Tag Archives: eire og

Little did Irish international boxer Jerome De Loughrey think when he moved to Cratloe 22 years ago that he would now be playing such a prominent part in the successes of the GAA club. A native of Kennedy Park in Limerick City, boxing and soccer were his sports back then. “Boxing was my game and I also played soccer,” the 13-time capped Irish boxer told The Clare Champion. “When I moved to live here, I started a soccer team. There was no juvenile football in the parish at the time and the lads asked me to enter a football team. I said I knew nothing about it. Nearly everyone that played soccer also played football. One of the first wins was in the U-16 C football and Sean Collins was part of that team. Colm (Collins) joined soon after that and football developed from there,” according to Jerome, who is a selector with the senior side. He has the added …

Champions Cratloe and Éire Óg will contest the final of the Clare senior football championship following their semi-final victories over Cooraclare and Kilmurry-Ibrickane respectively. Their final clash will be a repeat of the opening round which Cratloe won by three points, 2-12 to 1-12. Coincidentally, both sides had winning margins of four points at the weekend. On Saturday in Kilmihil, Eire Og were always in control in their clash with Kilmurry-Ibrickane and emerged 0-14 to 1-7 winners, with the West Clare side’s goal coming in injury time. Kilmurry-Ibrickane finished that game with thirteen men after Shane Hickey and Evan Talty were sent off while, earlier, Odran O’Dwyer picked up a black card which ended his involvement in the game. The early exchanges of Sunday’s semi-final at Cusack Park was evenly fought but, gradually, Cratloe got the upperhand and emerged with a 0-12 to 0-8 win. This result keeps the South Clare side’s dream of winning both the senior hurling and …

  Members of the Clare camogie team from 1974 gather for a re-union at the Old Ground hotel this Friday night. Forty years ago they defeated Dublin in the All-Ireland junior final at Croke Park to win Clare’s first All-Ireland camogie title. There were just a couple of camogie clubs in the county at the time, with Éire Óg and Shannon the main two. Some members of the team played their club camogie in Dublin and Cork. Ballynacally’s Margaret O’Toole who played for Éire Óg, was the Clare captain and the team was managed/coached by Éire Óg’s Michael Brennan. Teams were twelve a side with a goalkeeper, a full back, three half backs, three midfielders, three half forwards and one in the full forward line. Two members of the Clare team, Claire Harrington and Maureen Davoran, played with the Celtic club in Dublin, while Mary Mahon played with Muskerry in Cork. Team member Kitty McNicholas went on to serve in a …

IT is most likely that the five teams to lose senior status will come from the eight that will compete for the Senior B Championship. To hold onto senior status, victory in the opening round is essential. Last year’s intermediate champions, Whitegate, have a difficult first round on Sunday against Éire Óg. The town side may not have won a game in the league to date but, potentially, they have a squad that should see them as strong contenders for the B championship title. A final decision if All-Ireland hero Shane O’Donnell will play is unlikely to be made by manager, Seamus Durack and his backroom team, until near match time. The full-forward suffered a hamstring injury when training with the county squad a few weeks back. He hasn’t played since but the word from the Clare camp is he will resume competitive action this weekend. Should this be the case, it will be a massive boost to the town …

RECENT investments in the manufacture of new healthcare products at the Roche ( Ireland Ltd ) plant in Clarecastle, will support its parent company in retaining its position among the world’s top ten pharmaceutical companies. Ennis man, Gerry Cahill, who is managing director of the Clarecastle operation, said since the beginning of the year, they have been manufacturing Madapor, which is used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and later on this year will commence making the newer drug Zelboraf, aimed at treating people with advanced melamoma skin cancer. The latest developments have been welcomed by the 245 Roche employees in Clarecastle, in addition to the significant number of contractors, who have been taken on to support the new products. Mr Cahill told The Clare Champion that one of the reasons Roche was selected by its parent company for the manufacture of Madapor and Zelboraf was because of the reputation which the Clarecastle site enjoys, as being a very reliable …

A LOCAL pigeon racing club has scored a real ‘coo’ with the arrival of their newest member. The Banner Racing Pigeon Club has just purchased a state-of-the-art trailer, specially designed for their needs. This comes after the flying success of a fundraising effort in which 42 birds were auctioned off last year. The trailer will make it easier for the club to head to overseas races, having previously relied on others for help with transporting the birds. The pigeon club started in Ennis 20 years ago, with 15 members now involved and youngsters gaining an interest in the sport. The club races against others from all over the West of Ireland. Treasurer, George Guilfoyle explained that a decision was made last year to fundraise for the trailer. “We decided to have an auction and prize winning birds were donated by people from all over Ireland and the UK. The people at St Mary’s Pigeon Club in Limerick and Galway Racing …

CLARECASTLE will host one of the most eagerly awaited games of the 2013 Clare Senior Football Championship when Cratloe and Éire Óg meet in the county semi-final on Sunday. Perhaps it should be rephrased slightly as ‘one of the most eagerly awaited games of this week’. Since the football championship re-started after the All-Ireland hurling final, there has been a desperate rush to get it over with. The same applies to the club hurling, which shows the GAA’s prerogative lies with the inter-county scene. Still, the winners of this game won’t worry about the big picture. They won’t have time, as the county final is scheduled for the following weekend. It seems like another age when Éire Óg knocked reigning champions Kilmurry Ibrickane out of the championship on September 15 in Kilmihil. Their 2-5 to 0-10 win reverberated around Clare football for a day or two but has been all but forgotten about since. Had Éire Óg another game within …

BOB O’Brien could afford a wry smile as he listened with interest to the half-time conversation among the Éire Óg U-8 hurlers during a recent underage hurling blitz involving teams from Clare and Limerick. The main topic of conversation among the young hurlers at the tournament in Old Christians was who could be the number 22, as they attempted to repeat Shane O’Donnell’s sensational tally of 3-3, which steered Clare to their fourth thrilling All-Ireland senior hurling success. The Éire Óg hurling academy manager smiled as he reflected. “What Shane O’Donnell has done for the game is incredible. These six or seven-year-olds want to line out in the No.22 jersey and become the next Shane O’Donnell. Players were telling each other, I am 22 in this game and you can be 22 in the next game. It is fantastic for the game of hurling and is a great boost for the club,” he said. This is just one example of …