This article is from page 4 of the 2014-08-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
THE NUMBER of children being baptised in West Clare has dropped significantly in recent years as the effects of emigration further impacts on rural Clare.
According to figures produced by the Diocese of Killaloe, the number of baptisms in the west of the county fell from 170 in 2010, to just 157 in 2013 – this equates to a drop of almost 8 per cent.
The worst hit areas were Kilmihil which recorded a 39 per cent decrease (from 23 to 14) and Doonbeg which saw a 33 per cent decrease (from 21 to 14).
Despite losing all of it’s government funding in 2012, Kilrush based Rural Resettlement Ireland continued to rehouse urban families in rural areas.
“Indeed, according to founder Jim Connolly, the organisation has brought three new families to West Clare so far this year.
“Where we see the drop in population most is in requests from schools, who are desperately needing two or three students who need students to save a teachers job.
“We get requests like this from families from all over the west – it’s like they are ordering families off a fence.
“We have three villages in West Clare who are getting new families this summer, all with young children. I know that in each of these cases they are saving a teachers job,” said Mr Connolly.
“It seems to me that all over the West [of Ireland] a generation has been lost.
“The spin at the moment that Ireland is pulling out of recession applied only to Dublin and to the East coast.
“I’m not a doom merchant, I’m a very positive person, but as far as I can see it every rural town in Ireland is as dead as a dodo.”
Rural Resettlement Ireland has also began taking requests from homeless families who are currently being kept in emergency accommodation by ur- ban local authorities.
“None of the current situation makes common sense. We have a housing crisis in Dublin.
“For the first time ever we are now taking inquires from people who are homeless – people who had a mortgage, Mr and Mrs Average who had a mortgage and couldn’t keep up with it.
“We were dealing with one family last week who were being put in a Travelodge by a local authority,” continued Jim.
“You have hundreds and hundreds of families who need a home, and on the west coast we have thousands of homes with no-one in them.
“It just doesn’t make sense.”