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said that he has used the route from the Ballina side every day for years and has “never experienced anything like the

delays since those lights went in. You have to wait for traffic to turn every which way be- fore you can go straight ahead across the bridge. That means waiting for up to four changes of the lights and they’re all long waits. You can be there for ten minutes or more, I’ve 1p beetsre mn | a

Local Councillor, Tony O’Brien has heard many com- plaints concerning the delays which the lights — turned on just two weeks ago — are caus- ing.

Having raised questions with the council’s roads depart- ment, he was told that they are

tackling teething problems.

The councillor and chair- man of the community coun- cil was told that expert traf- fic management consultants, Traffic Management Solutions Ltd, have been brought in the monitor how the lights are working and pin down snags.

The company is currently looking at how the operation is going and will report back to the county council’s traffic management officials.

“We’ll see what they have to say, but I want whatever needs doing to be done to solve these delays, even if that means switching the lights off,” said Clir O’Brien.

CLARE County Council has come under fire over its demand that a 5,000 year old bog oak tree, that forms part of a sculpture, be cut by one metre in order that it can be part of a Loop Head Memorial.

The demand by the Council’s Planning De- partment was this week described as “imprac- tical and crazy” by Kilballyowen Development Associataion Chairman, John Bonfil.

The Association has lodged plans for the proposal and is refusing the Council’s request to reduce the height of the tree that forms part of a Diarmuid and Grainne sculpture to three metres.

In a letter to the Council, the sculptor of the piece, rural-rights campaigner, Jim Connolly said: “The overall height of the sculpture and base which was conceived as a single artwork cannot be interfered with or reduced. This should not be a planning issue as the height is of a natural tree, albeit one that was dug up from a West Clare bog and is approximately 5,000 years old. The tree itself represents an intrinsic part of West Clare history and culture.

“The tree can’t be reduced. I have never heard the likes of it in my life. I hope the Coun- cil accept the sense of what I had to say.”

The tree, which is to be complimented by two three-quarter size bronze figures of Diarmuid

and Grainne, forms part of a twin-memorial dedicated to the memory of five West Clare men who lost their lives just off Loop Head in 1862 and reflecting ties with West Clare.

The men were all pilots who helped navigate ships up the Shannon estuary in the 19th cen- elas

The Council put the plan on hold because of concerns over the height of the proposed struc- ehKeny

In the initial documents lodged with the Council, no mention was made by the appli- cants of the age of the tree that formed part of the Diarmuid and Grainne display, which was initially on show at Shannon airport.

In May, the applicants lodged a photomon- tage of the memorial, stating that the Diarmuid and Grainne display was five metres. In Au- gust, they said it was now four metres high and are were refusing to go any lower.

Mr Bonfil said this week: “We are confident that the proposed memorial will get planning permission. It is a positive for the community. The only thing holding up the project at the moment is the planning. We have received €20,000 for the two memorials through Lead- er and also a contribution from the Foynes Har- bour Authority. We hope to unveil the memo- rials at the 3rd annual Loop Head Gathering Festival next July.

CLARE County Council is to take a number of companies to court for their failure to comply with enforcement notices aimed at removing large advertising signs along the main Limer- ick-Ennis road.

The initiative by the council’s Planning De- partment follows an anti-litter offensive during the summer by the local authority’s Environ- ment Section to rid the county of unauthorised signs put up by auctioneers and other busi- nesses.

In the move by the planning section, Acting

Director of Service, Liam Conneally has in- structed County Solicitor, Michael Houlihan to institute legal proceedings against five separate companies: Supermacs Ltd, Abbar Ltd, the Raddisson Hotel, Sign It and Print It Co Ltd and the Clarion Hotel.

The Clarion Hotel was given until May 26 to remove unauthorised signs in the townland of Cratloe and refund to the Council the expenses incurred by the Planning Authority in the in- vestigation, detection and issue of Enforcement Proceedings.

The Radisson was given until August 10 to remove a sign from the townland of Meelick

and restore the site to its original condition and also refund the costs of the investigation by the Council. A Limerick company, Abbar Ltd was given until April 6 to remove a sign at Meel- ick, restore the site to its original condition and again refund all costs to the council. Su- permacs was given a deadline of the April 8 to remove the sign, but failed to do so, resulting in the council’s instituting the legal proceedings.

The Sign It, Print & Sign Co Ltd of Ballysi- mon Rd, Limerick was also given a deadline of complying with an enforcement notice by July 25 to remove a sign at Meelick, but failed to elonrer

A spokesman for the Council this week con- firmed that a court date had not yet been set and said that the signs had not been taken down when the sites were recently inspected for the purpose of legal proceedings.

Any individual or company found guilty of not complying with an Enforcement Notice is liable to a fine of €1,900 on summary convic- tion in the district court. If after such a convic- tion, the individual or company continues the use of the alleged offence, they would be guilty of a further offence and lable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €508 for each day on which the offence is continued.

NEW RYANAIR flights, due to launch from Shannon this Autumn have been cleared for lift-off, amid fears that an industrial dispute could ground re eN ee

If a dispute that is currently in progress at Boeing, runs into Novem- ber, it could hamper Ryanair plans to launch new routes, chief executive, Michael O’Leary has warned.

The airline is currently phasing out its fleet of older aircraft and is due to stop using the old fleet and take de- livery of new planes in the next two TpeKeyels ete

But the retirement of three of the old- er planes has already been delayed by

the Boeing action, which has been go- ing on since the start of the month. The last strike at Boeing lasted 69 days.

At the airline’s annual general meet- ing in Dublin, O’Leary said that Rya- nair could stay on schedule for the launch of new routes, if the action continued into October. But he warned that new routes could be in trouble should the dispute drag on.

A spokesman for Shannon Airport said today that the new routes, due to launch in Shannon in October and No- vember, were expected to go ahead.

A new daily flight to Bristol is to Start in October, while two new routes, serving Nantes three times a week and Malaga twice a week, are to com- mence in November.

“The difficulty will be the knock-on effect of delays in getting all the new planes, so the routes which could be affected are those due to launch from January on… As far as the new Shan- non routes are concerned, we expect they will go ahead without any prob- ance

Meanwhile, the Ryanair boss has re- vealed that they are in talks with Shan- non, Kerry, Derry and Knock about the possibility of connecting flight to Dublin. O’Leary said he cannot say for certain when the next domestic route might be opened.

“It will be whenever the airports come up with a competitive package. That could be October or that could be October two years from now.”

THERE will be no more used farm plastic collected by the Irish Farm Film Plastic Group (IFFPG) in Clare this year if funding isn’t made available to the organisation 1m- mediately according to the General Manager of the plastic scheme, Sean Campbell.

Mr Campbell was in Clare last week and met with representative of Clare IFA in an attempt to re- solve the situation. According to Mr Campbell the IFFPG has already exceeded it contractual obligation by 4,000 tonnes of plastic this year and if it continues to collect it will go out of business.

The problem, according to Mr Campbell, is plastic that is being sold to farmers illegally and no levy is being collected on that plastic.

“Roughly about 18,000 tonnes of plastic was bought in Ireland this year and out of that a levy was paid on only 15,000,” said Mr Campbell. “It is being imported illegally and we are taking a double hit, we are not receiving the levy on the plastic but we still have to dispose of it.”

The Chairman of the Clare IFA Seamus Murphy has described the current situation of plastic collection in Clare as ‘alarming’ and ‘unsatis- factory.’

“The collection has been unsatis- factory and it’s a big blow that it has stopped altogether,’ said Mr Mur- phy. “IFA members in the county have plastic still on their farms for up to three years and while paying the levy on the plastic, it is not ac-

ceptable that this plastic is not col- lected yet.”

The IFFPG has collected in ex- cess of 12,500 tonnes of plastic this year even though, according to Mr Campbell, they are only required to collect 8,500 by the Government. Collection stopped nationwide at the end of August leaving farmers in many counties left with uncollected jo E-NLB (en

Clare was one of the worst coun- ties hit with roughly have of the

counties plastic left uncollected. The worst hit counties are Wexford and Roscommon where little or no plastic has been collected and Gal- way where approximately two thirds of all plastic remains on the land. Mr Campbell told the Clare Peo- ple that they will be approaching the Departments of Agriculture and the Environment with a view to receiv- ing a grant to cover the cost of col- lecting the remaining plastic. Fail- ing that he said that they well have to

look at the possibility of increasing the levy or introducing some sort of direct payment from the farmers on top of the levy.

Seamus Murphy said that he will be raising the issue with Oireach- tas members in the county over the coming days and hopes that some solution can be found for this prob- lem so that the farm plastic collec- tion service will be up and running as soon as possible.

SOME 200 Macra na Feirme County Officers attend Leader- ship Training Weekend in Ennis last week and showing leader- ship in their community was high on their agenda. Speaking at the training weekend, which took place in the West County Hotel, Macra na Feirme national president Colm Markey said that too many people are adopting a ‘leave it to somebody else’ atti- tude when it came to getting in- volved in clubs or organisations UOMO elo) Dur-busreb

“While people are happy to enjoy the benefits provided by organisations, many are slow to take on positions of responsibil- ity,’ said Mr Markey. “Many vol- untary organisations have been depending on the same people to run them for years.

“The organisations themselves needed to do more to attract peo-

ple into voluntary positions of re- sponsibility,” he continued. “Most organisations have too many long-winded and boring meeting and that needs to change.”

The Clare branch of Macra re- sumed their activities last week- end with a host of activities. On Friday night the members spent an evening at the dogs at the Gal- way Greyhound Track and many were present for the training evening on Saturday evening.

Claire O’Callaghan of Kincora Macra and Mairéad Meehan, Joe Carrig and Pat Carrig (all from the Newmarket Macra) re- ceived Bank of Ireland leadership awards from Colm Markey at the banquet.

On September 23 the Clare Macra will holding the regional bowling competition at Funworld in Limerick. All clubs are asked to participate and contact Fiona Treacy on 061 926970 for more Cle NU hse

SHANNON Swimming and Lei- sure Centre looks set to make losses for the third year running, prompt- ing a centre director to call on the Government to match local author- ity funding for the facility.

Accounts filed to the companies office by the centre show that the facility has made losses in 2003 and 2004. Company director, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind), confirmed that the centre is on course to make a loss again this year.

She said, “Government should match the €55,000 that the council contributed to the centre last year. This would allow us plan ahead. The Government talks a lot about the need for a healthy lifestyle, but it needs to back that up by support- ing centres such as the Shannon je.Nos 0 BUR VA

The accounts recently filed with the Companies Office show that to the end of October, 2004, the centre made a loss of €47,000 and this fol- lowed a loss of €33,000 sustained in 2003. At the end of October 2004, the centre had an accumulat- ed loss of €60,624. However, this is much smaller when compared to the €469,000 accumulated loss at Lahinch Seaworld.

Last year, the centre had a turno- ver of €461,000 with a wage bill of €243,000. Cllr McCarthy said this week, “The centre has been through several bad patches since it opened in 1973 and has closed down on a number of occasions.

She said, “By the mid-1980s, it was decided to treat the centre as a business and the leisure centre was added and opened by President Mary Robinson in 1994.”

Cllr McCarthy said that the earn- ings from the pool and leisure cen- tre supplemented each other.

“The centre provides a vital serv- ice and is essential for the com- munity, employing 11 full-time employees.

“We run a very tight ship and we stay sharp and focused. The centre is willing to try any activity once. For example, it has the only climb- ing wall in the region.

“The increasing cost of oil and heating 1s not making it easy, but the Board — whose work is volun- tary — are very diligent. I would like to see more people using the centre. The centre itself is a total non-profit facility.”

Cllr McCarthy said that, without the annual contribution from the County Council, the financial situ- ation would be worse. The centre last made a profit in 2002.

THE Fianna Fail A4 stake first round heats at the Galway track on Thursday and Friday night created much interest for Banner owners. There 1s €1,/50 on offer to the winner and with four dogs qualifying from first round heats, most of the Clare entries are still standing.

Glengal Lad, owned by Joe Longe of Ballyea, was the only Clare dog to win a heat. This was in race eight on Friday night. Running from trap four he had a winning time of 29.56 seconds. It was another good night for the Longe family with White Tip Dream, owned by Joe’s brother Gerry, winning the bumper race after coming in as a reserve.

Other Clare winners on Friday night were Drinking Solid for Sean Allen of Shannon, Cricket Player for Janet Downes of Killaloe and Knappogue Risk for Martin McDermott of Kilrush.

Race nine on Thursday night’s card was heat two of the Buster A5 stake worth €1,900 to the winner. Baby Leyton, owned by Bertie and Mary O’Doherty of Clarecastle booked his place in the next round winning here in a time of 29.09 seconds.

Tiermana Hill, owned by Noel Mo- roney and Pat O’Connor of Ennis, took second spot. Inagh Hero, owned by Michael McGuane of Inagh was also a winner in this stake recording a time of 29.02 seconds. Race four on Thursday

night was won by Tullagower Dream owned by Sean Crowley of kilrush. Carhue Kewell, woned by Ann Carey of Kilrush got Clare owners off the mark on Saturday night winning race one in a time of 29.92 seconds. Ennisman Frankie Sheehan continued his good run with Joint Cottage winning race ten in a time of 29.35 seconds.

Loclar Johnny, owned by Pat O’Connor of Miltown Malbay, went to traps for the final of the Irish Cam- bridgeshire Open 700 yards at Limerick on Saturday having recorded the fastest winning time in the semi-finals.

On Monday night hopes high that the West clare dog could win here, however he was out of luck on this occassion.

WHAT do Seanie McMahon, Stephen McNamara and Colin Lynch have in common? Not a ten marker when eve- ry hurling aficionado knows that they are All-Ireland men.

The ten-marker is that they are all All-Ireland men who went to Rice Col- lege in Ennis, but who never played Dr Harty Cup hurling with the renowned Christian Brothers academy.

All because, during their school days top flight Harty hurling ceased to be in the school hugging the Fergus River in Ennis. Indeed, it ceased to be there for 30 years, a three-decade gap that will be bridged this Wednesday when the school once again toes the Harty hurl- ing line against Kilmallock.

The last Dr. Harty Cup game the CBS played was in 1975 when they went down heavily to a Pat Horgan inspired North Monastery from Cork. The Mon went on to win the title — the CBS went down to the lesser grades of colleges hurling.

Now, their re-emergence as a top flight hurling school will re-kindle memories of a great association with the blue riband of colleges hurling in the province. That association reached its zenith on a March day in ’62 when the CBS boys crossed the Fergus wa- ters to Cusack Park and slayed mighty St. Flannan’s by 4-2 to 2-7 in the fi- ee

St. Flannan’s are still mighty as last

season’s 21st Harty Cup success and subsequent Croke Cup triumph proved. They open the defence of their titles against once mighty North Monastery and nothing other than a big win will be expected from the James O’Connor and Con Woods coached side.

Completing the triumvirate of Clare schools contesting the Harty Cup are St. Caimin’s from Shannon. And, if Rice College’s return to the top flight after a 30-year hiatus is noteworthy, the same can be said of St. Caimin’s.

This will be their maiden voyage, a journey first undertaken by a Shan- non school in the late eighties when St. Patrick’s Comprehensive were new kids on the Dr. Harty block.

St. Pat’s famously reached the final in 1989, only to go down by 0-9 to 0-5 to St. Flannan’s in what was only the second all-Clare final in the 90 year history of the competition.

In recent years, St. Caimin’s have amalgamated with St. Pat’s for Harty Cup purposes — this year they are go- ing it alone and face Ballingarry in Nenagh.

THE security company operated by convicted Ennis man, Kevin Cooper has received almost €100,000 from Ennis Town Council for carrying out security- related activities over the past five years.

Mr Cooper recently received a three-month jail term after being convicted of assault and Ennis Town May- or, Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) confirmed that the coun- cillors and officials would discuss the arrangement entered into with Mr Cooper’s company, if his appeal against his conviction fails.

Two other Council members, Donal O’Bearra (GP) and Johnny Flynn (FG) also stated this week that the Council engaging the services of Mr Cooper’s com- pany must be discussed if Mr Cooper’s appeal is un- SECC AUN

At a recent special sitting of Ennis District Court, Mr Cooper (43) of Loughville, Ennis received a three month jail for assault. Mr Cooper is currently on bail pending an appeal of the conviction to Ennis Circuit Court, which is due to sit next month.

Along with carrying out security work for Ennis Town Council, Mr Cooper’s company, Avalon Securi- ty Services provides security for a number of licensed premises across Ennis.

Clare County Council this week confirmed that Mr Cooper’s company has not been engaged by the Coun- cil for a number of years, however a company oper- ated by Mr Cooper, Ennis Security Services, was paid €175,000 by the County Council in 2000.

Ennis Town Clerk, Eddie Power confirmed this week that the company of which Mr Cooper is a director,

Avalon Security Ltd has been paid a total of €85,970 in respect of years 2001-2005.

Asked would the council now be reviewing its con- tract with Mr Cooper’s company in the light of the convictions, Mr Power said that the council had no further comment to make.

The recent district court sitting was also told that Mr Cooper had two previous convictions for assault, though the most recent was 15 years ago. The court was told that he was fined €63 at Tulla District Court in 1990 and fined €63 at Kilkee District Court in 1986.

Prior to sentencing Mr Cooper, Judge Mangan asked was it correct that Mr Cooper had two previous convictions for assault and was still the director of a security company which supervises doormen. Inspec- tor Tom Kennedy replied that this was the case. “Ill make no further comment,’ responded the judge.

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