Gormley: ‘Not much in the kitty’
Month: November 2009
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Clare architecture book is unveiled
, at an event hosted by Clare County Council. The book is the twenty-second to be published in the National Invento- ry of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) series.
NIAH surveys record a sample of built heritage, ranging from struc- tures of grand design to simple con- struction, spanning the period 1700 to the present day. The surveys inform recommendations from the minister to planning authorities for inclusion of structures in their Record of Pro- Kore CoOL OME LCLAUD Khe
The minister referenced the diverse historic built stock of County Clare when noting that “the built heritage of County Clare is a major contribu- tor to its unique identity and sense of place’. He pointed to the signifi- cance of “the restored tollhouses at D’Esterre’s Bridge, the Spectacle Bridge at Lisdoonvarna and the great
hydro-electrical complex at Ard- nacrusha’’.
Minister Gormley congratulated Ennis Town Council, Clare County Council and their officials for their interest and enthusiasm in ensur- ing that the County Clare Record of Protected Structures is robust and comprehensive. This approach helps to support existing pride of place at community level — the most power- ful tool in ensuring conservation of Ireland’s national and local built her- itage.
Mayor of Clare, Councillor Tony Mulcahy (FG) urged the minister to restore full funding for conservation projects to help preserve the “rich ar-
chitectural heritage of Clare”.
Deputy Mayor of Ennis, Council- lor Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) thanked Minister Gormley, saying that gov- ernment funding was critical to the future development of Ennis.
The NIAH survey is accessible on www.buildingsofireland.ie and work on a further nine surveys is under- EN
The publication
A SHANNON business which man- ufactures and distributes sports and health nutritional powders has re- ceived a top national award.
ABC Nutrition, at Knockbeg Point, Shannon, has been awarded by Bord Bia at the food and drink industry awards. ABC was one of seven com- panies nationally that scooped acco- lades.
The company was set up in Febru- ary 2007 and is fully Irish owned. It initially had just one customer and has since gone from strength to strength and currently distributes all over the world.
It is owned by four people — Sean McNamara (Tuamgraney), Wil- lie Wixted and Lorraine Gunning (Broadford) and Atis Vitolins (Lim- erick) — and eight people are em- je Key (orem
Mr McNamara explained the back- ground to the company being set up, on foot of demand globally. “It start- ed off in the States 25 years ago with body building. Now rugby players, GAA players and people who train use the products. It has grown at a massive rate. The products are based on protein and powders are the main part of it,” he said.
“Our main business is_ blending the products. We buy in the ingredi- ents and source them from all over the world. We design products for groups of people with different re- quirements. There are different for- mulations for people trying to lose weight and those trying to put on weight,” he said.
The company manufactures its own brand of supplements, which are available in health food shops
and chemists.
“Our biggest market is in the UK. We also distribute to Spain, Portu- gal, Holland, Belgium, Scandinavia, Hungary, Slovenia and Greece,” said Mr McNamara.
The award from Bord Bia was enti- tled “The Thinking Big’ award, dedi- cated to small businesses demon- strating exceptional entrepreneurial spirit, matched by strong sales and
marketing.
Among the other winners were Bul- mers Pear, Glanbia and Kerry Foods. “The real satisfying thing was that all the others were household names. It was nice to be on the same podium as those type of people,’ said Mr McNamara.
Although business has been slower in recent times, he is optimistic about the company’s future. “It 1s very, very
positive on the international front,” he said. He was involved in setting up the company, having felt there was a need in the market. He studied animal nutrition for many years and acquired a PhD in this area a number of years ago.
Helping bridge school funding gap
will headline this year’s fes- tival alongside the likes of Joseph O’Connor, Tim Pat Coogan and Paul
Howard (aka Ross O’Carroll-Kelly).
The organising committee an- nounced a partial line-up yesterday, with more authors to be confirmed in the coming months.
The festival will also feature Ire- land’s first ever Book Club of the Year award and will also include a professional development workshop for library staff.
Supported by Clare County Library,
the three-day programme of events 1s expected to attract hundreds of book club members and book lovers from all over Europe and America.
Other authors scheduled to par- ticipate in the fourth annual festival include Diarmaid Ferriter, Fiona Looney, Claire Keegan and Thomas Lynch. Academic contributors this year will include Dr Paul Delaney, School of English at Trinity College,
Alan Titley, Head of Department at University College Cork and Niall MacMonagle, editor and English teacher at Dublin’s Wesley College.
‘The festival is a wonderful social and literary event that brings togeth- er book club members, readers and authors from all over Ireland and beyond,” said Frances O’Gorman of the organising committee.
“One of the highlights of the week-
end festival will be the Sunday symposium, during which Tim Pat Coogan and Diarmaid Ferriter will join a panel discussion on the subject of reading history.”
The festival is also inviting library staff nationwide to a free workshop on how to start, develop and chal- lenge a book club.
The Ennis Book Club Festival will take place from March 5 to 7.
A TULLA family, who bought their house in the belief that they were connected to the main sewer, have had to all but abandon their home because of the vile mess and stink in the back garden.
Stephen McDermott’s wife, seven- week-old baby and his two-year-old son have left the family home in Tulla village after their yard became swamped in raw sewage.
“We were told when we bought the house that we were connected. This started with a small blockage and we discovered then that we weren’t connected at all. Since then, the stuff has started coming up in the garden, the smell is all over the house and there’s no way the children can live here,” said Stephen.
Stephen contacted Clare County Council about being connected and, after a meeting with engineers, the council agreed to waive the connec- tion fee, but told him he would have to organise and pay for the digging up of the path and the road and their subsequent repair.
He believes this is a major prob- lem. “I agree that I should have to pay for the work that needs to be done in my own yard but to pay for the roadworks is going to cost much more than we can afford. I think it’s
ridiculous in this day and age – sani- tation is a basic human right. If this was somewhere in the third world, there would be a charity fundraising to put in a Sewerage system. Instead, we’re here with raw sewage in the garden and more scented candles go- ing than the Vatican – and the stink is still unbearable.”
But Clare County Council staff say that what the Tulla resident is being asked to do is no more than any householder would be asked if they wanted connection to the main sewer.
“The council will do the connection but the householder has to arrange for the digging and the other work. That’s normal practice,’ a spokes- man for the council’s engineering department said.
The spokesman said that the au- thority had taken the “unusual” step of waiving the connection fee of €1,135.
“We felt this was a unique situa- tion,’ the spokesman said.
But the local authority cannot take on the expenses involved with the connection, the spokesman said. “We’ll work with Mr McDermott and make the connection but he has to do the work – it is a matter of a couple of hours to do it. Any householder who wants connection to the services has to pay to do those works.”
THE closure of Orchard Lodge and Gort Glass has nothing to do with pa- tient care, and everything to do with a nursing Crisis.
That is according to the Psychiatric Nurses Association representative Denis Meehan who maintains that nursing staff predicted this crisis six months ago.
“We saw this coming last May and brought it to the Labour Relation Commission,’ said Mr Meehan.
There are currently vacancies for 37 nursing staff in the Clare mental health service, he said.
‘A further five nurses are to leave the service before the end of the year.”
‘The service 1s run as much as pos- sible on overtime,’ he said.
Mr Meehan said that even with the closure of the rehab units in Ennis and Kilrush there will still be a shortage of nursing staff in the Clare mental health services.
He maintains that the policy being enacted by the HSE is not going to
solve the problem, but merely move it around.
Mr Meehan also refuted comments that the closure of the two units was part of the process of community liv- ing.
“There is no outreach team in west Clare or talks of one,” he said.
This week the HSE maintains that the review of mental health services in Clare is taking place against a back- ground of a 21.3 per cent decline in the number of nurses working in the Clare Mental Health services between
January 2008 and the current national moratorium on recruitment.
The closures of the two units – Or- chard Lodge and Gort Glas – are also part of “a need to respond to the com- plex requirements of specialized serv- ices to patients in accordance with best practice in modern health care”’.
“Our engagement with the staff as- sociations is further informed by a requirement to submit a management proposal to the Labour Relations Commission (LRC). The referral to the LRC was made by the staff associ-
ations following what they described as managements failure to recruit psy- chiatric nurses for the Clare Mental Health Services.
“At a meeting of the LRC held on Thursday September 24, 2009 under the chairmanship of Mr John Agnew, all parties agreed that management would come up with a proposal to ensure the continuing safe delivery of services in the context of existing resource constraints. The next LRC is scheduled for November 23, 2009,’ the HSE said.
THE CASE OF a 29-year-old man who admitted sexually assaulting four of his cousins over 10 years ago will not be finalised for a year, as he continues to receive treatment.
The accused, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the victims, pleaded guilty to 14 charges at Ennis District Court.
He admitted eight charges in rela- tion to one cousin; three charges in relation to another; two charges in relation to another and one charge in relation to another cousin.
The incidents occurred between 1995 and 1996 when the girls were aged between eight and 10.
The accused was a teenager at the nb eelon
The case initially came before the district court a year ago and was ad- journed to last Friday.
Counsel for the accused, Mark N1- cholas, BL, told Ennis District Court on Friday, that his client had pleaded ean iA
He said that a preliminary report from the Grenada Institute had been presented in court a year ago and an updated report was now available.
He said that while there was no
minimising what had happened, the report was “very positive.”
He said there had not been any in- cidents prior to or after the offences before the court.
Mr Nicholas told Judge Leo Malone that the issue of compensation had been addressed and €26,000 had been accumulated.
“The real tragedy in this 1s that it has divided a close family and that 1s irreparable,” he said.
Judge Malone said he sympathised with the victims and said he had read the reports from the Grenada Insti- tute and the probation service.
He said it was in the accused’s fa- vour that he was very young when the offences were committed and said it appeared that he 1s addressing his difficulties.
‘Because of the content of the Gre- nada Institute report, I am not going to finalise the case today. I need to be satisfied he has carried out all the treatment available to him and that he is not a danger to others,” said the judge.
He adjourned the case for a year and ordered that the accused con- tinue to attend the Grenada Institute and remain under the supervision of the probation service.
A MAN who dropped a packet of ec- stacy tablets to the ground at Ennis Garda Station almost nine years ago was yesterday jailed for 18 months.
Peter Burke (30), with an address at Glenanail Drive, Riverside, Galway, was convicted of possession of ecs- tacy for the purpose of sale or supply, in February 2001.
Sergeant John Brennan told Ennis Circuit Court that a car was stopped in Clarecastle on the evening of Feb- ruary 1, 2001 and the two occupants
were taken to Ennis Garda Station.
As the two were being taken from a car at the station, the accused dropped a package to the ground.
This was retrieved by gardai and it was found to contain 595 ecstacy tablets.
The market value of the tablets at the time was £5,940 (€7,500). Burke was arrested and detained overnight at Ennis Garda Station. He was charged the following morning.
However, he subsequently left the jurisdiction and went to the US. He returned in 2008 and on his return to
Ireland, he contacted gardai. He was then re-charged with the original of- oe
Sgt Brennan explained to Judge Carroll Moran that Burke had been returned for trial to the circuit court when he left the country.
Defence counsel Michael Collins, BL, put it to Sgt Brennan that his cli- ent was “not the main man in the op- eration.” Sgt Brennan replied, “That was our information at the time.”
Mr Collins said that the accused was “facing the music for these of- fences at this stage.’ He said there
were unusual features in the case “such as the accused absconding and going to the States and when he re- turns he immediately goes to gardai because he wants to face up to his responsibilities.”
Judge Moran said it was an aggra- vating factor that the accused ab- sconded, having been returned for trial to the circuit court. He said the accused was carrying a sizable quan- tity of ecstacy tablets.
However, he noted that the accused had pleaded guilty, was not the main player and has succeeded in kicking
his drug habit.
The judge said that a 10-year sen- tence could be imposed for posses- sion of drugs for the purpose of sale or supply, where the value exceeds Ja men OeL OF
“He had over half that threshold,’ he said.
“This could not be considered a minimalist case,” said the judge.
“Even having regard to all the fa- vourable matters, I’m compelled to impose an immediate custodial sen- tence,’ he said and jailed Burke for 18 months.
A 13-MONTH jail term has been imposed on a Kilrush man who as- saulted two gardai in separate inci- OLAS
Martin Burke (27), of St Senan’s Terrace, Kilrush, admitted assault- ing Sergeant Lavin; assaulting Garda Greg Gander; and criminal damage, arising out of various inci- eae
Garda Conor Flaherty told Kilrush District Court that the accused was arrested for public order offences on O’Curry Street, Kilkee, on Novem-
ber 30, 2008.
He was taken to the garda station. Handcuffs were removed from him at the public office.
He said that Burke refused to stand up to be searched. He was then re- strained and handcuffed and brought to a cell.
Gda Flaherty said that Burke was very abusive to gardai.
He became very violent and punched Sgt Lavin on the left shoul- Cloe
Defending solicitor | Eugene O’Kelly said his client was “so drunk he was unable to sign his own
name”.
‘He didn’t know what he was do- ing.
“No intention to assault Sgt Lavin had formed in his mind. He was completely out of it.”, Mr O’kelly explained
Garda Greg Gander told the court that the accused was highly abusive at Market Square, Kilrush, on June BEEN e
He was taken to the garda station, where he punched the garda to the stone
Garda Keith Hughes told the court that Burke broke windows on Crot-
ty’s pub and Central Sports in Kil- rush on March 27 last.
The total cost of the damage amounted to €2,250.
Mr O’Kelly, referring to that inci- dent, said his client told gardai, “My head isn’t right. I need to get help.”
Mr O’Kelly said that Burke’s grandmother had just died and he was very troubled as a result.
“He had no reason in the world for breaking these windows. It was some cry for help.
“Mr Burke needs help. He’s unfor- tunately far too regular a visitor to this court,’ he said.
Mr O’Kelly said his client would be willing to move out of Kilrush.
“He 1S sincere when he 1s sober, but unfortunately when he is drunk, matters get the better of him,’ he STH em
The court heard that Burke has 56 previous convictions.
One of those was for arson, for which a three-year sentence was imposed at Ennis Circuit Court in 2006.
Judge Joseph Mangan imposed sentences totalling 13 months and fixed a bond in the event of an ap- peal.