Month: November 2007

A JUDGE has warned that taxi driv- ers are entitled to protection, as he jailed a man who robbed a taxi driv- er at knifepoint, for two years. Frank Hassett (21), of Clancy Park, Ennis, pleaded guilty to the offence, at Ennis Circuit Court last week. The court was told that the taxi driver had a float of €405 with him

as he started work on May 26 last.

He received a call to go to an ad- dress on the Kilrush Road in Ennis. He went to that address and picked up a passenger. He asked to go to Kilrush and said his friend would pay when he got there.

The taxi driver didn’t agree to this. A number of locations were also mentioned and the taxi ended up in Drumbiggle. There, Hassett jumped

on top of the driver and held a knife to his throat and stole the €405.

The incident was not reported to gardai until five days later. When interviewed, Hassett told gardai he wanted to pay off drug dealers to whom he owed money. He was ad- dicted to cocaine at the time.

The taxi driver told the court he “tried to talk him down, that I was only after starting working, that I

hadn’t any money.” He said he didn’t go to work for a couple of days after the incident, but later returned. Defence barrister Lorcan Connolly said his client was “in a grave situa- tion” at the time and was fearful. Hassett has several previous con- victions but Mr Connolly said this was “the first time he has been in- volved in an incident where there was a threat of violence involved.”

Judge Carroll Moran said the of- fence was “a pretty nasty thing to do. Taxi men are entitled to protec- tion. They are exposed occasionally to danger and they must expect the courts to protect them.

“In these circumstances I can’t avoid my duty and impose a prison sentence,’ he said. He imposed a three-year jail term and suspended one year.

A 25-year-old man who served time in jail in connection with a fatal road crash which claimed the life of a Lis- doonvarna man over Six years ago has had his driver’s licence restored.

Barry Richards, of Garrybeg, Loughrask, Ballyvaughan, was con- victed of dangerous driving causing the death of John Donnellan (18), from Slieve Elva, Lisdoonvarna. Mr Donnellan lost his life in an accident on the Kilrush Road in Ennis, on May 18, 2001.

He was killed when the car in

Which he was travelling collided with a parked lorry.

In July 2002, Richards was jailed for two years and banned from driv- ing for 10 years.

Richards’ barrister Lorcan Connol- ly told Ennis Circuit Court last week that his client has served time in jail and on his release, spent some time in the UK. He has since returned to tga t-biree

He said his client is particularly tal- ented in the area of woodwork and depends on others to get “from A to B” and hopes to get a licence to drive Zio) UtSe

‘He lives in a rural area without transport. At the time of the accident he was just 19 and had a full licence,” said Mr Connolly.

“A considerable period of time has elapsed. The incident attracted some notoriety at the time. He hasn’t driv- en since,’ he said.

He said his client had been a “mod- el prisoner” and “utilised his time well” in jail.

Judge Carroll Moran said Richards “has served his penalty. He has been off the road for six-and-a-half years. The State does not object to this ap- plication. He has paid his debt”.

THE POPULATION of Ennis is ex- pected to shoot up to 35,000 by the year 2020, members of Clare County Council were told yesterday.

The members were being given a briefing on the progress of plans for Ennis as designated to be a hub town under the National Spatial Strategy.

Town Clerk, Eddie Power brought the members up to date with the is- sues involved at their adjourned monthly meeting yesterday, which was held in Scariff Community College to mark the opening of the nearby new Scariff Area Offices of the council.

Power told the elected members that it is “critical to ensure that En- nis benefits to the maximum extent” from the designation.

The purpose of hub towns, he told the meeting, is to have a supporting role for designated gateways — in this case, Limerick and Shannon.

Among the projects that have gone ahead and which are relevant to the town’s status as a hub are the im- minent start on the town’s new wa- ter treatment plant, the flood relief scheme, which is at tender stage, the

construction of the Ennis bypass and the planned new Northern Relief Road and the next section of the Inner Relief Road which will run from the Station Road to the Limerick Road.

Under the heading of hub towns of- fering a better lifestyle to residents, an extension to the Lees Road sports facility is planned in the form of a synthetic running track, while an extention to Glor is also in the off- ing and a new library is now at the design stage.

Park-and-ride facilities are also planned for Clarecastle and an ap-

plication for a bus service for Ennis has been lodged with Bus Eireann, Power said.

Cllr Michael Kelly said there had been a number of meetings concern- ing a commuter stop for Crusheen on the new Ennis to Athery road.

“This is a fast expanding town and it in extremely important we get this stop,’ he said.

Cllr Martin Lafferty described the designation of hubs as “the death- knell of development in rural areas. How is the population going to ex- pand? We are pushing people into built up areas.”

Cllr PJ Kelly said that he did not believe that a special advantage, such as hub status, can be given to one area “without leaving some other area at a disadvantage”. He referred to a book,

A TV ad that shows a road worker patting filling into a pothole with a shovel instead of re-surfacing a road has caused a major furrore in Clare County Council.

The ad is part of a series drawn up for the Irish Pride bread company un- der the slogan “Pride? You won’t find it in him, but you will in our bread”.

But the ad belittles local author- ity workers, members of the County Council claimed at the adjourned

session of their monthly meeting.

Cllr Joe Arkins called on the coun- ty manager to make a formal com- plaint about the ad to the Advertising Standards Authority.

“It’s derisory and stereotypical. We should be defending and protecting our workers at the lower end of the pay scale who do an excellent job,” he said.

Seconding Cllr Arkins’ call for a complaint to the authority, CUir Colm Curtin said the ad “is misrepresenta- tion which is totally out of date. If

anyone wants to see the quality of workmanship and dedication of our staff, they should come back to west Clare and see the job our own staff have done on the reconstruction of the bridge near Cree. It’s a testament to them.”

Cllr Michael Conway (FG) said that in addition to writing to the author- ity, the county manager should write to the Minister for the Environment, asking him to come up with funding for a counter-campaign that would show the work done by council road

staff in a positive light.

Cllr Sonny Scanlon said that it is “sad and very unfortunate for these workers, many of whom have fami- lies and already contending with the fact that they are let go before Christ- mas and for two and three months at a time. They should be on our full- time payroll.”

Other council members agreed that the ads were offensive and derisory of council workers. It was pointed out that it was all the more inappropriate as a council worker had this year lost

his life while carrying out his work.

The county manager said that he would certainly do as the members had asked. “I have on many occa- sions complimented the work being done by council workers. I have spo- ken to them and they do feel let down by negative comments. But their work is outstanding and it’s not just the ordinary day to day jobs. When it comes to things like trees blowing down in the middle of the night, they are there. We have a magnificent workforce.”

THE PLIGHT of people applying to Clare County Council for planning permission to build homes, who fall foul of the Local Rural Person rule, was hotly debated at a meeting of the local authority yesterday.

Councillor PJ Kelly (FF) said that interpretations by planning staff was giving rise to situations whereby someone who had lived “nine years and nine months in the county can be given planning permission as a local rural person but someone who was born here and went away for the last couple of years and then came back is deemed not to be a local rural per- son’.

The councillor quoted High Court judgements against other local au- thorities which showed, he said, that planning staff were “precluded from interpreting the county development plan. It is the courts’ preserve”.

He told the meeting that in one case for which he was giving reference details to the officials, “a non-local can get planning permission in 33 days but a person whose family has been living here for four generations can’t. What interpretation resulted in those decisions?”

Meanwhile, Cllr Bernard Hanra- han (FF) raised the issue of people seeking permission who had been lo-

cal rural people but who had been re- classified as urban after the extension of town boundaries under “decisions which are outside their control.

“They have been rural people all their lives but when they want to build a house in a rural area, they are turned down because a line on a map was moved.”

Mayor of Clare, Cllr Patricia Mc- Carthy (Ind) said that the committee which had been set up to examine the issue and definition of a local rural person had been meeting regularly. They had been debating that question with the planners over the last two months and were “working very hard to come up with a solution which we can live with and which the ordinary people of Clare can live with”.

She asked Cllr Hanrahan if he would agree to defer the motion he had on the issue before yesterday’s council meeting until that commit- tee finished its debate. The council- lor agreed but said that he wanted to see a report in the near future as the issue had “caused untold suffering to people around this county”’.

Councillors told the officials at- tending the meeting that the issue of what constituted a local rural person was one with which they were faced regularly, particularly where people had fallen foul of the planning proc- ess.

TWO Clare businesses have been named among Ireland’s top retailers at the FBD Crest Retail Awards Ex- cellence Awards 2007.

Patrick Bourke’s Menswear and Collins Jewellers were both singled out for recognition at the awards cer- emony held in Dromoland Castle on Saturday.

Patrick Bourke’s Menswear, O’Connell Square, Ennis, was a final- ist in the Best Large Store Western Region category. Collins Jewellers, meanwhile, was a finalist in the Best Small Store Western Region category.

The first Patrick Bourke’s Mens- wear opened in Kilrush in 1928. The family-run business has since ex- panded with two stores now open in Ennis, the first opened in 1996 and the second and biggest store, opened 12 months ago. Proprietor Patrick Bourke had been keen to launch a more up-market store while the other two stores would still serve the busi- eSMAWLod 0B

Employing 22 people, Bourke has two in-house tailors running the al- teration services. He also holds many in-store promotions and charity fash- ion shows. The store caters for almost 300 weddings a year.

Collins Jewellers again performed

strongly in the competition, having previously won the FCD Crest Best Small Store in the Western Region in 2005. Collins’ was also ranked among the top 50 stores in Ireland in 2006.

A family business, Collins Jewel- lers has been in the trade for the past 35 years. Spanning 1,600 sq feet and with a 30 ft shop front, Collins Jew- ellers is one of the most recognisea- ble shop fronts in Ennis.

The high-value attached to the Col- lins brand, in particular the stores- own Collins diamond, has seen busi- ness develop a strong reputation and attract shoppers from all over the eer eleas

The FBD Crest Retail Excellence Awards were established in 1997 to promote best practice standards in the Irish retail industry. It is now the largest awards programme of its type boasting over 400 entries annually.

This year, 429 stores entered awards and the competition was as intense as ever. The ceremony was hosted by RTE presenter Miriam O’Callaghan. Minister of State and Chief Whip Tom Kitt TD, presented the awards which were sponsored for the sev- enth consecutive year by FBD.

that in the last decade he has dealt with patients who have admitted attempting to take their own lives by driving their motor vehicle off the road or into a larger vehicle. The outspoken psychiatrist said that while he cannot say if this form of

attempted suicide is on the increase, it was considered a possibility in the last 10 to 15 years within his profes- sion.

While the majority of car crashes are tragic mishaps, Dr Bhamjee said he has dealt with patients who have, during periods of severe bereavement or anger, attempted to take their lives POM OCU KIARA

“Some think the world would be a better place without them and some think, if they are driving alone, that their family will get the insurance and be looked after,” he said.

“Sometimes people will tell you openly that this is what happened

and sometimes they will avoid dis- cussing it. Sometimes they say they regret it.”

Dr Bhamjee said that, in his expe- rience, it is mostly males in the 21 to 35 age group that have attempted this, although there have also been cases with older people.

Retired psychiatrist at Our La- dy’s Hospital in Ennis, Dr Patrick O’Beirne said that from the limited information in road traffic accident reports, he would consider this pos- sibility in some cases.

“It is certainly a theory,” he said.

There has never been a case of sui- cide on Clare roads brought before

Clare’s Coroner’s Court.

A study conducted in New Zea- land in 1998 and 1999 showed that there was a significant association between drivers who had suicidal ideation and were without current antidepressive medication, and the risk of an “injury crash”.

“The motives behind choosing this method are somewhat different to those behind other methods, includ- ing financial benefits and eliminating stigma in the aftermath of a suicide,” another report published in Australia concluded.

There has been no such study car- ried out in Ireland.

THE lack of specialised services available for people suffering from depression has been highlighted at the Coroner’s Court in Ennis.

The family of a man who died in Ennis in July this year told the in- quest into his death that greater re- sources needed to be allocated to the area of mental health.

The Coroner’s Court heard last week that the man’s body was dis- covered in July in woods near the Mill Road, Ennis, by a group of peo- ple out walking.

Gardai were subsequently called and the man’s body was removed from the scene.

The 27-year old man had been liv- ing in Ennis for seven months and

had been working as a carpenter. He was known to be suffering from de- pression.

He was originally from Dublin. In the Coroner’s Court last Wednesday, the man’s brother confirmed the dep- osition he gave to gardai at the time.

Asking County Coroner Isobel O’Dea if he could comment further on the matter, he said, “There has been a huge amount of suicides in the country over the past few years. Services are seriously lacking in this area for people. More need to be pro- vided.”

Coroner Isobel O’Dea _ returned a verdict of open death in the case. She said, “I am satisfied there is no evidence of accidental death and that there was no third party involve- ment.

“Tam aware he was suffering from depression but I am not positive the intention was there to commit sul- cide.”

Ms O’Dea said there was insuffi- cient evidence other than to disclose a verdict of open death.

She said she would write to the Health Service Executive on behalf of the family to express their reser- vations about the lack of services for people suffering from depression. She extended her sympathies to the eTeep es

She said, “I would like to extend my sympathies to you and your family. I see you are a large and close fam- ily and I hope that you gain strength from that. I will certainly write to the HSE to express you concerns on the lack of services.”

TOURISM in the north west is get- ting an end of year boost as thou- sands of competitors, support teams and fans converge for the first ever Irish round of the world rally cham- pionship.

The event is sponsored by Failte Ireland and the Sports Council of Northern Ireland.

There is a big Clare involvement in Rally Ireland as a total of 110 Clare Motor Club officials will be travel- ling to Sligo for the weekend to help e)bie

Gerry O’Brien from Crusheen was appointed marshall safety co-ordina-

tor for Rally Ireland back in May. The Clare Club will be marshal- ling special stages four and seven (Lough Gill) on Friday. Some of the Clare marshalls will also be helping out on special stage 12 (Ballinamal- lard) which takes place around the

countryside of the late Bertie Fisher. Clare marshalls will also be on duty on Sunday in the Donegal Bay stage.

Meeting point for Clare Marshalls for the Lough Gill Stage is Newtown Manor Community Hall which is lo- cated close to the stage between 2am

and 4am on friday morning. Mar- shall’s have to be in place at Sam and the road will be closed at 6.15am. The first competing car will be on the stage at 9.15am.

Meeting point for the Ballinamal- lard stage on Saturday is 12 midnight at the service station in Trillick, County Tyrone, and the meeting point for Donegal Bay stage is Ball- intra Community Hall at 5am on SLUveleebapenleyusvntes

On Friday morning the restart will be in Sligo with three stages in coun- ties Leitrim, Roscommon and Sligo. The cars will then return to the serv- ice park in Sligo town, then repeat the morning stages, and back to the

Service park again. Two different stages in counties Leitrim and Sligo and the final service and overnight halt in Sligo town.

The Saturday restart is from Sligo and takes in three stages in counties Tyrone and Fermanagh. There will be a midday service in Sligo followed by a repeat of the morning stages. The final service and overnight halt is back in Sligo.

After the Sunday Restart from Sli- go the drivers take in two stages in County Tyrone followed by a stage in County Donegal. The final stage 1s at Mullaghmore.

CLARE showjumping received a massive boost at the weekend when teenage rider, David Blake, based at the East Clare Equestrian Centre in Tuamgraney, took the top prize at the Cavan Two Star International Show.

Blake is fast making a name for himself on the national circuit and Sunday’s victory in what was the second most prestigious event in Ire- land, marks him out as a star of the JaUiaUN Ken

The Clare showjumper, on board Fabienne, eclipsed the country’s leading riders in the 40 strong event that saw the top performers over the course of the Cavan show compete for the weekend’s most coveted title.

Cian O’Connor, Shane Breen, Ed- ward Doyle, Francis Connors, as well as a number of top British riders all qualified for the event but it was the Clare kid that stole the headlines.

In the first round, Blake was among eight riders to go clear. First out in the jump-off was Tulla’s Shelia White, sister of Marie Burke. After her round, of eight faults, Blake was next out and he went clear in an im- pressive time of 34.52.

It set a clear marker for the remain-

ing six riders but slowly, it became obvious that Blake’s time couldn’t be surpassed. The quick time forced those who tried to match it into mis- takes.

“It was a nervous enough wait for the other six riders to jump, but we knew that David’s time was fast and it was going to take something special to beat that,” said his father, Michael on Monday.

“It’s easily his biggest win to date and we’re hopeful that he’s going to have a productive time on board Fa- bienne.”

On Monday, he travels to the conti- nent for a three event spell that will see him compete in Holland and Bel- cium. While Sunday’s victory brings some time in the spotlight, there are other headaches to sort out.

“At the moment we’re looking for a main sponsor,” said Michael Blake. “It’s an expensive sport especially when you factor in travel abroad, but we’ve a quality product and we’re confident that we’ll go from strength to strength.”

Sunday’s win, then, will be one stop on the road.