Month: August 2008

THE rate of suicide in Clare is 12 and a half per cent higher than the national average.

A report by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland found that 13.906 people per 100,000 in the Banner county die by suicide.

The average rate of suicide in the Republic of Ireland is 12.358 accord- ing to the findings.

The all-island report also found that the rate of suicide in the Repub- lic is almost 50 per cent higher than bOmeeom Ceaser

Ireland has also the fifth highest rate of suicide in Europe.

As Clare has the ninth highest sui- cide rate in the Republic, Clare TD Joe Carey (FG) has called for appro- priate levels of funding to be made available to address suicide levels in the county.

“While suicide claims more vic- tims than road deaths each year, the Government provides ten times more funding for road awareness cam- paigns than suicide. The budget al- located is a meagre €3.05m, which is totally inadequate, whereas €40 million is spent annually on road

awareness. The Irish Association of Suicidology believe this figure needs to be increased immediately to €10m. I strongly agree with that assertion,’ he said.

“When we look at the figures, the total number of people who died by suicide in 2006 was 409 – the most recent annual figure – whereas 336 people died on the country’s roads last year. Ireland now has the fifth highest rate of youth suicide in Eu- rope.

“We need to listen to our communi- ty leaders in County Clare, and those at the coal face with voluntary and professional social bodies. We also need to make the finances available in order to develop the work being done on the ground by these people already. Suicide affects every de- mographic type in society, and it is crucial that the reasons why this 1s happening are identified and under- stood, so that society may respond appropriately.

“Undoubtedly, the pressures on young people in Ireland of the 21st century need to be identified and tackled. We can and must do more to ensure the figures released this week do not continue to rise.”

JUST over a year after he parted ways with Clare, Paidi O Sé has emerged as a potential candidate for the Dub- lin management position.

Following Tyrone’s easy defeat of Dublin on Saturday, the management position was vacated by Paul Caffrey and speaking on Monday afternoon, O Sé said he would give the job seri- ous consideration.

“Any player who went back to man- agement, or managed his county team, of course he would give the Dublin job very serious considera- tion, it’s a very attractive job,” he Sr NCGe

“Of course, all managers would look at that and would take it into account. Of course they would. | wouldn’t be on my own in saying that, there are plenty of other people who would as well. Winning an All Ireland seems to be the question eve- rybody’s asking. Whoever the man- ager 1s, you don’t get a quick fix.”

Any potential move to the Dublin position would represent a giant leap from his position in Clare, but O Sé said that a long-term view had to be considered.

“Any manager going into the Dub- lin job would be looking at a mini- mum of two years and a maximum of three years.”

ONCE more, the focus of the county and country’s handballers is firmly set on this year’s big alley competi- tions. As it stands, the 2008 Munster 60×30 Championships have already kicked off and Clare are vying for honours in a number of grades.

The big alley game is the original, traditional form of handball in which Clare tasted so much success down through the years and the recent past has seen a resurgence in big-alley in- terest and playing numbers.

Clare has always had a great tradi- tion in big alley handball, particular- ly the Tuamgraney club, which has produced many All-Ireland winners in the past. Incidentally, Tuamgraney is the only 60×30 alley currently in use in Clare and so is the main cen- tre of handball action for the whole county.

At adult level this year, Clare will be represented at Minor Singles and Doubles (Niall Malone, Diarmaid Nash), Under 21 Singles and Doubles (Cathal Hannon, Shane Hayes), Jun- ior B Singles (Fergal Coughlan) and

Doubles (Fergal Coughlan, Shane Walsh), Junior A Singles (Declan Frawley and Seamus Lawlor) and Doubles (Darragh Kirby/Seamus Lawlor and Declan Frawley/Liam

Frawley), Silver Masters ‘A’ Singles (John Cawley) and Doubles (Mike Kelly, ‘Charlie’ Coughlan) and Dia- mond Masters ‘A’ Doubles (Jimmy Walsh, PJ Counihan). Diarmaid Nash

and Niall Malone kicked off Clare’s 2008 interest with their Minor Sin- gles first round games against Lim- erick opposition but unfortunately were defeated by Seamus O’Carroll

and CJ Fatzpatrick respectively.

The Tuamgraney pair joined forces and faced the same opposition in the Minor Doubles, where the Limerick duo again had the upper hand.

Clare’s next fixtures see Newmar- ket’s Seamus Lawlor (Junior Singles) in action tonight (Tuesday) in Cashel at 8pm against Tipperary opposition while this Thursday, both Cathal Hannon and Shane Hayes travel to Ballyporeen for their respective U- 21 Singles Ist round games against Waterford opposition at 8pm.

Clare will also be well represented this year at adult Ladies level and in the different underage grades (Boys & Girls) and hopes are high that Munster and All-Ireland titles can be won in Saffron and Blue in *O08.

Trials were held in Tuamgraney last week to select juvenile county play- ers at all ages from under 12 to under 17 and Clare’s first games will be at Munster semi-final stage on Septem- ber 5 at a Limerick venue.

will be released on the label this week, but the label has already has a measure of suc- oe It released an EP for Lanzarote based ska band Seven Stars Riot Squad (SSRS) earlier this year which broke into the official Canary Island record charts top 10. Indeed the label was created on the

Spanish island where Meteor Prize winning Gallagher had been play- ing since the break-up of the Revs.

Mr Logue was unavailable for comment yesterday but Gallagher said he was looking forward to the album release.

“T was playing a few gigs in pubs out there when I met Alan. He came up to me after a gig and asked about the original songs. We ended up chatting for ages about it and he said he’d like to get involved in some way, said Gallagher.

“It was as simple as that really. I found myself there six months later as the co-owner of a small indie record label about to release my own album.

“T think it’s very much a team project. I obviously value Alan’s Opinion – he was the one who gave me that lift in confidence after the

Revs by saying that he wanted to get involved in my music, which nobody had said to me in awhile.”

The former Revs front man plays the Burren College of Art in Bal- lyvaughan this Thursday as part of the album launch tour. Despite it be- ing early days for the label there has already been discussion of releasing old atosmr-lolebeehe

“I respect him a lot. He told me that he didn’t know anything about chords but he really liked the songs. So it was great to get that kind of perspective from him. The great thing is that he knows that if the musicians are happy creatively then everything ticks away nicely,” con- tinued Rory.

For more on G

CLARE County Council is set to refuse planning permission for a €50 million retail park adjacent to the Ennis by-pass.

With a formal decision due later today, a council source has indicated that the application by Galway devel- oper, Stephen Harris for a retail park at Skehanagh, Clarecastle is about to be turned down.

Mr Harris has encountered major hurdles in the planning process over the past two years after €18 million was paid to Clarecastle man, JJ Mc- Cabe for the 48 acre commercially zoned site.

Only last week, it emerged that the Department of the Environment made a late intervention to reject the plan because of nature conservation concerns. This related to the fate of the protected butterfly, the Marsh Fritillary which has disappeared from the site due to grazing and

flooding.

The expected refusal will come as a surprise as an independent report commissioned by the council con- cluded that the Harris site at Ske- hanagh, Clarecastle was better po- sitioned to secure planning ahead of a proposal by Ennis developers Sean Dy piler Wem Com Oeiioeevie

However, the local planning land- scape deteriorated in the meantime with a subsequent council report de- claring portion of the Harris site as being at risk to flooding.

It is not known how this has fac- tored into the final decision, but it seems certain to have featured in the planners deliberations as the Depart- ment of the Environment also flagged it as an issue.

The local authorities in the Ennis area have also rejected any future residential or commercial develop- ment pending the commissioning of anew €75 million sewage treatment plant which is not expected to be in

place until 2012.

Ennis Town Council has recently refused developments as small as 26 units and a €50 million retail park 1s expected to be a much bigger burden on the local infrastructure.

Plans for the 48 acre site included a retail warehouse park, motor sales village, Travelodge hotel, drive-thru restaurants, storage and distribution, and a petrol station. The develop- ment was to provide over 30,000 m2 commercial floorspace

Planning was only being sought for the retail park in the south-east quad- rant of the site but the council had already expressed serious concerns over the proposal.

EXPERIENCE and sheer determi- nation won out in the final of the Eu- ropean Seniors’ Team Championship at Shannon Golf Club on Saturday as Ireland won back to back titles against a Scotland team that were simply overwhelmed by the strength of their Irish counterparts by 4 1/2 matches to a 1/2.

It was Portmarnock’s Adrian Mor- row (pictured right), the current Irish and European Seniors Champion that shot out of the blocks first and by the turn had a three hole advantage over Scotland’s Derek Murphy. The

match ended on the 16th with a win for the towering Dubliner, 3 and 2.

Former Walker Cup player Arthur Pierse made short work of John Fraser. The Tipperary man was four holes to the good after nine and closed out the rather one sided match on the 16th, also by a 3 and 2 mar- gin. There were wins too for Liam MacNamara from Woodbrook who saw off Robert Stewart convincingly while John Carroll and Hugh Smyth enjoyed a comfortable win against Gordon MacDonald and Alexander wabuter

Killeen’s Maurice Kelly was in to- tal control of his match against the

four time Walker Cup star, and Cap- tain of the Scottish side, Ian Hutch- eon but was called in off the course to halve the match.

Team captain, Tommie Basquille was thrilled with the win and paid tribute to his team during his victory speech. “The lads were brilliant all week, and while we suffered a scare in the semis against the Germans, the team really concentrated and played superb golf in winning the title again. J am immensely proud of them for all their hard work and commitment.”

Ireland will go in search of three in a row next year at Ascona in Swit- zerland.

A GREAT Gael passed to his eternal reward in Ennis over the weekend. His name was Paddy O’Hara, whose remains were removed from St Joseph’s Church in Ennis for burial in Belfast. O’Hara played both hurl- ing and football for Antrim in the 1940s and ‘50s, while he moved to live in Ennis a number of years ago.

Among those who attended the removal of his remains were Down football legend Sean O’ Neill and Jim Corr, the former Antrim goalkeeper. O’Hara was a member of the An- trim team that won the 1946 Ulster Football championship, while off the field he gave distinguished service across the province, managing Six of the nine Ulster counties, as well as steering Queen’s University to

their first ever Sigerson Cup success in 1958. He was still team trainer- manager when Queen’s regained the Cup in 1964. He withdrew from his post with Queen’s in 1970 because of business commitments and became well known as a commentator on Gaelic Games on both the BBC and RTE.

O’Hara also won a GAA McNamee Hall of Fame Award in 1990 and was a member of the GAA AII Stars se- lector panel for a number of years. A minute’s silence was observed for O’Hara before Saturday’s All-Ire- land football quarter-final between Tyrone and Dublin in Croke Park.

THE anniversary of the air disaster in which the 99 passengers died on KLM flight 607-E off the coast of Galway was remembered last week.

It has been 50 years since the Dutch airliner crashed into the sea killing everyone on board.

On August 14, 1958 the airliner ‘Hugo de Groot’ came down approx- imately 200 km west of Slyne Head.

The air disaster was on the second leg of its trip from Amsterdam to America when disaster struck.

At the time it was the worst plane crash ever to happen in Galway and the fourth worst accident ever in the Atlantic Ocean.

There were no survivors of the transatlantic flight which included six members of the Egyptian fenc- ing team. The plane crashed without even a radio distress call. The flight was last heard 35 minutes after tak- ing off from Shannon. Then silence.

Ten hours later a British pilot saw spots on his radar. A British Royal Air force plane flew over and noticed wreckage. A French trawler and 12 other ships from five nations attempt- ed a rescue which lasted through the night. “It was an errie scene lit by our flares” said Flight It. Keith McDon- ald, who first spotted the wreckage.

Only 34 bodies were recovered and the scenes by the dockside and dur-

ing the biggest funeral procession the city had ever seen were recalled at a memorial service in Bohermore OAM (os) e

Addressing the gathering, Bernard Surrem of KLM quoted from the of- ficial report of the Irish manager of the airline at the time of the disaster.

On August 20, the report records him saying “I must make mention of the wonderful co-operation and as- sistance so freely given by the people of Galway in this whole tragic affair. Their generous effort has made the work of the accident crew so very much easier’, he said.

There was no evidence of any ditching procedure before the deaths of the 45 men, 38 women, 8 children, including a 14-month old baby girl and 8 crew members. Only one of the bodies, that of a young boy, was wearing a lifebellt.

By the time the Galway registered MV Naomh Eanna was notified and reached the wreckage, there were no survivors. John Reck, was a deck steward onboard the Naomh Eanna and remembers a small boat sailing beside them which “attempted to pass nine bodies over to the ship, but currents proved too strong and the bodies had to be abandoned.” Search and rescue efforts were extended to search a cluster of uninhabited is- lands about 50 miles from the crash scene.

Because it was not known how deeply the plane sank, no salvage effort was made. Autopsies were performed on the recovered vic- tims. Only a handful were formally identified and these were buried in a communal grave and some were sub- sequently re-interred in their native countries. Others still lie in Boher- more cemetery, including baby Ber- nadette de Kock Van Leeuwen.

Lack on any physical evidence has meant that no definite cause the crash has ever been found. Theories include the possibility of an explo- sion, electrical failure or pilot error. The most likely explanation given was “over-speeding” of one of the propellers, which may have been caused by oil pollution after a gear became defective.

Aviation experts speculated a propeller might have sheared off, plowed into the cabin and ignited the fuel tanks which had been filled to capacity at Shannon a short time before the crash. This would tie in with speculation that passengers died before plunging into the Atlan- tic. Indications suggest the accident was sudden. KLM station manager Lawrence Melling said “four engines and four radios do not cut out imme- diately.”

KLM subsequently made modifica- tions to reduce further possible dis- asters.

AN EIGHT month campaign to pro- vide better services for the homeless in Ennis received a major boost last week with the announcement that a CNKeyombOMectscomnysU0mKO)e\o0 TOMO sComcOdyvar| in September.

The Sara Finn centre will operate from premises on Chapel Lane and will be run by the HELP organisa- tion, a local group who provide as- sistance and support to the homeless community in Ennis and others faced with difficult social problems.

The centre is named after the late Sara Finn who died in June. It will be

Open seven days a week from 10am to 12 midday and from 8pm-10pm.

“The centre will cater for anyone with social problems and who feel they need to come in and talk about it,’ said HELP committee member, Josephine O’Brien.

“They can stay as long as they like and we will try and provide them with as much support as possible. It’s a place where people can just come and relax and be themselves, play PlayStation or whatever. We will also be looking to organize other ac- OAs La loee

Itis hoped that the centre will be and running by September 15. O’Brien,

one of the founders of HELP, said the opening of the centre would be a “very special moment” for everyone involved with the organisation.

“We have been working hard for this and its great to finally get it up and running. Its special for me and its very special for everyone who has worked hard for it”.

HELP are also appealing for vo- lounteers to come and work at the centre.

“We are really looking for people to help out and volunteer. The place we have in Chapel Lane needs a bit of painting. There is a bit of work to be done so we’re going to start into

that as soon as possible”.

The announcement comes after a dinner dance organized by HELP and held last week in the Ennis, raised €3000 for the Sara Finn Drop Oo tlbKee

O’Brien thanked all those who at- tended and donated money on the night.

“We had a great night” she said, “We raised a good bit of money and that will come in use for getting the centre up and running. It was bril- liant that we got so many people down there. Sara’s mother Karol was there. It was a great night and a really great turn-out”.

TOPICS ranging from the rainfor- est to the preservation of historical documents are among those up for discussion at events to mark Heritage Week in Ennis, next week.

Heritage Week is part of European Heritage Days, a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Union, co-ordinated locally by Clare Soi Geniiale

A series of talks looking at the her- itage issues as they relate to will take place in venues across Ennis from August 24-31.

Bridgid Barry, Clare Biodiversity Officer presents “From the Rainfor- est to County Clare’ a talk on global issues of biodiversity in a Clare con-

text, in Glor on August 28.

The following day, Friday, August 29, Catriona Lynch, Clare Database manager will compare marine spe- cies survey work carried out in the coastal rocky habitats of county Clare, and the eastern Aegean is- lands of Greece, in a talk entitled MBE Ubetcameni elm c-liommeKOet Mm Gstaeee to County Clare’.

Audiences can also learn about the work involved in preserving the so- cial history of Clare at “The Care and Conservation of Books’ – a special talk by Rene Franklin, Clare County Archivist, that will take place at the DeValera library, on August 26

Ms Franklin will talk about the challenges of safeguarding rare doc- uments and will outline the methods

used for preserving old books to pho- tographs.

She hopes that by hosting the talk more people will be encouraged to use the archive service and to pre- serve their own personal pieces of KO as

‘People often may not realise the damage that can be caused by certain factors in the home. I’m just trying to highlight in a practical way really, what people can do,” she explains.

“Tl give examples of conservation treatments and of special conserva- tion projects that would have gone through. I’m also going to have some exhibitions of stuff in the archives that people might like to see. They can then have a look through them.”

“We’ll also have a few rare books

and manuscripts. Then if people have any questions I’d be delighted to an- swer them”.

Samples from Clare County Coun- cil’s collection will be on display as well as a rare example of Francisco O’Molloy’s Grammatica Latino- Hibernica (Rome, 1677) which was studied by the monks in the Friary in /SIVeVKMUIMO Nom MAROON AAA

The book is being made available by Michael McCarthy, historian/ tel- evision producer-director and author Oi