Month: January 2012

KILRUSH Town Council is only two days away from being abolished, but councillors are set to stave off the spectre of closure by backing a proposal in the 2012 Budget to leave rates at 2011 levels for the next 12 months.

The decision is set to be made by councillors at this Tuesday night’s re-convened Budget meeting as part of a compromise between members of the local authority and the executive over key policy issues. The Clare People has learned that councillors will back rates remaining at 2011 levels, but that the prospect of cutting rates for 2013 will be looked into by the town council authorities during the course of the year. And with rates remaining at 2011 levels, the controversial proposal to abolish the arts and community grants schemes looks set to be overturned.

The decision to leave rates untouched comes on the back of an acceptance by councillors that the parking concessions introduced by the town council during the course of 2011 mount to a rates cut in another name.

“The money has to come from somewhere,” one councillor told The Clare People this week. “The parking concessions mean a loss in rev- enue of around € 40,000 a year and actually amount to around a six per cent cut in commercial rates,” the councillor added.

At the Budget meeting on December 15, former mayor Tom Prendeville (FF) proposed that “as a gesture, if we were to reduce our commercial rate by one per cent it would send a message to business people that we are on their side”. This sentiment was shared by Cllr Mairead O’Brien (IND) who said that she would prefer a two per cent rate cut for 2012.

According to Town Clerk John Corry, the two per cent rate cut would result in a rates reduction of just € 2 per week for the vast majority of businesses in Kilrush – 201 of the 241 businesses. For 2011, Kilrush Town Council has recouped 74 per cent of the rates due, with the threat of legal action hanging over those who have failed to pay.

In relation to funding for arts and and community projects, a bombshell was dropped at the Budget meeting when town manager Nora Kaye revealed that “due to the current economic climate, it is not possible to provide support for community and arts projects as has been provided in previous years”.

However, with councillors digging their heels in, the proposal now won’t be brought into effect.

THE suspension of transatlantic services operated by Aer Lingus out of Shannon kicks in this week as flights to both Boston and New York from Clare’s international airport are cancelled for the next number of months. The decision to sever the transatlantic link over the winter period follows on from last year’s unprecedented move by Aer Lingus not to operate any transatlantic services from Shannon between January 5 to March 27, 2011.

This move represented the first time since Aer Lingus transatlantic services commenced out of Shannon in 1958 that a year-round service wasn’t provided by the national carrier.

The decision to suspend the New York and Boston routes for the winter comes after the move to end the Shannon/Chicago route for the autumn and winter schedules on September 1 last.

This suspension of the New York and Boston routes affects four flights per week between Shannon and New York and a further four flights per week between Shannon and Boston. However, the airline says it is committed to Shannon and will continue to operate these services for the remaining nine months of the year.

Last year’s cutbacks were intro- duced on the back of significant losses that were incurred during the winter months over the previous 15 years. Since 1995, Aer Lingus has lost a total of € 163 million on its transatlantic flights from Shannon during the winter months, with an average operating loss per winter season of almost € 11 million.

“Aer Lingus is committed to the Shannon market as an important part of our network,” said Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller.

“However, in order to maintain the viability of our Shannon transatlantic operations throughout the remainder of the year, the three-month suspension of these routes when seasonal demand is at its lowest is crucial.”

The suspension of the routes comes in the wake of latest passenger returns for Shannon which show that commercial flights from the airport were down by 5.7 per cent in November, when compared to the corresponding month last year. The figures also revealed that there were only 45 daily movements at Shannon during the month, a figure that compared with 49 in Cork Airport and 366 in Dublin Airport.

In 2010, almost 1.8 million passengers passed through Shannon, a decline of 37 per cent on the previous year. Terminal traffic was down 40 per cent on 2009 to 1.5 million.

RESIDENTS on the Clare Road fear a proposed retail development will have an adverse impact on flooding in the area. The concerns of residents of Abbeycourt and Abbeyville are outlined in a submission to Ennis Town Council.

Michael Lynch Ltd are seeking planning permission for a large development on a five-hectare site the Clare Road / Tobertascain, which it is claimed will create 300 construction jobs.

However, according to Brendan O’Connor, Chairman of the Abbeycourt-Abbeyville residents association, “Residents here have experience problems with flooding and sewerage during periods of prolonged rainfall. The adjacent River Fergus and its flood plain encroach onto both estates from the east when the river floods. Should the proposed development proceed on its raised site bordering us to the west, we greatly fear surface water from the proposed development will drain downhill, causing further problems to the many houses located below.”

An engineering planning report, prepared on behalf of Michael Lynch Ltd, states that the site would be developed in a sustainable manner “in order to minimise the impact of the development during construction and throughout the lifespan of the proposed store”.

HIGH vacancy rates, distance and a fear that the uniqueness of Ennis will be distorted are among the main reasons highlighted by town centre businesses in their opposition to a proposed retail development.

Michael Lynch Ltd is seeking planning permission to build on a fivehectare site on the Clare Road/Tobertascáin. The application was the subject of a Freedom of Information request from Ennis Town Council.

Businesses in Ennis, many of whom have been strongly opposed to the project, have reiterated their concerns in a number of submissions to the council.

Traders in Parnell Street state that the development would not be in the “town’s best interest”. The submission continues, “While we recognise and welcome competition, it is vital that the current core retail sector in the town be maintained as this is one of Ennis’ unique selling points.

“At present in Parnell Street there are 12 vacant commercial premises in our street,” they state. “We feel if this development were to go ahead, it would compound an already existing problem. We, the business community, are at present struggling to keep our doors open and maintain jobs in these challenging times. We need your support.”

According to the proprietors of Food Heaven in the Market, the proposed development “will significantly detract from the viability of the existing town centre retail area”.

The submission states, “The proposed retail centre is located almost 1km from the town centre and this is too great a distance to encourage pedestrians to visit the town centre on completing their purchases.”

They add, “The level of vacancy rates and under trading in the existing town centre retail sector is at present at crisis levels and can only be exacerbated by this proposal. It seems astonishing that this proposal could be seriously contemplated at a time of unprecedented economic distress locally and nationally.”

In their submission, the O’Connell Street Trader’s association state, “The proposed development would significantly detract from the viability of the existing town centre retail area. There is already an over provision both of convenience and comparison retailing in Ennis at present.”

In their submission, members of the Abbey Street Trader’s Association assert that the development of a large out-of-town retail development would “distort the uniqueness of the town”. They continue, “To allow this development to go ahead is akin to welcoming a factory ship into our waters which essentially will hoover up all forms of business life and decimate the very water it sailed in.”

According to Specsavers, Ennis, “There are at least three other sites which are more suitable for provision for new retail development and which are closer to the town centre and which would bestow some benefit to the town centre.

“We are not opposed to a reasonable level of additional retail space in Ennis but feel the priority should be given to a location which will provide synergy and interaction with the existing town centre.”

CLARE has produced three presidents in Eamon de Valera, Dr Paddy Hillery and Michael D Higgins, but the county can now lay claim to a fourth thanks to the links between Mary McAleese and the Poor Clares Convent in Ennis.

The former president’s association with the Poor Clares has been revealed this week, with abbess of the convent, Sr Gabriel, revealing that Mrs McAleese “came in and lived like one of us”.

Speaking publicly for the first time on the former president’s links with the Poor Clares during her 14 years in Áras an Uachtaráin, Sr Gabriel revealed that the association was fostered in her inaugural year in office when she was introduced to members of the Poor Clare order by local solicitor, Michael Houlihan.

“On her way out on that visit, she asked ‘Could I possibly come back here for a retreat?’,” said Sr Gabriel. “We thought, ‘oh gosh, what will this mean?’ We were exercised and giving her the time and space she wanted. And she asked ‘can I join your recreation at tea time?’.”

So began an association that saw President McAleese spend three or four days with the Poor Clares in Ennis every year.

“President McAleese has been great. She has been such an inspira- tion to us. She comes in, no mobile phone, no nothing, she relinquishes everything. President McAleese would be washing your dishes and you’re embarrassed, thinking ‘The President of Ireland is washing my dishes!’

“In a way, this was the only place she was Mary McAleese. She wasn’t the President, she could just be Mary and feed her own inner life to recharge herself for her duties. She is just so ordinary, so real— that is why the world took to her. And the stories from her — press a button and you would have story after story,” added Sr Gabriel.

“She is just one of us when she is here,” said Sr Regina. “She would arrive in a lovely designer trouser suit and she would go up to her room and she would be back down in her Dunnes Stores best for the time here. She does appreciate our life here and understands it,” she added.

“Her time here has been very enriching for us as well,” said Sr Bernadette. “She would be walking around the garden saying her rosary, be at Adoration reading her Bible. She is a wonderful woman.”

The Poor Clares monastery was established in Ennis in October 1958 and the enclosed order’s Golden Anniversary celebrations were launched by President McAleese in 2008, while a photograph of the former President now hangs in the monastery.

PRESSURE is mounting on Clare County Council to alter the County Development Plan to prevent fracking from taking place in the Clare Basin in west Clare.

Members of the Clare Fracking Concerned group will address next Monday’s January meeting of the local authority when the councillors will vote on Gabriel Keating’s (FG) motion to formalise their opposition to the controversial practice.

A series of anti-fracking meetings will also take place in West Clare in the coming weeks as momentum begins to gather behind Clare Fracking Concerned.

According to Cillian Murphy of the Loop Head Tourism Group and Clare Fracking Concerned, the process could seriously pollute the ground water not just at the fracking site, but all over West Clare.

“Around 99.5 per cent of the mixture which is pumped underground is chemical free. But that still leaves 0.5 per cent chemicals and, when you consider that they are talking about pumping millions and million of tonnes of this mixture, it amounts to an awful lot of chemicals,” said Murphy. “The geology in the area is already quite fractured and brittle, and water already passes readily through the rocks, so if there was a problem it wouldn’t just be in one area, it would be in all the ground water in West Clare.

“We are trying to give people a knowledge base for them to make their own minds up. We are not trying to force our opinions on anyone. But we would hope that when people see the facts and make up their minds, that they would contact their local councillor and tell them that they do not want fracking taking place in West Clare.”

Should Clare County Council come out against the practice taking place in West Clare, it does not prohibit the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources from granting permission to begin fracking. UK-based company Enegi Oil secured an initial exploration licence from the Government to undertake a number of fracking-related tests in the Clare Basic earlier this year.

“We would hope that the council will come out against fracking in Clare and if they do we would hope that they could make an amendment to the County Development Plan which says that. That would at least give us some legal basis or protection,” continued Murphy. “From our research, any jobs that come out of this are very short term. There is a certain amount of employment in the construction phase but that is very short term. The work after that is very technical and can be done by a very small number of people brought in from outside.”

Clare Fracking Concerned will host meetings at the Lighthouse Inn in Kilbaha on January 6, Murphy Black’s Butter Market Café on January 7, Kenny’s Bar, Lahinch, on January 8, Kildysart Hall on January 20 and Fanny O’Dea’s in Lissycasey on January 26.

IT GOES without saying that it’s a long way from Clare to Kazakhstan. And for Ray Flannery that distance and sense of enormous difference is dramatically brought to life every time he looks out his office window. Especially these days, in the depths of winter. The Ballyea man doesn’t work in one of Kazakhstan’s many large cities or towns. The office doesn’t overlook any smog-choked metropolis. It’s far away from all that. In fact, it’s far away from most things.

Work for Ray for the past few weeks has been a man made island somewhere in the Caspian Sea, about 80km off the coast of Kazakhstan.

Like many his age, it was the offer of a job that brought Ray to one of the harshest and most remote regions in the world. The Caspian Sea is home to the Kashagan Project a vast network of islands and rigs working on what is estimated to be one of the largest oil fields on the planet.

He explains, “They reckon it’s the biggest oil find of the past 30 years. There’s something like 4,500 people working for different companies. It’s a pretty big operation.”

Ray works on Island Delta as a field engineer for the Italian firm Tozzi. It’s a job he has done for different companies in various far-flung places of the world including Indonesia, Madagascar and Canada. Kazakhstan though is different. It’s harsh and very cold. He says, “Weather wise it’s -15º at the moment and a guy was telling me that it will go down to -30º in January. The Caspian Sea is frozen over so the boats can’t run. They had been using choppers to get to the mainland but now a bog fog has come in as well. They’re hoping it will clear so people can get back home for Christmas. The weather here is a big factor…It’s very harsh when you see the frozen sea and the mounds of snow.” The former St Flannan’s student realised just how remote Island D is when a colleague told him a story about unwanted visitors during last year’s big freeze.

“A guy who worked here last year was telling me that when it froze over a wolf actually walked out from the coastline and was headed towards the islands.

“They had to tranquilise it and Medivac (helicopter ambulance) it back to the mainland!”

Apart from the wolves there is a strong international presence among the workforce dotted around the various ships and islands of the Kashagan Project. But not too many Paddys, Ray says.

“It’s very multinational but at the moment there is a very small Irish presence.

We spoke in the run up to Christmas and Ray was hoping to speak by skype to his parents, brother and sister.

He says, “Christmas is just a regular day. It runs like clockwork. They run a pretty tight ship. We might get to eat the turkey!”

Apart from being grateful for the opportunity to work, Ray says the chance to travel to places like Kazakhstan has given him a new understanding about life away from home. “It’s given me a completely different perspective, the things you see and what people are born into.”

IT’S been a blast, with some work, some rugby and plenty of playtime thrown in.

This parses Éanna Canavan’s ninemonth life experience since embarking on his Antipodean adventure with a friend.

In his native Doolin and beyond across the county, Canavan is best known for mounting a Facebook campaign to see a revival of the Lisdoonvarna Music Festival.

That campaign is still very much active, and if it happens you can be sure Canavan would be on the first flight back for the occasion, but for now there’s the festive atmosphere of downtown Syndey and greater Australasia to enjoy.

“It was at this time last year that a friend and I decided to go to Australia along with the thousands of other Irish people that are already here,” recalls Canavan.

“We actually arrived on March 25 so Christmas Day was an anniversary. The time has really flown since we got here and Christmas was always going to be very strange when it falls in the middle of summer.

“I have been doing a bit of travelling around Australia since I got here and managed to fit in eight days over in New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup, which was an amazing experience.

“Since October I have settled in Sydney working for a sales company. It’s a great lifestyle here even if the cost of living here is very high. There are quite a few people from Clare living in Australia so there is a bit of a community here, I can think of at least fifteen people from my area at home that are settling in well,” adds Canavan. As for Christmas on Bondi – he admits to having home thoughts from abroad, missing the craic of a different kind around North Clare, but only to a point as the contrasting conditions bring him to his senses. “In Christmas 2010 we were in the middle of one of the coldest winters in years with snow and ice and treacherous road conditions and it was minus ten,” he recalls. “To say that Christmas 2011 couldn’t be more different is putting it mildly. We started off with Christmas dinner on the roof of a friends house in Bondi in 30 degree heat followed by a trip to the beach for the afternoon; to say it was surreal would be an understatement. “Bondi beach was packed on Christmas Day and it was fairly easy to spot all the Irish people due to the white skin and the drunken antics! It was certainly a Christmas that I would never forget. “Then for New Year’s we headed into the city for the fireworks near the Opera House, something everyone in Sydney has to see. Another thing not to forget,” he adds.

TWO former Eire Óg players are helping spread the football gospel on the island of Taiwan. Cousins Ross Conlon and Brian Fitzpatrick, who are originally from the Tulla Road in Ennis, were both members of the Plate winning Taiwan Celts team at the 2011 Asian Gaelic Games.

Dozens of teams drawn from Irish expat communities across Asia gathered in South Korean for the event. And among them were Brian and Ross, who helped their team secure success in the competition’s second tier event.

Brian, who moved to the Taiwanese capital Taipei six months ago, recalls, “There’s only about 200 Irish people here. We’ve been training with them. They’ve been really helpful. We played in the Asian Games. The standard was really good. We played fairly well in Korea. We won the plate, which would’ve been the second competition. The top division was really good. Hong Kong and Singapore were in the final, Damian Barry (Ennis) was playing.”

A former student of Ennis CBS, St Flannan’s College and Limerick Institute of Technology, Brian moved to the Far East earlier this year in search of work. Having previously worked for Munstergroup Property and started a car auction business, Brian embarked on a new career in Taiwan, teaching English to local students.

He explains, “It would be an after school for Taiwanese kids. They go to Chinese school first and then us afterwards. It’s a long day. They are basically in school for about 12 hours everyday.”

Brian admits that making the move from Ireland to Taiwan was a little bit daunting. But the shock of adapting to a completely new country and culture was softened somewhat by the fact that Ross had swapped Ennis for Taipei, six years ago.

A fellow graduate of LIT and University of Limerick and former Éire Óg teammate, Ross currently works as a business development manager for electronics giant, Siemens.

Having secured a teaching post three months after arriving in Taiwan, Brian says he is glad to have made the move.

He says, “Taiwan is a great place to come to teach for a year. There are lots of teaching jobs for anyone with a Bachelor’s degree. It’s a really nice island with lots of lovely coastline for surfing and scenery and things like that. Taipei is a great city full of great nightlife and the locals are very friendly. The food is good and it’s pretty cheap. In terms of the economy, the country is flying too. A lot of the big companies here totally changed from manufacturing goods to information technology over last 10 or so years.”

While Taiwan’s economy is firing on all cylinders, in stark contrast to our own, the winter weather at least provides a reminder of home, particularly at Christmas.

Brian explains, “It’s cold, it’s mad cold over here at the moment. A bit like home. It’s really humid in the summer and it’s very hard to breathe but in winter the air would really cut through you. It’s really damp.”

He continues, “We had Christmas dinner with friends of ours, Taiwan ese people and expats. We spent it at a few different apartments in Taipei city. It was a bit unusual, being my first Christmas away but we made the most of it but you would miss family and friends alright.”

For Irish people far from home sports plays an important role in meeting people and making connections. It’s no different in Taipei. Apart from their involvement with the local GAA team, both men play soccer with Taipei City, a multinational side comprising Irish, South Americans a few English and a handful of locals.

After their success in the Asian games, the Celts are on the look out for new recruits.

Brian says, “If anyone is thinking of teaching abroad for a year and would consider moving here. We’ve lost a few of last year’s team so were recruiting for next season.”

For further information on the Taiwan Celts email mr.bfitz@gmail. com.

A € 2 MILLION boost for North Clare is on the horizon with the news that funding for the long-awaited search and rescue centre for the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard is likely to be made available in 2014.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar (FG), yesterday confirmed that funding for the centre would not be made available in 2012 but did confirm that the project would be given Government funding during the life of the current Capital Expenditure Programme. The Clare People has learned that 2014 has now been pencilled in as the start date for the project and, barring a major U-turn in Government policy, a funding confirmation for Doolin should be made next year.

This news was welcomed by Mattie Shannon of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard, who said that the group was happy with the commitment that the rescue station would be delivered during the lifetime of the current Government.

“It is positive news in that it confirms that it is coming down the line. That is the important thing. We had expected that the funding would not be forthcoming for 2012 so that was not a great surprise to us,” said Mattie.

“We have heard that 2014 is now the likely date and, once we have the commitment that it is coming, we are happy with that. We have waited so long, this commitment is almost as good as saying that it is coming next year. So this is very positive news.”

The Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard is one of the busiest coast guards in Ireland and has been operating in sub-standard conditions for a number of years. The current centre is too small to house all of the unit’s equipment and boats which means that a rescue could sometimes be delayed if a rescue craft needs to be transported to the centre.