Category: News

CLARE will have a contestant at this year’s Rose of Tralee for the first time in almost a decade as Newmarketon-Fergus live-wire Marie Donel- lan upset the odds to qualify for this year’s prestigious final. The 25-year-old wowed judges at the semi finals in Portlaoise on Sunday, claiming one of the six grand final slots reserved for Irish roses. “I can’t believe it. I really wanted to get through but it is really hard, especially for the Irish roses, to make it through. There were 29 Irish roses in Portlaoise and only six of them go through, so it is very hard,” she told The Clare People . “Once I got there and met all the girls I thought that I didn’t have a hope [of reaching the final], so I decided to really enjoy the few days. When they called out Clare last night I could not believe it. “It is really tough for Irish roses to make it – it was 2006 that Clare last had a rose in the final. Every year there are more and more international roses looking to take part so that means that there are less places for the Irish roses. It really is such an international competition now and I just can’t believe that I was one of the roses chosen.” Marie is a qualified accountant and working at Apple and she has just returned from a year travelling the world. “Being the Clare Rose was the real victory. That is when my dream came true. Even going to Portlaoise was a bonus, never mind getting to Tralee itself. No matter what happens, I’m the Clare Rose and that is really the things that matters most,” she continued. “But that said the emotions of getting through was something else. I was bawling all over the place when Clare was called out. I was that shocked.” The final of the Rose of Tralee will take place from August 14 to 20.

AND SO it begins. Since Phil Hogan announced a new structure to local government there has been a cold war of sorts over the local elections next summer.

The town councils were going to be dissolved, so there were potentially 36 new candidates with experience of elections already circling the county council seats.

It was also known that those county council seats would be fewer in number, the only question was by how much.

All was to be revealed in May, and on the second last day of the month all became clear.

There would be four constituencies or Local Electoral Areas in Clare as opposed to the six that are currently in place. The areas, particularly two, would be larger with fewer councillors to serve them as the county council membership is to be cut from 32 to 28 after the 2014 local election.

In total the number of local elected representatives in the county will drop from 68 (including town councillors) to 28. That is 40 elected representatives that will retire between now and next summer, or risk swimming in a much bigger shark infested pond.

Those overseeing the next election for the major parties know they have a busy few weeks ahead, but all agree that at least now they know what they are dealing with in terms of the boundary.

The “war” can begin – and nowhere is that more fierce than the battles within political parties.

Ask anyone in the world of politics, the most difficult part is not the election, but the selection process to make it on to a party ticket.

As well as the young guns already signing up and showing an interest, and other councillors changing party allegiances, the incumbents will also be concerned about the impact their party colleagues decision to re-run will have on their own chances of reelection.

There are significantly less seats, and this is even more of a concern when you include eager and in many cases accomplished town councillors in the race.

There will be a lot of soul searching during the coming weeks and months as councillors decide if there is a place for them in their newly-designed electoral area, and if a move to a new one would increase there chances of survival.

When surveyed by The Clare People in February, the majority of county councillors said they would contest the next election.

I would suspect there will be a number of minds changing with the changes to the boundary in the coming weeks, and the reality that two thirds of the town councillors have expressed an interest in the 2014 contest.

The major parties must now decid- ed strategies. Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have admitted that they will be drawing up strategic plans as soon as possible.

Conventions will need to be held soon, but a long summer ahead will probably postpone the majority until September at the earliest.

The independent candidates will also have a lot of soul searching to do. In many cases the area to canvass has become significantly larger, and the people behind the doors are no longer neighbours and friends. The added financial cost of this election must also be a consideration for independents as they have more area to cover and people to connect with.

Whatever decisions are made by councillors and potential candidates, there will be some interesting times ahead for political anoraks.

Let the 2014 games begin.

THE office of the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) says an investigation into the placement of a CCTV camera in a classroom of a Clare school is continuing.

The school installed the CCTV system recently and within days of their installation a complaint was received by the DPC.

The DPC asked the school to turn off the cameras pending the comple- tion of the investigation. The Clare People understands that the school have been in contact with the office of the DPC and urged them to reinstate the CCTV. The school’s Board of Management are dealing with the issue, it is understood.

A spokesperson for the DPC said the office could not comment on details of the investigation other than to say it is ongoing.

Within the complaint it is alleged that the school in question installed the CCTV cameras in classrooms without consulting parents of children in the school.

In a letter sent by the senior compliance officer of the DPC to the Chairperson of the Board of Management of the school, which has been seen by The Clare People , the officer stated the DPC “will not tolerate the use of CCTV cameras in the classroom”.

The letter stated that an investigation of the complaint is underway.

“The position of this office is that is it is not acceptable under the Data Protection Acts of 1988 and 2003, to have a CCTV camera operating in a classroom,” the compliance officer wrote.

The DPC asked the school to clarify four points as regards the CCTV cameras, namely the scope of the operation, why cameras were installed, what the school are doing with footage captured by the cameras and if there is any signage in the school outlining the purpose of the cameras.

The letter does not identify the complainant who brought the matter to the attention of the DPC.

WITH the other three constituencies built up around an urban centre or identity, at first sight it would appear the Killaloe Electoral Area is an amalgamation of everything else that is left over when Ennis, Shannon and West Clare were constructed.

The Boundary Committee Report refers only to this electoral area as “A fourth local electoral area is recommended for the eastern side of the county, to be titled Killaloe.”

It has been given its name from the area’s largest town, Killaloe, on the Tipperary border, but spans an area that borders County Galway at the north.

The new Killaloe Electoral Area will cover most of the current Killaloe electoral area, but will also include parts of North Clare traditionally in the Ennistymon Electoral Area.

Questions remain as to what commonality lies between East Clare areas such as Clonlara and Killaloe and the traditionally North Clare areas of Tubber and Boston.

If the guidelines set out by the boundary committee in drawing up these new local electoral area boundaries hadn’t stipulated that no area could be smaller than six councillors with an average of 4,830 people per councillor, then this area could have been very different.

Putting areas like Cappavilla and Kiltenanlea in the south of this constituency into Shannon or part of the north into the West Clare constituency would probably make more sense locally, but this would also result in a five seater Killaloe Electoral Area, which is not allowed under the guidelines. As a result, the six councillors elected to this are next summer will cover an area spanning from O’Briensbridge to Tubber and beyond.

Six county councillors will cover this expansive area that extends from Cappavilla in the south to Abbey in the north, and they will represent 22,940 people or 3,823 people per local representative. KILLALOE

AS MANY as 2,830 Clare students will sit state exams this week.

A total of 1,313 Clare teenagers and some more mature students have registered to sit the Leaving Cert exam.

Thirty one more girls than boys will take part in this final state secondary school exam in Clare, as 667 females are officially registers and 646 males.

Another 76 students from the county have already sat year long as- sessments and completed projects as part of the Leaving Cert Applied. As many as 47 boys have taken part in this exam compared to 29 girls in the county.

Another 1,441 Clare students will sit their first ever state exam this week, as 690 girls are signed up to sit the Junior Certificate exam and 751 boys. The number of male participants in the Junior Cert outweighs the female students, while the opposite is the case in the Leaving Cert.

Nationally for the 2013 examinations, 53,749 candidates are entered for the Leaving Certificate examination,

2,853 candidates for the final year examinations in the Leaving Certificate Applied and 60,243 candidates for the Junior Certificate examination.

And for those students who like to torture themselves by pouring over the exam they have just completed or for eager fifth and second year students, this year all written examination papers will be published on the state exam website on the evening that the examination is completed.

Leaving Certificate will only have to wait until Wednesday, August 14, to learn their fate, as the results will be available from 12 noon on that day for Leaving Certificate candidates.

Junior Certificate results will be issued in mid-September and the online results service will be available from 4pm on that day for Junior Certificate candidates.

Some spiritual intervention is also being offered around the county on the morning of the first exam, with a special Mass taking place in Churches like St Senan’s in Kilrush.

WHEN it came to designing the new Ennis constituency it wasn’t exactly rocket science; the boundary committee took the current local electoral areas of Ennis East and Ennis West and stuck them together.

“The committee is recommending a configuration that would provide for a local electoral area for Ennis that would include its hinterland,” the report said.

It added that in making the recommendations it was also mindful of the position of Ennis as the county town with a town council.

This town council will of course be absorbed up by the new Ennis Electoral Area leaving nine redundant town councillors, and nine county councillors (five from Ennis East and Four from Ennis West) vying for eight seats.

Most of the 33,010 people in this area live in the urban area of Ennis town, but rural areas such as Kilnamona, Quin, Doora and Templemaley will also be looking to have their say in this highly populated, low geographically spread area.

There will be a ratio of 4,126 people to every local representative elected to this area. ENNIS

IT IS hoped that a new directory featuring information on a range of services available to homeless people in Clare, will help to prevent the death of another person on the county’s streets and combat the growing number of people forced “to live rough”.

Josef Pavelka died on the streets of Ennis last month having come to public attention for sleeping in the county town’s public toilets.

The Clare Homelessness Alliance (CHA), which was launched in early 2012, is now making available a directory of services, while also launching a five-year action plan to combat homelessness in Clare.

The new Directory of Services has been produced by CHA member agencies including the Society of St Vincent de Paul, HSE, the Department of Social Protection, Clarecare, An Garda Síochána, Mid-West Simon Community, Clare Probation Services, Clare Haven Services, Clare County Council, and Kilrush and Ennis Town Councils, and is available from any of these organisations.

Councillor Patricia McCarthy, Chair of Clare County Council’s Housing and Cultural Services SPC (Strategic Policy Committee), said that homelessness in the county has been on the increase in recent years.

“The plight of the homeless and the need to ensure that every effort is made to redress the problem was highlighted in recent weeks as a result of the tragic death of a homeless person in Ennis,” she said.

“The agencies involved in providing services for homeless persons came together last year as they recognised the growing need to address the issue of homelessness in a coherent manner. The directory is the initial outcome of this coordinated approach and sets out information in relation to services and supports available to homeless persons, including necessary contact details.

“During the next month, the CHA will be publishing its Draft five-year action plan to deliver on the objectives of the mid-west regional homelessness action plan 2013-2018. The CHA will continue to provide a forum for the sharing of information and development of awareness of issues and services impacting on the homeless. Its members will also promote best practice in service delivery and provides essential links between services providers,” Ms McCarthy added.

THE new West Clare area will be the largest local election constituency in the county, almost mimicking in size a small county such as Louth.

The eight new councillors will represent 34,449 people spanning an area from Kilballyowen on the tip of the Loophead peninsula to Gleninagh on the constituency’s most northerly point.

The 96 kilometre-long local electoral area was designed by merging the current Kilrush area and part of the Ennistymon Electoral Area.

This new area will also absorb not one, but two, town councils, Kilrush and Kilkee – coastal towns with very distinctive identities who looked af- ter their own needs for more than 120 years.

In its report the Boundary Committee said, “It is proposed that there would be a local electoral area covering the western side of the county along the Atlantic seaboard to be titled West Clare. This would include the towns of Kilkee, Kilrush, Lahinch and Ennistymon.” Despite having a number of urban centres to base the name of this new constituency on, as it the preferred option, West Clare like West Mayo and Cork is unique.

“In a few cases the committee felt it more appropriate to recommend names that reflect a wider local community identity attaching to a geographic location. This situation arose, for example, in the case of the recommended new local electoral areas of West Clare, West Cork and West Mayo.”

It is hoped that this all encompassing name will merge all these very cultural distinctive areas, which have been traditionally considered North and West Clare.

To cover this vast area the eight new councillors will require a quick study of new towns, villages and parishes and a reliable car.

Each councillor will represent an average of 4,306 people. WEST CLARE

CLARE students are among those participating in a pilot drugs education project that highlights the dangers of solvent abuse.

Seven secondary schools in the mid-west, including a number in Clare, have taken part in the workshop series, which is aimed at both parents and teenagers.

The workshops provide information on the dangers of alcohol, cannabis and solvent misuse.

The programme, developed by the HSE and the Mid West Regional Drugs Taskforce, was piloted in the mid-west from January to May.

Dr Sancha Power, HSE post primary substance use education worker, explains, “We specifically target second year students in secondary system. The reason for that is they are the moat at risk. They are not the newbies and they are not third years doing exams. All the education research carried out in Ireland shows that if a child is going to disengage from education, it’s that year. A lot of the drugs research would show that if kids disengage with school, that’s when they are most at risk of getting involved in substance abuse.”

Dr Power said the number of children misusing solvents has grown in recent years.

“We only look at alcohol, cannabis and solvents. Solvents are on the rise. Aerosol cans, lighter fluid, petrol. It’s gone back to 1980s when there was a lot of glue sniffing. It’s cheap, it’s available, it’s affordable. It’s everywhere you look. Some of the parents would ask us why are you teaching us about it when we are looking at 14/15 year olds. We have to keep an eye out for it because it’s so affordable. Markers are another big one. They are back on the rise.”

The programme is due to be rolled out last this year. Dr Power is encouraging Clare schools to get involved.

She said, “We have had huge positive results. Parents have thoroughly enjoyed it and the confidence they got from it. The teachers are really positive about it. They feel that it is really supporting the work they are doing and primarily that’s what we are doing. We are not trying to replace teachers. This is a supplementary programme that directly links what they are doing in classrooms to the homes.”

She added, “If there are schools out there and they want to get involved, please ring us.”

A KILRUSH man has emerged at the centre of a diplomatic row which has seen the Republican movement in Ireland accuse the British government of violating the ‘Good Friday Agreement’.

Sixty-one-year-old John Downey, who is originally from St Patrick’s Terrace in Kilrush, was arrested in Gatwick Airport on May 23 last and charged with four counts of murder and conspiring to cause an explosion in the infamous Hyde Park bomb- ings of 1982.

In the attack four members of the Household Cavalry – Roy John Bright, Dennis Richard Anthony Daly, Simon Andrew Tipper and Geoffrey Vernon Young – were killed in the IRA attack.

Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly has said the decision to arrest and charge the Kilrush man “is vindictive, unnecessary and unhelpful. It will cause anger within the Republican community.

“This development represents bad faith and a departure from what was previously agreed by both govern- ments,” he added.

Now the case has been taken up by the local Sinn Féin organization in Clare, with party spokesperson Anne Hayes describing it as “an attack on the peace process”.

She also said, “Republicans have been asked many times to say the war is over and we have acknowledged that fact.

“When are the British going to say their war is over? We are now 15 years on from the Good Friday Agreement and 31 years on from the Hyde Park bomb.

“We negotiated a deal for those thought to be wanted by the British and in 2007 John received a letter assuring him that he was no longer wanted by any British police force. He has since travelled to England several times.

“We have been concerned at the attitude of the Tory government in London for quite some time now. Sinn Féin have lived up to any commitments we have given but the British have not. However, none of us saw such a blatant breach of agreements coming. Vindictive actions like this have no place in a peace process,” she added.