This article is from page 13 of the 2011-08-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
AN ALL-IRELAND champion fisherman believes wetlands along a section of the N85 Western Relief Road could be transformed into a wildlife sanctuary. Ennis man Jimmy Allard says he has contacted Ennis Town Council about developing the area of land between Beechpark and the One Mile Inn as a sanctuary.
Jimmy and Clarecastle fisherman Michael Colleran recently released a new batch of 80 mallard ducklings into a lake in the area.
“I wanted to make a sanctuary out of it. It would be a great thing to have especially in the summer,” he says. “We released a few ducks in the lake; about 80 in the last two months. It’s a lovely area to put them in. They have plenty of freedom and room there and it’s grassy and they seem to be getting on well.”
Jimmy also believes that the re-built river wall at Parnell Street car park is too high and is denying children a chance to interact with wildlife.
The wall was built as part of works on the Ennis Flood Relief Scheme, a two-phase project to improve flood defences in the town centre.
The defences are credited with ensuring that large areas of Ennis town centre were not submerged under water when heavy floods hit the town in November 2009.
He says, “The big wall is a problem all the time. You have to lift a child to feed the ducks. It’s a pity you can’t raise the footpath or something. You see a lot of tourists down there trying to take photographs of the field.”
One of Ireland’s most successful fishermen, Jimmy is a three-time All-Ireland fly fishing champion and international gold medal winner. He was the first person to introduce ducks and geese to the River Fergus in 1990 and is currently chairman of the Clare Regional Game Council.
Jimmy believes that apart from a few lakes, it was a bad year for fishing because of the weather.