Category: News

A MAN will stand trial for the alleged robbery of a 71-year-old woman in Kilrush earlier this year.

Kieran Hall, with a previous address at 15 Crawford Street, appeared at Ennis District Court on Monday. It is alleged that he did rob a woman on Moore Street Kilrush on May 15 (2012), taking a purse containing € 100 and bank cards.

Jurisdiction of the matter was refused in the District Court.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had consented for the accused to be returned for trial to the next sitting of Ennis Circuit Criminal Court on October 16. Insp Kennedy made an application to have Mr Hall returned for trial.

Judge John O’Neill made the order returning the man for trial to the next sitting of Ennis Circuit Criminal Court. He delivered the alibi warning. Mr Hall was remanded in custody to appear again in Court on October 16.

CLARE fishermen have been urged to take advantage of new opportunities for funding following the creation of the county’s first Fisheries Local Action Group or FLAG.

While the number earning a living from fishing has dwindled in the county over the last 20 years, with only a small number of professional fishermen still in operation in west and north Clare, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) are hoping to restart the local industry and create employment in coastal Clare villages.

The western FLAG, which covers Clare and Galway, met for the first time earlier this month and have been tasked with drawing up a strategy to encourage jobs in the fisheries sector in the two counties.

Clare representation on the group includes Ger Concannon of the West Clare Lobstermen’s Association and Ballyvaughan’s Patrick Mullins of the Galway Bay Inshore Fisherman’s Association.

To qualify for funding under the FLAG scheme, projects must satisfy a number of specific conditions and must be located no more than 10 kilometres from the Clare coastline. This means that suitable projects in towns such as Kilkee, Kilrush, Doolin and Ballyvaughan can all look to take advantage of finding under the programme.

It is as yet unclear how much funding will be made available through the FLAG scheme but it is likely that projects that promote new jobs or the expansion of existing operations will be the most likely to receive funding.

In order to qualify, projects must have a clearly identifiable marine connection or provide a specific benefit to a fishing region. In many cases, beneficiaries of support will be required to be either workers in the fisheries sector or persons with a job linked to the sector.

Bord Iascaigh Mhara has requested suitable companies or individuals in Clare to come forward with proposals to facilitate the drafting of the strategies on behalf of local stakeholders.

For further information on the Clare FLAG programme, or to make a submission to the action plan or a tender application, visit www.bim.ie.

A NEW blueprint showing how Clare is set to play its part in the Government’s ‘Gathering’ initiative is set to be produced in the coming months and will become a key promotional and marketing tool for the county.

The recently established steering group for ‘The Gathering Clare’ has announced plans for a calendar of events for 2013 that is set to be distributed nationally and internationally to try and encourage more tourists to choose the county as a holiday destination.

The steering committee has challenged community groups across the county to organise events that can become part of ‘The Gathering’ and thereby piggyback the Government initiative to bring over 300,000 extra tourists into the country in 2013.

“We are asking all groups/individuals who are planning events next year to submit details, as a Calendar of Events for 2013 is currently being prepared,” said Monica Meehan, coordinator of Clare’s County Gathering steering group.

“We hope to focus on a number of headline events during the year and the steering group is continuing to work through all the suggestions that have been received to date. Our key task is to mobilise and drive The Gathering throughout the county by engaging, planning and coordinating community-based activity,” Ms Meehan added.

The inaugural Daniel O’Connell day is one high-profile event that’s already emerging as a key part of Clare’s commitment to the ‘Gathering’, with July 5, 2013, being the 175th anniversary of ‘The Liberator’s’ historic election as MP for Ennis.

Other events in the pipeline include the revival of the Festival of Finn in Corofin, while the Clare Roots Society is organising a conference, entitled ‘Gathering the Scattering’, which will take place in the Temple Gate Hotel on April 6, 2013, and will be preceded by a week-long programme of events.

Anyone organising a festival or event during 2013 or planning a specific event for ‘The Gathering 2013’ is asked to submit event details by Friday, September 14, to: Monica Meehan, Senior Executive Officer, Tourism & Community Development Department, Clare County Council, New Road, Ennis, or by email to mmeehan@clarecoco.ie.

THE cost of sending children to school has become too much for many Clare families with large numbers turning to charities such as the St Vincent de Paul for help and record numbers applying for government supports such as the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance. With the cost of kitting out a child for primary school now as high as € 700 for some families, anecdotal evidence indicated that money lend ers have began door-stepping some houses, offering money to cover school expenses. With primary school also suffering budget cuts from central government, many parents have found themselves unable to pay voluntary contribution towards the operation of their children’s primary school. Indeed, according to Clare teachers and former head of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), Bernie Ruane, in many schools only one in every five families are in a position to make a voluntary contribution. Large delays have also been seen in the processing of the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance. This follows a situation last year when a large number of families were refused payments under the scheme – which has created a backlog in processing claims with a large number of people reapplying for the scheme.

THE Ennis branch of the Citizens Information Service (CIS) say that it has been inundated with calls from parents in recent weeks – who are struggling to afford the cost of preparing their child to go back to school.

The majority of the queries are in relation to families gaining access to the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Grant, with parents in Clare experiencing long delays in finding out whether they are eligible for the grant or not. A large number of familes were denied the grant last year and a backlog has arisen with as many parents are re-applying for the grant this year.

“Indeed there is a lot more people getting in contact with us that there would have been last year and two years ago.

“A lot of people are on reduced working hours or have been dealing with a lay-off and factors like this that have been on the increase,” said a spokesperson from the Ennis Citizens Information Service.

“People are finding it very difficult and we have had to refer certain families to different charities like St Vincent de Paul and other organisations – we have had to refer quite a few families to the different charities.”

Any parent who is in receipt of a social welfare payment is entitled to apply for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear grant.

According to Clare CIS – parents from every walk of life are getting in contact with questions about the grant.

“Our main queries at the moment are concerning the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Grant and we are getting questions from all varieties of parents about this – but particularly from parents who have had a change of circumstance over the past year.

“We are getting a lot questions for Clare parents who have lost a job of who have changed from over payment to another over the last 12 months,” continued the spokesperson.

“A lot of parents were rejected for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Grant last year and a lot of them were onto us.

“But if you have qualified for the payment in recent years it is fairly automatic so there should be much of a delay in these cases.

“But for people who may have come off unemployment and changed maybe to family income supplement, they have to reapply and that is creating quite a lot of a back log.”

INCREASED financial pressures on struggling families mean that a growing number are unable to pay volountary contributions.

According to a former President of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), Bernie Ruane, some Clare schools are receiving contributions from as few as 20 per cent of students.

Ms Ruane, who teaches at St Patrick’s Comprehensive School in Shannon, says families and schools are both bearing the brunt of cutbacks to the education sector.

She explains, “Some schools ask for € 50 but others ask for sums of of € 200 or € 250. Parents aren’t really able to afford that”.

Ms Ruane adds, “Parents don’t have it and the schools are not getting it in. I know that in some schools there are only 20 per cent of students paying a voluntary contribution. It’s not unwillingness. It’s just that people don’t have it. If schools don’t charge a voluntary contribution they don’t have money for games, photocopying, things like that. There’s no funding given for that other than what the parents give.”

“Schools are doing their best to cope but there are no year heads or anyone for students to talk to if they have financial problems. It’s very disheartening. You can’t keep paring back and you certainly can’t expect parents to fund education.

Ms Ruane urged schools to operate book rental schemes to help ease the burden on famillies. “Books are getting more and more expensive. You’re talking about € 200 to € 300 for books for kids going to second level. Uniforms are another big expense and it’s hard to know what value parents get from the uniform. They are not that hard wearing. Clothes can be bought cheaply but uniforms seem to be more expensive. ”

Ms Ruane continues, “Every school should make a conscious effort to operate a book rental scheme. Then they end up getting all the books for € 100, € 150. The price of books is really prohibitive. You could be talking about paying € 35 for one book. Most students would be doing 10 subjects for their junior cert alone.”

Coláiste Muire in Ennis has introduced Apple iPads for first years and Ms Ruane believes that it is inevitable that technology will replace books in years to come. “It will have to go that way and we will be talking about a paperless learning system. Schools have already gone that way in the sense that most schools are using interactive whiteboards.

“All the colleges are using systems like Moodle, which is a platform where they can put up the notes and student can access that from their own home. It will have to go that way but for it to go that way, we’re going to need very effective, high speed reliable broadband and not every area in Clare has that”.

AN EAST Clare man has won a prestigious scholarship to the worldrenowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — including a $40,000 (€ 32,000) presidential prize to cover his tuition while he is there.

James Long, who comes from Parteen, is celebrating this week following the news that he has won a scholarship to MIT in Boston, where he will do a masters in Civil Engineering.

MIT is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.

Just four years after completing his Leaving Cert, James has made the leap to MIT, which is regarded as the best university in the world for engineering.

James completed a four-year degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Limerick earlier this year and will study for a Masters in the same subject in MIT.

Despite this, he does admit that Civil Engineering was not always his chosen career part.

“I wouldn’t say I always wanted to do civil engineering, but I always liked maths and science,” he said. “I liked the sound of the UL course because there is a lot of project work, and when I was coming out of the Leaving Cert it was very appealing – you don’t want to be stuck in books all the time.”

As he entered his final year at UL, James decided to explore opportunities for Masters courses in both the US and UK and filled in countless applications.

“I was looking for a new adventure, I wanted to do something different,” said James, who admits to having been “very surprised” when MIT came back to him. Soon after receiving the news that he had been accepted to study at MIT, he received a second unexpected boost with the news that he has been granted the Presidential Scholarship which will cover his tuition fees and living expenses.

As he heads off Stateside, James’s only regret is that he is going to miss his graduation from the University of Limerick.

FISHERMEN have a special place in Quilty. They always will.

It’s history; it’s heritage; it’s family; it’s been a way of life for so many down the generations, that has touched so many families as a job of journeywork, a livelihood.

In Quilty fishermen know the floor of the sea like farmers know their land. They do, because it’s part of their DNA, part of what they are and it’s something they’re proud of, and fiercely so.

Pride at this long association with the waters around Mutton Island is everywhere. In the plaque on the sea wall opposite the Quilty Tavern that reads, ‘Heroism remembered: On October 3, 1907 tragedy was averted in Quilty village’. The crew from the French ship, Leon XIII, were rescued from their stricken ship by local fisherman and despite stormy conditions not a single life was lost; in the artwork on the same wall; in the name of the local chipper that commemorates the Leon XIII; in the church that’s named Star of the Sea; in the bell in the sanctuary of the church that once belonged to Leon XIII.

When the church bell rang out on Friday afternoon for Noel Dickinson and Michael Galvin, there was still pride at that association with the sea, but overwhelming sadness had enveloped the village. Quilty was a community in mourning, and a community drawing on each other for comfort, or as parish Fr Pat Larkin said in search of “meaning”.

One of the laments played at Noel Dickinson’s funeral was ‘Fiddler’s Green’, while members of the fishing community from Clare and as far away as the Aran Islands were present to pay their respects to the two men and their families for their tragic losses.

Fr Larkin, told the congregation about how the previous Monday, August 14, was “like any other day for Michael Galvin and Noel Dickinson” before turning to a double tragedy that had rocked the community.

“Just another ordinary day going out to work to check the pots and put out the nets and, above all, hope there would be a catch coming back in,” said Fr Larkin.

“But things changed, changed drastically, changed forever. And in that change, hearts are broken, lives are turned upside down and we search for meaning. We look for hope and we turn to each other. That’s what we’ve done over the past week – turning to each in support,” added Fr Larkin.

A NEW form of decentralisation was on the table for discussion in Lisdoonvarna over the weekend, as Fianna Fáil spokesman on Agriculture, Food and Community Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív, called for a reintroduction of the much maligned policy of his former government.

Deputy Ó Cuiv was speaking at the final major panel discussion of the Merriman Summer School alongside MEP Mairéad Mc Guinness at the Pavillion Theatre on Saturday evening. The theme of the discussion was ‘On the Land’ and Ó Cuiv suggested a new targeted form of decentralising as a means of invigorating rural areas.

The outspoken former Fianna Fáil deputy leader said that decentralisation could be carried out again on a more organised and incremental fashion over a longer period.

“I believe that the current Government should continue with a targeted programme of decentralisation,” he said. “Unfortunately, urban areas tend to be socially segregated and, in my view, that is a great ill in our society. Having grown up in Dublin and come to live in Cornamona, I have come to appreciate the strength of community life,” he said.

Speaking at the same event, MEP McGuinness said there was more to rural Ireland than septic tanks and turf-cutting rows. “In a globalised world, there is no room for a mentality of ‘they are for us or they are against us’,” she said.

The Director of this year’s Summer School, Chairman of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, Bob Collins, said this year’s summer school is about the very future of rural Ireland.

“In current economic conditions, where the easy optimism of a few short years ago has evaporated and where the enduring presence of institutions that have supported rural communities for almost two centuries can no longer be taken for granted, there is much on which to reflect,” he said.

THEY were friends. They were second-next-door neighbours in Sea View Park in Quilty. They were fishermen.

Symbols of this bond between Michael Galvin and Noel Dickinson were much in evidence on Friday last afternoon when Quilty village came to a standstill as locals and visitors paid their respects to the two fishermen who tragically lost their lives the previous Monday when their trawler, the Lady Eileen, sank off Spanish Point.

Both coffins, carried shoulder high, by family, friends, fishermen and footballers made the journey from Sea View Park to the Star of the Sea Church.

First it was for Noel Dickinson, the 33-year-old whose partner, Helen, is due to give birth to their first child in three months’ time.

Gifts representing Noel’s life were brought to the altar by family members – a fishing rod symbolising his love of the sea, a claret and blue Aston Villa scarf, a Limerick flag to signify his love for his native county and a bar of chocolate to mark his love for his nieces.

Michael Galvin’s coffin was draped in the colours of his beloved Kilmur- ry Ibrickane as it made the 700-yard journey from his residence in Sea View Park to the church just after 3pm.

Gifts brought the altar included photographs of his family, a Kilmurry Ibrickane jersey, his Australian hat, a fishing net and a violin, which symbolized his deep love for traditional Irish music.

Mr Galvin’s wife was Liz was comforted by her children, Michelle, Aidan and Brian, who returned from Australia for the funeral mass.

Meanwhile, Michael Galvin’s brother Martin told mourners that he had walked away uninjured from a serious car accident in San Francisco, only to hear a few days later that his younger brother was missing at sea.

Speaking in Clare on Friday, where he was attending the Merriman Summer School, Marine Minister Simon Coveney said, “My heart goes out to all the families who are struggling to deal with the loss of their loved ones.

“This has been a shocking and tragic week with fives lives lost in as many days in a year that has seen so much loss and sadness at sea.”