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Another hero from 2010, Gearóid O’Donnell, feels that maiden title was a moment that will stay with him forever. “It’s truly a moment I’ll never forget, walking under the bridge with the Canon Hamilton for the first time in the history of the club. We had lost a final in 2007, a semi-final replay in 2008. 2009 was all about soul searching. It was a hurtful campaign after not getting out of the group. Like this current group we used that hurt and 2010 was our deliverance day. We had been coming but to finally get over the line was an unreal feeling, one I’ve told the young lads about, one that will live forever.” His successful side were on a path to the title for a couple of campaigns but this current crop have been transformed in literally a matter of weeks. It really has been Roy of the Rovers stuff. “Let’s be honest this was definitely out of …

Small childcare providers are operating at a loss and are worse off under the new Government scheme, Deputy Violet Anne-Wynne (Ind) has warned. Sinn Féin Deputy Kathleen Funchion tabled a motion in the Dáil recently calling on the Government to cut childcare fees for families by two thirds from 2022 levels, to make them affordable for parents by further increasing public investment; and allocate additional funding to provide fair pay for professionals working in the childcare sector. Deputy Wynne welcomed a statement from Minister for Children, Roderick O’Gorman (GP) that more work needs to be done to improve childcare services, which she said couldn’t be overstated. Stating the investment in childcare is coming from a very low base, the Independent Deputy stressed the reform required is far bigger than last year’s expenditure. “Inflation has increased exponentially in the three-year period from May 2020 to May 2023 while the core funding has risen only by 6% in that period,” she said. …

Michael Browne has had huge success over a distinguished coaching and managerial career. He was at the helm when his beloved Crusheen made their historic breakthrough in 2010 and retained the Canon Hamilton in 2011. After having been on a rollercoaster of a journey this time around he finds himself once more only sixty minutes away from glory but is very reluctant to take little or any credit for this remarkable run. “I have very little to do with it. The guys I got involved with our set up this year have been there and done that. They know what it takes to win, the sacrifices one has to make but more importantly they know what joy winning brings. At the start it was very difficult to sort things out. I’ll be honest and say we struggled to get everyone to buy into what we were doing. Aidan Harte though has been a massive addition. He is a really top …

If you ever wanted to know what Clonlara means to Dónal Madden just default to that time when he was part of the side that made the big breakthrough by bringing Clare hurling’s greatest prize back to the home parish of Canon Hamilton. This week 15 years ago — October 18, 2008, and the black and amber had just dished out a 0-13 to 0-5 drubbing to Crusheen in the county semi-final, after which they’d go on to win the final against Newmarket-on-Fergus. Dónal made the biggest impact on the scoreboard in that semi-final played in Clarecastle, with 0-7 on his scorecard. Here was the Tulla man abroad in Clonlara, but very much at home there. A year after Tulla had beaten Crusheen in the county final to bridge a 74-year gap to their last county championship success — now Clonlara were 60 winning minutes away from bridging an even longer gap of 89 years. A penny for Dónal’s thought …

A number of members of Clare County Council raised concerns about difficulties small local businesses may have in tendering for contracts to Designated Activity Companies run by the council. In a joint motion they called on the council’s chief executive Pat Dowling “to examine the impact on local businesses and suppliers of services who make rate contributions to the County budget and now find that the creation of Designated Activity Companies is having a negative impact on their business and placing them at a disadvantage in regards to the tendering regime for goods and services”. They also warned that the new situation “has the potential to impact on employment and the loss of jobs in County Clare and the possibility of companies going out of business.” Councillor Gerry Flynn (Ind) warned that “the small suppliers of services to Clare County Council for many years are now on the hind foot”. He said these businesses, rate payers in Clare, are at …

Clonlara captain Jathan McMahon has got his hands on the Canon Hamilton trophy before. And not just his hands either as being related to Clonlara’s 2008 winning captain Paul Collins, his first memories of watching his club were celebratory ones. “There’s a photo at home of me sitting in the cup. “I was only eight and obviously small so there’s plenty of photos of me and my uncle-in-law Paul and the family. “I was in my element and really looked up to the players that won it. I also distinctly remember going into school the following week, it was an just unreal atmosphere. “It’s mad now to think that I’m playing alongside John [Conlon] and now preparing for a senior final of our own.” Much like Conlon and the Class of 2008, their momentum-fuelled charge stemmed from a strong core of of exciting young players who soared to the club’s first ever Minor A title five years ago, led by …

CLARE County Council have called on the Shannon Estuary Economic Taskforce to put the development of a deep sea port at Moneypoint at the top of its list of priorities. At a recent meeting of Clare County Council, Lissycasey’s PJ Ryan (Ind) criticised a recent report from the Taskforce. “The most important asset of the Shannon, Moneypoint as a future port, is not mentioned,” he said. He said that across Europe there is congestion at major ports such as Rotterdam and developing Moneypoint could be a huge success. “Moneypoint is the deepest potential port. It should be developed and stop the Mickey Mouse projects at the other side of the river,” he said. He said that Foynes would be “an irrelevance” to future shipping needs and he said Clare County Council has to “go back and insist that Moneypoint is top of the list.” He was supported by Fine Gael’s Johnny Flynn, who said that Moneypoint would have huge advantages …

The long running boil water notice for O’Brien’s Bridge has been removed this afternoon by Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann have confirmed that, following consultation with the Health Service Executive, customers can now resume normal use of the public water supply. The notice, which was issued eight weeks ago on August 25, was put in place to protect the health of customers due to an issue with disinfection at the water treatment plant. “Uisce Éireann’s primary focus remains the protection of public health and we worked with our stakeholders to lift the notice as quickly as possible. We are grateful to customers, elected representatives and the media for their assistance in sharing information on the boil water notice in recent weeks,” said Darragh Conneely of Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann is responsible for delivering public drinking water and wastewater services for the people of Ireland. We are committed to enabling communities to thrive by continuously upgrading and developing critical infrastructure to support …