News
Galway teenager on target for international success
An Oughterard teenager is rapidly making a name for himself in the world of clay pigeon shooting – leading his country into European and World competition.
Shane D’Arcy has just turned sixteen but he has already established his reputation in what is a growing sport – and he recently crowned that by winning the Munster clay pigeon championship.
BY PATRICK D’ARCY
That led to his selection as captain of the Irish Under-21 Junior Down The Line International Team in Northern Ireland for this month’s Home Championships in Northern Ireland.
He was also selected as Irish Team Captain for the European DTL Championship and the World Championships, which took place at Esker Shooting Grounds recently on the East Galway side of Banagher.
The Irish team of Shane, Brian Shanahan and Daniel O’Hara came third in the European Junior Competition at Esker – an area very familiar to Shane since he first took up the sport.
“I used to go shooting with my dad Mike when I was younger and watch him and that kind of got me into clay pigeon shooting,” he says.
“Then we then went to Esker, to Pat Donaghy who has been a great coach to me since; he runs it and gives coaching lessons to people if they want to try it out.
“He brought me into the more kind of competitive side of Trap Shooting and it pretty much just followed on from there,” he continues.
Clay pigeon has many different types of shooting but the main one Trap Shooting consists of firing a clay, four and a half inches in diameter at speeds of up to 48 mph.
This is fired at a distance of 52 yards from the Traphouse in a variety directions, and at different angles and elevations unbeknownst to the shooter with special guns made specifically for this type of shooting.
The shooter who is 16 yards away from the Traphouse moves from five different positions along a line so as not to be in the same position when the clays are shot from the Trap house.
In a relatively short time in the sport, Shane has already accumulated an impressive list of achievements.
These include the Oughterard Trap Cup, the Esker S.G. Midwest Classic and his Green Jacket for making the Irish Junior team after finishing second in the Home International Tournament hitting 97 out of 100 clays and British Open Championship hitting 98 out of 100.
Recently he has been promoted from a grade C shooter to a grade A, this is due to over his 92% hit accuracy that he has achieved at a consistent level – and yet he is among the youngest participants at this international level.
“I tend not to think about that because you have to compete against them in the first place; if you think about it, you’re only bringing yourself down and you’re not concentrating on what you supposed to be doing and you will lose focus.
“I’ve never been intimidated by them I try to get into a mind set to just beat them,” he says.
Key to success is getting into the right mind-set for competitions.
“It’s hard to explain on how I do it because you have to nearly think of nothing, if you think of something before you call the clay you your mind you’re not going to shoot it because your mind is not on the clay.
“Your full concentration has to be on the clay, that is the only way I can explain it but someone else may be different everyone has their own way on how they handle it,” says Shane.
It may not have the high profile of football or rugby – but there’s a growing interest in clay pigeon shooting. And Shane is quick to suggest that it’s always worth giving a try.
“I would say try it out first; it’s a great sport to get into, but maybe if you were looking to get competitive, it can get a bit expensive with the gun and price of clays.
“But it a great sport at the end of the day. Some people may think it may be unsafe but we all have gone through safety and handling course’s when you become a member of a shooting ground so it is quite safe also,” he concludes.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
