Category: News

MORE than a a dozen people Clare people will be affected by the temporary closure of the Rape Crisis Centre Midwest in Ennis.

The centre yesterday cited funding shortfalls as the reason for closing offices and services in Ennis, Nenagh and Limerick.

Rape Crisis Midwest provides a confidential one to one counselling service to both male and female survivors of rape and childhood sexual abuse. The service sees approximately 80 clients a week in the entire midwest.

Between 12 and 14 people a week attend the service at the Tracklands business park in Ennis.

Many of those are adults who suffered sexual abuse as children.

The Ennis centre is due to close on a temporary basis in September.

A spokeswoman for Rape Crisis Midwest said yesterday, “The financial status of the centre is at a critical point. We are part funded by the Child and Family Agency and, like many other charities, have experienced significant cutbacks over the last number of years. There is no reasonable prospect of meeting our shortfall, estimated to be in the region of € 120,000 in the entire midwest. The current fundraising programme in place will not satisfy that shortfall.”

Rape Crisis Midwest provides 3.2 counselling staff to cater for demand in Clare, Limerick and Tipperary.

She continued, “We regrettably have been forced to implement cost saving measures including a decision to temporarily close the Clare and Tipperary service for at least one month and possibly more. In addition, we have had to implement similar measures in Limerick and will only be in a position to offer a skeletal and limited service over the coming months. This is a decision that we have not taken lightly and has come on the back of additional significant cost-saving measures over the last number of years.”

The decision to close will not affect the centre’s forensic service unit for sexual assault victims, which will continue to operate at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick.

The service is appealing for donations. For further information log on to www.rapecrisis.ie or contact 1800 311511.

The spokeswoman continued, “It is ironic that during difficult economic times, demand for the service in the centres is even greater and we do not wish to have to close our doors to those who are most vulnerable in society. Please assist in helping to save our centre and providing this muchneeded service to survivors of rape and childhood sexual abuse.” TODAY A ve ry we t a ft e rn o o n in sto re , te m p s a t 16c b u t h e avy sh o we rs.

A HOME-MADE knife was discovered in the entrance at Ennis Courthouse following a number of scuffles that broke out on Wednesday.

Gardaí are investigating altercations which flared up between members of two families who were present in the courthouse on the day.

A fight between younger members of both families developed at the entrance at around 11am.

The courthouse was busy with sittings of Ennis District Court and the High Court underway.

People standing in the lobby area initially thought the parties were “messing about” but the incident turned serious when a male teenager was knocked to the floor and struck a number of times.

There was a large number of gardaí present inside the district court positioned between the families who were sat at opposite sides of the courtroom.

Men from either side traded verbal insults. At one point, Judge Patrick Durcan said he would adjourn court business if peace was not kept in the courtroom.

Judge Durcan said law and order was not being maintained in the courtroom and said decent citizens who had business in court were being subjected to “vile behaviour”.

Order was restored both inside and outside the courtroom. A number of people were arrested.

The knife was discovered on the floor just inside the front door at around 11.30am.

It is described as home-made, with two short blades sitting on a handle wrapped in red tape.

Gardaí are investigating the incident and are studying CCTV footage taken from cameras in the Courthouse.

The two Ennis families suspected of being involved in the fracas have been engaged in a dispute for much of the past 12 months.

This is the first violent incident to occur in Ennis Courthouse in recent months.

The building was the scene of a spate of similar fights and altercations throughout 2012 and 2013.

Last October Ennis-based solicitor Daragh Hassett told the court there were times during the year when legal practitioners feared for their safety such was the frequency of fights at the time.

CLARE County Council returned a surplus of almost € 650,000 last year, out of a total expenditure for the local authority of more than € 104 million.

According to the unaudited Annual Financial Statement for 2013 released by the council, the local authority ended the year with a € 643,00 surplus on a total revenue expenditure of € 104.4million.

Speaking at the launch of the statement, County Manager Tom Coughlan said that the council had made great progress in reducing its debt levels in recent years.

“Over the term of this council, the cumulative operating debit balance, which stood at € 1.77 million at the start of 2009 has been reduced to € 1.08 million at the end of 2013. This reduction in the cumulative deficit in a period of reduced fund- ing and uncertain economic circumstances is a positive development to be welcomed,” he said.

The accounts also show that that the local authority billed a total of € 36.1 million in commercial rates in 2013, which represents 35 per cent of the council’s total revenue expenditure in the year. The council collected € 35.8m in rates in the year and the total amount of rates outstanding at the end of 2013 is lower than the balance outstanding at the end of 2012.

“Customer balances are being actively pursued through engagement with customers in agreeing payment plans or through legal action, where necessary,” continued Mr Coughlan

“It is a difficult time for many businesses and the council tries to balance this reality with the need to maximise its collections to deliver services as planned at budget time to the people of County Clare.

“The council is committed to adopting a practical approach in terms of facilitating rate payers in their payment arrangements when possible.”

Clare County Council has also increased income over budget in the year, in particular from the Non Principal Private Residence (NPPR) charge. Income from the Non Principal Private Residence charge (NPPR) was € 2.2 million for the year. The income was greater than budget by € 0.7 million mainly due to a significant amount of income from penalties for late payment.

A NUMBER of North Clare tourism developments, which appeared to have fallen victim of the recession, could be kick-started in the months ahead following a raft of planning application lodged with Clare County Council over the past week.

Lazarus Investment Limited have lodged four separate application in the past week which could create hundreds of construction jobs and scores of permanent permission if they go ahead.

Each of the application involve an extension of the planning duration of projects originally proposed by the Atlantis Development Company.

Indeed, according to documents obtained from the Company Registration Office (CRO), local businessman John Declan Flanagan, with a company address at ‘The Mermaid’ in Liscannor, is the director of both Lazarus Investment Limited and the Atlantis Development Company.

The first application could see a major redevelopment of two of North Clare’s most iconic pubs – Egan’s and McHugh’s in Liscannor. The application for extension, which was the first made by Lazarus in April of this year, could see major alterations to existing structures located between the pubs.

It involves the demolition of a storage area and toilets at the back of Joseph McHugh’s and a storage buildings at the back of Egan’s and the extension of McHugh including a new storage area, lounge, toilets and an open smoking area. The development will also see the construction of a seven bedroom hostel, five apartments and four commercial units.

The second application involved outline permission for the development a supermarket, crèche, medical centre and a chemist. The site, which is located at Killilagh in Doolin, will also include the construction of five houses.

The third application involved the construction of 11 houses at Teergonean in Doolin. The original planning permission, which was for two three-bedroom houses as well as nine two-bedroom self catering units, was granted planning permission by Clare County Council in 2008.

The fourth application will see the construction of a park and ride facility connecting Liscannor with the Cliffs of Moher.

Separate decision on the retention of the planning permissions will be made on various dates from June of this year.

THERE were celebrations at Ennis College of Further Education on Friday as over 100 QQI Level 5 Certificates were presented to graduates across a range of courses.

The college is part of the Ennis Community College campus, which has a long tradition of Post Leaving Certificate and Further Education in Clare. The certificates related to courses in Legal Studies, Business Studies, Childcare, Special Needs Care, Nursing Studies, Community & Health Services, Office Administration/Medical Secretary and, for the first time, Health Science, Physiology & Sport.

Friday’s presentations were made by Ms Catherine O’Sullivan, FETAC External Authenticator, who congratulated the group and highlighted the currency of their awards for further education and in the workplace.

Mr John Cooke, Principal of En- nis Community College, praised the class for their dedication and hard work. He highlighted the fact that QQI qualifications open the door to third level for many students as they are accepted by the CAO as part of the Higher Education Links Scheme.

“These courses offer a wide range of employment opportunities and many of this year’s graduates have already secured employment in offices, crèches, nursing homes and sports facilities,” he added.

He also announced two new programmes which will begin in September: Level 6 Early Childhood Care and Education will enable learners to take on a supervisory role in an Early Childhood Education setting; Level 6 Business delves into business management and will offer a strong foundation for anyone wishing to take on a responsible role in business or pursue further studies at third level. These new programmes have been introduced as follow-on training from Level 5 courses.

TRUMP International Golf Links and Hotel Ireland are to lay off staff during the winter months, but this, according to the resort’s manager Joe Russell, has been the practice for the last number of years.

“In fact we will have more people employed on the course this year that we have since we opened in 2002,” he said.

Last week Donald Trump visited his Doonbeg resort where he selected the site for the new banqueting and event centre and asked Mr Russell to proceed with plans for the review.

“Mr Trump’s visit went well. We spent a lot of time on the golf course and around the facility.

“He was very impressed with the facility, its location and the service and hospitality he received.

“Besides the radio and TV interviews he had, he spent a long time in our public areas meeting and taking photographs with people throughout the day,” said the Doonbeg boss.

During these press interviews Mr Trump promised hundreds more “good jobs”.

However after his departure during the week news broke that staff would be let go during the winter months.

“As discussed with all our employees last Wednesday and has occurred in the past number of years, we are scaling back our operations in the winter to weekends only in November and December, and in January and February we will close hotel operations only.

“The Christmas market and Christmas period will be open because they are well attended and when people use their vacation time to visit our facility,” explained Mr Russell.

“This is not something new for us or hotels on the west coast of Ireland given the level of business at this time of the year.

“Check out what my five star star competitors are doing in Kerry,” he said. “As you will have heard, we are doing a lot of work on our golf course due to the winter storm damage and we will continue our work for the season ahead and into the winter. His objective is to make our course the best golf course in Ireland.”

THE storms which battered the Clare coast in January and February have caused Seamus Heaney’s swans to abandon their habitual home on Lough Murree on the Flaggy Shore in North Clare.

Large flocks of both whooper and mute swans have made the lake their home for hundreds of years – with its unusual location as a fresh water lake situated within 20 feet of the ocean attracting bird life of many kinds.

These swans were immortalised in Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Postscript’, in which he said the natural beauty of the area and the swans had the power to “catch the heart off guard and blow it open”.

Following this winter’s storms, North Clare locals reported a dramatic change of colour in the lake, which has turned a black/brown colour. In recent weeks the famous swans have also abandoned the lake.

While the whooper swans traditionally migrate to Iceland around this time every year, the disappearance of the mute swans is being blamed on the discolouration of the lake.

According to John Murphy of Clare Birdwatching, this was possible cause by a large quantity of seaweed being swept into the freshwater late during the storm, effectively pickling the water and killing off the vegetation.

“The reason there are no swans there this year is because of the storms, it was too exposed,” he said.

“I would imagine that a lot of seaweed was washed into the lake [during the storms] that is decaying and causing the change in colour. That will continue to decay and breakdown over the summer month and it will actually be of benefit to some birds in the area.

“Over the summer the salt water will evaporate out and the fresh water will come in and balance the lake out again. If we don’t get any more storms things should go back to normal in the lake and the swans should return in October and November. I think the swans will be back in Lough Murree again come autumn time – both the whooper swans and the mute swans.”

Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney passed away in August of last year. His last public appearance was ay the Merriman Summer School done the road from Lough Murree in Lis doonvarna.

PRESIDENT Michael D. Higgins and Nobel Prize winner Svante Pääbo will participate in a three day event organised by the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark.

The three-day symposium, which taking place in NUI Galway and the Burren this week, will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the naming of Neanderthal by Irish scientist William King.

Delegates attending the symposium, which is entitled ‘From Fossils to the Genome’, will attend a field trip to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher Geopark.

William King’s proposal was to formally designate Neanderthal people as a separate species from ourselves. His suggestion was both extraordinary and revolutionary for its time – Charles Darwin’s masterpiece ‘Origin of Species’ had been published just five years beforehand. William King remains the first to name a new fossil human species, a privilege afforded to very few scien- tists.

The symposium will also feature a presentation from a Nobel Prize winner and one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people, Svante Pääbo.

Professor Pääbo, Director of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig and the first person to sequence the DNA of Neanderthal people, will deliver the main keynote address of the symposium.

Next Monday, participants will take part in a post conference field trip through the Burren led by Christine Grant of the National Monuments Service, Michael Lynch and Michelle Comber, the Field Director for the Caherconnell Archaeology Field School.

NUI Galway’s Dr John Murray and Geopark Geologist Dr Eamon Doyle will be discussing the geology of the Burren.

“Professor King’s work represents a scientific milestone in the history of our understanding of human origins,” said Dr Murray.

THE Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Kieran O’Reilly, has appealed to the Mi nister for Education to show more “flexibility” when it comes to the issue of small r ural primar y schools.

Dr O’Reilly said concer n over the future of small schools is an issue throughout his diocese.

Addressi ng an audience, that included Minister Ruai ri Quinn, at the opening of t he new Ennis Na – tional School on Friday, Dr O’Reilly urged t he Gover nment to be more sympat hetic to the concer ns of r ural schools.

“I have t he ver y happy task of perfor ming confirmation ceremonies around t he count r y. One of the things that has come to my attention ver y forcefully, and I said I was goi ng to bend the Minister’s ear when he was here. I wasn’t sure if I would do it public but I’m going to do it publicly,” said Dr O’Reilly.

He continued, “It’s the issue of the numbers in small schools. I know you are ver y much aware of it. My only appeal to you and to your depar tment officials would be to see if there is any level of flexibility, even in a small two or three numbers that could be applied. People have spoken here about beauti ful schools, classrooms with whiteboards that are now going to lose a teacher because of maybe one or two students. I know you are const rained and we read it all the time i n the media. But I think having heard it in our diocese, which goes from West Clare up to Offally and into a small bit of Laois, it is a ver y impor tant thing on t he ground and I’m sure your local representatives have said it to you.”

Speaking afterwards, Minister Quinn said he would be meeting with t he Irish National Teacher’s Organisation (INTO) to discuss the issue.

He said, “There are personnel issues, there are capacity issues and there are fal ling numbers in some par ts. But we are tr yi ng to get a sensible solution to it. When you use the pupil teacher ratio as the only measure, which is what I’ve inher ited and is t he only instr ument I have, you can’t have t he flexibility you requi re at a time when some schools are losing population and some are growing.”

Minister Quinn continued, “I’m quite prepared [to be flexible] i n isolated r ural areas where t he schools is essential for the health of the act ual community itself. That is quite different to a place where there is t hree schools in two kilomet res of each ot her. And yet they are both being treated the exact same.”

FINAL preparations are being made for the seventh annual Clare Burren Challenge Marathon with thousands of people expected to descend on Ballyvaughan for the event later this Saturday.

The marathon, which is organised each year by the Ballyvaughan Fanore Walking Club, has become a fixture on the Irish walking and running calendar – attracting participants from all over Ireland as well as a growing number of people travelling from abroad to take part.

The challenge, which will take place on May 24, is unique in Ireland – taking participants both on and offroad, across some of the most spectacular terrain and green roads in the Burren.

The marathon offers something for every level of participant with three different courses including the full marathon, half marathon and mini marathon.

The challenge is made possible as a result of excellent support from the local community, as well as the assistance of of Clare Sports Partnership alongside main sponsor Logues Lodge in Ballyvaughan, which is part of the Clare Coast Hotels Group.

The routes take in a number of private property, which is made available with the cooperation of local landowners. Event organisers are aware of the sensitivity of the Burren region and aim to leave no trace with zero waste and active safety policies in place.

All routes are clearly marked and course stewards provide water, fruit and chocolate bars at several points along the route.

Medical support is provided by Irish Cave Rescue Organisation as well as local doctors. For more information visit www.clareburrenmarathonchallenge.com.