IN all of her years representing Banner Ladies and Clare, Emma O’Driscoll has never been so close to playing in an All-Ireland senior club final. The Clare, Munster B and Munster A champions are just one hour from qualifying for the biggest day ladies club football has to offer. Their thrilling one-point defeat of St Val’s from Cork in the Munster A final, three weeks ago, qualified The Banner for Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final. The Niamh O’Dea-captained team will play Monaghan, Ulster and reigning All-Ireland champions, Donaghmoyne, in Corofin at 1.30pm and are hoping that a huge crowd will travel to North Clare to roar them on. “I think this is a game that we will get a few neutrals at and our own county colleagues will come too and, hopefully, some of the girls from other clubs,” the Kildysart National School teacher told The Clare Champion.   “People who have any interest in Clare ladies football might come. It’s very …

FUNDING of €200,000 was announced on Friday for the development of an AstroTurf pitch facility in the West Clare village of Kildysart. The Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, allocated the money to Clare Local Development Company for the development of the sports facility. Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway said he believes the funds will “yield tangible results for the local community”. “I am delighted that funding for this project has been sanctioned and will soon yield tangible results for the local community of Kildysart in Clare. The AstroTurf facility is due to be developed on a site in the centre of the village. The project also includes the provision of flood-lighting and fencing. “Increasing participation in sport is very important for the health and well-being of the population and the provision of new facilitates such as this one will no doubt greatly encourage the community of Kildysart to play sport and promote physical activity,” Senator Conway …

WORK is expected to begin on the new Gort to Tuam €550 million motorway early in the new year. Clare county manager, Tom Coughlan told councillors at a local authority meeting on Monday that a contractor for the project has been selected, with construction to begin early in the new year. The motorway will be funded by an annuity from the State to the private contractors over a period of 25 years. According to the National Roads Authority (NRA), hundreds of jobs will be created during the construction process, with the opening of the road to have a major impact on traffic flow in blackspots such as Claregalway. The Department of Public Expenditure has approved the allocation of money to cover the Exchequer element of the scheme. The NRA says it will now re-engage with the preferred private contractor to complete the new N17/ N18 route. The construction of a 57km motorway, part of the Atlantic Corridor on the west …

SENATOR Lorraine Higgins has called for the provision of free car parking in Gort and other South and East Galway towns in the lead-up to Christmas to help boost town centre trade. The Labour senator has also urged Galway County Council to provide a public car park in Kinvara to tackle its ongoing problem with a lack of parking. “People are moving past towns like Athenry, Loughrea, Gort and Portumna to shop. Why not have free parking in the towns from now until Christmas, in order to give a much-needed shot in the arm for those businesses. I am proposing this as a potential way to give them a boost before Christmas,” she said. “If we are to make a difference to town centres, particularly if we are to protect our small shops, then free parking is exactly the kind of measure that needs to be introduced in the run-up to Christmas,” Senator Higgins added. According to the Athenry woman, …

EOIN Cleary had the look of a man who needed a power-hose to remove the stains of battle from his frame. Caked from head to foot in the residue of his own field and soaked to the skin, Cleary wasn’t concerned about that. Yet to re-enter the Miltown dressing room, he was on a lifetime high. “Words can’t describe it. On our own pitch with the crowd behind us, it’s the best day of my life to be honest. With your family and friends, this is just unbelievable,” is how he put it. “The whole town is behind us. Twelve months ago, we were fighting relegation and there wasn’t a sinner in Cooraclare. To have the whole town behind us is unbelievable,” Cleary marvelled. The supply of ball into Cleary and his attacking partner, Seánie Malone, helped them to wreak havoc at stages throughout the game. Although Cleary, jokingly, suggested he is getting bored with Seánie following him around all …

St Joseph’s Miltown 1-8 Currow (Kerry) 1-7 STEELY resolve, ice-cool temperament and bouts of flowing football edged Miltown Malbay into the Munster Intermediate Club Football Championship final on Sunday week. Playing in front of a crowd of 1,050 people in Miltown, the home club started superbly and led 0-6 to 0-0 after 23 minutes. While the Kerry intermediate champions kicked six wides in the opening half, they could not match Miltown’s fluency, support play and all-round work rate for all but the last seven minutes of the half. Deploying Eoin Curtin as an extra defender worked exceptionally well for Miltown. Curtin’s reading of the game in the opening half was flawless. He cut out several Currow through balls and afforded his full-back line reliable protection, while Curtin’s distribution and support play was also very impressive on a difficult day for football, considering the weekend rainfall and tricky breeze. Down field, Eoin Cleary showed his class in the third minute when …

DEPUTY Michael McNamara has called for possession of cannabis to be included on the adult caution scheme. The Clare deputy raised the matter when speaking on a private members motion tabled by Deputy Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan and the technical group calling for cannabis regulation and legalisation last week. Deputy McNamara highlighted that in 2006, the adult caution scheme was introduced, whereby gardaí could grant an adult caution for a list of offences if they believed it to be beneficial. “It was proposed that the possession of cannabis – not possession with intent to supply – would be included on the list but it fell off the bottom. Additional offences have been added since in which an adult caution can be issued but possession of cannabis remains excluded. I asked the Minister for Justice and Equality in how many cases the Probation Act was applied to cases of cannabis possession in Ireland, and there appears to be approximately 1,500 cases on …

THE Parkinson’s Health Conference, which took place in Feakle this summer, has received a commendation at the Irish Medical Times Irish Healthcare Awards. The conference was announced as a commended award recipient at a ceremony held in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on Thursday last. The conference, which preceded the annual Feakle Festival of Traditional Music, was hugely successful this summer and saw a huge influx of people into the East Clare village eager to learn more about Parkinson’s and the beneficial effects that set dancing has on sufferers of the disease. Speaking about the win, Breda Collins, conference manager said, “There were nine shortlisted in our category and we got a commendation for the best patient education project (non-pharmaceutical). The judging panel gave it to us for focusing on improving patient care innovation and collaboration. We got a lovely certificate in a frame. “Crumlin got the award in our category. They did a project for children with cancer and …