Month: July 2011

ENNIS Golf Club has installed a new security system aimed at ensuring greater protection for staff and members in response to recent break-ins at the club.

Members must now type in an access code at the main entrance door in order to gain access to the clubhouse at night. Last year, a group of people gained entry to the clubhouse late at night by cutting a hole in the roof at the rear of the building and into the bar area, where a safe was removed.

Earlier this year, an intruder broke glass in the club shop before gaining access to the dressing room area.

Honourary secretary John Cullinane explained that in light of those recent events and given that staff are often alone in the building at night when they finish work, the club felt it was necessary to improve security.

He explained, “It was done more so for the health and safety of staff. Some nights you might only have one female staff member working alone.” Mr Cullinane added, “We have CCTV to identify members and an alarm system. We were looking at security issues in general for the club house.”

Meanwhile, Mr Cullinane added that members have responded positively by email and letter to Clare County Council’s request for submission to a proposed pedestrian crossing.

Speed ramps have been installed on a section of road near the golf club. The ramps form part of an overall scheme of traffic calming measures, which will include the installation of a pedestrian crossing, linking sections of the golf course.

Ennis Golf Club has contributed € 10,000 to the overall cost of the project, which members say is essential to protect members’ safety.

In May, the council launched a public consultation process with all submissions and/or objections to be submitted by June 24.

Speaking then, Town Engineer Eamon O’Dea that the ramps are necessary to slow traffic ahead of the pedestrian crossing. He said cars often travel at speeds of 70km per hour in an area where the speed limit is 50km per hour.

The measures had been opposed by some councillors who claimed they had caused disruption to motorists.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Cullinane said the gradient of the ramps had been lowered in order to address the concerns of the public. He said the crossing remained dangerous for maintenance staff and golfers, particularly the club’s 200 senior members.

Mr Cullinane added that engineers at both Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council had expressed support for the installation of a pedestrian crossing.

THE young students and teachers from the Mol an Óige primary school in Ennistymon last week paid tribute to two German trainee students who have lived and worked in the town for free for the past 10 months.

German students Anika Fuchs and Johanna Hohn have spent the last 10 months in Ennistymon, immersing themselves both in the life of the school and in the workings of rural Ireland.

Both women have also been a huge help to the school, which is the fastest growing school in the county.

“They have been absolutely invaluable this year. This is the first time that we have had volunteer teachers from abroad and we are really happy with the way that it turned out. It was a big boost for the school this year,” said Sinead Barrett of the Mol an Óige school.

“Both girls had some experience before they came but I think they have both learned a massive amount while they were here. The girls were facilitated to come here by Léargas, who were able to fund a host families for the girls – which was a great way of helping them settle in and to learn more about the area.”

As well as immersing themselves in the school and the local area, the trip also allowed the girls to learn more about the Steiner method of education.

“I really wanted to work with children and to improve my English at the same time. The kids are lovely here so it was a good experience,” said Johanna.

“I live near Berlin so it was a big difference coming to the west of Ireland. But I really liked it here – I got to know the Irish culture very well and the landscape, so it was a really good experience. My time here was great and now what I want to do is study social studies back in Germany and work with children.”

Both girls say they have enjoyed their time in Ennistymon and will be returning to Clare again in the future.

“It is my dream to become a German and English teacher so I thought it was a good idea for me to come over and work in a school and get some good training,” said Anika.

“It was very nice here. I love the countryside in Clare and Ennistymon is a really nice town. The school has been very good. At first it was a little difficult, I had to get used to how things work at a Steiner school, but I love being here with the students and the teachers.”

A CLARE woman made history at the weekend when she was one half of the first two-person Irish relay team to swim the English Channel.

Maighread McMahon (33), who is from Kilmaley, and swim partner Lynsey Dunne battled fatigue, motion sickness, jellyfish stings and darkness to complete the swim from England to France in 13 hours and 53 minutes.

Accompanied by a pilot boat, the pair set off from the English coast at 9am on Friday morning. Alternating two-hour shifts in the water, the journey was eventually completed at 11.40pm when Dublin-born Sligo resident Lynsey climbed out of the water in France.

A jubilant Maighread told The Clare People yesterday that she was delighted to have been part of the record-breaking challenge. She said, “It was a long day but a good day.”

In crossing the channel, Maighread and Lynsey raised € 10,000 for the Irish Cancer Society. Most crosschannel swims are attempted in groups of six or as solo efforts. However, Maighread and Lynsey are believed to be the first Irish two-person team to complete the swim.

A former student of Killable National School and Coláiste Muire secondary school in Ennis, Maighread started training for the challenge last April.

She said, “I had been doing a lot of triathlons and swimming would have been my best event. So I said to Lynsey, would you be interested in swimming the channel?”

Training involved swimming six days a week in the seas around Ireland. Mairead, a quality manager with Diageo, explained, “It’s hard work when you are working as well. You have to do a lot of ‘carbing up’ to put on weight so you don’t get hypothermia.”

The rules of the challenge meant that Maighread and Lynsey could only be in the water for a maximum of two hours at a time.

Conditions may have been warm and relatively calm but the pair did have to contend with jellyfish.

Maighread said, “I got a few jelly- fish stings across the face. Some of them were really quite painful. But I thought, there’s no way a jellyfish is going to get the better of me.”

Despite temperatures hitting 29 degrees, Maighread had to stay well wrapped up while she was on the boat to keep her body temperature high. On board, she also had to fight the effects of motion sickness. However, the most dangerous part of the journey came right at the very end.

She said, “The tide changed and it was dark so you couldn’t see what was above or around you.”

Maighread is still in England, taking a well-deserved break. Now living in Carlow, she intends to take part in swimming events in Ireland and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of attempting a solo cross-channel swim. “I need to have a think about it. But after doing it, it would be fantastic to do it solo.”

SEVEN Clare people yesterday became the first unemployed people in Ireland to get a year-long job under the new Tús scheme.

The scheme, which is being ran under the supervision of the Clare Local Development Company (CLDC), will give unemployed Clare people a chance to get paid € 20 extra a month to take on a job at a community or social project around the county.

Two of the employees will be based at the offices of the CLDC itself, implementing the Warmer Home Scheme in the county and designing websites for a number of different community group around the county.

Other groups to benefit from the scheme yesterday are the Moyasta Community Group, St Pat’s Soccer Club in Kilmihil, Clare GAA at Cusack Park, the Tulla Soccer Club and the Kilkishen Development Association.

Workers at 11 more Clare organisations will begin next Monday, July 11, and a total of 100 places have been allocated to Clare in total.

Currently more than 104 community projects have asked to be considered for a work placement but, according to Jackie Bonfield of the CLDC, the organisation is desperate for people in North Clare and in the south east of the county to put their community group forward.

“The candidates for this scheme were chosen through random selection and we have been conducting interviews with 300 clients to determine what kind of work would suit them best. Someone might have worked in an office all their life but wanted to get into gardening – so we can try and match them with a group who needs gardening work done,” said Jackie.

“Even though we are already oversubscribed for with community group looking for workers, we are desperate to talk to groups in the North Clare area – from Ennistymon up to the Ballyvaughan area – and to people in the south east of the coun- ty; we have a shortage of community group in this area.”

Tús works by giving short-term quality work opportunities for the unemployed both in the community and voluntary sector. Each work placements will last for a 12-month period and the participants will receive an additional € 20 a week payment on top of their social welfare payment. The project was yesterday welcomed by Clare TD Michael McNamara (Lab).

“Work carried out by Tús must benefit the community. Participants will learn new skills and will also be able to apply the skills they already have to the work they will be undertaking,” he said.

THREE international high rollers are set to battle it out for the chance to buy their very own piece of the Banner County as interest hots-up on the 180-acre Mutton Island.

The island, which is located just half a mile from the Clare coast, has been owned by a number of high profile people since the departure of its last inhabitants in the 1950s and was even subject to a bid from The Beatle’s John Lennon in 1967. The Clare People understands that interest in the island is high with a number of solid enquiries coming from America and the Middle East. The island, which is home to a number of derelict building and a herd of wild goats, is likely to sell for less than the € 500,000 guide price.

The sale of the island is being managed by Philip O’Reilly Auctioneers in Ennis, who believes that it will take a person with “a lot of money and balls” to buy the island.

“We’ve had a lot of interest in the island. We’ve had a lot of interest from America, mostly from expats but we’ve also had interest from people in the Middle East,” Philip told The Clare People .

“At the moment there is nothing at all on the island but a herd of wild goats. But it is perfectly located, just a half a mile from the coast. You can see the island when you are teeing off of a lot of the holes down in Doonbeg and whenever I play down there people are always asking me what it is.

“It would take a person with a lot of money and balls to buy the island and at the moment there doesn’t seem to be someone like that in Ireland. But it is a great opportunity for someone – this is a 180-acre island which is likely to be sold for less than the asking price of € 500,000.”

While no official bid has been made for the island, The Clare People understands the there are currently three very interested enquires and a large number of others who have yet to show a formal interest in the property.

Planning permission for a tourism development on the island has been turned down in the past so and, according to Mr O’Reilly, the island is likely to be bought for a home rather than a commercial development.

REMEMBERING the late town clerk in Shannon was one of the new town mayor’s priorities immediately after she was elected last week.

Fine Gael councillor Mary Brennan paid tribute to Tomás MacCormaic, who died suddenly on June 7. He had been the town clerk for 27 years prior to his retirement two years ago and was highly regarded in the town.

A golf classic was held last week to raise funds for the senior citizens club in the town last Monday and the new mayor was one of those involved. “It was dedicated to Tomás,” she said.

“Tomás was a gentleman and was very much part of the community in Shannon. Young and old loved him. Nothing was too little or too big for him. I felt it was a nice gesture to dedicate the golf to him. He was involved with the senior citizens club.”

Cllr Brennan was elected as mayor two weeks earlier, to replace Tony Mulcahy who left the council to take up a place in the Seanad. Her fellow councillors opted to re-elect her to the position for a 12-month term. She has been a town councillor for the past two years.

She told The Clare People she enjoyed the fortnight as chairperson of the council and is look- ing forward to the year ahead. “It has been very enjoyable. I am excited about it,” said Cllr Brennan, who has worked as the caretaker in the town’s health centre for the past 23 years.

A number of priorities are on her mind for the year ahead, not least a focus on the local airport.

“I’d hope we could facilitate more work at the airport and lobby Richard Bruton. It is such a shame to see the airport being used for the wrong reasons; our children leaving due to lack of jobs,” she said.

She knows at first hand the circumstances surrounding the recession, as one of her sons has emigrated to Canada, while another will move to Australia in the coming weeks.

“I will be working with the community. I would be quite open to taking on board any ideas people would offer me for the betterment of Shannon,” she said. “I’d know a lot of people in Shannon through working in the health centre. People know they can come up to me and I will point them in the right direction,” said the mother-of-three, who is a native of Mayo. My eldest is 30 and my youngest is 23. I would be very well known in that age group. I work with vast age groups. The elderly enjoy coming in and having the banter in the health centre.”

TWO new wastewater treatment plants for Kilrush and Kilkee – at a combined cost of € 17 million – have been given the green light, after a long wait.

The Government is to today announce the construction of the treatment plants in the two West Clare areas, along with the upgrade of the existing network collection system in the area.

The projects have been mooted for several years and the work is poised to be of a huge benefit to tourism in the West Clare area. € 10.5 million will be spent on the Kilkee project and € 6.7 million on the Kilrush project.

It will lead to job creation in the area when the work is ongoing, after contract documents are prepared for the project which will go to tender.

Fine Gael Deputy Pat Breen told The Clare People last night, “This has been with the Department of the Environment for many years and it is a significant development in progressing the two schemes. I would like to see these projects progressing with the minimum of delay, through to the preparation of contract and tender documents, so that the schemes could go to construction some time in 2013.”

“These schemes are very important to these two West Clare towns particularly given the importance of tourism to their local economies,” he added.

‘‘This contract is included in the Department’s Water Services Investment Programme 2010-2012 as a scheme at planning,’’ he said.

The schemes will be funded by the Department, in conjunction with Clare County Councils. The final de tails have yet to be worked out, according to Deputy Breen.

Local hotelier John Redmond said, “The sewage treatment project is something that needs to be done. Protecting the environment is such a high profile thing, especially in West Clare. It is a good thing for the town and the environment.”

Mr Redmond said this announcement is a significant boost to the local area, in the wake of grants being awarded for new lights at the Prom.

Every boost is essential, given that the tourist season hasn’t yet shown great results in the seaside resort.

“Even when people are around, the spend is not there. It has been fairly quiet. It is similar to last year. It’s not as busy as it should be. Everybody is trying their best,” said Mr Redmond.

AIRLINES and passengers will have to rally behind Shannon Airport before the Minister reinstates the controversial travel tax if the airport is to make any kind of recovery, according to the airport pressure group Give Shannon Wings.

Ennis businessman Brian O’Neill was reacting to the Tanaiste’s warning at last week’s mid-west aviation conference, where he stated that the tax will be reintroduced if the airlines cut numbers.

And O’Neill added that whatever negotiations the various government departments are currently having with the airlines, they should be more transparent so that people in Clare know what is being planned.

“The airlines have the break they asked for and now they have to bring greater numbers into Shannon. And the travelling public have to support the airport and plan trips as much as possible to use the routes that are already there,” he said.

An Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, said last week that the Government will “have to look at what Shannon Airport is doing and what role it plays in the overall picture of things. The objective of removing the travel tax, which was at the request of the airlines, was to increase the numbers and if we find that some airlines, instead of increasing numbers, are cutting back on routes and cutting back on activity, then we would have to revisit the issue of travel tax.”

O’Neill, of the Rowan Tree hostel and restaurant in Ennis joined forces with John O’Conner of Custy’s music shop and David Woodford from the Irish Shop came together to form the Give Shannon Wings and an online petition in support of the airport late last year. The petition which contained more than 13,000 signatures was presented to the the Minister for Tourism along with ten ‘demandments’ on what is needed to resurrect business at the aiport.

“The development of the Lynx Cargo Hub is to be welcomed but the airlines have to take advantage of this break. At the same time routes have to be encouraged and supported and there needs to be a targeted package put in place to promote the airport and let people know what routes are available.”

The other key to Shannons recovery lies with the travelling public, he said. “We need to support the routes that are there and plan to use them whenever possible and make a determined effort to see can we get where we’re going by using Shannon?

“We don’t know what the Minister is saying to the airlines or what he is saying to Michael O’Leary. It has been put about that Ryanair have been offered incentives. If that’s the case, then let people in the mid-west know what is being said and what we can expect.”

SHANNON’S mounting losses in recent years means that the airport won’t be granted its independence in the short-term, even though a 2011 deadline had been put in place to determine if it would be broken away from Dublin Airport Authority control and given its wings as a standalone entity.

NEW casual trading byelaws aimed at improving the operation of the Ennis market were last night adopted by members of Ennis Town Council after councillors voted unanimously to remove plans for a controversial tow away system.

As part of the byelaws, the Council had proposed introducing a system that would have seen cars parked in market trading bays on trading days, towed away.

That, along with plans to limit the sale of Christmas trees to the Cornmarket area of the town, were strongly opposed by all elected representatives present at yesterday’s Council meeting.

Despite sparking confusion, another proposal to prevent the further reduction of parking spaces in favour of trading bays in Guaranakilla, as set out in the byelaws, did make the final draft, despite criticisms from Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG).

Councillors Flynn, Paul O’Shea (Lab) and Frankie Neylon (Ind) proposed that the byelaws be passed subject to three conditions.

Members voted unanimously to re- move the tow away system and the restriction of the sale of Christmas trees from the byelaws.

However, following a warning from town manager Ger Dollard that a proposal to designate a section of Guaranakilla strictly for parking would have “serious implications” for trading in the market, a majority of councillors present voted 4-3 against the amendment.

Cllr Flynn said he was against the further reduction of parking in the interests of ratepayers in the area. Town clerk Eddie Power said effective byelaws were needed to manage the market in the interests of safety and of traders who pay to operate in the area.

Mr Dollard told the meeting that signs warning that cars may be towed away could still be put up in the market. He said the penalty would not be part of the byelaws, adding that Gardaí could still decide to tow cars away if they are found to be impeding trading.

Cllr Flynn described the tow away system as using a “sledgehammer to crack a nutshell”. Cllr Neylon said the proposal could cost affected car owners € 200 to remedy.