Month: January 2013

DO NOT resort to moneylenders. That’s the stark message to people facing financial pressures this January. As Clare families face into the toughest financial weeks of the year, financial advice groups have warned that illegal money-lenders should be avoided at all costs.

Twenty years after it was set up to counteract illegal money lending in West Clare, MABS (Money Advice and Budgeting Service) has asked families under severe financial pressure not to opt for this form of shortterm loan.

By the end of 2012, numerous financially-stressed families in Clare had turned to unscrupulous money-lenders, who would charge huge interest rates and threaten them if they did not pay up. As these lenders are not legal, organisations such as MABs cannot negotiate with them on behalf of the person taking the loan.

People are particularly vulnerable to this type of lending at this time of year and Paul Woulfe from Clare Citizens Information said this is leading to worry and depression.

“Many people parked their problems and money concerns coming up to Christmas so the next few months are going to be difficult.

“People also borrow on the run up to Christmas and add to credit card and store cards debt which adds to the problem now,” he said. “There is help out there as long as people do not panic,” he said.

EAST Clare has been identified as one of Ireland’s hotspots for UFOs (unidentified flying objects) with four separate sightings recorded in 2012.

According to new figures released by the Aerial Phenomena Research Association of Ireland (APRAI) there were two separate sightings in the O’Briensbridge area, one in O’Callaghan’s Mills and a fourth just over the Tipperary border in Cragg last year.

With further sightings in Loop Head and on Aughinish Island in North Clare, the Banner County was identified as one of Ireland’s busiest counties for UFO activity in 2012 after Dublin, Cork and Kildare.

The first two recorded UFO sightings of last year took place in O’Briensbridge on January 7 and February 6, with a third sighting recorded at Kilbaha North, close to Loop Head, on March 3.

A fourth sighting was recorded on Aughinish in North Clare on May 29 with the final sighting recorded at Killuran, just off the R465 in O’Callaghan’s Mills on July 24.

A spokesperson from the APRAI declined to give any specific information on the nature of the Clare sightings or to identify who reported the incidents.

According the the founder of the UFO Society of Ireland, the late Betty Meyler, the Burren landscape has an effect on UFO activity.

Speaking to The Clare People shortly before her death in 2010, Ms Meyler said that the unique geographic landscape of the Burren seemed to attract UFOs.

A short video of Clare’s most famous UFO, recorded in sky in the Inagh area in March 2009, has been viewed almost 20,000 times on Youtube.

IN HER first interview since being released from prison, Ennis woman Sharon Collins has protested her innocence of the crimes she was convicted of and spent nearly four years in jail for.

The 49-year-old, who was socialising in Ennis over the Christmas period and is believed to be planning to move back to live in her native town, has stated publicly that she hopes to find out who framed her for the crime of trying to have her partner PJ Howard and his two sons Niall and Robert murdered.

“You just have to try to be dignified and hope that eventually you will be able to prove that it wasn’t you,” said Collins in an interview in a Sunday newspaper.

“It is so elaborate and there is so much. I couldn’t imagine doing that for starters – but if you could try to put yourself in the position of somebody who did that?

“Well you wouldn’t leave that sort of trail. It’s just too much. It’s just too much. It wasn’t me. That’s all I can say to that. I didn’t leave that trail behind me. I just hope someday I will be able to prove who it was,” she added.

In November 2008, Collins was was jailed for six years after a Central Criminal Court jury found her guilty of soliciting a man to murder PJ Howard, and his two sons, Robert and Niall Howard, on August 15, 2006.

Collins, who was accused of using the internet handle “lying-eyes98” to investigate the hiring of a hitman on the internet, was also found guilty on three counts of conspiring to kill the three men.

Her trial heard she tried to hire Egyptian-born Las Vegas poker dealer Essam Eid to carry out the killings. While sentenced in November 2008, she was convicted in July 2008, and was held in prison from that date.

In late 2011, Ms Collins lost an appeal against the conviction with the court rejecting all 23 grounds of her case, but she was granted temporary release after serving three years and nine months of her sentence ahead of the completion of her sentence in December.

Ms Collins has revealed that she is now concentrating on her career, with two books on her story now in the pipeline, while a movie deal is also in the offing as several shows in the US fight to secure her first television appearance.

WEST Clare landowners will not receive any financial payments if fracking is allowed to take place in the Clare Basin.

That is according to Clare Fracking Concerned, who say that Compulsory Access Orders will be used to give companies, such as UK-based Enegie Oil, access to lands rather than Compulsory Purchase Orders. The group also said yesterday that a change to the County Development Plan to ban fracking – which was unanimously voted in be councillors earlier this year – should go ahead, even if it would have little or no legal standing.

“The change to the development plan should go ahead no matter what as it was voted on unanimously by all the public representatives in Clare,” said Clare Fracking Concerned spokesperson, Róisín Ní Gháirbhith.

“However there are far more important things that people in Clare need to be aware of. Farmers will not benefit financially [from fracking], but rather there will be Compulsory Access Orders served to them that will allow Enegie Oil to access their land for free.

“The shale gas in Clare is also shallower than other places – it is only 700 meters down. This greatly increases the chances of our aquifers and waters being polluted by fracking fluids and methane gas.”

Earlier this year Donegal County Council began the process of changing its County Development Plan to include a ban on fracking. According to Director of Services for Planning at Clare County Council, Ger Dollard, a similar move in Clare could create a “false sense of security” for people opposed to fracking in Clare.

“The council is fully conscious of the issue and the genuine concerns expressed by the elected members. We are aware from media reports of proposals for changes to Donegal CDP but such media reports also refer to the legality of any such moves. The council’s view is that the CDP as presently drafted is strong in terms of environmental objectives and these can address and deal with any issues arising on the process of fracking,” said Mr Dollard.

“There is little point of inserting something into the County Development Plan [CDP] that won’t legally stand up and would only serve to create a false sense of security for all involved.

“The national question regarding fracking has first of all to be determined, at which point the council will then be able to conclusively decide if it has any role in the process and if so how should that role be handled within the CDP on a basis that will stand up to legal challenge.”

CLARE’S President of Ireland, Dr Patrick Hillery, was caught in the eye of a diplomatic storm in 1982 over the birth of Prince William, the son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana and second in line to the throne.

The State Papers from 1982 reveal that President Hillery was accused of snubbing the royal birth, but that what happened was that diplomats had wrongly advised him not to send a message of congratulations to Queen Elizabeth on the birth of Prince William.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach’s office became embroiled in a row over whether or not to send a message of congratulations. A memo sent from assistant secretary Richard Stokes to Charles Haughey outlines advice given by the Chief of Protocol, who said it would not be appropriate for a message to be sent as Prince Charles and Princess Diana were not Heads of State.

The Chief of Protocol had been asked for his advice following a press query by a journalist to the President’s office. Stokes told the Taoiseach he “would strongly disagree with the Foreign Affairs advice on this”.

“I believe that a message of congratulations should be sent by the President to the Queen on the birth of her grandson,” he continued.

President Hillery’s chief of protocol in the Aras sought advice on the issue, with his own thinking being that a message was not necessary, as Prince Charles, was not a head of state. Foreign Affairs backed the advice, as did a Mr Ó hAnnrachain in the Taoiseach’s office, who also said then Taoiseach Charles Haughey was not to be consulted.

However, Mr Stokes believed “an explanation will be no substitute for a warm and gracious message for this happy event on our neighbouring island”.

Another document from HJ Dowd, an official in the Department of the Taoiseach, shows that he was in agreement with Stokes. He also said it would be of “no harm” to tell the Foreign Affairs Department that “they were in error when they said that their files suggest that a message should not be sent”.

He points to two further precedents for sending such a message. On the 15 November 1948, President Seán T Ó Ceallaigh sent his wishes to King George VI on the birth of a son (now the Prince of Wales) to Princess Elizabeth (now the Queen). On the 16 August 1950, he sent a similar message to King George on the birth of his grand-daughter Princess Ann.

A note made out on the 22 June shows that the Government then scrambled to reach an agreement that the President should send a message of congratulations. The draft was cleared with the Chief of Protocol at 12.50pm.

SHANNON Airport’s status as a stopover point for world leaders from President John F Kennedy to Mikail Gorbachev to Barack Obama has been showcased once more with release of the State Papers from 1982.

The papers released under the 30year rule show that Cuban leader Fidel Castro passed through that year, creating the possibility for what could have been one of the more unlikely summit meetings in Irish history.

All because when passing through Shannon, Castro left a gift for Taoiseach Charles Haughey. The documents show that the Cuban president stopped off at Shannon Airport in late 1982, probably en route from Moscow after attending the funeral of USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev.

Haughey wrote a private letter to the Cuban president on 9 December, 1982 – one of the final acts he performed during his term as Taoiseach in that government – to thank him for the gift Castro had left for him.

An election in November had seen Fine Gael and Labour form a coalition and Garrett Fitzgerald took over from Haughey as Taoiseach on 14 December, just five days after the letter was written.

In the letter, Haughey thanked Castro for the “magnificent gift” of cigars and a casket which the Cuban leader left for the Taoiseach during the stopover.

“The hand-carved casket is most impressive and the cigars will be greatly enjoyed by my family and friends at Christmas,” Haughey told Castro.

Given the differences in political philosophies between the two men and Cold War tensions at the time, it is somewhat surprising how eager Haughey seemed to be to meet with the socialist leader, telling him:

Please accept my apologies that I could not be there to greet you in person but I hope that we can meet on some future occasion.

The letter ends with Haughey expressing his “warm personal regards” for the Cuban leader.

A MAJOR shake-up in the way that policing is operated in Clare was announced in December with the news that eight Garda Stations were to close around the county.

Stations in rural areas such as Quin, Inagh, Lahinch, Broadford, Mountshannon, Doonbeg, Kilmihil and Labasheeda were named for closure while it was also announced that both Ennistymon and Killaloe District Garda Headquarters will be downgraded.

Former Superintendent, Frank Guthrie, who is now involved with the Inagh Housing Association said that there was some concern in the village about the new arrangement.

“A lot of people, especially older people, favour the old-style policing and confiding in their local garda. They felt safe. The meeting is really to see how this will be dealt with,” he said following the news.

The changes will see the garda serving in Quin reassigned to Ennis, the gardaí in Inagh and Lahinch moved to Ennistymon, the Broadford garda will now be based in Ardnacrusha, the Mountshannon garda will be based in Killaloe and the Doonbeg garda will be working out of Kilrush Garda Station.

Labasheeda and Doonbeg stations were provided with a garda from Kilrush every weekday from 10am to 1pm and at the weekend from noon until 2pm. These stations will also close.

The Chairperson of the Lahinch Community Council welcomed the closure of Lahinch Garda Station, saying the station was already “virtually closed” and the town would be better served from Ennistymon.

Donogh O’Loghlin believes that the closure of Lahinch Garda Station will not have an effect on the safety of the local population.

“I am not really concerned by the closure of the station. It is a beautiful building but I think it has been more or less closed for years already,” he said.

“It should have been closed years ago really. The local people here don’t have any idea when there will be a garda present in the station or not, so what is the point of having it there? There are 30 guards stationed just two miles out the road in Ennistymon. That should be enough.”

Clare Labour Party National Executive Member Seamus Ryan called on the Government to rethink the course of action.

“While the Commissioner is operating under the same financial constraints as so many people and the Government, it is short-sighted on the part of the force to abandon these facilities in favour of patrols and cover from other stations, some of which are up to 20km away and are themselves part-time and up to 25km to a 24-hour station for communities like Mountshannon,” he said.

PLANS to construct a massive Rotterdam-style transshipment port at Kilrush were lodged with an Bord Pleanála in December.

The multi-million euro project has been earmarked for banks of reclaimed land adjacent to the Moneypoint Power Station and could create hundreds of sustainable jobs locally if successful and transform the area into one of Europe’s largest freight ports.

The Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company lodged papers with the national planning authority seeking to have the development classified as a Strategic Industrial Development (SID).

The deep waters of the Shannon Estuary would allow larger vessels from America and Asia to unload massive volumes of cargo in the area – which would then be transferred to smaller ships and brought to shallow ports in other parts of Europe.

The 16-metre water depths on the Shannon is rivalled only by Rotterdam in Holland. The Dutch port employs well over a hundred thousand people directly and indirectly around the Europort facility, the biggest in Europe and currently operating at full capacity.

A Spokesperson from An Bord Pleanála said a meeting with the Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company would likely take place in January but could not confirm any details about the specifics of the proposed port.

If the facility is deemed to be of strategic national importance, An Bord Pleanála will give it SID status – which means than a decision on planning will be made by them and not by Clare County Council.

The application was made by the Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company – who are not currently listed with the Irish Company Registrations Office (CRO).

The Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC), who had previously examined the possibility of creating its own deep water transshipment facility in the Shannon Estuary, confirmed yesterday that the application had not been made by them.

A spokesperson said that that the organisation had “no comment” to make on the proposal currently before an Bord Pleanála but did say that the company would assist “any marine or shipping related projects” in the area of the estuary.

In 2004, the Shannon Foynes Port The Shannon based Atlantic Way group commissioned a feasibility study on a deep water port in the Shannon Estuary in 2009. That report, conducted by international expert Dr John Martin, indicated a massive demand for a deep mater port to service shallow ports across Europe.

Speaking on behalf of Atlantic Way yesterday, former chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority, Brian O’Connell, said that his organisation were not responsible for the application to An Bord Pleanála.

THE future of Clare’s international airport was finally resolved in December when the new vision for Shannon Airport and Shannon Development was announced in Dublin.

The decision to separate Shannon Airport from the control of the Dublin Airport Authority was confirmed by the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar (FG), who said that as many as five thousand new jobs could be created in the new company over the next five years.

It was also confirmed that Shannon Airport debt, understood to be in the region of € 100 million, would remain with the Dublin Airport Authority – but Shannon would also lose any stake in Aer Rianta International.

The new airport authority was been provisionally named as NEWCO. The Minister for Jobs, Richard Bruton (FG) confirmed at the announcement that there would be no compulsory redundancies form Shannon Airport or Shannon Development. The Clare People also reported on December 4 that Clare woman Rose Hynes was being lined up to become the first chairperson of the new airport authority.

The Bellharbour woman, who chaired the Aviation Business Development Task Force that drafted the new airport plan, was rubber stamped into this role later in the month.

At the Dublin announcement the government set a ambitious target for boosting passenger numbers at Shannon by one million over the next nine years, Minister Varadkar telling The Clare People that “if Shannon can’t achieve that kind of growth, then there is no future for the airport”.

However, it’s in the area of jobs that Shannon can expect its biggest windfall with the transport minister revealing that a new international aviation services centre has “the potential to create between 3000 and 5000 jobs within five years”.

Minister Bruton said the airport’s independence, which will see two companies in Shannon provide up to 850 in the coming months represents “a new chapter in regional development” in Ireland.

“The independence of Shannon Airport has been sought for many years,” said Minister Varadkar. “It certainly is a risk, but the risk with doing nothing is far greater. It is an historic decision and it will bring a new future for Shannon Development and Shannon Airport.”

Shannon was formally separated from the DAA on December 31. The government now plans to appoint a new boards for the NEWCO in the new year. The government will also have to address the possibility of industrial actions as Shannon Development workers hav raised a number of worries about the new arrangement.

CARERS from all over Clare took to the streets of Ennis in December to raise their concerns about budgetary cuts to the Respite Care Allowance. More than 50 people too part in the impromptu including parents of young children with disabilities, older parents of adults with special needs and full-time carers of the elderly.

One of the organisers, Niamh Daly, said that a similar protest organised in Dublin by the Carers Association was an indication at how upset people were but, as most carers cannot travel to protest, the carers of Clare decided to have their

say on their own streets.

“Carers cannot all get to Dublin but, at the end of the day, we have to have our voice heard,” she said.

Many more Clare carers were unable to attend the protest as the people they care for are house-bound and therefore could not come to En nis.

It is not just the cut to the respite grant, however, that is affecting Clare’s carers. Family carers, providing unpaid care to family mem- bers and loved ones, have been seriously affected through the number of cumulative cuts, including the cut to the Household Benefit Pack- age, increases to the prescription charge from 50 cent to € 1.50, the new carbon tax on fuel and the drug payment scheme threshold increase from € 132 to € 144. The Carers Association said it was extremely disappointed with the level of reduction of over 19 per cent in the respite grant paid to over 77,000 family carers, 20,000 of whom receive no other support from the State for providing full-time care for a family member from their own resources. The grant is designed to be used by carers to buy in home care or pay for residential respite care for the caredfor person in order to give the carer a much needed break from their caring role. However, many carers are using this grant to pay for necessary therapies and services for those they are caring for. Despite intense pressure from lobby groups and concerned citizens the government has, to date, help strong on the issue of the Respite Care Allowance. It is as yet unclear whether the Cares Association or other interested organisation will host more protests or other actions in 2013. Wed02January13