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THE prospect of swarming bees chasing stampeding cattle over dangerous cliffs in the Burren was raised at Clare County Council yesterday, as councillors could not decide whether to support a project to creation an Apiary (or bee sanctuary) in the Burren.

A motion to support plans by NUI, Galway, and other agencies to help reintroduce bees to the Burren created an unexpected stir at last night January meeting of Clare County Council, with a heated argument breaking out between North Clare based Cllr Michael Kelly (FF) and Ennis Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG).

The motion was opposed by Cllr Kelly who claimed that the introduction of bees would lead to cattle stampeded, which would result in the injury and death of animals.

“I am opposed this motion. Farmers are well aware that swarms of bees can cause a stampedes of cattle. I wish the bee keepers every success but if Cllr Flynn can suggest a site for this in Ennis, I would be very happy to supported it,” he said.

“I have 50 years of experience in farming in the Burren and if this goes ahead I have no doubt that it will create swarms of bees which will interfere with farmers and cattle.

“If the Burren floura is to flourish, it needs to be grazed during the summer. If you put bees into the Burren you won’t be able to graze cattle there safely.

“If you get an expert (from NUI, Galway) to speak here, of course they will be in favour of it, because they don’t have land in the Burren and they won’t have cattle with broken legs following stampeded in the Burren.”

Following a long debate on the motion, it was decided to defer a vote until expert opinion on the subject are invited to speak before Clare County Council.

“The experts at NUI, Galway and GMIT have a number of sites already in the Burren. With the history of organisations such as BurrenBeo and the significate investment already given to further farming practice in the Burren [the Burren Farming for Conservation Project] and there is an agreement that the Burren is the perfect spot for something like this. I would not consider that there would be any significant danger to livestock through this. Bee keeping is not an illegl activity; you can do it anywhere. This is not something new.”

CALLS have been made for a sustained “period of civil disobedience” to take place in Clare following the closure of the acute assessment unit at Ennis General Hospital last week.

The subject was discussed following an emergency adjournment of yesterday’s January meeting of Clare County Council with councillors voting to write to the Minister for Health, James Reilly (FG), to demand that new staff are deployed to the Ennis hospital.

The acute assessment unit was closed for a number of days last week with Clare patients being referred to Limerick, which was also suffering acute overcrowding at the time. The Clare People understands that the closure in Ennis was a result of a single doctor being off on sick leave and a replacement doctor not being made available. A replacement doctor was eventually deployed from but the Ennis unit was forced to close for a number of days.

Independent Cllr James Breen, called for the public to take direct action against the Government in an effort to force the HSE to deploy more staff to Ennis General Hospital.

“It is just not good enough. We have been given promises from minister after minister all saying that we would have a first class medical service here in Clare. We can throw money at everything; we have € 50 million to spent on consultants for Irish Water but people cannot get life or death tests carried out at Ennis General Hospital,” he said.

“I think the time has come for a long period of civil disobedient in this country. People should stop paying their property tax. People in unions should stop paying those unions, because the unions are not doing what they are supposed to.”

The motion was seconded by Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG).

“The population of this county is receiving a second class service when this medical assessment unit in not open,” said Cllr Flynn.

A ROADWAY used by more than a million tourists each year to travel between the Cliffs of Moher and Lahinch will not survive a month, if urgent work is not carried out.

The road, which is located on the Lahinch side of Liscannor village, was badly undermined during last week’s storm and, according to Patrick Blake of the Liscannor Har- bour Committee, will not survive another large swell.

With large sea swells expected in February and March, the road will be lucky to make it to the summer of work is not carried out soon.

“We have a very serious problem with the road which has been completely undermined and the Cliffs of Moher road is in danger of being closed. A stone wall that was protecting the road has been totally wiped out. If I was driving on that road, and a lorry was coming in the other direction, I would not keep going. It is that dangerous. All that is left there is mud holding the road together and it is a drop of 30 or 40 feet. We have a high tide coming in February and a couple in March and that could be the end of it.

“The pier [in Liscannor] itself, which is over 200 years old, has also been badly damaged. The power of the tide also created a couple of very large craters, which will have to be repaired.

“The Clathane Road is also very badly damaged. Farm land is not even flooded, it is covered with stones. The storm came like a Tsunami and wiped everything before it.”

More than 200 people turned out in Liscannor last Saturday to help restore the local pier and harbour following the devastation brought by Storm Catherine.

“It was like a group of locusts moving across the place. They swept across the place going unreal hard work all the way. We have five tractors there and they removed tonnes and tonnes of seaweed out of the way,” continued Patrick.

“The work done was amazing. We had people from the Surf Club in Lahinch and people coming from all over the country to help. It shows how people come together in a crisis. It was an amazing day, the atmosphere was so positive and everyone coming together to help.”

ONE hundred per cent of the € 23.76 million requested by Clare County Council from central government must be forthcoming and soon if the local authority is to begin restoring the storm ravaged county. That was the message from county councillors at a special meeting on Friday, during which warnings were issued that lives will be lost if the infrastructure is not repaired immediately.

Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) said that one such urgent case was the main thoroughfare to the tourist attraction – the Cliffs of Moher.

“If something isn’t done at that location and other locations highlighted in this report, what is going to happen? Is it that that road will simply collapse and it is very close to that now? And if the road collapses, without ever talking about loss of life, it is going to result in a huge loss to the local economy, the main way to the cliffs will be collapsed and it will cost millions then. Whatever it is going to cost now that the road it there it will cost a lot more to be rebuild,” said the North Clare councillor.

He added however that priority must be given to people displaced by the storm and sea swells.

“We need a swift response from central government and a swift allocation of funds to start this work as a matter of urgency,” he said.

Cllr Michael Hillery (FF) was not confident that the close on € 24 million will cover the cost of the “damage I have seen along the coast line”.

Senior engineer with Clare County Council Tom Tiernan said the coun- cil will be working hard to restore local authority infrastructure.

He said the council’s focus would also be in making serous inroads into the village of Kilbaha in the coming weeks and Clahane north of Liscan nor “where serious damage has been done and a number of other areas where access is seriously curtailed”.

“We are a long way from having Lahinch ready for what is needed for the tourist season, but we will achieve it. This is something that is obviously very important to the county during the tourist season.”

THOMAS Burke is fighting for his livelihood and facing the stark possibility that it may no longer sustain him following the storm and sea swells of early January.

The Kilrush farmer is one of just many dependent on the lands of West Clare for survival, now in serious trouble.

The suckler farmer is facing the real possibility of selling a portion of his herd as three quarters of a mile of his land along the coast at Shannakyle in now covered in gravel. More than 100 metres more has been washed into the sea.

Each day more and more land is eroded away as the sea walls he built to protect his land were also victim of the storm and high waves.

Mr Burke’s land is in the form of a mini peninsula that juts out into the sea, across from Scattery Island. As a result his 80-acre farm has been damaged on all sides.

During the height of the bad weather at least 30 acres, more than one third of his land was under water. This land will now have to be reclaimed from the damage of the seawater and all the debris that has been washed up.

He has also suffered thousands of euros of damage at three other points on his farm, including the loss of the sea wall he built.

“A half of mile of fencing was also destroyed and about 100 metres of land sucked out to the sea,” he told The Clare People . “The days that followed the storm caused more problems as the sea continued to erode the land that was no longer protected,” he said. “It will take three weeks with a digger to clean up,” he added explaining that the repair work will then begin. Even when the repair work is complete there will still be under-lying damage that will take years to rectify itself. “I am looking at the possibility of selling stock this year because the land won’t be recovered,” said the worried farmer. “There is no help coming as of now.”

THE community spirit continued into Carrigaholt as neighbours worked together to ensure people got to work, school and to the shops.

Local postmaster Pat Gavin, whose family was one of six marooned on a temporary island in Kilcredaun as a result of the storm and sea swells also praised the work of Clare County Council.

“Fair play, Clare County Council have done everything they can given their resources, but central Government have let us down,” he told The Clare People . “Part of what happened was due to neglect, even though I accept some flooding would have occurred,” he said.

The postmaster added he was referring to promises from the Government two and a half years ago that work would be completed at the seawall at Kilcredaun Irish College.

This work was estimated at the time at € 90,000. The sea wall was torn away in the storm and the college flooded as the people living there were segregated from the rest of the county by floodwater.

According to a Clare County Council report this week, restoration and reconstruction work on this part of the peninsula will cost € 622,000.

Mr Gavin said the generous spirit of neighbours, who loaned him a four-wheel drive, means he can now get to the post office every day.

Up to 250 yards off the main road remains under water as just 30 per cent of the water has receded. Clare County Council has put gravel on an old track so that the people living in Kilcredaun can now move around again.

Meanwhile farmers are struggling as their land remains under water. Even when the water recedes, they will have to reseed it in a bid to undo the damage of the seawater.

AMAZING film from CCTV cameras at the playground in Lahinch during the early hours of Monday, January 6, shows massive waves sweep away recycling bins weighing half a ton as the playground disappears under water.

Clare County Council’s Paul Moroney, who monitored the footage explained that no human could have survived the ferocity of the waves and a car would have been crushed with the impact.

The senior engineer with the council’s water department showed the film to county councillors at a special meeting on Friday last in an at- tempt to depict the terrifying weather conditions the people living along the county’s coast were exposed to during the end of December and early January.

Shortly after 3am on the fateful morning a wave dislodged the bottle and can banks weighing 250kg each.

Three minutes before 5am all of the bottle banks were dislodged and moving at speed with the force of a wave across the playground.

Half an hour later the film captured the playground now under water and the final bank – the half tonne back containing wet clothes, being swept across the screen.

Just 20 minutes later, at 5.50am, the playground was full of water with none of the play equipment visible.

Mr Moroney explained that in flood hazard terms the area was calculated to be “extremely hazardous”, “making it hazardous to life”.

Just seconds later a wave took out the streetlights, and even though the cameras kept running the screen was black and the only sound came from an angry sea.

YEARS spent studying the ocean off the North Clare coast paid off for Lisdoonvarna student Stephen O’Connell last week after he took first place in the Biological and Ecological Category of the BT Young Scientist Exhibition.

Stephen was one of six students from Mary Immaculate Secondary School to receive an award at this year’s Young Scientist. Indeed, nine of the 10 Clare projects at this year’s event came from Lisdoonvarna, with one project from Scoil Mhuire in Ennistymon also making the final.

Stephen, whose father fishes off the coast of Doolin and Liscannor, has entered the competition on two previous occasions, with each project exploring different aspects of fishing in the area.

Stephen profiled more than 1,200 crabs caught off the Clare coast and developed a method for separating low quality and high quality crab meat. His work could have a major impact on the quality of crab being produced by the Irish crab industry.

The school also had great performances from Rhianna McMahon and her brother Keelan who took second place in their category as well as winning the EMC Data Hero Award.

Second year students Tess Casasin Sheridan and Aoife Doherty received the Geological Survey of Ireland Award for their project while David Sims was Highly Commended for his project.

“This is Stephen’s third year in the exhibition and they all have been building in the same area. His father and his uncle are both fishermen so that is what Stephen knows best. It is a great advantage to have a project that the student has an interest in and has a lot of knowledge around,” said John Sims of Mary Immaculate Secondary School.

“Keelan and Rhianna did very well as well, coming second in their category and also winning the EMC Data Hero Award. This award is for data analysis and they had 20,000 lines of data in their project which was a great achievement.

“The standard was so high this year and I think everyone did really really well. It was above my wildest dreams that everyone did so well. It was a great achievement.”

THE section of the M18 which was closed on two separate occasion following a series of traffic accident on December 19 last, was gritted on three separate occasion immediately before being closed.

Clare County Council is to write to the National Roads Authority (NRA) requesting that a risk assessment be carried out a section of the M18 closed to Crusheen, which councillors yesterday claimed was defective.

“A number of people contacted me over the last few months in relation to this section of road. The NRA reply is filled with a lot of jargon about the road,” said Cllr Pat Hayes (FF).

“There was an unfortunate fatality in this area and there seems to be a continous problem with flooding on this section of the road. The people in Crusheen have a real concern about this section of the roadway and this has to be resolved. The NRA have given a very specific answer as to why this section of roadway was closed on the 19th (December) but this is an ongoing issue.

“We need to find out why there have been so many accidents on this section of roads. I am not putting blame on anyone but we need to talk to the NRA get to the bottom of this issue.”

The motion was supported by Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind).

“There is something wrong with that road. You have cars aquaplaning when you don’t expect it to happen. I’m not an engineer, but I know as a driver when I don’t feel secure on this part of the road. It is time that they go out and investigate this and get to the bottom it.”

Senior engineer with Clare County Council, Tom Tiernan said that the NRA have carried out investigation on this section of the M18 in the past.

“In relation to the fatality and a number of other accidents I do know that the NRA have come on the ground afterwards and examined what could have been the cause of these accidents,” he said.

THE face of Whitestrand beach in Miltown Malbay could be changed forever as the weekends storm ripped away a 50-year-old sea wall and washed large sections of the beach and nearby land into the sea.

According to local landowner Noel Shannon, the beach and surrounding areas have been left devastated after this once-in-a-hundred-year storm.

“It is absolute devastation up here at the moment. The sea wall has been washed away and caravans have been hit and damaged. Most of the sea front at the Whitestrand has been wash away and the rest is covered with rocks. I was just there this minute [Monday morning] and the place is a disaster,” he said.

“The biggest issue is the concrete sea wall, which has been just swept away. I’ve never seen anything like it. That was was holding the sea back; it’s been there for 40 or 50 years.

“There has been a lot of attention for other areas, and rightly so, but the Whitestrand is a very popular spot for young swimmers and for lifeguard training and it needs to be looked at and given some attention.”

Mr Shannon, who operated the nearby Whitestrand Caravan Park, and says that he has lost a considerable amount of the land to the storm – with massive waves simply washing sections of land into the sea.

“There is a lot of ground lost to the sea and there is an awful lot of work that needs to be to done to get the Whitestrand up and going for the tourism season. Parts of my land are no longer there anymore, they have washed into the sea,” he said.

“The council [Clare County Council] were out to us over the weekend but there is not a lot can be done until the storm blows over.”