Category: News

A POLISH man who drowned after falling into the sea near Kilkee last May had fished in the area over “30 times” previously, an inquest into his death has heard.

A verdict of accidental death was returned at Clare County Coroner’s Court last Wednesday, in the case of Andrej Marek (29) who died after falling into the sea at the Bridges of Ross on May 16, 2010.

Mr Marek, who had been living in Nenagh, had been out fishing with a friend at the time.

Sea conditions were rough while it had also been very windy on the day the accident occurred, the inquest was told.

After a two-day search of the area, Mr Marek’s body was recovered from the sea near Kilkee.

The inquest heard from Ian Coll who had been fishing with friends near the Bridges of Ross when he noticed two men fishing at a piece of flat rock along the cliff face.

Mr Coll described the area as a “dangerously exposed” piece of rock particularly when the sea is rough. “The sea was particularly rough that day,” he said.

Mr Coll said that it looked like one of the men was going to lower ledge on the cliff. He added that after the man made his way down the cliff he was “nowhere to be seen”. Mr Coll told the inquest that a Polish man who was with Mr Marek came over and asked them for help. Mr Coll said he rang the emergency services and the Coast Guard helicopter arrived after 30 minutes.

Wladyslaw Filar was fishing with Mr Marek on the day in question. Clare County Coroner Isobel O’Dea was told that Mr Filar has since returned to Poland. Mr Filar’s deposition was read out in court by Insp Tom Kennedy.

According to Mr Filar’s deposition, he and the deceased had fished off the Bridges of Ross “30 times” before the accident occurred.

He said that Mr Marek had been standing 15 metres away from him on a cliff, five metres above the water.

Mr Filar then said that he saw his friend, who could not swim, in the water. Mr Filar threw a life buoy towards Mr Marek. He added that he had not seen how Mr Marek had ended up in the water.

Mr Filar recalled it had been a very windy day and the waterfalls running of the cliffs were very strong. He added that it had not been raining.

In his deposition, read to the court by Insp Kennedy, Garda Ken O’Day said that when he arrived at the scene, he spoke with Mr Filar, who he described as being in a very distressed state.

Garda O’Day said the initial search for Mr Marek was called off at around 6.30pm.

The inquest heard that a search and rescue team recovered Mr Marek’s body from the sea and taken ashore at Kilkee Rescue Centre on Monday May 17, 2010.

Autopsy findings were presented in court by Dr Peter Fawl on behalf of Dr Stephen Finn. Dr Fawl stated that that Mr Marek had died as a result of drowning.

Giving her verdict, Ms O’Dea said that Mr Marek had been pronounced dead at Kilkee Rescue Centre on May 17, 2010.

She said that given Mr Filar’s evidence that the deceased had been familiar with the area where he died, the appropriate verdict was one of accidental death. Ms O’Dea acknowledged the work of the rescue services and gardaí.

Insp Kennedy described Mr Marek’s death as a tragic accident and said that he may have either slipped or have been “blown into the water”.

A 61-YEAR-OLD woman from North Clare died after falling down the stairs at home, an inquest into her death has heard.

The body of Patricia ‘Patty’ McDevitt was discovered at her home in Boherbue, Doolin, on September 21, 2010.

At Clare County Coroner’s Court in Ennis last Wednesday, a woman who had rented a room from Ms McDevitt for two years recalled coming from work at the Doolin Activity Lodge on the day in question.

In her deposition, the woman said she had seen Ms McDevitt playing with her three dogs when she came home at 6pm.

She said that Ms McDevitt had “seemed to drink a lot” over the past year but on this occasion she could not say if she had been drinking.

The woman left the house and when she came back she saw Ms McDevitt lying at the bottom of the stairs.

The woman said that both she and her boyfriend had been concerned about Ms McDevitt and had raised their concerns with another woman two months earlier.

The inquest also heard from Garda Deirdre Scanlon who said that Ms McDevitt was prononced dead at the scene by a local doctor. The deceased’s body was identified by Garda Andrew Monaghan to Dr Peter Fawl at the Mid Western Region- al Hospital, Limerick, on September 22, 2010.

Dr Fawl told the inquest that Ms McDevitt died from acute head injuries consistent with having fallen down stairs.

Clare County Coroner Isobel O’Dea returned a narrative verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.

THE LAHINCH based West Coast Surf Club (WCSC) has described Clare County Council’s decision not to consult with either the Irish Surf Association or the WCSC before submitting the revised plan for Doolin Pier as both “shortsighted” and “regrettable”.

Next Monday, March 21, councillors at Clare County Council will vote whether to grant the local authorities Part 8 planning application for the development of Doolin Pier. A decision of the matter was deferred by the councillors in December to allow for more public consultation and since them more than 30 submission have been made on the proposed development.

Surfers fear the development of the pier will effect the waves generated off Crab Island just beside the proposed pier.

“We request that the revised proposals are not accepted and that Clare County Council revert to the 2002 proposal to extend the existing pier to ensure that the wave environ- ment in the area is maintained,” said Cliodhna Fawl in a submission on behalf of the West Coast Surf Club.

“We again take the opportunity to suggest, as we did during a meeting with Clare County Council, their consulting engineers, the WCSC and the ISA in November of 2010, that the option of locating the pier further north in the bay, above the larger public car part be revisited. “This is the closest area in the deep water channel to the deep water channel and is likely to have the least impact on the Doolin wave environ- ment.” In the sane submission the WCSC also raised safety concerns for surfers accessing the water should the new pier be development and a positive negative impact on tourism. “Apart from the damage that the proposed work will undoubtedly do to the world famous wave environment, the design poses a serious and significant health andww safety threat to the surfers accessing the waves at Doolin Point and Crab Island,” she says. “Surf tourism is a highly important and valuable income stream for west Clare, throughout the year, and to proceed with the proposed works without any assessment of the impact on these waves or without any input from surfers sends the wrong message not only outside of Clare but also outside of Ireland.”

CLARE can become the nationwide leader in fighting the recession, thanks to a new initiative being launched this week to make the county capital Ennis the friendliest town in Ireland.

The Ennis Development Forum and Ennis Chamber of Commerce is launching its ‘Create the Magic’ campaign this week, by bringing in international consultant Kathleen Sullivan, whose company KT Sullivan & Associates is based in Charleston, South Carolina that was voted America’s favourite city in 2010.

“Ms Sullivan lives between Charleston and Ennis,” says Aoife Madden of the Ennis Development Forum “and she has gladly come on board to give a seminar to Clare businesses this Thursday,” he adds.

“Her company focuses on inspired leadership and customer service excellence and we want to draft up a customer charter for Ennis business that can help them going forward and make Ennis the friendlies town in Ireland,” says Cllr Johnny Flynn, who is also one of the driving forces behind the forum.

“This is Ennis refusing to sit back,” says Aoife Madden. “We are watching other towns fall down around them and we’re not the worst in Ireland, because with the recession we’re six to 12 months behind other towns and a determined to fight the recession and the goal of the forum is that Clare will become the first county to come out of recession. We are determined to do that.”

Thursday’s seminar, which takes place in The Old Ground Hotel at 6.15pm follows on from the Business Forum held with the General Election candidates last month with the aim of retaining and creating jobs.

And, this interaction with public represenatives will be taken to the next stage when members of the Ennis Deveopment Forum meet with Clare’s newly elected TDs.

“The business community want to meet with them every three months that they are in office during the lifetime of the new government,” says Cllr Flynn, “to see what they’re doing for the town and the county.

The first meeting with Deputies Pat Breen, Joe Carey, Michael McNamara and Timmy Dooley is scheduled to take place on March 28.

AN ENNIS man has been brought before a special sitting of the district court on Sunday, charged with threatening to kill his ex-partner.

Michael McDonagh (20), of Ashline, Kilrush Road, Ennis, is facing three charges of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to his former girlfriend Amanda Malone.

It is alleged that he telephoned her last Friday, March 4, and that he sent her two text messages, containing threats, the following day.

Garda Marie Burke told the court that she charged the accused on Saturday evening. Free legal aid was granted by Judge Joseph Mangan, on foot of a request from defence solici- tor Daragh Hassett.

Mr Hassett told the court that his client “denies fully the allegations in this matter”.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that gardaí were opposing bail and said gardaí were concerned for the safety of Ms Malone. “She was in a relationship with the defendant which has now broken down,” said Inspector Kennedy.

Gda Burke told the court: “According to her [Ms Malone], she received a phone call from Michael McDonagh in which he threatened to kill her, at 18.54 hours on March 4. Ms Malone alleged he asked her where she was and that he was going to kill her.”

Gda Burke said that Ms Malone made a complaint about this to gardaí. While the complainant was at Ennis Garda Station on Saturday, she received a text message which she said was from the accused.

The garda said that she spoke to the accused on Saturday afternoon in relation to the allegations. “When I alerted him to the allegations; once I told him I was arresting him, he took a mobile phone out of his pocket, snapped it in two and smashed it into a number of pieces,” said Gda Burke. She said that gardaí were unable to retrieve information from the broken phone.

Amanda Malone told the court that she had a child with the accused, but that the relationship has ended. She said the defendant phoned her last Friday evening and was “roaring” at her. She said he told her he was “going to get me”.

Mr Hassett put it to her: “You are not happy this relationship is over.” She replied: “I’m very happy.” The solicitor said: “You pleaded with Mr McDonagh to take you back into his life.” She denied this, adding: “I’m afraid of him.” Mr Hassett said: “You have been jilted and you have made all of this up.” She denied this.

Michael McDonagh told Judge Mangan that he did not phone or text Ms Malone, as had been claimed. He said that he met her on Friday and she asked him to get back with her, but he declined. The judge remanded the accused in custody to appear in court again later this week.

FOR only the second time in the history of the State, Clare will be without a full cabinet ministry, while having three government TDs elected in the county.

This state of affairs will be confirmed on Wednesday when Enda Kenny becomes the country’s 13th Taoiseach and selects a Cabinet that won’t have any Clare representation.

The only other time when a government with three TDs in Clare failed to win a seat at Cabinet was during the ill-fated 1992-94 coalition between Fianna Fáil and Labour.

Now, almost two decades on, Clare’s failure to win high office is being blamed locally on “internal Fine Gael politics” that came between the party and a history-making haul of three seats in the constituency.

“The fact is,” one Fine Gael councillor told The Clare People this week, “that had Fine Gael shown the ambition to win three seats and blow Fianna Fáil out of the water altogether and then gone out and done it, Clare could not have been denied the right to sit at Cabinet.

“This is what Fianna Fáil did in 1997. They had a vote strategy and managed their vote brilliantly rather than having a situation where every candidate was out for themselves and as a result they won three seats. The reward was a full ministry. Fine Gael could have that now,” the councillor claimed.

Now Fine Gael are clinging to the hope that a junior ministry will come the county’s way, but both Pat Breen and Joe Carey could be left disappointed as the massive majority that see the combined Fine Gael/Labour numbers at 113 means huge competition for Minister of State positions.

“We have returned three Government TDs here tonight and three Government TDs can make a difference. I would hope also that the Taoiseach would take the opportunity to give one of us in Government a ministry,” General Election poll-topper Pat Breen told The Clare People last week.

However, Clare’s failure to gain any type of post would leave former TD Dónal Carey as the only politician from the Fine Gael or Labour benches to have held down a government ministry, having served as Minister of State during the lifetime of the Rainbow coalition from 1994 to ‘97.

COUNTY Clare is lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of job creation, with the recession now likely to linger in the Banner County when job growth returns in other areas.

New figures releases from the Central Statistic Office (CSO) revealed that 10,814 people signed on the Live Register in Clare last month, the second highest amount recorded in Clare since records began.

The number of people signing on the Live Register nationally has fallen by 22,624 or 4.51 per cent since the peak of the unemployment crisis in August of 2010. However, the number of people signing on in Clare has actually increased by almost one per cent (0.81 per cent) over the same period.

This means that the rate of change in the numbers signing on in Clare is more than 5 per cent worse than the number signing on in the rest of the country.

According to CSO figures, 10,814 people signed onto the Live Register in Clare last month, a drop of 69 peo- ple from the January figures.

More than half of all those people signing on were located in Ennis, where 5,998 people signed on last month. This represents a small drop of 0.34 per cent or 21 people since January.

Similar small drops were recorded around the county with offices in Ennistymon, Tulla and Kilrush reporting 1,747, 1,568 and 1,501 people signing on respectively.

While the news is bad in Clare, Seán Murphy of Chamber Ireland believe that the figures indicate a stabilisation of the unemployment levels nationally.

“The seasonally adjusted Live Register figures provide another indication of an ongoing stabilisation in the economy. While this suggests that we are slowly turning our economy and jobs market around, clearly much needs to be done to reduce unemployment levels further,” he said.

Chambers Ireland has called on the new Government to abolish Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) and Registered Employment Agreements (REA) as a means of prompting jobs growth.

THE Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard has thrown its support behind Clare County Council’s plans for a € 6 million development of Doolin Pier.

The planning department of Clare County Council has received more than 30 submissions from members of the public in relation to the project, which is due to be decided in the coming days.

Plans for the pier had been opposed by local surfing groups on the grounds that the development would damage two world renowned waves located at Crab Island and Doolin Pier.

A decision on Clare County Council Part 8 planning permission was due in December last but the elected members of the council asked for more time to be allowed for submissions to be made. A final decision is due to be made at next Monday’s March meeting of the local authority.

In his submission to Clare County Council, Mattie Shannon of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard said that the new proposal would make the pier safer for use.

“It will make it much safer for commercial craft to use the new pier while Doolin Coastguard will have the space it needs at the existing facility with reduced congestion,” he said.

The project also received supportive submissions from a number of local organisations including The Russell Centre and Doolin Tourism, while a large number of submissions were also received from local and national surf organisations.

In a submission lodged by Cliodhna Fawl of the West Coast Surf Club in Lahinch it is claimed that the pier will be a “serious danger” to surfers in the area.

“Apart from the damage that the proposed work will undoubtedly do to the world famous wave environment, the design poses a serious and significant health and safety threat to the surfers accessing the waves at Doolin Point and Crab Island,” she says.

“Surf tourism is a highly important and valuable income stream for west Clare, throughout the year, and to proceed with the proposed works without any assessment of the impact on these waves or without any input from surfers sends the wrong message not only outside of Clare but also outside of Ireland.”

A BOIL notice will remain in place in Ballyvaughan until the new multimillion Ballyvaughan Water Scheme comes on line later this month. The Clare People has learnt that Clare County Council plans to bring the new € 5 million scheme on line within the next two weeks. The development was originally due to come on line before the end of 2010, but a number of small delays have delayed completing the project until this month. Once the scheme is fully connected, the local authority will then enter into a period of consultation with the Health Service Executive (HSE) with a view to possibly lifting the boil water notice.

This latest boil notice came into effect at the beginning of February and is the third boil notice to be put in place in Ballyvaughan in the past nine months. A spokesperson from the local authority confirmed to The Clare People yesterday that the boil notice would not be stood down until the connection to the new water supply is completed.

However, even if the new scheme becomes operational before the end of March, it could be mid to late April before the boil water notice itself is lifted.

“It is anticipated that water supply from the new scheme will be made live in the next fortnight. Once commissioning is complete we will meet with the HSE with a view to removing the boil notice. This may take a further number of weeks at which point we would officially advise consumers,” said a council spokesperson.

The new € 5 million project will connect the Ballyvaughan water supply with the local Ennistymon water supply drawn from Lickeen Lake. A number of local groups in Ballyvaughan campaigned against the development, requesting instead that measures be put in place to improve the existing water supply in the village.

Clare County Council also confirmed yesterday that it still taking numbers from north Clare residents who wish to be informed via text message if there is any future disruption in the water supply.

The innovative new text service was introduced in Ballyvaughan earlier this year after a number of local residents and businesses complained at not being informed that their water was not fit for human consumption.

The current boil water notice effects all homes on the Ballyvaughan Public Water Supply including the Muckinish, Gleninagh, Gregans, Knocknagrough and Newtown group water schemes.

Anyone who receives water from these schemes is asked to boil all water used for drinking, cooking, making ice-cubes and brushing teeth before using it.

THE multi-million euro aquarium at Lahinch Seaworld will be forced to close later this month because a lack of funding will prevent it from gaining an operating license. The Clare People understands that the aquarium faces its final license check on March 24 and because of damage to stock levels over the winter months, and a lack of funding, it will not be in a position to have its license renewed.

This comes after Lahinch Seaworld received a negative pre-license audit after an inspection earlier this year. The aquarium will be forced to close its door to customers from March 24th and it is unclear right now when it will be able to reapply for a new license.

Clare County Council, who contribute more than € 60,000 to the running of Lahinch Seaworld each year, have declined to comment on loss of the aquarium license.

“Lahinch Seaworld is a private company. The council contributes annually towards its operational costs.

“It would not be appropriate for the council to comment on the current financial status of the company,” said a spokesperson from the local authority yesterday.

Seaworld Manager Ian Taylor also declined to comment on the financial situation at the facility but did call on all local people to get behind the project.

“We are making changes here and things are slowly improving. We are aiming high, but with little support we will always struggle. What we need now is for all of the people to get behind us.

“We have some great facilities here, a fantastic new restaurant, we have just brought in a new pricing structure which will make it very attractive for people to use our pool, gym other facilities.

“What we really need now is for all the community to get behind us.

“We are getting involved with the local people and inviting them to become a much bigger part of what we do at Seaworld,” he said.

According to the latest annual accounts lodged for Lahinch Seaworld and Leisure Centre PLC, the company made of loss of just over € 97,000 in 2009.

According to these accounts the facility had received € 1,905,000 in government grants up until the end of 2009.