Month: July 2009

A MAN who was taken into custody for arriving in court half an hour late was found not guilty of theft by order co) rei Le rexes ;

Judge Sean O Donnabhain told defendant Patrick Murphy (20) of Tiermanna, Mullagh that he had “no right to keep the members of the jury waiting.” The judge ordered him to be taken into custody when he ar- rived at llam for a case which was due to go ahead at 10.30 am.

Mr Murphy told the judge that he had to “thumb a lift” into court and that was why he was late.

He was before the circuit court on a charge of stealing a mobile phone valued €200 in Mullagh on January 4 last. But when the case was due to start, Stephen Coughlan, BL for the State, asked that the woman who made the complaint about the theft, Fiona Hoey, be called.

Mr Coughlan said that she had not been seen in the court and was not answering her mobile, although she had been contacted by gardai. As she was the only witness for the State in the case, the judge directed the jury that he should be found not guilty.

SOURCES at Element Six have thrown doubt on the company’s ex- planation for why it is shedding the jobs in manufacturing.

The company announced last week that it is to close its manufacturing and distribution activities in Shan- non while retaining positions in high Skill areas such as R&D, Global Cus- tomer Services and Group support.

In a statement, the company said that the “decision is the result of a comprehensive strategic review of

Element Six’ global manufacturing operations to improve cost competi- tiveness and secure the group’s long- term future. The Shannon operation is the highest cost manufacturing site in the Element Six Group.

“Despite a series of cost reduction programmes in the past few years, continued production at the Shannon site is no longer sustainable or viable, and the primary business it serves is loss-making. The current economic downturn has simply served to exac- erbate these challenges.”

But sources at the company argue

that there will be no savings in real terms for the company by moving manufacturing to South Africa.

“There are skilled workers here who can turn out better and more work per hour than can ever be ex- pected if the company moves to South Africa, where workers don’t have the skill and experience of the Shannon workers.

“How can there be savings if they are getting less productivity and poorer quality?” one source asked,,.

He added that while workers who were on short time have now been

brought back on to the payroll full- time pending the talks between man- agement and unions on Wednesday, “we have been on half time and half wages for a long time now.

“There’s €10 million worth of business on our books at the moment and, even with that business, we had people on short time. We had way less than that in the past and we were still working full-time.

“We even had a bonus scheme up to March of last year. People do not accept that this is a means of saving money for the company.”

A SHARK-ATTACK on the famous Claret Jug was planned in west Clare last week as new British Open cham- pion Steward Cink (pictured below) and two-time champion Greg Nor- man held court in Doonbeg.

Cink made the Doonbeg Lodge his home for the four days leading up to his historic British Open victory in Turnberry on Sunday, acclimatising to links conditions by playing Doon- beg, Lahinch and Ballybunion.

The American, who _ yesterday named Lahinch and Doonbeg as his favourite courses in Ireland, spent much of his non-playing time in Clare chatting with the Norman, who designed the course in Doonbeg.

Cink was very impressed with the condition of the two Clare courses.

“Played Doonbeg yesterday with the kids. Their first links. Course blew away my expectations. Only eight years old and looks ancient,” he posted on his Twitter account last NW istel @

During his time in Clare, Cink and his family also visited Miltown Mal- bay and the Cliffs of Moher.

According to John Dooley, Golf Professional at Doonbeg Golf Course, Cink and Norman were as thick as thieves in Doonbeg.

“It was really cool, Greg [Norman] was over here at the time and him- self and Stewart got on very well. They talked a lot a spent a lot of time together, I’m sure Greg might have been giving him a few tips about how to approach the Open,” he said.

‘He was down to get the feel for links golf and it certainly did that. He very much enjoyed the courses that he played over here. He said that he had a particular liking for the Ist and 18th here in Doonbeg and he also enjoyed the different elevations at Lahinch and Ballybunion.”

Cink captured his first major title on Sunday by defeating five-time champion, 59-year-old Tom Watson, in a four-hole play-off.

COLM Bonnar has won everything in the game but in all his years of playing and managing, has never had to endure the tension of a champion- ship relegation battle. However, that is what befalls his Wexford side this weekend as they prepare to take on Clare in Portlaoise.

All four sides are in unison in their aversion of the new system that pro- poses to relegate one side from the McCarthy Cup for 2010 but Wexford have good reason for their outrage as the Leinster side actually won a game in the championship against fellow relegation rivals Offaly before going down narrowly to Dublin and then Limerick in their subsequent outings. And the Tipperary native in only his first season in charge can- not fathom why the GAA are intent on punishing any side when instead, they should be promoting the game in these counties.

‘Really the players cannot under- stand why they have been brought down into a relegation battle after

winning our first game against Of- faly and were in a Leinster semi-fi- nal. Having said that, that’s what the rule is, even though we thought that the GAA would show sense and not ask any of the four teams to play in a relegation battle as there are so few teams playing for the McCarthy Cup. It’s just ridiculous in the extreme and when we actually get together for the first time this evening (Tuesday), I’m sure that the response will be very poor because there is huge apathy for these games. “When you see the foot- ball championship and they have the likes of London and New York into the Sam Maguire and here we have four hurling teams battling to avoid relegation. Antrim are doing so much work up north to try and keep hurl- ing alive and it’s encouragement and promotion they need rather than be hit like this. The other three teams, Wexford, Offaly and Clare are the only teams outside of the top three that have actually won All-Irelands in the last fifteen years. It just doesn’t make sense, I don’t know why they are forcing this on the players. The

players are just so disillusioned themselves having to play this, hav- ing just been beaten in the qualifiers. They were trying to get as far as they could in the McCarthy Cup and that was only a week and a half ago and to ask the players now to play a rel- egation series with the bottom side going down to the Christy Ring Cup is just an absolute joke.

“Clare are now in a similar boat to us in the sense that they have gone down to Division 2 and those games are not worth a shite to anyone. If they are trying to do anything for hurling, they should keep 14 or 15 teams together and let them try to promote it among each other. They just seem to want to go for an elite eight or ten teams for the McCarthy Cup and that’s it which is a crazy, crazy system and they are saying that they want to promote hurling in oth- er counties. I still can’t get my head around it.”

So caught up with the will they- won’t they scenario surrounding the Antrim situation, Bonnar hasn’t had time to conentrate on his opponents

Clare but after the sides met in a chal- lenge game before the championship, he admits that this game could really go either way.

“IT haven’t even thought one bit about the game really because [| al- ways thought that the GAA were going to see sense and that com- mon sense would prevail even up to last Saturday evening. I thought that surely something would happen that these four teams are not going to partake in this competition. We would have played Clare in Rathnure six weeks ago before both played the first championship matches. We know Clare are a tough physical team, they are strong, very fit and hugely commited and from what I gather, Wexford always had trouble playing Clare and their type of hurl- ing. We are rebuilding after we lost a lot of players through injuries and retirements and they are a huge loss and it’s kind of telling on us in terms of losing tight games. As regards Clare, they are disappointed with the year being relegated to Division 2 and did well enough against Tipp,

coming back and giving themselves a chance of going for an equaliser and then I would have given them genuine hope of beating Galway in Ennis but Galway did well again on the day. So nobody really knows the strength of Wexford or Clare hurling at the moment and this competition isn’t helping anyway, that’s for sure. You won’t see their best in this com- petition.”

With the clock ticking down though and Wexford now actually embroiled in the relegation series, Bonnar is de- termined that they must finish their campaign this weekend, rather than leaving it to the lottery of a final rel- See elem OE h are) ee

“Undoubtedly, the sooner you are out of this competition the better and the only way of doing that is to win the first game because at this stage, players just want to get back to their clubs. The ideal scenario for either team if this game is forced upon them is to win that game and you don’t have to worry about it anymore because if you don’t, it will just turn into a dogfight really.”

CLONLARAY’S season continued on an upward trend on Thursday when they held off fellow promotion rivals Eire Og to top the division and more importantly, qualify for the last four of the Clare Cup for the second suc- cessive year.

This latest victory was made all the more impressive by the fact that they had to do it without key players such as Nicky O’Connell, John Conlon and Donal Madden for this winner- takes-all clash that also came only twenty four hours after five of their players had played in the Munster

Under 21 championship semi-final against Limerick.

One of that contingent, Darach Ho- nan, was outstanding for the county on Wednesday and continued his rich vein of form here by scoring the two goals that eventually sunk a stubborn Eire Og side.

Clonlara raced into an early lead, with Honan’s goal pushing them 1-6 to 0-1 clear by the turn of the open- ing quarter but credit Eire Og for not dropping their heads as they fought back with the aid of a Damien Mc- Mahon goal to only trail by two at the break at 1-8 to 1-6.

SU et Tae oy liu tie K elem ONO ERE ILS restart but this time Eire Og actu- ally took a slender lead with only ten minutes remaining. However, the home side who had built up a 16 match unbeaten run before this tie, were not about to let the defence of their title falter at this late stage and duly responded with Honan grabbing 1-1 in a late flurry to send them into the last four and subject Eire Og to a promotion play-off with Whitegate.

BACK in 2000 Ger Loughnane made a special guest appearance at the July meeting of the Clare County Board in the West County Hotel as a denouement to retirement after six years on the inter-county manage- ment carousel.

Loughnane addressed delegates and the county board top table that evening, in what was largely a night of mutual appreciation between eve- ryone in the hall and a celebration of all things Clare hurling.

Loughnane talked about the salad days, Clare’s unforgettable fire, how everyone worked together, how Mun- sters and All-Irelands were won and Ome er-l

However, there’s always a news line with Loughnane and there was that night in his final few words just before the appreciation of the crowd rained down on him.

“No tributes lads,’ he said. “Down to the future. Think of that and think of it fast,” he added.

Of course Loughnane was talking about the small ball, but he could have been talking about the big ball too.

Regardless of the code, there was no one listening – the results of which are where Clare GAA finds itself with its two flagship teams.

In football terms, things have never been so low – player indifference and a tacit acceptance of the county’s lot as being one of the worst in the coun- try is a damning indictment.

It shows up Clare as a football county totally lacking in ambition, pride and overall sense of purpose that goes hand-in-hand with wearing a county jersey.

Individual pride from the likes of Conor Whelan, David Russell, Michael O’Shea and others in repre- senting their county is without ques- tion, but collectively, the bald facts of the matter are that Clare couldn’t muster even a handful of training sessions between the defeat to Lim- erick in Cusack Park on June 7 and the All-Ireland Qualifier against Donegal on July 13 in Ballybofey.

That’s simply not good enough and

is worse than all the poor perform- ances over the last few years put to- exons

And all this after Clare had shown enough in a first half display against Limerick in Cusack Park to suggest that there could be some light at the end of the tunnel.

There was a belief in their play when they ran at Limerick, but rather than take the positives from the game and try to come again in the Qualifi- ers, they collectively turned the other cheek.

Contrast this attitude to how teams like Sligo, Tipperary and Wicklow approached the Qualifiers. Tipperary got back to training under manager John Evans (surely a Kerry manager

of the future) after their defeat to Limerick in the Munster quarter-fi- nal, went up to Louth and beat them.

Then they served up a brilliant second half display against Sligo in Semple Stadium, only to come up short by a point. However, even in defeat they showed enough in 2009 to believe that they will contend for Munster titles in the coming years.

As for Sligo, they didn’t throw in the towel after being beaten by Gal- way in Connacht – after all, it would have been easy for this to happen as many of the team could have been sated with their Connacht medals from two years ago.

No, they came again and beat Tip- perary in Thurles and should have

beaten Kerry on Saturday in serving up the greatest championship per- formance against the bluebloods of the game in Tralee since Clare drew there in 1950.

And, as for Wicklow – another D1- vision 4 team like Clare and Sligo – not much needs to be said about their All-Ireland Qualifer wins over Cavan, Fermanagh and Down in Aughrim.

Mick O’Dwyer will suffice.

Looking at Sligo, Tipperary and Wicklow, even another Division 4 team like Antrim who were only six points adrift of Tyrone in an Ulster final shows what can be achieved if WAMBO MAS (use

At player level across the county,

not just among the players who never fail to answer the county’s call.

At administrative level when you actually have a county board that really, deep down, wants to achieve Wen betcace

The only consolation is that things were just as low when John Maughan took over the Clare team in the Au- tumn of 1990 – they had just been beaten by Waterford in the first round of the National League and only 13 players turned up for Maughan’s first training session in Crusheen.

Maughan came to that session wear- ing a Mayo jersey, but ceremoniously took it off in the dressing room and put on a Clare geansai.

“We were instilling a little bit of discipline and a small bit of direction and it took off,” said Maughan.

Time for another lift off, but as Ger Loughnane said, “Down to the future, think of that and think of it fast.”

It’s in Clare football’s own hands.

THE scoreline says it all really — this was as free-flowing a football game as one could hope to see as Clare stormed to a thrilling victory over the reigning All-Ireland champions thanks to a brilliant second half dis- ENE

Clare hit the net twice in the first half through Ailish Considine and Niamh O’Dea but still found them- Selves in arrears at the break, but there was no denying them on the turnover as goals by Aoife Murphy and Ailish Considine put them on the high road to an All-Ireland date against Donegal on August 2nd.

It was end-to-end stuff all through as the force was with each side at various intervals. Ailish Consid- ine’s eighth minute goal, which was quickly followed by points from Sa- rah Bohannon and Considine again gave Clare a three-point advantage by the 15th minute, but a Dublin pur- ple-patch that saw them hit 1-5 with- out reply in ten minutes turned this game on its head.

The goal came in the 22nd minute

when Rebecca Davey ran on to a long delivery and flicked the ball beyond Edel McMahon to the Clare net. It looked like giving Dublin a decisive half-time lead, but on the stroke of the interval Nimah O’Dea struck for a crucial goal that left them only a point adrift, it being 1-8 to 2-4 in Dublin’s favour.

It inspired Clare, but not before Sinead Cullen, the sister of Dublin senior star Bryan Cullen, tacked on the first point of the second half to edge her side two points ahead.

It was Clare’s second half goals that won the day — the first arrived eight minutes into the half when a high ball into the square from Sally Glynn led to consternation in the Dublin defence and allowed Aoife Murphy pounce for a goal.

Murphy added a point two minutes later to put Clare 3-5 to 1-9 ahead, before the Considine sisters from Kilmihil effectively put the game out of Dublin’s reach when hitting 1-3 in- side six minutes.

The goal came in the 39th minute when a penalty, awarded after the hugely effective Sarah Bohannon was

fouled in the area, was hammered to the net by Ailish Considine, while Eimear followed up with points in the 40th, 43rd and 45th minutes to put Clare 4-8 to 1-9 to the good.

Clare looked set to run out comfort- able winners but Dublin never said die and had the better of the scoring exchanges in the closing quarter, out- scoring Clare by 1-7 to 0-4 as they played catch up.

There were only three points be- tween them in the end, but Dublin’s goal came in injury time and just made the result more respectable from their point of view.

It puts Clare through to their first All-Ireland Minor A final in 18 years — they won back-to-back titles in 1990 and ’91 beat Dublin and Laois respectively.

FOURTEEN players representing Clare clubs will take their chance in the 108th South of Ireland Golf Championship that gets underway in Lahinch on Saturday. The strongest Clare field in the oldest of the provin- cial golf championships in a number of years will be headed by Lahinch’s Patrick Collier,

Meanwhile, Ennis’ Noel Pyne will continue his remarkable associa- tion with the event by competing in his 47th consecutive championship when he goes into action against Doneraile’s Damien Carey on Satur- CR ham enlewenterce

Pyne is one of ten of the Clare con- tingent in action in the first round — the others are Mark Feane (La- hinch), Patrick Sheehy (Lahinch), Cathal O’Connor (Woodstock), Tho- mas Neenan (Lahinch), Padraig Mc- Grath (Dromoland), Ian Morrison (Lahinch), Ed Hickey (Shannon), Ni- all Woods (Dromoland) and Patrick OO liome Re

Collier is one of six former cham- pions in the 192-strong field for the 2009 event — the others are Barry Reddan, Padraig O’Rourke, Simon Ward, Peter Sheehan and defending champion Niall Kearney.

O’Rourke from Kilkenny is a two- time winner, winning the title for the

first time all of 28 years ago when beating John Carr in the final by 2 and |. He followed it up with another win in 1985 when scoring a 3 and 2 win over Ennis’ Pat Lyons who was playing out of the Nenagh club.

Reddan beat Mark Gannon in an all-Co Louth final in 1987 — it went all the way to the 20th before Reddan got the better of his fellow interna- tional and clubmate. Peter Sheehan, who now plays out of Ballybunion was the winner in 1993 when beating Michael O’Kelly on the 19th, while Collier was playing out of Limer- ick when he won the title in 1997 by beating Andrew McCormick of Scrabo on the home hole.

Niall Kearney and Simon Ward are the most recent champions in the field — Ward was 2006 champions thanks to victory over Darren Crowne form Dunmurry by 2 and 1, while Kearney scored a decisive 4 and 3 win over The Curragh’s Paul O’Hanlon in last year’s final.

THE NEW phases of a scheme that has seen the lobster yield in Clare in- crease by as much as 40 per cent was launched in Carrigaholt on Friday.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Mr. Tony Killeen, (FF) officially launched the 2009-2013 Lob- ster V-notching scheme.

Lobster ‘V-notching’ is one of the most important Tech- nical Conservation Measures (TCM) for the Irish lobster Kele .@

The main aim of the meas- ure is to protect female lob- sters, allowing them to spawn, which replenishes stocks.

The 2009 – 2013 V-Notch- ing Scheme follows on from the very successful 2002-2008 scheme which saw approximately 70,000 Lobsters being V-notched through a BIM-industry partnership, significantly increasing the spawning potential of the lobster population nationally.

Since 1995 over 140,000 lobsters

have been released. The initiative has proved to be of vital importance for the conservation and protection of the Irish lobster fishery.

In areas with strong V-notching pro- grammes such as the coast of Clare,

the 2002-2008 V-notching Scheme has had a hugely significant impact on the lobster stock, leading to an in- crease in catch rates of approximate- ly 40 per cent in the county. In the Banner County 14,000 lobsters were v-notched between 2002-2008.

The practice of “V-notching” was

introduced to Ireland by BIM in the early 1990’s from Maine in the USA, where it is used in the Ameri- can lobster fishery. It involves cutting a small notch in one of the flaps on the tail of a female lobster to create an easily recognised mark that remains for up to two moults. When a lobster is marked in this way, it is illegal to land, possess or sell it and it must be re- turned live to the sea. This ensures the lobster has an opportunity to breed at least once before the notch grows out, as female lob- sters generally breed and moult in alternate years. The v-notch is not perma- nent and after about four to six years it disappears completely and the lobster can be sold.

JOBS, the economy and climate change are some of the issues wor- rying 73 per cent of Clare teenagers, according to a recent survey commis- sioned as part of the BT Young Sci- entist and Technology Exhibition. While the survey results show the younger generation is concerned about some of society’s big problems, it’s not all doom and gloom, with both the silver and small screens influenc- ing teenagers ambitions for the future. Popular television shows such as CSI clearly have an influence, with 42 per cent of students surveyed choosing fo- rensics as their ideal scientific job. Irish teenagers from various coun- ties were asked about the importance of technology and science in every- day life, as well as the significance of continued technological innovation. A massive 73 per cent from Clare said they are concerned about the economy and their future job pros- pects and the same percentage said that staying connected is vital, say- ing they can’t live without mobile phones, broadband and computers.

Only two per cent of respondents chose computer games as a must- have technological invention.

Every year, practical inventions emerge from the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition that have the potential to benefit society. These include a computer game that could help combat school bullies, which was highlighted by 21 per cent as a product that should be made available to the public. On a lighter note, 45 per cent of the sample would love to try out a Star Trek-style transporter to beam users to their target destination.

When asked why they would en- ter the exhibition, the majority of respondents said it would be for the honour of representing their school or community.

Organised by BT, the exhibition is now entering its 46th year and re- corded the greatest number of entries ever last year when 1,616 projects were submitted. The BT Young Sci- entist & Technology Exhibition will be held in the RDS, Dublin from January 12-16 2010. For more infor- mation, log onto www.btyoungscien- tist.com or call 1800 924 362.