Month: June 2012

THOUSANDS of householders across the county are now finding it increasingly difficult to meet their mortgage payments, with the number of people who are defaulting on loans with Clare banks increasing all that time.

That’s the warning that has been sounded out this week by the Clare Citizen Information Service, which has reported increases in calls to its helpline service for those coming un- der financial strain.

Speaking to The Clare People this week, Clare Citizen Information Service chief Paul Woulfe has urged people to come forward if they are experiencing financial difficulties as both his organisation and the debtcounselling service MABS gear up to meet the demands of giving muchneeded advice to cash-strapped individuals and families.

“People’s circumstances are changing all the time,” Mr Woulfe warned, “and there are a growing amount of people in the county getting into trouble with their mortgages. It is a huge problem that’s out there. People are defaulting on their mortgage payments in Clare and they have to go and try to re-negotiate with the banks.

“With the amounts of calls that are coming in every day, things are getting worse and they aren’t improving. It wasn’t a problem a couple of years ago, but now is the biggest problem facing people in the county. We see that every day,” Mr Woulfe added.

As part of this process the Clare Citizen Information Service has urged under pressure mortgage holders in the county to avail of the advice offered by the revamped keepingyourhome.ie website and MABS outlets in Clare that are located in Ennis and Shannon.

“It’s very stressful and mortgage arrears brought by losing your job can trigger other things as well,” warned Mr Woulfe. “It can lead to isolation, because with financial hardship you can lose your network and not interact with people as you used to. That’s why getting advice is so important,” he added.

FROM this week on, the people of the Kilrush area have a second lifesaving telephone number to remember, especially in cases of cardiac arrest and sudden collapse.

After a Good Samaritan dials 999 or 112 for the emergency services, they can then dial 099 31 112 to get in touch with the newly formed Com- munity Responder Group.

The Community Responders have been trained by the group’s chairperson, Ian Lynch, to save lives. They can perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and operate an automatic external defibrillator (AED) on the patient while they wait for an ambulance to reach the scene.

Mr Lynch is an Irish Heart Foundation (IHA) and Pre Hospital Emergen- cy Care Council (PHECC)-approved instructor and has trained more than 60 people in the Kilrush area.

“With 70 per cent of cardiac arrests occurring outside of hospital, the response of the local Community Responder Group is crucial as they can get to the patient very quickly and can, therefore, increase the patient’s chances of survival,” he said.

“All members of the group are vol- unteers, so we needed a system of alerting members to an incident that would allow the maximum number of members to be on call at any one time. The use of a VoIP ‘virtual number’ is the key to the responder service. The system can ring up to 1,000 numbers all at once. When a person calls the group on 099 31 112, the system rings all our phones. When answered by the trained responder, they hear a message to tell them this is a call from the Kilrush PAD group which gives them the opportunity to answer if they are in the area or not to answer if they aren’t in a position to assist. This allows the group to have all members on call 24-7-365, ensuring maximum chances of a responder being able to attend the situation and increasing the chances of survival.”

A non-profit organisation, the group has received donations and support from the local community and businesses and organisations such as Kilrush Town Council, ESB Moneypoint, Munster Group, Kilrush Credit Union, and the Bolton Family. Information leaflets, stickers and fridge magnets about the Kilrush Cardiac Responder group will be sent to each home in the area and posters will be put up in businesses throughout the town in the coming weeks.

A TOTAL of 2,863 teenagers from across the county will begin the main part of their state exams tomorrow (Wednesday).

Despite having language orals and some projects already out of the way, the majority of students will sit their first written exam at 9.30am in the morning when they face into English paper one.

As many as 1,278 Clare students are registered to sit the Leaving Certificate this month, with slightly more girls than boys heading to the exam halls.

648 girls will undertake this state exam compared to 630 boys.

The number of students undertaking the Leaving Cert exam in Clare this year is down on last year. In 2011, 1,444 Clare students completed the exam.

As many as 88 Clare students have already completed the majority of the Leaving Cert Applied course, with the gender spilt evenly between 44 girls and 44 boys.

And while these older students will undertake one of the most important exams in their lives, 1,497 students are likely to be just as nervous as they sit their first ever-state exam.

Unlike the Leaving Cert there are more males than females sitting this exam, with 769 boys registered to do the Junior Cert compared to 728 girls.For the 2012 examination, 53,789 candidates are entered for the Leaving Certificate examination nationally, 3,301 candidates for the final year examinations in the Leaving Certificate Applied and 59,684 candidates for the Junior Certificate examination.

While the Leaving and Junior Certificates traditionally brought a spurt of good weather, this week students will be looking out at rain as they sit exams, with the first three days of the exams in particular promised exceptionally wet.

EMERGENCY services “pulled out all the stops” to rescue a family who became trapped on Rine Island, just off Ballyvaughan, on Sunday afternoon.

A 10-year-old, three teenagers and their father all became trapped on the island when the tide came in behind them on Sunday afternoon. The island, which is located between Ballyvaughan and Gleninagh, is accessible when the tide is out but becomes completely sea-locked at high tide.

The alarm was raised when the father, understood not to be local, swam ashore and alerted the emergency services. The Shannon-based Irish Coastguard helicopter was scrambled to the scene just after 4pm with the Galway RNLI Lifeboat – which was in the area conducting a training exercise – also in attendance.

The rescue helicopter lowered a crew-member onto the island who stayed with the four youngsters un til they were rescued. Two members of the lifeboat crew waded onto the island and transferred the four chil- dren to the lifeboat.

They were brought ashore to the Quay in Ballyvaughan where two of the four children were treated for hypothermia by paramedics.

“Both rescue services pulled out all the stops and were on the scene within minutes to divert what could have been a tragedy,” said Mike Swan, Galway Lifeboat operations manager.

According to Matty Shannon of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard, there are many islands in the area where people can become trapped if the tides change.

He urged everyone using the sea to be vigiliant, especially in relation to the rising tides.

“There are a lot of islands like this in the area and people do need to be aware. Thankfully, this wasn’t a very serious incident and everyone was saved without any major injury but people should always be aware of the dangers that the sea and the tides can pose,” he said.

“The sea was quite calm yesterday when this happened and they were lucky as the Galway RNLI lifeboat happened to be in the area and was able to reach them very quickly.”

THERE have been calls for a system to be put in place to allow for weekly battery checks of difibrillators to be installed in Ennis.

Four defibrillators have already been purchased for Ennis following a well-supported fundraising drive.

The Ennis Defibrillator Committee are now seeking to make Ennis the town with the most people trained in the use of defibrillators.

It was launched last February after the issue of defibrillator cover in the town raised at a meeting of Ennis Town Council.

In response to a motion tabled by Labour councillor Paul O’Shea, the Health Services Executive informed the council that defibrillators were available in three locations – Clare County Council, Ennis Leisure Centre and Lees Road.

That sparked calls for the life saving equipment to be made available on the 24/7 basis in the town cen- tre.

Each defibrillator costs € 2,300 and the committee have raised enough money to purchase four units. These units will be positioned at key locations throughout Ennis in the coming weeks.

The campaign has also been backed by the Clare Area Red Cross, who are now providing training in defibrillator use.

The Red Cross has already provided training to 20 community groups and over 400 people in the use of defibrillators.

The Chairman of the Ennis Defibrillator Committee, Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) has now called on Ennis Town Council to provide staff to carry out battery checks on a weekly basis.

In a motion submitted to today’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr O’Shea states, “That Ennis Town Council provide personnel to undertake a weekly battery check on public defibrillators that are to be installed throughout the town.”

THERE have been calls for land at Drumcliff and Ballyalla to be setaside for the purposes of developing a sporting and recreational hub in Ennis.

Clare County Council has also been urged to ringfence any proceeds from the sale of 98 acres of land at Drumcliff for reinvestment in the same area. The council announced that it is to put land in the area up for auction.

The proposal has been put forward by three Ennis councillors, Tony Mulqueen (FG), Johnny Flynn (FG) and Pat Daly (FF).

Their proposal is due to be discussed at the June meeting of Clare County Council.

The motion states, “In light of the innovative use of this council’s resources such as land, development levies etc by Clare County Council to enable recent proposed sport facility development initiatives in association private and voluntary groups in Killaloe and at Doora; that a similar approach be adopted with regard council owned lands at Drumcliff and Ballyalla Lake. These lands and lake are in a central location with over 50 per cent of the Clare’s population living within a 30 minutes drive time and which enjoys nearby high quality access to the national motorway system.”

The statement continues, “That Clare County Council ringfence the proceeds from the upcoming sale of 98 acres of council land at Drumcliff for reinvestment in that same area and into the local economy by its utilisation to create a new public private community/voluntary ‘Drumcliff and Ballyalla Sports, Recreational and Environment Hub’ (including pitches, watersports, motorhome park, walks, cycling, biodiversity awareness, etc) which would be complimentary to existing facilities at Lees Road. Strategic use of the land sale proceeds in addition to other resources such as; other adjoining council lands, other sports/community organisation lands/funds, sports capital grants, Leader funding, etc could lead to such a development becoming a major tourist attraction resulting in increased utilisation of other existing facilities within short distance of hub.”

There have also been calls for Ennis Town Council to seek funding to improve facilities at Lees Road and Tim Smyth Park.

In a motion due to be discussed at today’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Johnny Flynn states, “The phenomenal growth in use by the public of the sports and recreation facilities at Tim Smythe Park and Lees Road indicates the social and medical benefits of such investments made by Ennis Town Council. The council should continue to add to such facilities by providing such as a MUGA (multi use games area) and improved lighting and surfaces in Tim Smythe Park; adult exercise equipment, general athletic equipment and mountain bike trails in Lees Road.”

Ennis Town Council had previously sought funding through the Sports Capital Grant programme to install new dressing rooms and MUGA. However the application was turned down by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

THE Samaritans is celebrating 30 years in operation in the Banner County and the local branch is taking steps to raise awareness of its work in Clare.

New signs with Samaritans contact details are being installed at Doolin, Liscannor and at Clare’s premier tourist attraction the Cliffs of Moher, which has been visited by over four million people in the last five years. Two of its recent high profile visitors were Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni.

It’s hoped that the signs will increase awareness of the Samaritans and will lead to an increased level of engagement with the service.

The Samaritans first began taking calls in Clare in June 1982 and it now has well over 100 volunteers, and operates from a base on the Kilrush Road in Ennis.

Its work will be acknowledged by Clare County Council on June 11 when a reception will be held at Áras Contae an Chláir in Ennis.

Gerry Dobbin is director of the Clare branch of the Samaritans and has volunteered with the organisa- tion for many years.

He said that the branch has invested in the new signs in an attempt to raise awareness among people who may be at risk.

“We feel it is important that we get our message out to the public and we are particularly grateful to the Cliffs of Moher for their assistance in this. The Samaritans vision is for a society where fewer people die by suicide,” he said.

“We offer a listening ear to people who are experiencing feelings of distress and despair and we are available 24/7. We can be contacted by phone at 1850 60 90 90, by email at jo@samaritans.org, or by visiting our centre on the Kilrush Road in Ennis between the hours of 10am and 10pm each day.”

Some 15,000 dialogue contacts were made with the Clare and Ennis branch of the Samaritans in 2009. In 2010, 15,922 contacts were made by way of phone, face-to-face meetings and emails delivered and this increased by about 16 per cent to 17,383 in 2011. It is estimated that between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of all calls made to the Samaritans are from people who have suicidal thoughts.

The experience of the Clare branch has been replicated across the country, with a very noticeable increase in contacts to the service since the onset of recession.

Gerry said that the Samaritans don’t offer those who make contact any advice but talk to them about their feelings and the issues facing them. “It can be of great benefit for people to talk about what’s going on for them and by contacting the Samaritans they can talk about their problems. If they are feeling very low, or even suicidal they will get a chance to talk about that, an opportunity that people might not have otherwise,” he said.

ALMOST 1,000 people turned out at the Church of Corpus Christi in Lisdoonvarna on Sunday to witness local Sister Margaret Mary receive the highest award that the Pope can allocate.

In one of his first official engagements since his appointment, Papal Nuncio Charles Brown presented Sister Margaret Mary with the Papal Gold Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice after communion at 11.30am mass.

The Papal Nuncio presented Sr Margaret Mary with the medal on behalf of his holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, in recognition of her decades of service to the Sisters of Mercy and education in North Clare.

Eternally modest, Sr Margaret Mary dedicated the medal to all the sisters who helped found and run Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Lisdoonvarna.

“I know it is mortifying for you personally to find yourself the centre of the Church’s attention this morn- ing. It is an awesome thing to feel something of Saint Peter himself point you out to us afresh, as he taps you on the shoulder to say thanks thanks for your lifetime’s companionship of Christ and your unstinting humble ministry to his people,” said Lisdoonvarna priest, Fr Conor Cunningham. “Sister Margaret Mary is deeply loved and admired by the whole community for her kindness, her hard-working nature, her humility and above all for her striking example of living faith, prayerfulness and service.

“It is this example of everyday holiness and joy that above all that has brought her life’s witness to the attention of the Holy Father so that all may benefit,” he said.

Originally from County Mayo, Sr Margaret Mary moved first to Ennistymon to take up a position with the Sisters of Mercy, before becoming one of the founding teachers at Mary Immaculate Secondary School in 1949.

“It has been a joy to me to live among you here in North Clare for most of my life and to serve God and to serve you as best I can. I never expected any notice or reward for my modest contribution. The joy of serving God and serving you was reward enough for me,” she said.

“I want very much to associate all my dear friends in the Sisters of Mercy with this honour. Today I am thinking especially of our beloved departed sisters and friends. I am very grateful to you all for coming to today’s celebration of faith and education in Lisdoonvarna.”

LAHINCH has made it to the twenty-first century by becoming the first town in Clare to have its very own app. The app, which can be downloaded free from the App Store, was developed by local man Matthew Kelly.

Once downloaded, the applica- tion gives its user two different live video feeds from Lahinch, as well as a large amount of information about the town and its businesses.

“My idea was to make it easy for people to get information about Lahinch quickly. So if a group of golfers or surfers or even locals wanted to take a trip to Lahinch, one quick look at the app and they could see the webcams, or the surf report or any amount of other information,” said Matthew. “If someone wanted to go surfing, let’s say, it takes one click to see are there any waves, another click to book a lesson from one of the surf schools, and another to book a hotel or B&B. It is about promoting Lahinch and making it easy for people to plan their weekend.

“We haven’t come across something like this for any other town in Ireland. People have already suggested to me that I should start making these for other towns in Ireland, but we will have to wait and see how this one goes first before I look at that idea,” he said.

Both the Lahinch Surf Shop and the Ocean Scene Surf School have allowed Matthew to use their webcam images for free.

“The whole idea is that it is free for the users to download, and it will always remain that way, but maybe if it takes off I may consider selling advertising on the site in the future,” continued Matthew. “At present, this app is only for people who have iPhones. They can download this for free by going to the App Store and searching for Lahinch but I will be developing a version of the app for android phones in the future.”

SIX Clare men made up the majority of the rifle team that brought glory to the 32nd Reserve Infantry Battalion at the Defence Forces All Army Shooting Competition.

Among the members of the winning team was Kilrush man Private John Kiely who currently holds two all army shooting records, not yet broken by his colleagues in the reserve army or even the professional defence forces.

After an absence of two years from the Defence Forces All Army Shooting competition, the rifle team representing Clare, Limerick and Kerry came close to securing a historic double gold win at Kilworth Military Ranges in Cork, having won the Southern Brigade qualifying competition several weeks before.

Despite a record team score and the second highest recorded in a competition, they missed out on gold by the narrowest of margins.

Two team members also won three individual prizes, one going to Corporal John Lillis from Barefield and two to Private Kiely. The Kilrush man was also crowned All Army Champion Marksman and received the coveted red marksman badge.

This competition marked another milestone in his shooting career having attained nine podium finishes from his last 11 starts which also includes two army scoring records, a run of consistence that is unheard of in living memory.

After the competition team captain, Lieutenant Mark Burke Kilrush was very optimistic about the future of the team.

The 32nd Reserve Infantry Battalion riffle team was made up of Lt Mark Burke, Sgt Robert Adrian, Pte John Kiely all from Kilrush; Cpl John Lillis, Barefield; Cpl Tommy Lineen, Kilmihill; Pte David Cosgrove, Ennis and Pte Kevin Garvey, Kilmallock.