Month: September 2009

A CLARE shop owner, whose busi- ness was closed down because of a decision of An Bord Pleandala, had to make all his staff redundant including a woman on maternity EA or

Cheryl Kilmartin, from Kilna- soolagh Park, Newmarket-On- Fergus, took an appeal under the Redundancy Payments Act to the Employment Appeals Tribunal af- ter being let go by David Crimmins, of Newmarket-On-Fergus.

Ms Kilmartin gave evidence to the Tribunal that she started working in Mr Crimmins shop in September 2005. She took maternity leave on September 5, 2007. She completed the relevant form for this leave and stated her date of return to work as

March 5, 2008. In the interim the shop closed down on the October me

The owner had informed the em- ployees some time previously that the shop would close but he did not know on what date.

Mr Crimmins told the Tribunal that An Bord Pleanala overturned a planning decision granted to him by the county council. As a result he was instructed to close down his business until he succeeded in se- curing planning permission.

When the business closed all of the employees were made redun- dant. Due to financial difficulties Mr Crimmins was not able to pay redundancy.

The Tribunal awarded the shop worker redundancy lump sum pay- ment under the Act.

A MOTORIST overtook cars despite the fact that oncoming traffic was approaching, a court has heard.

Gavin Farrell (21), of Rafter’s Road, Drimnagh, Dublin 12, was charged with dangerous driving, at Carnacalla North, Kilrush and drink evunanetee

Garda Stephen Moyles told Kilrush District that the defendant overtook cars while oncoming traffic was ap- proaching. He said the accused drove at a speed of up to 140 kph.

Defence solicitor Geardid Wil- liams said his client has had very serious difficulties in his life and had turned to serious drinking. “He had too much to drink and got involved in this incident,” he said. He said the defendant has now turned his life around and is currently attending college. A two-year driving ban was imposed, along with a fine of €300.

CLARE County Council is to seek written confirmation from Limer- ick County Council that no houses in Clare have yet been purchased as part of the Limerick Regeneration Programme.

Earlier this year, the elected mem- bers of Clare County Council decid- ed not to play any role in the regener- ation programme – with fears being raised by councillors that anti-social behaviour would spill into section of south and east Clare as a result of the relocation of families from Limer-

ee

The local authority has suspended any further decision on the project until written assurances have been received by Limerick City Council.

“This 1s a catch 22 situation,’ said Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald (Ind) who raised the issue.

“T would like the director to get me confirmation from the Limerick City Council that houses are not be- ing purchased in Clare. I have seri- ous problems with the devious way in which this whole thing is been Coy stone

Commenting on the Limerick Re-

generation Programme, Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) said that the regeneration issue was being put forward again in an underhand fashion.

“This has been dropped in under the radar like a scud missile and no- body knows where it will drop,” he said.

“I’d like to know where the coun- ty manager and all the directors of services will be when we get calls at three o’clock in the morning because of anti-social behaviour. This is a very Serious issue.”

Speaking on the motion, County Manager, Tom Coughlan, urged

councillors to engage with the Re- gional Housing Strategy rather than ignoring it.

“We all know that this is a very se- rious issue. We all know that this 1s having an impact and it will continue to have an impact,” he said.

““T think that it is important that the council manages the project and the impact that this process will have on County Clare. It 1s very important that Clare County Council has an input into how these houses are al- located.

“We know that when the HSE de- termine the allocation of houses,

there isn’t the vetting that we would like to see. Whatever we do, there will most certainly be a regeneration DEOL enIce

“If Clare is part of the Regional Housing Strategy then we have some chance of influencing how this is managed in the county but we do know that if we are not in the strat- egy then we will have less and less influence on this.

“The clock is ticking and the longer that Clare County Council stay out- side of this process the less influence that we will have on this,” added Mr Sree Ete

A MYSTERY businessman has ap- proached Clare County Council ex- pressing an interest in taking over the operation of the Central Waste Management Facility in Ballyduff resem

According to information released at last night meeting of Clare County Council, the unnamed businessman approached the local authority with a proposal before it became public knowledge that the local authority was examining future options for the EE Tateueee

Clare County Council were heavily criticised last nights for circulating information about the possible future of the landfill to members of the Bal- lyduffbeg Liaison Committee before it was shown to the elected members of Clare County Council.

‘I tabled this motion after receiving an email from a council official in re- lation to the future of Ballyduffbeg.

“Part of that email stated that the Community Liaison Forum met the previous night and was told that the council was examining a number of options for the landfill,’ said Cllr Martin Conway (FG)

“I support a detailed discussion on this. We need to consider all the options, especially the fact that it 1s over a million euros below it’s target for last year.

“But I have a problem with this be- ing discussed with people who are not the policy makers of this council. We are the policy makers of this council. This discussion needed to take place here first — with the elected members of Clare County Council and not with other non-elected groups. I am demanding that we receive an apol- ogy for this happening.”

Speaking on the motion north Clare

councillor and chair of the Ballyduff- beg Liaison Committee, Joe Arkins (FG) said that the council had a “rush of blood to the head” when position- ing the Central Waste Management Facility in Inagh.

“For the record, I was one of the people who never believed that the council should have gone down this route.

“IT don’t know why we ever went down the route of a central waste management facility. I think that some county council officials must have had a rush of blood to the head,’ he said.

‘We need to see what the best op- tion should be for the community around the landfill. Whether we like it or not, a number of issues have been raised by the EPA about our management of the landfill down the years. We need to have a serious look at this landfill.”

Responding to the discussion Coun- ty Manager, Tom Coughlan said that it was “regrettable” that the infor- mation was circulated to the liaison committee before the councillor and also criticised sections of the local media “misleading” reports about the future of the facility.

IF Electric Picnic was the entertain- ment highlight of the weekend, then this was it’s antithesis. Contrary to traditional derbies between this pair and the perilous consequences for the loser, this was far from electric and can only be considered a picnic in the manner that Scariff served up this victory on a plate for local rivals Tulla.

Perhaps that is a little unfair on the 2007 champions who were certainly up for this encounter and could only beat what is put in front of them, but even though they eventually eased to victory, they still had too many poor misses to call this an emphatic per- formance.

On the flip side, Scariff looked woe- fully disinterested and in what was arguably their worst showing in re- cent years, have hit a worrying sticky patch at the worst possible time. The same old failings that have hampered their championship hopes against In- agh/Kilnamona and Clonlara resur- faced, with a lack of firepower and an inability to break even in the midfield sector frustrating them once more.

They started brightly enough, grabbing the opening two points of the afternoon through Damien O’Grady and a Ross Horan free but that was as good as it would get for Mark McKenna’s side over the hour. Instead, three unanswered points from Andrew Quinn (2) and Danny O’Halloran edged Tulla in front for the first time and despite being pegged back through another Horan free soon afterwards, Tulla slipped through the gears to hit another five points without reply in eight minutes to establish a 0-8 to 0-3 advantage.

Scariff were only to score one more point for the remainder of the half, inevitably through Horan but by that stage, they were really up against it,

now trailing by 0-10 to 0-04 at the break.

On the restart, Scariff’s new mid- field pairing of Conor McNamara

and Michael Scanlan fared a little better and it allowed Ross Horan to pull a point back in the 36th minute. However, Tulla soon regained su-

premacy and along with a plethora of wides, they slowly killed off any hopes of a Scariff fightback with further points from Kieran Brennan, Andrew Quinn (2) and the lively Raymond Stewart by the turn of the nUOE Nae [UE Du nom

By now, the fight was all but quenched in Scariff and it allowed Tulla to ease up to their first victory of the campaign, with the 11 point final margin probably flattering to Scariff overall.

Tulla now march towards the Sen- ior B championship whereas Scariff face the slippery slope of a relegation dogfight. Totally contrasting outlooks that’s a bit like comparing Electric Picnic to the the annual Roscommon Lamb festival.

AFTER a very impressive perform- ance in this semi-final, Sixmilebri- dge progress to yet another Minor A hurling final. From the throw-in the men in yellow and blue always seemed to be the likely winners of this entertaining encounter.

It was Conor O’Gorman of Clare- castle who opened the scoring with

a well taken point. However, it did not take long for the “Bridge to re- spond. In the following five minutes two wonderful points from the excel- lent Alan Mulready, an effort from Timmy Crowe and a cracking goal by corner-forward Jamie Shanahan stole the lead from the Magpies and left the score at 1-3 to 0-1.

They never really looked back from this lightning start, even though with

eight minutes on the clock Clarecas- tle were given some hope when cen- tre forward Niall Quinn picked out Aaron Considine with a well judged pass. He then bypassed a number of Sixmulebridge defenders and blasted the ball into the net. Clarecastle cer- tainly were not preparing to give up without a fight.

For the next 20 minutes or so the ‘Bridge restored their dominance on

the scoreboard with four of their for- wards contributing to a seven point haul. Clarecastle managed to grab another three points and this left Sixmilebridge leading 1-10 to 1-4 at ne Vee abe tlon

Only for a number of missed frees and some poor long-range shooting this margin could have been far big- ger. The second-half continued as the first with Clarecastle unable to con-

tain the fast and tricky forwards of their opponents.

Between the 37th and 47th minute they secured another five scores and confirmed their hold on the game. Even though they did not score again until injury-time from a °65 taken by Jamie O’Gorman the end result was never really in question.

The final chance for Clarecastle came when they were awarded a 20m free. The crowd’s excitement increased as the Magpies’ netmind- er Jamie Coughlan ran up the field almost Davy Fitz-like, hoping that he could turn this placed ball into a much needed goal.

Unfortunately for him the ‘Bridge were never going to let the sliotar cross their line again and with this failed attempt Clarecastle’s partici- pation in the Minor A hurling Cham- pionship ended for 2009. Sixmileb- ridge march on after this eight-point victory and now only Kilmaley stand in their way of adding another title to their trophy cabinet.

THIS was a repeat of last year’s coun- ty final that was played in Cooraclare — conditions were much more benign on that occasion, but the result was the same as the standardbearers of senior football in the county record- ed a nine-point win.

However, the margin of victory flat- ters them somewhat — a brilliant dis- play by Aoife Davoren between the sticks and a forward line that availed of their chances much better than the Gaels was the difference between the sides.

The Gaels had the edge in the first half, but only managed to build up a Q-7 to 1-3 interval lead when playing with the gale. County intermediate star Majella Griffin was their main scoring threat in the half and landed three points, but it was Sonya Ma- her’s goal that gave the champions a real tonic when playing against the strong breeze.

And once Niamh O’ Dea (2) and N1- amh Keane chipped in with points, they were well on the way to frank- ing last year’s county final form against their very keen rivals from Kilkee and the peninsula beyond.

West Clare Gaels adopted a sweep- er policy when playing against the wind in the second half — to coun- teract this The Banner Ladies started shooting from distance, with county

intermediate captain Louise Henchy first to profit when landing two long range points early in the half to edge The Banner 1-5 to O-7 ahead.

When Naomi Carroll added two

points and Louise Henchy followed up with a goal in the 40th minute from a free kick it was The Banner’s day — they had maximised their scor- ing chances while West Clare Gaels

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A Katie Geoghegan goal from a penalty gave them renewed hope of getting back into the game put once Niamh Keane goal effort was de-

flected to the net for The Banner’s for their third goal they were in cruise control.

Their storming second half display was crowned when Sonya Maher soc- cer a brilliant individual effort near the end, while Katie Cahill rounded off and industrious display with a couple of points, with Naomi Carroll also on the mark before the end.

CLARE returned from the Europe- an junior lifesaving championships last weekend with two bronze med- als, two fourth places and two fifth places.

As part of Team Ireland that won six medals altogether, Bernard Ca- hill, Dylan Barrett, and Siobhan Mc- Grath acquitted themselves well at the championships in Holland.

The efforts of Ireland’s fittest jun- ior Lifeguards (Under 19) ensured a place in the top ten Internation- ally for Team Ireland, coming eighth overall in a competition that saw 140 competitors from fourteen countries compete in the premier Lifesaving event in Europe.

Clare’s two bronze medallists were Bernard Cahill and Dylan Barrett in the board rescue. Cahill and Cormac O’Sullivan finished in fourth in res- cue tube, while Siobhan McGrath and Barrett had a fifth place finish cree

Jim Lawlor, Chairman of Irish

Water Safety’s Sports Commission expressed his pride in their achieve- ments.

‘The Championships simulate real life rescue situations that these Jun- ior Lifesavers can expect to encoun- ter as Lifeguards. To secure six In- ternational medals at European level is testimony to how hard they trained and how well they prepared as indi- viduals and as a Team.”

Commenting on the importance of Irish Water Safety’s programme of Lifesaving Sport, Mr Lawlor added, “Lifesaving sportis primarily intend- ed to encourage lifesavers to develop, maintain and improve the essential physical and mental skills needed to save lives in the aquatic environment. Lifesaving competitions consist of a variety of competitions to further develop and demonstrate lifesaving Skills, fitness and motivation.

“Children around Ireland as young as eight can get involved in a Series of progressive Lifesaving classes taught by Irish Water Safety, through the www.iws.ie website.”

AS training begins, Clare is again well represented on the FAI Emerg- ing Talent North Munster squad. In all, 18 of the county’s brightest soccer talents are part of an overall panel of 60.

This programme sees players aged 14 to 17 from Clare, Limerick City and County, and north Tipperary, take part in 28 training sessions and five matches from September 14, 2009, to March 31, 2010, under the direction of qualified FAI coaches.

The Lees Road sports facility in Ennis is the base for the North Mun- ster squad.

There are two groups in each cen- tre, junior group players (born in 1995) and senior group players (born Riera e

There are 12 regional centres in Ireland, split into North and South.

The North Munster squad will compete in the South group against Blarney, Bunclody, Peamount, Tralee and Waterford.

The FAI Emerging Talent Pro- gramme is now the recognised play- er development pathway for school- boys/girl players across the country , players with suitable abilities get se- lected for underage development and international squads, and eventually emerge ready to compete at League of Ireland level and beyond.

The Ennis based Centre programme is administrated and delivered by the FAI, with the assistance of seven oth- er Clare based coaches, physios and support staff.

Four Clare players, Alan Kelly (Newmarket Celtic), Stephen Mc-

Gann (Avenue Utd), Cian Burke (Avenue Utd), Joe Collins (Ennis Town), were part of the FAI Ennis Regional Centre Squad Ul16s that played Wolverhampton Wanderers Ul6s in the University of Limerick on August 17.

IT’S debatable whether or not a crowd of such size – estimated to have been in excess of 10,000 – would have shown up in such large numbers had there not existed a focal point for the CRs

Throughout ‘Tuesday morning, pockets of people made their way to Abbey Street Car Park. Most leaned back to gaze at the Godzilla-like structure that greeted them, that huge screen that dominated the land- scape and served as a fulcrum for the event.

The Abbey Street element provided a festival feel to the visit of Ali and for hours, people lingered in front of

the stage and in front of the screen in anticipation of a glimpse of Ali.

The weather, too, was a major plus. Generally, it remained favourable. At one stage, singer Tommy Flem- ing noticed that for once, the sun remained behind the clouds and as the only sprinkle of rain danced on the heads of those in attendance, Fleming noted, while performing on stage, that if the crowd were going to get wet, then so too was he.

Later, the crowd got what they had come to see. Ali in the council of- fices being made the first Freeman of Ennis.

The image was beamed all over the Abbey Street Car Park as Sha- ron Shannon and her band took a

breather.

“That was the pinnacle of the day from my point of view,” said ‘Tomas Madigan, CEO of Sports Academy International, the Clare company that organised and co-ordinated the Abbey Street element of the day. ‘To see the smile on the faces of the thousands who came to Abbey Street as Ali received his Freeman status was extremely special.”

Speaking after the event on Tues- day afternoon, Madigan added that the success of last week’s event paves the way to maintain links with Mu- hammad Ali in years to come.

‘People turned out from every cor- ner of Ireland to celebrate Ali’s Irish and Clare links and the fact that we

had such a massive occasion goes to show that there’s great admiration and respect for the boxer. That her- itage can certainly be fostered down the line.”

He added that the inclusion of the big screen ensured the general public had the chance to witness first hand the official and historic moment of Ali’s welcome to Ennis.

“That was a major achievement for Sports Academy International. Not only did the screen allow the crowd to see the performers on stage, it also gave exclusive footage of what was going on in the Town Council offices in Drumbiggle.

“That wouldn’t have been possible without the goodwill of the people of

Ennis and Clare and the help of our sponsors.”

On Monday, Madigan added that in the six days since Alli’s visit, the pub- lic feedback on the whole experience has been incredibly positive.

“We couldn’t have wished for a bet- ter day, in all aspects.”