Month: November 2011

AN ENNIS man has finally got some relief from back pain, after suffering for more than 40 years. Businessman Andy Moloney attended an introductory course in the Alexander Technique in Clare in September and it has changed his life.

Richard Brennan, who presented the session in September, will return to Clare later this month, in response to huge demand.

Andy has benefitted immensely from this, having tried several other methods to recover from back pain which first came about when he was a teenager.

“I have had back trouble for over 40 years, on and off. When I was 15, we had a small farm at home in Clarecastle. I used to do a lot of physical work. I was lifting a barrow of stones. That was my first injury and it has affected my lower back ever since. It can hit out of the blue, like if you lift something wrong. The pain is absolutely excruciating,” said Andy.

Andy underwent surgery several years ago and was told “if I had it a second time, I could end up in a wheelchair”.

“I have been through everything, medically and alternative medicine; osteopaths, physios, chiropractors, acupuncturists, bonesetters, reflexology and quacks. I have tried everything. I was told if I got another serious attack I would have to have surgery regardless,” he said. “The pain is sudden, it is akin to a heart attack. At one stage, about two years ago, I couldn’t get up off the sitting room floor for three days,” he said.

Having read about the Alexander Technique workshop taking place in Clare, Andy decided to attend, in the hope it would help him. He took on board the instructions provided and his back pain has almost cleared. While it has not fully gone away, he no longer has to take painkillers as the pain is no longer acute.

“He (Richard) gave some very simple demonstrations. I could see straight away that he was right. We sit wrong, we stand wrong, we don’t bend properly,” he said.

Andy practices the Alexander Technique for 20 minutes every day and has seen the benefits from it. “I lie on the floor with books under my head. I put my knees up and my hands in a straight position. I can feel the ten- sion leaving my muscles. I get a fabulous night’s sleep, which I never did” he said. “I wouldn’t say it is a miracle cure. It’s not gone completely; it is mending,” he added.

A similar Alexander Technique event will take place later this month, at the Kilmaley Day Care Centre on November 19 and 20. Andrea Martin, who is organising the event, said the response from the first one was “overwhelming”.

“We had to turn people away. We had applicants from teenagers with sports injuries to elderly people with mobility problems,” she said. “Everybody who attended came away feeling they had got great benefit from the course.”

“In order to meet the demand, we couldn’t meet the last time Richard offered to come to County Clare again,” said Andrea.

Anyone interesting in attending the course, which costs € 95, should phone Andrea on 087 2233835 or email andrea_martin@ireland.com.

THOUSANDS of children across the county embraced the 2011 Children’s Book Festival of Clare, making it the most successful running of the event to date, the Clare County Library has revealed this week.

The event concluded last Friday after a month-long celebration of books and reading saw thousands of children from primary schools throughout the county attend a bumper programme of events. The 2011 programme included live history workshops, poetry workshops, children’s puppet theatre, art and craft sessions, music and author visits by some of the best writers for children in Ireland today.

“Children were introduced to the great artistic creators including Shakespeare, Hemingway and Robert Burns and to the art of Claude Monet through the multi-disciplinary sessions delivered by Tony Maude from London and Dr Fred Freeman from Edinburgh. Both artists’ shows included an excellent mix of poetry, art, literature and music to the delight of their young audiences,” a spokesperson for the County Library revealed. “Music making of a more modern genre was enjoyed by fifthand sixth-class children who took part in the workshops of John Lillis. Six sessions of non-stop entertainment featured beat-boxing, scratching and a very informative hands-on lesson on the techniques employed by a successful DJ.

“Authors Bob Burke, Nicola Pierce, Oisin McGann, Judi Curtin, Dolores Keaveney and Bridget Bhreathnach travelled the county, with all library branches hosting at least one author event for their local schools.

“Judging by the attention paid to the stories of these writers and the questions that went on well after their presentations ended, the future of writing in Clare looks extremely promising,” the spokesperson added.

One of the highlights of this year’s festival was ‘The Irish History Live Show’ presented by Michael Moylan. Children in Ennis, Ennistymon, Miltown Malbay and Tulla were transported back to the Easter Rising of 1916 or to the Second World War.

Moylan successfully takes the printed pages of the history books and brings them alive with his travelling museum of clothes, replica weapons and artifacts of the period which children are encouraged to try out as an integral part of his spell binding presentations. “The number of times that this event features in the Library’s Children’s Book Festival programme is testament to the appeal of Michael’s show year after year,” a library spokesperson said.

DUBLIN City Council must cough up for the money needed to fund an independent Environment Impact Statement into the proposed plan to pipe water from the Shannon to serve the needs of Dublin water-users before any plans will even be considered.

That was the opinion of the Mayor of Clare, Pat Hayes (FF), following a public meeting attended by members of an Oireachtas Committee, at the proposed water extraction site last week.

According to Cllr Hayes, stakeholders in the region cannot rely on Dublin City Council’s analysis of the impact of the € 500 million project and also called for a study into the economic impact the plan would have on County Clare to be undertaken.

“This is Dublin City Council’s proposal so we cannot and should not accept any report they are putting forward in relation to the potential impact of this mammoth project,” he said.

“The proposal seems to me to be a short-sighted solution to Dublin’s problems. They should firstly solve leaks in their network across the capital and be a little more innovative in finding a solution beyond that. Taking water from Lough Derg is the easy option. I and my fellow elected representatives in Clare won’t stand for it, unless we are completely satisfied there will be no adverse reaction.”

The plan as proposed by Dublin City Council would see € 500 million litres of water pumped daily from the Shannon River at Lough Derg during periods of high-flow and flooding.

“We need an independent Environmental Impact Study commissioned on behalf of Clare, Tipperary, Limerick and Galway local authorities and all other stakeholders, such as the Shannon Region Fisheries Board and the ESB,” continued Cllr Hayes.

“This study must be paid for by Dublin City Council but they should have no other hand, act or part to play in it. It should also have over- riding authority over Dublin City Council’s own environmental statement as well.

“One of the carrots being waved for the project is a multi-million euro eco-park and reservoir planned for Garryhinch in Offaly, with the potential for one million visitors annually. In my mind, this further undermines confidence in the project from a Clare perspective, as how could Dublin City Council possibly suggest that a one-million visitor attraction outside this region could be good for us?”

NORTH Clare vocalist Naomi O’Connell is set to be launched as the world’s latest young opera superstar in the coming months after winning the prestigious CAG Victor Elmaleh competition at the Juilliard performing art school in New York.

Naomi, who comes from Ballyvaughan, has been studying at the world-famous school for the past three years. The CAG Victor Elmaleh competition is open to all students at Juilliard and Naomi was the only vocalist to make it into the grand final.

The CAG Victor Elmaleh is recog- nised as the most prestigious competition for student artists in America and one the highest accolades that any young performing artist can receive.

The prize for winning the competition includes a record deal with Naxos Recording and a management contract with the Concert Artists Guild as well as the chance to perform with a number of leading orchestras at a concert series and a number of international festivals.

Naomi, who is a mezzo-soprano, began her music career with north Clare people’s choir, the Lismorahaun Singers, when she was just 13 years old. Under the guidance of choir founder Archie Simpson, she released her first album, ‘Christmas with Naomi’, at the age of just 16.

“This is a fantastic achievement for Naomi. Juilliard is such a prestigious school and to win this competition really marks her out as the crème de la crème. It is incredible to think that a girl from Ballyvaughan could have achieved all of this,” Archie told The Clare People

THE number of people on the live register in Clare dropped to their lowest levels in two years last month, with the number of people signing on in Clare now below 10,000 for the first time since September of 2009.

Figures released by the Central Statistic Office (CSO) over the weekend confirmed that 9,989 people signed on in Clare in November, almost 800 people less than were on the live register in August of this year.

Clare unemployment activists have moved to pour cold water on the fig- ures, saying that the drop was more to do with an increase in emigration rather than any concrete job creation. Local campaigner and organiser for the Open Fair, Jim Connolly, says that anyone who thinks that there has been a major turnaround in the employment market is living in “cloud cuckoo land”.

“Things are not getting better, not at all, and anyone who thinks that there has been an upturn in employment is living in cloud cuckoo land. Any major fall in the live register is down to emigration, which is a tragic situation,” he said.

“You cannot have development without people and if there aren’t enough people then it makes development more difficult. It is very hard to say what is driving the statistics but what is for sure is that people in Clare are trying very hard at the moment to stave off emigration for as long as possible. People are in a difficult situation but it is not in the nature of people to just sit down and die.”

Jim is one of the organisers behind the Open Fair which took place in Ennis earlier this year. The fair works by offering local producers and entrepreneurs a free chance to show off their product or service and in this way promote new startup businesses.

A second Open Fair has been organised to take place at the West County in Ennis on November 19. All the stands have been booked and the organisers are hopeful for a similar crowd to the debut fair, which generated more than € 7,000 worth of business for those who took part.

Ennis town was one of the areas that showed the greatest drop in the live register figures in recent months, with 5,612 signing on in October of this year, the lowest level since September of 2009 when 5, 576 were signing on.

LACK of resources will be a major barrier if a cold snap creeps in this winter. That was the message delivered at a meeting in Shannon last week, amid concerns that poor weather conditions last winter will be repeated this year.

Senior Executive Engineer Eugene O’Shea gave a presentation to councillors at a meeting of Shannon Town Council. “Resources are going to be a big issue in terms of manpower and financial resources. That’s going to dictate what we can and cannot do,” said Mr O’Shea.

“A number of staff will be on call in the event of an occurrence like the past couple of winters,” he added.

“Our own water conservation crews are checking for leaks on an ongoing basis. We have purchased a number of portable water tanks. They can be dropped off at problematic locations,” he said. He said that a number of council staff have retired or are due to retire, adding, “We are going to need a hell of a lot of more local participation. Manpower will become a greater issue next year because we have some people retiring.”

Mr O’Shea said that if water is scarce during the winter, there will be scheduled shut-offs, the details of which will be publicised. He said that some of the pipes that froze last year were as a result of people leaving their taps on. Fine Gael Councillor Seán McLoughlin asked was it illegal to leave taps running, to which the engineer replied, “I’m not aware if it is illegal but it certainly is unethical.”

“The pipe network in Shannon town itself is quite aged and needs investment. Certainly we are talking about millions of euro to do that,” Mr O’Shea told the meeting.

Asked about the industrial estate, Mr O’Shea said that the services are in the charge of the council. “The main issues last year were in premises that were unoccupied. We had difficulty getting in contact with some occupiers. Shannon Development did come on board and assisted us in shutting them off,” he said.

Sinn Féin Councillor Cathy McCafferty said that some footpaths in the Cronan area of the town were “knee deep” in water, which she compared to “swimming pools”.

Independent Councillor Patricia McCarthy said that salt damaged concrete on footpaths and asked was there an alternative solution. Mr O’Shea said that grit is a more suitable option.

Fine Gael Councillor Mike Fleming said that he has been out of work for the past two years and said the council would be “better off hiring people than leasing a fleet of vans”.

Mr O’Shea replied, “We can’t just take on people willy nilly. We have to go through various procedures.”

The town’s mayor, Councillor Mary Brennan (Fine Gael) said, “I think the magic words are lack of money, more lack of money and workers and falling leaves.”

THE people of Shannon have rallied behind a young man who has received treatment for a brain tumour, in the US. Keith Gibbons (34) underwent treatment in Heuston and has returned home, to continue with the treatment. Keith is currently in hospital in Galway.

Keith was initially diagnosed four years ago and, after undergoing treatment in Ireland, the tumour disappeared. Unfortunately, however, it later returned.

His medical bill from Heuston amounted to more than € 40,000 and the people of Shannon have raised several thousand euro through a fundraising campaign. More than € 18,500 was raised prior to a fundraiser in Mayo – where Keith is originally from – at the weekend.

Keith’s friend Don Murphy – who has set up a fundraising campaign said that individuals and groups have come on board to help Keith and his wife Brenda, who is originally from Shannon.

“They are delighted with the funds raised to date and are very heartened by the support they have received. There is a lot of goodwill. The amount of money raised was fantastic. People are rallying around,” he added. “If people want to donate, give me a call. People have been very generous. Companies have given big donations,” said Don.

The couple travelled to the US, after they researched all options open to them.

“We were always being told by doctors that Ireland had everything treatment-wise that was in the US but we didn’t believe that. . . We knew we had to pursue other options,” Keith’s wife Brenda said, while they were in Texas. “Around March I found out about a clinic in Houston, Texas, called the Burzynski Clinic which specialises in a treatment that involves a drug called Antioneoplastons. It is gene-targeted treatment that has seen very good results on brain tumours. It is not a form of chemotherapy and is non-toxic.

“Dr Burzynski’s treatment is not seen as a fully approved treatment yet, even though for years he has been curing people that were told there was nothing more that could be done for them after conventional treatment didn’t work. We sent off all scans and paperwork and, after a lot of correspondence over and back, we heard that Keith was accepted for treatment at the clinic. We knew we had to go for it,” said Brenda.

Anyone who wishes to contribute to the fund can check out the K Project on Facebook or call Don Murphy on 087 9370395.

THOUSANDS OF families in north and west Clare face charges up to € 12,000 to upgrade their septic tanks – with the Burren area likely to one of the worst hit areas in the country under the new Water Services Act.

A provisional copy of the act, which was published last Friday, has revealed that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and not the local authorities will be tasked with providing tests on Clare’s estimated 17,000 septic tanks and the tests will be carried out on a risk-based basis. This means that the thousands of septic tanks located in karst landscape such as the Burren as well as heavy soil areas in the south of the county are likely to be targeted as black-spots.

“The EPA will see Clare as being much more of a risk than other counties. Generally counties with good soil and good grassland would be considered as better able to deal with waste water than Clare,” said north Clare engineer Michael Duffy.

“If the regulations are to implemented you will have situations where a lot of households will have to spend a lot of money because of this.

“There is definitely as case to be put to say that people living in towns and cities have already been subsidised for their waste water management and there should be some way of helping the individual householder in this regard.”

The new legislation also provides for a € 50 septic tank registration fee which people in Clare must pay to Clare County Council. According to David Timlin, Director of Service for Clare County Council, this fee will be used to fund the inspections which will be carried out by the EPA.

“The revenue generated by the license fee will be used to fund the delivery of a national inspection plan which will be developed by the EPA on a risk basis, and its roll-out will be managed by the local authorities,” he told The Clare People

A MOVE to provide top-class sports amenities for the east Clare catchment of Killaloe and Ballina is expected to be taken a stage further this week with backing from Clare County Council planners for a range of new facilities.

The Ballina/Killaloe Sports and Development Facilities Development Company is behind plans to develop two new full-size playing pitches, an all-weather pitch, floodlit training areas, walking and cycling trails, changing and carparking facilities at a site in Moys, Killaloe.

The planning application for the development was lodged on June 15 last, with a deadline of this Wednesday laid down by Clare County Council for a final decision date on the proposal.

The move to provide extra sports facilities in the area comes a matter of months after the local GAA club on the Clare side of the Shannon, Smith O’Briens, was given the green light to develop a major club/community facility at its base on Shantraud.

In May, conditional planning permission was granted for an ambitious project that includes the development that includes a new clubhouse, changing rooms, a sports hall, meeting rooms, a hurling wall, an astroturf pitch and a spectator stand.

The Smith O’Briens club initiative is set to be funded by members of the local community themselves through an investors draw where a thousand people to pay € 4 a week to the development kitty – a contribution that works out at € 17.33 a week and € 208 over the year.

“For that, we will have a draw every month, giving away € 3,700 in cash prizes,” says Tony O’Brien of Smith O’Briens. “There will be 20 prizes including a top prize of € 1,000, two € 500 prizes, two € 250 prizes all the way down to eight € 50 prizes. The plan is to develop under the umbrella of the GAA, but it will be a community facility, open for everyone.

“The idea of the draw is that the community are investing in a facility for themselves. If we managed to get a thousand members we would raise over nearly € 500,000 for the project over three years,” he adds.

THE Ennis bypass is to be used as a guinea pig by the National Roads Authority (NRA) to test the increasing problem of ‘ghost-drivers’ on the M18.

Ghost-driving is a new term coined to describe motorists who accidentally drive in the wrong direction on motorway onramps or off-ramps. In October of 2009, 72-year old Spanish Point woman Mary Doyle died after accidentally driving the wrong way on the N18 near Ennis.

The NRA have just completed the instillation of two signs at junctions on the M18 and, if the trial project proves successful, these signs will be rolled out across the country.

The state-of-the-art signs are activated using a radar system and flash to warn any drivers who approach the junction from the wrong direction.

“Ghost-driving takes place as a result of drivers entering the slip road in the wrong direction, travelling down the slip road in the cor- rect direction and then turning right towards on-coming traffic. Or it can take place when traffic stops on the dual carriageway and do a u-turn in the hard shoulder to travel back down the road,” Sean O’Neill of the NRA told The Clare People .

“This is not a major, widespread problem but, when it does happen, it can be very, very dangerous.”

The NRA plans

to monitor the suc

cess of the M18 pilot

scheme in the com

ing months and roll

the system out across

the country if it is

successful.

The system can be

put in place for a cost

of € 10,000 per junc

tion, meaning that

every junction on the

M18 in Clare could

be kitted out with the

system for less than

€ 250,000.

The trial radar-ac tivated signs are currently in place at junctions 13 and 14 on the M18, which includes the main Ennis offramp and the off-ramp for Scariff, Tulla and Ennis on the R352.