Dun Laoghaire

YOUR COMMUNITY • YOUR PAPER May 3, 2012

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INSIDE: Cead mile failte extended to cruise ship P8-9

Amgen announces €150m expansionKenny welcomes US firm’s plan to create 100 jobs

� BAIRBRE NI BHRAONAIN

A $200 MILLION (€150 million) expansion project, which will result in the crea-tion of 100 jobs for Dun Laoghaire and a further 360 construction contracts, has been announced by US phar-maceutical company, Amgen.

An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny and the Tanaiste, Eamon Gilmore, were both at the ground-breaking ceremony at the Amgen site on Pottery Road on April 26.

The expansion project will take 19 months, and Amgen has already guaranteed the 280 jobs inherited from Pfizer

when it bought the site from that company.

Mr Kenny said: “The Gov-ernment welcomes this excit-ing expansion by Amgen as we continue to target the development of the biotech-nology and pharmaceutical industry.”

Full Story on Page 4

Byrne in to help:Having a heartto support IHFOPERATION Transformation star Killian Byrne (centre) showed what a big heart he has when he joined Sinead O’Keeffe, Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) and James Ryan, manager, Lidl Stil-lorgan for the launch of the IHF Happy Heart campaign at the new store.

Running from Monday, May 7, shoppers and IHF supporters are urged to buy a Happy Heart for €2, and help to save lives from heart attack and stroke – a posi-tive initiative that we can all feel happy to support.

FREE GAZETTEGAZETTELaoghaire

OPINION: We should reject the Fiscal Compact Treaty, says Sinn Fein Page 6

ALSOINSIDE: GALLERIES ..................... 2

BUSINESS .................... 19

MOTORS ....................... 20

TRAVEL ......................... 22

ENTERTAINMENT ........ 24

CLASSIFIEDS ............... 26

Gaelic Games: Cuala brothers’ contrasting fortunesPage 32

Sports Awards: April winners are announced insidePage 29

2 DUN LAOGHAIRE GAZETTE 3 May 2012

EVENT Foxrock Cabinteely U-14s celebrate victory

Colm Cooper with the team members of Foxrock Cabinteely U-14s who won the All-Ireland Feile title. Pictures: Geraldine Woods

Colm also met the U-14s C Team who reached the Division 6 Finals

Colm with members of the U-14s C team

Captain Megan Duffy, The Gooch and Caroline

Curran Mark and Robin McGuinness with The Gooch The Gooch shows his support

Ellen Curran, coach Imelda Callaghan, Colm and James Curran

The Gooch gives thumbs upT

HERE was plenty of excitement at AIB Cor-nelscourt recently when Colm ‘The Gooch’ Cooper was in attendance to meet and con-

gratulate team members of Foxrock Cabinteely U-14s who won the All-Ireland Feile Title. Colm,

who is no stranger to success himself, was only too happy to chat with the players and their proud parents and wish them further success in the future. Colm also met the U-14s C team who reached the Division 6 Finals.

3 May 2012 DUN LAOGHAIRE GAZETTE 3

Windyridge revamps Rochestown siteWINDYRIDGE Nurseries and Gar-den Centre in Dun Laoghaire has just revamped the Rochestown site, thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of own-ers Paul and Justin Harvey.

Where once the land lay idle and weeds grew, the Harveys have erected a 30m by 9m polythene tunnel that is being used to grow a wide variety of their own herbaceous plant range.

The brothers set about to redesign and improve the whole garden centre

on Rochestown Avenue and have suc-ceeded in adding to the diversity of their stock and making the site more aesthetically pleasing.

“Most of the garden centres in the area have been sold off for develop-ment and Windyridge is now one of the last few remaining family-run gar-den centres and nurseries in the area,” said Paul.

For more information, go to www.windyridgegardencentre.com

LAUNCH Helping with hair problems due to illness

Eric Keating has opened a wig service, Pink Ribbon Wigs

Salon turns pink with new wig service in Dun Laoghaire� BAIRBRE NI BHRAONAIN

WHEN Eric Keating’s sister and mother died of breast cancer,he decided to help other cancer suf-ferers by launching Pink Ribbon Wigs in his salon in Dun Laoghaire.

The idea came to Eric as he saw a niche for women suffering the ill- effects of cancer treat-ments such as chemo-therapy.

Eric worked closely with the Irish Cancer Society and the Oncolo-gy Department of St Vin-cent’s Hospital when he set up Pink Ribbon Wigs following the deaths of his mother and sister. His aim was to provide an “ethical service” for vul-nerable women undergo-ing chemotherapy.

Eric opened his own wig service, Pink Ribbon Wigs, for women suffer-ing from cancer and alo-pecia.

The wig and styling service would help them look and feel well by pro-

viding a sensitive and understanding treatment of the hair problems com-mon among cancer suf-ferers.

Eric Keating is a hairdresser based in Johnstown Road, Dun Laoghaire, and his sis-ter, Mairead and moth-er, Margaret found the existing wig service very unsatisfactory, as well as exorbitantly expensive when they were most in need of good wigs at rea-sonable prices.

Eric’s wig service redresses these prob-lems, as well as providing women with advice and personal consultations post chemotherapy.

He made Pink Ribbon Wigs an intrinsic part of the salon experience in order to remove any stig-ma around baldness that might be there.

Instead the women can feel “normal” within the familiar atmosphere of a salon’s chat and music while being fitted for a wig.

Eric wanted to provide “an ethical service” for his clients and is careful to treat them with the utmost sensitivity too. The service and wigs are also ideal for women suf-fering from alopecia and cancer.

“It’s about helping a person. I don’t think you can underestimate this service in terms of recovery and well-being. I know very well how hard the road ahead is for women with cancer,” says Eric.

As well as wig fitting Eric offers advice on HSE grants and a follow up service post chemo-therapy on different types of organic colours to help women get their hair back to its former glory.

Eric emphasises the temporary nature of the baldness to his clients and thereby provides much needed reassur-ance too.

For more information go to www.pinkribbon-wigs.ie

BEAUTYPAGE 17

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FUNDING Heritage grant scheme welcomed by council

Big win: Annual

Three Sales

Awards 2012THE annual Three Sales Awards recently took place, with a selection of sales and retail representatives from the mobile indus-try across Ireland in attendance. The event was an opportunity to celebrate their suc-cesses in 2011 and a great night was had by all at the Westin Hotel, Dublin City Centre.

Among the winners on the night for Inde-pendently-owned 3Store of the Year was the Dun Laoghaire store, who were commend-ed for their excellent sales performance across all propositions since opening.

Pictured at the awards is Justin Len-non, who was presented the award for Independently-owned 3Store of the Year by Elaine Carey, sales and marketing director for Three.

County in need of refuge facilityA feasibility report flag-ging the need for a wom-en’s refuge centre in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown has become the hot topic at a recent area committee meeting.

Councillor Victor Boy-han (Ind) called for the establishment of a family refuge in the DLR area on Monday, April 23 at the meeting.

Senator Ivana Bacik (Lab) and Sonas Hous-ing launched A Safe Space in November 2011 which found that there was a major need for such a refuge in the area.

“Domestic violence, like many human serv-ices issues is complex. It is undeniably a major cause of homelessness in women.

“This report finds an urgent need for a full-time domestic violence refuge service in DLR where there is currently no refuge provision.

“This is a situation that is unfortunately replicat-ed all across the country,” Senator Bacik said.

Five months on from the launch, Cllr Boyhan has called for the refuge to be set up in the area “as a matter of urgency”. He cited the findings of the Sonas Housing Asso-ciation and said that Sonas, which offers sup-port, refuge and shelter to women and children in dire need “recom-mended the establish-ment of a women’s refuge in the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown area”.

DUN Laoghaire-Rathdown is to receive grants to the tune of €50,000 as part of the 2012, Heritage Grant Scheme. The Heritage Coun-cil will allocate around €1.5 million under the scheme to 372 heritage projects across Ireland.

One of these, which will receive €5,000, is a publica-tion called The Archaeology of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown in Light of Recent Excava-

tions which will be edited by archaeologist, Christian Cor-lett and published by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Another €5,000 grant ben-eficiary will be the Historic Character Assessment to Sup-port Dun Laoghaire Local Area Plan. This assessment will entail the study of urban differentials in the county over the years, how demo-graphic shifts have altered

local character and what poli-cies are needed to guide the future distinctiveness of the county’s unique character. Urban areas such as Dun-drum will feature heavily in the area plan study.

Support

A council spokesperson said that the Heritage Coun-cil’s “support for its projects for 2012 is most welcome and it is hoped that at the end of

the current review of the Her-itage Council that it will still play a key role in the provi-sion of heritage services at a local level”.

The Heritage Council received a total of 775 grant applications for 2012. How-ever due to budgetary con-strains only 372 projects will receive funding under the scheme this year. Research into the 2010 and 2011 grants scheme found that every

€1m spent on grants by the Heritage Council supported 70 jobs directly and 300 jobs across a range of related sec-tors.

Research also shows that in 2010, Heritage Council funded projects attracted approximately 18,700 tour-ists, while every €1 spent by the Heritage Council gener-ated €4.40 for the Irish tour-ism industry.

Speaking about the grants

scheme, the Heritage Council chief executive, Michael Star-rett said: “Despite the reduc-tion in funding available and the critical review which the Heritage Council is currently undergoing as part of the Public Service Reform pro-gramme, we are determined that heritage projects in com-munities nationwide which make Ireland distinctive and unique are protected for the future.”

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown to get ¤50k for scheme

AMGEN and the Gov-ernment have announced a $200m expansion of its pharmaceutical plant in Dun Laoghaire, which will result in the crea-tion of up to 100 jobs for the area.

An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore were the guests of honour at the Amgen ground-breaking ceremony on Thursday, April 26 in Dun Laoghaire.

Amgen’s expansion plans will in addition create approximately 350 construction jobs during the 19-month building period.

The Amgen facility is also ensuring the reten-

tion of 280 jobs already in situ at the site.

Welcoming the expan-sion announcement, the Taoiseach said: “The Government welcomes this exciting expansion by Amgen as we contin-ue to target the develop-ment of the biotechnol-ogy and pharmaceutical industry through our Action Plan for Jobs. This is a really positive development for Ireland and for Dun Laoghaire with the creation of 350 construction jobs and a 100 new high-end jobs at their facility. It is a great example of industry working with the local community and it sends a signal of confidence in

Dublin and Ireland as the location of choice for biotechnology and pharmaceutical invest-ment outside the US.”

Impressed

Local councillor Vic-tor Boyhan (Ind) was also in attendance at the groundbreaking event. He said of the expan-sion: “Amgen was clear-ly impressed with the technical expertise and commitment to excel-lence demonstrated by the former employees of Pfizer when it decid-ed to acquire the Dun Laoghaire site.”

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innova-tion Richard Bruton TD

said: “Today’s announce-ment that Amgen, the world-leading biotech company, is investing $200 million in expand-ing its facility in Dun Laoghaire, with the crea-tion of 100 full-time jobs as well as a further 350 jobs in the construction phase, is another great boost for the economy and evidence of what is possible for Ireland at the heart of a stable Europe.”

Speaking on behalf of Amgen, Martin Van Tri-este, senior vice presi-dent, said: “We are very pleased to expand our investment in Ireland. We applaud the Irish Government and IDA

Ireland for its vision in promoting innovation and science, which align with Amgen’s commit-ment to innovation and investing in scientific programs that make a difference for patients.”

Cllr Boyhan added further praise for the concerted support given by the bodies involved: “This investment by Amgen, the largest bio-technology company in the world, gives a substantial boost to Ire-land’s life sciences sec-tor. Great credit is due to various government agencies and IDA Ire-land and Dun Laoghaire Ra thdow n Coun ty Council for their support

in helping us secure this world-class facility for Dun Laoghaire.”

An Cathaoirleach, Cllr John Bailey (FG), responded to the news by saying: “This is a massive boost of confidence in the workforce, the county and the country.”

F ine Gael Dun Laoghaire TD, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, said that 100 jobs would be specifically for “engi-neering and science graduates, as well as some entry-level posi-tions. Three-hundred-and-fifty construction jobs will also be cre-ated during the building phase of the 11,700sq m development.”

Amgen announce $200m expansion of local plant

BUSINESS: CREATION OF UP TO 100 NEW JOBS FOR AREA


Why the Fiscal Compact is extremely dangerous

TREATY Sinn Fein’s Paul Donnelly gives us his view

Paul Donnelly: “I am urging the people of Dublin West to come out strongly against

this treaty”

THE F i s ca l Treaty will not work, what’s

worse is that it will enshrine cutbacks and austerity policies into our constitution. This, in my opinion, is extremely dangerous for us all.

Article 3 of the treaty is the most important. It states that government budgets must be bal-anced or in surplus. The article makes significant changes to the existing EU treaty rules on fiscal policy known as the Sta-bility and Growth Pact.

However, by placing them in an inter-gov-ernmental treaty, they are more binding and permanent. This means that, if ratified, future governments will have to implement pro-austerity anti-stimulus budgets in perpetuity. This sig-nificantly limits the free-dom of decision making of governments in the future, irrespective of the mandate they receive from the electorate.

Interestingly, if the Fiscal Treaty had been in force over the past

number of years, it would not have prevented the current crises and col-lapse of the economy in Ireland because we had a budget surplus of billions of euro each year.

The Fiscal Treaty is very clear, it will embed cutbacks and austerity into our future budgets.We will have to endure more stagnation in our economy and, despite promises at the last Gen-eral Election by Labour and Fine Gael to provide a jobs stimulus package, we still have massive

unemployment that cur-rently stands at close to 500,000 and the result-ant mass exodus of our young people through emigration.

There will be more cuts to public services in areas such as health.

This will result in more bed closures similar to the recent closure of the Redwood ward in Con-nolly Hospital and the now annual closures of day surgical and outpa-tient services.

It will mean that the current waiting list for speech and language therapeutic services will either remain at 15 months or will indeed get worse.

It will mean more cuts to our children’s education from primary schools to third level. Sinn Fein was at the forefront of the recent campaign against the cuts to DEIS schools; we have lost SNAs by the hundreds.

Dublin West was par-ticularly hit with the mas-sive reduction in English support teachers.

“ [T he Trea ty ] i s the worst imaginable response to the challenge of recession and stagna-tion. The agreement will have a far reaching effect on people’s lives by reduc-ing pension provision, cutting public services, eroding people’s rights at work and driving down the cost of labour.”

These are not my words but the words of SIPTU president Jack O’Connor. With just a year away from the 1913 Lockout anniversary, public serv-ice and private sector workers are faced with the same attacks on their rights, their terms and conditions, as recently experienced by workers

PAUL DONNELLY, Sinn Fein representative, Dublin West, tells us why Ireland should not ratify the Fiscal Compact Treaty and why it will not work

in the GAME store in the Blanchardstown Centre and the workers of Vita Cortex in Cork.

The Fiscal Treaty will not deal with the debt or the banking crisis. It will mean at least more than €6bn in cuts from future budgets.

As we approach the centenary of the 1916 Rising, one wonders what the leaders of that rebellion and all those men and women who fought and died so that we might be free to determine our own future would make of this treaty and how it significantly undermines our sovereignty.

Solving theEurozone Crisis

We need to solve the Eurozone Crisis by investing in jobs and growth, sorting out the debt crisis by not paying the promissory notes of €31bn to Anglo and un-guaranteed senior bond-holders in Anglo and other banks. We need to get the exchequer deficit sorted by taxing the mas-sive wealth still in this state and those on higher incomes, eliminating waste whilst protecting those on low and middle incomes.

We need to support Ireland getting back into the bond markets,

through existing EU treaties. The European Central Bank must take action to stabilise sover-eign bond interest rates and ensure market access for all members.

After all, the founda-tion stone of the EU was to build a Europe of part-ners. This has been sadly lacking over the past four years.

I am urging the Irish people and in particular the people of Dublin West to come out strongly against this treaty.

Paul Donnelly,Sinn Fein representative,

DublinWest

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Training on brain injuryTHE Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire will hold a training programme run by Acquired Brain Injury Ireland (ABI).

The programme is for family members caring for someone with a brain injury. The training pro-gramme will begin on May 10 and will run for six Thursday mornings during May and June.

Attendance is free but numbers are limited, so those interested in attend-ing should register with ABI Ireland early to avoid disappointment.

To register, contact Aoife Prendergast, project co-ordinator at Acquired Brain Injury Ireland, 43 Northumberland Ave-nue, Dun Laoghaire on (01) 2804164 Ext. 207 or [email protected].

HEALTH

Burials are to be computerised� BAIRBRE NI BHRAONAIN

ALL recorded burials at Deansgrange cemetery will now be computer-ised making it easier for people to find the exact location of someone’s burial plot.

At a recent area committee meeting in Dundrum, Cllr Denis O’Callaghan (Lab) sub-mitted a motion “that the manager initiate a project for Deansgrange Cem-etery to include a survey of all recorded burials, location of graves and that the data gathered be put up on the Council’s website and also be made available for historical use”.

The council agreed to undertake the project of automating all cemetery records for both Deans-grange and Shanganagh so that they will be eas-ily accessible online to

the public.Cllr O’Callaghan wel-

comed the response from DLRCC to his request.

There are approxi-mately 90 registers exist-ing containing 200,000 to 300,000 records. All of these, some of which are in a delicate state, will be transferred onto computer hard-drives for internet accessibility.

The data will be man-aged by a cemetery man-agement system and the whole project will take about two years to com-plete.

Expert advice will have to be sought by the council in compiling the database.

It is claimed that the new system will intro-duce significant opera-tional and administra-tive improvements by facilitating a much more efficient means of record keeping, report produc-

tion and better manage these resources.

Online access will also be a great boon for those members of the public engaging in genealogical searches and it will pro-vide additional revenue for the council.

The new system is to incorporate the arrange-ment of funerals by funeral directors using an online calendar booking system.

The first stage of the project will be to scan all existing records, transfer them to legible text and save them onto a data-base and all informa-tion stored and available online will have the usual data protection require-ments built in.

The system will elimi-nate the need for the old registers to be handled on a daily basis and this will help to preserve histori-cally valuable records.

Be aware: New guide is filled with useful tips for travelling to PolandFAI CHIEF EXECUTIVE John Delaney, Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Eamon Gilmore TD, Sergii Reva, ambassador of Ukraine, Fionnuala Sheehan, chief executive of Drinkaware.ie and Marcin Nawrot, Polish ambassador to Ire-land, help to launch the drinkaware.ie and FAI Euro 2012 sur-vival guide,developed by drinkaware.ie in collaboration with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The guide is packed full of usefull tips on travelling safely to Poland.

DEANSGRANGE CEMETERY: LOCATION AND DATA ON GRAVES TO BE ON WEBSITE


On a Quest for funT

HE smallest cruise ship in the world, the MV Quest, was the first cruise ship to arrive at

The Carlisle Pier in Dun Laoghaire recently. An Cathoirleach, John Bailey, Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD, Gerry Dunne, CEO of the Harbour Company, Hal Ledford, Chamber of Commerce and various members of

the business community and Tidy Towns were on hand to give a warm welcome to Captain Danielson and his passengers.

The Cruise marks the first phase of cruise calls to Dun Laoghaire this summer which promise to boost the area significantly. While docked at the picturesque harbour, the passen-

gers enjoyed the marine and leisure activity Dun Laoghaire has to offer as well as visiting Powerscourt and Mount Usher Gardens.

The vessel, from the company Noble Caledonia, is a unique expe-dition ship whose size allows her to venture into narrow lochs and shores of beautiful wilderness

An Cathaoirleach, Cllr John Bailey, Richard Shakespeare and Anna Murphy. Pictures: Geraldine Woods

Passengers, Deirdre and Chris Greene

Bagpiper Joe O’Donnell

Captain Allen, Captain Danielson, An Cathaoirleach and Gerry

Dunne, CEO Harbour Company

Bairbre Ni Chronchuir

Barbara Brown and Isobel Leek

from Hertfordshire

Richard Shakespeare and

Anna Murphy

Gerry Dunne, CEO of the

Harbour Company, and Lynda

Fox, from DLRCOCO

Siofra Cronin

Mary Mitchell O’ConnorStephanie Batt, Tidy Towns

EVENT Passengers from first cruise ship are treated to an

ENTERPRISENEWS

Nutgrove Enterprise Park (beside Nutgrove Shopping Centre) provides small enterprises with professional incubation space at an affordable price. Within easy reach of the M50, Dundrum Town Centre and Dublin City Centre it is the per-fect home for a growing business. The Nutgrove Enterprise Park is home to 20 businesses from a range of sectors with the Dun Laoghaire-Rath-down County Enterprise Board and FAS Local Employment Service as anchor tenants.

Our office units (which range in size from 274sq/ft to 365sq/ft) and light industrial units (640sq/ft) are designed to meet contemporary business needs. Units are available on flexible licence basis with the start-up and growing business in mind. These four year licence agreements can be terminated with one month’s notice. The licence fee is based on the size of the unit and there are supplementary charges for rates, utilities, insurance and VAT. Tenants have access to state of the art conference rooms, together with reception facilities and a shared kitchen. Fully kitted out office share facilities are also available.

Nutgrove Enterprise Park has ample secure car parking, 24/7 access to the premises with alarm and CCTV.

For more information or to arrange a viewing, please call Lisa Brown on 01 4948400 or email [email protected].

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Captain Danielson is welcomed by An Cathaoirleach, Cllr

John Bailey

New arrivals on the smallest cruise ship in the worldMV Quest arriving in Dun Laoghaire

Sheila Baker, Lena Hughes, Catherine Keenan, Graham Hughes and Michael Baker

Don McManus, Dun Laoghaire Business Association, Hal Ledford, Chamber of

Commerce and An Cathaoirleach, Cllr John Bailey

John Powley from

Wimbeldon

Fiona Howe and Jaclyn

Feeley from IADT

Liam Ponphrett shows Deirdre Greene how to pull

a pint

Hal Ledford, Jimmy Smith of Weirs, An Cathaoirleach and Liam Ponphrett from

Weirs

Irish Welcome at County Hall, Dun Laoghaire


� PAUL HOSFORD

HE is best known as a former WBA Super-ban-tamweight champion, but Neilstown hero Ber-nard Dunne has taken on a new role in recent months, as an ambassa-dor of the Irish language.

Bernard Dunne’s Brod Club was a huge success when it aired on RTE in recent months and Dunne was delighted with the reaction the show received, especially from people who had for-gotten their native tongue through the years.

“It’s been amazing. I’ve had people coming up to me on the street saying how they were inspired by the show to start using the Irish again. They say things like they wish

they had the Irish again or that they wish they’d never lost it and the show has given them a way to get it back.

“It’s been really posi-tive and I think that start-ing it at St Patrick’s week was a big thing because people are generally feel-ing more patriotic around then,” says Dunne, who rose to fame as a fearless and gutsy fighter, but took on a completely different challenge.

The campaign is found-ed on the belief that there are people with a huge sense of latent pride in the Irish language, peo-ple who don’t use Irish but would like to.

It is an appeal to show your pride or your “brod” in the language.

However much or

however little you have, the message is to use it. Use What You Have is the motto of the show.

While the series may have ended, the cam-paign lives on. There are still a number of events and activities that can be signed up for on the website, www.rte.ie/brodclub

The show reached over 1.2 million viewers in its run and Dunne is keen to highlight the importance of a national language.

“I think it’s extremely important that we have our own language. It’s part of our identity, part of who we are.

“I think the show approached it well in that we asked people just to use the cupla focail that they had. Just start

to throw it in to conver-sation and see what you can pick up yourself. It’s amazing what people remember of the language once they get going,” says

Dunne.Indeed, speaking to

him is enlightening as he tends to drop in and out of Irish, which is unsurprising given how he has spent the past few months.

It honestly can feel somewhat intimidating at first, as you worry that you miss a word or pick

up a meaning wrong, but you soon become more and more comfortable as you realise that all those years in Irish class were not solely leading up to

writing a letter about your summer holidays.

On that point, Dunne feels that, from his expe-rience, school children and students want to learn Irish, but as a mode of communication, rather than as a school subject.

“The schools we were in, the kids would tell us that they wanted more

conversation, that they wanted to be able to speak the language, as well as write it.

“We’ve talked to a lot of schools and a lot of people involved in edu-cation and we feel like it’s important that it is taught as a spoken language.”

Asked whether putting Irish back in the main-stream would be as big an achievement as a world championship, Dunne looks at it another way.

“It’s not about that, really. It’s about doing your own little bit. I’m speaking Irish at home with my kids and getting better at it every day. I’m not fluent yet, but I would love to be.”

For more information on the Brod Club, log on to www.rte.ie/brodclub

Bernard Dunne’s Brod Club was a huge success when it aired on RTE

Dunne delighted with

the reaction to show

CAMPAIGN Being an ambassador of Irish language

BRIAN O’Driscoll has been voted the greatest Heineken Cup player of all time in a study con-ducted by Heineken that analysed the latest opin-ions, habits and trends of Irish Heineken Cup fans.

In the all-Ireland study, a massive 76% of fans voted Brian O’Driscoll as their favourite Heineken Cup Player, while team mate and Munster rival Ronan O’Gara pulled in 15% of the votes. Mar-tin Johnson and Diego Dominguez each snagged 1% of the fans votes and the remaining 7% of nominations was made up of votes for Rocky Elsom, John Hayes, Peter Clohessy, Yannick Jauz-ion, Peter Stringer and Stephen Ferris.

The study found that rugby in Ireland is very much alive and kicking, with fans considering themselves to be very pas-sionate when it comes to their favourite sport – 39% of them rate themselves on top of the scale when asked to rate how big a rugby fan they consider themselves to be on a scale of 1 to 10.

Heineken rewarded the fans’ passion last weekend when Heineken Cup Green Zones were set up in a number of par-ticipating Dublin pubs, to enhance the excitement and experience of the semi-final which was held on Saturday.

When asked how important it was that their province did well in the Heineken Cup, over half of Irish rugby fans sur-veyed admitted it was “a matter of life and death” while only 2% claimed it wasn’t important.

When asked if their own province was elimi-nated would they support another Irish province, a massive 66% said they would support another Irish province while a die-hard group of 10% said never, choosing to stick by their province no matter what.

Bod is voted greatest player

SPORT: HEINEKEN CUP

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‘I think it’s extremely important that we have our own language. It’s part of our identity, part of who we are’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

3 May 2012 GAZETTE 11

Well-known chefs, Catherine Fulvio and Clodagh McKenna, officially launch Taste of

Dublin 2012

Jamie toopen food festivalTASTE of Dublin 2012 is back with a bang for its seventh consecutive year this summer with world renowned chef, Jamie Oliver, opening the festival.

Taking place from Thursday, June 14 to Sunday, June 17, in the stunning Iveagh Gar-dens, this year the styl-ish and popular food spectacular is acknowl-edging all things Irish with a stellar line up of restaurants, suppli-ers, produce, food and drink.

Visitors can look forward to great din-ing opportunities from some of Ireland’s lead-

ing eater ies , enjoy high-calibre wine tast-ings, learn from the best home-grown and international talents, get involved at live chef demonstrations and meet with over 100 industry experts and taste exhibitors.

Paying homage to Ireland’s strong repu-tation on the interna-tional culinary scene, Taste of Dublin 2012 will showcase the stars of the Irish food indus-try as well as welcoming international culinary guests, who believe in the philosophy of using only the best Irish pro-duce on offer.

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Commenting on his visit, Oliver said: “Taste of Dublin is a fabulous platform for showcasing the best in Irish produce and cuisine and I can’t wait to kick-off the sum-mer in true Irish style at Taste of Dublin this June.”

Home-grown talent including Rachel Allen, Clodagh McKenna and Neven Maguire, along with Darina Allen, Paul Flynn and Catherine Fulvio, will join forces with internationally acclaimed chefs, Jean

Christophe Novelli and Valentine Warner.

Together, each will aspire, not only to enter-tain casual dining guests throughout the weekend, but also tantalise the taste buds of the most discerning of food lov-ers.

Watch out as Volvo, the official car partner of the festival, whisks them across the city through-out the weekend in a fleet of stylish Volvo Ocean Race edition cars.

This year’s new head-line sponsor, Electrolux,

will bring the Electrolux Cookery School and Electrolux Chef’s Thea-tre, a must see for any food enthusiast who wants to learn from the experts.

Tickets are on sale now at www.tasteofdub-lin.ie or call 0818 30 00 30; with all advance standard tickets only €20 discounted from the 2011 price of €25.

Sign up to the Taste of Dublin Newsletter at www.tasteofdublin.ie for special ticket offers and event information.


MILESTONE A number of events planned for Dublin Fire Brigade anniversary

Celebrating 150 years of service� LAURA WEBB

THE Dublin Fire Bri-gade is celebrating 150 years servicing the citi-zens of Dublin city and county, and to mark the milestone anniversary a number of events have been organised for the coming months.

Serving the commu-nity since 1862, Dublin Fire Brigade is one of the few fire services in the world whose mem-bers are all trained paramedics. Each year the fire brigade receives over 133,000 fire, emer-gency ambulance and rescue calls.

To honour the fire fighters, commemora-tive events have been organised, with the first kicking off on May 31 at the Mansion House.

Some of the highlights include the reception with the Lord Mayor of Dublin, a Dublin Fire Brigade Colour Party and visiting pipe band

parade throughout Dublin’s city centre and an An Post official com-memorative stamp.

Not only are there events happening across Dublin, but there is also a TV series called Fire Fighters scheduled for autumn on RTE1.

Support

The series goes behind the scenes with the men and women of the Dub-lin Fire Brigade as they support the community and embark on life sav-ing missions, rescues and non-stop action responses.

The series was created by the same production company, Moondance Productions, which brought the successful series The Zoo to our screens.

Stephen Brady, chief fire officer, commented: “Dublin Fire Brigade has a long and proud tradi-tion of serving the citi-zens of Dublin city and

county since its early beginnings in 1862.

“The brigade has expe r i enced many changes throughout its history from the early steam fire engines and horse-drawn ambu-lances to the current modern fire, rescue and emergency ambulance service.

Proud

“Our 150th anniver-sary gives us the oppor-tunity to celebrate all aspects of our service both past and present and I am proud to be chief fire officer during this momentous year,” Stephen added.

� To find out more about the Dublin Fire Brigade 150th Anniver-sary Celebrations please visit http://www.dublin-firebrigade150.ie or like them on https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dublin-Fire-Brigade-150 Fire fighters Cormac Wickham, Derek Clare and Dermot Murray from Tara Street Fire Station

GazettePETSPETS14 GAZETTE 3 May 2012

THE FACTS: DEAFNESS CAN CAUSE CONCERN, BUT

Dealing with the fact

W E a l l know that cats can be wonderful, yet stubborn

creatures. I mean, all you lovely

cat owners reading this will know how frustrat-

ing it is when you call Kitty and she simply ignores you, kinda like you don’t matter at all.

But have you ever stopped to think that perhaps Kitty is ignor-ing you because she is

unable to hear you? Perhaps Kitty may be deaf!

Deafness in ani -mals is not unusual, and sometimes at the shelter we rescue dogs, cats, horses and ferrets

that already have this condition. However, while it may cause con-cern initially, and bring about certain challeng-es, there is no reason whatsoever why both owner and pet cannot adapt and lead happy, healthy lives together; especially where a cat is concerned because felines generally deal pretty well with physi-cal impairments.

Here are some guide-l ines which I hope you’ll find useful.

How will I know if my cat is deaf?

• She doesn’t respond when called.

• She doesn’t real-ise you’re in the room unless you physically touch her.If your cat ignores your call – she may be deaf

PETSBrought to you by Miriam Kerins of

the DSPCA

OWNERS AND PETS CAN ADAPT AND LEAD HAPPY, HEALTHY LIVES TOGETHER

that your feline friend could be deaf • You have difficulty

wakening her up from her nap.

• Her walk is unbal-anced.

• She appears to be disoriented.

Why are some cats deaf?

Very of ten, white cats are born deaf. It’s usually hereditary and is associated with the same gene that makes the cat’s fur white and is common among those white cats with blue eyes.

It’s believed the prob-lem happens at around three to four weeks of

life and is linked to the cochlear blood supply.

However, loss of hear-ing can be associated with illness, old age or other health-related problems like ear mites, polyps, or even a side effect to certain medi-cations, a visit to your vet will determine this.

Communicating with a deaf cat

• Many owners parent-ing a deaf cat will be amazed they even have the condition. This is because Kitty’s sense of feel is amazing and high-ly developed and she will pick up the vibrations of

other animals as well as humans.

• A deaf cat will be eas-ily startled so make sure to pound your feet heav-ily on the floor.

• Try wearing the same perfume or deodor-ant every day; after all, there’s nothing wrong with Kitty’s sense of smell and she’ll imme-diately recognise your approach.

• All cats flick their ears when they react to noises but your deaf cat will flick and move in unison in order to com-municate with you and other household pets. Watch her and study the

signs in order to under-stand what she wants to say to you.

• Make sure you give your deaf cat the space she requires.

All cats like to climb, however, a deaf cat will feel more comfortable climbing higher and sit-ting on a high shelf will give her security.

Try building a shelf or

seating area in the hot press or suspended from your ceiling; that way she can survey her territory.

• If she’ll allow you, (and make sure she is totally comfortable with this), gently place your mouth against her tummy or her head but do take care not to star-tle her and whisper some terms of endearment;

over emphasise certain words so that she will know you love her. Once she associates this action with love, she will purr.

• Touch your cat gently every time you enter or leave the room; this will alert her to your move-ments.

• Never allow your hearing impaired cat outside on her own.

I do hope you’ve found this article helpful; how-ever, please bear in mind, it should be used as a guideline only and is not a substitute for profes-sional veterinary advice.

For more informa-tion, contact your local equine vet or log onto www.dspca.ie or email me at [email protected]


GazetteBEAUTYBEAUTYShowing off that beach bodySHOWING off beach bodies means firming and toning hips, thighs, bums, tums and bingo wings, but that doesn’t mean wasting energy in the gym.

A new range of skin products by quirky skin care range, Cowshed, has the answer for any-one a little gym-shy.

The new Slender Cow Range is, according to its makers, “a functional, targeted three-step pro-gram to detoxify, firm and tone skin – the ulti-mate pre-bikini skincare ‘workout’, designed to tone the parts that other treatments can’t reach”.

The Cowshed Slender Cow range consists of: detoxifying body scrub €39.95, body sculpt-ing serum €44.95, extra firming body butter €34.95

According to a spokes-

person for Cowshed, this range contains: “A bespoke seaweed blend of fast-working function-al ingredients; Norwe-gian kelp to help detoxi-fy, pearl moss to rejuve-nate and bladderwrack proven to improve skin elasticity. Slender Cow’s body sculpting serum and Slender Cow’s extra firming body butter each contain the unique super-ingredient dermo-chlorella – a freshwater micro algae, clinically proven to improve skin tone and firmness by up to 46% and decrease the appearance of stretch marks by up to 32% after 12 weeks continual use.”

Here are Cowshed’s three key steps to getting that bikini ready body:

Step 1: use detoxifying body scrub – to detoxify, tone and smooth skin,

The Cowshed Slender Cow range consists of the detoxifying body scrub, body

sculpting serum and extra firming body butter

WE already love the signature smell of YSL’s elle, but when limited edition smells come out to play, we have to get our hands on them.

The 2012 limited edition of Yves Saint Laurent’s elle frangrance will be on shelves this May 16. Always stylish in its bottling, the water colour bottle looks great, with its artistic brushstrokes of vibrant flashes of the YSL shades.

The scent, according to its makers, is sensual and refreshing, with its sparkling notes of grapefruit, sambac jasmine and a spicy savour of pink pepper berries.

For YSL, the woman who wears this fra-grance is radiant, impulsive, who plays with light and colour.

Don’t forget to try it for your-self when it hits stores this May 16. RRP for YSL elle Limited Edi-tion is €45 for 90ml.

Refreshing scent of Yves

Saint Laurent’s elle


with this luxurious Himalayan pink salt and Dead Sea salt scrub. It purifies the skin, removes toxins and prepares skin for the next sculpting step.

Step 2: use body sculpting serum – to target cellulite, firm, nourish and tone. This

cellulite boosting formu-lation contains a trio of nourishing oils including tamanu, macadamia nut and borage seed to help strengthen skin, whilst reducing the appearance of cellulite and stretch marks. A blend of uplift-ing essential oils of sweet orange and petitgrain,

ylang ylang and carrot seed oil all effectively target stubborn areas, stimulating and condi-tioning the skin, whilst also breaking down vex-ing toxins.

Step 3: Use Extra Firming Body Butter – to target cellulite, firm and condition.

Edited by

Laura Webb

Shop until you drop with Wonderbra’s brand new website

Stylish swimwear for summerSTYLISH swimwear can be hard to come by, but when you find the perfect match it boosts confidence for holi-daying in the sun, one brand bringing confi-dence to the beach is Heidi Klein and the new collection is now available.

The designs have been worn by celebri-ties all over, from Sien-na Miller to Kate Moss, Kelly Brook to Gwyn-eth Paltrow, just some of the stylish women working the brand.

Launch

To launch the fabu-lous spring/summer collection Heidi Gos-man, co-founder of Heidi Klein brand, will visit Brown Thomas Dublin on Thursday, May 10.

The visit coincides with the launch of Oh Buoy! The summer event at Brown Tho-mas. Heidi will be on hand to meet customers to chat about the best styles for the many dif-ferent body shapes that are out there.

What’s great about this design of swimwear is that her designs fea-ture hidden support functions to flatter and enhance.

The look of the 1960s French Riviera is inspi-

ration for both resort and summer collec-tions.

These timeless styles have contemporary details that add to the elegant shapes and pieces designed for the

collection. The hidden support and secret pad-ding with under wir-ing ensures every fit is perfect for each unique body shape.

Colours of olives, go lds and e l egan t dark grey provide rich earthy colours, while the turquoise of the Mediterranean Sea is referenced in the best selling signature coral and snake print. Nauti-cal navy and white are always well suited to the summer season.

The new collection is available exclusively at Brown Thomas.

The new Heidi Klein spring/summer swimwear collection is now available at Brown Thomas


SHOP til you drop online with Wonderbra, after the global brand re-launched its website for customers in Ireland and the UK.

Let’s face it, if we are not shopping in the high streets, we are shopping online to find the latest in fashion, beauty, and eyeing up what is on trend. Knowing this was the best tool for its Irish customers the world’s most well known underwear brand – Wonderbra – has done tai-lored to our needs.

www.wonderbra.eu showcases the full Won-derbra collection, replacing the previous site wonderbra.co.uk.

The new site is transactional, allowing Won-derbra to effectively meet the needs of its target consumers who are heavy online users.

On the site there is a store finder and it fea-tures the full range of products modelled by face of Wonderbra, Adriana Cernanova, with simple navigation for ease of shopping.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

‘What’s great

about this design

of swimwear

is that her

designs feature

hidden support

functions to

flatter and

enhance’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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GazetteMUSICMUSIC

Dublin’s finest join up as JD supergroup

Delorentos, The Minutes and We Cut Corners line up ahead of their JD Roots gig

� ROB HEIGH

DUBLIN has been long recognised as a hotbed of talent for young bands who make the jump from the local scene to the international strato-sphere, and that tradi-tion looks set to continue with the success and buzz about upcoming new bands, including Delorentos, The Minutes and We Cut Corners.

These alt-rock pioneers are set to take the stage in salute to their hometown roots as part of JD Roots, an innovative new music initiative by Jack Daniels that celebrates the unique influence of home towns on the music and char-acter of some of the most exciting and talked about bands on the current music scene, which takes place in a unique, one-off, free live performance in The Button Factory, Dub-lin on Friday, May 18.

In what promises to be an intriguing proc-ess, the three bands will collaborate for the first time ahead of the gig to explore artists and songs from Dublin who have inspired and influenced their musical style and direction.

The bands will then play what promises to be a thrilling show in The

Button Factory, where they will perform a selec-tion of songs from their own set lists as well as a selection by Dublin art-ists who have made the greatest impact on them and their music.

This unique show - the first and possibly only time all three acts will perform on the same stage together - is sure to make its own contribu-tion to Dublin’s rich and evolving music scene.

Fresh from the critical acclaim of their third stu-dio album, Little Sparks, released in January, Delorentos are at the very top of their game.

HOMETOWN GIG: THREE OF BEST NEW BANDS COME TOGETHER

Lauded as ones to watch in 2012 among music critics across Ire-land and the UK, The Minutes have been blaz-ing a trail on the live music scene over the past 12 months, and they were personally picked by Noel Gallagher as support for his first-ever solo live show with The High Flying Birds at The Olympia.

We Cut Corners were winners of The JD Set Unsigned in 2009 and the Dublin duo have been amassing fans ever since, and received a Meteor Choice Prize nomination for their debut album,

Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards.

Delorentos co-lead singer, Ronan Yourell, said: “We are genuinely excited about the chance to work closely with two of Dublin’s great new bands, The Minutes and We Cut Corners, on JD Roots.

“Dublin as a city and a place has a magical and powerful history, some-thing which has had a massive influence on all of us for different reasons. Through our conversa-tions to date, we’ve all got just a little bit excited about the possibilities and the chance to pay tribute

to some of the artists, which have been shaped by Dublin was too tempt-ing to resist for all of us.

“The challenge will be to settle on a shortlist of songs and then bringing something new, fresh and personal to them. It should be a really exciting live show.”

Tickets for this exclusive JD Roots performance at the Button Factory are free and are available now at www.jdroots.ie. All those who register will go into a draw for tickets. A limited number of tickets will also be available on the Jack Daniel’s Ireland Facebook page.


EVER hang out with Adam Clayton in Mala-hide Village? Did you audition for a band at Mount Temple along with Paul Hewson and Dave Evans? Ever make music with Larry Mullen Jnr in the Artane Boys’ Band?

Then congratulations: you know one of the fifth richest musicians in the world!

U2 are sitting at No 5 in The Sunday Times’ Musical Rich List. Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam collectively worth a whopping €625 million.

Although there is a sense of pride (excuse the pun) to see our lads so high up on a list of mostly English and American richies, I do have to wonder — in these tough times — what is the point of publishing a list that may as well be called “People That Will Always Be Richer Than You But Probably Work A Lot Less”?

Yes, I know the likes of U2 and Paul McCa-rtney are worth millions. Sure, haven’t I been giving them my cash since I was old enough to walk to the record shop on my own?

But in case you don’t mind having your nose rubbed in others’ wealth: Just ahead of U2 on the list is Andrew Lloyd Webber with a wealth worth singing about at €720 million; Paul McCartney’s in at No 3 with wife, Nancy Shevall, with €810 million; the second richest musical figure is theatre producer, Cameron Mackintosh, with €885 million, and top of this very high pile is record executive Clive Calder, with €1.65 billion in his pockets.

Maybe I’m being excessively sensitive to this annual printing tradition.

If I’m honest, my biggest problem with this Musical Rich List is the fact that David and Victoria Beckham are on it (in at joint-tenth place with Daniel Ek with €232 million) In fairness, I’d say David’s pre-match mumbling of England’s national anthem has contrib-uted more to the music world than Victoria ever did. I wonder does he ever serenade her at home? “God save the Lean”, maybe?

FastTunes with Radio Nova’s Dee Woods

COMPOSITEDOORS.IE have opened a new state-of-the-art showroom, conveniently located at 3 St Gall Gardens South, Columbanus, in Dundrum,

The business, owned by partners Tony Mallon and Ronan Doyle both locals to the Dundrum area, has grown so much over the past 18 months that they decided to open the showroom so that prospective clients can see the superior quality of the Palladio composite doors at first hand.

The partners realised that after the severe winter conditions of 2010 – 2011, there was a market for energy-efficient products, particularly since most of the business in the construction market was now to do with refurbishment/retro fitting. Home owners have also become more knowledgeable about the need to conserve energy in their homes. They also realised that there was no website on the Irish internet which was user-friendly for home owners thinking of changing their entrance door or back door.

Tony has been involved in the manufacture, sup-ply and installation of “A” rated windows and doors to the domestic market throughout Dublin and the surrounding areas for over 15 years, and also sup-plies to the window and building trade.

Ronan has been involved in the hardwood flooring business for 12 years and has supplied and installed plank and design floors throughout the Dublin region.

Interview: Ronan Doyle and Tony Mallon, partners, Compositedoors.ie

Q&A

Only the very best in doors and windows

Compositedoors.ie is a new venture by Ronan Doyle and Tony Mallon, supplying

doors, floors and windows

REPOSSESSION

Q – The arrears on my mortgage will never be

paid, let alone the normal repayments. Current-

ly, I am on an interest only facility but this ends

next month. My partner lost his job and we can

just about afford to feed our two children and

ourselves. If our home is repossessed, how long

does the process take and can they still pursue

us for any outstanding debt on the property?

Theresa - Mulhuddart

A - My sympathies to you on your situation. First of

all, you are not alone. There are many many bor-

rowers with similar stories. Like Robins Williams in

Good Will Hunting AND Enda Kenny said “it’s not your

fault” and what is really important is your family and

surviving this period of time.

Cash is king and income is your number one asset

and you have to protect and prioritise both. Under

the Central Bank guidelines, lenders are holding off

repossession of homes for up to two years. What

is crucial is both budgeting – put down on paper all

your expenditure irrespective of income – and com-

munication.

As regards outstanding debt, your names are

already on the Irish Credit Bureau for missed pay-

ments – and stay there for five years – and if you

have a judgment against you, it stays there for life.

But, you may never want to borrow again. If there

is a deficit on the home after the lender has repos-

sessed, sold the property and put the proceeds

against your mortgage, you then have three options:

1. The outstanding balance may be written off by the

lender if it is decided not to pursue a bankruptcy

course.

2. The lender may ask you to repay an unsecured

loan over an agreed period for the outstanding bal-

ance on a monthly basis.

3. You can go to court via the personal insolvency

route, declare bankruptcy whereby the debt is

wiped and after three years, you may start afresh.

Whereas in the past, there was a stigma attached

to being declared bankrupt, over the coming years it

is going to be a norm. In the US, they nearly clap you

on the back on bankruptcy (at least they tried) and

they dust themselves down and start all over again.

Keep communicating with your creditors – they

cannot get blood from a stone but compassion has

to be the order of the day.

� Contact John with your money questions at

[email protected] or visit his website at

www.moneydoctor.ie. John Lowe, Fellow of the

Institute of Bankers, is founder and managing

director of Money Doctor

GazetteBUSINESSBUSINESS Supported by AIB


When you were a kid, what did

you want to be?

Ronan: A fireman.

Tony: A pilot.

What was your first job?

Ronan: Helping the milkman on his

rounds delivering milk.

Tony: Grocery shop assistant.

And your first pay check?

Ronan: £14.

Tony: Half a crown.

When did you start your

present job?

Ronan: After being made redundant

in 2010, I started my first business

Architechural Flooring, and then set

up Compositedoors.ie with Tony at the

beginning of 2011.

Tony – I have been supplying and

installing windows for 15 years, but

set up Compositedoors.ie with Ronan

in early 2011.

How many people do you have

to talk with every day?

Ronan: Too many.

Tony: 35.

At what time does your

working day begin and end?

Ronan: Begins at 7am, when I get up

and it doesn’t end!

Tony: 8:30am to 7pm.

What is the greatest thrill of

your working week?

Ronan: Confirmed sales.

Tony: Getting great feedback from

happy customers.

And what part of your job do

you dislike the most?

Ronan: I don’t dislike any of it.

Becoming self-employed was the best

move I ever made.

Tony: Making the tea.

Do you fly Ryanair or anybody

else but Ryanair?

Ronan: I’m not fussy, once I get there

I don’t mind who brings me.

Tony: Whoever is cheapest.

What car do you drive?

Ronan: Volkswagen Passat Estate.

Tony: Lexus.

Would you ever bungee jump?

Ronan: No.

Tony: Yes.

Do you play any sport?

Ronan: Golf.

Tony: Golf.

What is your favourite food?

Ronan: Steak and chips.

Tony: Seafood.

And drink?

Ronan: Heineken.

Tony: White wine.

What is the name of your

favourite shop?

Ronan: Compositedoors.ie

Tony: House of Fraser.

How many times each week do

you go the “hole in the wall”?

Ronan: No idea.

Tony: Twice

How many times each year do

you shop for clothes?

Ronan: Three.

Tony: 10.

Where is your favourite holiday

destination?

Ronan: South of France.

Tony: Laguna Beach, California.

How many pairs of shoes do

you own?

Ronan: Three.

Tony: Six.

What other job in the whole

world would you really like to

have?

Ronan: Professional golfer.

Tony: Taoiseach.

When do you wish to retire?

Ronan: Never.

Tony: As soon as I can afford to.

What will you do then?

Tony – Play more golf!

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GazetteMOTORSMOTORS

� CORMAC CURTIS

JINBA Ittai… don’t worry, when I first heard those words at April’s launch

of Mazda’s new compact SUV, the CX-5, I hadn’t a clue what they were on about either.

But, according to Mazda, Jinba Ittai is the state of “oneness between car and driver” that the company has gone to great lengths to achieve.

Such a lof ty and ambit ious target is admirable , and, no doubt, the suits in the top-level boardroom at Mazda HQ all nodded their approval when the concept was pitched.

But, as with all vision-ary developments in the motoring world, it was the engineers and design-ers who were, no doubt, left scratching their heads when this new and inno-vative direction was decreed.

It has to be said, those same engineers and designers really did push the boat out on this one.

Working from a com-pletely clean slate, the company’s new direction was approached with four key elements in mind: emotional and appealing design, interior function-ality and craftsmanship, predictable and respon-sive driving dynamics, and sustainability. All of which makes for quite a mouthful.

Lucky for us, all of this “blue sky” thinking has brought together each of Mazda’s Skyac-tiv technologies togeth-er into an all-new and very impressive com-pact SUV.

The Gazette was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of the CX-5 in Vienna, where two vari-ants were available for test drives.

Easing into the day, my driving buddy and I opted for the less powerful option, a two-wheel drive, 150bhp 2.2-litre diesel engine with an automatic transmission.

This is Mazda’s first foray into the segment, but everything about the

car suggests that they are past masters at it.

Starting with the all-important looks, we are talking about something that is unmistakably Mazda, but with an all-new excitement and edge to it.

For me, the design of the CX-5 is absolutely spot-on.

My first glance at the car – well, about 50 of them actually, all lined up at the launch – was a side profile of the “black mica” coloured version.

Even though it’s their first SUV, you wouldn’t mistake this car for any-thing other than Mazda, while at the same time, it has just as much impact and presence as a BMW X5, but a whole lot more current.

We’re told that the inspiration for the front end of the car is the cheetah, and, even if you never see the resem-blance, the look does evoke a slight sense of menace.

All-in-all, pretty much every box in the looks

department is well and truly ticked.

The power comes from a choice of engines, and those available in the Irish market are set to be a 2-litre petrol with 165bhp, a 2.2-litre diesel with 150bhp and a 2.3-litre diesel with 170bhp.

The days of SUV cars coming with 3-litre, gas guzzling engines would appear to be a thing of the past, and the 165bhp automatic version of the CX-5 we tested is rated to achieve a combined fuel consumption of 5.3l/100km, whereas the higher-powered 175bhp version with the man-ual six-speed transmis-sion can still achieve an impressive 5.2l/100km.

These figures are partly due to the 14:1 compres-sion ratio that the engines achieve – a world-leading achievement in a mass-production vehicle.

Clearly Mazda’s engi-neers have put some serious work in to the performance and effi-ciency of these new engines, but putting

all these stats and fig-ures to one side for a moment, it’s also worth noting the features that Mazda have included elsewhere in the car.

It may not be some-thing you will need to use all that often, but the sat nav system in the car is of the TomTom vari-ety – one of my personal favourites.

The interior of the car offers some very useful cargo space, with a three-way split for the seats, all folding down with ease to cater for a variety of load options.

With the seats up, the CX-5 actually offers class-leading space in the boot, with space for four full-sized suitcases, beating both the VW Tiguan (two-three cases) and the Ford Kuga (three cases).

For those moments of musical indulgence, there is a terrific Bose sound system with nine high-performance speakers and background noise compensation technol-ogy.

On the safety front,

Mazda’s new compact SUV, the CX-5, is an exceptionally complete car


RoadRoadSignsSigns

Range Rover Evoque-s Car ofthe Year Awardwith writersTHE Range Rover Evoque has been named Supreme Winner of the Women’s World Car of the Year 2012, as well as the top-ranked model in the luxury car category.

This latest success sustains the exceptional acclaim with which Evoque has been greeted around the world, reflected in more than 110 separate honours.

The Women’s World Car of the Year is judged by a panel of 17 women motoring writers from around the world.

Each vehicle considered for an award is rated according to criteria which reflect issues that are important to women car buyers.

These include practical elements, such as safety, the amount of storage space, child-friendliness, environmental performance and value for money, and also elements such as design aesthetics.

Having achieved the highest marks in the luxury car section, the Range Rover Evoque went on to be named their Car of the Year.

Although the results have been announced this week, official presentation of the trophy to Land Rover will take place at the Paris Motor Show in September.

Responding to the news of this latest hon-our, John Edwards, Land Rover Global Brand director said: “The Women’s World Car of the Year title further reflects the great market reach of Evoque.

“Across the world, women are a customer base in their own right, so it is vital for any manufacturer to ensure their products meet their preferences and requirements.

“As a vehicle designed, engineered and built in Britain, the Range Rover Evoque continues to demonstrate its world-class appeal.

“We are delighted that as well as the 111 hon-ours it has received for its design, engineering and performance, it has proved just as success-ful in terms of excellent global sales.”

Mazda’s impressive new compact SUV


Mazda’s smart City Brake support feature is also included – offering auto-matic emergency brak-ing at a 6-metre distance when travelling between

4 and 30 km/h.Other safety features

are a rear vehicle moni-toring system, that lights up an LED in your rear-view mirror when another

vehicle is passing, as well as a lane departure warn-ing system, where the steering wheel vibrates if you stray too far from the centre of your lane.

This is an exceptionally complete car, and with prices starting at €25,195 for the petrol version, it will appeal to an awful lot of people.

Skoda make aRapid leap forwardSKODA have announced their new compact saloon will be called the Rapid.

The car will make its debut in Europe before the year is out.

A Chinese version of the Rapid will be built and sold in China from 2013.

The close to series concept car MissionL China, which Skoda are displaying at Auto China 2012 in Beijing, provides a specific pre-view of the new Chinese model.

“As part of its growth strategy, Skoda has initiated the largest model offensive in its cor-porate history and will bring a new vehicle to market every six months on average in the years ahead,” Skoda CEO, Winfried Vahland, said at the brand’s press conference in Beijing.

“The Rapid is our next new model at the starting gate. It has a central importance for our growth and will provide us with a strong tailwind on international markets,” said Vahl-and.

With the Rapid, Skoda offer an attractive and family-oriented model in a world’s growing segment between the Fabia and the Octavia.

The MissionL design study provides a spe-cific preview of the car’s design and concept.

For the design of the interior Skoda did an extensive research in China and asked cus-tomers about their individual wishes to build for them a car they exactly want. MissionL China and the future compact sedan are the ideal combination of Skoda genes and Chinese demand.

Skoda showed the MissionL’s European variant at IAA 2011 in Frankfurt and are dis-playing a version modified for Chinese market in Beijing.

“MissionL China is true Skoda. It perfect-ly embodies the brand’s values: fresh design, functionality, roominess, ingenuity, and price to value ratio typical for our cars,” Vahland added.

“This car makes a clear statement: precise and emotional. Lots of room for the driver, passengers and luggage. An ideal car for fami-lies. Simply clever.”

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Donation: Raising funds for Guide DogsIRISH Guide Dogs for the Blind officially launched their annual fundraising car draw at the Cork City Ford Centre recently. The winning prize is a brand new Ford Focus valued at €20,000 donated by Ford Ireland. A number of Irish Guide Dog’s staff and their dogs took time to attend the launch. Tickets can be bought on the charity’s website at www.guidedogs.ie or from volunteers who

are selling them nationwide. Tickets are €5 each and the draw will take place on Satur-day, December 1.

Pictured are Eddie Murphy, chairman and managing director of Ford Ireland, and Pad-raig Mallon, chief executive of Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, at the launch the car draw with a little help from dogs in training: Hec-tor, Megan, Kuta and Creem.

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GazetteTTRAVELRAVEL

WEST COUNTRY: WITH COUNTRYSIDE IN TOUCHING DISTANCE, BRISTOL AND BATH HAVE IT ALL

TRAVEL to the west country couldn’t be easier these days with direct

flights to Bristol, your gateway to the region.

Whether it’s a short city break to Bristol or Bath you’re after or seek-ing out the lush quaint honey coloured coun-tryside of the Cotswolds, the English west country offers a fascinating and diverse range of experi-ences for all travellers.

With a plethora of things to do and see, visitors are also spoilt with excellent qual-ity accommodation, places to eat and drink, history, culture, the great outdoors as well as exciting shopping outlets, sure to provide genuine retail therapy.

After your short flight

to Bristol (less than an hour from Dublin) , the first port of call for any dedicated shopper is the Clifton Village area of Bristol, offer-ing up many up-market independent shops and boutiques selling jewel-lery, art, gifts, furniture, fashion good food and more.

For those after a gen-uine bargain, try one of the many outlet stores in the region, including the Mulberry Factory shop which is close-by.

If your legs haven’t given in, you will be spoilt for choice with a wide range of award winning and reasonably priced restaurants and gastropubs in the area, serving some of the many locally brewed craft beers and ciders

from the region.

A relaxing BathAfter taking in the

sights and sounds of Bristol, the next port of call has got to be the jewel in the crown of the region, the Roman city of Bath.

Built around the only natural hot spring in England, the entire area of the city is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Take a lazy stroll around the streets of this architectural treas-ure and view the stun-ning Royal Crescent, the Circus, Pulteney Bridge amongst other gems and finish up with a trip to Thermae Bath Spa, Britain’s origi-nal and only natural thermal spa where you can enjoy the warm,

mineral-rich waters as enjoyed by the Celts and Romans over 2000 years ago, now that is real therapy!

A trip to the west country wouldn’t do the region justice with-out exploring some of delights the countryside has to offer.

For golfers there is some of the finest golf courses England has, of fer ing easy great choice and beautiful scenery.

With over 6,100km of dedicated walking and cycling tracks, along with 1000s of acres of national trust parkland there is plenty of ways to find the inner explor-er in you.

Such amenities also provide an excellent area for bird watching

and other green pur-suits.

The west country is also steeped in pagan, Christian and mythi-cal history, legend and landmarks.

A number of must see experiences includes Stonehenge and the village of Glastonbury whose abbey houses the first Christian sanc-tuary, visited by none other than our own St Patrick and where King Arthur’s final resting place lies, so the legend goes.

No cheesy pun!F o r t h e f o o d i e s

amongst us, a visit to Cheddar, the home of cheese is top priority. Spawning many excel-lent artisan cheese mak-ers, a visit to Cheddar

offers the opportunity to sample real cheese which is creamy and delicious with a choice of pasteurised and unpasteurised.

You’ll soon forget the rubbery stuff in super-markets!

A good base for all of these places is a lovely old bed and breakfast called The Old Par-sonage just outside Bath, a grade II sand-stone house built in the 1680s.

They provide great cooked breakfast with home made b read served on Wedgwood Devon Rose china, con-tinental coffee, yogurt, fresh fruit and various cereals.

For details log on to www.theoldparsonage-bandb.co.uk.

West is best with breaks, shopping and sightseeing

Bath’s Pulteney Bridge (above) and The Old Parsonage (right) highlight the beauty and history in the town, while Bristol (top right) is a walker’s dream, with plenty to see and do. Pics: VisitBath/Dave Pratt

Edited by

Mimi Murray


Gods and heroesMany captions might ask is it a bird? Is it a plane? But this paper knows the difference between the Marvel and DC multiverses

GoingOUT

GazetteENTERTAINMENTENTERTAINMENT

The biggest film of the year so far crashes, bangs and wallops its way to our screens. And boy, is it mighty

�THE PAVILION THEATRE 01 231 2929Nubes (Clouds)

EVER watched a cloud turn into a sheep right before your eyes? Enter an enchanting, joyful world full of moving objects and dream-like imagery. Nubes (Clouds) takes a wildly imaginative approach to the theme of clouds, inspired by the surrealist artist Magritte. Audiences of all ages will delight in watching vibrant dances and inventive scenes involving flippers, ladders and puppets in suits. This show can be enjoyed at 2pm and 4.30pm on May 12 and 13. Tickets start at €40 for a family then range from €14 to €8.

MILL THEATRE 01 296 9340 Opera d’Arte

EXPERIENCE all the passions of opera in one spectacular production, featuring leading voices of the Irish and International operatic stage. With piano accompaniment by musical director, DAVID WRAY (musical director: Opera in the Open, Music Theatre Ireland), Immerse yourself in a diverse programme of musical masterpieces including selections from La Traviata, Carmen, Cosi Fan Tutte, Bohème, The Magic Flute, Die Fledermaus and The Barber of Seville. May 9, 8pm, tickets priced at €26/24.

CIVIC THEATRE 01 462 7477Fruitcake

STARRING Mary McEvoy (Biddy in Glenroe) as Della Dolan, Fruitcake starts off as a cookery demonstration but develops into an account of one woman’s life with each ingredient reminding her of past memories and decisions made which ultimately change the course of her life. For two shows at 8pm and 3pm, in the Civic Theatre’s Main Auditorium on May 8, this show is guaranteed to go down well. Tickets are priced at €15 with a €12 concession. There will be €10 special Bealtaine tickets for the matinee.

DRAIOCHT 01 885 2622Thought Once Was

THIS double bill promises to be a visceral feast for the senses. The Space Where Thought Once Was, is an exploration into Dementia. The second work is entitled Scatenato, from the Italian musical term, meaning wild, unchained, and loose. Joining the dancers on stage will be the Contempo String Quartet, Galway’s Ensemble in Residence. There will be just one show, on May 8 at 8pm and tickets priced at €16 or €12 concession are sure to sell fast.

� PAUL HOSFORD

YOU could be forgiven for thinking, with the past week’s inclement weather, that summer is an age away.

Or maybe, if you’re like myself, you know that a much better bell-weather of the seasons in Ireland is the arrival of certain films.

Oscar-worthy con-tenders mean that it is one month either side of Christmas, Adam Sandler’s latest execra-ble offering means you are either side of the summer.

And the long, hot, rainy days of summer well and truly arrive when the first block-buster finds its way into cinemas.

This year, the first one up is Avengers Assem-ble, the Marvel dream team movie that many thought would never see the light of day and has essentially had it’s

story being told since the final scene of Iron Man in 2008.

Since Tony Stark’s first outing, Captain America was brought to life as The First Avenger, a reboot made The Hulk Incredible again, Thor flexed his Mighty mus-cles and Iron Man got a second run.

All of these films had neat crossovers and, if you’ve seen the lot, the early pace of Assemble won’t confuse you.

If you haven’t , i t doesn’t matter because there are super heroes on screen. Lots of

them. Of course, the biggest

reservation to be had with a project such as this is that there will be too many super-cooks to spoil the super-broth, as it were.

But, with the founda-tions already laid, direc-tor Joss Whedon takes the ball and just runs with it.

Not a ponderous run, either, this is full on, balls-to-wall sprinting for over two hours.

This is as close to joy as summer cinema will ever get. Whedon’s script is peppered with

comedic gold and the actors all seem to be having a blast.

Downey Junior as Tony Stark is a mar-riage made in heaven. Downey has made a superhero role his own to the extent that many associate the hero with the actor, not the other way around, a trap that Val Kilmer and Michael Keaton know all too well.

His acerbic barbs, particularly to Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, are a pleasure, as is the warmth and sweetness that is inherent in Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Ban-ner.

Ruffalo is the third actor to don the stretchy pants of the verdant monster with anger issues in only nine years.

In lesser hands, the role would be a throwa-way or an attempt to ape predecessors, but this is Mark Ruffalo.

The man is simply too good to let a role like this slip by.

Evans’ Captain Amer-ica keeps the group hon-ourable, while Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury keeps them all in line, acting as the world’s largest babysitter.

But, what use is a cadre of heroes if they have nobody to fight?

Enter Loki, Thor’s brother and a reject of Asgard.

He is thoroughly evil and Tom Hiddlestone injects him with a smirk and a swagger that gen-uinely make you believe he can topple the finest collection of heroes ever.

Overall, this is what you want from the sum-mer.

Fun, breathless and frenetic, it has an emo-tional depth that few directors could have attained.

A s s e m b l e s o m e friends and go.

FILM OF THE WEEK: Avengers Assemble�� (12A) 143 mins

OUR VERDICT:THIS is it. If ever there was confirmation that nerds had inherited the earth it is this. Creator of Buffy and Firefly directing? Check. A faithful comic book adaptation high on action? Check. Scarlett Johannson in leather for much of the film? Check and check. Avengers Assemble is pitch perfect action. It never stops to take a breath and will leave audiences absolutely thrilled.

Director: Joss WhedonStarring: Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddlestone


� PAUL HOSFORD

WITH the NFL draft having dominated the US media - both sports and mainstream - last weekend, fans of Ameri-can Football are licking their lips in anticipa-tion of what their new players will bring to the table.

But, with free-agency, the draft and Bounty-gate put to bed, football fans need the next mile-stone to look forward to.

For a fan of the gridi-ron who lives 3,000 miles away from the nearest professional sta-dium, the marker that the season is here has traditionally been the arrival of NFL Madden on whatever console I fancied it.

From owning it on an oddly-shaped cartridge on the Mega Drive, through PS One and PS2 iterations, it is the one game franchise to which I am oddly loyal.

Part of it is knowledge based. Before I knew the game, the easiest way of getting to know who the guys on the less glamorous squads were was to fire up the XBox and go through the rosters of teams like the Chiefs, Browns and Jaguars.

But, mostly, it is blind faith.

Every year, I go back to Madden hoping and praying that it will deliver the deep, enrich-

ing football experience that I, and many others, crave.

Last year was not the year.

Don’t get me wrong, the 2012 vintage was a perfectly serviceable game, but with no real competition anymore, Madden seems to have gotten lazy.

The absence of the 2K series has allowed EA Sports more or less phone it in.

Think of the renais-sance of the FIFA fran-chise and you think of the years the EA behe-moth spent in the dol-drums at the expense of Seabass Takatsuka and Konami’s Pro Evolution series.

With that in mind, Madden 12’s major selling point was an improved presentation system.

Yes, seeing your play-ers led onto the field by mascots and announced by position and college attended was nice the first couple of times, but was it really worth a year’s development?

T he commentar y became repetitive to anyone who played the game regularly and a complete lack of pres-entation for created or modified teams meant the diamond lost its lus-tre fairly quickly.

The game’s biggest failing, however, was the franchise mode that was as shallow as a Kardashian and about

GazetteGAMINGGAMINGBreaking down the plays for Madden’s latest run

Nintendo continues its lossesDESPITE dominating the Asian marketplace with its new handheld console, Nintendo posted its first annual losses this week, but the $460 million figure wasn’t as bad as first feared.

The losses, which were included in financial results up to March 31, were caused by poor hardware sales.

The company’s net sales dropped 36.2pc compared to the previous year. While Nintendo said it cut the price of its Nintendo 3DS console below its cost price, sales were slower in Europe and the US during the Christmas period than previous years. It sold 13.53m Nintendo 3DS consoles and 9.84m Nintendo Wii consoles.

Nintendo has said it believes it will make an operating profit of 35bn yen (US$429m) in the coming year, and that it will release games such as New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Animal Cross-ing to drive up Nintendo 3DS software sales.

It expects to sell the 3DS above its cost price by the middle of the financial year and will also launch the Wii U at the end of 2012.

Bytesandpieces

Madden 13 will let you live the dream – if your dream involves being Matt Cassell

half as much fun at times.

The thrill of unearth-ing a draft steal in the fourth round was lost because of a clumsy scouting system that requires you to whittle down all seven picks to just 75 players’ physical attributes and then five that you could get full disclosure on.

A s a ny o n e w h o has read War Room, Michael Holley’s semi-nal account of the New England Patriots suc-cess in the mid 00s will know, making a team capable of collecting a championship takes a lot more than know-ing that a quarterback tipped to be a high-round pick has a weak arm and poor stamina.

The amount of effort an NFL franchise actu-ally puts in to drafting players coming from college is staggering and the art of guessing what each team will do is itself a multi-million dollar industry.

For EA to boil it down to the bare minimum makes the franchise mode feel like a lottery.

It hurts that there is no feedback on likely

weak positions in the following season, nor is there an option to see upcoming free agents like there is in the NHL series, which continues to set the bar for EA games.

While the exponen-tially superior NCAA Football got all of these things more or less spot on, Madden trailed.

But the good news is that EA appears to have listened to the fans, in an attempt to win back the fans deserting its star title for what is essen-tially meant to be a little brother.

Changes this year include:

Dropbacks The days of all snaps

being identical are gone. Quarterbacks are get-

ting seven-step drops, five-step drops and so on, which will make the game feel more realistic on both sides of the ball.

Trajectories As someone who

plays the game (www.rhinos. ie since you asked) , my greatest frustration has been the inability to throw a pass in anything other than a

laser or a lob. This year, there will be

25 trajectories to get the ball to the receiver in the most appropriate way.

QB Avoidance Moves You’re going to move

more slowly in the pock-et this time around – at least when looking to pass – but now you have the eight directions of the right stick to move your quarterback. These little stab moves buy you time to get free and make the play.

Receiver Awareness Receivers never make

mistakes. I say this as a card carrying member of the club. But, this year, the icons over receiv-ers will light up when a player is expecting a pass. This doesn’t mean he’s open. This just means the receiver is looking for the ball. Similarly, you can throw when the icon isn’t lit up, but the chances of a catch are lower.

Other changes include read and react defenses and better special teams.

All of which sound good, whether you know what Green Right Slot Spider 3 Y Banana is or not.

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OVER 400 boys and girls, including Dublin’s very own Willow Park, took part in the Aviva Mini Rugby Festival in Ash-bourne RFC recently.

The festival brought together mini-rugby teams from clubs and schools from the four provinces of Ireland.

It was an early start for many of the teams who travelled from as far as Abbeyfeale, Enniskil-len and Claremorris, but they relished the chance to take part in one of the biggest days in the mini-rugby calendar.

The young Dublin play-ers who attended had the opportunity to compete against teams from all over Ireland and to meet rugby heroes Mike Ross, Fergus McFadden and David Kearney, who were

on hand to offer tips and provide autographs.

Players, coaches and parents alike thoroughly enjoyed the day out in Ashbourne for the Aviva Rugby Festival.

Some clubs had a very early start with people travelling from as far afield as Letterkenny, Kilfeacle and Ballina and from as close as Ratoath and Boyne.

Stephen Gregory, Cregg’s RFC minis coach, said: “This is a great day for mini rugby, the organ-isation and work the IRFU and Aviva have put into this has been first class.

“This is my fourth year with the mini-rugby and it’s great to see the young-sters growing, getting stronger and to see their rugby skills improve.”

The kids involved were as keen to talk about Ire-

land’s chances in New Zealand as they were to tell us how they were enjoying the day.

Tom Martin from Cill Dara said: “We are hav-ing great fun, I’ve scored a few tries. I’ve been watching the World Cup, and I think we’re going to make it to the final.”

Joey Keane from Ennis was enjoying the day despite the weather: “We are wet but having great fun,” he said.

Donal Roche, minis coach at host club, Ash-bourne RFC, was delight-ed with the day: “I’ve been involved for about four years — even with the weather today, every-one has a smile on their face, we’re just delighted to be here — we just wish it could last longer!”

Speaking about the day, IRFU National Age Grade manager, Hen-

drik Kruger, said: “The Aviva Rugby Festival is a wonderful day for rugby and for the teams who have taken part. We are delighted with the number of teams who travelled, many of whom were up very early this morning.

“The clubs and schools are the bedrock of the game in Ireland and it is a tribute to the work of the teachers, coaches

and parents that so many children are here today.”

The Aviva Rugby Festi-val is all about the spirit of the game and the focus was on participation and skills development.”

The day is also very popular with coaches as they are given the opportunity to compare the development of their team and to foster ties with clubs from other parts of Ireland.

Willow minis on tour

RUGBY: SCHOOL SIDE TRAVEL TO ASHBOURNE FOR FESTIVAL

The Willow Park team who took part in the Aviva Mini-Rugby Festival in Ashbourne recently

FastSport

Local winners from the Great Ireland Run 2012DUBLIN Gazette Newspapers is once again delighted to announce the winners of this year’s local prizes for participants in the Great Ireland Run, which took place in the Phoenix Park on April 15.

Here is the list of the top local male and female finishers in the race, who win a special-ly designed plaque as well as prizes of sports gear - we will be in touch with you shortly.

Blanch Gazette Sean MacSeoin 34:39Dervila Holmes 39:04

Castleknock Gazette Kieran Gallagher 35:19Kate O’Neill 36:51

Clondalkin Gazette Mohammed Dahir 38:57Deirdre Daly 46:56

Dundrum Gazette Peter Toomey 36:41Aoife Clarke 44:57

Dun Laoghaire Gazette Flavio Rea 40:46Lindsay McMillan 47:42

Lucan Gazette Karl Fitzgerald 37:40Niamh Maher 41:43

Malahide Gazette Niall McArdle 35:55Michelle Tyrrell 45:24

Swords Gazette David Gargan 37:06Suzanne Sheehy 40:17 Action from the festival at Ashbourne RFC


�STARof theMONTHCAROLINE RYAN

GARDA’S cycling sensation

claimed Ireland’s first elite

world track medal since

Harry Reynolds back in 1897,

winning bronze in Melbourne,

as well as setting a personal

best and new Irish record for

the women’s individual pur-

suit on the final day of the

2012 world track champion-

ships in the Australian city.

SUMMERTIME, and the living is...soggy.

In spite of the rain, the sun came out and shone on some great per-formances by our sports stars last month, and it’s time to honour them with the Stars they deserve.

An incredible length of time had passed between successes on the track for Ireland’s cyclists, and Caroline Ryan was a deserv-ing candidate to revise that trend, which she did in style at the world

championships.Meanwhile, Malahide CS golfers

claimed the national title with a consummate performance at Naas that belied their young years, and pointed to a long and successful future in the game.

Let us know about your achieve-ments in sport, so that the Gazette can tell the rest of Dublin. Contact us on 01 601 0240 or [email protected] to tell us all about your successes.

MALAHIDE CS

AN all-ages golfing

machine, Malahide

calmly saw off the chal-

lenge of Kilkenny in the

Irish Schools’ National

Matchplay competition

to add to the schools’

impressive run of

sporting achievements

at Naas Golf Club in a

thrilling final set of

games.

�TEAMof theMONTH

2012 DUBLIN SPORTS AWARDS APRIL WINNERS

Batting for IrelandCRICKET: LADIES OPEN CAMPAIGN IN ECB DIVISION


IRELAND women’s cricket team will begin their competitive season with a double header in Division 3 of the ECB County Champion-ships this Bank Holiday weekend.

The side features an array of talent from Dublin, with represen-tives from Malahide, Pembroke, Merrion, and Rush, and they play their matches in the English county struc-ture, on the proviso that

they play all of their matches in England.

First up for Isobel Joyce’s side is a clash with Leicestershire on Sunday at Bardon Hill, which has a 12pm start, followed by Huntingdon and Cambridgeshire on Monday at Sawston at 11am.

ResultsFollowing their pro-

motion last year, the side have worked hard during the winter under the watchful eye of head coach Jeremy Bray, and

are hopeful of another successful season.

Bray said: “The squad has got a great blend of youth and experience, and I’m sure will be rewarded for all their efforts during the close season.

“It’s an exciting time for Irish cricket in gen-eral and you can feel there’s a real buzz about the game at the minute. I’m sure it won’t be too long before the women a re emula t ing the men’s team in terms of results.”

The squad in full is: Isobel Joyce (capt) , (Merrion); Clodagh Conway (Rush); Laura De lany (Le ins te r ) ; Emma Flanagan (Pem-broke); Cecelia Joyce (Merr ion) ; Shauna Kavanagh (Pembroke); Louise McCarthy (Pem-broke); Rebecca Rolfe (Leinster) ; Mel issa Scott Hayward (Mer-rion); Clare Shilling-ton (Malahide); Alison Smith (Pembroke) ; Elena Tice (Merrion); Mary Waldron (Mala-hide).

www.gazettegroup.comAll of your latest local news, sport, features and pictures are now just a click away

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Tag for greatness: Coolmine’s charity rugby eventCOOLMINE RFC in Dublin 15 recently hosted a charity tag rugby day for Mount Sackville secondary school to benefit Focus On Romania, a charitable organisation which aims to focus world attention to the inadequate care of children and young adults in state institutions in Romania. This year more than 370 boys and girls descended on the club for a day of tag rugby, and with so many teams to look after, the Irish Tag Rugby Association stepped in to help with the organisation of the day. This year’s Tag Day raised over €3,000.

Ireland’s ladies Elena Tice, Emma Flanagan and Isobel Joyce at the launch of the new national cricket kit


GazetteSportSport

FastSport

Crokes announce 7s sponsors for 2012KILMACUD Crokes have announced that the 40th anniversary of their iconic annual hurling tournament, the All-Ireland Sevens, will this year be sponsored by One Direct.

The announcement was made at the Punch-estown National Hunt Festival last week, where hurling chairman, Peter Walsh, along with club chairman Tom Murphy, Kilmacud Crokes stalwart, Tom Rock, and David Egan and Rose McManus from One Direct (pictured), expressed their delight at the link-up.

“We are truly delighted that our event has attracted the sponsorship of One Direct, such a big brand name in the financial services indus-try. We look forward to a great year working with them and the funds raised from this spon-sorship will be marshalled carefully to provide much needed resources to promote hurling in the locality,” said Walsh.

2012 marks the 40th annual Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Hurling Sevens competition, held on the Saturday of the All-Ireland Hurling Championship final weekend.

The very first Kilmacud All-Ireland Sevens was in 1973, that saw a total of 28 teams enter the inaugural tournament and the last two standing were Buffers Alley of Wexford, back-boned by the legendary Tony Doran, and St Finbarr’s of Cork, themselves stocked with All-Ireland medal holders. The Wexford men were victorious by a point and this was the first of three Wexford wins on the trot.

In 2011, 40 senior clubs from ten counties competed for the much coveted Cup in the Senior competition and 16 teams battled for the Shield. The winners of the senior competition were Kildangan of Tipperary who needed extra-time to beat the hosts Kilmacud Crokes 5-14 to 3-16 in a thrilling final.

“With over 600 players, this year’s event guar-antees thrilling action and entertainment for players and supporters alike on the eve of the All-Ireland Hurling Final. There will be over 100 games, a true feast of hurling, with group games beginning at 10.30am at our home grounds at Glenalbyn in Stillorgan village,” said Walsh.

Clubs wishing to participate in the 2012 competition are advised to approach Kilmacud Crokes as early as possible for information on how to register.

FAI YOUTH INTERLEAGUEDDSL 1

Cork Youths’ League 3


BALLYBRACK Boys’ Conor Watts was part of the DDSL’s representative side that just missed out in an absorbing UMBRO FAI Youths interleague final last Sunday at Tolka Park.

Cork Youths’ League came from a goal down to win the tie in extra-time, denying the Dublin schoolboys the title after an impressive campaign.

Both s ides came through tough semi -finals, with both teams winning by a single goal

as the DDSL overcame the Galway and District League, and Cork were pushed all the way by the Waterford and District League, winning 1-0.

The two sides have enjoyed a healthy rivalry in recent years, with Cork knocking the DDSL out of the competition at the quarter-final stage in 2010, and again at the semi final stage in 2011.

And this final was no exception, with normal time ending deadlocked at 1-1. Extra-time was required, and the Rebels struck twice in the space of three minutes during the first period to seal the deal.

DDSL winger Peter Hopkins was first to threaten on 19 minutes when he cut in from the right and drove his low effort a yard the wrong side of the post.

Alan Browne, impres-sive in the Cork midfield, was responsible for his side’s first real oppor-tunity on the half hour, when his curled free-kick required Nathan Murphy in the DDSL goal to dive full-stretch and bat away.

Sean O’Callaghan had the Dubs’ defence in a spin five minutes before the break when he broke clear to draw a save from Murphy, and defender Eoin Kinsella got back to

clear the loose ball off the goal-line.

It was Dublin who began the second half the brisker, and they edged into the lead on 52 min-utes when a flowing move finished with man-of-the-match Hopkins crossing from the right for Alan O’Sullivan to power a downward header into the net.

The skills of Anthony McAlavery on the wing proved to be Cork’s main attacking outlet and, when Adam Zayed tripped the flanker inside the area on 65 minutes, O’Callaghan stepped up to drill the penalty low into the bot-tom-left corner.

Ringmahon Rangers goalkeeper David Min-hane then kept Cork on terms by saving a Jake Donnelly shot from point-blank range, and extra-time was required.

Six minutes in, Cork’s central defensive duo combined to put them 2-1 ahead. Captain Dar-ragh Lucey floated a free-kick from the right which hung in the air for the unmarked Corey Long to get his header in past Murphy.

The tie was put beyond Dublin two minutes later after Conor O’Driscoll fol-lowed up Murphy’s save from substitute Stephen Mulryan.

Watts lights up DDSL defeat

SOCCER: REPRESENTATIVE SIDE JUST MISS OUT ON TITLE

The DDSL representative side played to their strengths but were unable to match Cork Youths in extra-time


DESPITE letting a 2-0 lead slip against Portmarnock at Pad-dy’s Hill last Saturday, it was advantage to St Joseph’s Boys in the LSL Saturday Major 1B title race. However, both clubs will be celebrating promotion come the season’s end follow-ing recent results.

Goals from Ger Cashin and Paul O’Meara cancelled out efforts by Kevin Thurwachter and Oisin Kinsella to leave the final result as a 2-2 draw.

The upshot is that Joey’s go

into the final round of the sea-son with a three-point advan-tage, needing just a draw against Glenmore Dundrum.

Portmarnock’s final game is also against Glenmore, but they will need a favour from the southside club, as well as mak-ing up a four-goal deficit in the goal difference standings.

It means Joey’s have the box seat, reversing the standings of a year ago, which saw the same clubs occupy the top two positions in Major 1C, with the Ports taking the league silver-ware that time around.

With both sides pushing for the win from Saturday’s tie, it was the visitors who tore into the tie with German import Thurwachter grabbing the lead when he got on the end of Ian Jordan’s neat one-two just before the half-hour.

And more neat interplay created the second as Jordan, Kevin Ivey and Kinsella earned a free-kick on the edge of the box when the last of that trio was taken down.

But Por tmarnock go t back into the tie when Alan O’Shaughnessy started a move

which was finished off by Cashin.

And O’Meara’s excellent equaliser, intercepting a Stephen Kelleher kick-out before break-ing forward and finished spec-tacularly to earn a share of the spoils.

Jordan went close to a winner which would have confirmed the title for Joeys in the closing phases but Colm Bell denied him.

It meant his side will have to wait for the title but they cer-tainly have all the aces in their deck.

Joey’s close in on LSL Saturday title


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a CLUB NOTICEBOARDCUALAALL eyes next weekend are on the

Dublin Feile. Cuala will host one

group in Division Two, welcoming

Raheny, Crokes and Catleknock to

Thomastown.

Our two other teams are on the

road, to Swords and Kilmacud. We

would ask that the club members

support the lads as much as they

can at whichever of the three ven-

ues is easiest for them. The group

matches take place at 10.30, 11.30

and 12.30.

Well done to the senior hurlers who

scored a good nine-point victory

over Lucan Sarsfields in the cham-

pionship on Saturday.

The junior A hurlers led for most

of the game against Castleknock on

Saturday evening, but just fell short

at the end.

Our minor A footballers played out

a hard-fought draw with Na Fianna.

The junior footballers are in action

on Thursday night at Hyde Road,

while the minor hurlers are back in

action next weekend.

Well done to the ladies’ minor team

who had a great win over Foxrock

Cabinteely at Kilbogget Park on Fri-

day evening.

Good wins over the weekend for

the Under-16 footballers who beat

St Sylvester’s in their A champion-

ship quarter-final; for the Under-

15 A footballers; all three Under-14

football teams as they prepared for

next week’s Feile, as well as for the

Under-13 and Under-12 footballers.

The Under-14 and Under-13 camogie

teams recorded good wins over

Castleknock and Crokes.

Our thoughts are with the family

of Matthew Hayes, a great and long-

standing member of the club who

passed away last week.

We take comfort that so many of

his children and grandchildren are

still very involved throughout the

club. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.

DUBLIN SHC GROUP CCuala 1-18

Lucan Sarsfields 1-9


IN A group featuring six-in-a-row-chasing Bal-lyboden St Enda’s, and an ever-improving St Vincent’s, the Group of Death tag that hangs over Group C in this year’s sen-ior hurling championship is well-warranted, with perennial semi-finalists Lucan Sarsfields and an emerging Cuala vying for a quarter-final berth.

The pre-game odds favoured a Lucan win but, in the end, the Dalkey side, powered by David Treacy, showed a raven-ous appetite for the bat-tle against a rebuilding opponent who struggled with a cross-field breeze at Parnell Park.

Cuala started brightly, with four of their forward lines — Cian Waldron, Dan Keating, Davy Cun-ningham and Treacy — hitting first-half points

en route to a 0-10 to 0-4 half-time lead.

In response, Aidan Roche hit a superb, off-balance point off his left side to briefly level at two points each, but the frustration was building, typified by Peter Kelly’s needless yellow card.

Fintan O’Brien’s mon-ster puck-outs were a good source of field posi-tion, while Adam Hudson and Bobby Browne were winning significant ball around the middle of the park.

Lucan’s radar, mean-while, was off-course, let-ting seven first-half shots slip wide, and Kevin O’Reilly could not get the frees in range to impact the scoreboard.

Around the square, Oisin Gough and Rob Reid cleaned up nicely on a couple of occasions for an imposing lead.

And that author-ity continued into the second period, despite Tommy Somers’ monster

free to start the second half. Cunningham roared through for an immedi-ate response when a long free caused hesitance in the Lucan backs, and the full-forward batted it out left and then swiped home, leaving the score at 1-10 to 0-5 with 27 min-utes to go.

Keating’s follow-up point took more of the sting out of the occa-sion, with a couple of points exchanged before sub Alan Whyte cracked home a 20-metre free at the second attempt.

It gave a little bit of late

life to the game with seven minutes to go, bringing the gap back to seven, but sparkling points from Sean Moran and Treacy meant there was little late drama.

With Cuala replacing Lucan in AHL1, the result matched their league for-tunes, and gives them an impetus going into next week’s date with St Vin-cent’s, with victory offer-ing a strong step toward progression.

Lucan, though, have it all to do, starting with a date with Boden, with a loss spelling elimination.

HURLING: VICTORY SEES SIDE IN SECOND PLACE

Cuala’s senior hurlers were on form against Lucan Sarsfields at Parnell Park last week

Cuala keep up the chase with win

NAOMH OLAF

CONGRATULATIONS to our minor

footballers who picked up two very

important points against Foxrock

Geraldine’s on Sunday morning last

in Cabinteely. They were very con-

vincing winners on a score-line of

6-12 to 0-6. Cormack Bracken

scored a hat-trick of goals in a

great all round performance by

Naomh Olaf.

Our junior hurlers had a very

impressive home win on Sun-

day against Clanna Gael with an

impressive final score of 4-7 to 0-12.

Conditions were very difficult, but

Olaf’s put in a remarkable second-

half performance to secure the

win. Highlight of the game was a

magnificent score of 3-1 by Chrissy

Fennel.

Our senior hurlers went down to

Ballyboden St Enda’s in atrocious

wet and windy conditions on Sun-

day evening with a scoreline of 2-8

to 0-4.

Congratulations to our senior

hurling manager, Enda Kinsella, and

his bride, Colette, who were mar-

ried in Knocklyon Church last week-

end. Enda still turned up to manage

Naomh Olaf in their SHCB match on

Sunday. Congratulations to Keith

and Sylvia Hannon, Greystones, on

the birth of their second child.

STARS OF ERINTHE nursery continues every Satur-

day morning in St Patrick’s National

School in Glencullen from 10am.

The Under-8 footballers played out

a very competitive match in Glen-

cullen on Saturday morning, with

great football skills on display, and a

wonderful goalkeeping performance

from Daniel Maguire.

The Under-10 footballers put in

a super performance against St

Jude’s: A great team performance

with all playing extremely well. Spe-

cial mention for Peter Keane who’s

point scoring was top-class.

The Under-12 footballers put in a

good shift against Thomas Davis,

but fell short in the final few minutes.

Keep up the good work.

The adult men’s footballers played

a challenge game in Glencullen last

Sunday morning.

The strong wind made playing con-

ditions difficult for both teams, Ball-

inteers St John’s won out winners in

the end.

ALL OF YOUR DUN LAOGHAIRE SPORTS COVERAGE FROM PAGE 28-31 MAY 3, 2012

CUALA RUNNINGS: Dalkey men start

hurling championship with big Lucan win P31 GazetteSPORTGazetteSPORT


CONTRASTING weeks for the Schutte family as younger brother Mark is looking forward to potentially claiming All-Ireland glory, while Paul’s progression took an injury blow.

Mark has p layed in each round of the U-21 footballers’ epic run to the All-Ireland final which comes to its denouement against Roscommon next Sun-day in O’Connor Park, Tullamore at 2pm.

He will hope to help the Dubs to a third All-Ireland win at this level, following success in 2003 and 2010.

The Rossies have won the title the same amount of times but their most recent success

was in 1978 and came out on the wrong side of the result when the sides last collided in the com-petition a year ago.

Gary Sweeney started centre-forward for Dub-lin that day and Ciarán Reddin, both part of the current team, came on as a second half sub.

Cuala man Schutte looks likely to be among the starters in the final after an impressive run in the competition to date, primarily in the half-forward line, net-ting one of the four goals in the Leinster final.

For his elder brother Paul, 23, knee damage sustained in a challenge match against Limerick last Sunday is causing a major worry for Dublin hurling manager Antho-ny Daly

One of the Dubs’ brightest young stars, Schutte will have an MRI scan during the week, which will con-firm the full extent of the damage.

The news was com-pounded by the news that rising star Danny Sutcliffe sustained a sus-pected broken bone in his hand playing with St Judes in the SHC.

Dublin boss Daly will be anxiously awaiting news of Schutte’s injury, but the initial reports are not favourable and it is feared that the talented defender could face a season on the sidelines.

The potential loss of Schutte, though, is par-ticularly tough to take given Dublin lost key defenders Tomás Brady and Stephen Hiney for

most of the 2011 season to cruciate knee injuries. Both returned to club action in recent weeks.

The knock-on effect, meanwhile of Dublin’s U-21 side to the All-Ire-land final has caused a second postponement to the first round of the county senior football championship with the first round now pushed back to dates between May 16 and 20.

The intention was to get a couple of rounds played before Dublin enter the Leinster cham-pionship but it now looks as if the county board will schedule club games during the cam-paign to alleviate the back-log which occurred last year, especially for county champions St Brigid’s.

Paul Schutte has picked up a serious knee injury but

younger brother Mark will play in an All-Ireland final

Big week for Schutte brothers

APRIL ACCOLADES:Winners of Dublin Sports Awards announced P29

Dun Laoghaire

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