Category: News

THE numbers signing on in Clare look set to drop below the 10,000 mark for the first time in more than 18 months should the current positive trend continue throughout June.

The number of Clare people on the Live Register has remained well above 10,000 since October of 2009, peaking at just under 11,000 in January of this year.

The last five months have seen consistent month-on-month reductions in the numbers signing on with May’s figures down to 10,286 – a reduction of almost 200 in the the April figures.

Another strong performance coupled with an increase in the numbers returning to seasonal work in the county’s tourism sector should could see the Live Register drop below 10,000 next month.

This reduction in numbers has been largely driven by positive numbers coming from North Clare with the Ennistymon area office reporting a drop of almost 15 per cent in the numbers signing on since January.

A total of 1,535 people signed on the Live Register in Ennistymon last month – down from 1,610 in April and 1,771 in January of this year.

The numbers were also down in Ennis last month where 5,842 people signed on the Live Register last month. This was just 29 people during the month and 150 people since the start of the year.

There were 1,415 people signing on in Kilrush last month, down 29 on the previous month, and 1,494 in Tulla, a reduction of five on the previous month.

CLARE’S flagship beaches were given a clean bill of health last week with the announcement that all of the Blue Flags won by the county in 2010 would be retained in 2011.

The prestigious flags will be flying high in Fanore, Lahinch, White Strand (Miltown Malbay), Kilkee, Cappa beach in Kilrush, White Strand (Doonbeg), Ballycuggeran and Mountshannon this weekend.

The flags are awarded each year after a series of water quality and environmental tests carried out by An Taisce and Clare County Council.

This means that Clare has the fifth highest number of blue flag beaches in the county behind Kerry with 13, Donegal with 12, Mayo with 11 and Cork which won 10 Blue Flags.

“Local beaches and marinas play an important part in the lives of coastal communities and visitors alike, providing opportunities for walking, swimming, water sports and fishing to mention just a few,” said Cllr Joe Arkins (FG), Chairperson of the Strategic Policy Com- mittee for Environmental and Water Services.

“The responsibility is on all of us to keep our beaches litter-free.”

The importance of the Blue Flags in tourism generation is believed to be on the increase as a result of the increased number of Irish people choosing to holiday at home. According to the Mayor of Clare Christy Curtin (IND), the flags are key to the county’s overall tourism product.

“I am delighted that Clare again retained eight blue flags for 2011 and acknowledged the positive contribution that our eight blue flag beaches will make to tourism in the county,” he said. “The Blue Flag flying at any of these beaches indicates that you and your family can expect to find clean and safe environments when visiting these bathing areas.

“As Mayor of Clare, I am very encouraged by the continued assistance given to Clare County Council by local communities across the County to ensure that the high environmental standards are achieved and maintained at our beaches.”

NEW figures show that Ennis Town Council issued 11 fines against people for drinking in public places in 2010.

No fines have been handed out so far this year, while seven were issued in 2009 and 18 were issued in 2008. Town Clerk Eddie Power outlined the figures at last week’s meeting of Ennis Town Council.

Mr Power was responding to a motion tabled by Cllr Mary Howard (FG). Cllr Howard urged the council to compile a report on the amount of convictions under the council’s byelaws, with particular reference to recent difficulties with anti-social behaviour at Tim Smyth Park/Fairgreen.

Cllr Howard explained, “Over the past number of years, there have been problems with daytime and indeed night-time drinking.”

Cllr Howard added that the council erected a sign in the area to highlight the issue.

She said local people were concerned by the behaviour.

She told the meeting that groups of young people had been seen holding “drinking parties at night, sometimes by candlelight” near picnic tables in Tim Smythe Park.

Mr Power said, “The Garda Super- intendent has been contacted in relation to this matter and I will revert to you on receipt of his reply.”

Town Manager Ger Dollard said he had been told by gardaí that people caught drinking in public places have been dealt with under the public order act.

Concerns over anti-social behaviour at a new playground at Tim Smythe Park have led to calls for fencing to be installed.

Local residents say a six-foot fence, CCTV cameras and public lighting are required to prevent teenagers causing disruption.

A CLONLARA couple is this week mourning the loss of their sevenyear-old son, who died suddenly at the weekend.

Patrick (Pat) O’Callaghan, who was the son of the CEO of County Clare VEC George O’Callaghan and his wife Patsy, died suddenly while at school at the Model School in Limerick City on Friday.

The little boy was the only son of the O’Callaghans and had one sister Mary.

George O’Callaghan is well known in teaching circles in Clare and has been the head of the VEC for the past few years. He is a native of Quin and currently lives in Clonlara with his family.

Patrick O’Callaghan’s funeral will take place today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday).

He will repose at his home this evening at Clonoughter, Clonlara, from 5pm to 8pm this evening. Requiem mass will take place in the Dominican Church, Limerick, tomorrow at 11.30am, followed by burial at Quin Abbey.

Tributes were paid to the child at a meeting of Clare County Council yesterday. Fine Gael Councillor Joe Arkins said, “The death of a child is a nightmare for parents.”

GARDAÍ are examining footage of drivers on the Clare side of the tunnel who have been caught on camera reversing and even doing u-turns to avoid having to pay a toll.

Cameras at the entrance to the new tunnel toll plaza have nabbed drivers reversing on the hard shoulder of the motorway back on to the roundabout to take an alternative route. Other cameras on the approach to the toll tunnell on the Clare side have cap- tured drivers going as far as doing a u-turn and driving the wrong way up the road.

A spokesman for the Direct Route – the company which operates the tunnel and toll – said that the dangerous behaviour has been filmed on the Clare side of the tunnel with drivers coming from the Shannon direction.

Clare registration plates have been identified in many of the instances, he said, and the footage has been handed over to gardaí and copies sent to the Road Safety Authority.

“This is completely irresponsible and dangerous behaviour,” the spokseman said.

He added that the incidents of reversing and turning are becoming less frequent as drivers become more familiar with the route which brings them to the tunnel.

“If drivers don’t want to pay the toll, there is another route still available and they can take that. But once they are on the mortorway and committed to the tunnel, it’s very dangerous to do anything but drive ahead.”

A 10-YEAR collaboration between local motorbike enthusiasts and Clare VEC has raised an estimated € 70,000 for local and national charities.

‘Wheels within Wheels’ started life as a motorbike restoration project involving students of Adult Education Services in Clare. The project’s aim was to raise money for charity by restoring, in some cases from scrap, vintage motorbikes.

Ennis man Jacko McMahon was the driving force behind the project for many years, helping to highlight various VEC initiatives and raise money for organisations such as St Luke’s Hospital, Dublin, Cahercalla Hospital, Steps youth club and the RNLI lifeboat service.

Since the project’s inception, Clare VEC provided facilities with education officer Dr Sean Conlan helping get the initiative of the ground in the early days.

Members of Clare’s motorcycling fraternity including the Banner Motorcycle Club also pitched in with their expertise over the years.

Jacko still helps out but the baton for Wheels within Wheels has been passed to Joe McConagle, a VEC tutor in motorbike and car mechanics.

For the past four years, Joe, supported by VTOS coordinator Frank Benson, has worked on projects with students at the Adult Education Centre in Kilrush.

Joe explained, “The bike is stripped down completely, rebuilt, finished and then we raffle it.” This year the team intends to fully restore a Suzuki GSX 750F with the aim of raising money for three-year-old Galway girl, Chloe Flaherty. Chloe requires round the clock care after suffering brain damage following complications that arose during surgery last year.

Joe, who is friends with Chloe’s father Patrick Flaherty, said, “She’s in full-time care. Her parents have almost had to stop working to provide care, it’s very specialised.

Work on the latest motorbike project has already begun and is expected to be completed by the end of June.

There are also plans to mark the 10th anniversary of Wheels within Wheels later this year.

Joe added, “The money has gone to different charities, in Clare and around Ireland. We reckon its raised around € 70,000 over 10 years.”

For further information on wheels within wheels contact joe. mcgonagle@yahoo.com.

THE man behind a new multi-million shopping centre in Miltown Malbay believes that a number of businesses have been lost to the town in recent years because of delays in the planning process.

John Jones, whose family have been in business in Miltown for nearly 200 years, gained planning permission for a € 4m supermarket last week – after six years and three different attempts at through the planning process.

According to Mr Jones, the new development could help the town attract other businesses and generate new employment in Miltown Malbay.

“I think this would have made Miltown more attractive for other businesses to come in. Miltown has no factories and it has no large scale employer. It needs something to get more people working and get money generating in the area and that will help the area to prosper. Hopefully this can help kick-start the rest of the town,” he said.

“There should be up to 50 employed in the shop and obviously there would be extra seasonal employment. Miltown hasn’t exactly developed as well as other towns in recent years. What- ever you say about the [planning] objectors, they have definitely put Miltown on the back foot because this project has been held up. Other towns might have factories to provide employment but Miltown doesn’t have that; Miltown has suffered over the last few years.

“I’m delighted to get it finished. I think I always knew that I would get there in the end but some people used the system to hold me up. What we were proposing was always going to go through eventually.

“The last time at we went to Bord Pleanála we were told that we had too much car parking, which was strange in itself. But we decided that we would use that space for an Astro Turf field instead.”

The development consists of a 10,000 square foot supermarket, 150 car parking spaces, a relief road for the town, children’s playground and an Astro-Turf facility with associated dressing rooms and lighting.

Building work is due to begin on the development later this summer and could be completed by Easter of 2012. As well as the 50 full-time jobs, the development will generate as much as 150 new positions during the construction phase.

A KILRUSH pensioner, who has just published his first novel at the ripe old age of 77, says he already has plans for a book of poetry and a second novel…and maybe even a film.

Jim Counihan, who is this week getting ready to officially launch his psychological thriller, To Ba la nce The Scales , says his love of books and writing came from his father, who bought him a copy of Moby Dick in Kilkee in the late 1940s.

Jim left Kilrush as a 17-year-old in 1951 and spent the next four decades working in England and Wales. He began to write in the 1980s but it wasn’t until after his retirement, in the early 1990s, that he turned his attention to fulfilling a life-long ambition and finishing his first novel.

However, it wasn’t until he returned home almost a decade ago that he decided that the time had come to get his work published.

“I was going through a divorce in the mid-1980s and because of that I felt like I needed to do something new, so I took up writing classes. I finished writing the story while I was living down in Wales in 1997 but it wasn’t until I returned home that I edited it and decided to try and get it published,” he said. “It was on my mind for years and years to finish the book and that is why I put the effort in over the last few years. It was a huge effort over the last two or three years to edit and re-edit the book but it was worth it to finally get it finished. “I remember when I was a kid my father brought me back two books from Kilkee Moby Dick and The Ma n in the Iron Ma sk . After that I just read and read everything I could get my hands on.” The book tells the story of a man living on the west coast of Ireland. The man becomes engaged to a redheaded marine biologist who disappears and the investigation into her disappearance uncovers a large and complex web of intrigue.

“It is a psychological thriller because the characters and their personalities are just as important as the plot and what is happening next. It is quite a complex story as well – so if you miss anything in the beginning you could get lost pretty quickly,” he continued.

“Over the last few years, I have written 40 or 50 poems and I am going to work on getting them published. In the story itself, there is a four or five page epilogue. I wrote that to give me some scope to go on and do a sequel in the future. I have also been told that the book itself might make a good film, because the writing is so visual. So we’ll have to see what happens with that. Writing is great escapism for me, there is a huge amount of work in it but I love it.”

The book is available to buy online at www.choicepublishing.ie.

KILRUSH Town Council has backed the introduction a new rates reduction scheme to breathe new business life into the West Clare capital, but has challenged landlords in the town to play their part by reducing rents.

This twin-track approach to attracting new business to Kilrush is set to form the basis of a new Retail Incentive Scheme being pioneered by town leaders on the back of startling figures revealed by The Clare People

A “VACANT” 41-space car park in the centre of Ennis counters the perception that the town suffers from a shortage of short-term parking spaces, senior officials with Ennis Town Council have said.

In a motion submitted to the June meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) questioned if the increase in parking charges “has had a negative impact on the revenue (from same)”, Cllr Howard said she was referring in particular to the Friary walk car park.

She told the meeting that the car park “was nearly always full but is now nearly always empty”.

Parking charges rose to € 1.30 an hour in Ennis in January. In his response to Cllr Howard’s motion, Town Clerk Eddie Power said an examination of income from parking meters to May 31 (2011) showed an increase over the same period last year.

He added, “It is clear that there are now vacant spaces in this car park throughout each day. The availability of significant number of spaces so close to the town addresses perceived deficiencies in short-term parking in the core town centre areas.”

Mr Power told the meeting that the availability of spaces “begs the question, was there a shortage at all”. He said that more customers might use the car park during the summer. He added that Council officials had been “on record” and repeatedly stated that multi-story car parks in Ennis are underutilised.

Town Manager Ger Dollard told last week’s meeting that it was still too early to if the increase in charges has led to a reduction in parking in Ennis.

He said the decision to reduce maximum parking stay at the Friary walk car park from three to two hours had been taken in response to concerns over the shortage of short-term car park spaces. He said the new byelaws delivered 41 spaces within one minute’s walk from the town centre at a time where there had been “very strong public opinion that you couldn’t get parking in Ennis”.

“If it stays vacant for the next six months, then you have to ask will we change it,” he added. Referring to the use of multi-story car parks, Mr Dollard said occupancy of private multi-story car parks is “30 per cent at best”.

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) claimed drivers are boycotting use of the car park. Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said the car park could be used to cater for the “120 buses shooting past Ennis” on a daily basis.

Mayor of Ennis Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) questioned if the car park is not being fully used because they think it is fenced off.

“People are driving around the hotel looking for spaces and the one beside it is empty,” he added.

The Council’s annual financial statement for 2010 shows that parking fees and charges collected by the Council dropped from € 1,484,957 in 2009 to € 1,407,147 last year.