Category: News

CLARE’S chances of securing funding from a € 7 million music education programme, backed by U2, have received a boost with the news that the county’s application has been shortlisted for the prize.

Spearheaded by Clare Vocational Education Committee (VEC), the bid has been included in a list of 23 applications for round one of Music Generation funding.

The money, which has been donated by U2 and The Ireland Fund, will be used to increase music education programmes in counties around Ireland.

If successful, the Clare bid, which is also supported by organisations including Clare County Council and Shannon Development, would see music teachers employed to work in school and out of school settings, teaching music to children and young adults around the county.

Under the initiative, music education programmes could receive a maximum of € 200,000 per annum over a three-year period. Successful applicants will be expected to deliver a matching amount of funding.

Acclaimed musician and scholar Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin has also lent his high profile support to the bid, which is seeking to capitalize on Clare’s strong association with music.

Mr Ó Súilleabhain is Chairman of the Clare Music Education Programme and a founding member of Ennis-based music school Maoin Cheoil an Chláir, whose staff have worked closely with members of Clare VEC in preparing the application.

Dr Sean Conlan, Education Officer with Clare VEC, said that a lot of the work of the Clare bid focused on identifying “gaps in music education” across Clare.

He added, “That was the biggest process, because despite all the music that is being taught all over Clare there is no one organisation or group you can go to get all that information.”

Dr Conlan said that if Clare secured funding then the programme would seek to work alongside and complement the work of existing music schools and groups.

He explained, “We would be careful not to cut across what is already happening in the county or displace what is already being delivered. There are a lot of good music schools out there.”

Round one selection decisions are expected to be announced during May with round two funding announced in the Autumn.

LOCALS and holiday-makers have been warned to be vigilant in the county’s swimming areas this week as no lifeguards will be on duty. As a result of recent good weather and the Easter falling late this year, thousands are expected to take to the county’s beaches in the coming days.

Clare County Council’s Water Safety Development Officer, Liam Griffin, has urged anyone taking to the water to be cautious and to look for advice from the local surf school before swimming at an unfamiliar beach.

“People should be aware if they are thinking about going swimming that while the air temperature may be hot, the water temperature is still very cold. But if people are going swimming, they should swim at a location that they are familiar with,” he said.

“They should swim close to the shore and not over-estimate how powerful a swimmer they are. If people are visiting Clare and want to go for a swim, they should consult with local people to make sure that they are swimming in a safe place.

“Many of our lifeguards work in the the surf schools which are now located at many of the popular beaches so a good thing to do would be to go to a surf school and ask them is it safe to swim.”

The recruitment process for the 30 lifeguards who will patrol Clare beaches this summer will begin on April 30. According or Mr Griffin, Clare’s team of lifeguards are the best trained and most qualified lifeguards in Ireland.

“To apply to be a lifeguard in Clare, you must already have an Irish National Beach Lifeguard Award. Applicants will then be tested in both first aid and CPR and those who are successful will then go forward to the interview stage. We will usually have more than 80 high-quality applicants and from them we will choose the 30 best candidates,” continued Liam.

“We feel that here in Clare we have the highest standard of lifeguards in the country. Someone from Clare generally manages to win the National Surf Lifeguard Competition, which shows the quality of applicants that we get.”

Clare’s four premier beaches at Lahinch, Fanore, Spanish Point and Kilkee will all have a lifeguard presence on the June Bank Holiday Weekend. These beaches, as well as other beaches at Bishops Quarter in Ballyvaughan, Doolin, White Strand (Miltown Malbay), Seafield in Quilty, White Strand in Doonbeg, Cappa Pier in Kilrush and Lough Derg, will have a full-time lifeguard presence throughout July and August.

THE first ever detailed history of the parish of Inagh and Kilnamona has been put into a book by former local school teacher and Mayor of Clare Flan Garvey. The book, which was launched earlier this month, attempts to bring the entire history of the area together – from before the area was settled by man right up to the current day.

The book is the fruit of years of study by Flan in the Tralee Institute of Technology, where he completed a post-graduate degree in history in 2008.

The book was officially launched by the former Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, and there was a second special guest who travelled all the way from Ennis for the launch.

“We had one very important article present for the book launch. We managed to get what is known as the Inagh Chalice. The chalice is located normally at the Friary in Ennis but we managed to get a loan of it for the day,” said Flan.

“There was a Franciscan Monastery in Inagh back in the seventeenth century and one of the Friars there was a local monk call Mortimus O’Gaoife and the chalice bears his name and the year 1671. Fr Seamus from the Friary came out with the chalice and we are hugely grateful to him for helping us out with that.”

The book bring together many different elements of local history, from the geological history of the Burren and how it was formed, to the many interesting characters who lived in the Inagh and Kilnamona areas over the last few hundred years.

“All the proceeds of the book, every single penny after the printing costs, is going to the parish. I have donated my work as a gift to the parish in my latter years. It will be of great interest to local people, I know, but also to people who don’t live in the area anymore and especially people who have lived abroad.”

The book is available locally from the shops in Inagh and from all members of the local parish council.

THE Alpine flowers of the Burren are experiencing one of their best springs in recent memory, with the rare Alpine gentian in full bloom weeks ahead of schedule.

But along with the flowers, the people of North Clare are also well ahead of season this year with the launch of the biggest ever Burren in Bloom Festival.

The festival, which runs across North Clare for the next five weeks, will be officially opened next Tuesday, March 3, at Fanore National School.

This year’s programme includes a host of large and small events each designed to show off the beauty of the North Clare Burren.

“May is probably the most beautiful month in the Burren. This year in particular, possibly because of the way that the weather has been, the Burren flowers are really coming into themselves,” said Mary Hawkes Greene of Burren in Bloom.

“For anyone who comes during the month, we have so much going on and so much information available for people. There are so many talks and so many walks going on that anyone who comes to visit will have something to do every day – and most of it is free. Burren in Bloom is working really closely with the BurrenBeo Trust and the Burren College of Art to organise events both for locals and for visitors.”

Many large events such as the Burren Challenge Marathon, the Tour de Burren cycling race and the Burren Slow Food Festival will all take place during this year’s Burren in Bloom.

There will also be a host of smaller events and this year’s programme has a particular focus on children.

“Many of the visitors who are coming down here are families so it is important to have some events that younger people can go to and learn more about the Burren,” continued Mary.

“We have a special ‘Bugs and Beasties’ walk for children; on the Saturday of the Burren marathon we are having a treasure hunt on the grounds of the Burren College of Art; and the Ballyvaughan Farmers’ Market are also having a special children’s day. It’s about attracting people down for Burren in Bloom but it’s also about showing off the Burren so that people will come back at other times and spend some time here.”

The Burren in Bloom will run from April 29 to May 31. For a full programme of events, visit www.burreninbloom.com or check out the Clare People in the coming weeks.

MANAGEMENT at Ennis Golf Club have welcomed new traffic control measures in the area, saying they are “essential from a health an safety point of view”.

Speed ramps have been installed on a section of road near the golf club while work on a new pedestrian crossing is set to commence in the coming weeks.

The club has contributed € 10,000 to the project which is being carried out by Ennis Town Council. The decision to install speed ramps

was criticised by some local representatives at the April meeting of Clare County Council, with Cllr Tom McNamara (FF) claiming the works had caused inconvenience for motorists.

However, speaking yesterday, Ennis Golf Club honourary secretary, John Cullinane said the speed ramps and pedestrian crossing are needed to protect members who used the road to cross from one section of the course into the other.

He explained, “We have over 1,500 members.

“A few hundred of them would be older members and then we have about 300 juvenile and junior members. They are trying to cross the road and it is very dangerous.”

Mr Cullinane said the club had been looking for a pedestrian crossing for a number of years.

He said that traffic had increased in the area since the opening of the N85 western relief road. He added that drivers are often unaware that golfers use the road to cross into the course. Mr Cullinane added;

“It’s unsighted at both sides. You have to run across at your peril.”

A plan to develop a tunnel in the area was deemed unfeasible due to the height of the road while rumble strips had “had no effect” on reducing speed, Mr Cullinane explained.

He said that apart from carrying golf bags, older members often crossed the road in buggies. “We’re lucky there hasn’t been a serious accident on the road,” he added.

Mr Cullinane said members are “very grateful to the council” for installing a pedestrian crossing. “From a health and safety point of view, it’s essential,” he said.

Club member and local Fianna Fáil councillor, Pat Daly, also welcomed the measures, saying;

“It’s a fast stretch of road that motorists will come to understand is a serious health and safety issues to the over 1,000 members that use the golf course on a regular basis”. Cllr Daly said that crossing the road on certain days can be “life threatening”.

RITA McCarthy highlights one case study to showcase the potential that’s there for people who take the plunge back into the education system after many years away.

That first step, often times tentative and loaded with self-doubt, but loaded with promise and possibility at the same time. That first step that together with many others can lead to a whole new vista – it might sound clichéd to call it life-changing, but that’s just what it is.

“I always think of a course we ran in West Clare, and a farmer from Carrigaholt in his late 50s or early 60s who started an introductory course, but he has now ended up doing a third-level course,” says the adult education coordinator for Clare VEC.

“That’s the potential that’s there for people who return to education,” adds McCarthy. “And that potential is in everyone that starts out.”

With those first steps in mind, McCarthy surveys the journey started by the small group undertaking the Heritage and Tourism course in Scariff, a 30-week module at level three Fetac standard that represents a hugely significant step for many of the participants to turn to education once more.

“When people think about going back to education, they often have left education with a bad experience 20 or 30 years ago,” she says, “so it’s natural that you do get people who come into it very nervous, because they don’t know what to expect.

“Third-level education is not on the horizon but this group, and any group, can do it, if they want to. For this group and others interested, what we’d hope to do next is that in September we’d do a level-five post-Leav- ing Cert heritage course with tourism involved, marrying the two. We want to start that out in East Clare.

“It’s up to people themselves. They can go on to third level, or say this is the level they want to be at and get work in this area. People can do it. Third level might seem like a long way away, but it is a very achievable step. It’s step by step. You don’t think about the big goal at the end, but the steps in between,” she adds.

THERE was success for one budding Clare entrepreneur at the national final of the Student Enterprise of the Year awards in Dublin last week.

Emer Mooney, a student at St Anne’s Community College, Killaloe, was awarded third prize in the Junior Category of the awards in Croke Park. ‘Christmas Fair’ from Ennis Community College competed in the Intermediate Category and ‘Starling Records’ from St Anne’s Community College, Killaloe, competed in the Senior Category.

A total of 242 students from 76 different student enterprises from all over Ireland gathered in Croke Park to take part in the event.

Emer received the prize for her company, Natural Hampers, a range of Irish-made affordable gifts. Emer’s aim was to source quality Irishmade products, such as soaps, lotions and shampoos that were free of chemicals. She also donates 20 per cent of the profits to Trocaire.

“Sourcing products at a good price that are Irish and natural whilst fulfilling my aims of a little piece of luxury pampering with 20 per cent to Trocaire at a very reasonable price make my Natural Hampers unique. Altering them to be produced all year round makes the business more viable and innovative,” she said.

Emer is planning to develop her business further. She qualified after her company impressed judges at the Clare finals held in Ennis back in march.

Students from 16 Clare secondary schools together with Youthreach groups, representing 66 different businesses, attended the event that showed that the spirit of enterprise is alive and well in the Banner County.

Lucy Reidy, Clare County Enterprise Board, organiser of the Clare awards, praised the innovation displayed by Emer and her fellow finalists. “The overall standard at the national final was outstanding and it was a great achievement for Clare to be among the winners. It was very encouraging to see the innovation in the projects and to see so many young people are inspired to set up their own businesses. The experience of setting up a small business and the work put into the projects will, no doubt, stand to them when setting up their own business in the future.”

Since last September, an estimated 15,000 students from 400 schools have been researching and setting up their own businesses, through the Student Enterprise Awards, making it the biggest competition of its kind for secondary schools in the country.

The Minister for Small Business, John Perry TD, presented a total of 16 prizes.

“WE live in a beautiful part of the world with a huge range of natural heritage,” says Anne Rasehorn of what she labels the sleepy surroundings of Mountshannon.

On this day, she’s having an open house, with her fellow students sitting around a table and talking about the benefits of going back to education.

There’s camera flash around them as they go into the minutae of being of East Clare and using their surrounds in an educational context.

At the start of their 30-week course they might have been put off but not now, as they talk freely and under the spotlight of what it means to be back in education.

Tutor Shelagh Honan says, “One day, I came into class and brought a video camera with me. I asked them to make a presentation, talk to camera about a subject of their choice. Yes, some of them might have been intimidated by the prospect of doing it, but they did it and they all had something to say.”

With fellow tutors Catherine Bracken and Stephen McKeogh, Honan has overseen the course and is well placed to put its importance in context.

“Having courses like this for people out of work is very important and with increasing numbers of people out of work, the need for training and education becomes more important” she says,

“In times of economic recession, education and training is key. This is because giving people who are out of work the chance to re-train, up-skill and do a course that can cultivate a range of skills like starting your own business, embracing information technology and learning more about the heritage and history of your own area brings a lot of strands together.

“One student was blown away by what computer technology can do,” says Honan, before Eamon Nugent admits, “It amazed me that I could do it. Maybe I thought there was a barrier there and it was an impossibility, but I see now that there’s no barrier.

“It surprised me that you could see what you had written on a computer up in Flagmount on my own computer at home. Emails, I’m talking about. I thought that each thing was locked into its own computer,” Nugent adds.

“What Eamon says is important,” says Honan, “There’s no barrier. They’ve all proved that with their ability to do a range of subjects and bringing their knowledge of their own surroundings – Marie O’Leary talking in detail about Edna O’Brien; Kathleen Dowdall doing the same when talking about the stained glass windows of Harry Clarke and AE Child in St Cronan’s Church.

“The oral tradition on a tap was there and for them to be bouncing that knowledge off each other while learning at the same time was of great benefit,” she adds.

RENOWNED singer Paul Brady will take to the stage in Shannon this weekend, in what promises to be a concert with a difference.

That’s because the local gospel choir will provide support in what will be a source of immense pride for the choir members, at the Oakwood Arms Hotel on Saturday night.

The Shannon Gospel Choir was formed two years ago by local businessman Derek Barrett. Since its formation, the choir has played regularly at Masses in Shannon and has also performed in various churches across the county. The feedback has been hugely positive and the choir has gone from strength to strength since it was established.

Earlier this year, the group took part in a televised RTÉ Sunday Mass, which subsequently featured on YouTube. The choir has also supported Paddy Casey and the Harlem Gospel Choir and has performed at several weddings over the past two years.

Eighteen members of the choir, ranging from sopranos, tenors and altos, along with musicians, will perform with Paul Brady on Saturday.

Aoife Rice, who has been involved with the group since its formation, is thoroughly enjoying the experience.

Aoife, who is a piano teacher, was involved with the Quin choir for several years prior to joining the Shannon Gospel Choir.

“When it was starting, I felt that I would love to do something different. I am involved in music but this would be something different. I played the organ with the Quin church choir for 23 years, but I wanted a change. I wanted to get up and sing as opposed to always playing,” she said.

She is anticipating the Paul Brady gig at the weekend.

“It will be very different. We do Mass but this gig is a great opportunity for us. We haven’t even met Paul Brady yet. I am a little bit nervous,” she said.

Along with the enjoyment of taking part in gigs, the choir members are also forming great friendships. “You meet so many friends through it. There’s such a buzz,” she said.

The choir members range in age from 30 upwards. They rehearse in the Peach recording studios in Shannon town centre every week.

A FINE GAEL public representative has said the drink driving laws are threatening the “very fabric” of rural communities in taking his campaign to “save West Clare from extinction” directly to the Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan.

West Clare Electoral Area councillor Garbriel Keating has cited the drink driving laws as he told The Clare People that “it’s up to Fine Gael in Government to tackle the problems being experienced in rural Ireland, because rural Ireland has been neglected for so long.

“The very fabric of our communities are under threat. In the last couple of years the introduction of drink driving laws have resulted in many of our pubs in rural areas closing and the large supermarkets in town have forced our rural shops out of existence. Something has to be done,” continued Cllr Keating.

The Loophead representative has said that “the simple measure” of in- troducing a refurbishment grant for many derelict houses in West Clare would “kick-start economic activity and create jobs”.

“The demise of the local village is a major concern for our rural population,” warned Cllr Keating, “and something has to be done about it. Some years ago we had a campaign to save our rural post offices and Garda stations, but appeals fell on deaf ears.

“At a time when our new government is trying to create new jobs, this scheme would boost our economy by giving work to people in the construction industry,” he added.

“The demise of the local village is a major concern for our rural population. This simple measure would help address this.

“Reconstructed houses in these villages would provide holiday homes, would provide our diaspora with the opportunity to purchase a home in a rural setting. It would bring life back to rural Ireland,” added Cllr Keating.