The Clare People Archive

THIS is neither the time nor the place to throw some balls of mud and play the blame game. This is, as Frank Doherty said on Saturday evening, time to look at the bigger picture.

It’s time to wonder why and how Clare, who were at least competitive in the championship less than three years back, have slipped so grace- lessly over the past couple of sea- Sons.

Taking 2007 and 2008 into consid- eration, Clare have played 11 games in championship and league. They’ ve lost all but three and one of those wins was against London in Cusack Park. So it’s over a year since the county footballers have had any result of sig- nificance — a five point win against Leitrim in the second round of the 2007 league on February 10th.

Just 20 months ago, Clare travelled to Casement Park in the first round of the All Ireland qualifiers and beat Antrim by one point. That day, they played with appetite and courage. On Saturday, Antrim came to Ennis and Clare were made look like a team that belong in another compeition.

Only three of those who lined out in Casement Park started in Cusack Park and that alone tells the story of an unforgiveable and unsustainable turnover rate.

Throughout Clare, players have reg-

ularly turned their back on the county jersey — an incredible fact to compre- hend for anybody from a county with any sort of football tradition. But it’s an inherent fact of football in this county. It’s bred into player’s psyches from early on and the results of that

indefensible approach were laid bare on Saturday.

Last summer, an underage develop- ment county team was shorn of play- ers because some clubs decided to withdraw their players on favour of club games later that week. What sort

of message does that relay? Where’s the love of the county that has kids in other places dreaming of wearing their own county colours?

There’s a spiritual aspect to the game that just isn’t being stoked in Clare and after the Antrim game, Frank Doherty was beginning to see that at first hand.

For sure, Clare played horribly. From the first minute that they walked out onto the field, the player’s body language was all wrong but in a way, it’s understandable given the lack of interest that surrounds them.

Walking around Ennis on Saturday, there was nothing to say the county footballers were facing a must win game to keep their league hopes alive. The same faces, the Clare Football Die Hards, as they’ve come to be known, were the only ones fly- ing the flag at Cusack Park. Do most people in Clare even care about in- ter-county football?

Selection-wise, the make-up of the team didn’t work either and at least three players were operating out of position. It all means the Clare management will continue to scour the county for willing footballers, though with no club games pencilled in over the next fortnight, the task could prove futile and any selection will have to be based on past per- formances.

If, as Doherty said, the McGrath

Cup covered cracks, then other, more intrinsic ruptures were also covered up in the wake of this season’s club championship. Bar a handful of exceptions, most games were sub- standard and the scoring, in particu- lar, was below-par. The county final was woeful and was papered over by Lissycasey’s historic win and the two best clubs in the county over the past two years have between them, two inter-county representatives.

Just prior to the hurlers taking off in 1995, Ger Loughnane correctly identified that the lacklustre nature of club games was contributing to the county under-performing. He deduced that the intensity of match days had to be replicated in training and that’s the task now facing the Clare footballers. Nobody expects a miracle 2008, but the least the 200 Clare supporters who showed up on Saturday deserved was the best team on the field and every man giving a committed performance.

There are no easy answers to games like Antrim, but it’s time to wake vhOR

The long term affect on the confi- dence of Clare football — particularly on the younger players — means the rot has to stop.

REIGNING All-Ireland Minor Dou- bles champions Niall Malone and Diarmuid Nash bowed out of the 2008 race on Thursday night last. They were beaten in dramatic cir- cumstanaces by Limerick’s Seamus O’Carroll and CJ Fitzpatrick.

The tie started in Tuamgraney, but finished in Tulla. The Clare pair led 19-17 in the first game, but lost it 21- 19. In the second game it was Nash and Malone who enjoyed a good start and were leading 12-7 when damp- ness started to show in the alley.

After a Limerick objection, referee

Mike Kelly ruled the alley unfit to continue and the large crowd headed to Tulla, where the Limerick pair eventually turned the tide. Nash and Malone held serve at 19-17 and again at 20-18 only for the Limerick pair to snatch the game and the match, 21-20.

Meanwhile, also in the Munster Mi1- nor Doubles Championship, Trevor Vaughan (Tulla) and Gerry Cooney (O’C. Mills) had a massive 21-2, 21- | win over Tipperary opposition on Friday night last.

In Minor singles, Niall Malone will play Ballina’s Fergal Collins at Nenagh (TBC) and Diarmaid Nash

will face Cappagh’s CJ Fitzpatrick at Tuamgraney (TBC) in their Munster Ist round games next week. In Mas- ters B Singles last week, there was defeat for John Moloney but John Nihill progressed and will tonight (Tuesday) take on Cork’s John Mc- Donagh at Galbally in the Munster semi-final at 8.00pm.

Mike Baker (O’C. Mills) will play Limerick’s Pat Doody in the Munster Novice Singles quarter-final in Cap- pagh this Wednesday (18th) at 8.00. Baker teamed up with Clarecastle’s Finbarr Sheridan to play Limerick in the Novice Doubles but were defeat- ed 21-15, 21-15 on Friday last in Gal-

bally. In the Dalkia Senior Handball Championship, there was defeat in the round of 32 for Clooney’s Fergal Coughlan against Cork’s Tony Healy in Tuamgraney.

Meanwhile, anumber of Clare play- ers are involved in the All-Ireland Schools championships this weekend in Kilkenny and Cavan. Tulla’s Alan Leamy and Trevor Vaughan take on St. McCartan’s College Monaghan in the Intermediate Doubles semi-final.

In Intermediate Singles Tuam- eraney s Diarmaid Nash (Cistercian College, Roscrea) plays the Leinster final against Kells CS, with the win- ner playing the Connacht champion

while in the other semi, Nash’s club- mate Niall Malone (Scariff C.C.) plays the Carrickmore, Tyrone rep- resentative.

At Kingscourt, Cavan on Satur- day (11.00am), Clooney’s Paula and Lisa Loughnane (Rice College) play St. Patrick’s, Armagh, in the Junior Doubles semi-final.

Also at Kuinsgscourt, Sarah O’Donnell (Tuamgraney, Scariff C.C) plays St. Mary’s, Newry in the CISCO DENTS CoO OV EIOUSTDEMAU AONE CoMmEN| Senior Doubles, Ashling Fitzgerald and Edel O’Grady (Tuamgraney, Scariff C.C.) also play Newry oppo- sition in their semi-final.

FIGURES for 2007 show more young listeners in Clare are tuning into new station SPIN South West.

The Joint National Listenership Re- search figures for the period January to December 2007 show that Clare FM remains the most listened to ra- dio station in the county.

The figures show a 42 per cent “‘lis- tened yesterday” figure for Clare FM

and that the station has a 37 per cent market share.

The findings also show that Clare FM’s weekday reach figure for the 12-month period remained static at 42 per cent. Clare FM’s weekday share figure, calculated between 7am and 7pm, was down I.1 per cent to 37.7 per cent placing the station sev- enth out of 16 local radio stations.

The JNLR/TNSmrbi_ study re- vealed Clare FM’s weekly reach fig-

ure to be 65 per cent, a drop of two per cent from last year. In its first five months on the airways, SPIN South West made inroads into the youth market in Limerick, Kerry, Clare, North Tipperary and South Laois. The JNLR figures show the station, along with Today FM, are the most listened to radio stations in the re- gion for 15-34 year olds. The figures were calculated over the period July to December 2007.

Reacting to the station’s first JNLR figures (July to December, 2007), Chief Executive of SPIN South West, Aevann Upton said that the re- sults indicated a successful first five yneloyaleatcy

“We anticipated a strong showing but nothing like this as we were on air for just five months of the year. This is a remarkable achievement and testament to the mix of youth music and talk that we have here at SPIN South West. It is a real boost to our shareholders, hard-working staff and, indeed, our advertisers.

“It is very early days for us yet, of course, but we couldn’t have hoped for better than this.”

The JNLR figures for the “listened yesterday” rating showed that 31 per cent (49,000) of 15 to 34 year olds across the region tuned into SPIN South West. This puts it joint top with Today FM in terms of listener- ship in the region. The station leads in the 7pm to midnight category with Rw mete

SPIN South West shareholders include former Lions, Ireland and Munster rugby star Keith Wood, Clare Community Radio Holdings, Liam O’Shea (Managing Direc- tor Clare FM and Chairman SPIN SouthWest).

show that district court judg- es received on average €23,436 in expenses last year.

Judge Mangan, appointed in July 2001, is likely to be in the upper half of the list as he has a large area to ad- minister, stretching from south Gal-

way to south-east and west Clare.

The highest amount received by a judge was €82,240. It is likely that the judge concerned does not have a designated court district and instead moves from district to district to cov- er for judges who are on leave.

The court sittings over which Judge Mangan presides include those in Ennis, Ennistymon, Kildysart, Kil- kee, Corofin, Kilrush, Tulla, Gort, Athenry and Killaloe.

Judge Mangan’s expenses payments comes on top on his newly increased salary of €158,000, awarded on

the recommendation of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in Public Sector. Judge Mangan’s sal- ary increased by 18 per cent from €134,124.

The figures show that country’s District Court judges spent €596,828 on mileage and €701,391 on subsist- ence.

The figures also show that the judg- es spent €14,211 on judges’ attire in- cluding wigs and gowns.

The FOI Unit has, however, refused to state how much each identified district judge received due to secu-

rity concerns.

The FOI officer states, “Both their security and the risk that any threat to the safety of their families may be used to threaten their judicial inde- pendence may effect the security of the State, particularly those in po- litical cases and those in the Special Criminal Court.

‘There is a genuine concern for the personal security of judges and their families … The disclosure of infor- mation sought on an individual basis will identify those judges who are away from home frequently.”

THREE Romanian nationals have appeared in court charged in connec- tion with alleged criminal damage to a bank ATM in Shannon.

The two men and one woman were brought before Shannon District Court last Thursday where the men were remanded on custody and the woman was released on bail. One of the men is also wanted in Mullingar on foot of outstanding warrants.

The three were charged in connec- tion with an ongoing garda investiga-

tion into an alleged ATM skimming operation in Shannon, which could involve tens of thousands of euro.

Pavel Cirpaci (27) whose address is ‘unknown’ gave a false name to gardai when arrested. Garda Kieran Nash arrested the accused on Febru- ary 14, on foot of two warrants is- sued at Mullingar District Court in 2007. The accused told gardai that his name was Paul Negrea.

In evidence, Garda Martin Cham- bers of the Immigration Unit at Shan- non garda station said he carried out tests on an identification card which

the accused had in his possession and found it to be false.

He said he later established that the defendant’s name was Pavel Cirpaci and that he had arrived in Ireland in June 2005.

The court was told by the accused’s solicitor Steven Walsh that the de- fendant had voluntarily offered his real name at 12.45pm. While the garda confirmed this, Judge Joseph Mangan said that he was “not at all impressed that the defendant vol- unteered his real name at 12.45pm” more than an hour after court had

commenced.

Garda Nash also told the court the accused has had 13 bench previous bench warrants issued against him. While he also faces charges in Mull- ingar, he is charged with two counts of causing criminal damage to an ATM at Shannon Town Centre.

The second accused, Craciun Ca- vacio (23), claimed he lived at 21, Dominick Street, Dublin. However gardai could not confirm that the ac- cused lived there.

A third defendant, Ms Gabriella Lupo (20), also with an address in

Dublin and who was on bail from Gort District Court, gave evidence that Mr Cavacio lived at 21, Domin- ick St, Dublin, as he claimed. Asked by Inspector John Galvin how long he lived there, Ms Lupo said “a few rpetoyalee tne

When she was asked when Mr Ca- vacio left that address, she replied “December.”

Ms Lupo also faces one charge of criminal damage to an ATM ma- chine at Shannon Town Centre.

All three will re-appear in court later this month.

A COURT has heard that a young man who was carrying a _ baton dropped it as gardai arrived at the scene of a late night disturbance in /Syeyeb ay

William Roche of St Michael’s Villas, Ennis, and Colm Connick (31), of John Paul Park, Murlintown, Wexford, appeared in court arising out of an incident at 3am on October DePAUerE

Roche was charged with possession of a baton, while Connick was ac- cused of possession of a knife. Both pleaded guilty.

Garda William Delaney told En- nis District Court on Friday that an altercation took place at O’Connell Street, Ennis.

“An independent witness pointed out Mr Roche as having dropped a baton when gardai arrived,” he said.

“He denied this initially, but admit- ted it later on,” said the garda.

He said that Connick had a knife in his back pocket. Roche claimed to gardai that he had the baton for his own protection as he had been threat- ened by a group of people earlier. He denied that he had used it.

It was, he said, the type of baton you would get on holiday and had the

word *“Lanzarote’ written across It.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that there were no complaints in relation to the use of a baton, while it was not being alleged that the knife was pro- duced.

The court was told that Connick, a tradesman, had travelled from Wex- ford to do work on his friend Roche’s house.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said there was “no inference” that Connick had produced the knife.

She said that Roche was carrying the baton “in case it was needed for protection.”

“It’s an offence to good taste rather

than anything else. There was no evi- dence that he wielded it as such,” she SrnOe

“If anyone was going to attack him, he felt he should have it. If anyone ar- rived at the scene and saw ared baton from Lanzarote, they would prob- ably die laughing. The fashion police might be on their back as well,” said Ms Godfrey.

“T don’t think any self-respecting criminal would be seen dead with that,’ she added.

Judge Joseph Mangan asked what was the baton for, if it was not for criminal activity.

Ms Godfrey replied, “The mind

boggles.”

Inspector Kennedy pointed out however, “A wallop from that would be no different to a wallop from any 0} Tos mm As Ole Oyen balcie a0 bee Ces 01 ime

“Just because Lanzarote was writ- ten on it doesn’t make light of his re- sponsibilities,’ said the inspector.

Judge Mangan imposed a _ four- month jail term on both men, sus- pended on condition that they keep the peace for six months.

He ordered both to enter a bond to behave for two years and fined them €1,250 each.

He fixed a bond in the event of an appeal.

THE Christian attitude adopted by the family of a young man who lost his life in a road accident a year ago was commended by a judge, at the end of a trial relating to the death.

Judge Rory McCabe paid tribute to the family of Eamon Scully, after they expressed the opinion that they did not want to see a man convicted in connection with the death to go to jail.

James Freeman was acquitted of dangerous driving causing death, but was found guilty of careless driv- ing, arising out of a road accident in which Mr Scully lost his life, one year ago this weekend.

Counsel for the State Stephen Coughlan said Mr Scully’s family did not bear Mr Freeman any “ill will” and had no desire to see him sent to jail.

Mr Freeman’s barrister Michael Collins said the accident was “a low

speed collision, by way of both ve- hicles.” He said his client was genu- NIA U SON uNOROTE

He asked that his clent’s good character be taken into considera- tion, pointing out that he had no pre- vious convictions.

“Vd ask you to take into account the Christian attitude of Mrs Scully and family. The nature of the care- lessness of this case was an error of judgment,” said Mr Collins.

Judge Rory McCabe said the case

was “an enormous tragedy.”

“Life will never be the same for the two families and the two extended JE-VOODU O(c MaN Slomcr-BLOE

“The consequences for the Scully family are enormous. They lost a young man.

“Also for the Freeman family. Mr Freeman will live with this for the rest of his life,’ he said.

“I’m extremely impressed by the at- titude of the family of the deceased. It’s Christian. It’s caring. It recog-

nises the fact there are no winners,” he said.

“IT am not certain in the circum- stances a prison sentence would re- flect the circumstances in this situa- tion,” said the judge.

He fined Mr Freeman €1,000 said he was not imposing a driving ban, because, “I accept what was submit- ted by Mr Collins this was a momen- tary lapse of attention and I really hope it was not his decision to run the stop sign.”

THE Competition Authority has been called upon to investigate claims of a ‘closed shop’ that prohibits over 400 Clare taxi and hackney drivers from operating out of Shannon Airport.

Bye-laws dating back 14 years en- sure that there is no conventional taxi rank at Shannon Airport and, instead, passengers seeking a taxi must hire a hackney cab based at Shannon.

Despite the massive growth in pas- senger numbers at Shannon Airport

in recent years, where last year 3.6 million people travelled through it, only 34 hackney cabs operate out of the airport.

Yesterday, the Shannon Aijrport Authority (SAA) declined to say how many new licences have been issued in recent years, stating only that the numbers have increased ‘slightly’.

Since the deregulation of the taxi business in November 2000, the number of licences has increased four-fold to 467 in Clare.

However, Shannon Airport remains a ‘closed shop’ and Deputy Dooley

said yesterday, “The taxi business at Shannon shouldn’t remain closed to others. It is anti-competitive and should be opened up to everyone.”

In his letter to the chairman of the Competition Authority, William Prasifka, Deputy Dooley said, “I am very concerned that since de-regu- lation of the taxi service, the num- bers of all public service vehicles in Clare has increased from 177 in November 2000 to 467 in December of 2007.

‘Based on these figures, I see no ar- gument to have this practice in place

at Shannon Airport.”

Deputy Dooley has also written to the Chief Executive of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), Declan Collier, and the Director of the Shan- non Airport Authority (SAA), Mar- tin Moroney.

He wrote, “I am concerned that the services provided are not in keeping with competition law or indeed in keeping with the spirit of de-regula- tion in the taxi sector.”

Deputy Dooley has also written to the Commissioner for Taxi Regula- tion, Kathleen Doyle, on the issue.

In response, a spokesman for Shan- non Airport said, “Shannon Airport complies with all applicable legisla- tion governing taxis and other small public service vehicles.

‘The current arrangement at Shan- non as operated is applied under leg- islation 1.e. S.I. 425 of 1994 (Airport Bye Laws).

“Since the establishment of the Taxi Regulator, we have been in reg- ular communication with them and they have outlined their satisfaction that the current operation adequately meets the needs of our passengers.”

THE Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, was in Paris on Valen- tines days courting her French coun- terpart, Minister Michel Barnier, for support on WTO and the CAP Health Check.

Speaking after the meeting, which Coughlan described as being “very useful’, the Irish Minister said that there were many shared views on WTO and both sides had concerns about the way in which the negotia- tions were going.

“The latest negotiation paper from Geneva on agriculture contained a number of areas with which both sides are unhappy we feel that over- all there is a lack of balance,’ she SrnOR

“I have agreed to liaise further in the coming weeks and, in particular, in the run up to next week’s Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels.”

The Ministers also discussed devel- opments in the CAP Health Check and had a very useful exchange of views on the positions being taken in Seale

“As with WTO, there was a huge degree of a commonality on the overall approach to the CAP and to its long-term future,” she continued. We discussed various current mar- ket issues and focused in particular on the pigmeat sector. On this, we agreed on the importance of EU sup- ports and on the need to continue and extend these.”

Meanwhile, President of 14,000

member-strong Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, Jackie Cahill, has warned that the Government is facing an extremely embarrassing reverse on the Lisbon Treaty Refer- endum unless a serious and coher- ent effort is mounted immediately to convince the electorate of the merits of a ‘yes’ vote.

Speaking from the Brussels confer- ence of the pan-European dairy farm- ers organisation, the European Milk Board, Mr Cahill said that while he is personally in favour of the Treaty and will be urging a *Yes’ vote, he is “spectacularly unconvinced” by the campaign waged so far by both the Government and the other pro-treaty oy Na Bone

“ICMSA is a farm organisation and SO 1s, quite literally, a grass-roots

movement. Our political antennae are quite sensitive and we’re picking up decidedly mixed messages on the prospects for the passage of the Lis- bon Treaty,” he said.

“IT am personally in favour of the Treaty and am quite optimistic that our National Council will come out in its favour. But I am spectacularly unconvinced by the quality of the ‘Yes’ campaign so far and I’m warn- ing both the Government and the other pro-treaty parties that if they don’t get their act together — and fast — that they are heading for an unmer- ciful shock.”

MINISTER for State at the Depart- ment of Agriculture with special responsibility for Forestry, Mary Wallace, last week launched a DVD entitled “Bringing The Bogs Back To LIFE” at the ENFO Headquarters in Dublin. It has been produced by Coillte to promote its EU LIFE fund- ed bog restoration projects across the country and to demonstrate the work that went into them. It is available free of charge from Coillte.

“T am delighted to be here today to launch this informative DVD which tells the story of the great work done

by Coillte under the EU funded LIFE initiative in restoring both raised bogs and blanket bogs in Ireland,” she said.

‘Having had the chance to view the DVD it provided a very comprehen- sive record of the projects and I com- mend all who were involved in its production. I know that Coillte is also successfully implementing another important LIFE-Nature project — on the restoration of Priority Woodland Habitats, which I had the pleasure of launching recently and I wish you well with both the DVD and your ongoing work in this area.”

Also speaking the at the launch

was David Gunning, Chief Execu- tive of Coillte.

“Coillte manages its forests com- mercially but, in doing so, we pay a lot of attention to environmental and social considerations,’ he said.

“Our forests are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as being well managed in accordance with Strict environmental, social and eco- es eRew Kure

‘Nature Conservation is an integral part of forest and land management and 15 per cent of Coillte’s estate is managed with nature conservation as the primary management objective.

“The DVD produced as part of

these projects will stand as a record of the work done and the contribution Coillte has made in restoring some of these valuable habitats across the country. Copies are available free of charge by contacting Coillte or via our website — www.coillte.ie.”

The blanket bog project has just finished involved 20 sites Clare as well as Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Gal- way, Kerry and Laois.

The promotional DVD has been produced to highlight the objectives, actions and expected results of Coill- te’s two bog restoration projects. You can read more about the Bog Resto- ration projects via www.coillte.ie.