Month: October 2008

THERE were a few years there when it looked as if the golden generation of Kilmurry Ibrickane footballers that were farmed and nurtured on Pairc Naomh Mhuire in Quilty were letting the best years of their sport- ing lives pass them by.

They were the supposed bluebloods — the most richly talented group of underage players ever produced by a club in the county, but a harvest that had failed to deliver ever since throwing away a glorious opportuni- ty to reach the All-Ireland Club final welt ey

That February day in Pearse Sta- dium, Kilmurry Ibrickane should have beaten Ballina Stephenites in the All-Ireland semi-final, but when they didn’t deliver on their All-Ire- land potential they seemed to stop delivering on their own stage back home in Clare.

Until October 19, 2008 that is.

This was the day that a band of brothers in green and red finally stood up and delivered a county title back to the barony of Ibrickane. It’s true that in the four years since their last championship success they’ve produced some stunning displays of “Total Football’, but as the Dutch found out in ’°74, ‘Total Football’ doesn’t necessarily win silverware.

The “Total Football’ came in the semi-final win over St Senan’s Kil- kee, but that counted for nothing

until the Jack Daly Cup was brought back to Mullagh, Coore and Quilty.

As captain Shane Hickey put it from Cusack Park’s Ard Comhairle when accepting the cup, “the Jack Daly has wandered around from parish to par- ish for the last four years but its back to where it belongs tonight”.

It was hard to argue when you con- sider that Kilmurry Ibrickane have been unbeaten this year. And, they’re not finished yet as the prospect of a Munster Club final appearance opens out before them.

“We’re really looking forward to Munster,” said a jubilant Kilmurry Ibrickane manager Micheal McDer- mott minutes after the final whistle. ‘““Kilmurry have a great tradition in Munster, they were in a final in the early 90 and then they won it the last time they came out of Clare in 2004. That’s the aim for this team. We’ll enjoy the next few days and then start focussing on the next game. That’s what we’ve done with all games this year. It’s been from one game to the next.”

You believe McDermott, except you think that the celebrations back in the barony of Ibrickane might last longer than just a few days.

They’ll last for the week.

BLACK and amber as well as blue and gold colours have been affixed to the Canon Hamilton Cup this week.

All in readiness for the big day out When the senior championship cup will sit on its perch in Cusack Park’s Ard Comhairle, waiting to be taken home by either Newmarket-on-Fer- gus or Clonlara.

The colours will have an extra sig- nificance this year — all because of Canon Michael Hamilton, the col- ourful cleric who in a long, distin- guished and sometimes controversial

GAA career ruled the Clare County Board with an iron fist, commentated on an All-Ireland football final for Radio Eireann and famously brought the 1947 All-Ireland football final to New York.

It’s 39 years since Canon Hamilton fell 11] during a county final between Clarecastle and Newmarket-on-Fer- gus in Cusack Park and later died in Ennis General Hospital, but he’d loved to have lived to see the day when Newmarket-on-Fergus and Clonlara clashed in a county final.

You see, Hamilton was a man of both Clonlara and Newmarket-on-

Fergus. Born and reared in Clonlara; parish priest in Newmarket-on-Fer- gus for many years. He was in Trea- cys Field in O’Callaghan’s Mills when Clonlara beat Scariff in the °19 final; he was there for most of New- market’s triumphs from the ‘20s to the ‘60s; he would have seen the East Clare final between the two in Fr Murphy Park in ’36, but the day he would have yearned for most of all would be Clonlara v Newmarket-on- Fergus for his cup in Cusack Park. On leaving Clare to take up a new clerical post in Nenagh in 1956, Hamilton showed that modesty

wasn’t part of his make-up, by buy- ing acup, naming it after himself and presenting it to the county board for the senior hurling championship.

It was as important to him as the the Polo Grounds All-Ireland — but a contest between Clonlara and Newmarket for his cup would have definitely put Polo Grounds men like John Joe O’Reilly, Joe Keohane, Mick Higgins and Paddy Kennedy in the shade.

Clonlara have never been Canon Hamilton contenders, apart from the contribution from Colm Honan and co to the St Senan’s team beaten by

Newmarket in the 1972 final; the Blues meanwhile filled their former parish priest’s cup 13 times from 1963 to 81.

Sixty minutes on Sunday will see where the Canon Hamilton gets its first fill of drink. Clonlara? Newmar- ket-on-Fergus?

Wherever it is, it’s true to say that the Canon Hamilton will be going home.

FINE Gael Town Councillor Johnny Flynn has been nominated to contest the Ennis East electoral area in the upcoming county council elections.

Initially it had been suggested that Cllr Flynn, who is also nominated to contest the Ennis Town Council elec- tion, would be nominated to contest both Ennis East and Ennis west.

At the Fine Gael convention on Fri- day night, sitting Fine Gael county councillors Sonny Scanlon and Paul Murphy were also nominated unop-

posed to contest the election in Ennis west.

Cllr Scanlon is no stranger to the hustings, but it will be the first coun- ty council election contested by Cllr Murphy who was seconded to the local authority last year when Joe Carey was elected to the Dail.

Tony Mulqueen is currently the sole campaigner in Ennis West for Fine FTO E

Sources close to the party have said that once all of the conventions are over, Fine Gael hopes to add another name to the Ennis West ticket and

the Shannon Electoral area.

Meanwhile, Mr Mulqueen is look- ing forward to representing the party in the new electoral area of Ennis west.

“TI will stand for the interests and needs of the people of the Ennis area, be it Ennis Town, Inch, Kilmaley, Toonagh Kilnamona or Barefield,” he told delegates.

This Government needs to get a clear message from the people of Ennis West and Clare that we have had enough. We have had enough of empty promises, we want action not

spin,” he added.

Last night in Killaloe under the chairmanship of North Tipperary Counciller Phil Butler, newcomer Pat Burke from Whitegate was nominat- ed beside the two sitting councillors – Joe Cooney and John McInerney to contest the Killalloe area for Fine FTO E

On Monday, November 3, the En- nistymon area Fine Gael convention will take place. Sitting councillors Joe Arkins and Martin Conway were the only names put forward when nominations closed.

RESIDENTS of an entire terrace in Ennis have taken the unusual step of seeking to have their homes zoned for commercial development to in- crease their market value.

The owners of 33 homes along Steele’s Terrace, opposite the court- house and Fairgreen, have lodged a submission with Clare County Coun- cil to have their homes rezoned to

allow small-scale commercial activ- ity take place and have employed a planning consultant to advance their case.

In a comprehensive submission, the council has been told that when Steele’s Terrace was originally zoned for residential purposes, the houses were occupied by indigenous fami- Wty

This is not the case today as most of the houses are rented to transient

occupiers so the need to retain resi- dential usage for families is not as great. A small number of the houses are used as medical offices since the early 1990s.

“The terrace is now on the town- side of a substantial retail land use at Sheil’s and beside prime land at Kelly’s corner which will be redevel- oped for commercial purposes. It is also opposite the courthouse, which has been redeveloped.

‘The general pattern of the develop- ment has changed substantially over the last number of years and there is a local demand for small offices for solicitors, accountants similar to Bindon Street.

‘The houses in Steele’s Terrace are old and were built to different resi- dential expectations. They cannot compete with modern purpose built residential acccommodation from the point of view of bedroom space, toilet accommodation, general stor- age and living space.

‘The terrace is part of the archi- tectural heritage of the town and its use for office/residential accommo- dation would not adversely impact on this designation. A similar situa- tion obtains in Bindon Street and the character of the street has not been compromised by its commercial land use.

The planner’s report on the rezon- ing application states that “rezoning to permit commercial uses would in effect be extending the town centre along a 300 metre finger of develop- ment fronting the Gort Road. The draft plan has already rezoned two terraces on Carmody Street to permit commercial uses suited to this type of property”’.

The report concludes that the ter- race be retained for predominantly residential use.

SW elemnterDme(crersCoIROemseomerrlncu ens be made by members of Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council.

ELEVATED levels of lead have been discovered in the water supply of three new areas of Ennis. The ar- eas identified by testing carried out by Clare County Council last week are in premises in Bank Place, St Michael’s Villas and Old Limerick Road (off the Clare Road, from Cap- tain Macs Cross to Daly’s garage). According to Clare County Council repeat samples will be taken in all of the above locations to verify results as well as at Patrick Street (Clarecas-

tle), Marian Avenue and Connolly Villas in Ennis.

It brings to eight the number of are- as identified as having problems with the water supply since discovery of elevated lead levels in parts of the County two weeks ago.

David Timlin, Director of Serv- ice with Clare County Council said, ‘Marian Avenue is a particular case in point because of its lead distribu- tion pipes, so residents there have been advised not to drink the water”.

According to Mr Timlin, “Clare County Council will continue to

follow EPA guidelines and will be carrying out surveys to identify loca- tions of concernso that an action plan for the county can be prepared”. He added, information updates will be issued as the current water results are verified by the testing programme. In a statement, the council said re- placement of lead mains has been ongoing over the past few years. The council said that replacing these will take a number of years and consider- able investment. The council also in- dicated that some home owners may have to foot the bill to replace lead

piping stating that ‘Pre-early 1960s premises will also need to investi- gate their own internal plumbing installation and consider replacing any lead services or fittings that are within their own property’.

The advice for homeowners re- mains to run a sink full from the cold water tap in the kitchen, particularly first thing in the morning or if the water has been unused in the pipes for longer than six hours. Consumers particularly at risk of any adverse ef- fects of lead in water include children under six, and pregnant women.

A RELIGIOUS order is bidding to add millions of euro to the value of its property outside Newmarket-on- Fergus by applying to Clare County Council to have 32.5 acres rezoned for housing.

The Sisters of Charity of the In- carnate Word are seeking to have a sizeable portion of their landbank at Carrigoran rezoned for residential use.

The order purchased Carrigoran from the Fitzgerald family in 1925 and since 1974 have operated a 116 bed retirement centre, including a 20

bed dementia unit.

The centre is run on a not-for-profit basis and receives no direct state funding. With the Newmarket-on- Fergus by-pass, the lands at Carrig- oran have been cut in two and the nuns are seeking a large proportion of their lands on the Newmarket side of their landbank to be rezoned.

The submission states that the nuns own 95 acres, including 22 acres of Lough Gash and are seeking that 32.5 acres be rezoned for housing and 40 acres for open space.

The order has employed well- known architects, Murray O’Laoire to lodge a comprehensive submis-

sion which claims that the 72 acres of land on the Newmarket side of the by-pass was zoned for community use without consulting the existing landowner.

The submission states that this was done “apparently at the behest of a third party who had no proprietary interest in the land but who had an interest in developing portion of the lands for community use”

The submission argues that the area zoned for community use is dispro- tortionate to the scale of Newmarket and way beyond planned or projected need. The zoning also places a gross- ly unfair burden on the owner to pro-

vide such a disproportionate area of land for the benefit of community.

Making the case for the rezoning, the submission states that if the land is zoned as residential and open space it will help Newmarket-on-Fergus at- tract the critical mass of population required within the gateway corridor and allow the town grow commer- cially, socially and within a sustain- able framework.”

It is now up to councillors to decide if the lands should be rezoned or not. However, in a blow to the nuns’ pros- pects, council planners have opted to retain the ‘community zoning’ in the draft plan presented to council.

A PLAN to manage and protect the quality of water in the Shannon and it’s lakes will have major effects on OCAVo) Co) o) eater LMU DOME Duct KMmIelUKOlUNNC MMH ETc waterways, mid-west representatives have been told.

Work on the plan has been on-go- ing for six years and a draft plan will be ready for December with a six- month public consultation period to follow.

But while initial details of the pro- posal will be available from then, concerns are mounting in the region

over a Separate proposal to drain wa- ter from the Shannon to help meet demand in Dublin.

A meeting of the Mid-West Re- gional Authority last week was told that “major changes” in relation to future development along the shores of the Shannon can be expected.

‘There could be no development in some areas,’ RPS consulting engi- neer, Alan G Barr told the meeting.

He added than an embargo on de- velopment in some areas will have to be addressed in terms of zoning by the Clare County Council and other local authorities involved.

Water purity testing has been car- ried out in the river by the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency since 2006 and this is one of the main parameters being used in formulat- ing the proposals for protecting the Shannon.

The plan is expected to recom- mend having protected areas along the banks of the river and the shores of lakes. Other recommendations are thought to include a ban on forestry, going as far as the removal of exist- ing trees and set-aside of agricultural land. Meanwhile, elected representa- tives in Clare have been expressing

varied views on the proposal to take water from the Shannon and deliver it to Dublin.

Cllr Colm Wiley said at a meeting of the county council that the author- ity could “take any compensation money and use it to drain farm land which is flooded for most of the year in Clare”’.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said that the reality for Dublin is that there are just two options “one is distillation which is too costly and the other is to take water from the Shannon. This will significantly affect the levels of water in the Shannon”.

BRENDAN Smith record as Minis- ter for Agriculture has been placed under the spotlight in the fall out from last week early budget. With the farming organisations in agree- ment that farmers took the hardest hit of all sectors in the budget, Fine Gael have labelled Minister Smith as ‘the weakest link’ around the cabinet table.

Speaking in the aftermath of Tues- day’s budget, the minister pointed to the €3.2 billion that would be spent on supporting the farming, food, fisheries and forestry next year.

This will be cold comfort to many farmers with overall spending down by 2.6 per cent and payments to dis-

advantaged areas and the suckler cow schemes facing reductions while no new applications would be accepted for the Early Retirement and Young Farmer Installation Schemes.

More worringly, the IFA now be- lieve that there will be a shortfall of €400 million in farm schemes next year.

IFA leader Padraig Walshe said the budget was particularly damaging to the drystock sector and disadvan- taged areas.

Meanwhile, ICSA president Mal- colm Thompson said that there was a sense of shock and horror that farmers were being made to bear the brunt of cutbacks in the Department of Agriculture.

“Minister Smith gave us the im-

pression from his statement that the priority was spending on the produc- tive capacity of the agri-food sector,’ said Mr Thompson. “The reality is that those at the cold face of pro- ductivity, the farmers, were the ones feeling the pain.”

Despite the general negative senti- ment, Clare TD and Minster of State in the Department of Agriculture, Tony Killeen, pointed to a number of positives.

“While there are reductions in the budgets of the Marine Institute, BIM and the SFPA, the seafood process- ing sector, which is recognised by Dr Noel Cawley in his “Steering A New Course Report” as a growth area, has doubled its budget,” he said.

“A further €1.46 million has been

set aside specifically to support com- pliance of fisheries and aquaculture with respect to activities in Natura 2000 sites.

In addition to this €5 million has been made available for aquacul- ture development while funding has been provided to enable the success- ful completion of the current De- commissioning of Fishing Vessels Scheme.

“I welcomed the prospect of the synergies and opportunities that will result from the integration of seafood marketing and promotion with the State’s food marketing body, Bord Bia, while BIM will retain the over- all role in driving the Cawley Report on the development of the Irish sea- food industry,” he said.

YOUNG Clare farmers will have plenty to talk about as they make their way to the Macra National Ral- ly which takes place in Galway this weekend.

Last week, chairman of Macra na Feirme’s Agricultural Affairs com- mittee, Eddie O’Donnell described the decision to suspend the Young Farmer Installation Aid scheme as a move “beyond belief” for young Veto ne

“Suspending a scheme that is 42 per cent EU co-funded and agreed under Social Partnership to run from 2007 to 2013 at a total budget of 68 million is totally contrary to the Government’s policy of supporting

young farmers starting out in agri- culture,” he said.

“The Government is supporting Start up business in this budget with tax breaks, yet the Government is taking away supports for start up businesses in the one industry that is the backbone of the rural economy.”

According to O’Donnell there are many young farmers who are in the process of taking over farms or start- ing up in their own right and were making preparations to apply to the No slot alen

Meanwhile, National President, Catherine Buckley, welcomed the re- newal of Stamp Duty and Stock Re- lief in last weeks budget which she said will continue to be of benefit to young farmers.

“The extension of Stamp Duty re- lief up to 2013 is a crucial incentive in encouraging the early transfer of land to committed and progressive young trained farmers,’ she said.

‘The exemption is worth nearly 20 million per annum to young farmers and will be worth million over the lifetime of the renewal.”

Young Clare farmers will travel in force to the Macra na Feirme annual conference, or ‘Rally’ as it 1s more fondly known, which takes place in Salthill this weekend.

The conference will be officially launched by Minister for Agriculture, Brendan Smith, on Friday evening while a major highlight will be the Bord Bia Beef and Sheep Stock judg- ing Finals, which are being held in

Mountbellew Agriculture College.

Mid Clare Macra club will rep- resent County Clare in The Farm- ers Journal Know Your Agriculture Quiz Final, followed by a black and white theme night.

A host of activities will take place all weekend with a number of Clare clubs taking part.

Brendan Collins from The Bur- ren Macra club is in the final 12 for the Best New Member Competition while Mid Clare Macra Club will represent County Clare in The Na- tional Finals of Ladies and Gents Football which will be held on Sun- day in NUI, Galway.

For more information on Clare Macra, please contact Rose on 086 3169785. www.macra.ie

CLARE County Council has claimed that it had no option but to apply for the committal of a Crusheen pen- sioner, when he continued to deny it access to his land for necessary works.

In a statement the local authority said that at all times it “endeavoured to reach agreement” with Oliver Clune on the purchase price of land it was to acquire under a compulsive purchase order.

It said it “commenced the arbitra- tion process to resolve this issue which will result in an independent assessment of the property value.

The access issue is now within the control of the Court.”

The council came into contact with the Crusheen farmer as part of its proposal to provide a road link be- tween the Gort Road and the Tulla Road in Ennis.

The purpose of this road is to 1m- prove significantly traffic flows in the Northern area of the town and also provide “safe and proper access to the Shannon Development Informa- tion Age Park” located at the Gort Neyer

To carry out this project that council said it had to acquire approximately 1.7 acres of land from Mr Clune.

“Negotiations took place with Mr.

Clune regarding purchase price and other matters. Unfortunately, agree- ment could not be reached on the purchase price. In addition to the disagreement on purchase price Mr Clune also disagreed in principle with the provision of his land as detailed for the purpose of Phase I of the road network,’ the council spokesperson said.

The council then moved to Com- pulsory Purchase powers to acquire the necessary lands from the land- owner in June 2005.

The Compulsory Purchase Order was confirmed on August 26, 2005.

The council was still seeking to agree a purchase price with Mr

Clune.

The council requested that the mat- ter be referred to arbitration and the arbitration process in relation to the purchase price is still underway as far as Clare County Council is con- Ou iere

“In pursuance of the councils statu- tory duty as Road Authority the council decided to enter on the lands in December 2007 for the purpose of measurement and survey. Council employees were prevented from car- rying out the work by the landown- er,’ said the spokesperson.

The council tried to enter the land in January this year and again in March.

‘As this was resulting in consider- able time delay and unnecessary ex- penditure of public funds the council had no option but to seek a Court Order preventing Mr Clune, his serv- ants or agents from interfering with the legitimate work of the council. This order was duly granted by the Circuit Court on April 24, 2008,” said the local authority.

The council again sought to en- ter the lands in May 2008 but were again prevented from doing so.

“At this point the council, and in ac- cordance with due legal process had no option but to apply to the Circuit Court for an Order of Committal for Mr Clune,’ the council said.