Category: News

RICHARD Nagle (FF) has called on the eight councillors elected to the new West Clare Area to work together to insure that enough money can be obtained to keep services in the massive constituency on track. The new area comprises almost half of County Clare, making it one of the largest and most rural electoral areas in Ireland.

“There are a lot of challenges. The West Clare area is vast and predominantly rural. We need to ensure that that the area gets proper funding to enable services to be maintained. There are eight councillors, it is important that those councillors work together for the best interests of the area,” he said.

“We have a big challenge to ensure that we get adequate funding from central government. We got the third lowest Local Government Fund in the country this year. With the introduction of the property charge people rightly expect a level of service, regardless of whether they are urban or rural dwellers. The Ennistymon councillor also paid tribute to everyone who helped in his campaign. “It was extremely challenging. The area covers 47 per cent of the county and it was impossible for any candidate to cover all of the areas. It was extremely demanding. But people were very courteous on the doors for the most part. Some people had very serious issues that they raised, which is what you want to hear on a canvass so you can be aware of them and deal with them. There is a lot of work to be done,” he said. “I’m absolutely thrilled and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who voted for me, to thank all of the people who helped me to get elected and a special word of thanks to my family, for the help and support that they gave me throughout the campaign.”

TONY Mulqueen was taking defeat in his stride on Saturday night after losing his seat on Clare County Council.

Mulqueen was eliminated on the 9th count and despite being surprised by his early ejection, Mulqueen wasn’t feeling too despondent.

“I didn’t see it coming. I had a good canvass. I had a good team. Everything seemed to be on course. That’s politics. In 2004 I was short by 41 votes. I was elected in 2009 and I was rejected this year. That’s politics. That’s life,” recalled the local businessman.

Standing in a quiet corner of the West County Hotel, away from the count centre, Mulqueen said he would analyse the vote to see where it all went wrong

“I think this election was so tight and with such a large number of people that the number two votes I might have got from other candidates – that hadn’t gone over the quota – those votes weren’t coming back to me,” offered Mulqueen, who was one of six Fine Gael candidates in the Ennis area.

“That’s life. There is no one dead. I’m alive. I welcomed into the world this year my second grandchild and I’m happy with that. I’m fine,” he added.

Mulqueen also did not shut the door completely on contesting again in 2019.

He said, “I’ve a huge interest in politics. I only got involved in politics late in life after my family had grown up and I could give it the time. For five years, I worked at it. I worked hard at it. I was elected during a recession in 2009…We’re maybe com- ing out of recession now, who knows. Who knows what will happen in five years time.”

Commenting on his steady showing in the Ennis electoral area, Labour candidate Dermot Hayes accepted it was always going to be difficult for the party to win a seat in Clare.

The local community activist was eliminated on the 16th count after taking in 671 votes. “As they say on the pitch, the wind was well against us”, remarked Hayes on Saturday. “At the same time we should have been proud of ourselves that we went out there and fought away. We’ll still be active in the community. I will always remain active in the community.

“We have to sit down and regroup and see what we are doing. Populism is grand but the reality is that hard choices had to be made, whether we liked it or not”, he added.

HE MAY have been close to the relegation battle in West Clare, but Bill Chambers (FF) was never likely to be left without a seat when the music stopped. After a long day at the count centre at the West County Hotel, and an even longer six months of campaigning, the Cooraclare man said he was never really doubtful of losing his seat, but he was a little nervous.

“It was a great day, I’m delighted. I would like to commiserate with my two colleaugues Oliver Garry (FG) and Pat Keane (FF),” he said.

“We have been in the council together now for a lot of years, they are two gentlemen and I’m really sorry that they have to leave us. As for myself, I wasn’t really that doubtful about I [being re-elected], but I was a bit nervous.”

Chambers has also called for all of the newly elected or re-elected councillors in the West Clare area to work together to serve the need of the massive constituency.

“It’s a completely new council now. Our electoral area has nearly trebled in size from what it was and the town council is gone in Kilrush. We’ll have to focus on looking after Kilrush and the rest of the West Clare areas. But in particular Kilrush, with the council gone, and Kilkee as well has also lost a town council,” he said.

“I will be appealing to the eight councillors to work together. The eight councillors will have to perform and get West Clare on the map, promote industry and tourism.”

IT didn’t turn out the way he wanted but first time candidate Felix Omorodion has vowed to seek election again.

The Nigerian Eucharistic Minister exited the race for a seat in the Ennis Electoral Area after the fifth count.

But Omorodion, who stood as an independent candidate, was pleased with his performance.

“I enjoyed the experience. This is my first time running. I’m very grateful to God I was able to make the fifth count,” said Felix in the count centre at Treacys West County on Saturday afternoon.

“I wanted to serve my community. To give hope for the hopeless, a voice for the voiceless. I wanted my community to have a voice and hope. But unfortunately it didn’t work out the way I wanted,” he added.

He enjoyed the experience so much that Omorodion already has one eye on the 2019 election.

“Oh yes, I would like to go again in the next five years. I have learned a lot. I will keep on learning from colleagues and honourable councillors.

“My friends and family all sup- ported me. They were very happy to seem me going through it. It is a very difficult time and period but still, by the grace of God, God has taken me so far,” he said.

FIANNA FÁIL has returned to party political dominance in Clare County Council and with the support of the three Independent councillors of Fianna Fáil origin, the party could take control of the chamber.

Councillors Michael Begley (Killaloe), Cllr James Breen (Ennis) and Cllr PJ Ryan (Shannon) are well positioned to be king-makers, or in this case mayor-makers, in the new 28 seat council.

Although the party increased its overall first preference vote by just .2 per cent, its representation on Clare County Council has increased from 34.4 per cent to 42.8 per cent. In the 2009 local election Fianna Fáil won 11 seats in a 32 member council. In 2014 the number increased to 12 in a 28 seat council.

Director of Elections for the party in Clare Gerry Reidy believes with a bit more vote management the party may have even secured two more seats and brought the number to one seat short of an overall majority.

“We had great potential to get two more seats. If we had managed the vote that Cathal [Crowe] got better, and he got an amount of that from the Cratloe area, we could have got in Pat O’Gorman because he was only beaten by a short margin of votes,” he said.

“Cathal is a brilliant campaigner, and it is only afterwards when you see the benefit of his work you think we might have had a different conversation about some of these places.”

The Fianna Fáil man also questions how the party did not win a seat in Kilkee and were beaten to that seat by a Government councillor.

“There is a lot of controversy in Kilkee over the damage the storms have done and Pat Keane would have highlighted constantly, but you have the situation where the councillor that was in the Government Party got in, and the councillor in opposition did not.”

While congratulating the 12 Fianna Fáil councillors, Mr Reidy said he was also aware of those that were not elected across all parties and none, and was aware of how difficult that was on them and their families.

The party lost just two casualties in the election – Cllr Brian Meaney who was elected a Green Party councillor in 2009 but transferred to Fianna Fáíl in April 2013.

Cllr Pat Keane also lost his seat in the new West Clare Electoral Area.

CATHAL O’Reilly, the candidate denied by Sinn Fein less that 48 hours before he was due to stand in the Ennis Local Electoral Area for them, still managed to secure 392 votes and poll stronger than sitting councillor Brian Meaney (FF).

Senior members within the Sinn Fein Party in Clare maintain how ever that his vote would have been significantly higher had his “resignation for Sinn Fein not been accepted” on Wednesday.

“We were looking at different figures to that. To me that was the core vote that we could have got had we run a paper candidate and not had a campaign around it. We were garnering more support, certainly the figures we were talking about were higher than that,” said Director of Elections for Sinn Fein Finbarr MacGabhann.

The Ennis butcher, was forced from the party after disparaging comments he posted to Facebook three years ago about the Traveller community, people working in particular shops and other groups, were brought to the attention of the party.

Mr O’Reilly’s name still appeared on the extensively long Ennis ballot paper as the Sinn Féin candidate, but by then the party said he was no longer one of its members.

Mr MacGabhann said Sinn Fein was surprised by the comments.

“It was a shock. To see the things he said, the things he said about people, about minorities, about people going about their daily life in town was a shock.”

It did not affect the other two candidates running in West Clare and Shannon, as they were able to compartmentalise their campaign, he said.

Mike McKee was elected to the Shannon area for Sinn Fein, while first time candidate Noeleen Moran received a first preference vote of 1,023 out of West Clare.

JUST minutes after Ian Lynch was deemed elected to Clare County Council for the first time, Fine Gael co-ordinator Jim Madden shook the Independent councillor’s hand.

The former Fine Gael man had been unsuccessful at the party’s convention last November and decided to go it alone in an attempt to secure a seat for the town of Kilrush.

Shortly after he realised that ambition, the outgoing Kilrush town councillor and new county councillor promised “to shake up” the new county council.

Asked if his election was Fine Gael’s loss, Cllr Lynch said, “I don’t know whose loss it is; it is a gain for West Clare. I put myself forward. I was always going to run the race. People voted for me and my job is to serve the people. Parties shouldn’t come into this level of politics. Parties are for a bigger arena. I put myself forward as an Independent candidate and I got elected to the seat as an Independent and I have a lot of work to do now,” he said.

His former colleague on Kilrush Town Council Marian McMahon Jones (FG), who was eliminated on the fourth count, also wished the new councillor well, saying she was happy that the town of Kilrush had a candidate.

Cllr Lynch believes his work on the town council helped his work, but realised it was always going to be an uphill battle for a newcomer to be elected in the West Clare area, where nine sitting councillors were going for eight seats.

“The last few weeks of the canvass were crazy. I am not sure who was pregnant there for a while, me or Rene,” he said referring to his partner, whom he has promised to take on a long weekend away to make up for his absence over the last number of months.

GABRIEL Keating has hailed himself as “the comeback kid” after retaining his seat on Clare County Council. The Fine Gael councillor emerged victorious from a tightly fought battle for places in the eight seat West Clare Electoral Area.

Despite not reaching the quota, Keating was elected on the 11th count courtesy of votes received from former Fine Gael man Ian Lynch’s surplus.

In doing so, Keating pipped his party colleague Oliver Garry to the final seat.

Such a scenario seemed improbable after the first count, which left Keating with a mountain to climb, but the West clare man never had a moment’s doubt.

“It’s a wonderful feeling. It’s a wonderful achievement. This morning I was at 911 and I jumped to 1590. It’s unbelievable. They’re calling me the comeback kid,” beamed the Cross native as he savoured his triumph at the end of a long weekend in Treacy’s West County count centre.

He continued, “I never thought I was gone. I worked hard for the five years. I put in a great effort. I opened up West Clare to tourism. Loop Head, the whole place came alive. I’m so delighted to be able to do it for the people of my parish. It’s a great honour for me and for my family. They mean everything to me.

“We had storms and we had floods and we had a whole lot things,” said Keating in reference to storm that battered West Clare earlier this year.

“But I can tell you I rode this storm today,” he declared to loud cheers.

Meanwhile, PJ Kelly (FF) was returned without reaching the quote in the West Clare electoral area.

The veteran campaigner was returned for an eight successive election, making him the longest serving councillor on Clare County Council by some distance.

The Lissycasey councillor joked that it had been “cheeky” of him to run for an eight election but also said that there was lessons to be learned from the election.

THE ACTIONS of unknown thieves who stole a set of toddler swings from the Crusheen playground have been described as “despicable” by the local community.

The Crusheen Playground Committee believe that the swings, which were taken at some time between Tuesday evening, May 20, and Thursday evening, May 24, were deliberately targeted by criminals – rather than as a random act of criminality.

Sean Nihill of the playground committee says people in the area are devastated, not by the value of the items stolen, but that anyone would steal from children in a premeditated and planned way.

“They screwed out both the infant swings.

“There was no damage done to the swings and they would have needed specialist equipment to do it.

“It is our opinion that it was a premeditated thing, they would have gone there to do it. It’s despicable,” he told The Clare People. “Two members of the playground committee were there when I arrived on the scene and we reported it to the gardaí and they say they will look into it.

“It’s not the value of the crime and what was stolen, it’s the impact of it. What kind of person would steal from children like this?

“What happens now when parents come to the playground with their toddlers? How do they explain to their children that some bad man stole their swing?

“How do you do that? It’s a big loss to the community, especially to children arriving to find swings missing,” he added.

The playground, which was officially opened in November of 2012 after years of local campaigning and fundraising, attracts larger crowds of children from Crusheen as well as from the wider area – with families travelling to the facility from east Clare and south Galway.

The playground is surrounded on each side with a small, four foot high, wall and there is currently no way of locking and completely securing the playground at night.

The local playground committee is appealing to whoever took the swings to return them as soon as possible.

Gardaí in Ennis are also investigating the incident.

GARDAÍ in Clare are urging car owners to exercise greater vigilance when leaving their cars unattended.

The advice comes following a spate of breaks-ins to vehicles in East Clare and Ennis earlier this month.

A Toshiba laptop was stolen from a car that was parked in the Erasmus car park on College Road in Ennis on Saturday May 17. The break in occurred between 8.20pm and 2.30pm.

A red Mazda 323 hatchback (98-C2395) was stolen from the back of a house in Linnane’s Terrace in the Kilrush road area of Ennis between 5pm on May 20 and 8pm on May 22. Gardaí have issued the warning ahead of Crime Prevention Day on Thursday, May 29.

“Our primary aim is to raise awareness within our communities on methods that can easily be adopted to prevent crime, reduce the fear of crime and to promote community safety” explained Crime Prevention Officer, Joe Downey.

He continued, “Statistically speaking € 220 is the average value of property stolen from vehicles in the past twelve months, apart from the added hassle of getting a broken window replaced and a possible insurance claim. Criminals make a decision to steal from a vehicle based on a judgment of: what goods they are likely to get; how quickly can they carry out their task; the likelihood of being caught”.

Sgt Downey said vehicle owners need to be extra vigilant when leaving their vehicles unattended even outside their home.

The following advice is recommended; do not leave property visible from the outside; when not in your car always lock it, even outside your home or in the driveway; park in a well lit area during darkness and at other times in busy areas where it can be seen or in a CCTV monitored area; report any suspicious activity immediately to the gardaí.