Category: News

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.

THE Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) discriminates against Shannon Airport and Ryanair in favour of propping up Dublin Airport and the national carrier Aer Lingus.

That’s the claim levelled at the ruling body of Ireland’s three State airports this week by an angry Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, after the DAA refused to give the green light for the low-cost carrier’s one million traffic offer for Shannon, in return for a ‘growth incentive scheme’ of € 4.20 per passenger.

“We wrote to them offering to increase our passengers from a base of 300,000, where it is currently, to 1.3 million if they did nothing other than extend the existing transfer incentive scheme, which they admit they have given to Aer Lingus,” said Mr O’Leary.

“The growth would start from November with the introduction of a winter schedule and would grow to 600,000 passengers in year one to a total of a million passengers in year five. I don’t understand why Shannon say it’s unsustainable when it mirrors exactly the deal that the DAA are paying Aer Lingus in Dublin.

“They have this transfer growth incentive scheme they’ve given to Aer Lingus and when we ask for this for Shannon and say we’ll deliver a million additional passengers, they say it’s too expensive. I don’t understand why Shannon say it’s unsustainable when it mirrors exactly the deal that the DAA are paying Aer Lingus in Dublin. The DAA would prefer if Shannon Airport was empty, which it is,” added Mr O’Leary.

Continuing the Ryanair chief said that the DAA was responsible for the collapse in Shannon’s traffic and that his airline was the only one capable of delivering substantial passenger growth at the airport.

“The DAA has overseen the collapse of Shannon traffic from 3.6m passengers in 2007 to just 1.7m passengers in 2010,” he said. “Ryanair is the only airline willing and able to deliver dramatic new route and traffic growth at Shannon and the refusal by the DAA of Ryanair’s one million passenger growth offer proves, yet again, that Dublin Airport has no interest in traffic growth at Shannon.

“If they did, Dublin would not have raised Shannon passenger charges by 33 per cent in November 2010 ( just four months ago) when inflation was 0 per cent and Shannon traffic was collapsing. Furthermore, if the DAA was ‘committed to incentivising growth’ as Declan Collier claims, the DAA would have accepted Ryanair’s offer of 1m growth passengers at Shannon, on similar terms to those currently enjoyed by Aer Lingus at Dublin,” he added.

SHANNON Airport is better off financially by having lower passenger numbers, Dublin Airport Authority chief David Dilger has claimed in rejecting out of hand Ryanair’s proposal to boost passenger numbers at the ailing airport by one million over the next five years.

He made comments when claiming that Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary wanted “hello money” in return for a commitment to boost its services in Shannon back to pre-2009 levels when it operated 53 routes from the airport.

“There isn’t a business in the country that can afford to pay its customers to deal with it,” said David Dilger in rejecting the Ryanair one million offer in return for a ‘growth incentive scheme’ that would see the DAA pay Ryanair € 4.20 for every new passnenger brought through the airport.

“All of us are in business to earn a reasonable profit. I’m afraid Michael’s purported generosity to Shannon is not really sustainable and we are certainly not going to pay him to bring passengers in.

“The fact is the financial situation of Shannon is much better today than it was with a far bigger number of passengers,” said Mr Dilger.

In reference to a previous deal between the DAA and Ryanair at Shannon, Mr Dilger claimed “that deal was never completed by Ryanair.

“The promises that Ryanair made were not delivered to this community and Ryanair paid € 3.7m to the DAA in the High Court in order to reflect their failure to complete the terms of that deal.

“Interestingly, the first part of that deal they want to do now is they want the € 3.7m that was won in the High Court back. So as well as being paid to deliver passengers they want ‘hello money’ as well.”

Mr Dilger’s comments came in the wake of Mr O’Leary’s move to gate-crash the Shannon Chamber of Commerce event in Bunratty Castle Hotel last Wednesday, prior to holding his own press conference in the Clarion Hotel in Limerick later that afternoon.

“ I do not think Shannon will return a profit this year,” said Mr Dilger, “but it is well on the way to becoming sustainable. It’s very important to us that we break even by 2012. That’s the plan and that’s what we will do,” he added.

CLARE poet, storyteller and author Eddie Stack will publish a book based on the people, music and stories of Doolin later this year.

The Ennistymon born author has been working on compiling The Doolin Book for more then a decade and will include extracts of interviews with some of the town’s most legendary past residents.

One of the highlight of the book will be an extensive interview with Micho Russell conducted by Stack before his death in 1994.

In this rare interview, Micho talks about his time growing up in Doolin as well as how he and his brothers learned their music and songs in the area.

“Doolin is one the few places in Ireland where all the strands of Irish traditional arts survived until relatively recently,” said Stack.

“This book is about these arts; the music, the singing, the dancing and the storytelling. It’s about the artists, the environment which fostered them and the legacy they left for younger musicians and singers.

“It is based on my local knowledge, research, archival materials as well as field recordings of the Doolin tradition bearers from the 1970s and early ‘80s.”

Eddie also hopes to produce an “enhanced ebook” version of The Doo- lin Book , which will have embedded video and audio and be programmed for use with the iPad.

Besides the Russell brothers, the book will also focus on Doolin’s other famous musical family – the Killougherys.

A section of the book will examine the music of John and Paddy Killoughery, renowned local musicians who had a long association with traditional Irish house dancing.

They were cohorts of the Russell brothers and played together at house dances and sessions for over fifty years – until the practice was stopped by the local parish priest.

The book will also focus on Paddy Pharaic Mhichil Shannon, who was the last native Irish speaker to live in the region. In an interview Paddy remembers the old storytellers, dancing masters and musicians of the area as well as talking about the decline of the Irish language in the area.

Doolin’s long tradition of storytelling will also feature in the book with extracts recorded by the Irish Folklore Commission in the 1920s with Stiofáin Uí hEalaoire, Johnny Carún, Seán O’Caolaí, Liam Ó Duilleáin and Seán MacMathúna.

Also featured is an interview with storyteller Paddy Sherlock broadcast on the BBC by Seamus Ennis in the 1950s.

For more information search for The Doolin Book on Facebook.

PLANNING and preparation is “systematic and effective” at a second-level school in Shannon, while assessment practices are of a high standard.

A report in relation to St Caimin’s Community School in Shannon noted that the school has good lines of communication with students.

The report presents the findings of an evaluation of the quality of learning and teaching. It has been just published by the Department of Education and Skills, after an inspection was carried out at the school in November.

“The overall quality of learning and teaching in the lessons observed was good,” noted the report.

“With the support of senior management, a dedicated and effective team of teachers works closely with colleagues to promote inclusive practices among all teachers in all lessons,” stated the report.

It remarked that students identified with special educational needs benefit considerably from their time in St Caimin’s, while “a continuum of supports and interventions is implemented wisely and reviewed regu- larly”.

A number of recommendations are contained in the report. It is suggested that more detailed tracking of the total allocation of resources and their impact upon students be introduced.

It states that the extension of “individualised planning for students with low incidence needs merits consideration”.

“Greater use of team-teaching merits consideration as does the exploration of opportunities for staff to share practices that promote inclusive learning,” stated the report.

It noted that good time-tabling practices are evident in the school, which promotes access to and the development of an inclusive curriculum.

“The school adopts a holistic approach to meeting the needs of each individual in the school. Personalised learning in the collective setting of the classroom is central to the school’s engagement with students and this practice is manifested in the school’s movement, away from an over reliance on individual withdrawal, towards more in-class supports such as team-teaching. This shift in focus is in keeping with Department policy and guidelines,” stated the report.