Tag Archives: clare

THE 2014 International Junior Tour of Ireland cycling race gets underway in Clare today and continues over the next five days in venues around the county. The world’s longest junior (U-18) stage event will see more than 80 cyclists compete over 532 kilometres of road. The Junior Tour represents the biggest opportunity young Irish cyclists will get to compete against some of the best junior cyclists from the United Kingdom, United States and across Ireland. For many it will dictate whether they decide to pursue cycling with the aim of going professional. Previous winners of the prestigious international bike race include professional road cyclist Nicholas Roche and Sam Bennett, who now rides as a professional with German team Netapp Endura.  The defending champion is Eddie Dunbar from Banteer in County Cork who will have the rare opportunity to line out again this week in a bid to become the first competitor ever to retain the title. The International Junior Tour …

THE Clare footballers will play Kildare this weekend in round three of the All-Ireland qualifiers in Cusack Park this weekend. Following their 19 point win over Carlow in Dr Cullen Park on Sunday, Clare could have drawn Kildare, Armagh or Roscommon home or away. While it has yet to be confirmed it is likely that the game will be played in Saturday in Ennis. The time and day of the match will be confirmed this afternoon by Croke Park. Kildare scored a 1-19 to 0-11 point win over Down in Páirc Esler at the weekend. They scored 1-6 without reply in the closing ten minutes when defeating the 2010 All-Ireland finalists. Clare’s win over Carlow was their first All-Ireland qualifier win since 2006 while this weekends game will be their fifth championship outing of 2014. The winners will qualify for the last 12 and a likely meeting with the Leinster or Ulster final losers.  

  Clare 2-25 Wexford 2-25 (After extra time) Clare’s dream of making history by retaining the All-Ireland senior hurling title for the first time is still alive….but only just. Before an attendance of 12,871 at Cusack Park this Saturday afternoon, the title holders fought their way back from a ten point deficit to force extra time. [doptg id=”28″]They played the entire second half of normal time with fourteen men after Podge Collins was shown a straight red card just before the short whistle. The dual player, it is alleged, interfered with the face guard of his opponent’s helmet and this is a red card offence since the beginning of the playing season, Wexford dominated the game in the first quarter at the end of which they were 2-7 to 0-3 on front. They were dominant in most positions and Clare can count themselves fortunate not to have been further behind at this stage. By half time, the home side had …

WHEN Gordon Kelly barrels out from underneath the stand in Cusack Park on Sunday afternoon, he will be minutes away from taking on Kerry in the championship arena for the third time in his career. A regular with Clare since 2006, Kelly faced Kerry in 2008 in Fitzgerald Stadium and in the All-Ireland qualifiers in 2012. Clare were well beaten in both games although Kelly, who played corner back in 2008, held the currently sidelined Colm Cooper to just 1-0 in Clare’s 1-14 to 0-5 defeat under the management of Frank Doherty. Kerry’s visit to Ennis on Sunday will be their first championship tie in Clare since their 2-10 to 0-9 defeat of Clare on May 23, 2004. Enda Coughlan started at full forward that day and is the only player from that game who will start this weekend. Although beaten by seven points in that fixture ten years ago, Clare at least were competitive and that’s their priority this …

IN the early 1980s, numbers playing the game of squash in Clare were at an all-time high. There were 21 courts across 14 clubs in the county and there were a whole series of competitions taking place, catering for men and women of varying standards. Towards the end of the ‘80s, however, numbers playing the game dropped at an alarming rate, leading to the closure of many of the clubs. In recent years, interest in the game is on the rise again, particularly in Ennis, where the Ennis CBS club is particularly busy. It is generally accepted that the opening of the One Mile Inn club in 1974 sparked off interest in the game, which led to the development of the other clubs across the county. The club quickly went from strength to strength and players representing the One Mile Inn began to win competitions involving players from Limerick, Nenagh and Charleville. Former One Mile Inn club chairman, Ger Browne …

  Clare 3-11 Waterford 0-12 CLARE secured a place in next Sunday’s Munster semi-final following a comprehensive win over Waterford in the teams quarter-final replay. Second half goals from Shane Brennan and Rory Donnelly sealed the win. They were very much on top during the second period where they were inspired by Gary Brennan who played superbly at midfield. They will now play Kerry next Sunday in Cusack Park at 3.30pm. Clare started very slowly and in fact they trailed 0-4 to 0-0 after eleven minutes. However Waterford were dealt a savage blow in the second minute when midfielder Shane Aherne was black carded following a tackle on Martin McMahon. To make matters worse for Waterford his midfield colleague Tommy Prendergast was black carded three minutes before half time. Paul Whyte kicked three of Waterford’s first half points, two from play, while JJ Hutchinson kicked the remaining three from open play. Shane McGrath was in excellent first half form for …

The average rent for all dwellings let in County Clare in the first quarter of this year, and which were registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB), was €513. That was actually a slight decrease (of 0.4) compared to the prevailing average rent in the first quarter of last year, when the amount was €517. These findings, announced on Wednesday,  are drawn from the PRTB’s Average Rent Dataset, which is part of a comprehensive Rent Index  compiled for the board by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). The average rent cited is based on rents registered with the PRTB for all dwelling types (houses and apartments; one, two or more rooms). However, if people are interested in seeing the rent that applies to different dwelling types (number of bedrooms) and for different locations, they can check this out at www.prtb.ie (click “rent index”) and go to the Average Rents in my Area (Dataset). Looking at the country as …

The total number of vacant commercial premises in Clare has increased from 11.2% in Q1 2013 to 12.2% in Q1 2014, according to the latest data published by GeoDirectory this Monday. For the first time, the report includes an analysis of the commercial vacancy rates of a selection of Ireland’s main shopping centres and high streets in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny and Limerick. In Clare, 863 of the 7,062 commercial addresses recorded in Q1 2014 were vacant. This is a commercial vacancy rate of 12.2%.  This figure relates to premises in Ennis and all over the count. According to the latest edition of GeoView which is published quarterly, there are 223,336 commercial address points across the country, of which, 27,791 were classified as vacant. The national commercial vacancy rate in Q1 2014 is unchanged from the 12.4% reported in Q4 2013. Thirteen counties; Sligo, Leitrim, Galway, Dublin, Limerick, Roscommon, Waterford, Carlow, Donegal, Mayo, Laois, Longford and Offaly recorded commercial vacancy rates …