Category: News

ONE of the first nuns to qualify in medicine, Sr Dr Maura O’Donoghue has been named as the Clare Person of the Year.

Sr O’Donoghue was honoured at the annual meeting of the Clare Association in Dublin last week.

A native of Lickeen, Kilfenora, Sr O’Donoghue was one of the first members of the religious order to practice medicine. Presenting the award, Liam O’Looney of the Clareman’s Association noted that Sr O’Donoghue qualified at a time when some people “were not happy that the religious sisters were qualifying in medicine”.

Mr O’Looney continued, “Sr Maura had a very distinguished career in the missions and most of her work was carried out in different parts of Africa and other developing countries. She initiated welfare schemes and clinics for the hungry during some of the very serious famines they suffered in those countries during that period.”

Sr O’Donohue now lives in Booterstown, Dublin, where she is very ac- tive campaigner on the issue of women being trafficked as sex workers.

Acclaimed singer and writer Robbie McMahon from Spancill Hill was nominated for the association’s 2011 Hall of Fame award.

The ceremony also saw the launch of the Clare Association’s new website, clareassociationdublin.com.

The primary aim of the website is the reach out to generations of Clare migrants living in Dublin.

The website was launched by businessman and prominent Clare supporter, Pat O’Donnell, who brought Clare GAA’s most sought after trophies – Jack Daly (football) and Canon Hamilton (hurling) – to the event.

Among the other attendees were previous Clare persons of the year, Martin Donnelly, Michael Tubridy and John Lynch.

WORKERS based at the old Halifax Insurance centre in Shannon will have to wait more then six week before being told which among the 300-strong workforce will lose their jobs. The St Andrew’s Group in Shannon, formerly known as Halifax Insurance, confirmed last week that 80 people are to be let go from their Shannon operations.

These latest job cuts come less than a year after Lloyds Banking Group, who owns the the St Andrew’s Group, announced that 21 people were to be let go because the company no longer going to operate in the payment protection insurance market.

Workers at the St Andrew Group were told last week that as much as 80 per cent of workers in some departments are to be let go while other departments are to be largely untouched. The Clare People also understands that every worker at the Shannon company is to be interviewed in the coming weeks before any decision on final redundancies is made.

These 80 redundancies form part of an overall cut of 200 jobs from the insurance section of the Lloyds Banking Group in the UK and Ireland.

“Lloyds Banking Group is today announcing 200 role reductions mainly within its insurance division as part of its ongoing integration programme. Lloyds Banking Group is committed to working through these changes with employees in a careful and sensitive way. All affected employees have been briefed by their line manager,” said a spokesperson from Lloyds. “The group’s union partners, Accord, LTU and Unite, were consulted prior to this announcement and will continue to be consulted throughout the process.

“The group’s policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge within the group. By making less use of contractors and agency employees, it reduces the impact on permanent staff. Where it is necessary for employees to leave the company, it will look to achieve this by offering vol- untary severance.”

These latest cuts mean that the Shannon-based operation will have lost just over 30 per cent of it’s entire workforce in just 12 months.

The St Andrew’s Group is a leading specialist creditor insurance provider. It manages claims and customer service on behalf of clients such as MBNA, Sainsbury’s Bank and AA Personal Finance.

In June of 2006, Halifax Insurance Ireland announced that it would be generate 185 new jobs in Shannon over the following five years.

COME what may there will be massive changes in the representatives put forward by the Galway East constituency after this month’s General Election.

That much was signalled early on when three of the four sitting deputies – Fianna Fail’s Noel Treacy and Fine Gael’s Ulick Burke and Paul Connaughton – announced their decision not to run, leaving Michael Kitt as the only member of the current Dáil left standing.

Despite the decision of Libertas leader Declan Ganley to sit this election out, there is still plenty to talk about in Galway East during this campaign season.

Possibly the biggest talking point is the emergence of the Labour Party with long serving party activist Colm Keaveney in with a fighting chance of taking a seat.

With his Labour Party running mate Lorraine Higgins also pooling well for a first time candidate, inter parties transfers could see the party take it’s first seat in Galway East in living memory.

Another major talking point in the constituency is the wrangling over who would make up the Fine Gael ticket.

With three men – Paul Connaghton Jnr, Jimmy McClean and Tom McHugh – left standing after the party convention, the Fine Gael top brass put a cat amongst the local blue-shirts by adding the former Progressive Democrat leader, Ciaran Cannon, to the ticket.

Cannon, who switched allegiances following the collapse of the PD’s last year, was added to the ticket in what has been seen by party insiders as pay-back for defecting to Fine Gael in 2009.

There could be a further twist to this tail as Cannon, despite being relatively unpopular within the local party, is proving very popular with the public and looks in line to take a second seat for Fine Gael ahead of both McClean and McHugh.

The one certainty, if such a thing exists in this election, is that Paul Connaghton Junior looks set to take the seat vacated by his father.

As for Fianna Fáil, many within the local party organisation have consigned themselves to retailing only one seat in what was always considered a party stronghold.

Unless there is a major shock, sitting TD Michael Kitt will have enough to see him home with running mate Michael Dolan unlikely to have a major impact on election day.

Independent Sean Canny looks likely to end up in a dog fight for the last seat with Labour’s Colm Keaveney, Fine Gael’s Jimmy McClean and Independent Tim Broderick.

WHILE the majority of the Clare electorate have 16 candidates to consider during this General Election, 4,200 people from the east of the county will be looking to the 13 candidates in the new constituency of Limerick City.

Almost five per cent of the 88,474 Clare residents registered to vote will have their say in the democratic process outside the county choosing between two Fine Gael candidates, two Fianna Fáil, two Labour, three Independents, a Green Party candidate, a candidate from Sinn Féin and a member of the Christian Solidarity and the Socialist Party.

The candidate line up in this constituency differs greatly from the Clare constituency, but commentators maintain the election will be fought between seven main contenders.

For the first time ever Michael Noonan (FG) is being favoured by some bookies to top the poll ahead of Fianna Fáil’s Willie O’Dea who is expected to lose up to 4, 500 votes due to the constituency re-draw.

With both men expected to make it past the finishing post early, it is their running mates Kieran O’Donnell (FG) and Peter Power (FF) that will be under pressure to return to the Dáil.

As Fine Gael traditionally manages the vote better than Fianna Fáil in this area, most pundits expect two Fine Gael seats when the last vote is counted in this four-seat constituency. Sitting TD and candidate Jan O’Sullivan is one of the candidates closely associated with Clare, draw- ing a lot of support from Clare county councillor Pascal Fitzgerald (Lab).

However, many fear that the Labour Party, who at one time had ambitions of two seats in the constituency, could fall between two political stools as the vote is split between the poll topper in the local election and former mayor Joe Leddin and Deputy O’Sullivan.

The voters in east Clare will also have an option not available to the rest of the county, as there will be a Sinn Fein candidate on the Limerick City ballot paper.

Cllr Maurice Quinlivan has a growing support in the city.

With expected transfers from the left from such candidates as former Fine Gael mayor and now Independent candidate Kevin Anthony Kiely and Socialist Party candidate Cian Prendiville he is expected to put in a challenge for the fourth and final seat.

The remaining candidates include Conor O’Donoghue, Christian Solidarity; Sheila Cahill, Green Party; Matt Larkin, Non Party and Denis Riordan, Non Party.

A COROFIN company has made a major breakthrough for renewable energy in Ireland by successfully installing the first small-scale miscanthus burner in Ireland.

Miscanthus, which is also known as elephant grass, has up until now proved impossible to burn in smaller burners, which are not designed specifically for large-scale power generation.

Corofin company Ensoleir has just completed the installation of a small scale miscanthus burner on a farm in Cork. This breakthrough means that tens of thousands of Irish businesses can now use miscanthus as a heating source – which is both cheaper and more environmentally friendly that burning fossil fuels.

The results of this could revolutionise the energy market in Ireland and create large business opportunities not just for Ensoleir but for other spin-off industries in the county.

“Ireland is one of the largest miscanthus growers in Europe but up until now it could not been used for smaller burners because the proper technology did not exist. But we have found a way around this problem,” said Fritz Mohn of Ensoleir.

“The boiler heats water so it can be used for the central heating systems for public building, school and large office blocks. It also useful in conjunction with a heat exchanger for powering dryers in the agri-food sector.”

Beside being an environmentally friendly energy solution, miscanthus is also a cheaper long-term option to fossil fuels.

“The miscanthus is much cheaper than fossil fuels at the moment. In place’s like large green houses or leasure centres, where hot water is needed all year round, they will make back their investment very quickly,” continued Fritz.

“The boiler that we installed in Cork will save the user 40 per cent on his heating bill each year and he will be able to pay back for the installation costs in just four years. We are in talks at the moment with a large green house grower in the south of the country and he will save between € 30,000 and € 40,000 each year with miscanthus.

“We are working with local companies for the accessories needed to install the boiler so this technology should be good news for the wider community.”

For more visit www.ensoleir.com.

A WAR of words has erupted between rival General Election candidates over Dáil expenses, after Cllr Tony Mulcahy accused Cllr James Breen of using a call to abolish Dáil expenses as a “cynical exercise” to get elected.

Fine Gael candidate, Cllr Mulcahy, launched a scathing attack on the move made by Cllr Breen when he said, “We should reduce Dáil expenses and abolish them altogether and oblige TDs to live on their salary with no expenses.”

“Saying he wants expenses abolished is rich,” blasted Mulcahy to The Clare People this week. “It’s cynical exercise in self-promotion in the run up to the election from a man who had no difficulty in collecting almost € 1 million during the lifetime of the last Dáil between his TD’s salary, his expenses, his independent TD’s allowance, his council expenses and council severance payments. This is like St Paul on the road to Damascus,” added Cllr Mulcahy.

However, an unrepentant Cllr Breen has reiterated his call for an overhaul of the expenses structure, even going to far as to say, “I am pre- pared to forego expenses.”

Continuing, Cllr Breen said, “I will campaign for the abolition of expenses if I am elected to the Dáil.

“There are genuine out of pocket expenses that you would have to claim for always. I will be campaigning for a reduction in expenses for everyone

and a reduction in

TDs’ salaries.”

Figures secured

by The Clare Peo

ple show that Cllr

Breen received

nearly € 400,000

in expenses during

the lifetime of the

29th Dáil between

2002 to 2007. This

included payments

for six years, with

figures showing that

he received € 71,868 (2003), € 62,539 (2004), € 75,122 (2005), € 70,947 (2006) and € 48,000 (2007).

However, Cllr Breen has defended these claims and said, “When I was a TD I had three people working for me and my expenses went towards employing three people. I had one person employed part-time in Dublin, I had an IT advisor in Clare and a girl worked two days a week in my office in Clare.

“It’s about reforming for the future, not the past,” he added.

GARDAÍ HAVE submitted a file for the DPP in connection wit h an att ack on a baby in Shannon in which a burn mark, broken l imbs and multiple br uising were sustained.

Last mont h, a 10-mont h-old baby boy was taken to hospital with serious injuries, including two broken arms – one of which was broken in three places – and a broken leg. He had also sustained br uising to several par ts of his body.

A Garda investigation swung into action and two people were questioned as par t of t he enqui r y. Gardaí then prepared a file on the matter and t his has been sent to the DPP, who wi ll decide whether charges are to be brought in relation to the case.

The Healt h Service Executive is also investigating the mat ter. Last mont h, an emergency care order was t aken out by the HSE in the distr ict cour t in relation to the baby boy.

MAYOR of Clare Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) is to pick up the bill for his mayoral trip to New York this St Patrick’s Day.

The mayor’s council expenses usually cover the official trip by Clare’s first citizen to the Big Apple, but this year the man from Miltown Malbay said he would be covering his own costs.

“I will be paying for it myself. I think it is only right and fitting,” he told The Clare People .

Each year the mayor of the day travels to America to promote Clare from both a tourism and enterprise point of view.

The first citizen also takes part in the St Patrick’s Day parade.

“The purpose is to promote Clare and meet with the diaspora,” said Cllr Curtin.

“I will be there to show that Clare is a county worth coming back to, especially for anyone with entrepreneurial and enterprise skills,” he added.

The agenda for the visit to New York by Cllr Curtin has yet to be finalised but it is expected he will be there for March 17.

Meanwhile the mayor of Kilrush has been invited to New York to promote the town and area for the first time ever.

No decision has been made yet as to whether the current mayor Cllr Liam Williams (FG) will travel.

Ennis Town Council will not be represented at the annual St Patrick’s Day in New York, after councillors declined an invitation to attend the event at this month’s meeting.

Mayor of Ennis Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) turned down the invitation, saying the mayor’s place on St Patrick’s Day should be in Ennis.

Members of the Ennis/Phoenix twinning delegation will be in Arizona however for St Patrick’s Day.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP); Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) and Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind), who as deputy mayor represented Ennis at last year’s parade in New York all turned down proposals that they should attend the parade in the Big Apple in place of the mayor.

It is not known if Shannon Town Council is to send a representative abroad this St Patrick’s Day at time of press.

MASS is just finished and the paper stall outside the front door is doing a roaring trade. Whether you bought the Sunda y Press or Sunda y Independen t depended on your politics; what lorry you applauded also depended on your politics. The Blueshirts lorry; the one belonging to the Soldiers of Destiny.

Jo Walsh was drawn by both. The political junkie in her was born and from there the seed was sown, albeit that she eschewed both Blueshirts and Soldiers in favour of Labour, involving herself in election campaigns in Clare for over 20 years.

There have been Labour highs, Labour lows. In between it’s never been dull and always interesting, whether pounding the streets, or teaming up with fellow junkies from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in election tallies.

And to think that it started over tea – not a cup of Barrys’ Blueshirt best, or whatever brand Soldiers or Labour imbibe. “That’s what I remember,” she says. “Outside mass in Mayo and candidates and supporters arguing about whether de Valera provided tea to people during the war.

“That was the level of the debate, but I was fascinated about it. I re- member strong Fine Gael families and all they’d do was tut-tut about Fianna Fáilers. It was the 1950s and the Civil War thing was still very much there and would come out at election time.

“It was very much rabble rousing stuff in elections then. They’d be on the back of lorries outside mass with loudspeakers, blaring out from loudspeakers. I found it exciting and I suppose it got me interested in politics and interested in campaigns.”

She’s been a junkie ever since, through those highs and lows. “I really got involved after leaving school and moving to Dublin when I got involved in the trade union movement in Dublin. I remember hearing when Michael O’Leary was changing to Fine Gael and this huge disappointment and I was there the night Frank Cluskey lost his seat. He was the party leader and he lost. It was terrible.

“I came to Clare in ‘89 and got involved in the Mary Robinson campaign. I remember working for Fianna Fáil on the tally. The job that the Fianna Fáil crowd gave me was to look out for Austin Currie’s trans- fers, just to see where they were going.

“When I was going up to the Fianna Fáil Director of Elections, Michael Halpin, who was a lovely man, I remember him clearly saying to one of his Fianna Fáil colleagues, ‘who the f ̈ ̈ ̈ ̈ are the 177 people who gave Mary Robinson their first preference in Tulla.’ That presidential election and doing the tally was a great way to get to know people here in Clare.

“Dr Bhamjeé’s election was great too. A cousin of mine in Ennis was working with Dr Bhamjeé and he came along to a few meetings and said he’d like to go as a candidate. It was exciting because people were regarding it as so ridiculous. He had a great confidence about himself. I was his director of elections and we went all out.

“Now I’m an election agent for Michael McNamara and there’s similar excitement but it’s different. Every Labour vote his hard won – he goes down really well on the doorsteps. There’s an energy there and it’s great. All elections are great.”

A MAN burgled a hotel room in Ennis while “in the throes of a very bad addiction” to drugs, a court has been told.

Cathal Mulcaire (29), with addresses at Lifford Lodge, Lifford Road, Ennis; and Apartment 4, 59 Henry Street, Limerick; pleaded guilty to burglary at the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis, on June 16, 2009.

Inspector John Galvin told Ennis District Court on Friday that a hotel bedroom was entered by the accused and another individual at 7pm and a number of items, including a laptop and phone, were taken. The property was not recovered.

“Gardaí were called. The accused was identified through CCTV footage. He was co-operative with gardaí. The property had been moved on by the time gardaí spoke to him,” he said.

The court heard the accused had a number of previous convictions for theft-related offences.

Defending solicitor Daragh Hassett said at the time of this offence his client “was in the throes of a very bad addiction”.

“The goods taken were moved on very quickly. They were swapped to allow him to continue with his ad- diction. He was in a very bad place with a very bad addiction,” he said.

He said that his client has since “managed to wean himself off the drug”, having taken up a methadone programme.

“He is drug-free. He’s no trouble to anybody,” said Mr Hassett.

Judge Joseph Mangan noted: “He has a bad record. The items which he took aggravated the offence. I have to take into account they were not recovered.”

He imposed a six-month jail term and fixed a bond in the event of an appeal.