By Peter O’Connell THIS county has produced a platoon of fabled men and women. Cup an open ear towards the distant mists of time and hear the deeds of Brian Boru, Máire Rua, Biddy Earley and Captain Edward Kennedy resonate. If you were to happen upon a game of hurling, at a time of your choosing during the 20th century, the feats and skills of Pa ‘Fowler’ McInerney, Tommy Daly, Jimmy Smyth, Ger Loughnane, Brian Lohan, Seán McMahon and Jamesie O’Connor would leave you certain this was a county not short of sporting legends. A county not scraping around, searching forlornly for men worthy of having the saffron and blue placed on their backs, as reputedly Brian Boru had at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. At close to 6.30pm on the evening of Saturday, September 28, 2013, a wondrously skilled group of young men nailed their place in the sporting and broader historic annals of their county. Long after …

DEBATE and disagreement broke out over the scale of the rat problem in Shannon at Tuesday’s town council meeting. There have been numerous complaints about the amount of rats going around the town in recent weeks but at Tuesday’s meeting, there were suggestions that the problem isn’t as bad as has been claimed, something some of the members angrily refuted. At the meeting, Councillor Sean McLoughlin put forward a motion asking that County Council carry out rat baiting on a regular basis in Shannon and for the council to clean out any place where rats might nest. Councillor Cathy McCafferty had another motion requesting that members be informed of what arrangements the council had entered into with regard to pest/rodent control since the last local elections in 2009. The written response to Councillor McLoughlin’s motion from senior executive engineer Eugene O’Shea said Shannon isn’t worse than any other county. “While it is impossible to inspect all possible locations where rodents …

 By Seamus Hayes All-Ireland senior hurling champions Clare will begin their 2014 championship campaign at the Provincial semi-final stage where they will face either Cork or Waterford. A first round win for Cork will result in a repeat of the All-Ireland final which produced two outstanding games before Clare brought home the Liam McCarthy cup for only the fourth time in their history Five counties will compete for the Provincial crown and the second semi-final will be between Tipperary and Limerick. A Cork win over Waterford in the only quarter final game will result in a repeat of the semi-final pairings from 2013. Meanwhile, in the senior football championship Clare will face Waterford in a quarter final with the defending champions Kerry awaiting the winners. In the other half of the draw Tipperary play Limerick with Cork awaiting the winners. Last week the Munster Council, controversially, decided to seed Cork and Kerry for 2014, a decision that has drawn a strong  response …

DAVY Fitzgerald’s tactics haven’t always been well received, but on Saturday evening he was vindicated and when he met the media under the Hogan Stand he said he wouldn’t be settling scores. “There’s been a tough few years from my point of view, there’s been a lot of stick and different things. God, does this feel good. Am I going to say anything about anyone who was cutting the back off me or saying stuff, nah, I don’t think I need to. I’m just so happy for the lads, so happy for them guys. This is all down to them, they’re a fantastic, fantastic bunch.” The decision to bring in Shane O’Donnell worked in a way that no one could have foreseen, with the teenager rattling the net three times within 20 minutes. Fitzgerald said they had kept the pressure off O’Donnell by letting him think the team that was named in the middle of last week would be the …

WHEN the jubilant fans had streamed out through the gates and into the darkening Dublin streets, Darach Honan and Shane O’Donnell took a quiet moment to sit on the hallowed turf of Croke Park and reflect on the momentous achievement the Clare hurlers had just pulled off. John Kelly’s photo captures perfectly the unity that is within the squad. O’Donnell took Honan’s spot on the starting line-up and turned in a heroic performance to complete the first goal hat-trick in an All-Ireland hurling final since Lar Corbett in 2010. He tagged on three points on his way to being named as man of the match. Honan came on for O’Donnell with five minutes to go and scored a goal at the end of a blistering six-minute spell that opened up a six-point window between the sides and put a lid on the Rebels’ hopes of swiping the Liam MacCarthy Cup from the Banner men’s grasp. Honan was understandably disappointed at …

By Seamus Hayes Man of the match in Saturday’s All-Ireland replay, Shane O’Donnell, did not know he was in the starting line-up until just over two hours before the throw in. “We were getting food at St Patricks College when Davy brought me aside and told me I was starting ahead of Darach. I was delighted. The way the game went is just the stuff of dreams. It was absolutely amazing,” the 19-year-old Éire Óg clubman said. “Anyone of 24 or 25 could have started. Cathal McInerney has been getting on before me in recent games. It’s just testament to how hard people are working inside at training. I was just lucky enough to get the call and it worked out well. The lads gave me the ball and it was handed on a plate to me to score the goals,” according to the second-year genetics student at UCC. He quipped that he will be returning there “early enough this …

I was driving up to the All-Ireland last Friday and as I passed a Cork car on the motorway, I thought ‘Ha! In 24 hours we’ll have the beating of ye.’ Then I was struck with a horrible thought. My test car that week was a Ford and Ford being a  Cork firm, the car was registered in Cork. For a good Bannerman like myself it was almost unthinkable to be driving a flame-red Cork registered car at a time like this. I hate those little flags that attach to car windows with a passion but if you offered me one that night I’d have snapped your arm off. At least by way of compensation, I was driving something rather special. The Fiesta ST is a hot hatch from the old school, with a simple philosophy of a stiff chassis, meaty wheels and a powerful engine driving the front wheels. As part of the never ending drive for efficiency, downsizing …

SHANE O’Donnell wrote himself into the history books on Saturday and a child born early on Monday morning, in the most dramatic of circumstances, will bear his first name. Shannon’s Laura Hinsley gave birth to her fourth child and first son at the side of the road close to the Clare-Limerick border, after a dash to the hospital didn’t quite succeed. Describing the morning, she said, “My husband was doing 160km going in the road but I knew once we hit Bunratty that it was coming. He had to pull over across from the Two Mile Inn. We went from flying down the road to pulling in and the baby was just there! He delivered the baby, made sure it was crying and put his hoody around it and drove on again to the hospital; it had happened in a matter of seconds. I’d say we were only stopped for about a minute and a half, it was that fast. …