Category: News

THE Clare tourism industry is primed for a bonanza in 2014, with tourist numbers visiting the county projected to grow by more than 10 per cent on last year.

A number of new initiatives – such as increased flights through Shannon Airport, the establishment of a low cost bus service to Dublin and the reopening of the the Spa Wells in Lisdoonvarna – are set to bring tourist numbers to record highs over the next ten months.

This predicted increase comes on the back of a double digit growth in tourism numbers coming to Clare last year – an increase that was driv

THE main road to the Loop Head Peninsula, which was closed for almost six weeks following severe storms, reopened on Friday afternoon.

Clare County Council completed extensive works to rebuild and repair over 100 metres of the regional road and coastal wall along Kilbaha Bay.

The reopening of the road was welcomed by the Mayor of Clare, Councillor Joe Arkins, who said, “The temporary reconstruction works were necessary to re-establish connectivity in Kilbaha and the wider Loop Head Peninsula, and are a timely boost for the upcoming tourist season. Recent weeks have already seen the launch of the Wild Atlantic Way with a number of Discovery points along that route situated in the greater Loop Head area.”

Works undertaken by council staff include the positioning of over 3,000 tonnes of rock armour along the sea- front, 1,200 square meters of surfacing works, and the pouring of over 200 cubic metres of concrete.

Siobhan Garvey, Marketing and Development Officer for West Clare said, “There is no doubt that visitors planning a trip to Loop Head Lighthouse and the Bridges of Ross on the Loop Head Peninsula will appreciate the improved coastal protection works, car parking facilities and increased safety infrastructure that has now been put in place at these locations.”

“The improvement works completed today add to a number of tourism infrastructural projects that were completed at both these locations along with the West End in Kilkee late in 2013. The speed at which these works were completed and the continued investments made in the Loop Head area reflects the Council’s commitment to tourism and to continually building the tourism product in the rural parts of County Clare,” she added.

CLARE County Council will contribute € 5,000 towards a feasibility study for the development of Doonbeg Pier.

Doonbeg Community Development and the Doonbeg Fisherman’s Association have spend years working on plans to develop the community-owned pier and have come up against issues relating to changes in planning legislation.

Previously the group had been told these planning changes and the inability of the council to pay for a € 40,000 EPA meant their plans of developing tourism and the fishing industry could go no further.

This week there was renewed hope as the council said it would contribute to a feasibility project to see if the project is viable.

Tommy Commerford, PRO of the Doonbeg Fisherman’s Association, said the group is hopeful that the report will be favourable and that Clare County Council will make an application to Europe for the necessary funding to make the pier accessible at high and low tide.

The Doonbeg Pier was constructed in 1995, and was later extended by 35 metres. Hundred thousand euro plans were then drawn up that would ex- tend the capacity of the pier to allow boats to moor at high and low tide.

The Minister for Agriculture provided € 525,000 to the project in 2008 but this cannot be allocated until full planning permission is granted.

The developed pier would create extra jobs by stimulating the promotion of sea angling, leisure trips to view the cliff scenery off Doonbeg and help promote Doonbeg as an angling centre, said Mr Commerford.

He said it would also provide access to the proposed wave energy farm at Killard.

Clare Labour TD Michael McNamara said, “Doonbeg has a small pier which is inadequate and because it is tidal; people can only access the pier at certain tides. The community is doing everything to develop tourism. Doonbeg is on the coast, so sea angling would be a normal extension of its tourism product.

“There is money available from the department to develop piers but only when the project has passed the stages of planning and Environmental Impact statements.

“The decision by Clare County Council to grant aid a feasibility study is evidence of good faith and illustrates a willingness to work with the Doonbeg community in achieving the desired upgrade.”

THE first wave energy farm in Eu- rope is being planned for waters off Killard near Doonbeg. It could begin operating as early as 2018 according to the ESB. The energy company confirmed last week that its West Wave project will go ahead off the West Clare coast, and that five wave energy de- vices will initially be deployed to help “prove” that the technology can work on a commercial scale. The project is expected to cost between € 40 million and € 50 million. The company has secured a foreshore licence, and a number of environmental studies are currently under way that will take up to 18 months to complete. Planning permission will also have to be secured before the project goes ahead. According to reports, the ESB hopes to prove that the fledgling technology is durable and can produce power on an ongoing basis, which will help drive the wave industry forward. West Wave has been described as a critical project for the whole ocean energy business. The ambitious plans are being supported by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), which is providing € 1.3m in funding to help complete feasibility studies. Five firms have been shortlisted to supply the technology, and the successful bidder will be chosen by the middle of 2016. The successful bidder will supply five devices, which will be moored in an area of one square kilometre. The ESB aims to produce 26 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and become ‘carbon neutral’ by 2050.

A NUMBER of people in Clare have received a bizarre phishing email, written entirely in the Irish language, offering them $4.1 million dollars to take part in a business venture in Africa.

The emails, which are addressed from a Mr Ignacio Nwaku, are understood to be the first phishing emails of their kind written as Gaeilge.

A number of Clare people have reported receiving the email since they first appeared last week but there is no indication as yet that the emails are targeting Irish people because of the proximity to St Patrick’s Day.

The email professes to be from Ignacio Nwako – a barrister from the Togo Republic. Mr Nwako claims to be acting on behalf of his late client “Mr David” whose $4.1 million fortune has been lodged in a “coded deceased account”.

Phishing email work by enticing people to reveal important personal details like their online usernames, passwords and even their bank account details.

A spokesperson for Údarás na Gaeltachta, who examined the email for The Clare People , said it contained “jumbled up, nonsensical Irish” and was most likely made using automatic translation software.

The spokesperson also confirmed that this was the first phishing email in Irish that Údarás na Gaeltachta had ever come upon.

“I didn’t notice it at first [that is was written in Irish]. I saw that $4.1 million dollars and I knew straight away it was a scam. I was about to delete it and then I noticed that it was in Irish. I couldn’t believe it,” said one Ennis recipient who asked not to be identified.

The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources have asked members of the public to delete the email straight away.

The email reads: Tá mé Barrister. Ignacio Nwaku ó Phoblacht Tóga, chuaigh mé i dteagmháil leat ar feadh méid togra gnó i gceist é US $ 4.1 milliún dollar mbaineann le mo chliant go déanach Mr David agus tá sé sábháilte sa chuntas códaithe éagaigh. Beidh níos mó sonraí a relayed do duit ach má f haighim do freagra dearfach. Go raibh maith agat. Mr Ignacio Nwaku.

DUSTY the Dolphin has become jumpy and wary of human contact, following a number of high profile incidents with members of the public in Doolin last year.

Members of conservation group, Dolphin Day Ireland, spent the weekend in Doolin warning members of the public not to get in the water with Dusty. This follows a number of dangerous interactions with members of the public last year – with one person being hospitalised after swimming with the dolphin.

Vanessa Fagan-Vanhorn of Dolphin Day Ireland says that last year’s incidents have taken a toll on the Clare dolphin.

“She is definitely more jumpy and easier to startle then she used to be. The incidents of last summer do seem to have had an effect and her behaviour has changed. I was last swimming with her in October but I have been swimming with her in Doolin for more than eight years now,” she said.

“What was noticeable in October was when I put my hand into the water, she flinched. After a moment she recognised me from the camera that I bring with me and after that we swam together for two hours.”

Recent storms in Doolin have blown away all the warning signs, advising members of the public not to swim with Dusty. Dusty was not sighted in Doolin for a number weeks during the storms of January and February, leading to concerns that she might have left the area or been injured in the storms.

“Dusty has never left Doolin. She has been there right through the winter and through all the storm. I don’t think she will ever leave the area. She is very territorial and she has made it her home,” continued Mrs Fagan-Vanhorn.

“Really, people should sit on the rocks and enjoy watching her from there. It’s not that people want to cause her harm but they just don’t understand the species. People desperately want to have the experience of swimming with a dolphin and sometimes that gets the better of them.

“On a positive note there has been a big change in people’s understanding of dolphins, which is a result of last summer’s incidents. People seem to have more of an understanding that dolphins are wild animals.”

A BALLYVAUGHAN grandmother, who was given a symphysiotomy without her knowledge or consent while giving birth to her first son in September of 1965, says the “stonewalling” of the Irish state has forced her to take her case before the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

Details of the life and medical history of Ellen Moore were last week presented to the UN court in Vienna and Mrs Moore says the attitude taken by the current government and Minister for Health, James Reilly (FG) have forced this latest action.

After meeting with Mrs Moore and other members of the Survivors of Symphysiotomy (SOS) group last October, the health minister agreed to lift the statute of limitation involving symphysiotomy and allow sufferers to gain compensation through the courts.

The minister also agreed to release the second half of the Walsh Report, which probed the use of symphysiotomy’s in Irish hospitals, public. Neither of these promises have, to date, been kept.

“They have been stonewalling us and neglecting us. We worked so hard for the statute of limitations to be lifted and now it looks as if that that will not now happen. We were told in a meeting with Minister O’Reilly back in October that that we would receive the second half of the Walsh Report in two weeks – that still hasn’t happened,” said Mrs Moore.

“They [the Government] say one thing in public and they do the complete opposite in private. They are hoping that we will just go away. There are a lot of older women in the group and many of them have already died without receiving compensation.

“This isn’t just for us, this is for the next group of people who have something done to them without their consent. The state is not owning up to anything.”

This symphysiotomy procedure, which involved breaking a woman’s pelvic bone during labour, was carried out on an estimated 1,500 Irish women in the 1960 and ‘70s but fewer than 200 of these women are still alive.

A BUS company that aims to make Ennis one of the country’s tourism capitals says it intends to double its workforce in the town over the next 12 months. Dublin Coach commenced its daily Dublin to Ennis service in December 2013.

The company employs in excess of 100 people nationwide, with 27 of those jobs in Ennis.

Owner John O’Sullivan says the rolling out of new tourism products will see the company hiring more staff in 2014. “As of today we have 27 based in Ennis and we see that as growing significantly over the next 12 months. The tourism products haven’t kicked in yet and we expect that to double,” he explained. Mr O’Sullivan told The Clare People

NEW charges have been brought against a Polish couple charged with offences arising from the discovery of an alleged cannabis grow-house in West Clare earlier this year.

Jagoga Gajewska (19) and her partner Adam Wrobel (22), both with a former address at Lislanahan Lower, Kilkee appeared before Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

They are both charged with offences relating to the alleged discovery at Lislanahan Lower, Kilkee on January 13. On Wednesday, the court heard that new charges have been brought against the pair. Mr Wrobel and Ms Gajewska are charged with knowingly permitting premises at Lislanahan Lower, Kilkee on January 13, to be used for the manufacture, production and preparation of a controlled drug.

Mr Wrobel is charged with possession of cannabis, which at the time had a market value of € 13,000 or more. He is charged with possession of a cannabis plan and cultivating without license, plants of the cannabis genus, contrary to the misuse of drugs act.

Garda Eoin Daly of Kilrush Garda Station gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution in respect of both accused. Counsel for both accused, Alice Harrison applied to have the legal aid certificate extended to cover the new charges.

Judge Patrick Durcan granted the application. Insp Tom Kennedy requested the matters go back to April 2 to allow time for the preparation of the book of evidence.

Counsel consented to the application and to time being extended for the service of the book of evidence.

She told Judge Durcan that Mr Wrobel has secured bail in the High Court but has been so far been unable to take it up. Ms Gajewska has taken up High Court bail, the court heard. Judge Durcan adjourned the cases to April 2.

A JUDGE has refused jurisdiction of a case where it is alleged a man confronted another man with an iron bar on a main street in Ennis last summer. At Ennis District Court on Wednesday, Judge Patrick Durcan said it appeared to him that alleged incidents of this nature are becoming “too prevalent in Ennis”.

He was speaking after details of an alleged assault that took place on Carmody Street on July 1, 2013 were outlined in court.

James Galbraith (37), with an address at Lissanisaka, Claureen, Ennis is charged with assault causing harm to Dylan Dinan.

He is further charged with the production of an iron bar while about to commit assault.

Insp Tom Kennedy said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed summary disposal of the charges in the district court on a plea of guilty only.

Defence solicitor John Casey told the court his client would be pleading guilty.

Insp Kennedy said the alleged in- jured party was a passenger in a van when noticed the accused behind him at around 1.30pm on the day in question.

Insp Kennedy said it would be alleged that when the van stopped, Mr Galbraith came towards it with a crowbar and started to assault Mr Dinan.

Judge Durcan refused jurisdiction. “In my mind this type of stuff is becoming too prevalent in Ennis”, he said.

The case was adjourned to April to allow time for preparation of a book of evidence.