Month: August 2013

NORTH Clare commuters using the proposed Ballyvaughan Bay Hop ferry service to Galway could end up making massive savings on their weekly commuting bill.

The service, which will launch on a trail basis on September 2, will offer weekly commuter tickets to and from Galway for just over € 40. These tickets, which will be offered to commuters using a promotion code during the trail, match the regular commuter ticket cost under the Government’s tax saver commuter scheme, which could be accessed should the service be made permanent.

This would result in large savings for Burren commuters compared to the weekly petrol bill to and from Galway – while the service also offers to reduce the commute time by as much as two hours every day.

“We have had a handful of tickets sold already which is good considering we are three weeks before the trial starts. There is a lot of support from locals – both people who want to use the service themselves and people offering discounts to tourists coming over from Galway,” said or- ganiser, Gwen Ryan.

“A lot of local shops are offering discounts to people who show their tickets, for example Burren Bikes are offering a special rate for people who travel over on the boat and want to rent a bike for the day.

“I started this project in order to give myself and other commuters a reliable service from the Burren into Galway. Our weekly commuter ticket will cost € 80 but we have also launched an early bird ticket on the trial which will mimic the savings which would be made by commuters under the tax saver scheme if this was to become a full time service. That would roughly half the price of the weekly ticket.”

This Ballyvaughan Bay Hop trial will every day excluding Sunday from September 2 to 13 and an official launch will take place on August 25. Liam O’Brien, of O’Brien Line will operate the service on behalf of the community in a 12 passenger hard-cabin rib.

The Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark is supporting this Ballyvaughan Bay Hop trial service with financial assistance from the TransTourism Project.

Tickets are on sale from www.ballyvaughanbayhop.org

A SPECTACULAR new exhibition tracking the last 10 years of life in Ennistymon will be officially launched at the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon later this month. The exhibition, which is entitled “Ennistymon: Vanishing Heritage” is a photographic exhibition presented by The Old Ennistymon Society which is itself celebrating its twenty first year in 2013.

The exhibition will give a fascinating insight into now disappeared buildings, daily activities of the inhabitants, and long forgotten businesses and crafts – indeed everything that contributed to the rich tapestry of life in a north Clare market town.

The Old Ennistymon Society was founded with Michael Comber in 1992 with the mission statement of “Preserving the Past for the Future”.

Local author Eddie Stack will officially launch “Ennistymon: Vanishing Heritage” on August 16 at 8pm and the exhibition will continue Sep- tember 12.

On Wednesday, August 21, at 8pm there will be a heritage discussion illustrated by the film “I Was Happy Here”, depicting many of the streets and buildings portrayed in the exhibition. On Thursday morning, August 22, at 11.30am there will be a town walk led by Frank Davis, Frances Madigan and John O’Loughlin.

A second exhibition entitled “Of Stones and Flowers” will run at the Red Couch Space in the gallery until September 12. The exhibition will include pen and ink iIllustrations and watercolours by Hilary Gilmore.

THERE were increased sightings over the weekend in Ennis of a “rogue” fox blamed for killing three dogs in a housing estate in recent weeks. Authorities have issued a warning over the behaviour of the fox amid fears it could attack small children. County Dog Warden and Clare IS- PCA officer Frank Coote says he has received numerous reports of sightings since highlighting the fox attacks last week. The animal is believed to be moving through land in the Tobertascáin area of the town. Mr Coote said the fox is responsible for attacking and killing the dogs. “To be honest I didn’t really believe it at first. It’s rare enough for something like this to happen. But I have the evidence of it, these dogs were half eaten. I interviewed the families. I took photos. These dogs were all attacked in properties,” explained Mr Coote. Though instances of fox attacks against humans are rare, Mr Coote said there is evidence in England that it has happened before. The long-serving animal welfare officer says this is the first time that he has encountered a “rogue fox” in the Ennis area. Mr Coote explained, “I’ve met a rogue badger before up in Lees Road when it opened. It was chasing people up and down the path but it had eaten a poison. I’ve seen one rogue fox in Tulla before but never around Ennis.” Mr Coote said he would be concerned that the fox could attack small children. A trap has been laid in the area where the fox is thought to travel through. But so far it hasn’t been caught. Mr Coote is liaising with officers from the National Parks and Wildlife Services. He said efforts would continue to trap the fox. “It has quite bad mange and I was talking to a vet who said he would probably die during the winter anyway. But this fox is a danger and I will stay out there to try and catch it,” Mr Coote added. Tue13August 13

CLARE farmers are being urged to be vigilant following a marked increase in cattle rustling in recent months – with fears now growing that an organised gang could be targeting farms in the county.

The latest incident, which took place on a farm in Quin earlier this month, saw more than € 10,000 worth of cattle being taken from the farm of Anthony Flannery in the early hours of the morning.

The raid specifically targeting high value animals, which the thieves would likely attempt to resell rather than slaughter.

However, in order to resell the animals the criminals would need to provide valid documentation and tags for the animals – which has led to a belief that they could be an organised operation rather than opportunist thieves.

According to Clare ICMSA chairman, Martin McMahon, a theft of animals at this time could be enough to put already stretched farmers out of business.

“The value of this stock to a farmer now is huge. After such a costly winter a lot of farmers have been trying to get cattle in shape so they could get as much money from them as they could. There are loans to banks and credit to be paid and a theft like this could put someone out of business,” he said.

“These people [the cattle rustler] would have to have a knowledge of farming and a way of disposing of these animals. If there is someone out there who is helping people to dispose of stolen animals then this is a very serious risk to farmers in Clare and something that needs to brought to an end quickly.

“The Guards and the Department of Agriculture needs to row in behind this quickly and bring an end to this situation. The paperwork needs to all add up, they need to have the right tags on their ears and they need to have the licence to dispose of these animals.

“If somebody is interfering with this then it is a very very serious crime.

“When they are caught then need to be severely dealt with.”

Gardaí in Ennis are currently investigating the incident which took place in the early ours of Friday, August 2. Among the cattle stolen was a six year old black Limousin cow, two other in-calf cows as well as an Aberdeen Angus.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Gardaí in Ennis on 065 6848100.

A SEARCH is expected to resume today for a man missing from his home in Ennis since Saturday. Seamus Higgins (22) was last seen jumping a wall after leaving his house at Dun Na hInse on the Lahinch Road at around 3pm on Sat- urday. He was wearing jeans, new navy and white, laceless, Nike runners and a grey jumper. Members of Clare Civil Defence have carried out searches of the nearby Claureen river and riverbank area. Extensive searches have also taken place in Lees Road and in vacant houses and abandoned buildings in the town. That search is expected to be expanded around Ennis today (Tuesday). Gardaí in Ennis were notified within five hours of Mr Higgins’ disappearance on Saturday. They have asked for the public’s assistance in finding Mr Higgins. An appeal for information has also been issued through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Gardaí have expressed concern for Mr Higgins. He left the house without his phone, wallet and passport. Mr Higgins’ foster mother, Tina Whelan, said she is concerned for Seamus’ well being. She said, “He just got up and left the house without saying a word which isn’t like Seamus. He would always say where he is going. One of the neighbours saw him hopping over a wall. His friends are very upset. I am upset. We just hope that he turns up.” Anyone who may have seen Seamus Higgins or who may have information as to his whereabouts is asked to contact Ennis Garda Station on 065 6848100.

A NEW tourism initiative aimed at opening up the five major ecclesiastical centres of Clare to more visitors gets underway at the weekend.

The Clare Pilgrim Way is a 21-day series of walks that move through Scattery Island, Kilfenora, Kilmacduagh, Inis Cealtra, and Killaloe.

The walks begin each morning at 10am on August 19 and 20. Each evening, the group will eat and sleep in Carron. The walk has been established by the Clare Pilgrim Way Group, who have looked at setting up Camino-style routes in Clare.

Group member Brian Mooney explained, “This walk will begin in Kilfenora on August 19 and travel via Noughaval, Cahermacnaughton, Kilcorney Valley and Mega to Carron. On August 20, it will follow the route St Colman himself took beginning at his well near Oughtmama and continuing over Turlough Hill and Slieve Carron mountain to his hermitage at Eagles’ Rock. The final day, August 21, the walk will begin at Colmcille’s Well in Glan and proceed via Tierneevin to Colman’s monastery at Kilmacduagh.

Brian continued, “When finally set up, the overall walk from Scattery back to Scattery will take 21 days. It is divided into two main sections: looking back and looking forward.

“The Irish were obsessed with linking everything back to their past; what Frank O’Connor describes as ‘the Backward Look’. So, it was important to them that, whatever Christianity brought, did not mean discarding their own original culture.

“But they were also deep into cosmology, probably as a result of the work done by the Druids in their observations of the night skies before them. For whatever reason, they looked on their knowledge of the cosmic system as vastly superior to anyone else’s. And, so they were fascinated by what one might call the Cosmic Christian tradition, God’s ultimate plan for the universe. This is the tradition that will be explored on the final part of the Clare Pilgrim Way, via the journey from Killaloe back to Scattery, where the main theme will be seeking greater insight into those mysterious words of Christ: ‘If I be lifted up, I will draw all things to myself’.”

AN EAST Clare manufacturing company has begun lobbying the Government to provide grant assistance for water conservation in domestic homes next year when the home insulation grants finish.

RainSavers, a Tuamgraney company that builds and installs the world’s only rain water recovery units that pumps water of drinking quality back into the home, believes that the system will not only save householders on their water charges but will also take pressure off local authority water supplies.

Denis Sheehy, Director of RainSavers, said, with the onset of domestic water charges next year, he feels now is the time for Government to make such a commitment.

“It actually benefits county councils massively because at the moment the councils’ municipal water supplies are over stretched. What has happened is housing has increased drastically but the infrastructure to provide water to houses hasn’t.

“We believe that if the county council would consider grant aiding rainwater recovery within urban areas then there would be an enormous reduction on the municipal supply systems, thus allowing the present infrastructure to return within optimum operating capacity and reducing the cost on local authorities,” he said.

He said the system, which retails at approximately € 4, 500 would also benefit the householder and pay for itself in four years. “Of a standard 2,000 square foot house with four people occupancy, one of our systems would supply enough water for that house for the year. What the house would only be using is the standard charge and their free water usage, they should not be going above that at all in a year,” he said.

AN EAST Clare company is planning to treble its staffing numbers as it begins exporting its worldwidepatented rainwater recovery product to the United Kingdom.

Founder and director of Rainsavers Denis Sheehy said that the rain water recovery and optimisation company is in the early stages of drawing up plans to further export the unique product across Europe, North America and possibly worldwide.

The company based in Tuamgraney was set up two years ago by Mr Sheehy along with his brother-in-law Shane Kelly from Whitegate, after the former mechanical electronic engineer and newly qualified architect invented the product.

Mr Sheehy described his product: “It is essentially saving rain water from your roof and putting it back into your building as drinking water.

“It is gone from the old technology. There are quite a lot of companies out there doing rain water harvesting which is quite archaic technology, where the water is only really used for the toilets,” he said.

“We decided if you are going to look at rainwater at all you have to be able to optimise it. You have to be able to use it in the entirety of the house.

“We developed units that will click very easy on to your down pipes, pump the water away, filter the entire system and put it back into your house as drinking water standard. That way you can use it for your showers, sinks, hand basins, toilets, washing machines and for cooking,” he said.

“It is a hybrid system by way that when you have rain water the whole house is on rainwater and when your rainwater runs out it will automatically switch back on to the main system.”

Enterprise Ireland also believes in this new company as it is assisting in the plans to export the product.

“As part of the next five-year strategy, we are looking at the UK market this year and next year and to integrate ourselves into the UK market. Then we are looking at the European market in year three, and the US market then in year five,” said Mr Sheehy.

During the next two years the company intends to grow its staffing number from the current six members to “15 to 20 staff”.

With the onset of water charges, Rainsavers is already seeing an increase in domestic demand for its product, although the majority of its clients are still commercial.

To date a system has been fit for a chain of gyms in Limerick and Scarrif Community College.

The East Clare secondary school decreased its water usage from 12,000 litres a week to 3,000 litres a week.

The company is also in talks with a prominent national hairdresser business who want to use the rainwater for colouring, as colour as been found to react negatively with the chemicals in water.

Rainsavers system does not have any chlorine or chemicals and lime would not be a problem either according to the systems inventor.

“One of the main ethos with it was we had to have a system that was easy to fit on to any house, and the water had to be 100 per cent usable and we had to create as little interference with the existing house as possible. In theory if you sold your house you could take the system with you,” said Mr Sheehy.

The unit is approximately the size of an alarm or bell box, water is collected in a little tank that when it fills up the water is pumped away to another storage tank which can be build outside or in the attic of smaller houses, he explained.

A JURY has returned verdicts of accidental death at the inquests of two men who drowned off the West Clare coast last year.

64-year-old Skipper Michael Galvin and his 35-year-old neighbour Noel Dickinson drowned when their boat, the Lady Eileen, sank off the coast of Quilty last August. Their disappearance sparked a massive search that at one stage involved around 20 boats various search and rescue services.

Inquests into the men’s deaths were held at Clare County Coroner’s Court on Wednesday. They heard that Liz Galvin was the last person to see her husband and Mr Dickinson alive be- fore they left for sea.

In her draft deposition read in court, Ms Galvin stated it was not unusual for the men to spend a long day working at sea.

Martin Kiely of Aughinish Diving Club and James McMahon of Burren Sub Aqua Club told the inquest they found the bodies of the men in the wheelhouse of the Lady Eileen.

The inquest heard that the men had been part of a dive team searching the water off Breaffa South. The bodies of the men, who both lived at Seaview Park, were taken ashore at Seafield Pier, Quilty, on August 14. Death was pronounced by Dr Billy O’Connell.

Both men were fishermen but the inquest heard that Mr Dickinson also worked as a chef. Autopsies were performed at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick.

Dr Elizabeth Mulcahy told the inquest that blood analysis revealed a negative or zero reading for ethanol in both men.

Dr Mulcahy said that in her opinion, death was due to drowning.

County Coroner Isobel O’Dea suggested to the jury that the appropriate verdict to return was one of either accidental death or death by misadventure.

After declining an offer to retire to consider their decision, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of accidental death with drowning as the cause of death. Ms O’Dea extended her sympathy to both families on the tragic losses of Michael Galvin and Noel Dickinson. She also paid tribute to the rescue services who assisted in the search.

Ms O’Dea noted the findings of the official Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) report, which found that the Lady Eileen probably encountered wind or wave action on the day it sank. Ms O’Dea noted the weather had been particularly bad at the time.

She said she was conscious that the first anniversary of the men’s death would be marked this week.

Inspector Michael Gallagher expressed sympathy on behalf of the gardaí.

Family members were present in court for the inquests.

AS THE hurlers of Clare and Limerick prepare to square up against each other this weekend, new evidence has emerged which suggests that an ancient common tribal link exists between the people of two counties.

An excavation of Moneen Cave in Ballyvaughan has provided experts with a fresh insight into life in the West of Ireland in prehistoric times. The significance of the cave was not identified until 2011, when a ancient body as well as a number of ceremonial artefacts were discovered by local cavers.

The cave has been the topic of ongoing research by Dr Marion Dowd of IT Sligo, who has just completed a report including extensive radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA analysis.

She has determined that the cave was a significant religious site during the Bronze Age for a period of 1,000 years between 2,000 BC and 1,000 BC – after which point Moneen Cave inexplicable fell out of use.

The oldest artefact found on site was a red deer antler mace-head, which has opened the possibility of shared religious belief existing in Clare And Limerick some 4,000 years ago.

“We found evidence of ritual food offerings such as oysters and joints of meat. We also found about 350 sherds of pottery dating to 1,000 BC,” said Dr Dowd.

“The antler mace-head dates to around 2,000 BC. It was probably a ceremonial object and is the most important artefact from the site. We initially thought it was the only antler mace-head in Ireland but just recently we have come across five other examples of this sort of artefact – two from north county Limerick, one from Lough Inchiquin [in Corofin, County Clare] as well as one from Antrim and one from Meath.

“Most of the mace-heads or hammer-heads seem to come from natural places that were sacred in the past – caves, rivers and lakes. We know, for example, that Lough Inchiquin was a significant site in Neolithic and Bronze Age times because significant numbers of stone axes were ritually deposited in it, as well as one of these antler mace-heads.

“Though only six of these objects are known in Ireland, there is a marked concentration in Clare and north Limerick.

“What we are seeing is that there may have been a significance regarding this type of artefact in the religious practices of people in this region; that within their belief system [the Bronze Age people of Clare and north Limerick], this sort of antler mace-head was a recognised ceremonial and religious object.”

Meanwhile, human remains discovered in the cave were identified as those of a teenage boy who lived in the late medieval period, dying in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.

“A find like this is totally unprecedented in a cave context” continued Marion.

“We know that this was a 14 to 16 year old with probable stunted growth. We also know from the bones that the person had a very poor diet and would have suffered from a number of infections.

“Ancient DNA analysis showed that the skeletal remains were those of a boy. What we don’t know, and what we will probably never know for certain, is what caused this child’s death.

“Could he have been a murder victim? I don’t think so, because there is no sign of trauma of the bones. The second possibility is that this was some sort of clandestine burial – someone who didn’t warrant burial in consecrated grounds. I don’t think this is the case either because the body would still have been buried in the Christian east-to-west position.

“The other possibility is that the boy came into the cave and died there. He may have been ill or injured. This is my personal opinion of what happened even though we will never know for sure.”

The excavation was funded by the National Monument Service.