Category: News

GARDAÍ have warned boat owners to be vigilant after the Killaloe Coast Guard Unit was called out on a major search on foot of an empty boat being spotted adrift on the lake.

The search was stood down after it was established that the boat was one of two which had been reported stolen.

The Coast Guard was tasked on Saturday by Valentia MRSC when a fisherman reported a fishing boat adrift on the lower lake below Killaloe.

There was no-one on board the boat when it was spotted.

The fisherman had seen a person on the same boat an hour and a half beforehand and, as the boat keys and life jacket were still on board, a major search of the area was conducted by the Killaloe Coast Guard Rib “DALTON”, Rescue 115, the Irish Coast Guard Helicopter from Shannon and a land search team from Killaloe Coast Guard.

On investigation, it was discovered that two boats from the local area had been stolen during the previous night and that the boat found adrift was one of these. After 45 minutes, the search was stood down as nothing was found.

Gardaí have advised boat owners to check their vessels and to take precautions to ensure that thieves can’t take boats which are moored on the lake.

The warning comes after a number of thefts of boat engines from vessels in Killaloe. The outboard engines are valuable and are being resold.

Gardai are asking anyone in the boating community who is offered an engine under suspicious circumstances to contact them.

THE Burren is set to become the holiday destination of choice for thousands of Leaving Cert geography students following a new initiative to promote the world-class geology of the North Clare National Heritage Site.

The Burren has already been designated as a special area of study on the Leaving Cert curriculum with dozens of secondary schools already using local businesses such as the Burren Outdoor Activity Centre as part of their study.

It is hoped that a number of new publications on the geology of the Burren, which were launched last week by Clare County Council through the Burren Connect Project, will help drastically increase the numbers coming to the Burren as geological tourists.

“The Burren is one of the main case-study areas on the Leaving Cert geography course and the idea of this is to encourage that and also to encourage more school to visit the Burren as part of their study and to generate a bit of business locally. Quite a number of schools from all over the west already come to the Burren for this and the hope is that we can improve what they get out of the experience and increase the number who visit,” said Ronan Hennessy, geologist with the Burren Connect project.

“We paid a lot of visits to schools which we were putting this together – to test out what the interest was and to see what people knew in the school – and that influenced us greatly in putting together the different publications.”

The booklet will be circulated to school and tourist outlets in the Burren area and will be available for free to everyone on the internet. Geological tourism has been on the increase in the Burren in recent times and is currently seen as a vital part of the area’s new eotourism product.

“This is about raising the profile of the local geology with the businesses who are directly involved with it people like The Cliffs of Moher, the Burren Centre, The Burren Outdoor Education Centre, BurrenBeo, The National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Clare Farm Tourism Co-Op. They were our closest partners on this but the idea is to promote this among all the businesses in the Burren so it becomes a bigger and bigger part of the overall tourism product in Clare,” continued Ronan.

“The hope is to continue to bring businesses together so that when a tourist does come with questions the local people have the knowledge to help them find out the answer. It’s about bringing all the businesses together and having everyone singing off the same hymn sheet,” added Ronan.

These publication have been brought about by the GeoNeed Project, which is an joint Irish, Finish and Icelandic initiative coordinated in Ireland by the Burren Connect Project. For more information or to download a copy of all the publications, visit www.geoneed.org.

HUNDREDS of Clare motorists who commute to Galway each day for work will be forced to pay a toll at Kiltartan, just outside of Gort, as part of a new proposal for the completion of the M18 motorway from Ennis to Galway. The Clare People has learned that a Spanish-based construction company is preparing a bid to complete the motorway which would carry more than 30,000 vehicles between Ennis and Galway City each day.

The new bid follows increasing confusion over the future intentions of the BAM/Balfour Beatty Consortium who were due to begin construction on the € 500 million motorway last November. Fears had been raised that the project was set to be mothballed until news of a possible investment by an unnamed Spanish company emerged last week.

According to Gort businessman Austin McInerney, a toll on the motorway may actually be a boost for some local businesses but would be bad news for the area as a whole.

“When I first heard about the possibility of the toll, I thought that it would be a total disaster for the local businesses. The town has been very busy since the motorway was opened and there is still a great buzz around the place,” he told The Clare People yesterday.

“I think that people will start coming into Gort and some of the surrounding towns to avoid the toll and that will lead to more business for the local shops and restaurants. The completion of this motorway is essential, not just for Gort but for businesses all along the west coast. Big American and German companies expect these sorts of facilities and it is essential for the future of Shannon and Galway airports.

“The future of Shannon is critical – even for us up here in Gort. There may be some benefits for the local shops if there was a toll in Gort but I think most people would prefer if the motorway was there with no toll.”

Should the bid from the Spanish company become a reality, it now also looks likely that a second toll will be placed on the northern end of the motorway at Ballyglunin near Tuam.

It had been expected that the 57kilometre stretch of motorway would be completed in early 2014 but there is no indication yet what impact the recent delays will have on that completion date.

PLANS to begin a commercial commuter ferry service connecting Ballyvaughan and Galway City took its first major step forward last week when Leader granted funding for a feasibility study into the project to take place.

Over the next few weeks, an independent UK agency will compile a report on the proposed link which it is hoped will provide the technical and economic information to allow a private operator to begin the service.

While the campaign is being spearheaded by a Ballyvaughan-based group, the survey team will examine whether an alternative location in Clare could be more suitable for the ferry connection.

The proposed link is being spearheaded by the Ballyvaughan Bay Hop organisation, who believe that a non-subsidised commuter ferry could turn a profit by transporting people to and from Galway each day.

“This is a community-based project so what we want them to do is to see if this will be a feasible service to have in the long term. I live in Ballyvaughan, so I have been coming at this from that point of view but they will examine which are the best places to locate this service from – it could be Ballyvaughan, it could be New Quay or it could be somewhere else,” said Gwen Ryan of the Ballyvaughan Bay Hop group.

“The survey should take about eight week to complete and they will be contacting all the local stakeholders to get their opinions. There will be a report completed by the end of August so we should know by then how this ferry connection could work.”

The ferry connections is envisioned primarily for people living in North Clare but working in Galway, however it could also transport tourists during the summer season. The ferry trip from Ballyvaughan to Galway City will take less than half an hour, shaving more than an hour off a person’s daily commute.

“This would firstly give the people living in North Clare more transport options but it would also give tourists in Galway a different way of getting to the Burren as well. So hopefully it can work both ways,” continued Gwen.

“On a calm day, it will take between 20 minutes and half an hour to get from Ballyvaughan to Galway city. We want to prove that this will be sustainable without subsidies subsidies are not what we are looking for at the moment.”

For more information on the Hop, visit www.ballyvaughanbayhop.com or contact Gwen on gwen@ballyvaughanbayhop.com.

A QUIN man will take on a kayaking challenge of a lifetime in an effort to raise money for the Clare branch of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland.

52-year-old Brendan Cooney is aiming to kayak the 124-kilometre trip from Athlone Weir to Two Mile Gate in Killaloe, between June 23 and 26.

Brendan is taking on the challenge in memory of his mother Nancy who had suffered from Alzheimers prior to her death in 1999.

He is looking forward to the task that lies ahead.

“It is happening at a good time of the year. The days are long and the weather should be good,” he told The Clare People .

“I will do it over four days. I will be calling to various harbours on the way down. It should take me two days to do Lough Derg. I have been doing a bit of training. You just have to play by the weather,” he added.

He has had to prepare carefully, train zealously and embark on a strenuous exercise regime in order to complete this challenge. Throughout the course of the challenge Brendan will be setting up camp each night and surviving cold wilderness of the Irish countryside.

“Down the years I have been doing a bit of canoeing and boating and I thought I would put it to good use,” he said.

He said he has not set any targets in terms of fundraising. “People haven’t the money at the moment. I don’t know how much I will raise. If I make € 100 or € 10,000 I don’t mind as long as I raise something. It is just to raise awareness of the Alzheimer Society. They are always at the end of the phone,” he added.

Brendan has never done anything like this before but is considering doing something similar on an annual basis. “I am hoping if it goes well to make it an annual event,” he said.

To support Brendan in his challenge please contact the Clare branch of The Alzheimer Society of Ireland on 065 6868621.

YOUTHWORKERS have warned that a “high degree of homophobia” still exists in Clare ahead of a meeting to address issues of relevance to gay and lesbian young people in Ennis next week. Hosted by Clare Youth Service (CYS) and County Clare VEC, the event is primarily aimed at parents, young people aged 16 to 25 and those working with young people and families. The meeting will be held at the Temple Gate Hotel on Thursday, June 16 at 8.30pm.

The keynote speaker is Dominic Hannigan TD. The Meath East polltopper, one of two openly gay TDs in the current Dáil, will share the platform with a young person who will talk about their experience of growing up gay in Clare, the parent of a young gay person who will share their story and a CYS youth worker who will outline developments to make mainstream youth provision more welcoming of diversity. There will also be an input from Siobhan Maguire, LGBT Rights Officer with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).

Brian McManus, CYS youthworker, said the event is the outcome of a series of seminars and focus group meetings that have taken place in Clare over the past year. He said the main issues raised through the meetings involved the availability of information to young gay people and their parents, and the “high degree of homophobic bullying, not just among teenagers but in society”.

Mr McManus explained that young people are often subjected to bullying and physical intimidation “because they are perceived to be gay”. He said, “It ranges from people feeling discomfort, depending on their resilience, to people leaving their own area because they can’t really cope with the problem.” He explained that there had been some instances of suicide “driven by bullying”. He said the CYS had carried out a number of awareness campaigns over the past 12 months aimed at fighting negative attitudes to gay and lesbian people.

Seamus Bane, youth officer with Clare VEC, said he hoped the meeting would help challenge prejudices and stigmas attached to gay and lesbian people. He said while he had not personally come across instances of homophobic bullying, he said there had been reports of “harassment, bullying and physical intimidation”.

He added that there was still a “culture of antipathy towards difference” and that young people were, in some cases, afraid of being “victimised” because of their sexual orientation.

Mr Bane said the work carried out through the Clare Social Inclusion Strategy 2010-12 is helping to challenge old prejudices. But, he added, “It’s hardly surprising, I suppose, that in a small mainly rural community, rapid change can’t be expected. It’s going to be incremental.”

AFTER hours drinking has become an issue in Kilkee pubs, but will no longer be tolerated, gardaí have pledged.

Two pubs were taken to court last week where fines were imposed for allowing people to be on the premises after hours.

Gardaí say that they will not tolerate law breaking and will crack down on after hours drinking in the coming months – as the tourist season reaches its height in the seaside resort.

Superintendent Gerry Wall, who is responsible for policing in the West Clare area, said the issue is particularly prevalent in Kilkee.

“It is more of an issue in Kilkee. Commonly, public order is blamed on late hours and drink being sold late. Exemptions cost around € 400 to serve alcohol for one-and-a-half to two hours outside the normal closing hours. Publicans need to understand that fact. They cannot be expected to be allowed to trade unless they have an exemption,” Supt Wall told The Clare People .

“The message is not one of putting licensees out of business. It is mere- ly to have reasonable compliance with the legislation. People who apply for exemptions will have the full benefit of exemptions,” he said.

Supt Wall also said that underage drinking will be targeted over the forthcoming summer months.

“We will target licensed premises and off-licences for underage drinking and selling to young people. People who complain of public order and disorder should recognise the fact there is huge responsibility on licence holders to sell drink only to people who are entitled to receive it,” he said.

“Adults buying alcohol for underage people is an issue. They do contribute to public order. It is very important in 2011 that businesses are allowed every opportunity to sell their area to prospective businesses. However, these people are damaging the community,” he said.

“Business in Kilkee is seasonal. We don’t want to hammer them, but they must act responsibly,” he added.

“They have my full support in promoting their businesses, events and festivals. Most of the retailers with wine licenses do act responsibly,” he said.

THE first time Don Ryan, from Parteen, travelled to Africa with the Building of Hope project five years ago, it was a last-minute decision.

He had been asked if he would go because the team needed someone with his specialist training in putting down high-tech soft floor covering.

Don came on board just as the team prepared to fly out to South Africa on its first mission.

As it happened, when he got there, the concrete floors had been too recently poured (the entire building went up in less than eight weeks) and he couldn’t use the special flooring. But he was hooked.

Don has travelled with the final finishing team on the Building of Hope ever since and 2013 is no diferent.

And besides, as Don observes, “Olive Halpin (the project organiser) is a hard woman to say no to and every time she gets on to me to see am I coming back!”

On the last two trips, Don was tiling but this time he hopes to be putting down the soft flooring, the team having planned for it with the experience of the first trip behind them.

Don was one of the many volunteers who built a polytechnic in Kenya in Fr Martin Keane’s parish in 2010 and what he saw when he visited the School for the Blind and Visually Impaired would bring him back, even if Olive let him off the hook.

“Conditions were very bad there. I’m glad we’re doing this project for the kids,” he said.

To help raise the € 3,000 he needs to travel to Mombassa again, Don has organised a quiz night in Flashes, the Tailrace Bar in Parteen.

A great night of fun is promised and there will be finger food as well, making the outing great value for € 10 a head.

“We’ll have tables of four so it’s € 40 a table and I’ll have spot prizes on the night,” said Don.

The quiz night takes place on Saturday, July 2, starting at 8.30pm.

Anyone who would like to donate a spot prize should contact the Tailrace Bar after 4pm on 061 451527. Anyone who wants to go along and support Don can pay in on the night.

SEVERAL stretches of road across Clare will be improved, after funding was injected into various schemes.

Some of the routes were earmarked for funding after concerns were expressed by local residents, who were anxious that improvement works be carried out.

In total, funding amounting to € 230,000 has been allocated for the projects under the Low Cost Safety Improvement Works on Regional and Local roads. The works are expected to be completed this year.

Junctions at local roads in Bodyke and Kilnoe in East Clare will receive € 40,000, while Monument Cross near Newmarket-on-Fergus will receive € 40,000.

A stretch of road at Clonderlaw in West Clare will receive € 30,000 for improvement works, while the R474 at Inch and the R487 road near Carrigaholt have also been included in the scheme. A stretch on the Kilrush Road, Ennis, has also been included.

The funding was allocated after Clare County Council compiled a list, which was then submitted to the National Roads Authority, which in turn granted the allocations.

According to Clare County Council, the scheme is designed to improve road safety at various locations around the county where it is believed there is a genuine safety risk. The Council makes submissions to the National Roads Authority, which decides on whether to grant funding.

“We make applications based on crash statistics and volumes of traffic. It looks at the history of locations,” said Clare County Council’s road safety officer Barry Keating.

“We make numerous applications,” he added.

VISITORS to the world-famous Poulnabrone Dolmen will be greeted by the most unusual site when they visit the iconic tourist location later this month – a twice-life-size replica of the dolmen made as a functioning bouncy castle.

On the eve of the summer solstice on June 21, local artist Jim Ricks will complete a two-week trek across the Aughty Mountains at the site of the Poulnabrone Dolmen. Each day, Jim will be inflating ‘The Bouncy Dolmen’ as part of a public arts programme supported by Clare County Council’s Arts Office, Galway County Council and Ground Up Artists Collective.

Jim, who is a former Master of Fine Arts student at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, dreamed up the bizarre outdoor installation as a means of contrasting the ancient her- itage of the dolmen with the excesses of Celtic Tiger Ireland.

“I found it so interesting that something that was so old but had so little really known about it had become this symbol of Ireland and all things ancient. It had become a marketing symbol for B&Bs; people were making dolmens in their front yard using diggers. There were even coffee cups made in the shape of the dolmens,” said Jim.

“I started thinking, what is today’s monumental structure – what the dolmen would have been 6,000 years ago – and the answer that I came up with was the bouncy castle. Particularly a few years ago, bouncy castles were everywhere and they were a symbol of Celtic Tiger Ireland. I thought building the bouncy dolmen would be a pretty absurd way to pull together these different identities for Ireland.”

The castle was designed and built by Jim and the English company who invented the first bouncy castle over the last four years.

“The consumption of the Celtic Tiger, as seen through the bouncy castles, has changed Ireland forever. While this project is not a scathing critique of that, it is a commentary on it – a playful commentary anyway,” continued Jim.

‘The Bouncy Dolmen’ will appear at different locations in the North Clare and South Galway area between June 7 and 21. It will come to its last destination at the site of the Poulnabrone Dolmen on June 21. ‘The Bouncy Dolmen’ is a functioning bouncy castle and people will be allowed to jump on it while it is on tour.