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Crokes advance but East Kerry and Rathmore crash out

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DR CROKES booked their place in the last four of this year’s County Championship with a fairly comfortable 0-17 to 0-12 win over Kenmare Shamrocks in the Fitzgerald Stadium on Sunday.

Kenmare managed to force extra time when the sides met in the Club Championship final a few weeks back but Crokes were more dominant this time out, youngster Micheál Burns leading the way with four well-taken points from play.

The victory has set up a semi-final date with West Kerry who defeated Austin Stacks on Saturday with six points to spare. With a team made up predominantly of players from An Ghaeltacht (12 of the starting 15 last weekend), West Kerry have recovered well from their opening round defeat to Feale Rangers by beating St Kieran’s, Legion and now Stacks to reach the last four.

Five points (two frees) from Seán Micheál Ó Conchúir and 1-1 from Éanna ó Conchúir helped them to a 1-17 to 0-14 victory over the Stacks who have certainly had a year to forget.

Crokes and West Kerry last met in the first round of the 2016 Championship when 2-7 from Tony Brosnan helped the Killarney side to a 22-point win.

Elsewhere, South Kerry secured their passage to the semis with a 0-15 to 0-12 win over Rathmore. Rathmore started the brighter but were dealt a significant blow when corner forward John Moynihan was forced off through injury early on.

The teams were level at the break but South Kerry really pushed on in the second half, Robert Wharton, Brendan O’Sullivan and Daniel Daly in particular impressing.

Their opponents in the last four will be Kerins O’Rahilly’s who hammered East Kerry on Saturday in a surprisingly one-sided affair. It was expected to be the Battle of the Forwards in Austin Stack Park but, in truth, East Kerry never really got going. They only managed 1-3 from play in the first half (1-4 total) and fared even worse in the second, two David Clifford frees their only scores of the period.

Clifford showed well but struggled to make a real impact in his first senior County Championship start, although it’s difficult to judge his performance when East Kerry as a team were so poor. The minor star cut a frustrated figure towards the end of the game and he was booked for retaliating following a cynical foul by Danny O’Sullivan.

Rahilly’s, meanwhile, amassed 3-12 - an impressive enough tally considering the conditions - and could have scored a lot more. Barry John Keane got 0-6 (four frees) while Tommy Walsh, David Moran and Gavin O’Brien kicked 1-1 apiece.

It’s still difficult to look beyond the Crokes for this year’s Championship although West Kerry are a good, young team and should provide Pat O’Shea’s men with a stern test in the semi-final.

In the other side of the draw, South Kerry will be hoping to avenge their opening round defeat to Kerins O’Rahilly’s but they’ll have to be at their best defensively to deal with the likes of Jack Savage, Tommy Walsh and Barry John Keane.

Both semis will take place on Saturday, October 7, in the Fitzgerald Stadium.

 


 
Above: Micheal Burns, Dr Crokes. Pic: Eamonn Keogh

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Fossa School says ‘bonjour’ to French classes

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Fossa National School is giving its pupils a headstart in learning a new language.

The school signed up to Language Sampler scheme as part of the ‘Say Yes to Languages’ initiative in primary schools organised by Post Primary languages Ireland in 2021. This is the school’s third year running the module.

Hélène Olivier-Courtney, the school’s French teacher and director of French For All Killarney School of French, covers ten schools in Kerry over the three terms.

The success of the initiative relies on an all-school approach and the active involvement of class teachers and management.

“The whole staff in Fossa certainly helped make this new journey a special and enjoyable experience for the children as we learnt French through art, songs, games and food tasting! This year, we also organised a catwalk on our last day. Our sixth-class students will have such a head start before secondary school and most importantly will have develop curiosity interest and love for the language,” said Hélène.

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Opinion: Silent majority needs to stand up and call out far-right hate

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By Chris Davies

Last Friday’s Dublin Riots should not have come as a surprise to anyone. It has been bubbling under the surface of Irish society for a good number of years now. The actions of a small minority last week was a culmination of years of racism, hatred and misinformation shared online by far-right groups.

Late on Friday night a disturbing WhatsApp voice note was doing the rounds on social media where a far-right actor could clearly be heard encouraging violence on the streets of Dublin. 

“’Seven o’clock, be in town. Everyone bally up, tool up…Any foreigner, just kill them”

Watching the Riots unfold on social media brought me back to when I was working in Dublin a number of years back. My morning commute from Skerries to the city centre involved a dart to Connolly Station followed by a short trip on the Luas to the Jervis. Every week, without fail, I would witness at least one racial slur or attack on someone who didn’t fit the narrow minded view of what an Irish person should look, dress or talk like. I don’t know if it is the eerie silence of public transport that seems to amplify the situation, but that’s where I found it to be most common. The abuse was usually perpetrated by a group of youths or someone who was clearly under the influence of drink or drugs. The victims were always of colour, often dressed smartly enough to presume they were on their way, or coming from work. A far cry from the perpetrators who you could tell were roaming aimlessly around the city looking for trouble.

While shameful to admit, I would often look on and watch the abuse unfold, only to spend the rest of my work day thinking about the poor person who was told to “F*&K off back to your own country”. I would sit at my desk questioning why I didn’t step in and say something. There were one or two occasions where I did step in and call it out, but not nearly often enough.  

This disgusting behaviour is much more visible in our cities. Since moving back to Killarney I wouldn’t witness as much direct abuse on the streets but working with the Killarney Advertiser I would be tuned in to local news and some of the comments I read on our social platforms are far worse than anything I witnessed during my time in Dublin.  

There is a significant group of people in Ireland that I would call the ‘silent majority’. We are not as outspoken on issues we care about. We tend to observe and consume the news quietly, and only speak of our support or disgust on certain issues in close circles, too afraid we might offend someone. The problem with this is that we are leaving these far-right groups unchallenged, to become louder, more aggressive and more hostile as seen last week. 

The past week Sinn Fein and the Social Democrats have been busy in the media expressing no confidence in Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris but I would suggest that there is a large percentage of the Irish population that bears some of the responsibility. We witness racism in our communities and online every day and we need to start speaking up and calling it out. 

On the issue of immigration in Killarney, there is no doubt resources are being stretched and our tourism industry is suffering as a result of an influx of immigration. Locals have also raised concerns in relation to the placement of so many male international protection applicants in one setting and we only have to look back on the incident in Hotel Killarney last year where a number of men were involved in a harrowing stabbing incident to see how that played out.  

However, being concerned around immigration is not the same as anti-immigration. It is important to raise these issues with local representatives and Kerry TD’s but also to separate ourselves from far-right groups who are only interested in encouraging violence.  

The anarchy we witnessed last week should never be the answer and research shows it is completely unnecessary. Harvard University have looked at hundreds of protests over the last century, and found that non-violent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns and that it only takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.

Let’s continue to protest peacefully for issues we believe in, but stand up and speak out against people and movements in our community that incite hate and violence. 

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