Tag Archives: soccer

The Clare District Soccer League (CDSL) has been left frustrated by repeated acts of vandalism at Frank Healy Park. The Doora based facility has been repeatedly targeted by vandals for a year. Since last summer, fencing has been destroyed, doors broken and the mail box repeatedly damaged. The acts of vandalism started when a door into a storage area of the dressing rooms was broken in to roughly a year ago. This has led to a progression of incidents which has left those involved in Clare soccer deeply frustrated. On Monday, the CDSL published a statement about the repeated intrusions at the County Grounds when the home dressing room door was severely damaged. The statement by the CDSL notes: “Finally this morning the home dressing room door was discovered to have been broken in. This is simply mindless vandalism as nothing of any significant value is kept in these buildings. They are dressing rooms and a small kitchen, noting more. …

IN late 2020, Shannon’s Ryan Nolan was on the brink of something big. A graduate of Inter Milan’s academy, the young centre back had been on the bench for Spanish club side Getafe twice in La Liga games. He was a couple of days away from making his club debut in the Copa Del Rey (Spanish Cup). He was on the brink of a career disaster. Two days before he was set to make his debut for one of Spain’s bigger clubs he tore his cruciate ligament, and more than a year out of football would follow. The 24 year old is back on his feet now, literally and figuratively, anchoring the Raith Rovers defence in the Scottish Championship. For the first time he has had a long run of games in a club’s first team, rebuilding his sharpness and confidence. Nolan was eight years old and attending Clonmoney National School, when his parents opted to move the family to …

A FAN favourite with several English clubs, Mick Kennedy was heavily involved in Clare soccer, before his untimely death in 2019. A biography entitled Tackle This? The biography of football hardman Mick Kennedy written by Halifax Town fan and club historian Johnny Meynell has just become available for pre-sale, ahead of its launch in October. While born in the UK, Johnny says Mick was always an Irishman at heart and lived in Clare for over 20 years after his retirement from soccer. “His family were from Clare, from what I’ve researched they moved over from Clare to Salford in the ‘50s and then they moved back in the early ‘80s. “When Mick retired from playing in 1994, two years later he moved back to Clare and he lived in Kilmaley. He got into coaching in Kilmaley and later at Lifford and did summer camps.” He remembers watching Mick from the terraces in the late ‘70s, when he was a teenager …

FIFTY-THREE years after its foundation, Shannon Town United officially opened its new clubhouse last weekend. “It’ll cost over €300,000 by the time the furniture and fittings and so on are done, well in excess of €300,000,” said the club’s chairman Ger Kelly. The clubhouse has four changing rooms, a referee’s room, kitchen, two reception rooms upstairs, a public toilet and an office. “We first put in the planning permission about four years ago, but when that planning application went in it was only for two dressing rooms. “Then with the growth of the schoolboy teams and girls teams we knew we needed bigger facilities, so we went from two to four. We also decided to convert the upstairs into a function room and a meeting room,” says Ger. The clubhouse means a major improvement to the facilities. “We’ve had a prefab, we have a steel shed down at our other pitch at Corrib Drive, but for over 50 years we’ve …

Owen Ryan talks to Cratloe native and YouTube star Michael Ramsay who has gone from doing vox pops on the streets of Ennis to posing for selfies with fans at St James Park in Newcastle. HIGH energy, humourous and irreverent, Michael Ramsay’s monologues on soccer run up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube every week. The 29-year-old Cratloe man goes by the name of the Irish Guy on YouTube, and is the sole contributor to the HITC Sport channel, still being one of its employees despite developing a huge audience for himself, his brand of football humour clearly striking a chord with audiences. Nearly ten years ago while a college student, Michael spent a number of months doing a journalism internship in the Clare Champion, and is surely the only person to have gone from proof reading parish notes to making videos that are viewed all over the world. The videos are all light hearted, as he pokes fun …

FIVE sports clubs in Newmarket-on-Fergus are joining forces in a bid to unite their community and raise funds for charities. Newmarket-on-Fergus GAA, Newmarket Celtic, Newmarket-on-Fergus camogie, Newmarket-on-Fergus ladies’ football and Newmarket-on-Fergus handball have come together and using the slogan ‘Staying apart but coming together’, have launched the Newmarket-on-Fergus 500 Mile Challenge. Over the weekend, individuals will clock up a mile each with the target of hitting 500 miles. Each participant is asked to donate €10 and can do so online through GoFundMe via any of the club’s social media channels. All funds raised are going towards the Newmarket-on-Fergus based South Clare Meals on Wheels, Bunratty Search and Rescue, Newmarket-on-Fergus Men’s Shed, Sláinte an Chláir and Pieta. Mark O’Malley of Newmarket Celtic said, “We’re kind of idle at the moment; all the lads are doing their own training and stuff. With it being so quiet, why not come together and do something for the community? Darren Duggan set up the GoFundMe …

HOLDERS Newmarket Celtic have been drawn at home in the third round of this year’s Clare Cup. Liam Murphy’s side will take on a Lifford outfit, who are currently sitting third in the Premier Division standings. Among the other ties, Avenue United will make the trip to Manus Celtic, while Ennis Town host Sporting Ennistymon. Clare Cup Round 3 Draw Bunratty Cratloe v Newmarket Celtic B; Manus Celtic A v Avenue United A; Ennis Town v Sporting Ennistymon A; Kilkishen Celtic v Shannon Town C; Lifford B v Shannon Olympic; Corofin Harps v Shannon Town A; Kildysart Celtic v Turnpike Rovers; Newmarket Celtic A v Lifford A. The games are to be played on the weekend of February 23.

THREE Travellers who had stopped playing soccer for Sporting Ennistymon following incidences of racist abuse, have now returned to the club. Michael Sherlock, Patrick Sherlock and Martin Mongan all returned last week, as the club’s B side were defeated by Rineanna Rovers. Speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday , Michael Sherlock said, “We just said we’d go back. There’s a long winter ahead.” While the matter was featured firstly in The Clare Champion and then in the national newspapers, as well as on national TV and radio, Michael said no-one from the FAI or the Clare District Soccer League had ever made contact with him. “I never heard anything from anybody,” he said. The club’s PRO Matthew Crowe said they are glad to have the players back. “It’s brilliant. It’s a great boost to the club. They’re great players and they’ve been involved since they were 13 or 14.” Michael and Patrick Sherlock are brothers and another brother of …