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Éire Óg captain Liam Corry believes the success that the club’s footballers achieved last season in lifting the Jack Daly Cup is helping the hurlers this year. The Townies are in the unusual situation whereby the club have ended a 22 year wait for a Senior Hurling final appearance but yet they still possess a fair degree of experience after the footballers managed to end their 15 year wait to lift the Jack Daly Cup in 2021. Corry feels the success experienced by Paul Madden’s side last year has helped instil the extra belief and confidence amongst the hurling fraternity within the club. “The main lads in that football panel are the main lads in that hurling panel too. We have played with them all the way up so we work together all through the years. It’s unreal to see them win. When you see your colleagues from the same club winning it makes you want to win even more …

The glamour tie this weekend may be the senior hurling final, but, here, Michael O’Connor shines a light on why the Junior B final on Sunday morning is so important to the finalists. When renowned GAA commentator Syl O’Connor was elected chairperson of Sixmilebridge GAA club last winter a list of objectives – as with all newly elected officials – was probably on his table to be implemented. Outside of winning the senior championship Sixmilebridge had the matter of getting hurling activity for a lot of hurlers from 18 to 43. This was achieved with four adult sides that were competitive and now they lie on the cusp, if successful in Tulla on Sunday morning, of fielding sides in senior, Intermediate, junior A and Junior B this season. Up the N85 Paul Gannon has been plotting and planning all season to bring home Junior B silverware. Following their historic appearance in the 2021 senior final there were hopes of going …

Éire Óg sharpshooter David Reidy believes his side’s near misses in recent years has helped them become battle hardened for this Sunday’s mouthwatering decider with Ballyea. After progressing through to seven quarter finals in a row with this year being the third in succession that they have reached the last four, Éire Óg finally reached the decider as they stand just an hour of hurling away from lifting the Canon Hamilton for the first time since 1990. “We’ve been knocking on the door for the last few years. We have been to a number of quarter finals, a semi final last year and just kept on not getting the job done. These setbacks stand to us. “You can’t beat experience. It’s probably not the experience that Ballyea have in terms of their pedigree but we built up a lot of experience. “With Mattie over us he’s brought another edge to us; that resilient side and never say die attitude. Again, …

If Éire Óg win on Sunday they will bridge a 32-year gap to their last senior hurling success, a famine that far outlasts the previous drought that stretched from 1966 all the way to 1980 — a landmark success for the Éire Óg Dalcassians team now recalled by Joe Ó Muircheartaigh. “I always remember Paddy Kelly turning up in the Éire Óg Grounds on the morning of final day. He did some warming up exercises, pucked about and when walking off the field remarked to me with great enthusiasm, ‘Today has got to be our day’. With that injection of confidence, he lit his first cigarette of the day.” Tony Kelly, 1980 HURLING hindsight is 20/20 vision, or in this case it was 1980 vision, but Éire Óg couldn’t have played it better in their quest for a first county title in 14 years. You can never be under the radar in a county final because you had to show …

SCARIFF Community College parents will host an Autumn/Winter Fashion Show in aid of the campaign to fund the school’s state-of-the-art astroturf development on Friday, October 28. The fun begins at 7.30pm, at the school, with prosecco on arrival and goody bags, full of mysteries. Once seated guests will be treated to a variety of outfits showcasing Autumn/Winter’s hottest trends with outfits from boutiques including Ailish McElroy, Joanne’s Killaloe, Frocks, Fine Rags, I-Spy clothing, Carraig Donn, All Occasions, Love it Fashions and many more. Fashion blogger Martina’s Mark will be on hand to provide lots of style tips. A prize of the perfect five-star getaway will be on offer for the most stylish attendee on the night. A bumper raffle and auction will be held at the interval, with dozens of prizes.  More details of the fundraising campaign are available on Instagram @scariffcc_sport  Anyone who cannot attend on the night can still enter the online raffle at idonate.ie

PASSENGER numbers at Shannon Airport exceeded one million for the first nine months of the year, indicating the strength of its recovery since the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. Up to the end of September of this year 1,050,916 passengers had come through Shannon Airport. This represents 82.4% of the amount it carried in the first nine months of 2019, the last full year before Covid-19 shut down aviation across the world. The percentage would have been even higher had Covid not still been a factor in the early part of 2022. Shannon saw less than half the number of passengers in January 2022 that it did in January 2019, which was a relatively worse performance than in any of the eight months since. In addition, February was the second worst month by comparison with 2019. Shannon Airport Group CEO Mary Considine said it has been a positive year and that routes to Europe and the US have performed very well, …

AN EVENING of painting and poetry is in store at the Courthouse, Kinvara, as artist Belinda Duetinger launches a new exhibition on Friday, October 28. The show, entitled ‘Der kleine Laden um die Ecke’ or ‘Little shop around the corner’ will showcase what Belinda described as a snapshot of her art, “dreamy watercolour landscapes, delicate florals, nature in all shapes and forms are featured next to surreal oil and acrylic paintings”. “I always try to see the beauty in things,” said Belinda. “We should never lose sight of what the world has to offer, that amongst all the bad news, rising costs, housing crisis, greed, environmental issues, our own personal struggles, there is so much to live for.” The launch will feature the poetry of Belinda’s husband, Nathy Gillard, a Mayo native, who will do a reading on the night.  Belinda, a Kinvara Area Visual Arts (KAVA) member graduated from GMIT in 2009 with a BA in Fine Art. She …

DESIGNS for three new homes in the village of O’Callaghan’s Mills have been described by planners as “highly suburban” and “not acceptable for a village setting”.  Council planners made their comments in a letter to developers, East Clare Construction Ltd, seeking Further Information (FI) on proposals submitted in recent months, for a site at Iragh. The Council said the while the principle of the proposed development is acceptable, the designs themselves are not. The company has now been told to submit revised designs “reflecting the rural character of the setting”. Variation in each site has to be provided and, for one of the houses, which would front onto both the existing regional road in the area, and a new access road, “dual frontage” must be created.  Planners have also noted that the new access road for two of the proposed homes “provides access to further zoned lands in the applicant’s ownership”. For that reason, East Clare Construction Ltd has been …