Category: News

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.

THE book launched last week, The Ennis Atlas has been hailed as an “impressive monument” to the history of the town.

The book was written by local man Brian O Dálaigh as part of the Royal Irish Academy’s series of historic town’s publications.

It was officially launched at a civic reception in Waterpark House, Ennis on Friday night.

According to Professor Howard Clark, joint Chairman of the Historic Town Atlas Project, the comprehensive level of information provided in the book will provide a “reliable baseline” for future historical studies of Ennis.

He said, “Brian O Dálaigh proved himself to be an energetic researcher. This is an impressive monument to the history of Ennis.”

Prof Clark said the Atlas could not have been completed without the support of Clare County Library Services, Ennis Town Council and staff at the Royal Irish Academy.

He also commented on the high level of interest in the history of Ennis, saying,

“The general interest and pride of the townspeople is evident in this room tonight.”

County Librarian Helen Walsh said the value of the Atlas to the history of Ennis is “substantial.”

Tom Brassil, secretary of the Royal Irish Academy, said the project could not have been brought to realisation without the support of local authorities and library services.

He added, “This kind of local support is crucial to these projects.”

Brian O Dálaigh, who edited the Corporation Book of Ennis, told the launch that he had been first ap- proached to compile the Atlas in 1990 but had been unable to do so due to work commitments.

He started researching the Atlas in 2007, adding that the project had reignited memories of his childhood growing up in Carmody Street.

Mr Ó Dálaigh, whose father worked as a cooper, recalled many of the tradesmen who worked in Ennis at the time including Jack Darcy (forge), Frank Malone (farrier) and Tom Clohessy (stone cutter).

He added, “My research has brought me back into an Ennis that has unfortunately disappeared.”

Mayor of Clare, Cllr Pat Daly (FF), who grew up in Parnell Street, said the Atlas was a “very impressive project” that would help to keep alive memories of “old Ennis.” Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said the Atlas shows the extent of interest that exists in the history of Ennis.

He added, “It is broad on reach and depth and will be of invaluable assistance to people who plan the town in future.”

Cllr Considine said the Atlas would provide a use reference point for Ennis Town Council, who had recently initiated the Ennis 2020 public consultation visioning process.

THE retention and preservation of old buildings in Ennis must play a role in the future development of the town, according to a leading local historian.

Ennis man Brian Ó Dálaigh, a former director of the Merriman summer school, says too many buildings of historical interest have been lost to demolition in the past.

He was speaking in Ennis on Friday night at the launch of his latest publication, the Ennis Atlas. Published by the Royal Irish Academy, the Atlas traces the urban development of Ennis from 1200 to 1900.

Mr Ó Dálaigh says the future of Ennis can be influenced by the how the town developed in the past.

He said, “From my point of view I think they should try and keep as much of the old character of the town as possible, particularly from a tourist point of view. Now that’s not always possible. But in Ennis I get the impression they have resorted to demolition too quickly in the past. There are other options for old buildings besides demolition. That’s would I would be inclined to say, to keep as much of the character within reason.”

He also welcomed recent renovations to the historic 13th century Ennis Friary.

He says, “I like it. It’s a pity they didn’t roof the chancel as well. I think it needs it because a whole lot of the carved stone has been weathered. It’s a good move in the long term but it means all the stone carvings will be displayed out of context because its been taken out of the chancel and into the nave. But it’s the better of two evils at this stage to keep it out of the weather.”

Mr Ó Dálaigh, a Dublin based school principle, grew up the Carmody Street area of Ennis where his father worked as a cooper. He said he was proud to have written a history of his native town.

The Atlas also explores how the famine devastated the population of the town.

Mr Ó Dálaigh explains, “Ennis grew up until the famine period, 1845-46. At that time it had a population of over 9000 people. It was the largest population recorded for the town under the 1832 boundary. After the famine, there was a collapse practically in the population of the town so between 1845 and 1901 the town lost almost half its population. It fell from just over 9000 to about 5000. The poverty in Ennis was endemic, a very impoverished town.

“Emigration took hold particularly to Australia. With the coming of the railways to Ennis in 1859, it practically emptied the back lanes of the town.”

RURAL communities in Clare are playing their part in preventing crime in their midst, but can’t be expected to do the work of the Garda Siochána who are being forced out of the countryside because of government cutbacks.

That’s the verdict that has been delivered by community leaders in Labasheeda this week as fears grow that garda services that were already cut back following the retirement of local garda, Michael Ryan, two years ago are to set to be scaled down even further.

“There is nothing more important in a rural community than a Garda Station,” community activist Mike Cassidy told The Clare People .

“We play our part in crime prevention and we take our role seriously, but we need the powers to play their part by having a presence on the ground. A garda is a vital part of the community.

“The idea of presence prevents things from happening – the fact that a person is there or the community knows that there’s someone there who can respond quickly,” he added.

Concerns about a further diminution of Garda services in the village have escalated this week on the back of the Crime and Victimisation Survey conducted by the Central Statistics Office.

In Labasheeda, only five offences came to light in 2011 – they were one threat/harassment, two burglary related offences, one drug offence and one case of damage to property.

“In a community like ours, the population has diminished over the years, but we have people here who live a good distance from the next house or the next farm. We’re on the edge of a peninsula and in place like this, I won’t say they’re in danger, but if someone was looking to do something it might be a prime place to do it if there was no garda presence,” said Mr Cassidy.

“We have a lot of older people in the community and I think the security of knowing that somebody is there – even if it’s only for a few hours or a few days – the presence is reasuring, and is prevention for anything that might happen.

“The analogy is with all the speed cameras. The beauty of that is people know that they’re there and it forces them to have the cameras on their mind and makes sure they obey the law.

“The physical presence prevents things from happening, but the prevention doesn’t get into the statistics, but is as real as the actual events themselves. It’s two parts of the process. Everything from Neighbourhood Watch to neighbours being more aware of anything unusual in the community, but we also need that garda presence,” he added.

CABIN crew aboard a United Airlines flight to Shannon on Saturday were forced to handcuff a drunk American passenger who engaged in “obnoxious” and “threatening” behaviour, a court has heard.

Stephen Herring (40) consumed alcohol and ambien, a form of sleeping, prior to boarding the flight from Newark to Shannon on August 18. He was arrested in Shannon after failing to obey the directions of crew.

Mr Herring, with an address at 1216 Hawthorn, Heuston, Texas, appeared at Ennis District Court on Monday, charged with three offences under the Air Transport and Navigation Act. He pleaded guilty to engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour with intent to cause a breach of the peace; being intoxicated to such an extent that he might endanger himself or others, and, without justification, causing serious annoyance having been requested by the crew to cease such behaviour.

Insp Kennedy explained that Mr Herring had become difficult and refused to comply with crew during the flight. The court heard that Mr Herring was restrained in handcuffs. “He was arrested in Shannon. He was clearly intoxicated,” Insp Kennedy said.

The court heard that Mr Herring co-operated with gardaí and expressed remorse for his actions.

Mr Herring has no previous convictions in the United States or in Ireland. Insp Kennedy said he had dealt with a number of cases where passengers had engaged in difficult behaviour on flights.

He said that in most cases, a passenger’s behaviour forced a flight to divert to Shannon, causing huge cost and disturbance to all involved.

Insp Kennedy said this case was different as the United Airlines flight was scheduled to land in Shannon.

He said “obnoxious and disagreeable” of the type Mr Herring had engaged in, can cause “huge anxiety” to passengers.

Insp Kennedy added, “This would not be on the more serious end of the scale of incidents like this.”

Solicitor Aoife Corrigan said her client had come to Ireland for a weeklong holiday. She said Mr Herring had obtained Ambien from his doctor, due to a fear of flying. Mr Herring consumed some alcohol on his flight from Texas to Newark prior to taking the sleeping tablets.

Ms Corrigan said, “He completely blacked out. He doesn’t remember anything until waking up on the plane with handcuffs on.”

Ms Corrigan said family and friend were shocked to learn of Mr Herring’s behaviour. She said she had received 15 character references on behalf of her Mr Herring.

She added, “This is totally out of character. He is very ashamed and very sorry for his behaviour.”

The court heard that Mr Herring could possibly be banned from traveling with United Airlines again. Judge John O’Neill said he could understand “the anxiety of passengers, never mind nervous passengers”. He described Mr Herring’s behaviour as “obnoxious”.

Judge O’Neill added, “I would not have enjoyed being a passenger on that plane observing his behaviour.”

He said that if Mr Herring paid € 500 to the children’s charity, the Clare Crusaders, then he would strike out all charges.

THE lack of a dedicated helicopter landing pad in Kilkee is putting lives at risk by delaying how quickly injured people can be airlifted to hospital. At present, the most suitable place for the Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter to land is at the first tee of Kilkee Golf Course, which must be cleared in full before a rescue operation can take place. A site for a dedicated helicopter landing pad was identified by locals more than 10 years ago but nothing has been done in the meantime to make the site a workable option. Following a number of high-profile accidents in the locality in recent weeks, Manuel di Lucia of the Kilkee Marine Rescue Service, believes that the site, which is in public ownership, could be made ready to receive emergency helicopter traffic for as little as € 30,000. “I don’t think that it’s good enough that here in the Kilkee area, where we have had some very serious incidents over the last couple of weeks, yet we don’t have a designated landing pad,” he said. “This wouldn’t cost a lot of money at all. For as little as € 30,000, they could put together a very workable landing pad which would not interfere with overhead wires and houses. “I think we need to invite the chief pilot from the Shannon-based coast guard helicopter, someone from the coast guard and someone from the Department of Transport down to meet with someone from Clare County Council to assess the site and see if it still fits the needs of the modern rescue helicopters. “This site would be closer to the rescue centre in Kilkee and it would be much easier to get there, so it would speed up the time it takes to get an injured person to hospital.”

A NORTH Clare man has been laid to rest almost three years after going missing in the River Lee in Cork.

Brecan Mooney (31) died after falling into the River Lee during heavy floods on November 19, 2009.

It is thought that Mr Mooney was swept into the river by strong winds as he crossed the Christy Ring bridge in the city centre.

Despite an intensive 21-day search conducted by rescue services, family and friends, Mr Mooney’s body was never recovered. Attempts to locate the body were hampered by dangerous water and weather conditions.

An inquest into Mr Mooney’s death returned a verdict of accidental death due to drowning.

In September 2011, Mr Mooney’s family were informed that the remains of a body had been discovered in the Lee.

The length of time the body had been in the water, along with the fact that the vertebrae could support a body of similar weight and height to Mr Mooney’s, indicated that they were the remains of the missing Clare man.

His identity was confirmed when the results of an 11-month series of DNA tests were made known to the family on Wednesday, August 15, the same day as Mr Mooney’s birthday.

Brecan Mooney had been working as a geologist with the Environmental firm White, Young and Greene and had also been studying for a doctorate at University College Cork (UCC).

Friends and former classmates came out to say goodbye to Mr Mooney as the funeral procession passed through Glanquin, Carron and Kilfenora on Saturday.

Mr Mooney was laid to rest at Shanakyle Cemetery in Kilrush.

Brecan’s father, Brian Mooney, said the burial had brought some consolation to the family.

“His teachers were on the road to say goodbye, his friends from national school. He would’ve loved it. He was terribly close to people here.”

Brian Mooney added, “We found the last few days emotionally very draining. It had an almost cathartic effect for me, almost cleansing.”