Month: May 2012

RNLI branches from Ennis and along the county’s Atlantic coast will come together later today to launch the ‘Mayday Mayday’ campaign for new lifejackets in the stations.

The Ennis and Kilrush branches of the RNLI have decided to pool their resources and produce a combined programme of fundraising events for the rest of the year. This programme includes events established events such as the Burren Ramble and the July Moonlit walk in the Burren, but also includes new events such as the hills of Aylroe in Kildysert.

The Mayday Mayday programme launch will take place at the Sanctuary in the Queens Hotel, this evening, May 1, from 8.30pm. It is hoped that a large number of locals and RNLI members will support the launch and the different fundraising events.

“This appeal centres on the new lifejacket initiative for the crews of all our lifeboat stations around the country. It also gives the Clare community to come out and support their local lifeboat stations,” said Jennifer Ryan of the Ennis RNLI.

“Our countries lifeboat branches are always looking for ways of improving and maintaining their equipment. This however is a costly business. The new lifejackets that have been in development for some time now are the way forward.”

Details of these events will be available this evening but it is understood that the new fundraising event in the hills of Aylroe will take place during May. The annual Midnight Walk will take place as usual in July while this year’s Burren Ramble will take place in September.

THE SHANNON region was touted as being ideally located to cash in on traffic and business associated with the 2012 London Olympics, but it never happened.

Until last Saturday that is, when Shannon Airport that famously welcomed home Ronnie Delany from Melbourne with his Olympic gold in 1956 and saw off Cassius Clay with his Olympic gold that he won in Rome in 1960 was finally touched by London 2012.

It was all thanks to the surprise pit-stop made in Shannon by the Olympic torch on Friday, over a month ahead of schedule when it will be carried from Belfast to Dublin en route to London by among others, Paul McGrath, Michael Carruth and Rory McIlroy.

But, in ahead of all these famous names was Airport Duty Manager Natasha Naughton-O’Keeffe after the British Airways flight BA2036 was forced to divert to Shannon for re-fuelling.

“I certainly wasn’t expecting to be holding the Olympic torch when I came into work this afternoon but it’s certainly made the evening shift a lot easier,” she said.

“The whole world will be looking at the Olympic torch on the opening night of the games in July and I’ll be able to say I carried it too,” said Ms Naughton-O’Keeffe who hails from Gort.

“It’s a great honour to have been the first place in Ireland to have the Olympic torch this year. I know it’s scheduled to come to Ireland in June and there’s a lot of effort going into organising its visit but we can always say we had it first in Shannon.

“We have had many firsts here since the airport was established and this is definitely right up there,” she added.

The BA flight was one of two forced to divert to Shannon to take on extra fuel after air traffic control issues in Canada forced them to take longer routes than anticipated. The torch was being brought to England by Mr Piers Skinner, director of customer management for Coca-Cola.

The arrival of the Olympic Torch today is in keeping with a long history of firsts at Shannon Airport, including being the birthplace of ‘duty free’ airport retailing, Irish coffee and, more recently, the first airport outside the Americas to get US preclearance services in 2009.

The torch was transferred from the BA flight to complete it journey to London on a scheduled ShannonHeathrow flight on Friday evening.

A NEW organisation dedicated to providing employment services for people with illness, injury or disability has been established in Clare. The launch of EmployAbility Clare represents a rebranding of the former Clare Supported Employment Service.

The new identity was unveiled by Caroline Casey, a well-known campaigner for people with disabilities, while addressing an audience of almost 190 people at Dromoland Castle last Wednesday.

Speaking to a theme, ‘Impossible is an Opinion’, Ms Casey said the new name, which “puts the focus on a person’s ability to work, rather than their innate or acquired disability, describes what supported employment is about”.

“While our service centres on supporting people with an illness, injury or disability to secure employment, we’re also concerned with assisting employers,” said EmployAbility Clare team leader, Alice O’Carroll.

“People are living longer, and as the population rises, more and more people acquire disabilities. People in the older age groups hold most of the wealth in society and naturally have more purchasing power. It makes sense for businesses to attract as broad a range of customers as possible. They can learn how best to be accessible to people with disabilities by finding out, first hand, from people with disabilities how to make their products and services attractive and accessible,” she added.

EmployAbility Clare, which offers a range of supports, including workplace adaptation grants, wage subsidies and on-site employment facilitators, is key in supporting people with an injury, illness or disability overcome the challenges of adapting to employment and to being accepted in the workplace. It also works with employers to ensure new recruits make a meaningful contribution to the business’s bottom line.

“We strive to reassure employers and give them the confidence to see the benefits of working with us. The new identity, which focuses on the positive benefits of ‘employing ability’, rather than ‘supporting employment’, will help to address any existing misconceptions,” aid Ms O’Carroll.

The launch was organised by EmployAbility Clare in conjunction with Shannon, Ennis and Limerick Chambers, IBEC, and co-sponsored by UCB Manufacturing Ireland Limited, Shannon Development, Vitalograph, Dromoland Castle Hotel, ZAGG International, and the Cregg Group.

THE HSE spent more than half a million euro on wheelchairs for Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary last year.

It was unable to say how much it spent on other aids such as walking frames and crutches last year stating they were included in “a generic cost centre of either beds and hoist or medical surgical equipment”.

In 2008 the HSE spent € 1,121,193 on aids and appliances in Clare.

However the cost of wheelchairs in the former mid-west area was recorded at € 511,260.84 in 2011 and € 491,231.07 in 2010.

Green Party councillor Brian Meaney raised concerns that aids such as crutches and wheelchairs were not being recycled by the HSE.

He asked if it was still the policy of the HSE not to return such mobility aids.

In its reply the HSE said it has recently signed a contract with the company Homecare Medical.

“This contract award supports and supplements existing recycling services and will ensure high standards in infection control and appliance service and maintenance. This contract will also support the movement of aid and appliances to ensure equity of service for clients in the community,” said Philip Browne from the HSE’s Procurement Department.

“It will increase current recycling levels and reduce the need for purchase of new appliances,” he said.

It is still unclear what equipment and aids will be recycled and how much will be saved each year under the project.

A TOTAL of 32 volunteers worked diligently at the weekend to restore some forgotten West Clare history and adding to the number of tourist attractions on Loop Head.

Among those white washing the Kilbaha Éire sign was Peter Keane from Cross, whose father Corporal Keane was the last man to under take the whitewashing task more than 60 years ago.

Due to the hard and unfunded work of volunteers, the old Éire sign at Kilbaha has been restored to its former glory, and can now be seen by all passengers flying into Shannon.

On Good Friday last year, the venture to bring back the Éire sign began with a few volunteers using rods to mark out the 150 foot by 50 foot sign carved into the grassy shore.

Some inventive local men then took the blade off an old plough and attached it to the back of a tractor so that they could cut away the sod that covered the sign designed and built at the onset of World War II in 1939.

The top layer was removed under the supervision of archaeologist Terry Barry of Trinity College Dublin.

The original flat stone was still in place when the layer of clay was removed, looking almost as good as it did when it was placed there in 1939.

The volunteers then filled in any few gaps in the stone and white washed them.

These Éire signs were cut into the coastline every 10 miles to declare to fighter pilots that they were flying over a neutral country during World War II.

The American pilots requested that each sign be numbered so they knew exactly where they were flying, and the sign in Kilbaha got the number 45.

Volunteer Ailish Connolly said that the group now hope to restore the number 45 and the associated look out post in Kilbaha, before moving on to develop the Carrigaholt sign.

All new work is dependent on Leader funding.

To date, the sign has been restored without any funding.

The leading expert on the subject of protecting Ireland’s neutrality, Dr Michael Kennedy gave all of his services for free as he advised the group on the work.

Diggers, equipment, food and even overnight stays were also donated by local people and businesses.

“The only cost to me was the price of three bags of lime at € 8.99,” laughed Ms Connolly.

The project was under taken as a result of the combined efforts of the Kilballyowen Development Committee and Loophead Tourism.

It will feature on the RTÉ programme Nationwide next Monday, which will be all about West Clare.

HUNDREDS of potential West Clare jobs will be lost if Shannon LNG pulls plans to develop a € 1 billion gas terminal along the Shannon Estuary.

The company has reached an impasse with the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) over tariffs the regulator claims it will be liable for.

The company estimates this could cost it up to € 83 million per year.

Following a meeting between the Kilrush area members of the council and Shannon LNG last week, Clare County Council has also invited the energy regulator to address the members on the issue.

Kildysart councillor Oliver Garry (FG) said that the issue must be resolved in the interest of job creation and the provision of gas to Ireland.

It is estimated that the building of the terminal between Tarbert and Ballylongford, across the estuary from Clare, will create more than 650 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent jobs.

Cllr Garry said that many of these jobs will be available to Clare workers.

“This is the biggest project to come to the estuary since the building of Moneypoint in 1980,” he said.

The chair of the Kilrush area councillors said that just as many of the workforce at Moneypoint came from Kerry on the ferry, so too would Clare workers be travelling to Ballylongford.

“We have to see where a solution can be found. It is so important that we develop industry on the estuary,” he said.

Shannon LNG has already invested € 45 million in the project that is already four years in the making.

Planning permission for the terminal was granted in March 2008, while permission for the pipeline from Ballylongford to Foynes was granted in February 2009.

Shannon LNG now maintains that just as it was getting all major consents for the project, such as a foreshore licence and third party access exemption, the CER proposed changing the pipeline tariff structure, introduced by a Government directive in 2001 to encourage new infrastructure.

The company said it needs Government support, not subsidy, if it is to continue as well as regulatory certainty.

“Indecision and delay will further postpone project progress,” it said.

A NORTH Clare student has lost out in her bid to reverse changes made to the third-level grant system and now stands to lose as much as € 4,000 each year in cut-backs to her maintenance grant.

Ballyvaughan woman, Medb McCarthy, was one of three students who challenged the legality of the Department of Education last week. The legal challenge, which was brought in conjunction with the Un- ion of Student of Ireland (USI), failed as Mr Justice John Hedigan last week ruled that the cuts were in the public interest given the dire financial circumstances facing the country.

The students and USI are due in court again this Wednesday, May 2, when they may decide to appeal the ruling. Last year the Department of Education announced the Student Services Act which introduced changes in the criteria used to assess non-adjacent maintenance grants for third level students.

Non-adjacent grants are paid to stu- dents whose family home is located too far away from their university to make commuting an option. According to the Department of Education, improvement in the country’s road infrastructure and public transport has made commuting to universities easier for students.

The Student Services Act increasing the distance that a student has to live away from the educational institution from 24 kilometres to 45 kilometres. Mebh, who lives 43 kilometres away from NUI, Galway, in a country area between Ballyvaughan and New Quay, is currently in receipt of a grant of between € 6,100 and € 6,700 per year.

This grant will now be cut by as much as € 3,900 – making living in rented accommodation very difficult. Despite the reasons given for introducing the Student Services Act, the area is not supported by a public transport network that would make commuting from North Clare a viable option for Mebh.

This case was consider a test case for the estimated 25,000 students who will see their grant cut by the Department of Education from next September. The other students involved in the case with Mebh were Galway native Iesha Rowan and Robert Johnson who studying at Dundalk IT.

Mebh is a third year arts student who is currently studying abroad. She is due to return to complete her final year at NUI, Galway, in September.

Speaking after the ruling, USI president Garry Redmond said that they were not ruling out the possibility of appealing the case.

UP to 100 additional aircraft maintenance jobs are expected to come on stream in Shannon after the launch of Transaero Engineering Ireland by An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny on Friday last.

The new company marks the official take over of the former Air Atlanta Aero Engineering facility at the airport by Transaero Airlines, the second largest airline in Russia.

In heralding the new company, the Taoiseach said he was “delighted that a significant global airline such as Transaero has chosen Shannon as a location for its maintenance facility.

“It is a major vote of confidence in the workforce of Transaero Engineering Ireland, the Shannon region and in the continuing economic recovery of Ireland. It highlights the value of economic stability in attracting new investment to Ireland. I am delighted that the maintenance company with its skilled workforce will continue to operate in Shannon and that the addition of new aircraft types to their product range will result in more skilled and qualified staff being added in the near future. This deal very much fits within the Government’s focus on developing strategic trade relations into devel- oped markets such as Russia. This investment can showcase the capabilities of Irish companies within the Russian Federation,” he added.

“Shannon Airport and the surrounding infrastructure offer excellent opportunities for expansion which was one of the key drivers in the acquisition of AAAE,” said Transaero Airlines, Managing Director, Alexander Krinichanskiy. “Currently a number of Transaero Engineering Ireland’s staff are undergoing EASA 147 training for line/project maintenance on the Boeing 747 and 777 aircraft to enhance the product range of the facility and we will also seek to increase interior, engineering and training capabilities and we would expect to increase the staff numbers from the current 241,” he added.

Dr Vincent Cunnane, Chief Executive, Shannon Development, said, “Air Atlanta Aero Engineering is a key client of Shannon Development in the Shannon Aviation cluster and we are delighted with today’s announcement. We welcome Transaero Airlines acquisition of Air Atlanta and look forward to working with the company to support them to grow their business at Shannon. Transaero is a globally recognised progressive airline and represents a significant addition to the aviation base at Shannon.”

A BARMAN was punched in the face by the best man at a wedding as he attempted to close the bar, a court has heard.

Details of the assault were heard at Ennis District Court on Tuesday. Anthony O’Grady (34) with an address at Phairs Road, Meelick, was charged with assaulting barman Neil O’Gorman at the Bunratty Castle Hotel, Bunratty on June 27 (2010).

Mr O’Gorman told the court that he had pulled the shutter halfway down the bar at around 2am.

He said at that point Mr O’Grady attempted to push the shutter back up.

He recalled that when he said the bar was about to close, Mr O’Grady told him, “we’re paying for this f****** wedding and we’ll say when it closes.”

Mr O’Gorman said that as he attempted to close the bar , Mr O’Grady struck him in the side of his face with his fist.

The court heard that Mr O’Grady had been the best man on the day. Judge Patrick Durcan remarked that in this case, “The best man was the worst man.”

Solicitor Stiofan Fitzpatrick said his client had been heavily intoxicated. “He’s normally a light drinker. This was completely out of character.”

The court heard that Mr O’Grady is a father of three currently working in Poland. He has no previous convictions.

Mr Fitzpatrick added, “He is extremely apologetic and has been very anxious about this matter.”

Judge Durcan described Mr O’Grady’s behaviour on the night as “abominable.”

Referring to Mr O’Gorman, the judge said:

“Those who enforce the law in a peripheral manner shouldn’t be faced with loutish and ignorant behaviour.”

Noting Mr O’Grady’s good record, Judge Durcan ordered that he pay € 750 to Childline. No conviction was recorded against Mr O’Grady.

MORE than 110 years after being declared extinct in Ireland, the White-tailed Sea Eagle has returned to make Clare its home.

It was confirmed yesterday that a pair of White-tailed Sea Eagles have been seen building a nest near Mountshannon in East Clare. The birds were among a number of White-tailed Sea Eagles released in Kerry National Park last year but are the first to be seen breeding.

This is a major success for the reintroduction programme and could be the first step in the re-population of eagles in Ireland. Should the Mountshannon eagles succeed in breeding, their offspring will be the first born in Ireland since 1902 – which will also make them the first White-tailed Sea Eagles to hatch in the Republic of Ireland.

“This is fantastic news for Clare and reflects the outstanding landscape and biodiversity we have here that can attract such beautiful birds,” said Clare County Council’s Biodiversity officer, Shane Casey.

“While it’s understandable that everyone will want to visit the area and have a look for themselves, its important to remember that this is a very sensitive and critical time for the birds, and as such we need to show some patience and responsibility, and let nature take its course unhindered.

“We are all hopeful that this story ends in a chick, but we must remember that this is already a success story, and that the first white-tailed eagle egg laid in Ireland in over a century was laid right here in Clare.”

Meanwhile, Kinvara youngster David Cairney received a letter from one of his idols last week – nature expert Sir David Attenborough.

Nine-year-old David, who works at the Burren Bird of Prey Centre at the Aillwee Caves in Ballyvaughan, became one of Ireland’s youngest ever published authors last month when his debut book, Ra ptors, A Pocket Guide to Birds of Prey a nd Owls , was published.

“When I saw the writing, I immediately knew it wasn’t from someone I knew. When I opened it up, I couldn’t believe who it was from,” said David.

“David Attenborough is a real hero of mine. David Attenborough and Steve Irwin are probably my two biggest heroes. I would definitely have sent Steve Irwin a copy of my book if he was still alive.”