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John Kelly was in Cusack Park as Ballyea defeated Éire Óg by 2-14 to 1-16 in the Clare senior hurling championship final

Eoin Brennan reports from Cusack Park as Ballyea found an extra gear to retain their title against Éire Óg on a score of 2-14 to 1-16 Ballyea’s title-winning know-how proved essential once more when firing the last four points to pip neighbours Éire Óg to the Clare Senior Hurling Championship post in Cusack Park on Sunday afternoon. Having successfully come from behind in their previous three Canon Hamilton triumphs since 2016, one shouldn’t have doubted the champions. However, having hit three successive wides in the final ten minutes, Ballyea still trailed by three by the 58th minute but still refused to yield. Points from substitute Martin O’Leary and a Tony Kelly ’65 were supassed by the decisive moment of the contest in injury-time when Kelly’s excellent hook stopped Shane O’Donnell from firing Éire Óg two clear, only for Paul Flanagan to pick up the break and unleash Cathal O’Connor to equalise from halfway. With that, Niall Deasy earned and converted …

THE 2022 Claregolf.ie junior golf season will draw to a close at the end of this month, after the staging of its final two junior events.  The first of these events will be the under-13 short-course junior league taking place at Shannon Golf Club this Sunday, October 23. This development league was introduced after the short course summer series proved to be very popular. The league has been run over eight weeks at four different courses in the county, Spanish Point, Lahinch, East Clare, and Shannon, and to date, it has proven to be very popular and hugely beneficial in the development and growth of the junior game here in Clare. The second and final event takes place on Sunday, October 30, at the new-look Dromoland Castle, with the staging of the under- 14, 16 and 18 County Matchplay finals. This event brings together the top eight junior boys within our county who will compete for the four titles on offer that day. Eoin Magill, …

A CLARE teenager is on her way to the most famous dog show in the world after winning the All-Ireland junior handing title Newmarket’s Aoife Garry recently won the Irish final at Navan Racecourse and as a result the 17-year-old will represent Ireland at Crufts in the UK in March. She will also compete at the European Dog Show in Denmark in May, and at the World Dog Show in Switzerland in August. Explaining Junior Handling, her mother Joan said, “It’s on the child’s handling, not the actual dog. During the year you have a lot of competitions and you have to qualify. There might have been about 40 kids in total during the year and 16 qualify. Marina White, one of the Crufts presenters, and a high profile personality in the world of dog shows came over from England to judge the Irish event, which Aoife won. The final was held at Navan Racecourse, with judging taking about three …

Deputy Michael McNamara is supporting a new bill by a former Attorney General that aims stop the decommissioning of 70 turbines on the controversial €200m Derrybrien Wind Farm site. Deputy McNamara said he didn’t think this wind farm should have been built in the first instance and doesn’t believe it would secure planning permission now, before stressing this is not the issue. “The issue is that it is there, the damage has been incurred and we have taken all of the downsides of it. “That includes the local community, the communities around Slieve Aughty and the environment. The issue now is if we can obtain a benefit from it during an energy crisis. “It is now proposed to build 19 wind turbines on a blanket bog at the top of Slieve Bernagh. It is ridiculous that having done the damage on Slieve Aughty, create further damage decommissioning it and then repeat the exercise on the top of Slieve Bernagh.” The …

Since 2019, the fight against “fake news” has become the motto for the public HPV vaccination campaign in which Laura Brennan and her group played a major role. That is one of the key messages from a new UK study by medical and data experts who analysed how the late Ennis HPV vaccine campaigner and her family helped to achieve a significant increase in the cervical cancer vaccination rate in Ireland by overcoming “fake news”. In this research, the authors studied vaccine hesitancy in relation to Covid-19 in France and Italy and then contrast this with the HPV vaccination discourse in Ireland. The report ‘Fighting Fake News: Online Disinformation in Covid Times’ is one of seven research studies funded under the British Academy’s Covid-19 Recovery: building future pandemic preparedness and understanding citizen engagement in the G7 programme. In 2010, the Irish government introduced a national vaccination campaign for young girls and boys against HPV. Up until 2015, a stable rate …

A NEW petition containing 15,000 signatures supporting the upgrading of acute hospitals in the Mid-West including Ennis Hospital is prompting correspondence between a local lobby group, the UL Hospitals’ Group and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly. A petition submitted by the Mid West Hospital Campaign has been discussed by the Dáil Petition Committee, which sent their proposal to the UL Hospitals’ Group for its views. The Hospital Campaign’s response to the Hospitals’ Group submission is being sent to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and the UHL management by the Dáil Secretariat. The Petition Committee meets fortnightly and will discuss any response the Hospital Campaign’s receives if it is made within the next 14 days. Noeleen Moran of the Mid-West Hospital Campaign said if Ennis Hospital was upgraded with proper investment, it could open a surgical observation unit and it could perform elective procedures. “If Ennis was upgraded to a Model Three facility, it could do elective procedures and have a functioning emergency …

Eoin Brennan believes Ballyea’s guile and experience may just see them over the line against Éire Óg in the Clare Senior Hurling Championship Final Much has been made of the rarity of Ballyea and Éire Óg’s clashes but while the concentration has been on the Townies’ early spanner in the works of Ballyea’s momentous 2016 season, what hasn’t really been dwelled on was that Ballyea actually relegated their neighbours in 2008. Five points down with only minutes remaining in their understandably anxious relegation decider in Clarecastle, Ballyea somehow pulled it out of the fire to devastate Éire Óg and leave them in the tricky waters of intermediate for three seasons. The question is how would Ballyea’s narrative have altered had they been the ones to go down as with a rich crop of talent coming through, it was essential for Tony Griffin and Co. to hang onto their senior status by whatever means neccessary. Fast forward 14 years and the …