Category: News

TOURISM OF an unprecedented level could be the reward for ongoing efforts to gain Geopark Status for the Burren and to make the Cliffs of Moher into one of the new 7 Wonders of the World.

Last month Clare County Council officially submitted an application to the European Geoparks Network (EGN) for the European and Global Geoparks status for the Burren region of north Clare.

The EGN was founded in 2000 to help protect geodiversity, to promote geological heritage among citizens and to support sustainable economic development of regions through the development of geotourism.

If successful, it is hoped that the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark project will provide the region with an identity as a region for sustainable ecotourism that is recognised across Europe.

European Geopark status is a fundamentally non-legislative designation, and as such it holds no influence on planning issues or land manage- ment practices. The proposed European Geopark in north Clare will comprise a network of managed publicly accessible sites, an established network of education and visitor centres, and the newly accredited Burren Ecotourism Network, as well as the existing Shannon Region Trails and National Walking routes.

Meanwhile, the ongoing campaign to make the Cliffs of Moher one of the New 7 Wonders of the World will come to an end in 2011. An estimated one billion people will have voted for their favourite location before the final round voting comes to an end on November 11, 2011.

The campaign to make the Cliffs of Moher one of the New 7 Wonders of the World has been ongoing for more than two years with the landmark tourist attraction already coming through three different stages of voting.

If the cliffs does make the final list it is estimated that the publicity associated with the event alone could being tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of extra tourists to north Clare in the coming years.

FEWER debt judgments were served in Clare courts than in almost any other county in Ireland in 2010. A county-by-county breakdown of debt judgments obtained in Irish courts in 2010 has revealed that the Banner was one of Ireland’s three least indebted counties.

Clare finished second only to Kilkenny in the list of court judgments per head of population over the last 12 months with counties Mayo and Donegal also recording low levels of debt.

According to the figures the most indebted county in Ireland was Cavan, while counties Cork, Limerick, Laois and Sligo also recorded high debt levels.

This information was compiled by Dublin-based financial research company BusinessPro.

In a separate survey from earlier this year, BusinessPro also showed that the average debt of Clare people rose from € 6,159 in 2003 to € 20,596 last year – one of the highest levels of debt per person of any county in Ireland.

This would indicate that there are still large levels of personal debt in Clare which is not being seen yet in the amount of debt judgments coming through the local courts.

According to the whose managing director of BusinessPro, James Treacy, the situation is likely to get worse in 2011.

“We estimate an additional € 2 billion of non commercial debt coming down the line next year,” he said last week.

“Most of the consumer debt has yet to hit the courts, but with the end of the one-year moratorium for homeowners and other factors such as the proposed changes to our bankruptcy regime, we expect to see a huge surge in personal insolvencies connected with consumer debt,” he added.

The last 12 months saw the largest ever number of individual and corporate judgments registered in one year in the Irish courts.

While Clare courts dealt with fewer cases per capita that almost every other county in Ireland, the largest single corporate judgment was obtained against Donatex, the company used by Lisdoonvarna developer Bernard McNamara to invest in the Irish Glass Bottle Site in Dublin.

A judgment of more than € 62 million was also obtained against Bernard McNamara personally, arising from the € 412 million purchase of the former toxic dump in 2006 by a consortium of investors.

COORACLARE’S Brendan Daly had been in the Dáil for just four year when a young Bertie Ahern was first elected in 1977. For the next two decades their political careers became more and more entwined as first Daly and then Ahern were promoted to the Cabinet table where they became both friends and close political allies.

Thinking back to those early day, the former Clare TD remembers a quieter Bertie Ahern. A political mind with undoubted talents, who had a skill of helping people to get along and wished to keep his private life to himself.

“Even in the Cabinet he was very discreet. He kept his council very much to himself and was very considered and discreet. He was Minister for Labour at the time and he was very good and finding solutions to problems at that time. He came in in the ‘80s at a time when the Depart- ment of Labour was involved in solving disputes almost every day and he made a big contribution towards the establishment of industrial peace in Ireland,” remember Brendan.

“He was a very private individual. I wasn’t aware, for example, that he was having marriage difficulties even though his close friends did. I didn’t become aware of that until I went to his father’s funeral in Dublin. It was then that I met his wife whom I had known for a long time and I found out from her. It was only that day at his father’s funeral that I became aware that they had separated – that is how much he valued his privacy.

“In my time it was very rare to see him in the Dáil bar or socialising with the TDs in the Dáil. He preferred to be with his own loyal followers in the constituency when he had any free time and not so much socialising around the Dáil.”

When the historians finish with Bertie Ahern, Brendan believes they will have much more good things to say about him than bad.

“I think the one major contribution that he made was to the situation in Northern Ireland which was a very difficult situation. I think when people begin to write in more detail about him the one thing that will be mentioned is the settlement which has brought an end to the killing and bloodshed in Northern Ireland,” continues Brendan.

“I think it what was almost as important as the Northern Irish talks was coming to that tripartite agreement with the unions, employers and the government. We were on the brink of a major industrial dispute in 1991 and this arrangement worked out by Bertie brought about the industrial piece which has remained until now.”

AS GREATER emphasis is placed on the importance of renewable energy, Clarecastle man Eddie Connors is operating at the coalface of a growing industry.

A qualified Woodwork, Technology, Maths, Science, and IT Secondary level teacher, Eddie established Clare’s first ever eco-farm – Imecofarm – at a 100 acre site at Islandmcgrath, Clarecastle.

The farm operates as a centre for renewable energy training courses, a wildlife reserve and destination for family days out and school tours.

With energy bills on the rise, the level of public interest in renewable energy has seen a growth in demand for courses like those on offer at Eddie’s farm.

“This is one of the big reasons we get people from all parts of Ireland. People studying and visiting imecofarm, realise that its not only possible to have reduced heating and electricity bills, but also little or no waste charges, collect your own water, grow food, and be very self sustainable very easily,” Eddie said.

Plans are already underway to increase the number of courses on offer at the farm. Eddie explained, “In 2010 we managed to get started at imecofarm, and over these winter months we are preparing and adding some major projects to imecofarm, for 2011 including an eco library, a huge eco craft area where people can build small projects like birdfeeders, etc, a wheelchair friendly farm trail, a huge wildlife pond, rope bridges indoor children’s pedal go karts, an eco train, and lots more renewable energies to run the whole centre and farm.”

While Eddie admits that “cash flow” is the most difficult part to any emerging business, support from outside agencies has been crucial.

He said, “Clare County Council have been very helpful in advice in all aspects relating to planning per- mission, signage and also many environmental and biodiversity displays here. Paperwork and permissions can be tedious and difficult for every new business, so it’s great to be able to get advice, and help from different bodies. The Clare local Development Company, Leader, have given terrific support and have granted three applications of funding towards the project”.

Volounteers have also played a key role in helping the project get off the ground.

Eddie added, “We have people volunteering to help with our nature projects, gardens, and energy displays, so this has been a massive help to keeping down labour costs, get projects done, and also allows a very special low entry rate for the people of Clare and beyond. Volunteers are also learning about renewables here and receive vouchers, and if looking for work, find that working on projects here shows great initiative, giving better employment prospects”.

He said, “We are also looking at FETAC qualifications to some of the courses here, as well as FÁS registration. Some people are also eligible for funding on our training courses, so this helps those wanting to learn, but without high incomes. Cashflow is always the most difficult part of a new business, but from next Easter on, we are aiming to be busy, and continue to grow each year, with school tours, families, tourists, and training courses here at imecofarm”.

THE legacy of Michael Cusack is being felt as far away as Warsaw thanks to the work of fellow Clare man, Eoin Sheedy.

The Ogonnelloe native was part of a small group of Irish ex-pats who set-up Poland’s first GAA club last year and will return to Poland after his Christmas break later this week to take up the position of Club President of Cumann Warszawa.

Sheedy moved to Poland on a temporary basis more than two years ago but after enjoying a six month trial in Warsaw has decided to put down some roots. In recent time a flood of Irish emigrants have allowed him to realise his dream of setting up Poland’s first GAA club.

“It is unbelievable how it has turned around. When I was going over there first the whole plane was filled with Polish people – I’d be the only Irish person on the plane most of the time. That has changed big time. I go on the plane now and I’d know half the people on the plane and know that they are Irish lads travelling back and forth for work. A lot of the Poles have gone back and a lot of the Irish are now going over there looking for work,” says Eoin.

“When I went over there first I used to head down to the Irish pub, the only one that was in the place, and you might be there on your own. But now there might be 20 or 30 lads at all the matches, no matter who is playing. In the last year I have seen a massive influx.

“There are a lot of lads over there working on the roads. Lads are saying that construction is finished in Ireland so they decided they would try the hand in Poland.”

Cumann Warszawa completed their first season in 2010 and now have both a ladies’ and a men’s team.

“I always had it in my head to start a club. I had worked in Stockholm and they had a club there but in the beginning it wasn’t feasible, there wasn’t enough people. But then more and more people started coming so we decided that we would give it a go,” continued Eoin.

“The club doesn’t play hurling be cause the skill level is just too high and I haven’t played football before in my life but I’m kicking away now and it’s great craic.

“The European teams are 11-a-side and we have enough now to field a men’s and a women’s team. We play in the Eastern European league with Budapest, Prague and Vienna. We actually won the European Shield Competition back in October – we have some fantastic footballers over there at the moment,” Eoin claimed.

CLARE TD of 20 years and former senior cabinet minister, Síle de Valera, was at the centre of AngloIrish storm over the hunger striking prisoners in the Maze Prison that was only calmed by an apology being issued to the British government by Taoiseach Charles Haughey.

Irish State papers from 1980 released under the 30-year rule have revealed that Haughey stepped in to calm any discord in Anglo-Irish relations pertaining to Northern Ireland by sending a personal apology to British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, following remarks de Valera made in support of hunger strikers in the H-Blocks.

Deputy de Valera made her remarks at a bye-election rally, at which Charles Haughey was present, denouncing the conditions in the Maze, words that set in train a chain of events that ultimately forced the Taoiseach to issue a personal apology to Mrs Thatcher.

“I did refer to Mrs Thatcher at the time as being callous,” recalled Ms de Valera years later. “I still believe that she was in terms of her approach to that whole question of the hunger strikes. Even if you were to look at it from a purely humanitarian point of view, leaving aside the political aspects of that, I was very disappointed that she should take that stance. And it was interesting at the time that I was asked by some members of Fianna Fáil to apologise to Mrs Thatcher for calling her callous,” she added.

Ms de Valera’s support of hunger strikes led to her being part of a three-person Dáil delegation to visit Bobby Sands in the Maze when he was 51 days into his protest in 1981. The others were Dr John O’Connell and Neil Blaney.

“I think it’s important to remember – Bobby Sands said it to us that day we were there that he wasn’t just fighting for the demands of the Republican prisoners at the time, but those demands should be followed through to those who were Loyalist prisoners too, and that’s something that’s always forgotten,” said Ms de Valera.

Asked if she was moved by him, she said, “I think all of us were. From a human point of view, here was someone who knew they were very close to death. It was a horrible death. I think it could’ve been prevented, I think it could’ve been prevented by giving some of the demands”.

Meanwhile, Ms de Valera’s public show of support for the hunger strikers contrasts sharply with the British government’s view of what it called “unofficial” Fianna Fáil policy on the republican protests in the Maze.

Papers from the British National Archives have revealed that Mrs Thatcher told her cabinet colleagues that “Mr Haughey had regrettably not been willing to condemn the hunger strike in public, but he had made clear in private that he did so; he had not sought to argue that the strikers’ demand for political status should be met; and he accepted that there was nothing more that the British authorities could offer them”.

This claim by Mrs Thatcher has given added substance to the notion that it was Mr Haughey who privately insisted that Ms de Valera apologise for her remarks, but in the intervening 30 years she had refused to confirm or deny this.

“It wouldn’t be fair to name (them) but some senior members of the party,” Ms de Valera said in 2006 when announcing her decision to retire from frontline politics after the 2007 General Election.

When pressed further about whether Charles Haughey had asked her to apologise to Mrs Thatcher, she replied, “We’ll leave that to one side now”.

Ironically, it was Ms de Valera who played a crucial role in Mr Haughey’s rise to the leadership of Fianna Fáíl in September 1979 when she used the platform of the annual Liam Lynch Commemoration in Fermoy to launch a scathing attack on Taoiseach Jack Lynch’s policy on the north.

“If our political leaders are not seen to be furthering our Republican aspirations through constitutional means, the idealistic young young members of our community will become disillusioned and discontented. I look to our party and particularly our leader to demonstrate his Republicanism. If we are to be true Irishmen and Irishwomen we have a solemn duty to seek the freedom of our country,” she said.

Ms de Valera’s address, coupled with the attack of Dr Bill Loughnane TD on Jack Lynch’s leadership in July 1979, helped precipitate Lynch’s decision to resign as leader of Fianna Fáil in December of that year, with Charles Haughey beating George Colley in the subsequent leadership vote.

IT promises to be a big year on the railways – the West Clare Railway that is as entrepreneur and enthusiast Jackie Whelan moves further down the track towards his dream of having a commuter and tourist service linking Kilursh and Kilkee for the first time since the famous narrow gauge railway was closed in 1961.

“I want to have the track between Moyasta and Kilkee laid this year,” Whelan told The Clare People as he acknowledged that “2011 is a year when we really want to move our plans forward”.

Yes, the West Clare Railway project that has been Whelan’s dream for well over a decade is set to get on track in a big way over the next 12 months, with the first major step only a matter of weeks away with the publication of the new County Development Plan.

“The Development Plan will give the West Clare Railway the same designated status as the Cliffs of Moher or the Burren,” said Whelan of a move that will put the railway project on track for major development works in 2011.

“It’s been a long journey,” he admitted. “The NRA stopped us from crossing the road at Moyasta Junction and that put us back. I don’t think the NRA have even seen the place and were just working off maps. When you’re dealing with them you’re dealing with faceless people. An Taisce had no problem with it, while the NRA blamed the county council over the speed limit on the road. Now finally we’ll have the speed limit issue sorted out by May.

“And I’ll have the museum finished by the end of the year. I have a batch of railway engines and carriages that you wouldn’t see anywhere in Ireland, while the big thing is laying the track to Kilkee and Kilrush. With the train going in both directions we could bring old age pensioners to Kilkee and Kilrush for free. That’s what I want to do.”

Whelan has spent well over € 500,000 on the project so far, restoring the old Slieve Callan engine, laying tracks and sleepers on nearly three miles of track towards Doonbeg and towards Kilkee.

“We can do this from our own resources,” he revealed. “The only grant we got was from Leader for the engine restoration, while the biggest cost of all has been time. Shannon Development has said that if we could get numbers up to 25,000 a year we’d get grant aid.

“The potential is huge. There is capacity for West Clare to carry 30,000 to 40,000 passengers a year at its ease. There is huge interest in west Clare, because it’s the only railway that has retained its name in the minds of people because of the Percy French song. This year I want to get the track laid to Kilkee and a couple of more years have it going to Kilrush. With grant aid it would be a lot quicker.”

Not that Whelan is afraid to press ahead if the knock on the door bearing grant aid doesn’t come. “A task force has been set up in Clare to create jobs and they’ve never come near me,” he revealed. “This will create jobs,” he added as he looks to 2011 with confidence.

ROGUE developers and unfinished estates might be more associated with the present economic crisis that Ireland finds itself in since the collapse of the Celtic Tiger, but State Papers released this week under the 30-year rule show that the Fianna Fáil government of 1980 was confronted by similar problems, with grassroots members of the party leading the charged all the way to the Taoiseach’s office

It meant that the problem was passed over to Clare’s Minister for the Environment of the time, Deputy Sylvester Barrett, for consideration by Taoiseach Charles Haughey after a slew of complaints about unfinished estates landed at the cabinet table.

Fianna Fáil members complained directly to Mr Haughey about developers – many of whom were party backers – after they had left many new housing estates unfinished and then abandoned them. Confidential files contained in the 1980 State Papers reveal that a memo was issued to Minister Barrett about the scourge of private developments that were left unfinished around the country. The memo, that was also circulated to other members of cabinet made specific mention of Fianna Fáil’s promise during the 1979 Local Elections campaign that “developers will have to foot the cost of completing estates one way or the other”.

At the time there were 120 unfinished estates across, many of which had serious safety concerns attached to them. “Frequently housing estates are left unfinished by builders, many of whom are known Fianna Fáil supporters,” one letter passed on to Minister Barrett by Haughey claimed.

In response to grassroots anger about unfinished developments, Mr Haughey deflected criticism of his government by saying it was ultimately the responsibility of the local authorities involved to police developers

However, Mr Haughey also pledged some government action as those concerned had been forwarded to Deputy Barrett, who in his capacity as Minister for the Environment also had responsibility for all matters local government.

THE CLARE music scene has needed a hero for a long time. Leaving traditional music entirely to one side, recent years has seen the county struggled to produce a band or artist for other to point to and say, “look at them, they made it, so maybe we can too”.

This is no trivial matter – one only has to think about the amount of north Clare musicians in their mid30s who are playing their songs today because of the success of The Stunning and the real impact that success can have on a scene in brought into full focus.

I think that everyone who loves Clare music hopes that 2011 is a very big year for C!TIES. The Ennis band have promised a lot and, up until now, have delievered everything they’ve promised. The release of their split-single vinyl with Guilty Optics in November is evidence enough of that.

The best thing about C!TIES is that they are that most illusive of melds – a band that is both truly alternative but still has the potential to achieve mainstream success.

“For the first EP, we were in my garage in one of my old houses, and so this time around we had the whole studio. Sean is studying all the sound recording stuff so he was able to pretty much record the whole thing for us,” Sean from C!TIES told The Clare People in an interview last month.

“This is our second paid release. It’s getting pretty heavy at this stage. The last stretch of gigs for Stress, Debt and Chest Pains’ vinyl, was to older crowds than what we are used to playing. We are used to playing in pubs to people roughly our own age – 17, 18, 19, 20 – getting drunk and dancing around the place.

“But we had a more sophisticated type of audience – people were more appreciative of the music as opposed to going mental. And then when we had them coming up afterwards and buying the record, and saying we were great and stuff. It was something else.”

FORMER US president Ronald Reagan famously toasted his Irish roots when drinking a glass of stout in Ballyporeen in 1984 during his controversial state visit to Ireland, but four years previously it was to Clare and not Tipperary that the then White House aspirant looked to when embracing his Irishness for the first time.

Early in his campaign for the presidency, Reagan had shown little interest in tracing his Irish roots, but the State Papers from 1980 reveal that all changed when the Republican Party candidate discovered that his connections with Ireland descended back to Killaloe and the High King of Ireland, Brian Boru.

Reagan revealed his interest in his relationship to the most famous Clareman of all-time in a phone-call to Morgan Llywelyn, the acclaimed author of Lion of Ireland that was published earlier in 1980.

Details of Reagan’s phone-call to Llywelyn that occurred a matter of weeks before he was inaugurated as president came to the notice of the state after the American-born writer gave a detailed account of the conversation to Ireland’s ambassador in Washingthon, Clareman Con Howard.

“At 1.30pm on Christmas Eve I was working in my study when the telephone rang,” wrote Ms Llywelyn. “This is Ronald Reagan. When I picked myself up off the floor, the President elect told me he had called to say how impressed he was with the Lion of Ireland . ‘I just wanted you to know that you are interfering with the transition process dreadfully because I sneak away every chance I get to read your book’, Reagan said.

“He had obviously read the book thoroughly and with high retention, for he can quote chunks of it. He was warm and friendly, easy to talk with. He told me he has found much that is thought-provoking and analogous to current situations in Lion, and that he was grateful to have knowledge of that distant ancestor of his. He indicated that some of Brian’s strategies and philosophies had impressed him deeply.

“He is interested in learning more about Ireland and the Irish. He wants to know the positive things; like so many others, he had heard for too long only the negative.

“The incoming president is half Irish and glad of it, according to his own words. With so many other ma jor and immediate problems vying for his attention, he has taken the time to express a sincere and personal interest in Ireland,” concluded Llywelyn in her letter to the Dysart-born Irish ambassador, who was associated with another famous literary figure in Clare history – Brian Merriman, in whose honour he founded the Merriman Summer School in 1967.