Category: News

THE amount of Government money allocated to Clare County Council for social housing has nosedived in recent years – at the same time as the need for that social housing has soared in the county, with Ennis worst hit. According to figures obtained by The Clare People , the Department of the Environment allocated just € 6.7 million to social housing projects in Clare in the four years from 2010 to 2013.

This represents a drop of more than 85 per cent on the € 46.9 million allocated by the department in the four previous years – between 2006 and 2009. While the county was in the middle of an economic boom in 2007, the Government allocated € 11.5m to build social housing in Clare. However, in 2012 when the construction and property markets in Clare were at the lowest ebb Clare County Council received just € 839,925 to provide social housing for the needy.

The number of people on the social housing waiting list in Clare has grown from 2,312 in October of 2012 to 3,066 in July 2014.

This housing crisis has meant dramatically rising rents are forcing low income families to the brink – with rent allowance no longer enough to cover rent.

According to the Clare Citizens Information Centre, the organisation has dealt with at least two Clare people in recent months who have been made homeless because their rent allowance does not cover rising rents. As of September 1, there were only 48 properties for rent in Ennis – with 400 the number needed in an area the size of Ennis.

LARGE crowds turned out in Ennis yesterday to say goodbye to a woman who made an indelible mark on life in the town and beyond.

Friends and former colleagues joined family of the late Monica Gallagher at her funeral mass in Ennis Cathedral yesterday.

Mrs Gallagher, a mother of six, passed away following illness on Saturday, August 23. A former teacher at Coláiste Muire secondary school in Ennis, Mrs Gallagher was actively involved in a number of charities, community and sporting organisations.

She was one of the founding members of the Clare branch of the Samaritans and was actively involved in the Clare Daffodil Day committee. She was associated with the Sláinte an Chláir cancer support centre and worked with St Patrick’s pre-school for children with special needs.

She was a former lady captain at Ennis Golf Club and was heavily involved alongside her husband Hugh, with the Ennis Players.

Supporters of the annual Daffodil Day fundraiser, along with former captains of Ennis Golf Club, performed a guard of honour outside Ennis Cathedral yesterday.

Ennis Golf Club also remained closed for a time yesterday as a mark of respect to the Gallagher family.

At her funeral service, Fr Jerry Carey told mourners that Monica’s life brought her on myriad journeys and into contact with many people.

“Each of us was held dearly by her and I trust she too was held dearly by us,” he said. “She revelled in irreverence. She revelled in reverence by its very self; such was her stand on the take of life. Monica knew only generosity…she had the ability to enable others to be generous, learning that through generosity, happiness could be reached,” Fr Carey added.

Fr Carey told mourners that Mrs Gallagher was a woman who climbed the heights of the Alps, the hills and valleys of New Zealand, walked the Great Wall of China and did the Camino pilgrimage.

He continued, “She won her hearts because she had no limits. Her horizons were fabulous.”

She will be sadly missed by husband Hugh and children Siobhan, Hugh (Jnr), Sinead, David, Paul and the late Fergus, brother Seamus, sister Eugenie (Murphy), grandchildren, daughter in law, sisters in law, brothers in law, nieces and nephews, relatives and friends.

THE Clare tourism sector is leading the economic recovery in the county with tourism providers from all over the county reporting significant increases in numbers this summer.

The Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience is set to shatter the 1 million visitor mark in 2014 – recording a nine per cent jump in tourist number so far this year. Coming on the back of a 14 per cent increase last year the North Clare tourist attraction is on course to take in 1,056,150 visitors this year, if current trends continue.

This massive increase could puts the Cliffs of Moher on course to become Ireland’s most popular tourist attraction – with Dublin Zoo and the Guinness Storehouse both likely to record similar visitor numbers for 2014.

Loophead Lighthouse has also seen a five per cent jump in tourism numbers with just under 17,879 people have visited the 19th century lighthouse since it was opened for the summer period in April.

According to figures compiled by Clare County Council, 57 per cent of these visitors were from Ireland, with North America, Germany and the United Kingdom accounting for 10 per cent, 9 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

The White Tailed Eagle Viewing and Information Point in Mountshannon has also proven a large draw this year with 7,626 tourists visiting the eagles between July 4 and August 21.

This facility is being operated by the Mountshannon Eagle Group, Mountshannon Community Council and the Golden Eagle Trust and was funded by Clare County Council.

Visitor increases at the Cliffs of Moher have been driven in part by the new routes servicing Shannon Airport.

“We noticed an immediate im- pact when the new European routes started to Shannon Airport in April, especially from the German market and additional ferry services from France to Cork have also added to French family self-drive numbers,” said Katherine Webster of the Cliffs of Moher.

“We’re also delighted to see that British holiday makers seem to have rediscovered the west of Ireland and after a lengthy absence are here in numbers. We are confident that the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience will exceed the symbolic one million figure before the end of 2014.”

The Wild Atlantic Way has been credited as one of the driving forces behind the increase.

“The launch of the Wild Atlantic Way, the development of new services at Shannon Airport, and the upgrading of visitor facilities at the lighthouse have been significant contributory factors to the growth in visitors. There is a noticeable increase in visitors from Germany and North America with the French and Italian markets also appearing particularly strong,” said Kathy Lordan of Clare County Council.

“The success of the Loophead Lighthouse visitor project is indicative of the wider Peninsula’s increasing popularity as a sustainable, visitor destination.”

THE Cliffs of Moher have been selected as the favourite place in Ireland to bring foreign visitors.

According to the results of the fifth National Heritage sur vey, more than 30 per cent of people say that they would take tourists to see the world famous tour ist at t raction.

Indeed, the Cliffs of Moher would seem to have developed a cer t ai n addictive qualit y for visitors with 22 per cent of those sur veyed saying they visited the Cliffs more than 10 ti mes this year.

The Cliffs of Moher have also been identified as Ireland’s most scar y heritage site with 79 per cent of people admit ting that it is t he heritage site they are most afraid of.

This news comes as t he Cliffs of Moher reveals that it is on course to at tract more than one million tourists to Clare this year – the largest number of visitors since records began.

“It’s great that t he nation are continuing to t ake enor mous pride in our herit age sites and landmarks and enjoying showing these off to overseas visitors. Our heritage sites are vital to the tourism industr y in Ireland but also in defining where we have come from and t he r ich legacy we hold i n Ireland,” said David Lane of Ecclesiastical Ireland.

“The research highlights the need for heritage proper t y owners to continue to protect the sites to ensure t hese remain prominent in t he lives of Irish people.”

Newgrange in County Meat h was voted as Ireland’s favourite heritage site, while al most all of those sur veyed, 99 per cent, rate Ireland’s heritage as ver y impor tant to the tourism indust ry.

A tot al of 46 per cent of people believe t here should be st ricter laws gover ning the protection of heritage sites, while 98 per cent of people thi nk t he Gover nment needs to conti nue to provide tax incentives to heritage proper ty owners regarding the maintenance and upkeep of t hei r heritage proper ty.

THE number of Clare women travelling to the England and Wales for an abortion has dropped significantly over the past 12 months since legislation for the X-Case was enacted by the Government.

According to figures obtained by the UK Department of Health, the number of women obtaining an abortion who listed Clare as their home, fell by 15 per cent last year. This is the continuation of trend which has emerged in recent years with fewer and fewer women from Clare travelling to obtain a termination.

A total of 55 women gave County Clare as their home address when travelling for an abortion last year. This compares to 64 in 2012, 83 in 2011 and 75 in 2010.

There has also been a marked increase in the number of Irish women who do not give a county of origin when travelling to England and Wales for an abortion. A total of 855 women did not state any county of origin when travelling to the UK.

This means that almost a fifth of all Irish women did not give a county of origin, which could mean a larger number Clare women obtained abortions than the figures suggest.

A spokesperson from the Clare Pro Life Campaign said yesterday that many women who travel to the UK for abortion feel that they do not have a choice in the matter.

“Any number of women travelling to the UK for an abortion is too many. We feel that, 12 months on from the legislation, we still need to sit down and talk about the root causes of abortion,” said Maura Garrihy of the Clare Pro-Life Campaign. “We need to support Clare women who still feel like they have no other choice but to have an abortion. We feel that part of the reason why the number of abortions are down is the increase in information that is out there. People are now realising more that a baby’s heart is beating after 21 days and it is not just a clump of cells.

“When you talk to women who have had abortions, many of them feel that they have no choice but to have an abortion.”

A CLARE actress and student of an Ennis-based acting school has scooped a top award in one of the country’s biggest drama competitions.

West Clare woman Anna Moloney has been honoured with a Leinster School of Music and Drama Excellence Award for her outstanding performance in drama.

Approximately 15,000 students across the country take the Leinster School of Music and Drama exam each year and this excellence award accolade is only bestowed on four students in all of Ireland.

Anna, who is from Miltown Malbay, will be presented with her prize at a Gala Concert in Griffith College, Dublin, in October.

Anna is a student of the School of Speech and Drama, Actors and Reactors in Ennis. The school was founded by Clare sisters Aoibhín and Doireann Garrihy last August.

The sisters have had a hugely successful year. Several of their students were award winners at the world famous famous Feile Luimni.

As well as creative drama and feiseanna, the students participated in the Leinster School of Music and Drama exams in April of this year and each one received first class honours.

“We are extremely proud of all of our students. The standard in Clare and indeed our school is very high and in a time when the importance of self confidence is becoming more and more apparent our focus is on developing crucial skills which we hope will benefit our students greatly,” said Aiobhín of the student’s achievements.

Two students of the Actors and Reactors School of Speech and Drama, Ava Rochford and Anna Moloney, were nominated for an excellence award for their outstanding performance in drama. They performed for a panel of judges in Griffith College, Dublin, on July 5.

Aoibhín is currently playing Jane Bennett in Alan Stanford’s production of Jane Austen’s famous ‘Pride and Prejudice’ in the Gate Theatre Dublin.

THE cash strapped Rape Crisis Centre in Clare is forced to close its doors from Monday for one month.

The service that provides counselling and services to victims of rape and sexual abuse throughout the county has been forced to take this action due to lack of funds.

The Rape Crisis Mid West, of which Clare is part, made the decision to close the Nenagh centre during the month of July and Clare in September when it was apparent it could not make up the annual shortfall of € 120,000.

Verena Tarpey of the Rape Crisis Mid West explained, “We are part funded by the Government to carry out our services – the service in the entire mid-west, taking in the three centres including Limerick, Clare and Tipperary cost approximately € 450,000 – we face an annual shortfall of approximately € 120,000 which we must bridge by fundraising.

“We receive no government funding to service the overheads connected with the Ennis centre and must fundraise locally to raise this deficit. We did not foresee us being in a position to bridge this significant shortfall this year and made the decision to temporarily close Ennis in September, Nenagh in June and provide a skeletal service in Limerick for the summer,” she said.

As well as dealing with a financial shortfall the service is also working with a waiting list of 30 people who are in need of long-term counselling.

Those on the list must wait approximately three to four months for medium- to long-term support and counselling, and that timeline has now been extended again as a result of the temporary forced closure of Clare’s only centre.

Ms Tarpey said it was important to highlight the fact that despite the financial challenges facing the organisation, emergency cases and crisis calls would be dealt with immediately.

“It is important to distinguish this from crisis support that we provide where no person will be turned away. For example, if a person rings our centre looking for support in the immediate aftermath of a rape, either he or she will be seen immediately, often within an hour or a couple of hours. Likewise, if a person rings us in relation to past abuse and are in crisis at present, we will offer them support within hours or days. All those on the waiting list are monitored and contacted and are offered up to six weeks of support counselling while they are on the waiting list,” she said.

Meanwhile the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU) in the midwest, will continue to run uninterrupted.

This is an out of hours service for 12 hours from 6pm.

The unit is a forensic facility where someone who has been raped or sexually assaulted can be forensically examined.

In the mid-west, the SATU unit is activated by the Garda only when a report is made and is not a walk-in unit. Rape Crisis Midwest provide a trained volunteer to attend the forensic examination when called.

“We have a roster of volunteers every night of the year. The role of the SATU volunteer from a rape crisis perspective is to provide crisis support to victim/survivor on initial attendance to the SATU,” said Ms Tarpey.

“We are also there to support victim before, during and after the forensic examination to provide support, advocacy and information and the reporting, examination and SATU process to liaise with the forensic examiner, nurse and any attending garda on the person’s behalf.”

IN A bid to avoid closing the county’s only Rape Crisis Centre again in 2015, supporters for the charity have begun its biggest fundraiser of the year. The Dainty Daisy Contest, described as the “Lovely Girls competition for Men”, will raise funds for the Rape Crisis Centre in Ennis and all funds raised will stay in the county.

Already 12 men have signed up for the contest in the Treacys West County Hotel on November 1, and the organisation is looking for more men in high heels to take on the challenge.

Rape Crisis Services in the midwest, including Clare, costs an estimated € 570,000 each year. While the Government provide € 450,000 towards the service, manned mostly by volunteers, a shortfall of € 120,000 must be found through fundraising.

This year the shortfall could not be met and the Clare service, which depends 100 per cent on fundraising, has to close for the month of September.

Friends of the charity said raising funds for the charity is difficult, as those that use the service who want to give back by supporting fundraisers often cannot do so publicly.

“Raising funds for the Rape Crisis Centre is a challenge, least of all because those that use the service do so in confidence and often without the knowledge of even their closest friends and family,” explained Cllr Mary Howard, who has been a volunteer fundraiser with the organisation for a number of years.

“That is one of the things we struggle with as a centre because, in the vast majority of cases for organisations that are charities, people would be very open about using something perhaps like a cancer support service or a hospital where perhaps their child was ill or other charities that support illnesses or conditions. The vast majority of our clients and the 85 people that are coming through the mid-west every week, and that does not include those on the phone, the vast majority of these people will not go public and say they were sexually abused as a child or an adult and ‘I am going public to raise money for this organisation’,” added Verena Tarpey from Rape Crisis Centre Mid West.

She said while funds for the centre are being cut, the need for the service is increasing especially since the recession.

“Often a new crisis brings up a sexual abuse as a child and it needs to be dealt with,” she said.

“We are trying to change the public perception of who the rape crisis centre is for an who goes through it. It is for ordinary people who may have been sexually abused or have had some sort of sexual violence in the past.”

This is the third year of the Dainty Daisy competition and it is hoped that it will raise much needed and urgent funds for the Clare Rape Crisis service.

Those wishing to support the fundraiser can do so by sponsoring a “Daisy”, attending the event on November 1 or nominating their own “Dainty Daisy” to take part.

Anyone wishing to support the Rape Crisis Service in Clare can contact Verena at verena. tarpey@rapecrisis.ie or Mary at maryhoward2009@gmail.com or by contacting

BY now a host of Clare sports stars, politicians and musical personalities have all taken the plunge this week with the Ice Bucket Challenge taking the county by storm. The challenge, which involves filming yourself while someone pours a bucket of ice and water over your head, is part of a major fundraising drive in aid of Motor Neuron Disease.

Clare’s All-Ireland hat-trick hero, Shane O’Donnell, was one of the first stars to to get himself wet during the week when he took the challenge during the inaugural Shane O’Donnell Summer Camp.

The Éire Óg club man nominated Podge Collins, footballers Colm Cooper and Jack McCaffrey as well as Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, to take up the challenge while also donating € 100 to Motor Neurone Disease Ireland (MND).

Clare TD Timmy Dooley (FF) has put himself in the firing and took the challenge over the weekend.

Deputy Dooley called out his fellow Clare TDs Michael McNamara (Lab), Pat Breen (FG) and Joe Carey (FG) – none of whom have yet posted a video (as of Monday evening). For more see page 13.

GARDAÍ in West Clare and the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are investigating what a dog warden with more than 20 years experience described as “the worse case of animal cruelty ever seen”.

Clare dog warden Frankie Coote said he was shocked at the state of the four-year-old German Sheperd discovered in a yard in West Clare. The animal who was still alive was too weak to move and was being eaten alive by rodents and maggots.

Mr Coote was not expecting the harrowing scenes that were to greet him in West Clare on Monday last, following an anonymous tip to the ISPCA.

“In 23 years I have seen a lot of animals suffering and dying but this was by far the worst. I believe the dog could not have moved from the position in five to six weeks and he was being eaten by maggots and rodents,” he said.

Parts of the young dog’s limbs were dismembered from the rest of his body, Mr Coote recalled, visibly distressed by the incident.

“I thought the dog was dead, and said as much to the guard with me, until I went to take the photo and the dog moved. The flash went off and I couldn’t believe he was still alive,” said the warden who is employed by the ISPCA and works full time with Clare County Council.

In a heartbreaking description of the dog rescue Mr Coote described how despite the agony the dog was in, he lifted his head and licked the warden’s face he lifted him from the yard.

“The dog was so gentle. He was licking my face as I was lifting him out. He could only lift his head. The only muscles still working in his body were in his neck. It was one of the kindest dogs I have ever come across,” he said.

Mr Coote was disappointed the dog had to be humanly destroyed.

“We had to put the dog down. Even examining the dog would have been cruel. I hate even saying this but there were parts of his body left on the ground as we lifted him,” he said, adding the vet was shocked at the state of the animal.

“Many rescue groups offered to take the dog but he was beyond help.”

Gardaí and the ISPCA are investigating and it is understood they are following a definite line of inquiry.

Mr Coote encourages anyone with concerns about an animal’s welfare to contact the ISPCA on 1890 515 515 and support the work of the charity whenever possible.