The Clare People Archive

THE long-term future of two Clare hurling clubs hangs in the balance before an historic joint-vote at the weekend.

Sunday is set to become a pivotal occasion in the history of both the Inagh and Kilnamona hurling clubs as a proposal to amalgamate both has been put forward.

The matter will be voted on this Sunday when Inagh and Kilnamona will hold their AGM?’s simultane- ously. A three-quarters majority is needed from both clubs if the motion is to be formally passed.

The connotations of such a move are far reaching as the amalgama- tion will lead to the folding of two historic institutions in order to create one new super-club.

Inagh and Kilnamona are currently amalgamated at underage level where they have experienced great success in recent years, winning minor and under 21 A titles.

In the past, they have also merged at senior level but never to the detri- ment of their own distinct club sides at intermediate level.

If the proposal is passed by both clubs, it will mean that at adult level a senior and an intermediate side will represent the new club after In- agh consulted the county board at the November meeting.

Kilnamona were relegated from senior this year after losing out in a relegation play-off against Smith O’Briens while Inagh just missed out on a quarter-final spot.

With such an important issue, some Opposition to the proposal is antici-

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However, some speculation in the Kilnamona camp yesterday [Mon- day] suggested that this motion is being railroaded through by their executive committee without the full backing of the club.

Further speculation of a member- ship controversy on the Kilnamona side 1s starting to build as confusion over full membership means that some members find themselves inel1- gible to vote next Sunday.

A source said, “In recent years the amalgamation of Kilnamona and Inagh at underage level has yielded success and most people in the par- ish would not have an issue with the clubs amalgamating for senior hurl- ing but not at the expense of winding up Kilnamona hurling club.

‘There is a lot of opposition to the

proposed winding up of Kilnamona but its looks like most of the opposi- tion is from people in the parish who are not going to be allowed vote in the meeting to decide something that is the cornerstone of most rural par- ishes in the country.”

A splinter club known as the Kil- namona Gaels is also being touted if the move goes ahead. ‘Inamona’, as the amalgamation is affectionately known, could bring to an end 120 years of the Kilnamona club who have been in existence since the ear- liest days of the GAA. A team repre- senting Inagh first made an appear- ance in 1918 and officially reformed as the Inagh hurling club in 1953.

Historic clubs in even more historic times but there’s set to be much de- bate at the respective AGM’s next Sunday.

AT THE start of the year, Michael Browne and Mike Murphy sat down for a chat. Murphy was captain for the year but nobody would have known where the road was going to lead.

The two came up with a strategy that has served Tulla well and high- lights the approach they’ve taken to the season. Murphy would act as one of the prime ball winners for the Tulla forwards, he’d put his body into whatever fight for possession that presented itself and even if he only moved the sliotar three yards in the direction of the Tulla goal, that would be enough.

That Al Pacino speech in Any Giv- en Sunday, the one about inches has been thrown about for most of this new century — and taken on board particularly by the Cork hurlers – but Tulla and Murphy have personified that system this year.

TMENo aioe meee de

In the end, they didn’t get the Mun-

ster championship that they craved since taking down Crusheen in the county final, but the season has been the greatest in living memory in Tulla.

After the game on Sunday, the disappointment in Murphy’s face is obvious but it shows just how far the club has come over the course of the season.

“The way that wind was blowing,’ he says “it didn’t have any advantage for either team. It was so strong out there that it just carried the ball.”

Even as he’s talking, the cold is still seeping into him, his teeth are rat- tling and his body is shivering. It was that kind of day.

“Tn the first half, the wind was blow- ing for them but it didn’t seem to be a great help. We knew coming down here that we’d be up against a strong team and that’s how it was. The goal gave them a bit of a cushion and on a day like today, that could always swing things in one direction.”

Right to the end, Tulla didn’t die and they hung on still within touch-

ing distance.

“We did have chances even late on. They just wouldn’t go over for us and even at the end, when Andy Quinn dropped the 65 into the danger area for us, we still could have snatched a win.

“But it just wasn’t going to be our day. The bottom line is that it’s been a great season for us. To come out and win a county championship was a dream come true. It would have been fantastic to have come down here and won a Munster title for Tul- la, but it didn’t happen. We’ve got the county to keep us going through the winter.”

Not just that. While the disappoint- ment of the Munster final might have been there on Sunday, it’s sure not to linger.

Last week, Murphy became a fa- ther. A boy.

“Another Tulla hurler on the way,’ somebody reminded him on Sunday. Because of the year just finished, he’ll be part of a club with a whole new set of ambitions.

TULLA are old stock. Clichéd and all as it may sound, they hurl from the heart and it’s taken them to a Munster Final.

Think of that. A Munster Final!

At the start of the summer that con- cept wasn’t even part of their thought process and before the provincial de- cider on Sunday, Jim McInerney said as much. He looked back to where Tulla were at this time last year — having been dumped out of the Sen- ior B Championship — and said that a Munster Final would barely have registered as a dream.

But that’s where they were on Sun- day and the club has provided some of the only positive vibes in Clare hurling this year — particularly since they took the county final back at the end of October.

Before that, they went quietly about their business, taking out a couple of big guns on the way to a novel final against Crusheen. If that game didn’t live up to expectation, perspective gives us the opportunity to reflect that in hindsight, maybe both sides went in hoping not to lose rather than aiming to win. The hurling didn’t set the world alight and word was out that Tulla had won a soft enough

championship.

War NmmyeclyeM mba OCcmrcn ele Mm iMmy schol mn r-b be either. In ways, it probably has more to do with the usual swelled crowd at the final compared to the numbers present to see Tulla dispose of New- market and Clarecastle.

The county took Tulla to their hearts but it wasn’t a rapid process. Word was seeping out that the Kerry champions could take a Clare scalp in the first round of Munster but Tulla came out that day in Tralee all guns blazing and had the game killed off before Lixnaw could even shake the cobwebs from their bones.

Then Ballyduff came to Ennis and

Tulla played some of the best hurling Cusack Park has seen all year. Flags and banners with the claret and gold have popped up all across the county since then.

In a year of let downs on and off the field for the county hurlers, it was Tulla, along with Clonlara who car- ried hopes through the latter half of the season.

That Tulla failed to take a provin- cial title shouldn’t ruin the next few months for them. Since the county fi- nal, celebrations have been cut short as they seriously went about taking a Munster title. All year they’ve been proving their critics wrong and the

attitude was — what’s the point in stopping with a Clare title.

When they’d finally relinquished the game at the Gaelic Grounds, a large knot of Tulla supporters moved onto the field to commiserate with them. It was a shared pain. Through- out the game, it was the Tulla fans who displayed most energy and colour and they too will have some warm thoughts to keep them going over the cold months now upon us.

ONE final scrum developed out on the field after the final whistle, then it morphed into a rolling maul that went up the steps to the presentation area in the Gaelic Grounds. It where David Kennedy joined his team mates in celebration.

Before that he had broken away from the scrum to be feted as TG4 man- of-the-match — it was an easy call for match analyst Donal O’Grady, such was Kennedy’s dominance of this game from centre back.

Kennedy more than anyone else was responsible for Loughmore- Castleiney’s Munster final victory — the impenetrable wall in their de-

fence who swatted Tulla attackers out of his way all day.

He caught more ball high ball than everyone else on the field put togeth- er, Something that moved some sages of Tipperary hurling in the stand to it was Kennedy’s greatest ever per- formance on a hurling field.

If so, he picked a great day to pro- duce his very best. Maybe it was the level of his own performance and the significance of Loughmore- Castleiney’s victory that left Kennedy slightly shell-shocked after the game. Certainly he was stuck for words.

“T don’t know what to say really,” he said seconds after Cathal McAI- lister’s final whistle. “It’s very hard to believe that we’re Munster cham-

pions. A year ago we were nowhere, we had nothing, that’s where we’ve come from.

‘This means everything for Lough- more-Castleiney. This is going to se- cure hurling in the parish for a long number of years.

‘We’re a very small club and win- ning this title is great going into the jaUiaet Ken

“It’s way beyond winning an All- Ireland. With Tipperary every year, no matter how bad things were go- ing you expect to be in Croke Park. With Loughmore you don’t expect anything.

‘This year we didn’t expect to win a county title and a Munster title — we didn’t expect to be hurling at

this time of year. This is a different universe,’ added Kennedy warming to his subject.

Then he turned to vanquished Tul- la. “They gave it everything and were really attacking us near the end, but our defence held firm.

‘We knew it was going to be a real battle out there and with the condi- tions there was never going to be pealecelemsneme ie

“We knew at half-time that the game was far from over, even though we were only a point up having played with the wind. It was almost as difficult to play with the wind as against it. We showed something in us today — I don’t know where it came from.

“It was important that we didn’t concede a goal, while the goal we got in the first half from Evan Sweeney was very important.

We missed a few other chances in the half but in the second half really played well at the back and got the crucial scores to win the game.”

With that Kennedy rejoined his team-mates — Munster Council chair- man Seamus O’Gorman presented the cup to Loughmore-Castleiney captain Johnny Gleeson. The singing started in the Mackey Stand.

It was cold, wet and miserable, but no one in the green and red of Loughmore-Castleiney minded. It was theirs and most of all David Kennedy’s day.

THE Minister of State at the Depart- ment of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Mary Wallace TD, speaking at the Irish Equine Veterinary Con- ference in Killenard last week, ac- knowledged the contribution of the Irish bloodstock industry and vital role that equine veterinary practi- tioners play in “maintaining the high health status of the Irish equine pop- WIE LeCey ila

Minister Wallace described the bloodstock industry as one _ that “makes a tremendous contribution to the profile, culture and economy of this country and which also has

a well deserved global tradition and reputation”. The thoroughbred sec- tor has been the main flag bearer for the industry over the years with Irish bred horses winning some of the world’s most prestigious races, and Ireland was the world’s third largest producer of thoroughbreds. The min- ister added that the Irish sports horse had also flown the flag with great distinction and she predicted that the establishment of Horse Sport Ireland heralded an era of significant oppor- tunity for this sector.

The minister said that the reputa- tion of the industry was underpinned by the health status of the horse pop- ulation. In that regard, she described

equine practitioners as being “at the coalface” of animal health, and ex- pressed her appreciation and that of her department for the support pro- vided by the industry and the veteri- nary profession during the 2006 out- break of equine infectious anaemia. The minister also paid tribute to the “collaborative approach” taken by the bloodstock industry, the veteri- nary profession and her department in tackling and successfully eradicat- ing the disease outbreak.

Ms Wallace acknowledged increas- ing concern about the emergence of new disease threats facing the equine and other sectors for a variety of rea- sons, and the ongoing need for fur-

ther measures to enhance animal, and equine welfare in particular. Minister Wallace said that her de- partment was committed to playing its part through the introduction of new and robust animal health and welfare legislation to meet the com- mitments in the programme for Gov- ernment.

Minister Wallace also paid tribute to the late Michael Osborne, whose memory was honoured by the inclu- sion of the inaugural Michael Os- borne Lecture as a central part of the conference. Ms Wallace described Mr Osborne as “a man who made an enormous contribution to the Irish bloodstock industry”.

MACRA na Feirme national presi- dent, Catherine Buckley reacted to Commissioner Fischer Boel’s speech on the Common Agricultural Policy Health Check by stating that any modifications to the current CAP policy must favour new entrants and young farmers.

“The potential impact on new en-

trants and young farmers who are trying to make a go at full-time farming and who traditionally are the hardest hit as the result of policy changes must be taken into account,” she said. Ms Buckley declared that her organisation welcomed the Com- missioner’s assertion that increases in milk quota should be part of the package to allow expansion for those who want to expand in dairying.

“If we are to attract young people into the industry we need radical changes. The targeting of increased quota to new and recent entrants is required to allow the farmers who are the future of the dairy industry to rapidly expand their businesses in the years ahead and to prepare for an environment without milk quotas,” she said. On the matter of the current proposals to raise the rate of modula-

tion to 13%, Ms Buckley said this was totally unacceptable as it would have a negative effect on farmers’ i1n- come and, under current modulation rules, it would not reward farmers who are trying to progress their farm LURID ASAT oIce

Ms Buckley concluded by saying that other aspects of the proposal would need further discussion and debate within her organisation.

A 24-YEAR-OLD Dublin woman, who was trapped on a ledge at the bottom of a 20-metre ravine for al- most six hours, was airlifted to hos- pital while five others had also to be rescued when a Saturday afternoon canyoning expedition in Clare al- most turned to tragedy.

The group of eight, from Dublin and Cork, had been canyoning along the bank of the Aille River near Doo- lin when one woman missed her step and fell several feet onto a ledge be- low. Two other members of the group risked their lives by floating along the river to a location where they

could safely reach a road and raise the alarm.

The group had set out at llam on Saturday to brave a three-kilometre stretch of the river in the townland of Ballysallagh when the incident oc- curred.

Canyoning is an adventure sport which involves walking, scrambling, climbing, abseiling and/or swim- eaneetee

The Shannon-based Coast Guard helicopter was scrambled to the scene. The chopper landed in a near- by field as members of Doolin Coast Guard were lowered on to the ledge to recover the casualty and her five friends.

AN AWARD-WINNING © north Clare-based GP said yesterday that a much better balance needed to be found in health spending so as more could be spent on primary care. According to Ballyvaughan GP, Dr Liam Glynn, 80 to 90 per cent of pa- tients in the health system are treated through primary care, yet it only re- ceives 20 per cent of health funding.

Dr Glynn — who recently scooped a medical ‘Oscar’ for a research project — said, “The balance is way wrong in terms of how the large hospitals swallow large amounts of health funding and that needs to be changed around in favour of primary care funding.”

The Government’s Primary Care Strategy was published in 2001-02 and Dr Glynn said, “It is making progress, but it could be happening

quicker.

“When you invest in primary care, it results in a more cost effective and more effective health care system.”

Dr Glynn, whose brother Fergus also operates as a GP in north Clare, said that he was thrilled to win the Irish Journal of Medical Science An- nual Research Award for his paper entitled, “Chronic Kidney Disease as a Predicator of Cardiovascular Mor- bidity and Mortality’.

Dr Glynn also scooped the award in 2005 for his research on out-of-hours doctors’ service.

The results of Dr Glynn’s research into chronic kidney disease empha- sise the importance of recognising it as a significant risk factor in patients with cardiovascular disease in the community. The research involved a database of 1,609 patients with established cardiovascular disease. The database was generated from a randomised sample of 35 general practices in the west of Ireland.

On the challenges facing rural GP practices, Dr Glynn said, “Rural GPs need to be supported by Government. There is a need to ‘follow the patient’ and Government must accept that it 1s more expensive to provide a service in rural areas.” Dr Glynn said, “The people make it worthwhile. They are tremendous folk.”

Dr Glynn qualified from Trin- ity College, Dublin in 1995 and, after finishing his vocational train- ing in General Practice in the Scot- tish Highlands, returned to Galway where he completed the Senior Reg- istrar scheme in General Practice.

In November, 2004, he was ap- pointed Lecturer in Primary Care at NUI, Galway and is currently pursu- ing an MD in cardiovascular disease in the community.

ENNIS General Hospital Develop- ment Committee are preparing to elect a new committee although it is not yet known if chairman Peadar McNamara is to step down.

The long-serving member of the committee said he was fighting an internal battle and had not yet decid- ed if he would be vacating the chair.

The committee, which campaigns for the retention of 24-hour accident and emergency services at Ennis General Hospital and the reopening of the mammography unit, will hold

its annual general meeting on Mon- day, January 28.

Mr McNamara said that the meet- ing, which will be held in the Auburn Lodge, is open to the public.

“We are inviting all organisations to send a delegation and we hope to elect anew committee,” he said.

The group set up a sub-commit- tee – Clare Cancer Concern – earlier this year when it emerged that En- nis General Hospital was to lose its mammography unit.

At the end of September, the hospital committee organised a rally through the streets of Ennis protesting against

the threat to the acute hospital’s 24- hour accident and emergency service. Less than 5,000 people gathered in the square in Ennis on that Saturday afternoon in support.

Groups such as Clare People With Disabilities, Ennis Active Retire- ment, SIPTU, Shannon Aer Lingus Workers, Kildysart Agricultural Show, District Day Care Centre Clarecastle, Birth Choice Clare, Clare Sinn Fein, the INO, The Lions Club and members of Clare’s locals authorities took part in the March.

Mr McNamara is now hoping that the organisations will attend the

meeting along with the members of the public. “We hope to set up a new and revitalised committee,” he said.

When asked if he himself would be stepping down having served as chairman for a number of years he answered, “I am saying nothing.” In the meantime, he said he would con- tinue with the campaign.

Since the protest march, Mr Mc- Namara said that the group have met with Independent TD Finian Mc- Grath and the health spokespersons from the opposition benches. The eroup have also prepared a document for TDs outlining their plight.

A CLARE GP has expressed concern at the lack of knowledge regarding the pneumococcal vaccine. A TNS MRBI poll showed that just two per cent of people have been vaccinated against pneumococcal disease.

According to Dr Dermot Boyle, this is a very worrying Statistic given the serious side effects associated with the infection.

“The pneumococcal vaccine is free to all people aged 65 and over and to those at risk of contracting the dis- ease, including people with diabetes,

a weakened immune system or heart disease. I would encourage all those at risk and over 65 to speak to your GP about getting vaccinated against pneumococcal disease,” he said. While 77 per cent of Irish people believe that pneumococcal disease iS a more serious condition than the flu, only 11 per cent of respondents knew that a pneumococcal vaccine was available. This compared with 40 per cent who had been vaccinated against flu. However, between 1996 and 2006, more than 200 Irish peo- ple have died per year as a result of contracting pneumococcal disease.

The vaccine against pneumococ- cal disease is a single vaccination for most people.

The Immunisation Guidelines for Ireland recommend that all people over 65 years of age should be vac- cinated against both pneumococcal disease (pneumo bug) and the flu.

The survey carried out for Sanofi Pasteur MSD also showed that 29 per cent of respondents had heard of pneumococcal disease highlighting the need for increasing awareness levels. The research also demon- strated that confusion exists around the diseases that can be caused as a

result of pneumococcal infection.

If untreated, pneumococcal disease can lead to the development of pneu- monia, meningitis and septicaemia.

The research also revealed that low levels of people who were at risk of contracting pneumococcal disease had been vaccinated. A weakened im- mune system, heart disease and dia- betes are all conditions that can result in the person being more susceptible to pneumococcal disease. However, only 18 per cent with a weakened im- mune system, nine per cent of those with heart disease and 11 per cent with diabetes had been vaccinated.