The Clare People Archive

A FRUSTRATING game if only be- cause with little between the sides, Clare’s challenge just faded away in the final quarter. Clare had matched Limerick point for point up to that juncture, picking off some impres- sive scores along the way so what were the reasons for this collapse? Well, the goal was obviously crucial, coming as it did in the 42nd minute

from the lively David Moloney when Clare were 0-10 to 0-9 ahead. It gave Limerick renewed confidence and from that point they never looked eae

But it wasn’t the only factor. Sig- nificantly, just as in the Waterford game, Clare had problems in their half-back line and midfield from the off and despite ten different players occupying the five positions includ- ing several substitutions, they never

really resolved the issue. Limerick’s experienced midfield pairing of An- drew Brennan and Alan O’Connor along with wing-forwards David Moloney and Don Hanley were at the heart of all Limerick attacks and Clare’s failure to disrupt the midfield partnership ensured that the sides went in level at the break at eight points apiece despite Clare having the aid of a strong breeze.

Conor Earley was introduced in-

stead of Enda Collins late in the first half but the Tubber man still wasn’t the answer and although he soon moved to midfield, he was replaced late in the game by Clooney-Quin’s Conor Harrisson. Damien Browne was the next to be brought on to fill the void and the Cratloe man did add some industry to the centre but all around him, Clare’s grip on the game was slipping.

Clare did have some impressive per-

formances up front with both Sean Chaplin and Padriag Hickey turn- ing in a hard-working hour but aside from Hickey’s haul of five points and Chaplin’s freetaking, Clare’s other starting forwards only produced one point from play. In contrast all Lim- erick’s forwards scored from open play and that better balance made all the difference in such a tight contest.

Possibly wary of main attraction Ciaran Carey, who’s every touch was greeted by a loud cheer from the Limerick faithful, Clare also failed to puck one ball into the full-forward berth in the first half, starving man- of-the-match from the Waterford game, Padraigh Chaplin but when Hickey moved there in the second half, a better supply yielded two points as Carey allowed Hickey to roam for possession.

TAA Ree Gelato umelon sem seommeloCemmperzue the problems lay however, as after the goal, Clare’s back-line conceed- ed five scoreable frees, four of which were converted and although Clare did try to rally, the needless indisci- pline led to the final nails in Clare’s oy enteF

Much improved from last year but Clare still need to flesh out their op- tions before they are able to seriously challenge for the provincial crown.

KEVIN Kennedy couldn’t hide his disappointment as he leaned against the wall outside the Clare dressing room. The manager quickly identi- fied the moment the game turned against Clare, David Moloney’s 47th minute goal for Limerick.

Clare had made a solid start to the second half and led by a point, playing against a strong breeze. But

Moloney’s goal totally altered the flow of the contest.

“We gave away a goal at a stage of the game where we were on top. That was a crucial point of the game. We missed frees. I’m not blaming any freetaker, there was a swirling wind out there. It was a bad day for freetakers. It didn’t go for our lads. That goal was the turning point,’ said Kennedy.

Still, the manager was more than

pleased by the commitment given by the panel throughout the season and felt Limerick’s greater experience gave them a slight edge on the day. “We had 20 or 25 fellas there this year and they gave it everything. We are very proud of them. They gave everything to the jersey and they gave everything while they were playing. Limerick had a second string out there. They are very experienced fellas. We just didn’t get the breaks

today and that what happens.” Kennedy was particularly im- pressed by the way his side got about their business in the second half and offered special mention for Damien Browne, who made his first champi- onship appearance this summer. ‘We upped our game in the second half. We brought on young Damien Browne from Cratloe and he made big difference in midfield. We haven’t seen Damien all year, he’s been doing

exams for the last couple of days.

“He made a big difference when he came into midfield. That’s why the wind didn’t seem to be a factor because we were on top for the first 10-15 minutes. We had five or six at- tacks but we didn’t get anything out of them. That was it. Limerick were slightly better than us, slightly more accomplished than us. We’re disap- pointed but we’re still proud of the lads,” he added.

IT WAS always going to be more of a match on the radio.

At least on the radio there was the prospect of a contest, or so we hoped beforehand.

In Kerry’s corner were those deni- zens of the “Voice of the Kingdom’. You know them well, they’re the Ra- dio Kerry crew who provided an in- valuable service on the Clare side of the estuary a couple of months back when doing a live commentary on the Clare v Kerry first round Mun- ster minor football championship in Cusack Park.

Going over water and road was no obstacle to the Radio Kerry crew — the few hundred yards down Francis

Street was too long a journey for the Clare FM’s crew.

But Clare FM showed up this time — Georgie Fitzpatrick and Ger Keane going into battle against Gary O’Sullivan and Weeshie Fogarty in the Kerry corner.

Both teams were under no illusions of what lay in store. Lambs and lions were the order of the day for Geor- reales

“Minnows from Clare,’ he said, “came across on the ferry to try and put it up to the lion kings of Kerry in their own den.”

There was more of where that came from: “Clare came down like lambs to the slaughter in the great Kerry den,’ added Georgie.

Weeshie Fogarty wasn’t getting too

excited. “It will be an easy win for Kerry,” he said in almost subdued tones, just as Clare FM’s roving re- porter Marie Crowe struck a defiant note. “It’s anyone’s game down here in Killarney, the fans think Clare are going to do it.”

Obviously, she didn’t have one ear tuned into Ambrose O’ Donovan over on Radio Kerry. “I expect Kerry to win by 2-20 to 1-6 or 1-7,” he said confidently, while Ger Keane rub- bished this prediction mid-way through the first half when revealing that “Clare are standing up manfully to the task”.

It all changed in the second half, maybe because Kerry heard Am- brose O’Donovan’s words at half- time. “It’s a wake up call for Kerry.

Kerry must start the second half with all guns blazing and blow this Clare team away.”

Ger Keane certainly believed it was going to happen after Conor Whelan was sent off.

‘“That’s an absolutely ridiculous de- cision,’ he roared. “It makes a farce of the game and ruins the game as a contest.”

Fellow Kilkee Blue Georgie Fitz- patrick said soon afterwards: “With a cascade of scores the full-time whistle can’t come quick enough”.

As it turned out, it didn’t come quick enough for Kerry captain Paul Galvin. Radio Kerry were in no mood to condemn the man, but the Kilkee Blues were straight into the action.

‘Paul Galvin and John Hayes are having a right old battle,” exclaimed Georgie. “They’re exchanging pleas- antries,’ — a term that could be termed a euphemism for Micheal O’Hehir’s fabled used of the term ‘schmozzel’.

Then Ger took up commentary. “Paul Galvin did throw a knee,’ he roared. “Galvin’s punching Tomas O Sé on the chest…Galvin’s knocked the book out of Paddy Russell’s hand. He may not see action for three months.”

Ger Keane was the first man to make the call.

It ensured that Clare FM didn’t lose the game like Clare — they left Kil- larney with a draw on points against their heavyweight opponents.

CLARE left Fitzgerald stadium beat- en and a little dazed after 70 minutes in the company of the All-Ireland champions. No backdoor, no quali- fiers. Eight months hard work cul- minates with another meeting with Tommy Murphy and a competition that will disappear from the fixture schedule after this season.

Kerry left to mutterings over the

quality of their 12-point win and the adulation of wide-eyed kids waiting for autographs and jerseys. The con- trast could not have been greater.

Clare captain Michael O’Shea stood outside the dressing rooms, frustrated.

“It’s very disappointing. At the be- ginning the qualifiers were brought in to help the weaker teams and at the moment, now all they are doing is giving the stronger teams their

second chance. Maybe the higher authorities are going to have to look at themselves there and ask why they were brought in, in the first place. I know they are coming back next year for everyone, but it’s no good for us now’’, said O’Shea.

Clare will take what they can from the Tommy Murphy Cup said O’Shea, who admitted Clare lost their way once Kerry found some rhythm.

“We stuck with them for 35 min-

utes there and maybe a bit after the re-start. But I suppose, when the goal went in and we lost Conor (Whelan), we lost our shape. It was hard to keep going after that. Especially when you are playing the likes of Kerry. They are a top quality team. They were bringing lads off the field there to- day, who would walk onto any coun- ty team in the country. It’s not easy in that respect. We’ll walk away, we’ll be happy enough with our first half

performance. We’ll try and build from this in the future.”

The end of another campaign but O’Shea feels that Clare football is in a better place than it was last year.

“The progress has been good. We’ve had ups and downs through- out the year. Compared to where we were this time last year, we’re a good couple of rungs up the ladder from there. So it’s just a matter of building oy nm aor: T mp OKO) \ vam

CLARE manager Joe Garry was left to rue a string of missed chances fol- lowing his side’s defeat to Kerry in the semi-final of the Munster junior championship on Sunday.

Clare trailed by six points at half time after passing up two glorious opportunities to take a decisive lead early in the first half. Kerry made no mistake in front of goal Mike O’Donoghue and the impressive Ni- all Fleming finding the net.

Brian Donnellan’s late penalty re- duced Kerry’s lead to five points with eight minutes remaining. Clare were awarded a second penalty two min- utes later but this time Donnellan’s

shot struck the foot of the post and Pat Nagle was unable to convert the rebound.

Standing on the pitch at Fitzgerald Stadium shortly after the final whis- tle, Garry paid tribute to his side’s resilience in the second half.

“In fairness to the lads, it didn’t look great going in at half time two goals down. But they stuck into it”, said Garry. “We spoke about it at half time, its easy to play football when things are going well, when the going got tough and it got tough here today, they deserved more out of the game. We had plenty of chances and in fairness you have to take your hat off to everyone of them. They fought manfully in the second half.”

Garry felt his side shaded the second half but acknowledged that against a side like Kerry, with three members of the Kingdom’s All-Ireland under 21 wining team in their ranks, Clare needed to take their chances.

““T thought we were the better team in the second half but unfortunately it comes down to chances. We creat- ed maybe five or six chances during the course of the game and we come of with I-7 or 1-8 whatever it was and you have to better than that when you take on Kerry.”

yesterday WeTLOD LMR MMA DM RETUO RY, impossible for small businesses to get off the ground in Ire- land today.

“This situation 1s really tightening up our margins and that means that there is very little left for reinvestment and all businesses like this need to be able to invest in order to Survive,’ he said.

“If we were just starting now, there is nO way we would be able to get going. The entry cost for new busi- nesses is just too high. Smaller busi- nesses like ours are just not getting off the ground.”

Despite healthy sales, the Burren Smokehouse has already been forced to stop exporting to America because of high production costs and volatile exchange rates.

“It could get to the stage that we

will have to stop exporting to main- land Europe because the price would just be too high. It hasn’t got to that stage yet but it could do,” he contin- ued.

“There is no sign of the price of oil going down and if it goes up fur- ther, it will impact even more. You’d

wonder in the future, with the increasing price of oul, will it be competitive to ship abroad at all. “There is a real feeling of uncer- tainty in the mar- ket. Nobody seems to know what is coming next but

everyone _ thinks that it is not going to be good.

“The cost of dis- tributing the prod- uct has gone up and

that is having a serious impact on the business. The cost of the raw mate- rial has gone up and the cost of ship- ping the product has also gone up.

“We ship all over Ireland and into Europe. We used to ship into Ameri- ca but, because of economic factors, we have had to stop doing that.”

or Tn reveal.

The Irish Road Hauliers Associa- tion (IRHA) have set a deadline of June 27 for progress to be made on the issue or they will take to the Streets on protest.

One of the counties oldest haulage companies, Spa Transport, revealed yesterday that it has had to cut back staff as a direct result of the soaring cost of diesel.

“This is a huge issue, people have gone out of the business already and there are going to be more casualties. I myself had to sell two trucks and let people go because of this,” said Eu- gene Brennan of Spa Transport Ltd and the IRHA.

‘No matter how big or small you are this is savage. We have had a higher percentage increase in the last year and a half than has been felt over the last 20 years.

“It has affected us in many ways. The increases in diesel are really massive and we cannot be going to OUT MCLUT Kees RMAY ALO MUST KERA (OM ANCE RA

Besides that it has hit business gener- ally meaning that there is less busi- ness for us to compete for. Coupled with that we have been hit by a sur- charge by the shipping companies meaning a further increase in our overheads.

More than 100 years old, Spa Trans- port began life hauling produce from the west Clare railway using a horse and cart. The company now trans- ports high tech produce out of Shan- non as well as agricultural produce.

“It needs to be addressed in a two fold process. First we must go to the customer and look for a surcharge. We are going to have to do this to keep going. We are trying to meet with all the industry and get this idea across to them. We want a simple rate that does up and goes down with the price of oil,” continued Mr Bren- WE NOe

‘The other side of it is that we have to go to Government. They can either declare us an essential service like the buses and give us a special rate, they can rebate our fuel like they do with farmers, they can create a stable structure for a switch to using plant oil, they can assist us with the intro- duction of surcharging or they could help us to hedge our fuel and buy for- ward like the way airlines do.”

THE council chambers in Kilrush witnessed one of its most heated Kil- rush Town Council meetings of the year on Thursday.

More than 30 local business peo- ple packed into the small upstairs chamber to witness the June monthly meeting.

As some councillors spoke, those present coughed loudly in protest, at times drowning out what was be- ing said. Kilrush County Councillor Madeleine Taylor Quinn (FG) was also in attendance in the public gal- a

The contentious motion on the agenda was raised by Cllr McMahon Jones (FG) who asked for a detailed account from the town manager in relation to the acquisition of a site for the new civic offices in Kilrush.

Town Manager Bernadette Kin- sella told the meeting that “normal

professional advice was sought” and €15,000 was spent on valuation, a feasibility study and expert financial advice.

She said that in the mid-1990s five sites were examined and €20,000 was spent on that study.

In the last four to five years, 17 sites were examined and in the last year to year and a half, a feasibility study was carried out on four sites in the town including Park de Plouzane, John Paul Estate and the Cooraclare Road, according to the manager.

She said she did not have anything that equated to a €1.6 million civic office proposal raised by Cllr Mc- Mahon Jones, so she could not com- TneCsunLO) OMG eTeL

“Is that as detailed as that can be?” the councillor asked the manager af- ter she had answered.

Cllr McMahon Jones then asked for a detailed report on the four sites examined in the last year and a half

and a full list of land owned by the council.

“I am very very disappointed by the overall response. We need to be informed. Evasive answers and half answers are not what we are looking for,’ she said.

Cllr Liam O’Looney (FF) asked if the town hall would have to be sold to finance the venture.

“Last year when we could not bal- ance the books and afford €50,000 for the project, it was reduced to €24,000. I have reservations about how we can find €1.4 million. I don’t feel comfortable going forward with this,” he said.

Cllr Deirdre Culligan (Ind) asked if the manager considered acquiring the site under the derelict site act.

“IT don’t know what would have been the benefit, as we would have to pay for valuation and the mar- ket value, and in my experience we could have ended up in arbitration,”

said the manager.

“To suggest that I am withholding information is incorrect. I will give you information when I can. Like any such capital acquisition it will be spread over a number of years,’ she added.

She said she apologised if she mis- understood the motion and further information was required.

Cllr Tom Prenderville (FF) told the meeting that the questions asked by the councillors were legitimate and they were entitled to answers.

‘“T am satisfied that the property on Francis Street should be purchased. I have no problem in proposing a vote of confidence in the managers ability to do this,” he said.

He said the arrival of the areas of- fices to Kilrush put space at a pre- mium.

“If anyone made an argument, it is the people here tonight. We are breaching fire regulation and health

and safety regulations here tonight,” he said.

His comments were greeted with loud coughing from the public gal- a

He then referred to what he de- scribed as threats made to the town manager at a recent chamber of com- merce meeting.

Cllr Marian McMahon Jones asked the manager if Clare County Council had put up €700,000 for the purchase of the former Inis Cathaigh site.

“In principle, probably yes,” said Cllr Prendeville and the coughing began again.

His proposal of a vote of confi- dence in the manager was passed by five councillors to three.

Prior to this, the councillors were also split five to three in adopting the Annual Financial Statement.

MORE than 20 people in Clare who have had development on their lands frozen by part of the planning act are being treated unconstitutionally, it was claimed last night.

The council is damaging it’s own policy to halt rural depopulation by putting Section 47 orders on land Where one permission has_ been granted, members of Clare County Council were told.

The deferred meeting of the coun- cil heard from Cllr PJ Kelly(FF) who had asked for details in relation to section 47 conditions placed on the granting of planning in areas where the is a lack of development, known as structurally weak areas.

The condition means that no other permission, regardless of what it is, will be given on that land for a pe- riod, usually five years.

“I believe that many people in County Clare have had section 47s

imposed illegally. Section 47 is in- tended for urban areas, not for rural areas which are structurally weak. We are suffering from a condition called planorexia,” he said.

The councillor called for the “1- legal burdens to be removed forth- We LNee

Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) seconded the motion.

“In my view, the issuing of section 47’s is an unconstitutional act. Land where a section 47 is applied could

vary in size from 10 acres to 100 acres and no distinction is made. It’s inequitable,’ she told the meeting.

Councilor Pat Hayes (FF) said he supported his fellow councillors. “I sought legal opinion six months ago on this area.”

Councillors expressed concern that section 47’s were making freezing family lands where a second and subsequent children in one family would need to build homes.

ClUlr Martin Lafferty (Ind) said he believed the application of a section 47 is “often a matter of opinion. I know of at least one case where one planner was going to impose a freez- ing order and after discussions with a more senior planner. It wasn’t im- posed.”

In written reply to the councillor’s query, Director of Services, Berna- dette Kinsella, said that there have been 21 section 47 conditions 1m- posed in Clare since 2005 and she was not aware of any being removed in that period.

Cllr Kelly said he wanted officials to go back and find out how many of these had been imposed in structur- ally sensitive areas.

Manager Alex Fleming told the meeting that in relation to the ques- tion of the equal provisions in struc- turally sensitive areas was that the act itself made reference to such areas.

ONE Clareman got planning per- mission to build a house in his native Corofin while his brother was re- fused on the grounds that he is not a local rural person, a meeting of Clare County Council was told last night.

The council members were being asked to approve a Material Contra- vention of the County Development Plan to allow a planning applicant build a home at Ballycullinan hav- ing been previously refused planning permission.

County Manager Alex Fleming,

cautioned the members that they needed to be “guided solely by the proper planning and development and sustainability of the proposal’.

Cur Tommy Brennan (Ind) told the meeting that when the applicant originally began the planning proc- ess, he was approached. The council- lor said he had originally been told there shouldn’t be a problem, but an official from the planning depart- ment subsequently contacted him and said there were difficulties.

The applicant, who had spent some time working in Dublin was subse- quently refused. Issues which had

needed resolution had been resolved “but he was refused on the grounds that he is not a local, rural person. His brother bought land from a pal and got permission to build a house across the road. Born and brought up in the same house and one 1s a local rural person and the other is told he’s not”.

Cllr Brennan said that he was pro- posing the Material Contravention on the grounds that he had supplied enough new information in the mat- ter. Cllr Richard Nagle(FF) said that the situation on the local rural people “needs a serious reality check. We

are presiding over rural depopula- tion. That is a fact. All that people are asking for is the permissions they Uomo B10 (orem kOe

Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) said dealing with the issue through a material contravention “is using a sledgeham- mer to crack a nut… and while there are genuine cases, if we start doing that then it will eventually come down to which applicants are the most popular.”

The meeting put the proposal to a vote and voted in favour of by a majority of 27 in favour to three against.