Month: July 2008

THE Bunratty Environmental Group is set for a revamp, in an effort to en- sure the appearance of the local area is maintained.

The group was set up in 1997. Since then, some of its members have moved away, while others have passed on.

According to one of its founding members, Ann Jones, locals are now being invited to join the group and play a role in keeping the area clean.

“We are trying to get new members. We want new blood and new ideas. Our aim is to keep the area tidy and

provide extra services for tourists and locals alike,” she said.

She is particularly appealing to lo- cal business people and young peo- ple who have moved to the area, to get involved.

“Our children are married and have young families. There are a lot of 35-year-olds living in the area, with small families. They are the future,” she pointed out.

Since the group was set up, it has played a role in flower beds being put in place, while picnic tables and maps, indicating the location of bed and breakfast outlets, have also been welcome additions in the locality.

“A lot of the bed and breakfasts were cut off, so we put maps on dis- play at Meadows and Byrne and at the entrance to the folk park,” she said.

‘We have also kept an eye on what has been happening in the area with regards planning,’ she added.

“It is an awkward area to have as a community as it 1s spread out so much. There is the Wells, Clonmoney and also Bunratty, but we would con- sider them all the one area. It is hard to get to the heart of the community, when it 1s spread out so much,” said Ms Jones.

Allied to the anticipated addition of

new members to the committee, Ms Jones is also optimistic that the local graveyard will be extended.

‘We have been hoping for the past five to 10 years to get an extension to Bunratty graveyard. We have more or less acquired land and just need to get planning permission and get it through.

“Because it 1s such a historical area, there will be a lot of hold-ups and we have to carry out an archaeological dig, but hopefully we will get it,” she said.

Ms Jones is encouraging anyone in- terested in helping out with the group to contact her on 087 7793563.

LOCAL community and voluntary groups in Shannon are being urged to submit applications for funding un- der the community grants scheme.

Around €5,300 is being made available under the local authority initiative this year. Under the scheme, up to 20 groups receive sums rang- ing between €200 and €500, every year.

The scheme got underway in 1997 and since then several groups have benefited. Last year, 15 groups re- ceived atotal of €5,100, while €5,200 was split between 15 groups the pre- vious year. Some 19 groups received a total of €5,000 in 2005, while 16 organisations received €5,000 ben- efited in 2004. In 2003, 20 groups received a total of €4,600.

Shannon Town Clerk Tomas Mac-

Cormaic is now inviting interested groups to formally apply for the auterenbetse

A number of guidelines have been compiled to ensure the applications follow a particular standard. One of these is that the projects are designed to improve the quality of life for the people of Shannon.

‘ For the project to be grant aided it must show aclear community focus,” said Mr MacCormaic.

“The project must be directly re- lated to one or other of the follow- ing categories: the undertaking of special community projects, artistic proposals, projects which generate civic pride and involve local people in the improvement of the town,” he added.

The applications are open to or- ganisations, voluntary groups and residents associations within the

functional area of Shannon Town Council.

Before the grant assistance is awarded all applications must sub- mit, where applicable, documenta- tions detailing fully the project con- tent, together with details of costs eee

“Applicants must show that the project is well planned and give indi- cations of potential future uses of the project. The town councillors’ deci- sion will be influenced by the amount of applicant’s own resources contrib- uted to the project,’ he added.

The 15 groups to benefit last year were Clare Haven, Shannon Com- munity Radio, Gleann an Oir resi- dents group, Newtown FC, the Fami- ly Resource Centre, SEED, the music project, youth exchange project and summer camp project, the Shannon Graveyard Maintenance Commit-

tee, Shannon Musical Society, Wolfe Tones camogie club, Duchas na Sionna, Shannon Handball Club and Shannon Olympics.

Last year, special awards — Liosta na Laochra — were presented to three groups which have contributed im- mensely to local community life over a long number of years. These were Shannon Community Games, Shan- non Musical Society and the local chess club.

Over the years, several other groups benefited under the community grants scheme, including the Broth- ers of Charity, Shannon Meteors Trampoline Club, St Senan’s RFC, Icarus Drama Group, Le Chéile, Shannon Swim and Leisure Club.

The application forms are available from Mr MacCormaic. The closing date for receipt of completed appli- cations is August 31.

THE High King himself would have been proud of the feasting and fun that was offered to visitors and locals alike at this year’s Féile Brian Boru.

Even the weather mostly bowed to royal command so that people could eat al fresco as well as enjoy the mu- sic mayhem and magic on the streets. When the rain did start, folks took cover in the bars with cultural tours, exhibitions and lectures.

This year the festival had a distinct- ly forward looking flavour, although the history of the town as the seat of the famed High King was not forgot- ten either.

This was the fifteenth year of the festival and more than 2,000 visitors came to the lakeside town to enjoy the pageantry.

Some of the highlights of this year’s festival were the children’s pa- rade, the fabulous Fanzini Brothers performances and the food fair on the green. Local restaurants, produc- ers, and vendors from the farmers’ market combined their considerable talents to give festival-goers a taste of some of the great food that is on offer in east Clare.

Along with the popular dragon boat racing, the new power-boat racing event proved a hit and there was lots of interest in the CELT village which

provided a taster of traditional crafts and skills.

Youngsters danced to acts at the Every Moment Counts Youth Club music festival and those of every age enjoyed the Beat on the Street and the many musical pub events.

And there was the beat on the streets, the art trail, canoe polo, guided tours of the cathedral as well as traditional music, singing and set dancing workshops for all ages and levels of ability.

There were pub quizzes, drumming workshops for teenagers, the clash of the ash, the Feile Feis and every- thing necessary to make the festival an even bigger success than previous

years.

Festival organisers paid tribute to the support which the event got from local people and particularly busi- nesses.

“A lot of people put in a lot of hard work to organise the festival and it would not have been possible to stage half of it without the sponsorship and support of local businesses. They gave us fantastic support”, a spokes- woman said.

WHEN a man and woman sat down in Joe Sciascia’s pub, The Old Mill, one Sunday, he thought they were just two more customers for his hugely popular Sunday lunch menu.

When they handed him a card declaring they were judges in the Licensing World magazine’s Bar Awards, apart from being glad that they had enjoyed fabulous food and courteous friendly service, he thought no more of it.

Even when he got a letter telling him the pub had been shortlisted and an invitation to the awards ceremony, Joe and his wife Kathleen thought it

would be little more than a nice night out.

“T couldn’t go so my wife and my step-daughter, Clodagh went up. I was struck dumb when she told me we’d won the Best Country Bar cat- egory ”, said Joe.

Joe and Kathleen took over the pub ten years ago and since have invested €300,000 to bring it back to it’s old world glory.

Joe jokes that it’s not so much a business as a storeroom for his col- lection of original Guinness signs, antique cigarette packets and other memorabilia. “I’m wouldn’t be the greatest barman in the world – the success of this place is down to my

wife and my step-daughter, who manage it, and the hard-working rea

“We wanted to do this place right and the bar food and restaurant are doing very well now but there’s no doubt the pub side of things is very slow. The traditional Irish pub is dy- ing out,” commented Joe.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s best food pub was named as Casey’s of Baltimore having won the Febvre Bar Food aN ENKee

“These are great victories for the province,” said Nigel Tynan, editor of Licensing World and chairman of the judging panel, commenting on the win. He added that The Old Mill

had been chosen from hundreds of pubs visited by judges countrywide. “The rural trade has come through some tough times so it is fantastic to see the trade’s commitment to excel- lence and service being recognised.”

“Country pubs play an integral role in rural society – a hugely important factor that needs to be acknowledged. The Old Mill is an exceptional coun- try bar that goes above and beyond to ensure a quality and responsible drinking environment for its pa- trons,” he said.

Local counveillor, Tony O’Brien congratulated the couple. “It’s a great boost for O’Briens bridge and well deserved.”

ALMOST 60 adult students proved that you never stop learning when they were presented with their quali- fications in Killaloe last week.

The mature students turned their energies to subjects including infor- mation technology, digital photogra- phy, art and design and childcare and age was no barrier.

“We have students of all ages want- ing to take classes, either in the leav- ing cert curicculum or a whole range of other courses and skills’, said

Back to Education co-ordinator for Clare, Mike Ryan.

The classes are held in the Family Resource Centre, the Molua Centre and St. Anne’s Community College, are organised and given by CAB- BIES, the Clare Adult Basic Educa- tion Service, the Back to Education Initiative and the Killlaoe/Ballina learning network.

Courses are free to anyone who has not attained a full leaving certificate, social welfare recipients, their de- pendants, medical card holders and their dependants.

New classes are now planned for the autumn. Anyone who has left full time education can take part but priority will be given to early school leavers and to existing students.

Courses are held in centres all over the county, and subjects on offer range from leaving and junior cert subjects such as maths and English, to childcare, community care, personal development, computer literacy, food and cookery, arts and crafts, growing your own fruit and veg, stained glass, ceramics, woodwork and textiles.

Subjects offered depend on the

centres and the numbers enrolling as there has to be a minimum class number.

Some courses are recognised to FE- TAC levels. Full details are available from the BTEI at Clonroad Business Park Ennis, the Family Resource Centre in Killaloe and the Adult Ed- ucation Centre in Scariff.

“LIGHTS, camera, action” and “roll- ing’ are words that will be heard around Lough Graney shortly thanks to the support of the local communi- ty which has netted a €10,000 prize for the youth club.

The club, along with the Clarecare community childcare initiative, both were winners of a €10,000 prize in the AIB Better Ireland Awards.

The youth club and will be using the cash to buy film-making equipment. Groups appealed to members of the public to vote for them in a text-vote and the Tuamgraney group and the Killaloe childcare group heard last

week that they had garnered the most votes of organisations nominated by the Gort and Killaloe branches.

Delighted club leader, Kathleen McNamara, said that the members and leaders “are just thrilled. The members worked terribly hard on the campaign. We can’t thank people enough – everyone got involved, par- ents, members, leaders, local people and they got their families, friends and work colleagues involved. There was a lot of hard work and massive support for us.”

The money will be used to buy cameras, editing and other film-mak- ing equipment so that club members can capture local issues, events and

people on film.

“We want to get them involved in making short documentary type films about the local community – it’s a way of helping young people to integrate and develop an interest in their community”, said Kathleen.

The club operates out of the Lough Graney Kids Corner créche in Flag- mount every second week and has 35 members, with the support of 13 leaders.

Sinéad Corbett, childcare co-ordi- nator with the Clarecare project said the money will be extremely useful for the many services which are on offer in the Molua centre, not least the summer camps which will cater

for 200 plus children this summer.

The Childcare project offers sup- port and services for children aged O to 18 with issues arising from school, the home and relationships such as loss, separation, adjusting to new surroundings and grief. It also offers programmes in anti-bullying, parent- ing and _ personal development as well as parent and toddler groups.

“All of these services are vital in a community setting and are very much alive here at the Molua cen- tre. We can’t thank people who sup- ported us enough, both in Killaloe, Scariff and further afield. We need funding to continue this work and to expand,” said Sinéad.

WHEN pupils and teachers at St Senan’s National School in Kilrush resume lessons in the autumn they will be in for a nice surprise.

The innovative and progressive work of the west Clare primary school has secured it €10,000 as the west Clare winners of the AIB Better Ireland Awards.

St Senan’s has a long and distin- guished history of providing spe- cially tailored education for children with learning and emotional disabili- Woe

As well as providing mainstream education for the children of the west Clare capital, the 24 teacher school also caters for the specific needs of children with autistic spectrum dis- order, severe and mild general learn- ing disabilities and diagnosed emo- tional disturbance.

Since the introduction of a ground- breaking programme that uses tactile and stimulatory equipment, the qual- ity of education as well as the quality of life of the children attending the school has improved significantly.

The project was chosen by the lo- cal community following a public text vote from May 6 to June 6, with 124,545 votes registered by the pub- lic in Munster. The school is now to receive €10,000 from the local AIB Bank branch.

It, along with the runner-ups will receive the proceeds from the text votes registered for their groups (af- ter operator charges and VAT). Run- ner-up projects will also receive an additional top-up donation from AIB in recognition of the huge efforts they put in to their local campaigns.

The project with the second highest number of votes will receive a top-up of €300, while the project with the

third highest votes will receive a top- up of €200.

The west Clare runner-ups included the Kilrush Family Resource Centre Dyslexia Project and the Clare Youth Service in Kilrush.

The Dyslexia Support Project was founded three years ago, a pilot project brought about as a result of collaboration between West Clare Dyslexia Support Group and Kilrush Family Resource Centre.

The project offers affordable tui- tion to dyslexic children and young people.

It provides all materials needed for each of the sessions and offers an in- dividual child-centred approach to learning. The project also provides support for parents in their quest for equal access to education for their child.

The Clare Youth Service provides Support and guidance to young peo-

ple in the west Clare capital.

Kilrush Youth Project has a number of sub projects including the Kiul- rush Garda Youth Diversion Project, the Kilrush Youth Project, Kilrush Youth Club, Kilrush Youth Café and the Good Neighbour Project.

The youth project is based around the John Paul Estate and caters for young people between the ages of 12 and 19.

Michael Carr, AIB Regional Direc- tor, Clare and Limerick said, “We would like to congratulate all the winning groups on their success in the public text vote and extend our thanks to all those who voted and helped out during this stage of the AIB Better Ireland Programme.

‘We had a fantastic response to our call for votes, and this was due in no small way to the enthusiasm and en- ergy that all the groups put into cam- paigning at a local level.”

THE jury in the trial in the case of Paschal Carmody has been told that the State’s case against the former doctor “is that he is some sort of con- man trying to con people to part with their money on the promise of a cure for cancer”.

Outlining the State case’s against his chent, counsel, Pat Marrinan SC, defending, said that Mr Carmody de- nied all of this.

“Paschal Carmody’s position in this, he would never promise to any- one a cure for cancer.”

Earlier the court heard a Garda wit-

ness read interview statements made by Dr Carmody. He told Det Gda Philip Ryan that photodynamic ther- apy (PDT) “predates Jesus by 7,000 years. It was used in Egypt.”

Asked if he had misled patients by promising them a cure, Carmody said that to “mislead any human being shows no sense of integrity. I did not mislead any patient in my 28 years of uninterrupted practice.”

Seven of the charges relate to the late John Sheridan of Kells, County Kilkenny. Carmody denies obtaining €16,406 through falsely pretending that he would be cured of cancer.

Last week, Mr Sheridan’s brother

in law, Martin Smith said that at a meeting with Mr Carmody and his colleague, Dr Bill Porter at the East Clinic, Killaloe on October 16, 2001 Mr Carmody briefly touched him by the elbow as the two left a consulta- tion room and told him “We’ll cure John’s cancer”.

A nurse manager with the HSE, Mr Smith said that Dr Porter and Mr Car- mody “were speaking off the same hymn sheet on the PDT treatment. They believed in the treatment. They said that they would cure him (John Sheridan) and despite all my scepti- cism, they were doctors, you invest trust in doctors and I believed them

too.” Aged 58, Mr Sheridan died of his cancer in November 2002.

Under cross-examination from Mr Marrinan, Mr Smith accepted that he did not include Mr Carmody’s statement that he would cure John of his cancer in his statement to gardai.

Mr Marrinan asked, “Do you accept that the case against Paschal Carmo- dy is that he promised a cure?”

Mr Smith responded, “Yes, I’m aware of that.’ Mr Marrinan said, “I must suggest to you that you’re ta1- loring your evidence to fit in with the overall story and picture presented against Paschal Carmody.”

Mr Smith said, “John was facing

death and this was his last hope and he believed that the treatment would cure him.”

He said that he first met with Mr Carmody at a consultation at the East Clinic on September 7. An ap- pointment for ablation treatment was already scheduled for October and Mr Smith said that Mr Carmody rec- ommended that they go for the Abla- tion treatment.

Mr Smith confirmed that at that meeting, Mr Carmody didn’t rec- ommend PDT treatment as the ma- chine he had at that time wouldn’t penetrate deep enough for the deep seated cancer in his liver.

THE widow of a man who died from cancer despite having been treated by a Killaloe doctor told the court she was giving evidence “to prevent anyone else ever being introduced to this treatment”.

Bernadette Gallagher was in the witness box in the case against Pas- chal Carmody (60) of Ballycuggeran, Killaloe, who is charged with obtain- ing €80,172 from six cancer patients and their families by deception be- tween September 2001 and October

PAUL OPA

The patients were treated with pho- todynamic therapy (PDT) at The East Clinic, run by Dr Carmody and Dr Bill Porter.

Mrs Gallagher, from Mullingar, told the court that her husband JJ, died from bowel cancer on Septem- loys) ane a0 0a

She claimed that the doctor had said that not only would he hold the cancer at bay, but that he would “de- stroy it”.

Pat Marrinan, SC, for Carmody, put it to Mrs Gallagher that she was

“dragging Dr Carmody into every scenario” because Dr Porter had left the jurisdiction, leaving Dr Carmody as the only one who could be sued.

Mr Marrinan put it to her that Dr Carmody would give evidence deny- ing that he promised to cure or de- stroy her husband’s cancer.

Mrs Gallagher said that she had “nothing to lie about.

“IT am not enjoying this. My hus- band is dead and everyone else who had this treatment”.

She told the court in Ennis that she and her family were “ecstatic” when

they heard about the photodynamic therapy treatment. “I blame myself because I was standing outside it and I didn’t see this treatment was not suitable for JJ”.

Asked why they had not sought the opinion of other cancer experts treat- ing JJ, she said she “had not thought to do it”.

The court also heard evidence from Bernadette and JJ’s sons, who said they were in the room in the East Clinic when Dr Carmody had promised to “destroy” their father’s or ileoe

Tecwyn Gallagher said in evidence that he was in the room with the rest of his family and the two doc- tors when he was asked if he had any questions.

““T asked could they hold the cancer at bay – it’s the one question you want to ask. He said he would not only hold it at bay, he would destroy it.”

Mr Marrinan said his client would say he told the Gallaghers that the PDT treatment was still in its early stages and that it wasn’t a viable op- tion in JJ’s case but that he would re- view the matter after some months.

A BIZARRE Ennis conspiracy to murder trial, which has heard refer- ences to a hitman website, swingers clubs, prostitutes, transvestites and a fake marriage certificate is expected to conclude today.

The jury in the trial of Sharon Col- lins (45) and Essam Eid (52), who deny conspiring to murder her part- ner PJ Howard and his sons Robert and Niall in 2006, will resume delib- erations this morning. The jury was sent to a hotel for the night after de- liberating for over three-and-a-half hours yesterday, as the trial entered its eighth week.

Ms Collins, of Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, has also pleaded not guilty to soliciting Mr Eid to kill the three businessmen.