – and dazzling smile became the focus of attention around

the Four Courts for the morning.

Accompanied by her youngest son David, Collins chatted freely to her legal team. There was no shortage of smiles and laughter. The confidence and bravado that had dominated Col- lins’ mood during most of the trial had returned.

That trial had seen two very differ- ent sides to Collins. For the first 25 days of the case, she strolled around the Four Courts, displaying a phe- nomenal air of self-confidence. But her world came crashing down after she went into the witness box on day 26 – Tuesday, July 1. That was the day that Una Ni Raifeartaigh’’s cross- examination tore Collins to shreds. Yet, she continued to display confi- dence and mettle throughout the first bout of probing. However, when she returned to the court the following morning, for the remainder of the cross-examination, what she present- ed was a shadow of her former self. Gone was the confidence; replaced only by streaming tears. The bra- vado had evaporated and the worry emerged.

Remarkably, Collins remained pale-faced for the remaining days of the trial and she never again regained her composure as the dramatic finale took its course.

But Wednesday showed an amaz- ing turnaround. Gone was the strain; the smiles had returned. The com- manding Collins was back; the se- riousness of the situation she finds herself in apparently to the back of the mind.

Psychological reports have been carried out on her over the summer by Dr Brian Glanville, at her new abode in the prison. These will fo- cus on her outlook in the wake of her convictions.

Dr Glanville’s reports, along with character references, will be present- ed to Mr Justice Roderick Murphy as he hands down sentence on Novem- ber 3. Collins faces up to ten years in jail on each of the six charges on which she was convicted.

STEPHEN Cunningham cut a com- posed figure for much of this county semi-final — standing on the sideline there wasn’t much motion out of him, even if he must have been put through the whole gamut of emotions over the OB eeb telecon

There was nothing to worry about in the early exchanges because Crush- een were the better team, old hands at county semi-finals these days and when they led by 0-5 to O-1 as half- time closed in, Cunningham possibly reflected on a job being well done.

Then it all changed — the pen- alty could have put Crusheen out of reach, but when it was missed and Clonlara tacked on two points before half-time it was as if Cunningham and company sensed that the black and amber tide was growing.

“The reality is,” said Cunningham afterwards, “that when you get ahead like that in a championship game as we were in the first half and you don’t punish them, you suffer. That’s what happened us and when we didn’t go further ahead at half-time Clonlara were always going to come back at Saas

And when they started coming, Cunningham was powerless to do anything about it, save throw in substitutes to try and change things around and also hope that Clonlara’s high tide ran its course.

Didn’t look like happening though.

Crusheen slipped behind when Conlon goaled, then as the minutes passed, the differential started to grow as wide as five points. By the last ten minutes Cunningham would have been forgiven if he thought that after five wins in-a-row, Crusheen’s

season was crashing in around them.

He was still composed though, and gradually as the comeback started he became more animated. And when Paddy Meaney crashed home the goal that put Crusheen ahead for the first time in 28 minutes, he raced on

to the field punching the air. Whatever his counterpart, the ani- mated Jimmy Gully can do, Cun- ningham can also do. “Credit our lads,” he said drawing breath. “They dug back in there and got the goal and got a draw when with a few minutes

it looked as if they were gone. With a few minutes left we would have set- tled for this. Clonlara are a fine out- fit, they’re on a serious roll and are very unlucky not to have come out of here with a win. We have another day out got, that’s the way we’re looking at it,” he added.

Then it was time to draw more breath and reflect some more on a tumultuous few minutes. “Things revisit you at times,’ said Cunning- ham in reference to Paddy Meaney’s missed chance in the 55th minute when he kicked the ball inches wide of Ger O’Connell’s right hand post from a distance of no more than sev- SIUM L TROLS

“But this time we had the time to come again and get another chance at goal. That famous day against Tulla we got a chance, but after we didn’t take it we didn’t have the time to come again. It means we have an- other chance. We’re still in it. I keep saying it, but the fact we’re in it is great. We’re not gone.”

With that Cunningham was gone — back to the dressing room to be with his players. Talk them through it, steel them for another day, start preparing for that day.

It could have been very different.

WHATEVER Kilmurry Ibrickane can do with the big ball, Newmar- ket-on-Fergus can do with the small ball.

That was the message announced to the hurling world in Cusack Park on Sunday afternoon as the storied Blues rolled back the years to when they were the most feared combina- tion in Clare hurling to reach only their second county final in 27 years with a sparkling display every bit as good as what the men from the bar- ony of Ibrickane produced against Kilkee.

Newmarket were beaten two years ago in the final by neighbours Wolfe Tones, but now the title is theirs to plunder. This was the general con- sensus of supporters leaving head- quarters after the weekend’s semi-fi- nal programme.

While Clonlara and Crusheen played out a draw in a game that only really touched the heights of qual- ity fare in a hectic finish, the Blues turned in a command performance in beating St Joseph’s Doora-Bare- field by 1-20 to 3-7.

A seven-point differential, but truth told,this was a hammering as a very disappointing St Joseph’s side only made the final scoreline look respect- able when they closed out the game with goals in the 58th and 62nd min- utes of a very one-sided encounter.

“It’s great to be in a final,” said Newmarket-on-Fergus manager D1- armuid O’ Leary afterwards. O’ Leary, who assumed the management reins at Newmarket last year after a string

of under 21 successes, is now on the cusp of delivering a senior title to the most decorated club in Clare for the first time in nearly three decades.

Newmarket won the last of their 22 titles in 1981, but O’Leary, mind- ful of the club’s failure to deliver in the 2006 final and the quarter-final against Tulla last year was taking nothing for granted.

‘“There’s no medals for today,” he warned as the reflected on his side’s best display of they year.

Meanwhile, Newmarket will have to wait until next Saturday to know who their county final opponents will be, after Crusheen and Clonlara drew 1-10 apiece in Saturday’s open- ing semi-final.

“We’re still in it,’ said Crusheen manager Stephen Cunningham after his side came from five points adrift in the closing eight minutes to win another day out.

“With three minutes to go we should have gone on and won, but we let it slip,’ said Cunningham’s coun- terpart Jim Gully. “But when they got the goal we showed great character to come back to get the equaliser.”

If Newmarket play Crusheen in the final it will be a repeat of the 1974 decider, which the Blues won on a scoreline of 1-6 to 2-2.

A Clonlara/Newmarket final would be their first final match-up since the East Clare final of 1936 that doubled as a county semi-final.

The Blues won that day.

THERE was at least one wag in Hen- nessy Memorial Park on Sunday — wag in the sense of the dictionary meaning of the word that is (he or she who gossips about something as opposed to wives or girlfriends).

This wag spoke about the Kilmihil backroom team for 2008. He was ob- viously in Michael Cusacks’ corner because when leaving the ground after the ballgame was over he re- marked: “look at them, they’re like the League of Nations with who they have over them”.

Of course, it’s not the first time that the term has been used in Clare — they said it about the famous Ennis

Faughs team of the 1940s and ‘50s; they even said it about the last Lis- cannor team to win a senior champi- onship in 1940.

And, it’s true that the Kilmihil backroom team takes in a few differ- ent counties. Manager Mick Darby is an Offaly man; trainer/coach Dave Loughman is Cork; his sidekick John Hickey is Kerry.

Tommy Lyons, not to be con- fused with the Mayoman of Offaly and Dublin renown is Moneypoint man like Darby. That leaves local man Michael Keating – the veteran of many a battle for Kilmihil. You know where the disgruntled Michael Cusack’s man got his League of Na- tions from though.

It was very harsh though — Darby is as much Kilmihil as Rhode in Of- faly. Anyway, it’s the players out on the field that won this county final on the day, not the coalition of far-flung football minds off it.

Darby said as much as everyone around him started to celebrate. ““We started training on January 8. We have ten months done at this stage. All credit to the players. They put a fantastic effort in all year. This 1s their they day, they have been abso- lutely brilliant.

“They bonded hugely. They were going to stay working together for each other as a unit. They weren’t go- ing to lie down.

“The big thing that wins final is

character and I think the players showed a lot of that out there today,” he added.

Sure, it was too close for comfort near the end as Cusack’s ate into Kilmihil’s four-point lead, but ac- cording to Darby it was never going to be any other way.

“There was very little in it. It was very close. It was a dour battle and a battle all the way. The football was heavy going — there was nothing free, nothing easy given and we were just lucky to come out of it in the end.

“Cusack’s don’t give up. I said it during the week. They battled with 14 men against Clondegad. We knew this was never going to be over until the last whistle. They were going to

be fighting right to the end.”

And, what of the future, after an intermediate title was brought to the parish for the first time since Caher- murphy won the title 50 years ago. Senior for 2009; back to where eve- ryone in Kilmihil feels they belong.

‘I hope they set a standard for our club for the future,” said Darby. “To even have a chance of success that’s the standard that has to be main- tained and nothing less will do. Be- fore today we were trying to hammer home to them that in the last two years we’ve been together for about five and a half months in total. That’s a huge effort and it was worth every bit of it to win. This is a day these lads will never forget.”

NOT many selectors can claim to have been involved in team that have won county championships at minor, junior ‘B’, intermediate and senior. John Hickey is one of the few, if not the only one. The Kerryman, who has been long since domiciled in Ennis has all these successes to his footballing CV. Indeed, Sunday’s intermediate success means that the

only titles of note outstanding are the under 21 and junior ‘A’ titles. And, he came close to the junior ‘A’ in ’96 when the Townies were beaten in the county final by St Senan’s, Kilkee. aU Umea mm eee mer: ttm ata e Eire Og — he guided the minors to back-to-back titles in 1992 and 93, the junior ‘B’ team to championship glory in ’95, while he won the senior championship in 2000.

That senior title was achieved in

tandem with Dave Loughman (who led Clarecastle to intermediate suc- cess in 1998), while Kilmihil’s Noel Normoyle was a selector. Eight years on he greeted this latest success with the same enthusiasm as all the other wins, even if he was keen to heap praise on others.

“I was only tagging on. It was Dave and Mick who did all the work,’ he said. “Really I was only tagging on with this team,” he added.

Shrewd judges will tell you oth- erwise — Hickey was a vital cog in Kilmihil’s 2008 machine, patrolling the line, knocking heads with Dave Loughman, Mick Darby and com- pany as Kilmihil tried desperately to break free of Michael Cusacks’ dogged challenge.

“It was a great game to be involved in,’ he reflected, “because anytime you get into a final and win is great. This game was in the balance up un-

til the last kick of the game. Michael Cusack’s battled very hard and we knew they would. But we battled as well and it was a great team per- formance. It takes 15 to 18 players, it could have been 20, to win any final. There was a circle there of about 26 to 28 players. They won it.” John Hickey played his part too.

CLARE farmers could soon be counting the benefits of a number of new bio-energy crops which could soon be filling the fields of the coun- ty. SWEGEN is a new farm initia- tive covering Clare as well as parts of Limerick and Kerry and aims to show farmers the opportunities available in the production of alter- native energy sources.

The group has reported receiving a large number of visitors to their stand at the Nation Ploughing Champion- ships, with farmers seeming keep to find out how to get their own bio-en- ergy crops Started.

“The high standards of work done by SWEGEN over the last year has

been reflected in the large volume of interested parties at this years Na- tional Ploughing Championships,’ said the Director with SWEGEN, Liam Browne.

‘There was also a fantastic level of interest from national media, prov- ing just how relevant bio fuels and their production are to the public and industry.”

SWEGEN is currently working in tandem with both the GEGA and GESCO organisations.

GEGA was established in 2006 to facilitate the production and process- ing of bio energy crops and fuels.

The GESCO Network’s primary focus is to establish viable long term green energy supply services and is essentially a country wide network of

Green Energy Service Companies.

Their main aim is to develop real business opportunities for rural com- munities in the developing green en- ergy market and to ensure that rural communities continue to benefit long term from energy production. GEGA has doubled its crop production in the last year and expect to do the same this year by keeping in line with their organisational strategy.

The GESCO Network has an ongo- ing, rapidly expanding Miscanthus development programme and _ this year saw the first of large-scale field trials of industrial hemp to establish its suitability and application as a Bi- omass Corp. The crops both flourish in the Irish climate and the support of GEGA means that crop growers

can maximise the quality of their produce.

SWEGEN meetings will run in the Clare region between the end of October and January of next year. For more check www.swegen.ie, e- mail info@swegen.ie or contact the GEGA office directly on 1890 232 POE

A STRONG, profitable and sustain- able future for our counties fishing industry is what Clare TD, and junior agriculture minister, Tony Killeen, was looking for at last weeks meet- ing of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Killeen was taking part in a discus- sion by ministers marked the start of the debate on the reform CFP, which will see a new policy in place by PAU

‘“T hope that the debate on the CFP will lead to a simplified policy for all the stakeholders concerned. How- ever, I will not support a policy that promotes the concentration of ac- tivity and benefits in the hands of a small number of large companies,”

he said.

“Our aim is for a policy, which maximises the development of all our coastal communities, and for this reason it is vital that quotas and their management are retained under na- tional competence and not moved to a market based mechanism.

“T strongly argued that restrictive days at sea were not necessary for the Celtic Sea south and west coast fish- eries. I argued that alternative meas- ures such as closed areas to protect spawning stock could be as effec- tive.” Ireland also hosted a meeting in Brussels last week on its initia- tive for a pilot project on eliminating discards in fisheries. The meeting brought together the European Com- mission as well as representatives of France and the UK.

“This 1s one of my key priorities as discarding of fish at sea is an 1s- sue which needs to be tackled im- mediately and I am pleased that to- day’s meeting advanced the proposal which I presented to Commissioner Borg recently,” he said.

“T am hopeful that the Commission will consider carefully the detail of our proposed scheme which seeks to work in partnership with industry on providing incentives to reduce the current unacceptable level of dis- cards.”

Meanwhile, Minister Killeen, also last week launched a new online service, Integrated Forest Informa- tion System (IFORIS) Internet.

The new service will allow ap- proved foresters and forestry compa- nies to track online the processing of

Forestry applications that have been submitted to the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

‘The service is the first phase of a planned development for IFORIS In- ternet. The second phase will enable foresters and forestry companies to submit pre-approval applications online on behalf of their clients,’ he nLOe

“This will streamline admuinistra- tion issues for foresters and the For- est Service. The provision of online access to IFORIS for approved for- esters via the Internet is one of the eGovernment initiatives being un- dertaken by the Department as part of its current IT Strategy, and under- pins its commitment to the delivery of improved online services.”

THE Armada Hotel in Spanish Point will become a refuge from the woes and worries of the economic reces- sion next week-end when guests will be treated to a “Recession Escape” break on the Clare coast.

Guests will be asked to leave their recession gloom at the front door as they arrive for a weekend with a number of unique events lined up on Friday and Saturday, October 10 and 11, with a repeat planned for Novem- ber 21 and 22.

The Recession Escape programme will include an in-house newspaper, “Armada News’, which will feature only positive news and ensuring that guests start the day with the ‘feel good’ factor as they enjoy a cham- pagne breakfast

Internal news broadcasts through- out the day will be presented by members of the hotel staff includ-

ing a chef and housekeeper with real news, but good news. A Fortune Tell- er will read palms before dinner and predict all that is positive and happy. Every hour will be Happy Hour over the weekend with pints of Guinness reduced to pre-Celtic Tiger prices.

Guests will receive a gift of an in- spirational book with the Atlantic ocean as their perfect reading back- drop. There will also be complimen- tary advice from a personal trainer who will ensure that guests leave the hotel with a spring in their step

Price of the two-night stay, includ- ing dinner in the Pearl restaurant, is €159 per person and guests will be asked to leave the mobiles and black- berry’s off as well!!

AN Taisce has joined the campaign to stop Dublin taking water from the Shannon.

North Tipperary branch spokes- man Paddy Mackey – who is also a member of the Save Our Lough Derg (SOLD) group – has warned that ex- tracting water for Dublin could seri- ously threaten fish plants and other species.

A controversial proposal to extract water from the Shannon system to help meet the capital’s needs has met with mixed reactions.

Last week, when Clare County councillors discussed the proposal, ClUlr Colm Wiley(FF) said that Clare should “help Dublin out if the water is needed. We could use any compen- sation money paid to drain farmland that is under water and put as much back again into the system”.

Mr Mackey described the proposed water extraction as “a smash and grab raid..while we are the ones left with the responsibility of trying to protect the ecological quality of Lough Derg and achieve good water quality by the 2015 deadline set under the EU water Framework Directive.”