Category: News

A BID to bring Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann back to Ennis for the first time since 1977 officially got underway on Saturday.

Members of the Fleadh Working Group presented the case for Ennis to host Ireland’s largest festival of traditional music, dance and song in 2012 to the standing committee of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann (CCE).

Speaking at the presentation, Labhras Ó Murchú, Director General of CCE, hailed the Ennis bid, describing it as an “exceptional and impressive presentation”.

The presentation, which took place at the offices of Clare County Council in Ennis, was backed by a network of organisations including local authorities, Shannon Development, the Vintner’s Federation of Ireland, local business groups, the GAA, the Gardaí and the emergency services.

The working group’s proposal document states that 200,000 people would visit Ennis during the event, which is estimated to be worth up to € 20 million to the Clare economy.

The document has identified 25 venues where events could be held while the working group say that Ennis town centre will be pedestrianised during the course of the weeklong festival.

The bid to bring the Fleadh to Ennis was initiated by the local Abbey branch of CCE.

Branch chairman Risteard Ó’Conail said, “We understand the dedication and hard work required to stage Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann but we are confident that, with the assistance of all 18 branches of Comhaltas in Clare together with the support and goodwill of many other organisations and individuals throughout the town and county, we can make it a huge success.”

The hour-long presentation heard video testimonials from well-known musicians and singers including Maura O’Connell and Martin Hayes, while members of the working group outlined the details of the Ennis bid.

Mayor of Clare Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) told the meeting that the rich tradition of traditional music that exists in the county made Clare the ideal venue for the Fleadh. “We own it, we love it and we cherish it,” he added.

County Manager and working group vice chairman Tom Coughlan said no effort would be spared to make the 2012 Fleadh a success.

Working group chairman Mícheal Ó Riabhaigh said, “We would be honoured to have the opportunity again to host Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann and to share our cultural and natural treasures with the 200,000 music lovers that make the Fleadh the greatest tradtional arts festival in the world. Our goal will be to build on the benchmarks set by Tullamore and Cavan and to have it said of Ennis, It was the greatest Fleadh ever.”

Gerard Lynch of the finance subgroup told the meeting that the cost of running the event was likely to be € 700,000. He said that the group are aiming to secure € 250,000 through corporate sponsorship. Mr Lynch said this process would have to be completed by mid-June. Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann was first held in Ennis in 1956. Ennis faces competition from Sligo, Mullingar and Kilkenny.

THE Queen of England, Michael Flatley and Barack Obama can play their part in Clare becoming the first county in Ireland to drag its way out of recession.

That was the message delivered by the Ennis Development Forum this Monday as it kickstarted its campaign for the county’s economic recovery by holding face-to-face talks with Clare’s newly elected TDs.

Retaining existing jobs, moulding Clare as a low-carbon county, revitalising the construction industry and cashing in on the county tourism potential emerged as the key tenets the forum’s policy going forward, with the county’s TDs pledging to play their part in the process.

“This is the start,” Aoife Madden of the Ennis Development Forum told The Clare People. “We believe that Ennis and Clare can come out of recession.

“Businesses can play their part in that, so can politicians and we are determined to make it happen.

“We have to look at a lot of things. There was general recognition of the need to support local businesses in order to support local jobs.

“Minister of State for Small Business John Perry has been briefed on our concerns and we want him down in Ennis for formal discussions on the financial and red-tape challenges being faced by small and medium enterprises.

“It was also recognised that Clare must exploit it’s tourism potential through expanding the demand for what we currently have to offer by fully utilising Shannon Airport as a facility and the development of Ennis as a National Centre of Welcome and the creation of a Triangle of Clare Tours.

“Clare could generate significant marketing spin-off from events like the Lord of the Dance at the Cliffs of Moher, the Royal Visit, the London 2012 Olympics and the visit of President Obama,” added Ms Madden.

Clare’s four TDs, Fine Gael’s Pat Breen and Joe Carey, Labour’s Michael McNamara and Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley have pledged to meeting with business representatives on a quarterly basis to discuss progress on these actions, with the next meeting scheduled for Monday, June 13.

THE erection of a series of new signs with non-colloquial place names has been described “absolute lunacy” by a north Clare county councillor.

According to Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) the new signs use out of date an inaccurate names, which were first used by the British army in Ireland, ahead of the modern names which have been used officially and locally for more than 100 years.

“Are we supposed to go back to the spelling of 2,000 years ago and upset all the people and the tourist community in Ballyvaughan and across north Clare?

“We are really causing difficulty for people here and we need a serious meeting with the NRA to sort this out. This is a serious matter, it’s absolute lunacy,” said Cllr Arkins (FG). Most of this survey work used for these was done by the British Army who had different language from the people who lived in the area that they were working in.

“Just because some British officer put the wrong name in a map 150 years ago it doesn’t mean that we have to go along with this.

“This makes us looks like absolute fools. If you went to Greece in the morning you wouldn’t see something like this, and if you did you’d think that you had arrived in some sort of banana republic.”

According to Cllr Michael Kelly (FF), the new signs will lead to widespread confusion during the summer tourist season.

“We are talking about connecting people to the Burren area so we can’t be going around and confusing people like this,” he said.

“I remember at one time putting in a motion with Clare County Council about Bellharbour and I was told that there was no such place as Bellharbour – it was called something else instead. Can you imagine that?

“The people of north Clare are very upset about this. Once, back in the 1850s, Ballyvaughan was called Ballyvaghan and the people up there can’t understand why this has been thrust upon them now.”

Speaking at yesterday’s North Clare Area Meeting, Director of Services at Clare County Council David Timlin said that local authority will look into the matter.

“Clare County Council and the Post Offices have always used the local spellings and this [the signs] is not something that we have control over,” he said.

“I would suggest that the council would refer this to the ordinance survey organisation and to the NRA.”

WORK on a roof to protect some of Clare’s oldest architectural treasures at the 13th century Ennis Friary is due to be completed by the end of April, according to the Office of Public Works (OPW).

The purpose of this € 100,000 project is to provide protection for the collection of carved features which survive at Ennis Friary. The OPW also aims to improve visitor access at the site.

Authorities on medieval sculptures have highlighted the importance of this unique collection, which contain a complete set of panels representing the 12 apostles and stages of the passion of Christ. Also featured is the Ecce Homo, Madonna and Child, John the Baptist, St Francis and assorted carved fragments.

Since care of the Friary was vested in the Board of Works in the late 19th Century, concern has been expressed about the vulnerability of the collection and numerous interventions were undertaken.

In a statement, the OPW explained that a preliminary conservation report carried out in the 1980s confirmed that significant stone deterioration was taking place due primarily to weathering but also from the negative impact of the early repairs and vandalism.

An OPW spokesperson explained, “The damaged and decayed stonework was analysed by a stone conservation specialist and subsequently removed to a workshop for consolidation and repair. On completion of this work, the collection will be displayed in an appropriate manner on the site. It must be noted that the original setting of the panel figures and other features is uncertain.

She added, “The site of the 18th Century church, which was built within the walls of the medieval nave, was considered to be an appropriate location to provide a sheltered environment for the exhibition of these objects. The design of the modern roof reflects the original profile of the church and the consultant engineer confirms that its lightweight structure will have a minimal impact on the original walls.

Original features, such as windows will not be restored, while a wire mesh will be installed to provide se- curity for the display area and deter birds and wildlife.

Canon Bob Hanna, Rector of St Columba’s Church in Ennis, has welcomed the Friary project, saying he hopes the building can become the “centre of a new tourism hub for the town”.

Canon Hanna is part of a local group seeking to better promote the ecclesiastical treasures of Clare.

He explained, “What myself and a few others are doing is hoping to build on the excellent work done on the Clare Way and Burren Way. We think there is real potential there to make the landscape speak more powerfully than what it’s being allowed to do at the moment.”

CLARE GAA has received the green light to proceed with the next stage of its € 5 million project to transform its landbank at Caherlohan near Tulla into a new state-of-the-art training facility for county teams.

Clare County Council planners have given planning permission for the second stage of the development that will see clubhouse, dressing room, dining room, gymnasium and toilet facilities built on the site.

Permission was granted to Clare GAA to proceed with this stage of their ambitious development on Friday, which means that the board can now proceed to tender stage and is on track, funding permitted, to have the Caherlohan project completed by the end of next year.

Design work on the project started back in 2005 when Clare GAA purchased the 60-acre Caherlohan site for € 2.2m. At the time the board received € 600,000 in grant aid for the purchase, while grant aid for the development work will be nearly € 2 million.

“Players are getting more and more professional and they need better facilities. This is the way sports clubs are going, developing modern facilities to cater for all of their members,” according to Niall Fitzgerald of Hor- gan-Lynch, who are engineers for the project.

“At Caherlohan, there is planning for seven pitches and one all-weather pitch. There will also be covered accommodation for 1, 500 patrons. It is expected that phase one will be fully operational by the spring of 2012, ” he added.

The new facility will ensure that Clare teams teams have access to training facilities which will be the envy of most other counties in Ireland, a project that county board secretary Pat Fitzgerald has hailed as “a massive financial undertaking in a time of economic depression”.

At last December’s Clare GAA Convention, Fitzgerald blasted successive governments for refusing to support the project. “The thank you Clare GAA has received in turn by way of funding as regards the project, is zilch.

“Without the € 1.8m contribution from Croke Park, we would have had to self-fund the project, something I believe in the current climate would have been virtually impossible but I believe we, the clubs and the people of Clare, will rise to the challenge. There’s tremendous goodwill towards the association at county level and such positivity will, I believe, enable us to bring the project to fruition,” he added.

ALMOST 30 bags of rubbish were collected by members of Clare County Council’s waste enforcement team during a clean-up carried out last week on the outskirts of Clarecastle.

The clean up was carried out by staff attached to the council’s Ennis area office last Wednesday along a stretch of the N18 road from Clarecastle to Latoon.

The green bags, which were spotted by members of the public along the road, were transported to the Central Waste Management Facility at Ballyduff Beg, Inagh.

The initiative forms part of the council’s ongoing attempts to prevent the practice of illegal littering around the county.

In 2010, a total of 58 litter fines were issued and 23 prosecutions were taken under either the Litter Pollution Acts, 1997-2003 or the Waste Management Acts, 19962010, in the Clare County Council functional area.

Betty Devanny, Administrative Officer with the council’s waste enforcement section explained, “Clare County Council has a dedicated waste enforcement team that responds and takes appropriate enforcement action in relation to waste and litter complaints. Where evidence of acts of littering or illegal waste is found then action is taken under relevant litter pollution and waste management legislation.”

She added, “This is not to mention the litter enforcement work undertaken by Ennis Town Council. The Ennis East Electoral includes areas within both Clare County Council and Ennis Town Council and, as such, the two councils liaise on an ongoing basis in order to share information and expertise, and ensure the optimal use of their respective resources.”

Ms Devanny said the council’s waste enforcement team takes a proactive approach to dealing with illegal waste and litter activities. This includes the deployment of CCTV surveillance, vehicle checkpoints in conjunction with the Gardaí, targeting of illegal dumping at problem locations, planned inspections and audits of waste facilities.

Area offices also work closely with community groups while the environmental patrol warden and community warden conduct routine daily patrols in Ennis and around Clare.

Ms Devanny added, “In county council areas, area-based staff are involved in the removal of waste and litter on public roads and other public lands and carry out these works as part of their other duties within the areas. The waste enforcement section on an ongoing basis encourages and facilitates community involvement in waste and litter prevention and removal.”

Ms Devanny encouraged communities to get involved in the National Spring Clean organised by An Taisce. Communities can register with An Taisce for each year by telephone on 01 4002219 or online at www.nationalspringclean.org. Free passes to Clare County Council’s waste management facilities can then be provided to all registered groups who participate in a local community clean up.

REFUSALS by insurance companies to offer flood cover to homeowners are a form of “further discrimination on hard-pressed communities”, a meeting has heard.

Members of Clare County Council yesterday backed a motion from Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) that stated “That this council request all insurance companies and their umbrella organisation not to apply address specific refusals for flood cover on house insurances.”

Cllr Meaney told the meeting that he had heard of instances where homeowners in parts of Ennis are being refused cover on the basis that a small minority of houses in the area are at risk from flooding. He said this policy was creating huge difficulties for families trying to obtain insurance and that insurers are applying a “very broad definition of where flooding occurs”.

Mayor of Ennis and independent councillor Tommy Brennan, who is one of three elected representatives in the chamber whose homes were damaged by flooding, said that he cannot get insurance.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) described Cllr Meaney’s motion as “timely” and said insurance companies should offer reduced premiums where previously they charged exorbitant prices.

Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) said that in November 2009 during a period of heavy flooding, insurance assessors were “prepared to take the vulture approach when people were at their lowest” but wouldn’t provide cover to homes “in places that were bone dry”.

Cllr Crowe said he supported the motion but called on Cllr Meaney to mark the letter for the attention of the regulator.

Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) told the meeting that since flood water damaged his home at Cappahard, he has been unable to get “any insurance at all”. “No insurance company will give me insurance,” he added.

Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) said the motion should be brought to the attention of the regulator. He said a lot of homes around Clare were finding it very difficult to obtain flood insurance.

He added, “This is a further discrimination on hard pressed communities.”

ONE of Ennis’ best known pieces of sculpture, ‘Icarus’, should be unveiled at its new home on the Rocky Road roundabout in June, according to Ennis Town Council.

The 11-tonne statue had occupied a place on a roundabout at the heart of the market area of the town prior to its removal in December 2006.

The statue, which is currently been stored on the grounds of the council office’s at Waterpark House, is due to be moved to another roundabout on a section of the N85 Western Relief Road.

Speaking last week, town clerk Eddie Power explained, “The size and weight of the statue is fairly significant so an appropriate base to hold the statue at the roundabout has to be designed. That design work is almost complete and then we will prepare a schedule for tenders to carry out the work.”

Mr Power added that he “expected Icarus to be in place on the Rocky Road roundabout, roughly by the end of June”. The statue was designed by the renowned Irish sculptor John Behan.

It was gifted to Ennis Town Council by the former Shannon-based company Guinness Peat Aviation in 1990, to mark the town’s 750 year anniversary. Behan titled his work Daedalus though it became known locally as Icarus.

Former Irish Ambassador to the USA and Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Sean Donlon, welcomed the news that Icarus would return and told The Clare People , just how the piece was commissioned by the late Tony Ryan.

“In 1990, Ennis was celebrating 750 years since its foundation – and asked GPA to make a contribution to the celebrations. The late Tony Ryan, GPA’s founder and then its chief executive, decided that we would do something and after some internal discussions hit on the idea of commissioning Ireland’s leading sculptor, John Behan, to do a piece which would be publicly displayed in the town. Behan was by now well established. Behan was fussy about where his works would be displayed and Tony Ryan was equally fussy about how GPA’s money would be spent. On a wet Saturday afternoon in 1990, Tony, John and I walked the streets of Ennis looking for an appropriate site. I had grown up on Bindon Street (no. 11, now Michael Houlihan’s law offices) and thought a site there would be good but Tony thought this was too elitist. Eventually, we settled on the Market Square site and, happily, the council accepted this site. The piece was put in place and, on behalf of GPA, where I was executive vice-president, I unveiled it. There was a reception afterwards in the Old Ground Hotel. For me it was an emotional return to Ennis where my brother Tomas had been killed in the Carmody Hotel collapse in 1958. It was also the last time my father, a former school inspector for County Clare, visited Ennis,” recalled Sean.

Icarus’ place in the market will be taken by a new piece by local sculp- tor Barry Wrafter. The piece will be installed in the market area of Ennis and will be the latest addition to the town’s ever-growing sculpture trail.

The statue, which shows two farmers and cow, is inspired by Ennis’ market tradition.

The sculpture is a joint initiative between Ennis Tidy Towns and the Ennis Sculpture Initiative. Mr Power explained, “It’s appropriate in terms of its depiction of the Ennis area. The pieces involved should be in place by June. As in the case of Icarus, it’s significant in terms of its size and weight.”

The new statue had been welcomed by local businesses. Donie Neylon, whose men’s clothes shop business has operated in the market since the 1950s, said a statue should be located in the area. “It’s a very big space [the roundabout]. There should be something on it.”

On hearing that Icarus would soon be on public display again Sean Donlon promised a ‘second relaunch’.

“It would be great to see it restored. Tony Ryan deserves it, John Behan deserves it – incidentally, he has gone on to many great honours at home and abroad – and most of all the people of Ennis deserve it. To mark the second coming, my former GPA colleagues and I will have another reception in the Old Ground Hotel!” said Sean.

THE Clare Volunteer Centre is in desperate need of funding in order to keep the organisation opening and operating to full capacity.

According to information revealed at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, the Clare centre receives the lowest funding of any volunteers centre in the country.

“Clare is the lowest funded in Ireland and has a very small funding allocation compared to other counties,” said Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG).

“We have a history of getting extraordinary results for a much smaller sum of money in Clare. We are getting treated very badly by central government compared to other counties.”

These sentiments were echoes by Cllr PJ Ryan (Ind), who is also involved in the centre.

“This would be a serious loss to Clare if we would lose this centre. They do incredible work and we get great value for every bit of money spent on the centre,” Cllr Ryan added.

“We need to take action on this and not allow for this facility to be lost to us because of a lack of money. Volunteers do great work and we need to support everything that they do especially at this time of economic difficulty.”

Meanwhile, Clare County Council will write to the Department of Agriculture asking them not to renege on a promise to provide information points at marts for farmers. This follows to motion put forward at yesterday’s meeting by Cllr Michael Hillery (FF), who said it was the least that could be done following the closure of the departments facility in Clare last year.

“There are more than 5,000 herd owners in Clare. The Minister of Agriculture need to set up facilities at the various marts around Clare so that farmers can get the information they need,” he said.

THE future of tourism in Newmarket -on-Fergus will be outline at a public meeting which will take place in the town this Thursday.

A feasibility study is currently being undertaken by Obair to determine what steps need to be taken to boost the tourism figures in the locality.

Members of the public have been invited to take part in this process, which could see a heritage centre, tourist office and budget accommo- dation being constructed in the area.

“We have nothing in Newmarket at the moment which promotes our heritage and our tourism product. We need a centre or an information point where people who come to the area can get the information they need about the locality and then get out for the day,” said organiser Tracey Mc Nulty.

“We will be looking for a suitable location for this centre and talking to all the community to find out what they want. One of the main points of this is to come up with a tourism plan for the area so that we can promote the area in an organised way.”

The project wants to publicise some of the lesser known tourist and herit age sites in the locality such as the great Newmarket gold find, the Hillfort at Mooghaun and a local tourist heritage trail.

“We want to find out exactly what the village needs and it is critical that the local people contribute to this process. We are talking about very simple things here, like the fact that Newmarket doesn’t have any budget accommodation,” continued Tracey.

“The town is missing a lot of little things which are needed to make it an attractive place for tourists to stop and visit. We need to identify what we need first of all and then come up with the ways of getting funding for these things.

“At this point it’s all about consulting as widely as possible and letting people have their say now, before anything is decided.”

The public meeting will take place at the Obair offices in Newmarket on Fergus, this Thursday, March 31, from 8pm.