Month: July 2009

THE hunt is on in west Clare on Fri- day afternoon next as visitors and lo- cals prepare to scavenge for all sorts of goodies.

The first Raidid Corca Baiscinn Scavenger Hunt will start at 2pm from the Diamond Rocks Café in Kilkee this Friday.

An outside broadcast by Raidio Corca Baiscinn will coincide with the event. Local businesses have ensured that there will be plenty of goodies to be found, including vouchers for restaurants and places of interest. Spot prizes, including the new Raidio Corca Baiscinn tee- shirts, will be awarded to teams dur- ing the scavenger hunt to keep people on their toes.

Raidio Corca Baiscinn 1s a commu- nity radio station, and a volunteer led organisation.

To celebrate the first new batch of radio volunteers trained earlier this Summer, these new broadcasters will be at the heart of the outside broad- cast during the scavenger hunt, inter- viewing locals and holidaymakers. People interested in learning about Raidio Corca Baiscinn are welcome to come and find out about radio broadcasting during the day.

Entry costs €10 per family or team of five, and all proceeds will go to support Raidi6 Corca Baiscinn, south west Clare’s local community radio.

For information contact Sallyann Marron, Fundraising Co-ordinator on info@raidiocorcabaiscinn.ie or by phoning 065 908 3022.

KILKEE Civic Trust has announced the return visit, on Friday, July 31, of singer and songwriter Brian Kennedy, one of the ultimate live performers to have emerged in the last two decades.

He is known as the artist who is blessed with a multitude of talents; singer, songwriter, guitarist, and born communicator, seen and heard on countless TV and radio shows from both sides of the mike. He’s been Ire- land’s ambassador on more than one global music stage; recognised au- thor of a couple of best-selling novels and numerous short stories.

Behind the facade however, there is a different story. It’s been a long, tough haul from the Falls Road, Belfast, his birthplace in 1966, with early years spent at the height of the troubles and the screech of sirens, rather than music, ringing in his ears. Nevertheless, with an uncanny inner strength, he turned horror to advan- tage by harmonising with the sirens, unaware he was nurturing a natural God-given vocal talent that would later earn him the title, ‘a voice to charm the angels’.

Kilkee Civic Trust was set up in November 2001 to nourish the built, spoken and environmental heritage of Kilkee. Among its many activi- ties, the civic trust has taken on the promotion of several musical events over the last number of years, hosting the likes of musician and composer Micheal O Suilleabhain, mezzo so- prano Edel O’Brien as well as the Irish Chamber Orchestra, as part of its summer concert schedule.

This will be Brian’s second visit

to Kilkee, his last visit was in 2005, where he received a rapturous wel- come from a packed St Senan’s GTR NACL NUM KOON MacnlleImeeyre cert on Friday.

Members of the Munster Rugby Supporters Choir will perform the

Opening part of the concert, and will join Brian for a couple of numbers at the end of the night.

CAPPA has been the long forgotten beach when it comes to visiting west Clare on hot summer days, but this is changing as its clean waters have got yet another seal of approval from the environmental watch dogs.

In June, An Taisce awarded the prestigious International Blue Flag to eight of County Clare’s beaches, including Cappa in Kilrush.

The award represents the high standards in water quality, environ- mental information and education, environmental management and safety, services and facilities avail- able.

Retaining this flag is no small achievement, and the local people are proud, not least Kilrush Town Clerk John Corry.

“IT am delighted that Cappa has re- tained its Blue Flag which it has now held since 2004. This award recog- nises the importance of Cappa as a place of recreation and enjoyment for locals and visitors alike,” he said.

“Tam confident that the local com- munities will continue to work along with Kilrush Town Council to ensure that the high environmental stand- ards that have been achieved are maintained. When visiting Cappa, I would ask everybody to please take responsibility for their litter to en-

sure the high standard achieved in the past can continue 1n the future.”

At present, the playground in Cap- pa is also being upgraded to further enhance this area, encouraging more families to take advantage of these healthy and free facilities.

The Blue Flag award 1s a prestigious environmental eco-label awarded to more than 80 beaches and a small number of marinas in Ireland.

A MAJOR survey issued today by ISME, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association, confirms that one third of business in Ireland has been the target of criminal activ- ity over the last 12 months. The sur- vey of over 1,800 businesses outlines that while the level of crime is down on the previous year (when 35 per cent of companies were affected), there has been an increase in the ac- tual cost of criminal activity, which is costing the business community €1.5bn in direct costs.

The highest incidence of crime is in Connaught/Ulster at 37 per cent, while the incidence of crime in Dub- lin County has shown a dramatic reduction down to 24 per cent from 43 per cent in 2008. Dublin City and Munster both showed an increase.

aber tee vem KeU One mortaelele lar problem, showing a large increase from 44 per cent in 2008 to a high 63 per cent this year. This compares to 26 per cent for manufacturing com- panies, 25 per cent construction and 28 per cent for service and 32 per cent distribution companies. “Theft by outsiders’ reported by 36 per cent

of respondents was the most com- mon form of crime.

78 per cent of all respondents iden- tified crime as being a problem in their area, while companies affected by crime experienced more than one instance of crime in the last 12 months.

The direct cost of criminal activity for SMEs is estimated at €472m per annum or €5,890 per company. This figure increases dramatically when added to the €957m or €3,937 spent per company on crime prevention methods including alarms, C.C.TV, security guards etc.

The indirect costs of crime cannot be underestimated, 25 per cent of SMEs who suffered from criminal activity identified disruption to trad- ing as being a particular problem with 15 per cent indicating that crime led to “poor staff morale’.Only 7 per cent of business owners are confident that criminals would be apprehended.

The use of alarms remains the pri- mary weapon for crime prevention, with 73 per cent of companies hav- ing an alarm on their premises. This was followed by 48 per cent who use alarm response and 47 per cent CCTV.

INTEREST in holidays in Lahinch is up more than 100 per cent on last year, a leading international booking website has revealed.

Figures just released by leading hotel booking site, Hotels.com, show that searches for hotels in Lahinch by Irish holidaymakers is up 115 per cent on the number of searches car- ried out in May and June last year.

The statistics show interest in do- mestic travel in Ireland in May and June is up significantly when com- pared year on year with the same period in 2008.

Increased searches on Hotels.com for Ireland, which compared searches for domestic travel in May and June of this year with the same period in 2008, indicate that some of the most popular holiday spots across the country are attracting more interest from Irish holidaymakers.

“Possible reasons for the trend could be attributed to the fact that the weather in Ireland has been bet- ter this year than the previous two summers and that hotel prices are falling, offering better affordability for all travellers in the current reces- sion,” a according to Hotels.com.

They speculate that prominent domestic travel promotion by Irish agencies such as Discover Ireland

may also be a contributing factor in search behaviour on Hotels.com this year.

Of the most popular destinations for domestic travel searches, Rosslare in Wexford showed the biggest increase year on year, up by 220 per cent for May and June 2009, when compared to the same period in 2008.

In the south and west, Killarney was up 160 per cent, Westport and Lahi- nch were up 155 per cent and 115 per cent respectively. Searches for hotels in the capital rose by 20 per cent in June 09 compared to June ’08 while Galway, the most expensive city to stay in a hotel in Ireland according

to the Hotels.com HPI, saw searches rise by a third (30 per cent).

Alison Couper, director of Com- munications for Hotels.com com- ments; “It certainly seems Irish people are keen to explore holiday options at home this year which is great news for the domestic tourism industry. With the current Hotels. com summer sale on with discounts of up to 50 per cent off, now is prov- ing a great time to grab hotel deals at home and abroad.”

Bishop Walsh to resign in January

COMMUNITY pride and friendship has prompted a group of local people to take it upon themselves to clean up one of Clare’s oldest eyesores.

The site, which is located on the Liscannor harbour, has been a virtual dump for more than 30 years.

It was purchased last year by Clare County Council but the local author- ity has had insufficient funds to de- velop the site after the purchase. This prompted a group of locals to take ac- tion into their own hands earlier this year.

“The people here have done fan- tastic work. Everyone in the whole parish is so proud of all the people who have worked so hard,” said Pad-

raig Blake of the Liscannor Harbour Amenity Organisation.

‘The people who have been coming here to help clean up each Wednesday have gotten so much out of it. There has been a great sense of friendship throughout the whole thing. We have done so much work that from now on, we only have to meet every second Wednesday.”

The project began in May when the Liscannor Harbour Amenity Or- ganisation approached Clare County Council with a proposal for the area.

“The place had essentially been a dump site for the last 30 years and it was very unsightly, especially for the tourists who come through Liscannor on their way to the Cliffs of Moher,” he continued.

“The site came into public own- ership in the last year or so and we approached Clare County Council about the possibility of bulldozing it and cleaning the whole place up.

“When Clare County Council agreed, we spoke to three local build- ers – the Atlantic Group, Guerin and Considine and the McNulty family and they all agree to donate Hi-Macs, lorries, dumper trucks and all sorts of machinery to help us out.”

After removing 42 full lorry-loads of rubbish and other material from the site, another meeting was held to allow the local people to decide what should be done with the new commu- nity area.

“We held a public meeting back in June and more than 40 people came

along. There was still a lot to be done at that stage. The next day we went down to the harbour and started work and we have worked there every Wednesday since then,” he contin- ued.

“Over the first three Wednesdays, more than 100 bags of rubbish were collected each day. We had some great support from Clare County Council and were allowed to dispose of all the rubbish at Ballyduffbeg with no charge.”

The group are now restoring stone- work at the site and plan to develop further in the coming week and months.

Anyone interested in getting in- volved should contact Patrick Blake at 086 1932872.

AT a time when most people are wearing hairshirts, Clonlara man Noel Murphy has bet his shirt on a new Killaloe business.

Boru Fashions is a new leisure- wear store on Killaloe’s main street which, apart from selling quality and affordable leisurewear, will custom- ise any t-shirt, polo or sweatshirt.

“We do fun t-shirts for stag and hen’s nights, t-shirts for corporate promotions, polo-shirts with compa-

ny logos and names, fun t-shirts and fantasy t-shirts, pictures of your dog, your cat, your boss – you name it, we can do it!” said Noel.

Noel took a big leap of faith in these dismal times and invested in the lat- est machinery to get the business off the ground.

“IT saw a gap in the market in this part of Clare. There are lots of bou- tiques in Killaloe stocking fabulous fashions and couture clothing. Boru Fashions aims to be quality but af- fordable. The most expensive thing

in the shop is a 100 per cent cotton man’s tracksuit for €35.”

Open just a few weeks, the shop is steadily growing its trade, particu- larly among younger shoppers.

“The young people who shop here tell me that they’re delighted to be able to buy locally. They say that if they go into Limerick, they have to pay €10 bus fare, then you pay out to have something to eat and that’s all before you buy a stitch,’ said Noel.

Noel decided to set up shop in Kil- laloe because “it’s a very good catch-

ment area, between here and Ballina, and so far things have been fairly good.”

Another boost for the shop are tour- ists who want shirts with pictures of the historic and scenic parts of Kil- laloe to bring home as gifts and sou- venirs. “If they have their own digital pictures with themselves in the pic- ture, I can even put that on a shirt for them,” said Noel.

THE nineteenth annual South East Clare show was a big hit at the week- end, despite the heavy rain. The gal- lant show-goers turned out in Bridget- own to enjoy a great family day out.

The first show was in 1990 and the event has only missed one year and that was because of foot and mouth.

Now highly regarded among the show fraternity, the South East Clare Show has a place in the top 10 shows in the country.

On Sunday, visitors enjoyed 22 classes in the horse show, show jumping the dog show and a vintage car show. There were 27 classes in the cattle section.

There were the firm favourites: a home produce section, best dressed

lady, little miss and bonny baby and, for the youngsters, there were dodg- ems, swings and fancy dress.

The dog show portfolio was looked after by Jim Lonergan and this year there are 13 qualifiers, including the Gain Dog Food All Ireland Champi- onship qualifier.

Everyone enjoyed the beautiful- ly preserved vintage cars – which formed a new section in the show this year – looked after by enthusiast, Joe English.

And when the rain came down or the feet became weary, visitors to the showgrounds were delighted to be able to retire to the refreshment tents and enjoy the wonderful spread laid on.

A CZECH national, who burgled the home of his former employer, has been handed an 18-month suspended sentence.

Ivan Toth, of Acha Bhile, Lahinch Road, Ennis, pleaded guilty to bur- gling a house in Tulla and using a cheque.

Another accused, Vladimir Hop- jan, of Castlerock, Tulla Road, En- nis, admitted using a cheque.

Ennis Circuit Court heard that Hopjan tendered a cheque at Ulster Bank, Ennis, on September 12 last. This was a stolen cheque.

Garda Niall Naughton told the court that a premises was subsequently Searched and a camera, lenses and a flash were found there.

Gda Naughton said that Toth and Hopjan — who are both from the Czech Republic — were previously employed by Mr O’Dwyer, whose house was burgled.

Pat Whyms, BL, for Toth, asked the

garda who was the ringleader and was told that Soltes was the driver of the car.

Elaine Houlihan, BL, for Hopyan, said her client has pleaded guilty to one charge, relating to an Ulster Bank cheque and had admitted fill- ing in the cheque.

“He wouldn’t come across as a criminal mastermind, by the way he cashed the cheque,” she said.

The court was told that Toth has been in Ireland for the past eight years, while Hopjan has been here for the past two years. Both were em- ployed on a farm in Tulla, but both nm belem (elem ro)relectel ns

Judge Sean O Donnabhain said the more significant charge was bur- glary. He imposed an 18-month jail term on Toth and suspended this.

He fined Hopjan <€600. He said he accepted that he was not charged with burglary. “I accept it was a very naive under- taking by him. He’s likely to have learnt his lesson,’ he said.