Month: August 2011

ALMOST 20,000 Clare households could face the prospect of shelling out as much as € 300 each to have their septic tanks examined following the implementation of EU legislation which is likely to become law in Ireland this September.

The new law would require every septic tank in the county to be examined by Clare County Council to determine if the tank meets with the new EU guidelines. It is understood that this examination would be carried out at the expense of the landowner themselves.

Should the septic fail to meet the standards required, improvements costing up to an estimated € 7,000 would be required – again with the home-owner responsible for meeting the cost of upgrading or replacing the septic tank.

A spokesperson from Clare County Council told The Clare People last week that the local authority were not in a position to comment on the issue until legislation had been passed by Government.

The local authority’s Director of Services for the Environment, David Timlin, did confirm that the number of Clare houses affected could be as high as 19,000.

“Until such time as any such legislation is published, I am not in a position to comment on the kind of regulatory regime that may be put in place. I will need to see what exactly the local authority’s responsibilities would be,” he said. “There are about 19,000 single-house treatment systems in Clare, mainly septic tanks.”

North West Area MEP, Marian Harkins (IND) hosted a public meeting on the subject in Ennis last Friday. “There is a huge inequity in requiring rural householders to pay an as yet undisclosed fee to inspect septic tanks which, if found deficient, could involve subsequent and significant additional costs for them,” she said.

“Bearing in mind that billions of Euro of exchequer and EU funding have been provided to supply a completely free sewerage service to urban dwellers, the least that rural dwellers should have is equally free service.

“Rural dwellers provide their own sewerage treatment at their own expense, and repair it at no cost to the state or local authorities.

“It is regrettable that the two parties of government, Fine Gael and Labour, have decided that rural dwellers will pay while their urban counterparts will not.”

ROADSTONE has declined to comment on increasing speculation that they are about to re-open a quarry, formally operated by the Whelan Group, on the Lahinch Road in Ennis.

In a statement to The Clare People yesterday, a spokesperson that that Roadstone had no official comment to make on the situation, but said that they were aware of the growing speculation linking them and the Ennis quarry.

In December of 2010 the High Court made to wind up five companies in the Whelan Group after the company directors withdrew a petition for court protection. The Clare People understands that a number of people, who have been out of work since the operations ceased at the quarry, have been contacted in recent days about the possibility of returning to work, but it is unclear how many jobs will be reinstated and who will be operating the facility.

The Whelan’s Group employed 120 people in five separate companies when the winding up order was issued in December of last year and the company directors said at the time that they “profoundly regretted” any job losses that would come about as a result.

Clare Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway (FG) yesterday welcomed any increase in employment in the area and said that Roadstone would make a success of the quarry if a deal is completed.

“Roadstone are a company with a great track record and a massive amount of experience in this area and if a deal can be done I have no doubt that they will make a great success of the venture,” the Fine Gael senator said.

“Every job is an important job and that area was hit particularly badly with the closure of the quarry. I would welcome any move that would allow the people effected by this to get back to work.”

The Whelan’s Group is a familyowned company which has been in operation in Clare for the past 40 years.

HAVING closed the book on their latest research project, members of the Clare Roots Society are already putting the finishing touches to a new history of one of Ennis’ best known streets.

Speaking at a book launch in the Old Ground Hotel on Thursday night, local historian Larry Brennan said the society have pieced together a history of the people that have lived and worked on O’Connell Street.

Larry, who along with Eric Shaw complied Dr umcliff Cemeter y –The Hidden Histor y of Ennis , said the new project would be unveiled at a presentation in Ennis in the coming months.

He says, “I had flagged it two years or three years with regard to the change of name. There is so much history in O’Connell Street right from the square up to Darcy’s Corner. The street does not go from the Height right up to the Cathedral. It goes from the Height up to Darcy’s. Darcy’s is the last house on O’Connell Street. There were guns taken at Darcy’s Corner. There is the story of the Old Ground Hotel, the jail. The first cinema in Ennis was the Town Hall. There is so much information out there on O’Connell Street that hopefully very shortly we can stimulate interest in it and bring it out. We’re nearly in the finished process. Its nearly there.”

Larry also has his eye on future projects, in particular a history of one of Ennis’ oldest areas, Steeles Terrace. He explains, “There is an amazing history of the 30 houses in Steele’s Terrace. There were known initially as the artisan dwellings. There were tradesmen and craftsmen living at the side. At the same time then you had the labourer’s cottages built down in St Flannan’s Terrace. You had two distinct developments going on in Ennis at the same time.”

Larry says more needs to be done to record the history of Ennis. He adds, “Only for the work of Sean Spellissy, the historian, and Ciarán Ó Mhurchadha and a few more, Ennis is lacking in information with regards to the people and the buildings. We’re fortunate in the past few years that online we have the baptismal records, we have the death records and we have the marriage records for Ennis. We have school records with Ennis National School. We have burial records with Drumcliff graveyard and Corrovorrin graveyard. We have an amount of information that we could actually do your family tree by sitting at your computer at home and have a fair amount of it done within an hour.”

A NEW book, that for the first time attempts to record the history of Drumcliff cemetery, was officially launched in Ennis last week.

Complied by local men Larry Brennan and Eric Shaw, Dr umcliff Cemeter y – The Hidden Histor y of Ennis contains details of some 12,000 graves and 2,700 inscriptions to be found in the graveyard, which has been in use since the early 1800s.

Work on mapping the graveyard began three years ago and the project is a joint initiative between the Clare Roots Society and Ennis Tidy Towns. The process of documenting the extensive history of Drumcliff was undertaken by members of the Roots Society and pupils from Ennis National School between 2007 and 2008.

The book contains articles on the history of Drumcliff plus the biodiversity, flora and fauna, stone cuttings and ironwork within the cemetery. The book also guides readers through the historical graves in the cemetery from the cholera outbreaks of 1832 and 1849 to the Famine Grave, Paupers’ Burial Plot and the tragic drowning at Ballybeg Lake on the April 1, 1896.

According to co-author Larry Brennan, Drumcliff is an area of immense historical importance, “It’s one of the most unusual graveyards, not just in Clare but in Ireland in the sense that every event with regard to the historical background is recorded in Drumcliff, from cholera to famine, to the Carmody’s Hotel disaster, to plane crashes. I have brought people up there from England and America and they are amazed with the history. They look on it as a history trail that can be done, like you do the trail in Ennis, this is another trail that can add to tourism in Ennis.”

He describes Drumcliff as a “search engine”, the first place anyone should look if they are researching any as pect of the history of Ennis.

“Drumcliff is where you start. All the shopkeepers in town are buried up there. Some of them in the vaults. Paddy Con McMahon, where they are renovating Paddy Con’s Hall now. Everyone knows Paddy Con McMahon, but who was he? He was a builder. He was involved in the County Hospital. There is so much information that is hidden up there. But by the initial starting point from a gravestone, you can get a date, if you’re lucky you’ll get an obituary and you’ll find the history of the person then by simply going to the grave or back to the media. It’s a search engine for people who want to search their family or members of their family or historical events.”

Having started the process of recording the history of Drumcliff, Larry believes there are plenty more stories to be told. “It all depends on the angle. Do you do the teachers in Ennis, do you do the priests in Ennis. What do you do in Ennis? There are various things that can be done in Drumcliff. This is only the beginning. We would encourage other people now that might have time on their hands to take an element of Drumcliff to proceed to produce further booklets.”

RURAL shopkeepers are being urged to increase their security measures, after a shop in west Clare was targeted by shoplifters over the weekend.

A shop in Cree village was targeted on Sunday, when cash and cigarettes were stolen after a young sales assistant was distracted.

Two women went into the shop at around 6pm. One of the women distracted the sales assistant, while the other went behind the counter.

The shopkeeper then confronted the duo, but they denied doing anything wrong and quickly left the scene in a van that had been parked nearby.

Gardaí say they have obtained clear CCTV footage from the premises, which they hope will help to solve the crime.

The women are described as being in their late 30s and were around 5’ 7” or 5’ 8” in height. One had blonde hair with black streaks and wore a pink coat and black hat. She had a mark over her right eye.

The other woman wore a pink or red jacket and grey leggings with a red hat with white trim. It is believed that they are not local.

Gardaí say the amount of cash stolen was not substantial, but in the wake of similar incidents in Feakle and Flagmount in recent weeks, they are warning shop owners to ensure their security measures are adequate.

“This is most unusual. We looked at the adjoining counties but nothing of this nature seems to have occurred,” said the head of the Clare Garda Division, Chief Superintendent John Kerin.

“I would be confident enough that we would identify those involved from the CCTV,” he added.

He is advising shop owners to “keep small amounts of money in the till; keep it cleared regularly and have good CCTV that covers all areas of the shop”.

“Make sure you are not distracted,” he said.

Anyone with information on the Cree incident should contact Kilrush Garda Station on 065 9051017.

THE scale of the crisis in the Clare property market has been hammered home by newly released Department of Environment figures which show that new house registrations and completions have gone into freefall over the first six months of the year. The Clare People has learned that new house registrations in the county have plummetted by nearly 75 per cent from January to June 2011, while during the same period, house completions have fallen by 63 per cent.

And, when compared to the figures for other counties in the mid-west catchment area, the dramatic falloff in housing activity places Clare at the bottom of the mid-west league table where both house registrations and completions are concerned.

House completion numbers in the region dropped by 46 per cent from 758 to 410 during the first six months of 2011, but Clare is running 17 percentage points ahead of this average, with completion rates from January to June dropping from 378 to 140 over the corresponding period last year.

The figures for new house registrations are more startling – only six houses have been registered so far in 2011, as compared to 23 for the same six-month period in 2010.

Again, this massive reduction of just under 75 per cent is running well ahead of the overall average reduction for the region of 54 per cent.

The problems being experienced within the housing industry in Clare come on the back of a claim from one of Clare’s leading estate agents earlier this month that the building of new housing estates could be about to grind to a halt.

“With prices such that it costs more to build than a builder will get when a house is sold, then no one is going to build new estates,” said Diarmuid McMahon of Sherry Fitzgerald in Ennis when revealing that house prices in the county had dropped back to 1990s levels.

A major contributory factor to the drop in prices and the slowdown in new house building emerged in the preliminary returns for the 2011 National Census returns for Clare that were released in July.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) returns revealed that the number of new housing stock in Clare increased by 14 per cent in between the 2006 and 2011 censuses, which means that Clare house builds ran ahead of the national average of 13.3 per cent.

However, the breakdown of these figures also revealed that the vacant housing rate in Clare was running at nearly 22 per cent, eight points higher than the national average of 14.7 per cent, with the western seaboard being the worst part of the county affected, with over 25 per cent houses vacant. The number of vacant housing was attributed to the building boom that took place over the space of the previous decade.

AFTER a successful comeback in 2010, horse and pony racing will return to Ballyvaughan later this month, with a large crowd expected to descend on Newtown Castle Lawn for the spectacular event.

The races returned to north Clare last year after a 35-year absence and the organising committee are now hopeful that the event is back for good and will once again become an annual event in the racing calendar.

“The Ballyvaughan Races returned last year after an absence of 35 years, and we were tremendously heartened by the immense local support and large turnout on the day,” said David Quinn, PRO for the Ballyvaughan Horse and Pony Racing Committee.

“It was a thoroughly enjoyable day for all involved and we antici- pate an even greater attendance this year. None of this would be possible without the generous support of local businesses and the broader community, for which we are extremely grateful.”

One of the highlights of last year’s event was its spectacular location, with the races taking place against the backdrop of the scenic Burren mountains.

The races will take place at Newtown Castle Lawn, which has again been provided for the event free of charge by landowner Mickey Vaughan.

Recent inspections of the track have revealed that the ground is in good condition and should provide a difficult challenge for the jockeys.

“All the horse owners and jockeys were very impressed with the facilities available and the professionalism shown by those organising last year’s race meeting,” said Mary O’Connor, Secretary of the Midlands Horse and Pony Racing Association.

“There has been huge interest in the return to Ballyvaughan this year.”

The committee are hoping to create a real family atmosphere for this year’s event. Besides the races themselves, the Ballyvaughan Farmers Market will take part, while there will also be bouncy castles and funfair amusements for young people, as well as face painting and a tug-ofwar competition.

A first for this year’s event will be the inclusion of a Best-Dressed Lady Competition.

This year’s Ballyvaughan Horse and Pony Club committee are Ailish Hynes (chairperson), Declan McNamara (secretary), Kieran Linnane (treasurer), David Quinn (PRO), Mickey Vaughan (president) and John Queally (vice president).

FRESH wild mushrooms are the latest ingredient to be added to the list for the fourth annual Clare Harvest Banquet which will take place at the Auburn Lodge Hotel in Ennis this August.

The charity banquet, which is made up solely of fresh ingredients which can be found within the county borders, will come to Ennis for the first time ever, having completely sold out its three previous banquets in Ennistymon.

This year’s event will be cooked by five expert Clare chefs, with one chef taking responsibility for each of the courses on offer. All proceeds from the event will go towards the ASTRAL Charity, which helps protect families in some of the poorest parts of Mongolia.

The charity has a long established link with the county and felt made by the charity in Mongolia is currently sold in the Upstairs Downstairs charity shop in Ennistymon.

“The format of the event is the same. If we want salt, then we need to dry sea salt from off the Clare coast; if we want butter, then we need to make it ourselves in the churn,” said event organiser Sinéad Ní Gháirbhith.

“We have two mushroom experts this year who are going to find us some Clare mushrooms to use, which should be interesting. There is no one farming mushrooms in Clare at the moment so this will be a new thing for the banquet.

“Every year, we seem to be able to find new ingredients and this year is no exception. You need to have experts when you are talking about wild mushrooms because you need to be sure that they are not poisonous.

“We are in Ennis this year for the first time so we are hoping to unite the county and bring people from the east, west, north and south of Clare together for the event. The banquet will take place in the Auburn Lodge, who have been very good to us and giving us the run of their kitchen for the evening.

“Every penny raised will go to the Mongolian charity. I am so dedicated to this charity because I know that this is a matter of life and death if this money goes out or not.”

This year’s banquet will take place on Saturday, October 1 and tickets are available from the Auburn Lodge on 065 6821247 and from the Upstairs Downstairs shop in Ennistymon.

MICHAEL Flatley will not take to the stage when his ‘Lord of the Dance’ spectacular comes to the Cliffs of Moher this September, but he has pledged his full backing to the event, as well as to the Cliffs’ bid to be named as one of the 7 New Wonders of the World.

The world famous dancer disappointed his legions of fans from all over the world at the weekend when he announced that, for the time being at least, he has hung up his dancing shoes.

The multi-millionaire began a series of media events last week highlighting the Cliffs’ bid to become one of the 7 New Wonders on the World.

“He has taken ownership of the Cliffs of Moher’s Seven Wonders bid and also the ‘Lord of the Dance’ at the Cliffs, which is absolutely great news for everyone in this county,” said Oliver O’Connell.

“They say that this can bring € 300 million in tourism to the county so the fact that Michael Flatley has gotten behind it is a major boost. He is a person who just doesn’t have following in Ireland, he can get people from all over the world behind the Cliffs.”

Flatley invited the world’s media to his € 30 million Cork mansion last week in an effort to get support for the Cliffs of Moher bid.

“My reason for inviting everyone was to help these people accomplish their goal. I want to promote Ireland and Irish interests and I feel these people are doing a wonderful thing,” he said. “Last time I danced it was for the Prince of Wales and Camilla at a private function at Buckingham Palace. That was in February. I’ve never danced at all since then.”

Flatley went on to say that while he wouldn’t rule out dancing altogether he “can’t see it” in his future.

Tickets for the ‘Lord of the Dance’ at the Cliffs of Moher are reportedly selling well and organiser have urged locals to buy their tickets soon to avoid disappointment.

“This event will be the most spectacular event ever to take place in Clare – you will never see anything like this again,” continued Oliver.

“Ticket sales are steady and we believe that we can still fill the Cliffs for both nights but this project is about more than money – it’s about a once in a life time event at a once in a lifetime venue. People are getting behind the project and if everyone gets behind it then who knows, maybe something could happen again in 2012. This is a major event – every B&B in North and West Clare is booked up because of this and I have been getting calls from all over the world about the concerts.”

Some 20,000 people are expected to attend the ‘Lord of the Dance’ at the Cliffs on September 1 and 2. The official 7 New Wonders of the World list will be announce on November 11.

A PILOT ferry service connecting Ballyvaughan and Galway City looks set to be established early in 2012 after initial feedback from the Spyria Partnership feasibility study has given a thumbs-up to the ambitious project.

While the report in full won’t be published until the middle of next month, The Clare People has learned that the research undertaken by the independent Scottish company will show that tidal conditions are conducive for the service to be established and that there is a demand, both in North Clare and Galway, for the service.

Following the official publication of the report next month, the Ballyvaughan Bay Hop Group will put out a tender, looking for a local ferry owner to operate the service. It is expected that the “hop” will first run for an initial six-week trial basis this spring but hopes are high that the demand will exist to extend the service indefinitely after that.

Once the initial commuter demand has been met, it is hoped that the service could be expanded to ferry tourists between Ballyvaughan and Galway during the busy summer months.

The Ballyvaughan Bay Hop in the brainchild of Ballyvaughan woman Gwen Ryan, who began the project as a means of aiding her own daily commute to and from Galway City. The group itself is a not-for-profit organisation and Gwen is hopeful that a local ferry owner will see the potential for the service, rather that the Ballyvaughan Bay Hop Group having a role to play in directly organising the service themselves.

“We have got initial research back from a company in Scotland and they are very happy that the service that we envision is possible. This is taking into account both the local conditions and also that there is a good demand for the service from the local people. Of course there are some who are not in favour of the service but the majority of people are in favour of it,” said Gwen.

The Ballyvaughan Bay Hop Group has also just launched a small fundraising drive to help pay for the completion the feasibility study conducted by Spyria Partnership. The vast majority of this has been paid through a Leader grant but a small amount of local fundraising is required to pay the balance.

The group are using “crowd funding” to raise the money. The idea of crowd funding is that a relatively large number of people each donate a small amount to fund a community project.

To entice people to donate a number of rewards have been set up for donators, including an invitation to the launch party when the ferry is launched next year to a place on the ferry’s first trip between Ballyvaughan and Galway City.

To donate visit www.ifund.ie/ projects/37/help-us-float-our-boat.