Month: November 2007

A MAN who kicked another man while he was on the ground has been jailed for four months, despite a plea from the victim’s father not to send him to jail.

Trevor McMahon (36) of Sandfield Centre, Ennis, pleaded guilty to as- saulting Owen Walsh, causing him harm, at Sheil’s garage, Gort Road, Ennis, in the early hours of on Au- gust 25 last year.

Inspector Michael Gallagher told Ennis District Court that following a complaint, gardai viewed CCTV footage at the garage.

He said the footage showed that there was a scuffle in the forecourt and McMahon was “the major cul- ele

The injured party bled from the teeth, he said. Inspector Gallagher pointed out that the incident arose in the queue. Mr Walsh was knocked to

the ground and kicked.

Solicitor for the injured party, Stephen Nicholas told the court that his client suffered bad damage to two front teeth in the incident. “One is dead and has to be replaced,’ he said.

He said the cost of replacing the tooth will be between €3,000 and ono 0107

Solicitor for McMahon, Tara God- frey said her client is a voluntary worker and is currently in education.

‘There is an alternative for the in- jured party, the Criminal Injuries Tribunal can provide money. Mr Walsh might be able to find in that the means to have the tooth repaired,’ said Ms Godfrey. She said her client turned around and two men behind him seemed to be challenging him.

“In his mind, he was intimidated and he swung for Mr Walsh. Mr Walsh felt intimidated and pushed Mr McMahon,” she said.

“Mr McMahon stupidly lost the plot for the first time in 36 years,” SNToMCT BLO

Inspector Gallagher pointed out however that video evidence showed McMahon kicking Mr Walsh to the head while he was on the ground.

Judge Joseph Mangan imposed a four month jail term on McMahon and fixed a bond in the event of an appeal. Mr Walsh’s father then stood up and said he wanted to speak on behalf of his family.

“The family don’t want him to go to jail,” he said.

However Judge Mangan replied, “It’s not a case between you and the defendant. It’s a case between the State and the defendant. The courts must consider the community.”

A WOMAN was heard telling her friends that she told “the f***ing judge her mother was dead” just min- utes after she left a courtroom, when, in fact her mother was still alive. The bizarre allegations were made in the case of a woman accused of stealing €99.84 worth of groceries from Dunnes Stores in Ennis in Oc-

tober.

Margaret McCarthy, of O’Halloran’s Lane, Ennis, appeared at Ennis Dis- trict Court on the shoplifting charge on November 9.

On that date she told the court that her mother had died. The case was then struck out by the prosecution, who took pity on her.

However, Inspector Michael Gal- lagher told the court last Friday that

the State has since established that her mother had not died and the case was re-entered.

In evidence to the court on Friday, Ms McCarthy said she had got a call from her sister in the UK before she went into the courtroom on the previ- ous date, telling her the bad news.

Inspector Gallagher said, “It’s one thing to lie but the lie 1s being com- pounded further today. You went out

the door skitting, laughing.”

Garda Doody then told the court that he had met Ms McCarthy three times before the court case and she had not mentioned anything about her mother passing away.

He said shortly after the case was struck out, he heard her saying, “I told the f***ing judge my mother is dead,” and she started laughing.

Gda Doody said her friends told

her to stop laughing as they saw him observing, but Ms McCarthy simply replied, “Let it be.”

Judge Joseph Mangan commended Garda Doody on his vigilance. He jailed Ms McCarthy for a month and fixed a bond in the event of an ap- peal.

He refused to substitute the one month jail sentence with a commu- nity service order.

THREE young men who went in search of alcohol in the early hours of the morning went into a home and took property, a court has heard. Darrell Corbett (23), Mark Hayes (21) and Stephen O’Donoghue (21), with an address in Corrovorrin, En- nis, all pleaded guilty to entering a

building at Abbey Street, Ennis, as trespassers with intent to commit AMERY ENA

Detective Garda Kieran Kelle- her told Ennis District Court that the three entered a home on Abbey Street and removed a personal organ- iser, camera and suitcase. He said all of the property was later recovered.

Defending solicitor William Cahir

said Mr O’Donoghue had celebrated his 21st birthday that night.

“All three had been out and re- turned to their apartment in Cor- rovorrin. They ran out of drink. They were aware there had been a party at a house on Abbey Street. By some mark of genius one of them thought of going in to try to get more drink. Unfortunately they took other

things,” said Mr Cahir.

He said Hayes is currently out of work and hopes to pursue an appren- ticeship. O’Donoghue is in full-time employment, while Corbett has one previous conviction – also for a drink- related incident. “This was a matter that got out of control,” he said.

He said the accused men were “‘be- fuddled by the influence of alcohol.

They took one stupid decision after another which landed them in court here today.”

Judge Joseph Mangan imposed a three-month jail term in each case. He substituted Hayes’ and O’Donoghue’s sentence with com- munity service.

He fixed a bond in the event of an appeal by Corbett.

A CHARGE against a Lahinch nightclub, accused of allowing an underage girl on the premises, has been dismissed. However, the judge who heard the case commended the gardai and said the State was ‘per- fectly justified’ in bringing the pros- ecution.

Before the court was Sunny Bay Limited, trading as the Claremont Hotel, accused of allowing a person under the age of 18 on the premises while an exemption was in force.

A 17-year-old girl told Ennis Dis- trict Court that she went to the Clare- mont nightclub in Lahinch at around

12 midnight on March 24 last. She was 16 at the time.

She said she was not asked for iden- tification, paid her money and “just eNO .< ore mn 0 Asked by defending solicitor Stephen Nicholas was she “absolute- ly certain” she wasn’t asked for ID, she said she was “positive.” She said on another night previous- ly she had been asked for ID and was not allowed in, as she didn’t have it. Mr Nicholas said that still photo- graphs taken from CCTV footage showed the bouncer looking down at something, as the young girl entered the premises. “We say it’s your ID,” he said. Mr Nicholas said ID was sought that night and no-one is let into the premises without showing it. Sergeant John Ryan told the court he came across a young man in the promenade carpark, shortly after | am. The young man told him he was in Lahinch to collect his 16-year- old sister who was in the Claremont nightclub. He accompanied gardai to the nightclub and located his sister. Shortly after 1.30am, Sgt Ryan spoke to the young girl in the com- pany of the manager of the nightclub, Eamon Fitzgerald. ‘She said she had no ID and wasn’t asked for it. I put that to Eamon Fit- zgerald and he said ‘All I can do 1s put my hands up,” said Sgt Ryan. However Mr Nicholas said Mr Fit- zgerald “didn’t quite say that” but the garda repeated that he did. Sergeant Michael Gallery told the court that he took a statement from Mr Fitzgerald, some time after the incident. “The way I operate the nightclub is I have two staff at the door, to check for underage, drunkenness and trou- blemakers. I operate strict rules in relation to same,’ said Mr Fitzgerald, in the statement. Mr Fitzgerald told the court that if anyone looks “any way borderline” age-wise, his staff ask for ID. Martin Mullins, who worked as a bouncer that night, told the court that “no-one gets in without ID.” He said he did not physically recall the girl showing ID on the night in question, but he had taken ID from her in the past. “Most Saturday nights we would refuse 30 girls and 20 fellas for ID,” he said. Judge Joseph Mangan said, “The State was perfectly justified in bring- ing this prosecution and the diligence of the members of the gardai is to be commended. Their diligence is noth- ing new to the court, where Lahinch is concerned. However, I am left with a doubt in the matter. I’m dismiss- yi iarea

CLARE Council was yesterday ac- cused of turning its back on the lo- cal population in favour of providing mains water for new housing devel- opments.

A motion put forward by Cllr Joe Arkins (right) to attach 15 previously built houses at Nooan, Ruan onto the town’s mains system was rejected because of insufficient water being generated by the council’s treatment plant at Inchiquin.

“There is a good bit of land zoned for developments around Corofin and if a contractor wanted to tap into that tomorrow with 30 for 40 houses they could. But these local people who

have been living there for the last 20 years cannot get it. It is the most doable water scheme that I have ever seen and this is an opportunity that we should not miss.”

Cllr Arkins claimed that the house- holders were originally told that there was not enough capacity for their collection, but a large number of houses have been connected since they were refused.

“After saying that there was not enough water capacity, Clare County Council went ahead themselves and build 15 houses. Nooan, Ruan is the very heart of the old village, most of it is in the 30 mph speed limit. We can supply Tom, Dick and Harry and we can’t supply our own houses.”

Senior Executive Engineer, Hubert Newell, said that there was problem with the Corofin water system and that they had made applications for funding to carry out upgrades.

Meanwhile, Cllr Richard Nagle (FF), called for an area around Lis- cannor Pier, recently purchased by the council, to be cleaned up as a matter of urgency.

“It has been an eye sore in the area for years and we need to get the basic facilities in place as quickly as pos- sibly. The rest of the project might take years but we need to get rid of the eyesore as soon as possible. A million people travel that road every year on their way to the cliffs,” he SrAKOe

EAST Clare politicians have called for a special meeting of their area council and want representatives from the National Parks And Wild- life service to attend.

Elected representatives say they are not comforted by the information provided at a meeting in Tulla on the proposal to include large tracts of land in the Slieve Aughty range in the Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for the endangered Hen Harrier.

The wildlife service held an infor- mation session in TJulla on Friday for people who are likely to be af- fected by the decision to make Slieve Aughty an SPA.

But local councillor, Pat Hayes(FF) who is himself a landowner in the area, said that the meeting raised as many concerns as it answered.

“It appears now that landowners will not be paid for all their land be- ing made a protection area, only for those bits of it that are mountainey and scrub. The Hen Harrier doesn’t distinguish between grassland and oul one

Cllr Hayes said he is concerned about the effect which the SPA’s may have on planning and selling sites in the future.

He is also concerned that it may af-

fect applications currently before the local authority for windfarms in the en aXes

“We’re told that it won’t affect planning yet every application which is made on the land covered by the SPA will have to be referred to the national wildlife service’, said Cllr SEM exy

“It seems that all of the national stakeholders have signed up to this, farming organisations, Coillte, for- estry Services.

‘“They’ve all singed up to it except the real stakeholders – the landown- ers”, Cllr Hayes said.

He added that he wants to see pay- ments made on all lands covered the protection order and not just tracts of those lands.

Earlier in the week, councillors at- tending a meeting of the Scariff area committee of Clare County Council asked their offices to find a date for a special meeting to discuss the is- sue and for representatives of the wildlife service to be invited to that meeting.

In information supplied to mem- bers of the Scariff area committee, the wildlife service said that ac- tivities such as turf cutting, existing farming or forestry activities, con- struction of private houses or farm infrastructure.

PRESSURE is mounting of the De- partment of Communications, En- ergy and Natural Resources to cough up some of the estimated €10 mil- lion in funding needed for the devel- opment of Doolin Pier.

At yesterday’s meeting of the North Clare Area of Clare County Council, Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind) tabled a motion demanding that the Govern- ment department not be “let off the hook” in relation to Doolin Pier.

Cllr Lafferty also accused former junior marine minister John Browne of misleading locals when, on vis- iting Doolin last year, he placed the blame for the delays with Clare County Council.

“The people of Doolin were an- noyed with Clare County Council for not putting in an application to the Department of the Marine for funding. Clare County Council put in loads of applications but they kept saying that the money wasn’t to come from the Department of the

Marine,” he said.

‘Then last year, just before the elec- tion, junior minister Browne came down and upset a lot of local people by saying that there was no proposal before his department on the pier and putting all the blame back on Clare County Council.

“I don’t think that the Department of the Marine should be left off the hook on this. They should give a cer- tain amount of funding towards this. Doolin is a commercial pier and is used by fishermen as well as by trav-

ellers to the Islands. If they don’t pay it then it will be the rate payers of Clare who will have to pay it.”

An agreement was reached last week to co-fund the development of Doolin Pier between Clare County Council and the Department of Com- munity, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs This arrangement would see Clare County Council pay some €2.5 mil- lion towards the development.

Cllr Martin Conway (FG) raised fears that parking charges could be used as a means of recouping the

€2.5 million.

“IT would hope that that €2.5 mil- lion is unconditional and that we won’t see car parking charges and the like put in as a means of recoup- ing that money,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cllr Richard Nagle (FF), welcomed the news that the new lifeguard facilities in Lahinch would be in place before the begin- ning of the 2008 Summer season but said that he was disappointed that the rest of the promenade masterplan had fallen behind schedule.

TWO elderly men living alone fell victim to a conman who called to their homes posing as a priest and demanded money in Bodyke and Broadford on Sunday afternoon.

The man, wearing a priest’s collar, called to the two homes, shortly after

2pm on Sunday, claiming he was the new priest in the area.

In the Bodyke home, he ordered his 73-year-old victim to change his trou- sers in order that he could take pos- session of his wallet, which were in the trousers he was wearing. He took the wallet which is believed to have contained at least €200 in cash.

An 85-year-old man was targeted in the Broadford area a short time later. The ‘priest’ told him he was “the last of the old priests” and also sought the man’s wallet. Gardai believe he didn’t succeed in taking hold of that man’s money.

Gardai believe the man is in his 40s and are appealing for anyone who

may have seen a blue Volvo car in the Bodyke or Broadford areas on Sun- day afternoon to come forward.

“This was a devious crime. These were two vulnerable people. We have received two reports from two men who live on their own. We are satis- fied the motive was monetary gain,” said a garda source.

THERE are now more Clare teenag- ers driving to school and college than those cycling.

According to the most recent report from the 2006 Census, 134 students aged between 13 and 18 drive to school and college each day, com- pared to the 126 who cycle.

The statistics show that only 15 teenage girls out of 4,047 female students cycle each day to school or college.

Yesterday, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said that many of the students may be breaking the law as they would be on provisional driving licenses and must be accompanied by a qualified motorist.

“This is an issue for the gardai to enforce, but I also believe that driv- ing should be taught in schools.”

Cllr Meaney added, “From an en- vironmental point of view, it 1s not a sustainable activity to have more students cycling to school than those OTe Ybatem detour

“Schools also need to look at their own models where students must bring one large school bag and may- be a gym bag to school and that mili- tates against students cycling.”

One of Clare County Council’s top officials and county engineer, Tom Carey, 1S one of the relatively small

number of people who cycles to work Oye: uss cAU er amok ice

The census found that out of 49,138 people at work and school, only 536, or just over one per cent, go to work by bicycle each day.

The census found that out of the 49,138, 34263 or 69 per cent of peo-

ple use a car to travel to work or school each day.

Nine per cent of people walked to work or school, while eight per cent drove a lorry to work.

The figures also showed that of chil- dren aged between five and 12, only 87 out of 12,601 kids cycle to school, with 2,429 walking to school.

Mr Carey said, “I would like to see more people cycling and I try to give a lead in that area.”

Ennis Town Council recently put the county’s first cycle lane in place on the Tulla Road in Ennis and Mr Carey said that it would be wrong to conclude there were more students driving to school than cycling due to the number of cycle lanes available.

Mr Carey said that a cycling strat- egy for Ennis had recently been put in place, while a road safety working eroup in co-operation with gardai was developing cycling courses in school.

Mr Carey said that the provision of cycling lanes was not as simple as painting a line on the road.

He said, ““Guidelines and standards have to be adhered to.”

He added that a cycle trail between Shannon and Ennis geared for tour- ists has been put 1n place.

MICHAEL Browne looked at the big picture minutes after Tulla’s latest chapter with a happy ending. Clare hurling. There hasn’t been much to cheer about in 2007, but maybe it’s about to change. Browne certainly We DA ecmcee

“It’s fantastic to have a Clare team back in a Munster final. It’s a while

since we’ve had it and now we have two teams in Munster finals, with Clonlara and Tulla looking forward to big days. It augurs well for Clare hurling to have teams in Munster fi- nals.”

Not that Browne was thinking of Munster finals before this day. You see, not thinking too far ahead has been a tenet of their hurling year so far.

“Everything we have done this year has been unchartered. We have tak- en it one game at a time. We never talked about the Munster final before this game. We never talk about the next match before any game.

“It was extremely worrying to only go in three points ahead. That was the big drive at half-time. We had dominated, we had totally outhurled them in the first half, yet we only had

a three-point cushion.

“The big danger was that we were going to end up getting caught at the post. It was very tight until the goal went in. There was an element of luck with the goal — we worked very hard for it, but it did come back off the post and then in off a defender. But you take those and it was crucial for us today.”

Factor in Tulla’s hunger, when most

within the county felt they would have nothing more to give after the county final. Wouldn’t really care about giv- ing it either, went another line after their 74-year famine ended.

Nothing could be further from the truth, all because Munster club hurl- ing has been an easy sell. “The easi- est job ever was to motivate them for Munster,” says Browne.

“Since this team has won the Clare final, they have been so focused and very determined that they’re going to represent Clare with pride at the highest level. They’ve shown it now — they’re prepared to do that, not alone are they prepared but they are able also.

“This game showed that we are extremely fit. We are an extremely strong and physical team, but the fit- ness is also there. We were able to battle it right out to the end. Having said that, this team showed character as well.

‘There was never a way we were going to overcome Waterford cham- pion easily. Ballyduff had pride and they came here with Waterford pride riding on their shoulders and they weren’t going to come and lie down and die under the Clare champions. They didn’t and we knew there was going to be a spell in the game when they were going to dominate.

“They dominated at the end of the first half and then again in the first half of the second half. We just had to keep working, keep fighting and keep at it in hope that our chance would come. It did with those two goals near the end.”

Only after victory would Browne looked ahead to the final. “We’ll sit down on Tuesday night and begin to think about it again, and plan and plot and see what we can do for that Oyen

They’ll come up with something — they have all year.