Month: March 2014

ALL Clare properties that went under the hammer at the Allsop Sale last week made or surpassed their reserve, as all the banner properties were snapped up.

The only Clare hotel on the list, Magowna House, Inch, was sold for € 370,000, € 20,000 over the reserve. The new owner of the 10-bed house, three two-bedroom cottages and an 18-hole pitch and putt course has not being confirmed, with millionaire business man and farmer JJ McCabe denying he purchased the lot.

A bungalow at Mahonburg, Inch, also sold at the Dublin-based auction for € 105,000.

Meanwhile 16.67 acres of land in Doonbeg reached its reserve price of € 75,000 and was sold, while land in Ardnacrusha surpassed its reserve by € 20,000. The 22 acres of land was bought for € 95,000.

A ground floor appartment also surpassed its reserve by € 11,000. The Town Court apartment was sold for € 31,000.

New hotelier Mr McCabe told The Clare People,

COMMUNITIES along the west coast of Clare are coming together to hire their own engineer and access the damage to land and property as a result of two months of storms and high tides.

Led by the Clare Irish Farmers Associations, community groups have decided to take action where responsibility is being denied by government and state bodies.

Of particular concerns are sluices, which were in many cases initially built by the former Board of Works to drain sea water from farm land.

This infrastructure is not the responsibility of Clare County Council according to the local authority, with the Office of Public Works also denying accountability.

Embankment work and coastal erosion along farms and private property is also adding to the confusion, with property owners in many cases prepared to undertake the work but fearful of the bureaucratic consequences if they do so.

Clare IFA county chairman Andrew Dundass said the Minister for State with responsibility for the OPW Brian Hayes gave a commit- ment that he would consider some financial support if the farmers came together to undertake the work.

This would have to be inspected by the council, said the minister, as the OPW did not have the resources.

“These are all jobs that need to be done, even though they may be farm land at the moment, if these jobs aren’t done they will affect people further a field,” said Mr Dundass.

The plan is that farmers will come together to finance the work with some grant aid from the Government, similar to the community road projects a number of years ago.

“We will have to put all the reports together for the areas the council are not responsible for and what can be done for these people.”

Mr Dundass said farmers along the Shannon estuary are frustrated that no commitment has come from the OPW as yet as to what repair work will be carried out there. The OPW is responsible for parts of the estuary, especially areas of conservation.

“A lot of farmers are in a position to build up those embankments but are afraid of the consequences of doing so due to the restrictions on these lands,” explained Mr Dundass.

A FIREMAN from Ennis is being hailed as a hero for the second time after jumping to the aid of a drown- ing woman at the weekend. Eli Brace jumped off Sarsfield Bridge in Limerick City as the woman was swept under. Eli is a member of Limerick City Fire and Rescue Service. The Shannon-based Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter 115 had been dispatched to help out in the river rescue, but due to high winds the winch man could not reach the woman. Eli then jumped from the bridge. The woman was being swept under the water when he rescued her from the water. The Ennis native was previously in the army before joining the fire services in 2008. He is a member of the fire service’s Swiftwater Rescue Team, who receive specific training to carry out rescues in river conditions. It is not the first time the married father has been involved in a dramatic river rescue. In March 2011, he was one of 10 members of the fire services who attended an emergency at Shannon Bridge in Limerick city. Emergency services were called to the scene after a man was seen entering the water. Eli, who is originally from the Cloughleigh area of the town, jumped into the water at Limerick Docks in order to save the man from drowning. In January, Eli was one of three people who co-opened Crossfit Ennis in the Quin Road area of Ennis. He spent his military career training soldiers in all aspects of fitness in his capacity as a PTI (Physical Training Instructor).

THE long lost remains of a British ship which sank off the Clare coast almost 120 years ago, were uncovered over the weekend in Liscannor Bay.

The ship, named the Elizabeth McLea, sank in rough seas in December of 1894 when its anchor became dislodged, causing it to drift in a heavy storm and run aground on rocks just off Lahinch beach.

The remains of the wooden hull of the ship, which have somehow survived in Liscannor Bay for the past 119 years were uncovered over the weekend. It is understood that a combination of the recent storms and high tides over the weekend, worked to uncover the remains of ship.

Heavy storms in January and February have transformed the layout of the beach at Lahinch – moving thousands of tonnes of sand and exposing large areas of rock.

The ship was spotted by local man Patrick O’Dwyer, who is a green keeper at the nearby Lahinch Golf Course.

“We were working away on the golf course and we noticed what looked like flags sticking up from the sand. If you look from the end of the Lahinch Promenade, the ship is located about 200 yards north and about 100 yards out to sea, so it isn’t far off from the main beach at all,” he said.

“We’re not sure how it became uncovered, but it must have something to do with the tides and the way that all the sand shifts and gets moved around.

“You can actually get relatively close to it. The sand becomes very shallow around the ship itself so you’d want to be careful because it might give away and that would be quite dangerous, but you can get relatively close to it.”

The ship sank on December 28, three days after Christmas Day 1894. The storm was so great that the crew were forced to climb the ships rigging to avoid being swept overboard by the storm. When the storm began to ease the crew were able to make it back to the deck before using ropes to winch there way into the water and finally ashore.

The Elizabeth McLea was in Liscannor Bay collecting a cargo of Doonagore Stone for transport back to Bristol. The Clare flag stone was a prize cargo in the 1800s and some is understood to have been used in both Buckingham Palace and the White House.

According to locals the ship has resurfaced in the past, but this is the first time that the Elizabeth McLea has been visible for at least a decade.

HAVING spent Sunday in the “lashing rain” marching and counter marching in preparation for one of the largest St Patrick’s Day Parades in the world, the Tulla Pipe Band is determined to get to New York “whatever it takes”.

Pam Reilly, PRO, said the 29-strong band members that are to travel to the Big Apple have not even considered the looming holiday weekend strike at Shannon airport.

As the band is booked in on a March 15 flight since last October, it is unlikely their plans to lead the Clare contingent in the parade will be affected.

Likewise Mayor of Clare Joe Arkins, who is to represent Clare in New York over the weekend, had a lucky break when he was not able to get a reasonably-priced flight on the Friday, and instead had to book in for an early flight on March 13.

County manager Tom Coughlan is however at the mercy of the industrial action as his flight his booked for Friday, March 14, the day of the four-hour strike.

Mr Coughlan along with the county mayor, mayors of Ennis, Kilrush and Shannon, is to attend meetings organised by the Mid West Regional Authority with the IDA, Tourism Ireland, CIE Tours International and other Irish American groups.

Last night Transport Minister Leo Varadkar says he hoped the workers union SIPTU would put the strike on hold as talks between IBEC and the union continued.

“The Government has come together with the employers’ body IBEC and the trade union umbrella group ICTU to put together a panel of experts agreed by all sides who can study the issues relating to the pension funds at the airports and come up with a solution,” he said.

Meanwhile the Tulla Pipe Band, made up of members aged nine years old to their late 70s, are planning to take part in the Brooklyn Parade on the Sunday before leading the “honour unit” or first section of the parade.

“As this is the first section of the parade we will get world wide coverage. We are very proud not only to be representing Tulla, but Clare and Ireland,” said Ms Reilly.

A PROSTITUTION survivor and former drug addict will address a group of teenagers, women and the general public as part of a joint initiative by students at Coláiste Muire, Ennis and Clare’s Women’s Network.

Mia de Faoite will make the address on Friday next from 7.30pm to 9pm in the Temple Gate Hotel.

The Dublin woman, who is a survivor of prostitution and drug addiction, is an activist for the Turn off the Red Light Campaign.

Through public lectures, television and radio interviews and the theatre she has highlighted the dangers intrinsic to prostitution.

Transition year students at the Ennis school have already begun researching the taboo subject of prostitution and discussing the issue that is often overlooked by society.

As part of Young Social Innovators 2014, the students are endeavouring to raise awareness, open up discussion around sexual exploitation and debate the criminalisation of demand for paid sexual services.

They have completed a project of their findings and will present it to the audience on the night also. There will then be an opportunity for further discussion with refreshments served.

The Clare Women’s Network, an or- ganisation that is a community based and seeks to ensure a safe society in which all women are valued, included and experience equality of opportunity all levels of life, have also been instrumental in the school’s project and Ms de Faoite’s visit to Ennis.

Mia is currently a second year student at The National University of Ireland, Maynooth where she is reading Philosophy and Sociology. This event is open to all and is free to attend.

WITH 275 awards totalling almost € 8 million, Clare accounted for the sixth highest number of personal injury awards in the country last year.

More Clare people opted again last year to settle their personal injury claims through the Injuries Board.

The board makes awards relating to motor, employer and public liability accidents, without the need for litigation.

The board’s annual review showed that its non-adversarial model has delivered direct savings of over € 72m in 2013, relative to the prior litigation.

The average award in Clare was € 28,747 and total compensation for the county amounted to € 7.9m million.

The number of new claims received by the board in 2013, a useful barometer of future award volumes, increased by 5.8 per cent last year, driven by an 8.2 per cent increase in motor claims, which are typically of lower value.

Neighbouring County Limerick had the largest number of awards as a proportion of population with 788 people claiming through the board.

The average award in Limerick was lower than in Clare however at € 21,010.

Patricia Byron, CEO of the Injuries Board said, “I am pleased that as a self-funding agency, the board has delivered cumulative savings of € 1 billion on the cost of handling personal injury claims with no cost to the Exchequer and at considerable benefit to insurance policy holders.”

“Last year the board’s processing fee to respondents, typically insurers, reduced by 30 per cent from € 850 to € 600 and, as a result, the cost of processing personal injury claims is now at historically low levels.”

A SHANNON based company has been ordered to fund a third level science scholarship after pleading guilty to health and safety breaches.

Seven people were hospitalised after the accidental release of a “toxic” and “corrosive” gas at Chemifloc, Smithstown Industrial Estate, Shannon on December 20, 2012.

Details of the accident were heard at Ennis District Court on Friday.

Inspector Dermot O’Callaghan of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), told the court that 6000 litres of sodium chloride were being loaded onto a tanker for delivery on the day in question.

Insp O’Connor said that after the loading of the fourth container, a yel- low green chlorine dioxide gas was produced, “which is classified and toxic and corrosive”.

The warehouse and yard were evacuated and emergency services were called to the scene.

A number of people were hospitalized and one person spent two days in intensive care, the court heard.

Insp O’Callaghan explained that an investigation determined that an unknown and unidentifiable container was accidentally loaded beside the sodium chloride, which led to production of the gas.

Chemifloc pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that all containers used at work for hazardous chemical agents were clearly labeled or identified.

The company also pleaded guilty to failing to manage and conduct work activities in such a way as to ensure, as was reasonably practicable, the health and safety of employees.

The offences are contrary to the Safety, Health and Welfare Act Work Act, 2005.

Solicitor James Nash said his clients had acknowledged the accident. He said it had resulted from a “systems error” and the company have fully changed their labeling system at the plant.

The company has no previous convictions. Mr Nash said the company, who were represented in court by the managing director and another director, were embarrassed by what happened and would suffer a 70 per cent jump in insurance costs.

He said Chemifloc had always been compliant with health and safety regulations.

“They are both here. They are both embarrassed to be here and they want to take it on the chin”, he added.

Judge Patrick Durcan said this was a very serious matter.

However he noted this was a local company that provides employment and has complied with every regulation and law.

He said if Chemifloc funded a € 10,000 third level science scholarship and discharged total witness and legal costs of 4714 euros, he would strike out the summonses.

He adjourned the case to March 14. Founded in 1982, Chemifloc employs 40 people.

The company is involved in the manufacture and supply of water treatment products.

THE war of words and scientific data over the proposed construction of Ireland largest fish farm off the Doolin and Fanore coast may just have been won.

The Journal of Fish Diseases, who first questioned the research put forward by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) on the likely effects of sea lice on the local wild salmon as a result of the fish farm, have retracted their complaints.

The Journal of Fish Diseases had described the research, which was carried out for BIM by the Marine Institute in Oranmore, as having ‘fundamental errors’. The article, which was attributed to ‘Krkosek et al’, was the source of much criticism from groups opposed to the farm, including government agency Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI).

The twin fish farms, which will located about 10 kilometres off the coasts of Doolin and Fanore, would be the largest facility of its kind ever built in Ireland, if it gets the go ahead. The proposed farm has been met with stiff opposition, not least by groups of fishermen, business people and environmentalists in North Clare, who believe the farms will be a threat to local wild fish stocks and tourism.

“I welcome the apology by the journal for the inadequate editorial procedures followed and the unfairness with which they treated the Marine Institute by not affording us right of reply prior to the publication of Krkosek’s accusation,” said Peter Heffernan, CEO of the Marine Institute.

“Scientific peer review is all important to the quality, accuracy and integrity of research. However, what people must be made aware of now is that Krkosek et al’s work has now been reclassified by the Journal as a ‘Comment’, which is akin to an opinion piece.

“The journal has also updated its author guidelines to clearly state the level of peer review for the different types of articles.”

A FLOOD warning remains in place along the western and northern coast of the county with high tides expected to threaten beleaguered flood defenses again today.

A number of roads were closed across the area yesterday with Loop Head, Quilty, Lahinch and Liscannor already sustaining damage.

At high tide, 6.30pm last evening (Monday), the people of the Loop Head peninsula were preparing to be isolated from the rest of the county again.

This is now the fourth month the community has to endure tidal and storm damage. Just six hours before, the only remaining road on to the peninsula was reopened as it has been flooded again by high tide earlier that morning.

At 6am the Fodra Road, the only life line for the West Clare communities was closed by the tides. The main road to Kilbaha remains closed as Clare County Council works to repair it, while the road at Ross is closed and no work has begun on it.

Yesterday the people of Rhinevilla and Kilduane were again virtually living on an island as the high tides raised the floods once again.

On a happier note, Yvonne McNamara from Kilbaha, who had feared she would not be able to make it to hospital to have her baby if the tides were in, gave birth to a healthy baby girl and Friday. Mother and daughter were safely home in Kilbaha again before the only access road was closed for a period of six hours.

Meanwhile in Quilty the high tide burst through some of the council work at Cloughnainchy, and water has come in on some of the land again, while other coastal defences held.

Meanwhile, the Lahinch to Liscannor road was closed once again yes terday, while Clare County Council cleared boulders and other debris from the road. The promenade in Lahinch sustained further flooding during the high tide on Monday morning but it is not thought that and further significant structural damage has been done.

“High spring tidal conditions resulted in some flooding at various locations along the Clare coastline overnight and this morning [Monday],” said a council spokesperson.

“This flooding has since receded. The main road at Liscannor was closed for a time this morning to enable council workers to remove rubble from the road.”