Category: News

CLARE VEC has been urged to request the Minister for Education and Skills to employ local developers in school construction projects.

The call was made at last week’s VEC meeting by Commitee Chairman, Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind).

He said the Minister should be contacted regarding the awarding of contracts for school building projects.

Cllr Brennan acknowledged that the department is subject to EU rules on tendering. However he said that “where possible local developers should be used”.

“We are supposed to be doing everything we can to try and get people back to work,” he added.

He told the meeting that a firm from Northern Ireland had been employed for a project in Ennis.

CEO George O’Callaghan said the Department is bound by regulations on tendering.

Clare VEC has been asked by the Department of Education and Skills to provide support and assistance to Scoil na Mainstreach, Quin, in relation to the construction of a major extension to the school.

Mr O’Callaghan stated, “While the school retains ultimate responsibility of the project the VEC will also provide a check and overview on the process.”

Mr O’Callaghan told the meeting that the VEC would provide technical assistance to the school.

He said the VEC is already engaged in a process for new school extensions at VEC schools in Ennis and Killaloe and Shannon Comprehensive.

Clare VEC will receive a devolved grant for the projects – a 2813sq/m extension in Ennis and a 1800sq/m extension in Killaloe.

The Department of Education has predicted that enrolment at Ennis Community College will rise to 740 students in the near future, while enrolment at St Anne’s is expected to increase to 750.

A CLARE-BASED national organization that looks after the interests of over 100 carers groups around the country has rowed in with its support for a new strategy that has been devised by the Government and launched by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Caring for Carers Ireland has said that the new strategy called ‘The National Carers Strategy: Recognised, Supported, Empowered’, included commitments from all Government Departments to meet the demands and needs of Ireland’s growing number of family carers of all ages

“As far back as 1988, the Department of Health expressed its desire to enable older people to live with dignity and to be cared for as long as possible in their own homes,” said Mary McMahon, CEO of Caring for Carers Ireland. “24 years on, the Government has produced a strategy that we feel provides the framework that will guide the future of caring in the community and help to support a fair and equitable system for family carers in challenging times.

“There are over 74,000 males and 113,000 females registered as family carers in Ireland, including 4,288 carers under the age of 15, who collectively contribute € 2.5 billion to the national economy each year.”

The new strategy was produced by the Minister For Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People, Kathleen Lynch.

Brigid Barron, Innovation and Programme Manager, Caring for Carers Ireland, noted that the publication of the strategy is “timely” as the pressures faced by family carers through- out Ireland have never been greater.

She continued: “The demand for support mechanisms to be put in place for family carers are increasing on a daily basis as a result of early discharges from hospitals, the growing need for long-term care for Ireland’s ageing population and the increase in the numbers of people with complex health issues being cared for in their home by family members. This strategy is geared toward including family carers in care planning and decision making for those that they care for, and the promotion of supports and services to protect the physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing of carers.

“Caring for Carers Ireland, on behalf of its members, now looks forward to a speedy implementation of the proposals outlined in the Strategy,” Ms Barron concluded.

SHANNON’S ability to be transformed into a strategic freight logistics hub that would have direct connections to some of the world’s global logistics centres has been highlighted following a major thinktank that took place in London last week.

The Mid West Regional Authority (MWRA) and the Irish Exporters Association (IEA) have sounded out Shannon’s potential after meeting with international freight logistics experts in London this week to promote the mid-west region as a strategically located and sustainable freight logistics hub.

Through its participation in the EU co-funded Weastflows project, the MWRA chaired the meeting in London to discuss methods to promote the major North West European freight Gateways in terms of their connectivity to other European Gateways and onwards to the major global logistics hubs in the United States and Asia.

“The importance of an effective and well-managed Gateway for freight movements cannot be overstated for a peripheral European region, such as the mid-west,” explained Liam Conneally, Director of the MWRA.

“The Limerick-Shannon Gateway is at the heart of the region and is an important contributor to the economic development of the mid-west. Ireland’s exports continue to rise in 2012, despite the challenges faced by our key export markets, and our exporters rely on an efficient transport system to move their products within the North West Europe area and beyond.

“Furthermore, if Ireland is to meet its commitments in terms of reducing CO2 emissions, the region needs to learn the best methods for en- couraging modal shifts from road to more sustainable forms of freight transport,” he added. “The Weastflows project is seeking to improve and enhance freight logistics in North West Europe on a West-East axis. The project brings together experts from all sectors of the freight industry to work towards connecting and improving sustainable supply chains for the movement of freight. During the recent meeting in the UK, the MWRA promoted the LimerickShannon gateway, which as the most western gateway in the project has a key location for freight movements.”

Linda Newport, EU Projects Officer with MWRA, explained that the benefits for the mid-west region in participating in the Weastflows project include an opportunity to improve the connectivity from the region to the major North West Europe transport corridors, as well as an opportunity to test out the latest in innovative approaches to freight transportation via participation in pilot projects.

“The mid-west region is strategically located on the west coast of Ireland and is an important logistics hub in Ireland with the Shannon Estuary and Shannon International Airport. The Limerick-Shannon gateway is at the heart of the region and is an important contributor to the economic development of the region.

“Through our participation in the Weastflows project, the MWRA will work with the Irish Exporters Association and other partners to establish the Limerick-Shannon gateway as a sustainable gateway and improve links with the Seine gateway, the Liverpool-Manchester gateway and the London-Thames gateway, among others. It is anticipated that the results of the project will feed into the regional planning processes,” she added.

A PLAN for the development of the mid-west region for the next 20 years has been branded a “complete waste of money”.

The € 1.2 million Mid West Area Strategic Plan (MWASP) will cost Clare County Council € 184,000, yet local county councillors claim that its main concern is furthering the development of Limerick City at the expense of Clare.

Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), who is a member of the Mid West Regional Authority, is particularly critical of the plan stating, “It is a document that serves no purpose other than to further the needs of Limerick City.”

The plan is described as a “Planning Land Use and Transportation Strategy” that covers North Tipperary, Limerick City and Limerick County and County Clare.

However following the next local elections in 2014 Tipperary North will cease to exist, as it will be amalgamated with Tipperary South.

Cllr Kelly has now called for the plan to be reviewed if there is any “territorial change”.

Following the local authority changes in Tipperary, the Clare county councillor believes Tipperary North will have to be omitted or the South included making the current plan, which is in its final draft stage, nul and void.

Senior Planner with Clare County Council Gordon Daly told The Clare People that the MWASP was similar to strategies that have been prepared in other parts of the country.

Asked about the costings he explained, “The overall cost of the strategy over a four to five year period is € 1.2m. A grant of € 600,000 was received from the Department of Transport, primarily focused on the transportation and smarter travel assessments of the plan. This would have involved a substantial amount of survey work and traffic counts. The balance of the funding (€ 600,000) is shared between the four local authorities in the region on the basis of population. The overall cost to Clare County Council over the four to five year period is approximately € 184,000,” he said.

“Also, one of the main benefits of MWASP has been the development of an overall transport model which is available to the local authority for future traffic assessments and the model is available to Clare County Council and can be used by the council in the future,” added the senior planner.

LAHINCH hotelier and head of the Irish Hotel Federation, Michael Vaughan, has withdrawn his calls for an independent investigation into the e-coli outbreak which forced the closure of the Clare’s three main swimming beaches over the weekend.

This comes following the confirmation by Clare County Council that the temporary closure of beaches at Lahinch, Kilkee and Spanish Point was the result of run off from nearby farmland, and not as a result of a breakdown in the sewerage infrastructure in either of the three locations.

Mr Vaughan confirmed that follow a lengthy conversation with County Manager, Tom Coughlan, yesterday, he was satisfied that the sewage treatment plant in Lahinch was not the source of the e-coli.

In a statement to The Clare People last night, a council spokesperson confirmed that it was run off from nearby land and not sewage which caused the e-coli build-up.

“The excessive rainfall in recent weeks was a major contributory factor to the detection of e-coli in the water. Lahinch, Kilkee and Spanish Point beaches are each located in bays, unlike other bathing areas along the west coast of Clare.

“As a result, the run off from land surrounding these beaches became concentrated in enclosed bodies of water resulting in the greater concentration of bacteria levels. The results of water samples taken at beaches which are located at less enclosed locations along the coast did not show such elevated levels.

“The effluent from the wastewater treatment plant in Lahinch has been consistently within the permitted limits for the three main parameters for measuring the discharge of effluent from treatment plants, namely Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and suspended solids, and the plant has capacity to treat the existing town including increased population during holiday periods.

“Neither have there been any untreated overflows from the network during the period in which the water samples resulting in exceedances of the Blue Flag limits were taken at Lahinch beach.”

Clare County Council say they will continue to consult with the HSE as well as carrying out further water quality tests on the effected beaches.

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A CLARE teenager could be on the way to becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg through his creation of PearUp – a new social network based on sports.

Bunratty youngster, Tiernan Kennedy, is currently in New York where he and two of his classmates from Trinity College Dublin have been accepted into a prestigious incubator programme organised by American conglomerate General Electric.

The intensive 10-week incubator course is intended to bring the best and the brightest of young technical stars – in an effort to further their business start-ups. Tiernan, along with his co-company founders Alex Mann and Dermot Markey are the only non-American students accepted to the Manhattan course.

PearUp is a new form of social network which aims to link together people with different sporting interests in different parts of the world. It is operational as a mobile app for smart-phones and works by allowing strangers to meet and play in sporting events together.

While the application is aimed at individuals looking for people to play sports with, it is primarily aimed at sports clubs who can use its software as a virtual booking agency.

When the programme comes to an end of August 17, Tiernan and the rest of the PearUp founders will get a chance to pitch to General Electric executive for the chance to win € 10,000 in start-up capital.

Tiernan nearly missed out on taking part in competition as the PearUp’s entry to the event was only confirmed weeks before the start of the incubator programme – leaving them without enough time to obtain visas to travel to America.

However, after letters were written on their behalf by former Tánaiste, Dick Spring (Lab) as well as US Congressman Todd Akin and highprofile venture capitalist, Will Porteous, they were able to process their visas in just two and a half weeks.

Despite missing out on the first eight days of the programme, Tiernan and the rest of the PearUp team are reported to be competing well with their American counterparts.

For more information on the PearUp website visit www.pearup. tumblr.com.

THERE is no Clare man currently opting for life in the priesthood and just one from the diocese of Killaloe studying in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.

The student from Birr is still a minimum of three years from ordination as the diocese undergoes more changes as it adapts to life with fewer priests.

Today (Tuesday) the Bishop of Killaloe Kieran O’Reilly SMA will announce changes to personnel as he reinforces the cluster system of the last few years that allows for less clergy to administer to the dioceses of 117,000 Catholics.

Bishop O’Reilly will confirm that four priests from the Killaloe Diocese, including Fr Paddy O’Brien from Tuamgreaney, will retire from active duty from September 1.

Four new parish priests will also be appointed including to the Clare parishes of Kildysart/Coolmean and Cooraclare.

The bishop has also named his new Vicar General, the man who along with Fr Michael Sheedy from Kilrush will become his closest confident in all matters relating to the diocese.

Fr Pat Malone will take on this role as the new Vicar General, replacing Fr Seamus Gardiner who is to retire.

Fr Tom O’Gorman has been appointed Administer of Christ the King Cloughleigh within the pasto- ral area of the Parish of Ennis.

As well as being appointed new Parish Priest of Cooralcare Fr Tony Casey will be appointed Coordinator of the Diocesan Pastoral Development Group. This is a new position and will involve a team working with Fr Casey from among the priests, religious and laity of the diocese “to engage in the area of pastoral planning for the future”.

“The development of the Clusters continues to be a key element in the organisation of the pastoral life of the Diocese. Through the listening process, over the past few months, there is now a growing awareness of the value and importance of the clusters as units of collaboration and sharing of resources of our parishes and communities. The sharing of the gifts and talents of many people – enriching our life in the community and in the Church, reaches beyond parish boundaries,” said Bishop O’Reilly.

“I hope the Clusters will continue to develop and offer new opportunities for ministry in the Diocese.

“A further development this year is the creation of two new clusters, after consultation, the Mid-Clare Cluster is divided into two Clusters: MidClare North comprising the parishes of Milltown Malbay, Inagh, Mullagh and Kilmaley with moderator Fr Pat Larkin and Mid Clare South comprising the parishes of Kildysert/Coolmeen and Ballyncally with Moderator Fr Albert McDonnell,” he explained.

Fr Maurice Harmon who continues to teach at Mary Immaculate College will assist at weekends in the Cluster of Scath na Sionnaine which includes Killaloe, Castleconnell, Clonlara, Broadford and O’Callaghan’s Mills.

The large diocese that takes in the majority of County Clare and parts of Tipperary, Offaly, Limerick and Laois has been managing the decrease in priest numbers in the last number of years through a cluster system which will now be increase from 11 to 12 clusters.

There are currently 89 Killaloe parish priests and curates in fulltime parish ministry, with six more engaged fully in school chaplaincy, teaching, diocesan administration and other pastoral work throughout Ireland.

Six more priests from the diocese are serving over seas in various ministries, while 12 priests are now retired from active ministry.

The Diocese also benefits from the service of four priests from other dioceses or religious congregations serving as priests in parishes of the diocese and from the ministry of the clergy based at the Franciscan Friary in Ennis and the Cistercian Monastery at Mount St Joseph’s, Roscrea.

A LOCK of hair belonging to Irish revolutionary hero, Peadar Clancy, has resurfaced – 92 years after the Clareman was shot dead by British soldiers in Dublin Castle.

The hair was presented to relatives of the executed revolutionary in Cranny on Sunday, after spending most of the last hundred years lost in an envelope in America. It was discovered by Irish Historian, Professor Eunan O’Hailpín, who is himself a grandnephew of executed revolution- ary, Kevin Barry.

The hair was given to Professor O’Hailpín by an American relative – who was disposing of a collection of family artifacts from Ireland, and had no idea of the significance of the hair or its owner.

Clare man, Pat Shannon, accepted the hair on behalf of the decedents of family and says that he has no intention of selling the lock of hair to collectors.

“We were shocked when we heard about the hair. This all came from a relation of Kevin Barry’s in America. Kevin Barry had served under Peadar during the War of Independence and when Peadar died a relative of Kevin Barry must have taken the lock of hair from him – along with a lock of Kevin Barry’s own hair,” he said.

“It is incredible for this to come back to us but there was a tradition in those days to take a lock of hair from someone when they died young – as a momento.

“We are certainly going to hold onto this lock of hair ourselves – we wont be selling it on ebay or anything like that. There are a number of descendants of Peadar Clancy still in Clare and our plan would be to use the hair to mark the hundred anniversary of his death here in Cranny.

Peadar Clancy was shot and killed by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday, November 21, 1920, as a reprisal for the murder of a network of British spies by the IRA. Also killed on that day were fellow prisoners Dick McKee and Conor Clune as-well-as 14 people attending a football match at Croke Park.

A MAN who has pleaded guilty to harassing his former partner sent her a text message stating her new boyfriend would be “breathing through a tube” when he finished with him, a court has heard.

Ray Clune (37), with an address at Breafa West, Lissycasey, pleaded guilty to harassment and to contravening a safety order at a named Ennis address on dates between January 20 (2012) and February 4 (2012).

Details of the offences were heard at Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed summary disposal of the matters.

After hearing an outline of the facts of the case, Judge Patrick Durcan accepted jurisdiction.

Solicitor John Casey told the court that his client would be entering a plea of guilty.

Inspector Kennedy told the court that a woman made a complaint to gardaí after receiving a number of phone calls and text messages of a threatening nature.

He said the woman’s phone received 30 missed calls on January 21 and a further eight missed calls on February 4.

He said the woman had not answered the phone calls.

Insp Kennedy said the calls were followed by text messages containing remarks about her new partner.

Insp Kennedy told the court that the messages included threats that the man “would be breathing out of a tube” and “would end up in a body bag.”

Approximately 20 text messages were sent in total to the woman’s phone, the court heard.

Insp Kennedy said that Mr Clune was completely “cooperative and apologetic” when met by gardaí.

“No new complaints about the accused have been made,” he added.

Mr Casey handed in a doctor’s report explaining that his client suffers from depression.

He said at the time the offences were committed, Mr Clune “was drinking very heavily, 24/7, and this sparked something in him.”

Mr Casey added, “He knows that she has moved on and he has moved on and he accepts it.”

“He apologises unreservedly. She did not deserve this. She did nothing”, he said.

Mr Casey said his client had lost his job and had recently found it difficult to get meaningful employment. Mr Clune has no previous convictions.

Judge Durcan acknowledged that Mr Clune had experienced a number of difficulties in his personal life. However, he said that the accused had breached a court order and had harassed his former partner.

He remanded Mr Clune on continuing bail to appear again on November 7 for finalisation of sentence. He granted the State liberty to re-enter the matter at 24-hour notice. He said if Mr Clune’s good behavior continues, then the matter will be disposed