Month: June 2011

SOMETIMES THE silver lining is not immediately apparent in every cloud. Such was the case when Wolfe Tones lost up to 20 adult players through emigration, injury and retirements at the beginning of the year which inevitably had a devastating effect on the club. In all, the adult club has won only five out of 26 competition games this year, with only one of those victories coming from their hurling sides.

Therefore, the unprecedented success of the Under 14’s this year has been a welcome distraction and by winning the county Féile titles in both codes as well as the Under 14A hurling championship, it has given the club and the town of Shannon a much needed boost.

“It’s a great lift to everyone but really we don’t have a choice at this stage,” admitted Under 14 hurling manager Pat Williams. “With the country the way it is and with so many senior players gone through emigration, all clubs are affected but you’ve got to go back to the grassroots effectively. You’ve got to rebuild and it’s going to take time obviously but we are going the right way and this is the first stage of it.”

All the more satisfying then that this team are the fruit of their thriving underage academy that is in full flow in the background of Under 14 training and was initially set up to rectify the fact that Wolfe Tones had slipped somewhat from their lofty perch as underage hurling kingpins.

“90 per cent of these lads were with us at Under 6’s. They would have been born out of the academy.

“When you think back through this squad’s development, we contested the Under 12A final two years ago and were unfortunate to lose to Sixmilebridge on the day. So it was a case of either we dig deep or we lie down and we had a serious conversation with those group of lads after that county final and we made the decision that we would be back. Two years is a short time really and where we are now is down to hard work and the fact that lads were commited. If you want to succeed today, you’ve got to be committed, it’s as simple as that.”

With the national football Féile to come the following week in Cork, manager Williams, who is ably assisted by a backroom team of Matt O’Connor, Pat McCallen, Ray Carley, Jack Keary and Tony Flanagan, also points to a healthy relationship with the football management, for whom Matt O’Connor is manager, as the main ingredient to their historic success to date.

“We communicate all the time and we have a very good understanding. I think that is key to being successful as well because you hear of problems, especially with dual clubs but we communicate so well and believe me it helps.”

So what of Wolfe Tones chances in the finals themselves?

“Every competition we enter we want to win it. Féile at national level is tough but we are going to give it a good go believe me.

“Probably 70 per cent of this squad played in the Féile last year so they’ve had that experience as well and have got a taste for it. We had a good Féile last year albeit that we didn’t progress beyond the first round but we played some very competitive teams.

“We had the Dubs here and Offaly as well as Doora/Barefield so we were very pleased with last year’s Féile in fairness.

“We don’t know a whole lot about Clonoulty Rossmore who are in our group, we’ve had a taste of Craughwell and we seen a bit of Athenry so without being over confident I would be optimistic that we could certainly progress to the quarter-finals and everything after that is a bonus.

“It won’t be for the want of effort or lack of will from this bunch of lads anyway.

“At the end of the day, Féile is Féile and we know it’s going to be tough.”

If Williams and Co are searching for an omen, they need only look to 1988 when Wolfe Tones last completed a clean sweep of Féile titles and went on to add national titles in both, with many of that team subsequently influential in Wolfe Tone’s first county senior success in 1996.

The way things have gone, they could use a silver lining like that.

ANGLERS FROM all over the county descended on Fanore last week for the 50th anniversary of the Lisdoonvarna Fanore Sea Angling Club. The event, which was hosted by O’Donohue’s Pub brought together some of the clubs newest and oldest members and also included a collection of awards won by Clare anglers over the last five decades.

The event also included a photographic history of the club and also served as an open day to attract new members to sea angling.

Speaking at the event club secretary, James Linnane, remembers some of the highlights for the club over the years – especially the success of some of the juvenile members.

“Four years ago Paul Norton from Ruan represented the Club in the Munster Juvenile championship, although not winning any medals on that occasion he was really keen to compete again the following year, this time he had real success not only did he qualify for Munster to compete in the Interprovincials but he made the Irish team to compete in Wales and the team came in second on that occasion – major achievement for Paul and the Club,” he said.

“Watching from the sidelines were young Stephen Birney, Cian Egan O’Brien, Sean Geraghty, Brandon Power and Joseph Birney, all who have competed in the Munster Juvenile Championships over the last three years.

“Last February Joseph Birney succeeded in making the Irish Team and will compete for Ireland in the home Internationals next month. Congratulations to him and we wish him well. These Juveniles are the future of our Club and are real role models for any juveniles out there who would like to get involved.”

James also pointed to the quality of the local angling – saying that it is amongst the best in the world.

“Here in north Clare we have some of the best sea angling coastline of anywhere in Europe – it is absolutely essential that we protect and safeguard this,” he said.

“Under no circumstances should we allow pollution, indiscriminate dumping of waste or over commercialised or illegal fishing to take this away from us. We can all see for ourselves the benefits that the promoting of Sea Angling has done for this area. We have a duty to the founder members of this Club and those not members of any club but simply walked the shore for their own pleasure that we leave area in as good or better condition than was handed to us.”

Meanwhile, Inagh and District Angling Club are holding a fishing competition this Sunday at Clonmacken Lake, Inagh. The competition starts at 2pm and will run until 6. Prizes will be awarded for Senior and Juvenile categories. Music and refreshments will be available at Dillon’s Bar and Restaurant after the competition where the Senior prizes will be presented. All are welcome.

FRIENDS AND former teammates will gather in the Auburn Lodge Hotel in Ennis on Saturday night to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Ennis club Turnpike Rovers.

Founded in 1981 the first meeting of Turnpike Rovers took place in a room over Murphy’s shoe shop on O’Connell Street, Ennis.

The club’s first committee was made up of Tony Gilmartin (chairman), Brian McCarthy (secretary), George Guilfoyle (treasurer) with John Pyne and Michael Frawley serving as PRO and managers.

Other committee members included Donie Pyne, Martin Guerin and Francie Roche. Over the years many people have contributed to the success of the ‘Pike, as either players, managers or committee members. Some of the well-known names to have been associated with Turnpike include James Gormley, Michael Nugent, Michael Sheridan (RIP), John Lavery, Donal Pyne, Michael Guilfoyle, Ronnie Pyne and Frank Gormley. The club initially drew the majority of players from the Turnpike area, McNamara Park and Dalcassian Park. The club’s first ever set of goalposts were made by Paddy McHugh and Peter Fitzgerald in the Walnut House

The early days showed Rovers meant business. The team finished runners up in the division two shield in 1981 before going on to take the first division shield in 1983. In 1990, Turnpike were crowned Munster Junior Clare area champions and the following season lost out to Newmarket Celtic in the final of the Haughey Cup. The next season, Rovers reclaimed the Munster Junior Clare area cup with founding member Francie Roche netting the winner in the final.

The start of the decade also heralded another period of success with Turnpike winning the first division league and FAI Clare Area cup. Further honours followed in 2007 before Turnpike claimed the first division league cup in 2009.

Turnpike also enjoyed a period of sustained success in youth soccer throughout the 1980s and 90s. Under the stewardship of manager John Pyne, the club was crowned youths shield winners in 1983. That season also saw the club lose out to eventual winners Athlone in the quarterfinals of the FAI Youths Cup. A league titled followed in 1985 before Turnpike swept the boards in 1987, winning the youths shield, FAI Clare area youths cup, Munster Clare area youths cup, youths league and youths cup.

Further youth’s cup titles were snapped up in 1990 and 1991 while in 1993 Turnpike lost to Clonmel side Oldbridge in the final of the Munster youth’s cup.

In the 1984/85 season, Turnpike Rovers had the distinction of having two players named ‘players of the year’ in Clare soccer. They were Colm Fitzgerald and Derek McGann who was named ‘youths player of the year’. Over the years Turnpike were well represented on the Clare Oscar Traynor team. In that same season, talented midfielder Brian Pyne was a starter in all of Clare’s games.

Turnpike also enjoyed a period of success in schoolboy’s soccer taking league titles at under 12 (1985), under 14 (1986), under 16 (1991) and under 11 (1996). The club were under 11 cup runners up in 1998 while there were further titles at under 11 (2001/02), under 16 (2004) and under 17 (2005/07).

CLARE PEOPLE have been asked to send messages of support to the counties two athletes who are bidding for glory at this years Special Olympics World Summer Games in Greece.

Seventeen year old Ciara O’Loughlin, who comes from Ballyea just outside Inagh, will compete in athletics while Sixmilebridge’s Michael Neville is part of the Irish Soccer Team. The pair flew off yesterday as part of the 124 strong Irish team who will hope to bring glory to the Banner County over the next two weeks.

Ciara’s parents and four other family members all flew out to Athens yesterday to show their support to the Irish team. Speaking from Heathrow Airport yesterday, Ciara mother Collette urged Clare people to sent messages of support to the Irish athletes who will compete at the games.

“They will have a wall for all the athletes out at the games and as people send on messages these message will be left up for all the athletes to read. It would be great if people would leave messages for the Clare athletes and all the Irish athletes,” said Collette.

“Ciara is a member of the Shannon Flyers Club and she has worked very hard for this. She has been training four days a week down in Clare and once a month she has been going to Dublin to take part in training with the Irish team.

“Ciara goes to St Anne’s School in Ennis and everyone gave her a great send off there last week. She also got a great send off from the club who have done so much to help her qualify for the Olympics.”

Ciara, who just turned 17 last week, will compete in the 100 metre sprint and the shot putt while she may also compete in the 100 metre relay race.

Sixmilebridge man Michael was introduced to the Special Olympics through his involvement in a training centre in Limerick four years ago.

Michael has an impressive record in scoring goals, having scored 36 for his club. He competed in the 2010 Special Olympics Ireland Games in Limerick.

His involvement in Special Olympics has greatly improved Michael’s confidence. He now loves going out meeting new people and playing his favourite sport. Michael is a sports fanatic. He loves watching sport such as rugby and hurling and enjoys reading books about sport. His sporting hero is Robbie Keane.

Team Ireland will join 7,500 athletes from 185 nations at the Games which will be the biggest sporting event in the world this summer.

Messages of support for Michael and Ciara can be emailed to eteam@specialolympics.ie while people can also follow their progress live on www.specialolympics.ie.

THE All-Ireland Broodmare Championship at the Clare Agricultural Show has been recognised as one of the premier showing classes in Ireland by being included in the new Horse Sport Ireland National Showing Championship Series, in association with the Irish Shows Association. Only ten Championships around Ireland have been included in the Series, which will see € 20,000 being injected into showing in 2011

The series will consist of ten championship finals taking place at ten of Ireland’s top rural shows, including three venues in County Clare – the others apart from Ennis are the Scariff and Kildysart Shows. There will be a total of 206 qualifying classes run around the country in the lead up to the finals.

Speaking at the launch, Horse Sport Ireland Chief Executive, Damian Mc Donald, said that as well as providing funding for the Series, Horse Sport Ireland were keen to increase the profile of the showing championships around the country.

“Qualifiers for these championships take place in every corner of Ireland at rural shows and are accessible to breeders. The shows are run on a voluntary basis with all the funding going directly to the exhibitors. Our vision is for these championships to become the Champions’ League of showing,” he said.