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BUNRATTY was the place to be in April as a small school of dolphins took up residence under the famous bridge. The dolphins drew large crowds for weeks – and prompted much concern over their safety before if became clear that they were there by choice and had not become trapped.

An attempt to rescue the bottle nose dolphins was planned early in April but never went ahead. Speak- ing ahead of the proposed rescue missing, the Clare based Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG), said the dolphins appeared “relatively healthy”.

“In my opinion something will have to be tried this week. They are healthy at the moment but with the low tide coming on Wednesday, something will probably have to be tried,” said Simon Berrow of the IWDG in early April.

“The longer this goes on the more stressed the animals will get. They are in fresh water and that is damaging their kidneys right now and it will also start to damage their skin as well.

“We have also heard reports of kids throwing stones at them when they get close to the shore and we would appeal to anyone who comes to visit the dolphins, not to engage in this sort of behavior.”

The dolphins were discovered on March 31, in murky water close to the old bridge over Bunratty River, close to Durty Nelly’s Pub. The last time that dolphins became stranded in this area was in 1995, when Clare recorded one of its finest summers in recent memory.

Some locals are hopeful that the return of the dolphins are a sign of a good summer ahead. Hurling fans are also hopeful that the return of the dolphins to Bunratty may also be on omen suggesting a hurling season similar to what took place in 1995.

THE long-running saga of Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon look an unexpected twist in May when a vigilante painter struck at Clare’s most dangerous traffic junction, with a zebra crossing being painted at the notorious Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon.

The zebra crossing was painted in the early hours Tuesday morning, May 21, on the Lahinch side of dangerous junction. The identity of the vigilante painter is unknown, but some local people have started using the new zebra crossing.

Blake’s Corner has been the site of ongoing difficulty for Clare County Council, who have had to shelf long-awaited plans to create a new traffic flow system at the junction. Local group, Saving Ennistymon Heritage, opposed the new junction on the ground that two listed building, known as Blake’s and Linnane’s, would have to be demolished as part of the joint National Roads Authority (NRA)/Clare County Council project.

The process has been stalled for the last two years as Clare County Council have been unable to secure funding from the NRA to complete an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed development.

More than two million people use the tiny junction every year to access the Cliffs of Moher and Lahinch beach. Council engineer Tony Neville yesterday describe the vigilante action as a “dig” against the council.

“We have to take it out. It is emulsion so white spirits won’t take it out. We are scrubbing it at the moment,” he said.

“It is a bit of a dig. We have to condemn it and to note that is dangerous. People are using it and it is causing confusion. If anyone has information we would urge them to contact the gardaí.”

Local councillor Joe Arkins (FG) said that the action was a direct prompt from the local community, aimed at the council.

“The community are prompting us to take on certain works here. We have a real problem there [Blake’s Corner] and the sooner we can apply outselves to solving this the better,” he said.

In an official statement yesterday Clare County Council urged local people to forward any information on the new crossing to the Gardaí. “We will be removing the zebra crossing as soon as possible. If any member of the general public is aware of the identity of the person or persons who did this, they should report it to the Ennistymon Area Office or directly to the gardaí. Unauthorised surface markings can cause confusion for road users and can be hazardous for both pedestrians and motorists,” said senior engineer Tom Tiernan.

CLARE’S dark history at the centre of the Magdalene Laundry system was laid bare by the McAleese Report, which was published in February.

The report identified 261 Clare women who spent time as unpaid slaves in these institutes between the 1920s and 1980s – the fifth highest of any county in Ireland.

The real number of Clare women in these asylums was likely to have been far higher, however. No Clare laundries were identified in the report, despite the insistence by many Clare people, including the Kildysart-born former trainee nun Patricia BurkeBrogan, that a laundry operated in Ennis for many decades.

Two decades ago, Ms Burke-Brogan turned whistleblower on the Magdalene system through her acclaimed play ‘Eclipsed’ and in February she claimed that the McAleese Report only scratched the surface of a nationwide problem, where women were subject to slave labour conditions by Church and State.

According to Ms Burke-Brogan, the report failed to “grasp the real horror” of what went on in laundries around the country.

“This report went into what happened in 10 or 11 laundries – there were 42 of them around the country. They were in Galway, they were in Clare, they were everywhere,” she said.

“It softened the story. That’s my main complaint. For someone who hasn’t experienced or seen what was going on in those places. I find it distressing. In some ways what’s in this report makes it worse.” The Clare People also discovered an account given by one woman, who claimed to have been physically apprehended by nuns at St Joseph’s Hospital in Ennis when she was just 15, and brought away to work in a Magdalene Laundry.

This woman’s story was part of a submission by the Justice for Magdalenes Group to the United National Committee Against Torture. The woman, who was not identified in the report, said she had worked as an unpaid maid in the hospital at the time and was targeted by the nuns when she was discovered speaking to a male hospital porter.

“One nun came in this side entrance [of the chapel in St Joseph’s] and she calls out to me. And I could see the other nun coming in the other door. And I felt strange – somehow I felt, something within me, something was going to happen to me,” she said.

“They grabbed me. And they bundled me into this car outside the chapel… I was crying. And I remember them saying to me, ‘you’re going to the Magdalene Laundry’.”

The McAleese Report also detailed the stories of three Clare girls, age 16 and 17, who were ordered to a Magdalene Laundry because their foster parents no longer wanted them. According to the report, this was common at the time as State payment for foster children ended once the child turned 15.

TOOTHLESS, € 10,000 talking shops were taking place in this HSE region every two months, while stressed and worried older people watch powerlessly all over County Clare as their home help hours are savagely cut. In figures released to The Clare People under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 and 2003, expenses paid out to councillors in the HSE West region who attend forum meetings were as high as € 8,600 per meeting.

One member of the forum admitted to The Clare People that the cost of one meeting would pay for the lifetime home help needs of one older person.

Under the FOI request, The Clare People learnt that the bi-monthly meetings of the HSE West Regional Health Forum cost € 154,104.92 during the last three years in councillor expenses alone.

Of this, € 12,179.29 was collected by the four Clare members on the 40-person forum covering the nine counties in the HSE West.

Clare councillors received up to € 240 per meeting in expenses, with one councillor in Donegal claiming as much as € 625.87 per meeting.

Members travel to meetings in Galway, Limerick and Manorhamilton, but have no say in health legislation, nor can they propose changes or make any representations. They can merely question the health authority.

Former Clare members of the health forum resigned from the body put in place to replace the former health boards as they described it as no more than a “talking shop”.

Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) found it “very frustrating because we couldn’t get answers or information from the HSE. I saw no point in travelling that far and claiming those expenses when we couldn’t actually get any- thing done.”

Even current members of the forum admited it is far from value for money.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) argued that the HSE must be kept accountable through some public forum, but said there must be a more cost-effective and efficient way of making this happen. And while councillors continue to claim for their expenses, it also emerged that at least two meetings in the last three years were abandoned, as they did not have a quorum – in other words not enough councillors stayed until the end of the meetings to make them viable.

THE Health Services Executive came under fire in April amid mounting claims that there’s now a growing drink and drugs problem at the Acute Unit at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Ennis.

Controversy has erupted within the Clare health services after a patient and a nursing representative confirmed to The Clare People that drink and drugs represent an ongoing “problem” at the 38-bed unit that houses psychiatric patients. The Clare People has learned that patient and nursing fears about drink and drugs being smuggled into the unit by visitors has led to the gardaí being drafted in for illegal substance searches.

“There are people smoking cannabis in the Acute Unit in Ennis,” one patient from within the unit told The Clare People on Monday. “There is a garden adjacent to the unit and a number of patients were offering drugs to other patients.

“There was also alcohol being consumed – wine and cider that’s being offered to patients. The doors open from the garden into the ward and the smell of the cannabis comes in when the doors were opened. This has been reported to the nurses by two different patients,” the female patient added.

“Drugs have been an issue in the Acute Unit,” admitted Denis Meehan, a local representative of the Psychiatric Nurses Association. “The staff in the unit have done their absolute best to curtail this problem, but it’s very hard to do anything with it. Staff have called gardaí on occasion and patients have been searched. “In every prison in Ireland there are drugs, so you would expect them to be in the Acute Unit in Ennis. If this is reported to us, all we can do is search people and that’s what we have done,” he added.

CLARE farmers were warned to be vigilant in August following a marked increase in cattle rustling – as fears grew that an organised gang could be targeting farms in the county.

An incident of suspected cattle rustling took place in Quin when more than € 10,000 wor th of cattle was taken from the farm of Anthony Flannery.

The raid specifically targeted high value animals which the thieves would likely attempt to re-sell rather than slaughter.

But to sell the animals the criminals would need to provide valid documentation and tags for the animals, which led to a belief the theft could have been part of an organised operation rather than opportunistic.

Clare ICMSA Chairman, Mar tin McMahon, told The Clare People such crimes could be enough to put already stretched farmers out of business.

“The value of this stock now to a farmer is huge. After such a costly winter farmers have been tr ying 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 life this could put someone out of business,” he said.

“These people [cattle r ustlers] 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 dispose of stolen animals then this is a very serious risk to farmers in Clare and something that needs to be brought to an end quickly.

“The Guards and the Department of Agriculture need to row in behind this quickly and bring an end to this situation,

Gardaí in Ennis investigated the incident in Quin. Among the cattle stolen were a six-year-old black Limousin cow, two other in calf cows and an Aberdeen Angus.

NEARLY 600 hundred years to pay off a loan – that was the judgment handed how in Ennis District Court on November 1 when Judge Michael Durcan ordered that a financiallystrapped mother of five should only pay € 5 a month on credit union loan.

The previous month the credit un- ion made an application before Ennis District Court last month for an installment order against the woman for a debt of € 35,070.76.

After hearing of the woman’s financial circumstances in which she is struggling to pay bills and keep five children, three of whom were in third level education, Judge Durcan told her his conscience would not allow him to agree to her offer to repay € 20 a month to the credit union. Instead Judge Durcan reduced the figure to € 5 a month.

“This woman is doing a fantastic service to the State and to her family,” said Judge Durcan, who made an order reducing the amount the woman must pay back on a monthly basis.

He ordered she pay back € 5 a month to the credit union. It could take the woman up to 583 years to repay the loan in total.

The woman became emotional as she thanked Judge Durcan for his ruling. On this repayment schedule the loan would notionally be repaid in 583 years.

She told the court she would pay the installment every month.

A FORMER fisherman who was pepper sprayed three times by gardaí as he tried to evade arrest, received a seven month suspended sentence for obstructing Gardaí and criminal damage at the last hearing of Kilrush District Court in 2014.

Judge Patrick Durcan said he “thought spray was more affective than that” as he listened to the evidence against Colin Haugh (24), 7 Barrack Road, Kilkee.

The court heard that just before 2am on July 7, 2013 Mr Haugh left O’Mara’s Public House carrying a chair over his head, walked down the street and smashed it into the wall of the AIB bank.

Garda Conor Flaherty gave evidence that he and his colleague Gda Heather McGovern were on duty on the night in question. They asked Mr Haugh to return the chair and for his details.

“He told me to I knew who he was and to f*@k off. He then pushed me backwards and started punching at us,” said Gda Flaherty.

The gardaí used pepper spray on the defendant. They then restrained him on the ground and he was sprayed again by Gda McGovern.

Mr Haugh broke free and ran down the alleyway and was chased by Gda Flaherty.

“I used my personal issued baton on his legs and he fell to the ground,” said the garda, adding that Mr Haugh was again sprayed.

Solicitor for the defence Fiona Hehir said that her client was not currently working, but previously worked as a fisherman and for a carpenter.

“On the day of the incident he had broken up with his long term girl- friend,” she said adding that he also apologised to Gardaí and paid the € 30 cost for the damage to the chair. Mr Haugh had 11 previous convictions. Ms Hehir said the convictions go back to 2011 when he worked in Kinsale. Judge Durcan sentenced him to three months in prison for the damage to the chair and four months for obstructing Gardaí in the line of their duty.

He suspended both sentences for two years.

Judge Durcan said he wanted to cut out “thickish boozy behaviour” in Clare as much as he possibly could.

GUILTY verdicts were returned at the murder trials of two Clare men at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.

North Clare man Colm Deely (41) had pleaded not guilty to murdering Deirdre McCar thy (43), between 11pm on March 27, 2011, and noon the following day.

But a jury of seven women and five men found the father of two guilty by unanimous verdict in just under three hours of deliberation.

Mr Justice Barry White said he was handing down a mandatory life sentence and that he had no discretion in the matter.

Ms McCarthy was socialising in a local pub with friends including Deely on the night she went missing. The cour t heard Ms McCarthy’s body was found on Fanore Beach four days later and that and that Deely did not take part in the search to find her. It also heard that after her body was found, Deely, of School Road, Ballyvaughan, attempted to take his own life by stabbing himself in the stomach.

Deely told gardaí they were “fooling around” in Ms McCarthy’s bed and he put his hands around her neck but did not mean to kill her.

FAS worker Deely claimed Ms McCar thy tried to blackmail him. Mr Patrick Giblin SC, defending, told the court his client was sorry for what he had done but “intended no harm”.

In a victim impact statement, the deceased’s sister, Helen Geoghean said, “I don’t think we will ever be able to tr uly put into words the devastation that we still feel each and every day.

“Dee was a happy easy-going person who lived as very simple life. She didn’t have much need for the material things in life but she was a very caring person who loved life,” she added.

Also at the Central Criminal Court, Barefield farmer Joe Heffernan (33), of Cappagh Beg, Barefield, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of law student Eoin Ryan (21).

Heffernan pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ryan at Cappagh Beg, Barefield, on June 7, 2011.

The trial heard that Heffernan told gardaí he killed Mr Ryan because he made a pass at him, adding that the devil had been in the man’s eyes.

The court heard Mr Ryan sustained multiple injuries to his head and body and that his blood was found on a socket wrench at the scene.

The trial had heard that Mr Ryan was gay and that both men had left the pub together hours before his death.

The prosecution said that Heffernan’s motive was his abhorrence with himself that he might be homosexual or have engaged in a homosexual act that morning.

The defence asked for manslaughter verdict arguing that Heffernan’s adjustment disorder following his father’s death caused him to think he was killing the devil.

However a forensic psychiatrist who interviewed Heffernan three time said he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Eoin Ryan’s brother, Daniel Ryan delivered a powerful victim impact statement. “Our world ended on the 7th of June 2011. Each morning is begun with a jolt of pain as the memory of what happened to Eoin returns to us” he said.

“All our hopes for Eoin were destroyed in minutes by the barbaric actions of another just kilometres from our home.”

MONEYPOINT Power Station continues to power the West Clare economy and contribute to the national electricity grid in a significant way, but in December concerns were expressed for the future of Kilrush and the environs if and when this station closes.

“A power station that was built in the 1980s would have probably been designed at that time to run for maybe 30 to 40 years or what ever would be typical enough for a plant,” said Brendan Kennedy, Station Manager at the ESB plant when addressing a meeting of Kilrush Town Council.

“I suppose we have done the maintenance over the years to keep that in line. I would be surprised if the station didn’t have it running for another decade anyway. I would expect Moneypoint to run on a high merit in the national grid for the next number of years,” said the Ennis native.

The ESB company pays up to € 12 million in rates to Clare County Council every year, as well as supporting sport facilities, clubs, organisations and the Christmas lights in Kilrush and West Clare.

“I hate to think what Kilrush would be like if Moneypoint never came,” said former mayor of Kilrush Liam O’Looney.

Cllr Mairead O’Brien is what is known locally as a Moneypointer, having moved to Kilrush when her father was transferred to the power station.

“Even if you see that is might last 10 years, that is a shock to me that it might not last any longer. I suppose I would have never contemplated West Clare without it,” she said.

“I would certainly hope there is a way for it to diversify,” she said adding that she hopes the company remains part of West Clare. Mr Kennedy said he did not wish to alarm people and that despite a very competitive market Moneypoint continues to be one of the main suppliers to the national grid.

There are currently 192 full-time people working at the plant, follow- ing 34 voluntary redundancies this time last year. At its peak in the 1980s there was an average of 450 people working there.

Having completed a € 360 million retrofit on site during the last decade the ESB plan to complete re-engineering work on the ash storage area next year as well as further investment in the coming years.