Clare 1-18 Westmeath 0-10 WITH just three fixtures left to play in division 3 of the NFL, Clare took a huge stride towards promotion with a comprehensive win over Westmeath in Ennis on Sunday. They now sit joint second in the table, along with Tipperary. The Munster teams are two points behind Kildare, who have won all four of their games to date. Clare travel to O’Connor Park in Tullamore next Sunday, where they play Offaly who are currently on four points. Clare blitzed Westmeath who were completely off the pace, particularly in the first half. Such was Clare’s dominance they led 0-7 to 0-0 after 23 minutes with David Tubridy, Eoin Cleary, Pearse Lillis and Cathal O’Connor putting over those early points. Westmeath, who reached the 2015 Leinster final and were expected to at least contend for promotion, didn’t kick their first point until eight minutes before half time when substitute Shane Dempsey scored. They did come within four …

MOYHILL Community Garden finished second in the Sustainable Community section of the 2015 Get Involved Community Award presentation ceremony, which was held in Dublin last week. Now in its third year, the Local Ireland Get Involved Sustainable Communities awards initiative is promoted by 51 weekly paid-for newspapers and this year’s initiative featured 30 projects from all over Ireland. The projects cover the essential areas necessary to build sustainable communities, including clean energy, water conservation, local food production, eco-tourism and developing local community employment. The North Clare-based group was also highly commended in the Community Impact section. In their presentation, the group told the gathering at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Blanchardstown that they had visited Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the UK in an effort to establish their own one. Green Party General Election candidate, Fergal Smith heads up the Moyhill group and he told The Clare Champion that reaching the national final was a positive experience for them. “Local …

Clare 1-21 Laois 0-16 Clare made it three wins from three outings in this season’s Allianz hurling league when defeating Laois at O’Moore Park in Portlaoise this evening. While the visitors led from the outset, they struggled to pull away from the home side who will wonder if they might have caused an upset had they not been so wasteful when they enjoyed a good spell midway through the second half. Clare started brightly and raced into a 0-3 to 0-0 lead after just three minutes but a brace from Willie Hyland brought the midlanders to within a point. By the mid point of the half it was 0-7 to 0-3 in favour of the visitors who went on to lead 0-13 to 0-8 as the game went into ‘injury time’ at the end of the opening half. Two minutes of ‘injury time’ were signalled and in the second of these a delivery from Bobby Duggan caused problems for the …

WHAT a difference a win makes or, perhaps more significantly, what a difference a performance makes. Everything that Clare lacked in their Round 2 National Football League Division 3 game against Tipperary on February 7 was evident in last Sunday’s six-point win over Limerick. Nobody would question a team that gives all it can and loses a particular game but Clare did not seem fully focused in that first half against Tipperary, while their decision-making on the ball was poor. The challenge for them against Limerick was to first reacquaint themselves with an attitude that would lead to a 70-minute performance. They knew that if that happened, they would have every chance of winning and moving away from the bottom half of the table. Therefore, they will enter Sunday’s game at Cusack Park, Ennis [2pm start] against Westmeath confident and ready for another vital fixture. The Midland county, who defeated Meath for the first time in their history in 2015, …

AFTER a one-week break, Clare will return to hurling league action this Saturday evening when they travel to play Laois in Round 3 at O’Moore Park in Portlaoise at 7pm. As has been the case with their opening two games, Clare will carry the favourites’ tag but team mentors have stressed that they will be taking nothing for granted. Laois haven’t had a good start to this season’s campaign, losing their opening-round game to Kerry and then going down to Offaly last time out. At this stage of the campaign, relegation to Division 2 is a serious concern, so they will be expected to up their game. While Clare have won all recent outings against the Laois men, they haven’t had things their own way and, in fact, have had to pull out all the stops to get victory. In the league quarter-final in 2014, only four points separated the sides at the final whistle, with Clare ahead on a …

There are four changes in personnell on the Clare senior hurling team for this Saturday’s league clash with Laois at Portlaoise from that which started against Wexford last time out. Into the side come Andrew Fahy, Brendan Bugler, Aaron Cunningham and Bobby Duggan and they replace Patrick Kelly, Jack Browne, Aron Shanagher and Conor McGrath. Jack Browne is ruled out due to injury. Brendan Bugler will be making his first start since last summer. He has recently returned to action following surgery on his shoulder. The team is; Andrew Fahy (Whitegate): Pat O’Connor (Tubber), Cian Dillon (Crusheen) Captain, Paul Flanagan: Brendan Bugler (Whitegate) David McInerney (Tulla), Conor Cleary (Miltown St. Josephs): David Reidy (Eire Og), Conor Ryan (Cratloe): John Conlon (Clonlara), Colin Ryan (Newmarket) Gearoid O’Connell (Ballyea); Aaron Cunningham (Wolfe Tones), Shane O’Donnell (Eire Og), Bobby Duggan (Clarecastle). By Seamus Hayes

LOTS of comments are flying about Donald Trump’s vocabulary. Some of the conversation has been about his lack of vocabulary. Others have pointed out that he is uncouth and crude in his speech. Others have noted that Trump tells it like it is, holding nothing back, saying whatever comes to his mind or speaking from his heart. Some on social media have commented they don’t want a president who cannot communicate more articulately or smoother than what Trump does. I have to note that we have a smooth president by the name of Barack Obama. I personally think that he uses the teleprompter as well as anybody I’ve ever seen. Or, when he has time to master his content, he can release his words in a very convincing manner. I don’t see that there is much debate on our current president’s ability to deliver a high-powered speech. On the other hand, we’ve all heard the president at press conferences “hem …

Clare Fianna Fáil got their General Election strategy wrong, according to former Defence Minister and Fianna Fáil Deputy, Tony Killeen. His views are at odds with those of local Fianna Fáil director of elections, Gerry Reidy, who believes the entry of Dr Michael Harty into the Dáil race cost the party two seats. Speaking during a General Election debate, organised by The Clare Champion in Cáirde, Ennis, on Monday night, Mr Killeen said, “A lot of Fianna Fáil people are very exercised by the fact we got almost 3,000 more first preferences than Fine Gael and, even allowing for a slightly better transfer to Fine Gael from Labour, we only won one seat. “One person described it as a ‘monumental failure’. I don’t agree with him. The first step for Fianna Fáil in Clare is to admit we got it wrong. “I said previously that if we didn’t divide the vote more evenly, we would be in trouble and, if …