Category: News

AFTER three years of community effort a new € 114,000 playground will be officially opened in Quin on Saturday, June 18.

Mayor of Clare, Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) will be joined at the event by the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald.

Funding for the project was secured from Clare County Council (€ 84,333) and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (€ 30,000). Money was also raised by the local community.

The need for the playground in Quin is highlighted by the fact that over 250 children attend the primary schools of the Clooney Quin parish.

In early 2007, a community survey carried out by the playground committee identified a playground for the Quin area as critical infrastructural requirement.

The project was spearheaded by committee members – Cllr Sonny Scanlon (FG), Liam Conneally, Nancy Cantwell, Carmel Crosse and Alison Deane.

Cllr Scanlon said, “This is an important day for the Clooney Quin parish and in particular the people of Quin. It is important that we develop facilities such as this for the children of our community and the playground will only enhance the amenities for the existing residents of Quin village.”

Commenting on the opening, Liam Conneally stated, “During the recent economic boom, much development took place in the parish of Clooney Quin resulting in significant population increases for the area.”

He added, “The construction of a community playground will add another important piece of infrastructure to the area to be enjoyed by children of current and future generations.”

Mr Conneally said the committee are also thankful to Cyril O’Reilly, local business people and the staff and members of Clare County Council, in particular the community and enterprise section in bringing the Quin playground to fruition.

He added, “The playground will allow Quin village to reach its potential in terms of being an attractive place to live for its citizens and visitors alike.”

Cllr Scanlan also acknowledged the support of local businessman John Beirne, farmer Pat Scanlon and landowner Martin Liddy.

He said the project was also supported by Brian McCarthy and Pat Hassett.

A COMPANY will be officially formed later this week to create a centre for international humanitarian aid in Shannon. The Atlantic Way group will officially register the not-for-profit company ‘Global Aid Shannon’ this week, following more than a year of behind-the-scenes negotiations with a partner organisation in Jacksonville in Florida.

The new facility, which will co-ordinate the delivery of Irish and EU aid as well as disaster relief, is expected to create hundreds of new jobs in the Shannon region as well as greatly increase the chances of a major logistics hubs for cargo transport to be created at Shannon. The Clare People has also learned that the Limerick Institute of Technology and the University of Florida at Jacksonville are preparing to launch a new four-year joint degree course in humanitarian aid and disaster relief. The course, which will see students spend their time between both institutions, is being created to produce the trained professionals to work at the facility in Shannon and a sister facility in Florida.

Speaking to The Clare People last week, Brian Byrne, a member of the advisory board in Atlantic Way, said work on Global Aid Shannon could begin before the end of this year. “The ultimate aim is to promote the region and to create jobs. We view this as being a very worthwhile project from a global humanitarian perspective, which is very important because you are saving lives, but this is also generating jobs and using the Irish budget for overseas aims very effectively.

“So, instead of Irish overseas agencies taking out the phonebook and seeing who can provide what they need in other countries, they will be calling Shannon to see who can get them what they need in Shannon tonight. This creates jobs here and it helps to reinvigorate traffic flow through Shannon. It helps reinforce Ireland as a centre for global aid. We are working hard with our friends in Jacksonville to make sure that this will be bearing fruit by next year or even before – so we will be creating jobs in Shannon soon,” he said.

“We brought the universities together and encouraged the development of this curriculum because it matched the strategic aims that we have in mind for Shannon Airport and it underpins the shared regional assets that we have here and in Florida. This curriculum is being developed to allow Shannon to become a centre of excellence for humanitarian aid and to allow it to supply the trained people needed by the NGO and the agencies who work in disaster relief. This centre of excellence will be a conduit for employment, not just at home but also at overseas locations.

“There are some very large commercial players who have indicated their willingness to become involved and that significantly strengthens the proposition. It will be a not-for-profit entity but it will involve commercial players coming together to make it a reality, and that will help generate support at a government level and at an international level. All of these things are coming together.” The Clare People understands that delegations from The Atlantic Way and the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce have already held eight top-level meetings on the development with a ninth meeting due to take place in Ireland later this month.

Along with the humanitarian aid hub, the groups have also been working together on creating twin logistic hubs for cargo transport in Florida and Shannon, as well as exploring avenues in which tourism links between the two areas can be strengthened.

“We have built up some very strong relationships…which enables us to approach the challenge [of building connections between Shannon and Florida] at a regional level in Florida as well as in Georgia and South Carolina,” continued Mr Byrne. “For companies based in Jacksonville, Shannon is a major stepping stone into the European market. It is an ideal distribution point for cargos destined for the European market and that is why the focus from Jacksonville has been on Shannon as a bridgehead into Europe.”

The ‘World of Opportunity’ meeting between the two groups will take place in Shannon from June 22 to 24. Besides the two organisations, industry heavy-hitters such as DHL Global Forwarding, Dell’s Global Operations and the Irish Exporters Association will also be in attendance.

A DECISION to extend the so-called ‘Smoky Coal Ban’ to include Ennis may raise fuel costs and hit elderly people the hardest, according to one local coal merchant.

Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan TD announced last week that, with effect from August 1, Ennis will be added to the list of towns and cities covered by the ‘Smoky Coal Ban’, under which it is illegal to market, sell, or distribute bituminous or ‘smoky’ coal.

While coal merchants have welcomed the plans to reduce air pollution, some say that the cost of new smokeless fuel allied to the imposition of a carbon tax will be too much for some sections of the community.

Coal and gas merchant, Michael O’Brien, explained that while some smokeless coal is “very good” other products are “dirt”. He said customers are unconvinced by a lot of smokeless coal, which he said can be difficult to light. Mr O’Brien, who has run a coal and fuel business for 20 years, said that as a result many homeowners stopped burning coal and “went back to buying heating oil”.

Good quality smokeless coal, he said, was typically € 1-€ 2 dearer in price. He added, “That would put elderly people in fierce trouble. Over the last winter, you had people staying inside with their coats, not buying coal.” Mr O’Brien said business had declined by almost 50 per cent over the past two winters.

A spokesman for Ennis-based Galvin Coal and Solid Fuel Merchants said there were a lot of “grey areas” in the ban. He said it was still unclear whether the ban applied to the burning or selling of bituminous coal. He explained, “It seems to apply to sellers within the zone (Ennis) but then it seems that people are free to go outside the zone, buy it and burn it in Ennis, which is ridiculous.”

Welcoming plans to reduce air pollution, the spokesman said the coal industry had been affected by the recession.

He added,“I did see a massive increase in the sale of cheap coal. It’s the first winter I saw that.”

SHANNON Airport is on the verge of launching itself as a major hub for corporate traffic, with Shannon Development and the airport’s management working towards creating a Centre of Excellence for Business Aviation at the airport.

With corporate aviation currently on the rise, the airport is seen as a prime area to take advantage because of its US pre-clearance facility and uncongested runways.

According to Grellan Kelly of Shannon Development, corporate aviation could be a major grower in Shannon in the months ahead and create a host of new jobs in Shannon as well as providing spin-offs for tourism and increasing Foreign Direct Investment in the area.

“In recent months there has been a real increase in the amount of corporate traffic that is in the air. At current levels, it is still 10 per cent behind what it was at its peak. It is recovering and we want to be in there at the point in time that it is recovering so that we can win some of this new traffic through Shannon Airport,” Mr Kelly told The Clare People .

“There is significant volumes of this type of traffic coming through Shannon already. We want to create awareness in the marketplace that Shannon is a transit place for corporate jets but also to win any ancillary business that might come form that. We are trying to being a tourism product out of it – so that we would get the corporate traffic along with an overnight and some sort of tourist activity like golfing or fishing.

“The plan after that would be to get an investment from some of the corporate activity coming through. In these jets will be the decision makers for a lot of major corporations – if we can create an investment opportunity for them we might get an investment that will create some jobs here. We are trying to work up an investment product that would encourage these investors to come here.

“This is all built around the preclearance to America. That is unique and gives us a reason to compete in the market place. It is key to the whole idea.”

While the creation of a centre of excellence may be years off, increased demand could make it a real possibility in Shannon in the near future.

“Our ultimate goal is to create a centre of excellence for business aviation at Shannon Airport, but you have to build on what you have. There are probably 2,500 corporate jet movement through Shannon Airport every year and we want to grow that. If we can grow then after awhile ti will warrant a centre of excellence there for corporate jets,” continued Mr Kelly.

“For the centre of excellence we are probably talking about creating a physical building – but that is long term. We have the facilities there to do what we need to do at the moment but if we can get the critical mass up then we would warrant an investment. This is Shannon Airport and Shannon Development coming together jointly. We see an opportunity for increasing this traffic, there is also a tourism possibility and then there is the possibility of investment in Shannon and the area.”

THE activities of “cowboy coal-sellers” are hurting Ennis businesses and damaging homes, a meeting has heard.

At last week’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) had sought support for a motion calling on the Minster for Finance to exempt domestic solid fuel from the carbon tax.

Cllr Neylon, who runs a coal and smokeless fuel distribution business, told the meeting that coal-sellers from outside Clare had operated in the county over the past two years. He described the coal as like “burning rubber” and claimed, “the people who were selling coal, 90 per cent of them are on the dole”.

He said coal distributors in Ennis had been hit hard by “outside suppliers bringing in rubbish coal”.

He added, “If we keep going like this, we are going to pay a massive price in terms of pollution.”

Cllr Mary Coote Ryan (FG) told the meeting that a neighbour had almost been injured by coal purchased from people she described as “cowboy coal-sellers”.

“A big stone flew out of the fire and broke everything and just passed this man’s head,” she explained.

Cllr Peter Considine (FF) urged the council to write to the Minister of Finance and the Minister for Social Protection.

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) said the past two winters had been unprecedented. He said it had been so cold that elderly people “had gone to bed early to conserve coal”.

THE bonds between Tony Killeen and Brian Lenihan ran deep – theirs was a special relationship honed by their status of being from Fianna Fáil’s 1990s generation of TDs, their connections with North Clare and their very private battles with cancer over the last couple of years.

These recollections of a friendship and relationship forged through their time spent together on the backbenches and in Cabinet, talking about North Clare and their own mortality came flooding back to Mr Killeen this week as he reflected on Mr Lenihan’s passing at the age of 51.

“The Clare connection gave us something in common in the early days,” said Mr Killeen. “The North Clare connection was the critical part, rather than the Clare part, and we would have been considered very close. Certainly over the last year and a half, since Brian was diagnosed, we would have had a lot in common.

“We talked a lot about it. I was dealing with illness for a year and a half before Brian. There was one enormous difference in that I had a substantial prospect of recovery and, when I was mulling over whether to run again, I talked to Brian more than most and was taken aback the way he talked about terminal cancer as opposed to an illness that had some hope of being dealt with.

“He was very clear that it would be grossly irresponsible for me to endanger health prospects and that he was in a different position because his cancer was terminal,” added the former Minister for Defence.

“Brian was a great people person,” continued Mr Killeen. “He did have a presence, a great personal presence and he had great time for people. He was genuinely interested in talking to ordinary people and hearing their views. People instinctively felt that. It was one of his qualities and one of his strengths,” Mr Killeen.

And Mr Killeen, who retired from politics ahead of the last election after serving as a TD for 19 years from 1992, paid tribute to Mr Lenihan for the tough decisions he took as Minister for Finance.

“He was very clear that there was a path out of the troubles the country was in and that path was politically disastrous. He said to me, ‘Tony, we have a responsibility and our responsibility is to do the right thing. You and I know what the right thing is and we know we’ll be hated for it’.

“He was very clear about that and he wasn’t interested in being popular. He didn’t have a need to be popular, but he was, because his personality transcended the difficult and unpopular decisions he had to make,” added Mr Killeen.

KILMALEY woman Emma Healy got a little help from her friends – 15 of them to be precise – last week when she went to run the Flora Mini Marathon in Dublin. The Clare ladies organised themselves to run alongside Emma and raise sponsership for her trip as a volunteer with the Building of Hope next year.

“They were absolutely fantastic and we had a great day,” said Emma, who works in Ennis General Hospital.

But this is not the first time she has been given a helping hand, or in a recent case a helping head, chest and lots of legs. “We had a waxathon and, fair play to them, the Kilmaley United soccer team turned out to be waxed and shaved. One chap got his whole head of hair and beard shaved off, another got his chest waxed and lots of them got their legs waxed – it was a brilliant night,” Emma told The Clare People .

Also helping on the night at the Bogdale House in Kilmaley were pals Lorraine Tuohy and Anne Killeen, who fed the starving hoardes, as well as Emma’s sister Martina, who did the waxing, and local barber Joey Woulfe, who took care of the shaving.

Irish Pride and Brendan Keane butchers sponsored the barbecue for the waxathon and Barry Lynch of Lynch’s Centra on the Gort Road sponsored lunches for the women on the marathon.

Now Emma – who teaches Irish dancing to adults and children – is planning a fundraising ceili for October 14 in the Auburn Lodge when Michael Sexton’s two-piece ceili band will be playing. The fun will start at 9.30pm.

This will be 27-year-old Emma’s first trip to Africa and she doesn’t know, as yet, what she will be doing.

“Olive told me it could be anything but she did ask me to bring my dancing shoes to teach some of the local kids how to do a bit of dancing.”

CLARE County Council may seek to de-list Ballyalla as a bathing area due to an ongoing failure to meet “stringent” European water quality standards.

A report by David Timlin, Director of Services at the Council’s environment section, outlined the background to water testing in Ballyalla over the past five years. He said that Ballyalla did not see a significant amount of bathers up to and including the 1980s. Mr Timlin states that the area is now being primarily used for walking and general amenity.

He explained, “One of the critical elements of the EC Bathing water quality regulations 2008 is that areas should be designated on the basis of the numbers of bathers in the area.”

He continued, “Unfortunately there was little consideration of the history of bacteriological water quality at the bathing area prior to the designation. After its designation, monitoring of the waters at the Ballyalla bathing area was undertaken during the May to September period annually. It was frequently found that the bathing water quality did not meet the standards set out in the EC Quality if Bathing Waters regulations 1992.”

Mr Timlin said the failure to meet standards is “likely to be due to the frequent use of the slipway for feeding birds”.

He added, “The slipway is adjacent to the bathing area. The two activities are not compatible from a public health perspective and the bathing water monitoring data is testament to this.”

He said the situation at Ballyalla is often exacerbated by poor weather. The report states that since 2005, Clare County Council have erected signs in Ballyalla warning of the unsuitability of the waters for bathing.”

The reports adds that the bathing area in Ballyalla has been classified as “poor” status in recent years.

Mr Timlin explained, “It is considered unlikely in the context of the juxtaposition of the slipway and local bird life that the bathing area at this location will meet the 2008 standards.”

He continued, “Monitoring will be undertaken in the 2011 season, but failure to reach the necessary standards is likely to result in an application for delisting of the area as a bathing area.”

The report was compiled in response to a motion submitted by Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) to the June meeting of Ennis Town Council.

Cllr Meaney told the meeting that he “was not happy” that Ballyalla is still being assessed as a bathing area.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said money should be put aside for the overall development of Ballyalla as motorhome and camping area.

IT’S GOOD news at last for Clare on the jobs front with confirmation that the county is to be the European base for a massive logistics hub designed to deliver humanitarian aid all over the world from Shannon Airport.

Thousands of jobs could be created, both directly and indirectly, at Shannon and across the county in the coming years as a result a major reinvention of the way business in done at the airport. The Clare People has learned that the ‘Global Aid Shannon’ organisation will be officially listed with the Company Registrations Office in Dublin this week and could be up and running in Shannon before the end of 2012.

The not-for-profit company has been formed by the Atlantic Way group and will create a global centre for the delivery of humanitarian aid in Shannon, while a sister project is also progressing in Jacksonville in Florida.

Atlantic Way have been holding top level meetings all over the world for more than a year and have also received commitments from both Irish and US authorities, major industry players, the EU and the United Nations about the project.

Talks on creating a similar sister- project for cargo shipment and logistics between Shannon and Florida are also well advanced as are plans to strengthen the tourism connections between the two areas.

“This project has involved a lot of astute political footwork not just here in Ireland but also at the EU level and in the US and at the UN.

“We have been working on a number of levels to get this venture going which would utalise all the strategic strengths of Shannon, such as its very large airport system,” said Brian Byrne of Atlantic Way.

THE huge contribution made by Tomás Mac Cormaic to the development of Shannon over many years has been recalled after the sudden death of the former Town Clerk last week.

The Kilkishen native, who was 76 years of age when he died suddenly last Tuesday, served as Shannon Town Clerk for 27 years between the advent of Shannon Town Commission in 1982 until his retirement in 2009.

At his funeral mass on Friday, Shannon parish priest Fr Tom Hogan described Tomás as “the man who owned Shannon”. Those were the words used by one of his grandchildren in the immediate aftermath of his death and were affectionately recalled to the hundreds who turned out to pay their last respects.

Tributes in Clare have been led by former Mayor of Clare and Shannon, Cllr Patricia McCarthy, who worked with Mr Mac Cormaic throughout his 27 years as Town Clerk.

“Even before he became Town Clerk, he would have been involved in a lot of community committees and activities,” said Cllr McCarthy. “He brought his knowledge of the town and the community into the Town Commissioners. He made a hugely positive and crucial contribution to Shannon.

“There was no history of elected representatives in the town, no history of how local government would work in the town. Tomás played a vital role with councillors of weaning Shannon away from being run by a semi-state company and helping the town taking charge of our own destiny,” she added.

These tributes were echoed by Senator Tony Mulcahy, who also served as Mayor of Shannon and Clare during Mr Mac Cormaic’s time in local government.

“In his 27 years as Town Clerk he never missed a meeting,” said Senator Mulcahy. “That tells you about him. He was totally committed to his family, his work and his friends. Tomás was one of the father figures within the town. He was a Commissioner of Oaths and a Peace Commissioner, so he engaged with a huge number of people in the Shannon Community.

“He made a huge contribution to the development of the town. He was always the great man for a solid word. He was available to the community 24/7 – that’s the man he was for Shannon,” Senator Mulcahy added.

Mr Mac Cormaic is survived by his nine children, Padraig, Máire, Cathal, Ciaran, Áine, Eimear, Eithne, Eoin and Gearóíd, his brothers Máirtín, Micheál and Noel, sisters Josie and Margaret; sons-in-law, daughters-inlaw and 12 grandchildren.

Mr Mac Cormaic’s remains were removed to Mary Immaculate Church in Shannon last Thursday, while the funeral mass took place on 12 noon on Friday with burial afterwards in Lemenagh Cemetery.