Category: News

THE PEOPLE of Shannon are being afforded the opportunity to build their own boat, which in time is expected to be involved in regattas.

The Shannon Traditional Boat Building Club was set up a couple of years ago, and facilitated the building of a fishing currach in September 2009.

The interest was such that the club has now decided to build another boat – in the SkyCourt shopping centre.

The club has started building the boat and meets every Thursday evening for 12 weeks at a vacant unit in SkyCourt to continue with the work. The base has been built during the past four weeks and further touches will be added over the next eight weeks until it is completed.

Greg Duff is one of those involved in the committee. “It’s about holding on to the old skills and traditions,” he said. “There has been a lot of interest, including from people who are out of work or retired. They are different ages, mostly people in their 40s and 50s,” said Mr Duff.

The adult education committee in Shannon provides a tutor who assists with building the boat. The tutor, Steve Morris, who hails from New Zealand, has experience in this area, having worked on an old turf boat in Querrin.

“The long-term thing would be we want to build a few currachs and get the younger people to get involved in the regattas around the coast,” said Mr Duff. “We gave the last one to the West Clare Currach Club. This one will be kept by ourselves to use. We are right on the estuary. We would love to have small little sailing boats and have a sailing club in the future,” he said. Members of the public are welcome to turn up for any of the weekly sessions every Thursday from 6.30pm to 9pm. “There is good interest. It is a new club and a club that is something different in this time of recession with loads of people off work,” he said.

ALCOHOL abuse has become a significant issue among people checking into the Bushypark Treatment Centre in Ennis.

“The main issue is alcohol. Alcohol is the big one,” said the manager of the centre, Margaret Nash.

“People can’t believe they are alcoholics because they drink pints,” she said.

“It has taken years for alcohol to be included in the National Misuse Strategy,” she said.

Polydrug use – a combination of alcohol, prescription drugs and illegal drugs – is the biggest issue among those who check in for treatment at Bushypark. This is followed by alcohol issues and this in turn is followed by illicit drugs on their own.

“Anyone who is taking illegal drugs is taking prescription drugs as well,” she said.

“Prescription drugs is huge. There isn’t a client that doesn’t take them. People take repeat prescriptions without ever analysing what the problem is. 80 per cent of clients would be coming in on prescription drugs because of their addictions,” she said.

“There are guys as young as 19 taking fistfuls of sleepers at night and something else to pick themselves up the next day. It is a quick fix solution. That is a national trend. It has not decreased,” she said.

“There is a complexity of issues that clients are presenting with. It seems to be more deep rooted. People have very complex addictions. It is very difficult to get people off prescription drugs,” she said.

There has been an increase of four per cent in admissions to Bushypark last year and a number of patterns have emerged.

“We would see that increase spread across the 18 to 35 age group. The 26 to 35 age group would have stayed consistent over the years but that has increased. More people are acknowledging their difficulties. You can get away with addictions for many years,” said Ms Nash.

In 2007 and 2008, there was an increase in the number of women presenting for treatment, but this has since steadied off. Younger women in the 18 to 25 age group attend in quite high numbers, often in relation to alcohol, polydrug use and food addictions.

THE first march aimed at legalising cannabis ever to take place in Clare is scheduled to go ahead in Ennis on Wednesday, August 10.

The march, which is being organised by Bunratty woman Niamh O’Brien, will include a “peaceful protest” and march in the county town followed by an information session at a venue in Ennis yet to be confirmed.

Ms O’Brien, who operated her own business in Ennis, suffers from a painful and debilitating bent spine and uses medicinal cannabis to treat the pain. The use of medicinal cannabis is legal in many states in America as well as in a number of EU countries but is currently treated no differently from the use on recreational cannabis in Ireland.

The Clare branch of the Legalisation of Cannabis in Ireland organisation is encouraging people who have doubts about the movement to come to the meeting and voice their concerns.

“I am hoping to have a little peaceful protest march through Ennis to a place where we can have a meeting and a proper questions and answers session. I would hope that concerned parents, drugs councillors, politicians, nurses and doctors would come along to that. I am hoping to get a large group of people in to talk about this, especially people who are seeing people abusing drugs each day at the side of the street,” Niamh told The Clare People yesterday.

“This is an opportunity to question the Government on the current laws because we feel they are not working. I think it is more important that the people who don’t agree with us come along. It’s about opening up a dialogue and education. We want to show people that prohibition just doesn’t work and has always made things worse.”

One of the main speakers on the day will be Irish American Vincent Lavery, who was the personal secretary to assassinated US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy and a pro-legalisation campaigner.

“This is the first time that something like this will happen in Clare so I think it will be an important day for Clare people to come out and let their opinion on this matter be heard. We are still waiting to confirm the day of the march 100 per cent but when we do we will let people know,” continued Niamh.

Cannabis has been proved to have medicinal benefits as an anti-inflammatory, as a pain relief, to combat depression and anxiety, to promote appetite and to help people who have Alzheimer’s disease, MS and Parkinsons. The Facebook page of LCI, Clare now has just under 1,000 people following it.

AN AVERAGE of 14 people have taken their own lives in Clare in each of the last five years, according to official figures received from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The figures show that the number of suicides in the county reached a 10-year-high in 2007, the first year of the recession, and numbers have remained high in each of the subsequent three years.

The figures also show a massive gender split in the numbers taking their own lives in Clare, with 57 men taking their own lives over the past five years compared to just 15 women.

Shocking as these figures are, they would surely be a lot worse if it wasn’t for the good work being undertaken by a number of worthy organisations on the ground.

For organisations in the front-line against depression and isolation, such as Clare Youth Services, the key can often be to tackle a problem before it becomes too serious, rather than waiting until the situation has gotten out of control.

“When people think of the area of mental health, they think about a sit- uation where things have gotten very serious. But if you look at a youth club, there could be volunteers there talking to young people, treating them like an adult and making connections with them and that could help that young person in the future,” said Brian McManus, who works with Clare Youth Services to encourage youth clubs and youth cafés to open up around the county.

“We are there at that level and just simply having a connection or an involvement with someone might be enough to help them get over a problem.

“Adolescence can be a difficult time and if you have nowhere to go then it can be difficult to change that. But if you have a safe space, like a youth club or a youth café, then maybe there will be a chance for a person to get past a little problem before it becomes a big problem.”

Clare Youth Services cannot offer a counselling services to all the young people involved in a youth club or other organisation.

However, some young people who are involved in the Community Training Centre service can obtain counselling through their participation in that scheme.

A MAN who “made a nuisance of himself” at a garda station found himself before a court on a public order charge.

Seán Dobbin (22), of John Paul Avenue Ennis, was accused of public order arising out of an incident on November 15, 2009.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told Ennis District Court on Friday that the accused “made a nuisance of himself” at Ennis Garda Station.

He said he rang the bell for customer service and banged on the hatch. He said he would not leave when requested and “a struggle ensued; a schmozzle as would be described in sporting terms”.

He said that the accused arrived at the garda station in the early hours of the morning after a number of other people had been arrested.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said;

“To be charged with refusing to leave the garda station seems somewhat perverse.”

Judge Joseph Mangan asked, “What’s perverse about that?” She replied, “Normally the gardaí are at pains to attract people to the garda station and charge them and deal with them.”

She said that her client was highly unlikely to be before the court again. Judge Mangan directed that € 50 be paid to the court poor box. This was done and the case was dismissed.

ONE of Ennis’s most historic buildings may be saved from collapse, courtesy of representations which have resulted in an € 85,000 grant.

But the shelving of a funding system, which was in place up to this year, means that Clare will lose grant aid for other historic structures, according to Dick Cronin, Architectural Conservation Officer with Clare County Council.

Last week, Clare got the highest single allocation in the country under the new Heritage Structures at Risk fund, with € 85,000 being allocated for urgent repairs to the 16th century McParlands, home of the former Bishop of Killaloe.

The house, at the corner of Chapel Lane and Parnell Street, which was built between 1580 and 1620 incorporates a large tripple-stack Jacobean chimney had to be shored up and made safe last year when it became clear that it could collapse.

“The whole gable is leaning more than a metre off the perpendicular and it is in very poor structural condition. This is not only a particularly important mediaeval building – it is also an historically important structure, having been the home of Dr Barrett, the Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, in the late 1700s and also the home of Harriet Smithson, who achieved fame as an actress in Europe and married the classical composer, Hector Berlioz. The house is an icon of mediaeval Ennis and with other recently discovered features, helps to date the whole town centre of Ennis,” Dick Cronin told The Clare People .

The conservation officer said that he is delighted that the grant application was successful. But the reality is that a huge slice of Clare’s architectural heritage and an important aspect of the county’s tourism attraction is in danger of being lost. One in five important structures are in urgent need of repair, he said.

“We have more than 900 buildings on the Record of Protected Structures in Clare and about 20 per cent of those are in need of help. Until this year there was grant aid available under the Conservation Grant Scheme, allowing us to assist in the repair of about 25 buildings each year, but this scheme has been shelved by the department for 2011 with no guarantee that it will be re-instated.

This shelving will result in loss of State revenue through VAT, taxes and PRSI, the loss of important historic buildings and indeed the loss of many traditional building skills, such as masonry, lime rendering and thatching, which evolved over generations and will now dissappear due to unemployment, emmigration and career changes.”

CLARE couples who want to marry with the backdrop of a romantic view or to have a civil ceremony in the hotel where their reception is to be held will have to go join a queue more than a year long in Limerick.

At present, although some of Clare’s most beautiful spots would get the thumbs up as places where civil ceremonies would be allowed, staffing at the Clare registry offices is such that all civil marraiges are being dealt with through Limerick.

And with the recruitment ban in the public service, staff in the Limerick office can’t meet all the requests for civil ceremonies.

Bride-to-be Jennifer Flynn from Westbury was told the next date on which a registrar could come to her chosen hotel is a weekday a year from now.

“I was amazed because I was told three months notice was necessary but I never would have thought they were so booked up,” she told The Clare People .

Staff at the the Ennis registrar’s office confirmed that civil ceremonies for couples in Clare are currently being conducted in the Limerick office.

“We go through Limerick for the civil ceremonies at present. The couples have to contact the registrar there and give three months notice and the Limerick office will take it from there,” she said.

Sources in the registrars office also confirmed that the staff there are stretched and could not meet the growing demand in Clare for civil marraiges in situ.

For Jennifer, who plans to marry partner Colm next year, it means thinking it out again.

“We have the option of getting married in the registry office and then going to our reception and that’s probably what we will have to do. Neither of us are religious so we don’t want a church wedding. But the registry office seems so cold and impersonal and it means we’ll only be able to have our witnesses and a couple of other people at the actual marraige. I’m sure the registrar is very nice and will do everything possible to make it special but why make it legal to marry outside the office and then not have enough people to make that a possibility?” she said.

ARRANGEMENTS have been made to transport the bodies of French couple Michel and Jacqueline Lacave after the pair died in a tragic road accident on the Clare and Galway border last Wednesday.

The elderly couple, who are understood to come from Pontvallain, just outside Le Mans in the north-west of France, were on a sightseeing holiday in the Burren when the accident took place.

The 77-year-old man, Michel, was driving a motorcycle with his 66year-old wife Jacqueline as his pillion passagener when the accident took place between Ballyvaughan and Kinvara on the N67.

The accident took place at an area known as Roo Demesne, right on the Clare/Galway border, when the motorcycle collided with a car while trying to negotiate a difficult bend in the road.

The French couple were pronounced dead at the scene while the people travelling in the car – two adults and two children – were uninjured but shaken.

Two units of the fire brigade from Gort and an ambulance from Galway attended the scene and the road was closed off for some time while gardaí conducted a forensic examination of the scene.

It is understood that the motorbike had difficulty taking one of the large bends at Roo Demesne and collided with the car, which was travelling in the opposite direction.

THE demographic of Clare people taking park in adult education courses has changed dramatically in the last three years – with the recession leading to a dramatic rise in the number of young Clare men taking part.

That was the opinion of one of the county’s most experienced adult education coordinators who also believes that the demand for adult education courses will far outstrip supply in the years to come.

This comes following the launch of a free guide to adult education and training oppor tunities launched last week by Clare VEC.

“If you go back a number of years in Clare there was a tradition of lads leaving secondar y school early because the money was good for them to go and work in construction. It was very difficult to get some lads to continue on and finish their leaving Certificate,” said Marian O’Callaghan, Adult Education Co-ordinator in Lisdoonvarna.

“Now they have a real difficulty as there is nothing for them now in construction and they don’t have the skills or the qualifications to do something else. I have noticed the gender balance had change in recent years. A few years ago all of the course would have been very much dominated by females but that isn’t the case anymore.

“It is ver y hard to go anywhere without having some piece of paper. The choices at the moment around the North Clare area are they you either do training or you emigrate. That what is facing a lot of people at the moment. It is tough – but there is very very little out there for people now.”

The demand for adult education courses has also increased in recent years but so too has the range of qualifications that the courses open up for people.

“Quite a number of people involved with us have gone onto third level in Limerick or Galway and one person in now a lecturing in nursing, so the courses do give people a great scope,” continued Marian.

“I would say that at the moment we are all over subscribed for courses. All over the county I’d say that there is a huge demand.”

The Clare VEC Adult Education free guide is a comprehensive list of all courses available at the statutory and private education providers throughout the county.

The courses are broken down in to areas of interest from general education including Leaving Certificate to information technology to community healthcare and counselling.

The guide is available in libraries, shops, post offices, social welfare offices or local organisation around the county or contact the Clare VEC Adult Education Centre by calling 065 6824819.

THE Cliffs of Moher is in line to reclaim Ireland’s top tourism spot and once again become the most visited tourist attraction in the country.

The iconic cliffs have seen a massive turnaround in visitor numbers in recent months, which could see them leapfrog other attractions such as Dublin Zoo, the Guinness Storehouse and the National Gallery and into first place.

Visitor numbers for the first six months of 2011 have increased by 19 per cent compared to the same period in 2010. A total of 345,398 people visited the tourism location so far this year. Typically, the second half of the year is busier than the first six months, meaning that visitor numbers could be close to 800,000 for 2011.

Should this trend continue, it could bring visitor numbers back to the previous high of 2007 – the year that the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience was first set up.

“We are delighted with the significant increase in visitor numbers to the cliffs this year. The increase is especially noteworthy considering the poor weather conditions experienced in May and June in particular,” said Katherine Webster, Director of the Cliffs of Moher.

“The provision of visitor facilities, such as the exhibition centre and our new café, have ensured that the Cliffs of Moher is further establishing itself as an attractive year-round visitor destination, irrespective of the weather conditions.”

Nine jobs have also just been created at the Cliffs of Moher through the opening of a new style café, the Cliffs View Café. The Cliffs of Moher Centre now employs a total of 50 people, making it one of the largest employers in north Clare.

“The Cliffs View Café is operated by Cliffs of Moher Centre Ltd and the focus is on good value and locally sourced food. The café is focusing on offering a selection of the fantastic local food products available in County Clare and includes local spring water, cheeses, baked goods, smoked fish, ice-cream and fruit and vegetables among the fare on offer. The café can seat 100 and free WiFi is on offer throughout the area,” continued Katherine. A € 200,000 community astro-turf facility will be officially opened in Tulla tonight. The 60×40 pitch is located at Tulla United’s Cragg home grounds and represents the latest step in the club’s emergence as a new power in Clare soccer. Forty qualified coaches cater for an estimated 200 underage players at Tulla United, while the club’s junior team enjoyed a promising return to the Premier League last year, finishing in fifth place and narrowly losing out to Avenue United in the semi-final of Clare Cup. Perhaps the club’s most visible imprint on Clare soccer could be seen in their contribution to the county’s youths team, which this year contested the semi-final of the All-Ireland inter youths league for the first time since 1971. Tulla players Daragh Corry, Niall Whelan, Paraic O’Malley and Thomas McKeown were all key members of the Clare panel that was managed by their fellow clubman, Mike Moloney. Moloney returns to club duties alongside Denis Corry for the coming season, replacing the long serving Barry Murphy as junior team manager. With final preparations underway ahead of the FAI visit, club chairman Mike Hoey last week paid tribute to the progress being made by Tulla at underage and adult level. He said, “The schoolboys have done well over the years and have been unlucky in a number of competitions. It has really brought the club on. Some of those players have come onto the A team. It has really made a big difference. We went up to the Premier last year. It’s nice to see young fellas come through.” The completion of new astro-turf facilities also brings to an end an eight-year project of re-development

at the Cragg.

Hoey explained, “We bought the land in 2004 and started reclaiming it in 2005. The grass pitches were developed in 2006. It was left for 12 months to mature and was opened in May 2008. We are absolutely thrilled and very proud of it.”

Work on the astro-turf project was carried out in conjunction with the local community council and was backed by LEADER funding. Hoey added, “It is part and parcel of the parish. Other clubs will avail of it. We have rugby, hurling, football and camogie that will be taking part in it. It has been well supported by everybody.”

Tulla’s underage structure was reinvigorated in the early part of the last decade. The club now fields teams at under 11, 12 and 14 as well as operating a blitz tournament for children aged seven and nine. Hoey is equally enthusiastic about the progress of the club’s girls teams.

He said, “This is their first really serious season at it. We had a team back in the early ‘90s but it disbanded. It’s good to see them back now. They have a big panel. And they also have an under 12 panel of players playing friendly games during the week. To see all those youngsters come along, it’s fantastic”.

Tulla has also been earmarked by the FAI as a potential site for an Ireland schoolboy international.

Hoey said, “‘Tis a very proud day for the club to hear that. We’re just waiting on clarification. They (FAI) are trying to work in a suitable date that would suit their home and away fixtures. It would be nice to get it. It would be great for the whole of Clare to see an Irish team in action.”