Month: July 2011

AN EAST Clare woman has spent the last month going door to door around thousands of houses in the east Clare area, looking for her dearest friend her 13-year-old dog, Punch.

Carmel Gooney has spent hundreds of hours over the past four weeks travelling along roads and across country looking for the missing Pomeranian, who has had prayers said for him and even a candle lit in his name in Knock.

Punch, who has a heart condition and is partially blind, is of great sentimental value to Carmel’s family, having been nursed back to health by Carmel’s late mother when he was just a puppy.

“His eyesight isn’t the best and he is on heart medication. He is of fierce sentimental value. My own mother died about four years and, when Punch was a puppy, he was in a traffic accident and lost all of the power in his legs. Myself and my mother taught him how to walk again. So there is a great connection there to my mother. Now that he is gone and she is gone, it is very lonesome, to be honest,” said Carmel.

“He went missing around June 17. He went missing from my house in Scariff on June 16 and was found by a local woman. Unfortunately, she didn’t realise that he was lost so she let him go. So the last sighting was on June 17.

“He wouldn’t normally roam anywhere but if a neighbouring dog was out for a walk he might follow them. But his eyesight isn’t great so he could find himself somewhere and not be able to find his way home.”

One bright side of Carmel’s monthlong search for Punch is the support that she has received from the local people.

“I’ve been covering as much ground as I can. I’ve covered Scariff, Mountshannon, one side of Woodford, around Feakle, Killanena and Caher. We also have people looking out for us through the animal welfare groups,” continued.

“I’ve met people who have been looking for him, people who I have never met before in my life. I have found one thing out, though, the good will of people is amazing. People have been ringing up and saying prayers. One woman even lit a candle for him in Knock. The good will of the people has been something else.”

Punch is orange with a small white spot on his chest – similar looking to a small fox. Anyone who comes across Punch is asked to contact Carmel on 086 2699317.

PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Michael D Higgins will be back on home soil next month for this year’s Merriman Summer School.

Higgins was one of a host of new speakers announced for this year’s event, which is expected to generate some fireworks in Lisdoonvarna with a number of very topical issues up for discussion.

Besides the focus brought to the events by the Presidential Election, a number of speakers have been added to the programme who have had, and continue to have, an intimate connection to the upcoming Children’s Rights Referendum.

The Summer School will be opened by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald (FG).

Also added to this year’s programme is former minister, Mary O’Rourke (FF), who played a role in the development of the Children’s Rights Referendum, as well as Fintan O’Toole, Joseph Dunne and Maria Corbett.

“I think when you look at the Cloyne Report and all the issues that have been in the media for the last number of days, then you do realise the importance of the topic,” said local organiser Marian O’Callaghan.

“Mary O’Rourke, who was very involved in the commission which looked for rights for children, will chair a heavyweight group in a discussion on the whole topic, so it should be very interesting stuff.

“Overall, though, this year’s programme will have the usual great mix that you would expect from the Merriman and, speaking as a Lisdoonvarna person, I am very happy to have it back here again this year.”

The director of this year’s Summer School is Professor Nóirín Hayes,who is a highly regarded expert in early childhood education and children’s rights and will attempt to address issues relating to Irish childhood, past and present, and consider a vision for the future.

“I think most of the topics are very timely.

“We often finish the festival with a general talk or chat and Michael D will taking time out from the campaign trail to do that this year,” continued Marian.

This year’s Summer School, which is on the topic of ‘Changing Irish Childhoods’, will take place in Lisdoonvarna from Wednesday. August 17 to Sunday. August 21.

For more information, visit www. merriman.ie.

THE PEOPLE of Shannon are being afforded the opportunity to build their own boat, which in time is expected to be involved in regattas.

The Shannon Traditional Boat Building Club was set up a couple of years ago, and facilitated the building of a fishing currach in September 2009.

The interest was such that the club has now decided to build another boat – in the SkyCourt shopping centre.

The club has started building the boat and meets every Thursday evening for 12 weeks at a vacant unit in SkyCourt to continue with the work. The base has been built during the past four weeks and further touches will be added over the next eight weeks until it is completed.

Greg Duff is one of those involved in the committee. “It’s about holding on to the old skills and traditions,” he said. “There has been a lot of interest, including from people who are out of work or retired. They are different ages, mostly people in their 40s and 50s,” said Mr Duff.

The adult education committee in Shannon provides a tutor who assists with building the boat. The tutor, Steve Morris, who hails from New Zealand, has experience in this area, having worked on an old turf boat in Querrin.

“The long-term thing would be we want to build a few currachs and get the younger people to get involved in the regattas around the coast,” said Mr Duff. “We gave the last one to the West Clare Currach Club. This one will be kept by ourselves to use. We are right on the estuary. We would love to have small little sailing boats and have a sailing club in the future,” he said. Members of the public are welcome to turn up for any of the weekly sessions every Thursday from 6.30pm to 9pm. “There is good interest. It is a new club and a club that is something different in this time of recession with loads of people off work,” he said.

GARDAÍ across the county are appealing for the public’s assistance in an effort to solve a string of burglaries and thefts over the past week.

Homes in Ennis, Shannon, Sixmilebridge and Flagmount were broken into, while people had property stolen in incidents in Sixmilebridge, Ogonelloe, Quin and Scariff.

A chainsaw, LCD television and Honda generator were stolen during a break-in to a house in Drummin, Flagmount, during the day last Thursday.

In Ennis, a house on the Gort Road was ransacked and damage was caused to it when intruders made their way in between Thursday night and Saturday morning.

In another incident, a garage on the Limerick Road in Sixmilebridge was broken into when a front door was forced open, between 1am and 9am last Monday. A box of CDs was stolen from the home.

Cash from a handbag was taken from a house in Cronan Park, Shan- non, in the early hours of last Tuesday, after a door was forced open.

Gardaí are investigating an incident in which a car had a corrosive substance poured over it while it was parked in the grounds of Ennis Tennis Club on the Mill Road in the town between 2am and 12 noon on Wednesday.

A range of tools were stolen from outside a house under construction in Ogonelloe overnight on Thursday. These included a Topcon laser level, an angle grinder, rotary drill and kango hammer.

In other incidents, a landcruiser jeep was stolen from outside a field in Moyriesk, Quin, last Wednesday morning; a trailer was stolen from Drumgeely Hill in Shannon last Tuesday; scaffolding planks were taken from a site at Ballyroe, Sixmilebridge, while a quad bike was stolen from Moynoe, Scariff, at around 7pm on Friday evening.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Ennis Garda Station on 065 6848100 or any Garda station in the county.

CLARE County Council has applied for emergency funding to tackle urgent health and safety problems in six so called “ghost estates” around the county.

This follow revelations last week that Clare County Council was one of a small number of local authorities who had failed to apply for funding under a € 5 million scheme set up to tackle the issue by the Department of the Environment.

A total of € 1.4 million has already been allocated under the scheme with Longford County Council having already received a grant of € 400,000 to tackle issues on a number of estates.

A spokesperson from Clare County Council confirmed for The Clare People yesterday that the local authority had made an application for funding on six separate development last week. There is as yet no indication when funding for these developments will be granted and Clare County Council has declined to name the estates which funding has been applied for.

The funding has been available for councils to draw down since April has already seen more then 10 local authorities receive in excess of € 100,000 from the department.

A total of 72 Clare developments were officially classified as “ghost estates” by the Department of the Environment last October. Clare County Council questioned these figures at the time, saying that many of the development classified as “ghost estates” were working well and nearing completion.

DRIVERS taking their test in Kilrush are waiting almost twice as long for a test dates than cadidates in other parts of the country.

On Friday last, a comparison of waiting times with other centres on the Road Safety Authority’s (RSA) own site showed a wait of 17 weeks to get a driving test in Kilrush.

This was incomparison with a wait of just eight weeks in Shannon, ten weeks in any test centre in Limerick city or county, and ten weeks in County Galway. Ennis, the county town also had a longer than average waiting time, with drivers waiting twelve weeks for a chance to progress to their full licence.

When contacted by The Clare People , a spokeswoman for the RSA said that the wait this week is down to twelve weeks, but the site still lists it as a 17-week wait.

The Clare representative for the Irish Drivers Association, a pressure group campaigning against such issues as higher VRT on imported vehicles and compulsory NCTs, John Learnihan, said the wait is too long.

“17 weeks is a disgraceful length of time for anyone to have to wait for a driving test but the fact is, and the RSA won’t admit it, they don’t have enough testers. Only the people who registered with them can carry out a test and there aren’t enough of them.”

Mr Learnihan said that the long wait in Clare is made all the more outrageous in light of new legislation which compels learner drivers to produce evidence of having taken ten hours of driving lessons before they will be allowed sit the test.

“At as much as € 70 an hour in some places in Clare, that’s € 700. How are young drivers expected to meet these costs? They just don’t have the money. And now the RSA will tell us which instructors we can go to for lessons – it’s a money racket, nothing more.”

A CLARE builder is set to revolutionise the way hurleys are made with the invention of the world’s first mobile hurley making unit.

East Clare man Flan Marsh is currently awaiting the official patent on his mobile hurley making unit, which will allow him to make customised hurls for an entire team during a single hour-long training session.

Flan has kitted out a van with everything he needs to customise the hurleys to suit an individual players needs and hopes to start visiting clubs and schools all over Ireland in the coming weeks and month.

“I was making hurleys away in the wood shed and I started thinking, if Mohammed won’t go to the mountain that I’d go to Mohammed – that’s where the idea for the mobile hurling making unit came from,” he said.

“So the idea is that I will go to clubs and to training all over the country and I’d make the hurleys, customised specially for them, while they train. I have everything I need in the van to make the hurleys exactly to their specification while they train.

“The hurls themselves would be 90 per cent made already and all I would be doing is putting in the special requirements that individual players want. I’d easily be able to kit out a full team during a training session.”

A roofing contractor by trade, Flan launched himself into the hurl making business when the recession hit the building sector in 2008.

“I wouldn’t be doing this at all only for the recession. They are tough times so I guess it was just a way of trying to make a job for myself,” continued Flan.

“I first come up with the idea of making a shatter-safe hurley, so when the hurl breaks in the middle that a part of it wouldn’t fly off. After that the idea just came to me to have a mobile unit for making the hurleys.

“Everyone has their own style of a hurl that they like, so this isn’t just a service for the elite players. I think younger players would be amazed to see what goes into making a hurley as well. It would be an education for children and adults as well; a lot of people would never have see a hurley getting made before.

“I think I’d be providing a service for people – mothers and father won’t have to go driving all over the country to get their children the hurleys they want. They won’t be wasting time and money; the hurleys will be delivered right to them.” For more info visit Flan’s website www.shattersafehurleys.com.

GARDAÍ are warning holidaymakers and people visiting the county’s tourist hotspots over the summer to be mindful that thieves are targeting parked cars in “opportunistic” spates of crime.

Every summer, tourist spots including Spanish Point, Kilkee, Lahinch, Dromore Woods and the Burren are hit as parked cars are broken into. Thieves mainly attack cars where they see valuables visible. Property including mobile phones, sat. navs., valuable clothing and handbags placed under seats are commonly targeted.

Last week, tents that were camped in Spanish Point were targeted. Personal belongings including handbags, mobile phones and money were stolen. Gardaí are warning that similar incidents may take place over the coming weeks unless people are vigilant.

The Crime Prevention Officer in the Clare Garda Division, Sergeant Joe Downey, said crimes of this nature are “opportunistic”.

“We see a bit of it and we see an increase of it at summer time because people are visiting resorts,” said Sgt Downey. “We would appeal to people not to leave property visible in cars and if they have valuable property with them, take it with them. Also, we would advise not to park in isolated areas,” he added.

“It is pure opportunistic. They (thieves) drive into an area and see things inside cars and take them,”

said Sgt Downey.

“The areas that at

tract them have large

amounts of people; tour

ist attractions and places

of interest. They break

windows and steal the

property,” he added.

While gardaí monitor

those areas, it can be

difficult to solve many

of those crimes in the

absence of concrete evi

dence.

“Unfortunately they

are not easy to solve. Seldom is there evidence left that we can use to solve them. Those who engage in this know where there are rich pickings,” he said.

People visiting tourist areas who see any suspicious activity should contact their local garda station.