Month: June 2011

NORTH Clare residents have been asked to be on the lookout for a 32year-old man who is believed to be hiding out in the Burren.

The man, who was last seen by the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard in the Carron area in the early hours of yesterday (Monday) morning, is understood to be a survival expert, capable of surviving for weeks or even months alone in the wild. The Clare People understands that the man, who has been identified by gardaí as South Galway native James Geraghty, has been hiding out during daylight hours and moving around in search of food at night.

The man is not considered dangerous and is not wanted in relation to any crime, with gardaí treating the incident as a missing persons case and not a manhunt.

He was last spotted by a member of the Doolin Coastguard at 1.30am yesterday morning, close to Carron in North Clare. A number of other coastguard members arrived at the scene shortly after but could find no trace of the man.

James is described as being 5’ 9” in height, with short brown hair and blue eyes. When last seen, he was wearing a grey coat, woolly cap, black pants and black runners and was carrying a black knapsack.

A person matching that description was also spotted in the area around Mullaghmore in Corofin on Sunday and at Ballinderreen, just north of Kinvara, on Friday evening last.

A massive search involving the Doolin Coastguard Unit, local gardaí and members of the Galway Mountain Rescue took place on a large area of mountainous land between Slieve Carran and Abbey Hill on Saturday.

The search, which also utilised members of the SARDA Search Dog team and the Shannon Coastguard Rescue Helicopter was stood down on Saturday evening when no trace of the man was discovered.

“It was a very big operation involving 14 members of the coastguard, four volunteers from Galway Mountain Rescue as well as a number of guards,” said Matty Shannon of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard.

“We understand that the man is walking by night and hiding out during the day, which makes him difficult to track down. We went to Carron last night (Monday) with only three cars so as not to scare him off but he must have seen the lights from the cars.”

Anyone who may have seen James in recent days, or who has any information on his disappearance, should contact the Gardaí at Oranmore on 091 388030.

THE government holds the key to ensuring that the Lynx Cargo transshipment facility to be developed in Shannon will be a long-term success and engine for new growth at Clare’s international airport. The Clare People has lear ned this week that the Dubl in Ai r por t Author it y (DAA) backing for the project to the tune of up to € 6 million which was heralded by Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, must now be followed up by the opening of negotiations between the Irish and US gover nments on creating a cargo pre-clearance facility at Shannon.

“Lynx will only be a major success if the Irish and US government can reach a deal on the pre-clearance of cargo at Shannon,” one insider told The Clare People this week. “This has been done for passengers and, for the Lynx project to realise its full potential, it will have to be done for cargo traffic as well.”

This claim has been backed up by local Fianna Fáil TD and the party’s transport spokesperson, Timmy Dooley, who has challenged the Government to play its part in transforming Shannon into a new worldwide cargo hub creating thousands of long-term jobs.

“I am delighted after a prolonged period of time that the DAA are prepared to invest appropriate funding in Shannon to enable Lynx to build a facility there,” said Deputy Dooley.

“It’s a vote of confidence in the airport – the short-term potential is limited, there is long-term potential if the Irish government can secure a deal with the US administration for the pre-clearance of cargo at Shan- non,” he added.

It’s understood that the DAA investment in the Shannon project will amount to infrastructural works on the ground – making the site identified accessible by road, providing connection to the airport taxi-ways and fencing – before Lynx would step in and invest over € 2 million in building their temperature control facility.

The project was first heralded in 2009 when Lynx and the Shannon Airport Authority signed up to a memorandum of understanding to develop an international logistics hub in the Shannon Free Zone.

In 2009, the Mid-West Task Force called on the Government and DAA to back the Lynx project, while Shannon Development chief executive and task force member, Dr Vincent Cunnane warned that “the airport will not survive on passengers alone and needs a cargo hub”.

The decision by the DAA to finally back the project with capital investment was taken in mid-May, a move that now paves the way for Lynx to take the next step and lodge a planning application with Clare County Council to build its facility.

A NORTH Clare garden, which boasts Ireland’s largest collection of snowdrops, has been recognised as one of the country’s top 100 gardens.

The Caher Bridge Garden in Fanore, which was founded less than a decade ago, has been chosen alongside more established Clare gardens such as the Vandeleur Walled Garden in Kilrush and the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park as one of Ireland’s top gardens.

That is according to a new book by Shirley Lanigan, which is due for release later this week.

The garden, which is started in the Caher Valley in Fanore just 11 years ago, is one of the newest gardens in the top 100.

“This all started as a private garden, and I really had no intention of opening it to the public, but somehow it has become very well known. This is not really a tourist attraction. It is a private collector’s garden, but people do seem to want to come and see it anyway,” said garden owner Carl Wright. “I have a lot of collections of plants. One of my real passions is snowdrops and I actually have one of the largest collections of snowdrops in Ireland here with more than 200 different types.”

The garden was built from scratch in one of the harshest landscapes in Clare to grow plants and flowers.

“One of the problems with creating a garden here has been the conditions. It is a totally unsuitable location to produce a garden in, so I had to work very hard to get this off the ground. There is very little soil here and the conditions are very difficult they are as difficult as you could possibly get. The only thing that I have on my side is great shelter but it has been a real challenge to get it off the ground.”

The Caher Bridge Garden is open to visitors year-round by appointment only. Telephone 065 7076225 for details.

VISITORS to the world-famous Poulnabrone Dolmen will be greeted by the most unusual site when they visit the iconic tourist location later this month – a twice-life-size replica of the dolmen made as a functioning bouncy castle.

On the eve of the summer solstice on June 21, local artist Jim Ricks will complete a two-week trek across the Aughty Mountains at the site of the Poulnabrone Dolmen. Each day, Jim will be inflating ‘The Bouncy Dolmen’ as part of a public arts programme supported by Clare County Council’s Arts Office, Galway County Council and Ground Up Artists Collective.

Jim, who is a former Master of Fine Arts student at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, dreamed up the bizarre outdoor installation as a means of contrasting the ancient her- itage of the dolmen with the excesses of Celtic Tiger Ireland.

“I found it so interesting that something that was so old but had so little really known about it had become this symbol of Ireland and all things ancient. It had become a marketing symbol for B&Bs; people were making dolmens in their front yard using diggers. There were even coffee cups made in the shape of the dolmens,” said Jim.

“I started thinking, what is today’s monumental structure – what the dolmen would have been 6,000 years ago – and the answer that I came up with was the bouncy castle. Particularly a few years ago, bouncy castles were everywhere and they were a symbol of Celtic Tiger Ireland. I thought building the bouncy dolmen would be a pretty absurd way to pull together these different identities for Ireland.”

The castle was designed and built by Jim and the English company who invented the first bouncy castle over the last four years.

“The consumption of the Celtic Tiger, as seen through the bouncy castles, has changed Ireland forever. While this project is not a scathing critique of that, it is a commentary on it – a playful commentary anyway,” continued Jim.

‘The Bouncy Dolmen’ will appear at different locations in the North Clare and South Galway area between June 7 and 21. It will come to its last destination at the site of the Poulnabrone Dolmen on June 21. ‘The Bouncy Dolmen’ is a functioning bouncy castle and people will be allowed to jump on it while it is on tour.

THE first time Don Ryan, from Parteen, travelled to Africa with the Building of Hope project five years ago, it was a last-minute decision.

He had been asked if he would go because the team needed someone with his specialist training in putting down high-tech soft floor covering.

Don came on board just as the team prepared to fly out to South Africa on its first mission.

As it happened, when he got there, the concrete floors had been too recently poured (the entire building went up in less than eight weeks) and he couldn’t use the special flooring. But he was hooked.

Don has travelled with the final finishing team on the Building of Hope ever since and 2013 is no diferent.

And besides, as Don observes, “Olive Halpin (the project organiser) is a hard woman to say no to and every time she gets on to me to see am I coming back!”

On the last two trips, Don was tiling but this time he hopes to be putting down the soft flooring, the team having planned for it with the experience of the first trip behind them.

Don was one of the many volunteers who built a polytechnic in Kenya in Fr Martin Keane’s parish in 2010 and what he saw when he visited the School for the Blind and Visually Impaired would bring him back, even if Olive let him off the hook.

“Conditions were very bad there. I’m glad we’re doing this project for the kids,” he said.

To help raise the € 3,000 he needs to travel to Mombassa again, Don has organised a quiz night in Flashes, the Tailrace Bar in Parteen.

A great night of fun is promised and there will be finger food as well, making the outing great value for € 10 a head.

“We’ll have tables of four so it’s € 40 a table and I’ll have spot prizes on the night,” said Don.

The quiz night takes place on Saturday, July 2, starting at 8.30pm.

Anyone who would like to donate a spot prize should contact the Tailrace Bar after 4pm on 061 451527. Anyone who wants to go along and support Don can pay in on the night.

A QUIN man will take on a kayaking challenge of a lifetime in an effort to raise money for the Clare branch of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland.

52-year-old Brendan Cooney is aiming to kayak the 124-kilometre trip from Athlone Weir to Two Mile Gate in Killaloe, between June 23 and 26.

Brendan is taking on the challenge in memory of his mother Nancy who had suffered from Alzheimers prior to her death in 1999.

He is looking forward to the task that lies ahead.

“It is happening at a good time of the year. The days are long and the weather should be good,” he told The Clare People .

“I will do it over four days. I will be calling to various harbours on the way down. It should take me two days to do Lough Derg. I have been doing a bit of training. You just have to play by the weather,” he added.

He has had to prepare carefully, train zealously and embark on a strenuous exercise regime in order to complete this challenge. Throughout the course of the challenge Brendan will be setting up camp each night and surviving cold wilderness of the Irish countryside.

“Down the years I have been doing a bit of canoeing and boating and I thought I would put it to good use,” he said.

He said he has not set any targets in terms of fundraising. “People haven’t the money at the moment. I don’t know how much I will raise. If I make € 100 or € 10,000 I don’t mind as long as I raise something. It is just to raise awareness of the Alzheimer Society. They are always at the end of the phone,” he added.

Brendan has never done anything like this before but is considering doing something similar on an annual basis. “I am hoping if it goes well to make it an annual event,” he said.

To support Brendan in his challenge please contact the Clare branch of The Alzheimer Society of Ireland on 065 6868621.

THE Burren is set to become the holiday destination of choice for thousands of Leaving Cert geography students following a new initiative to promote the world-class geology of the North Clare National Heritage Site.

The Burren has already been designated as a special area of study on the Leaving Cert curriculum with dozens of secondary schools already using local businesses such as the Burren Outdoor Activity Centre as part of their study.

It is hoped that a number of new publications on the geology of the Burren, which were launched last week by Clare County Council through the Burren Connect Project, will help drastically increase the numbers coming to the Burren as geological tourists.

“The Burren is one of the main case-study areas on the Leaving Cert geography course and the idea of this is to encourage that and also to encourage more school to visit the Burren as part of their study and to generate a bit of business locally. Quite a number of schools from all over the west already come to the Burren for this and the hope is that we can improve what they get out of the experience and increase the number who visit,” said Ronan Hennessy, geologist with the Burren Connect project.

“We paid a lot of visits to schools which we were putting this together – to test out what the interest was and to see what people knew in the school – and that influenced us greatly in putting together the different publications.”

The booklet will be circulated to school and tourist outlets in the Burren area and will be available for free to everyone on the internet. Geological tourism has been on the increase in the Burren in recent times and is currently seen as a vital part of the area’s new eotourism product.

“This is about raising the profile of the local geology with the businesses who are directly involved with it people like The Cliffs of Moher, the Burren Centre, The Burren Outdoor Education Centre, BurrenBeo, The National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Clare Farm Tourism Co-Op. They were our closest partners on this but the idea is to promote this among all the businesses in the Burren so it becomes a bigger and bigger part of the overall tourism product in Clare,” continued Ronan.

“The hope is to continue to bring businesses together so that when a tourist does come with questions the local people have the knowledge to help them find out the answer. It’s about bringing all the businesses together and having everyone singing off the same hymn sheet,” added Ronan.

These publication have been brought about by the GeoNeed Project, which is an joint Irish, Finish and Icelandic initiative coordinated in Ireland by the Burren Connect Project. For more information or to download a copy of all the publications, visit www.geoneed.org.

A FORMER teacher in Scariff Community College who passed away last year after a long illness has been honoured in the east Clare school by the creation of a garden in her memory.

Andrea McMahon was a value member of staff at the community college for 30 years, teaching Irish, French and Religious at the school from the time she joined the teaching staff in 1980.

Fr Brendan Quinlivan performed the special blessing and dedication ceremony, while students marked the occasion by publishing a two-page remembrance of Ms McMahon in their annual magazine, Anoir

“I always found her very inspiring as a teacher. As a student I felt that I could talk to Ms McMahon about any problem I might have had. I found her to be a sympathetic person” said Edel Broderick.

Retired principal John S. Kelly contributes a special reflection to the magazine and concludes,

“Isn’t it sad that it is so often in the parting that we finally recognise uniqueness,” said retired principal John S Kelly. “I feel that Andrea, who is surely listening to us now, might be inclined to say, ‘Now continue the good work which you are doing in facilitating the education of our young people in East Clare.

“Continue to work as a close-knit community of teachers, students and parents, always treating each other with dignity and fellowship.’ In that way, perhaps, we best respect and honour her memory.”

IT’S a long way from Peru to Clare but thankfully not too long for one Shannon worker.

Delia O’Malley, a machine operator with Ei Electronics, received the surprise of a lifetime last week when six members of her family touched down in Shannon after completing the 6,000-mile trip from their native Peru.

The visiting party included Delia’s parents Leonidas Zarate (94) and Dolores Zarate (85), two brothers and two sisters.

The family re-union was complete when another of Delia’s sisters flew in from Barcelona, while two other siblings also live in Ireland.

Mother-of-one Delia, who moved to Shannon 11 years ago, said she got a shock when she heard her parents had come to Ireland.

She said, “This is the first time they have travelled here together. My mother was here two years ago but my father has never been over here. He was born in 1917. When I was told they were coming, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I didn’t know they were coming.”

The visit to Ireland is Leonidas’ first trip abroad since attending the World Cup in 1986.

Delia added, “It’s amazing they came. My Dad is 94 my mother is 85. We have a family of 12 and all the kids are still alive.”

The family, who originally hail from Cajamarca in northern Peru near the Andes Mountains, have enjoyed their trip to Ireland. She said, “They love it except there are no mountains. Everything is green and so flat. They think it’s a park.”

MEMBERS at the inaugural meeting of the Shannon Green Party have pledged support to campaign for a light rail link to Shannon Airport and want to see any money collected in water charges reinvested in Shannon to tackle leaking pipes.

The first meeting of the new branch under Shannon representative Gerben Unk discussed the possibility of having the link to make Shannon more acessible by public transport. The members said they also want to see an upgrade to provide safe and continuous cycle paths in the estate. But one of the most pressing issue, Mr Unk said at the meeting, is that of water charges.

“It appears that the present govern- ment is intent on bringing in water charges in advance of the roll out of an effective water metering system. Families may be faced with a flat fee of € 175.

The local Shannon Greens are concerned that this will be inequitable because everyone will pay the same regardless of the amount of water they use and ultimately counter-productive as it gives no incentive to user water wisely. Equally, there was concern among the membership for the prospect of an additional drain on the resources of already struggling families. There are fears that it will be introduced without proper processes in place to deal with those who are on low incomes or social welfare who are simply unable to bear the cost.

Just as important is the upgrading and ring-fencing of water charges for small- and medium-sized businesses who can barely survive in the current economic climate,” he said

On the issue of cycle paths for Shannon, Mr Unk said, “The environmental and health benefits of cycling are well documented and it is eminently feasible to cycle from anywhere in Shannon to work in any of the business parks around the town. Cycle paths should be implemented as much as possible, linking local housing estates to the business parks. This must be coupled with a renewed focus on the Bike to Work Scheme. This renewed focus should target local businesses and the community generally.”

The branch now plans to hold a public meeting focused on the water charges issue.

“We will invite all political representatives in the Shannon area, to attend this meeting.

“We are aware there is a lot of leakage due to insufficient piping in the Shannon area and a lot of water gets wasted and we all experienced the effects of this last winter. Sadly this is not unique to Shannon and affects many parts of the country. The Greens demand the proceeds of these water charges are spent at local level to improve the water infrastructure in local communities, for example waste water treatment systems, upgrading and repair of broken/leaking pipes, and educational initiatives focusing on the need to conserve water,” added Mr Unk.