This article is from page 6 of the 2012-12-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
STAFF at the Clare County Council recycling facility on the Gort Road in Ennis have been praised for their calm actions after a live grenade was discovered on site last Thursday morning.
The grenade, which is understood to date back to Civil War times, was discovered on the site on Thursday morning.
The explosive device was found among a stash of recyclable metal on the facility and is understood to have been live and a genuine explosion risk.
The supervisor at the facility alerted both the Gardaí and the Defense Forces to the find and Clare County Council closed the recycling centre for a number of hours of Thursday afternoon, while the grenade was being dealt with.
The Defense Force’s Army Bomb Disposal Unit were tasked to make safe the ordinance and arrived at the Gort Road Industrial Estate around 1.30pm on Thursday afternoon.
A small controlled explosion was carried out and the area was declared to be safe just after 2.15pm on Thursday afternoon. It is as yet unclear where the grenade came from and Gardaí in Ennis are investigating the incident.
Clare Green Party councillor Brian Meaney paid tribute to the calm ac- tions of the staff at the centre while a spokesperson from Clare County Council also apologised for any delays felt my members of the public as a result of the incident.
“We would like to thank the public for their patience during the interruption to services at Ennis Recycling Centre.
“We also want to acknowledge the assistance of An Garda Síochána,” said a spokesperson from Clare County Council.
This is the second time that Army Bomb Disposal Unit have been called to a suspect device in Clare in 2012. In January a controlled explosion was carried out on a suspicious device discovered on the strand at Lahinch Beach.
A four foot long metal canister, which was discover on the north end of the strand beside Lahinch Golf Course, was discovered by a walker on the beach just after 7pm on Saturday evening, January 7.