Category: News

FUNDING has been approved for a major upgrade of a “vitally important” wastewater treatment plant in Ennis.

Clare County Council has received confirmation from the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government that it is committing the necessary capital funding to enable the local authority to award the contract for the upgrade of the Clonroadmore Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Reacting to the announcement, Mayor of Ennis Cllr Mary Coote Ryan stated, “The provision of the most modern wastewater treatment facilities is key in terms of the continued progressive development of the town of Ennis. I want to acknowl- edge the contribution and patience of the elected members of the town council who have been pursuing an upgrade of the town treatment facilities for a long number of years.”

Mayor of Clare Cllr Joe Arkins welcomed the news describing the project as “vitally important” and central to ongoing efforts to expand the quality and scale of the wastewater infrastructure in the county.

“The town of Ennis is our capital town and it is vitally important that the standard of services is what one would expect in a major urban centre. This is a contract of major significance for Ennis, Clarecastle and surrounding areas and will provide for a significant upgrade of Clonroadmore Wastewater Treatment Plant,” added Mayor Arkins.

Clare County Manager Tom Coughlan noted, “As we move towards the period when Irish Water assumes Clare County Council’s statutory role as a Water Services Authority, I think this announcement demonstrates the capability of the council to design, procure and progress major water services schemes.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the water services staff, present and past, for the significant contribution they have made to the provision and operation of the water services infrastructure. I also wish to acknowledge the role played by the elected members in devising policy and assigning the financial resources to build up the infrastructure to what it is today,” concluded Mr Coughlan.

Clare County Council confirmed it intends to complete the contract formalities with the successful tenderer so that the works can commence as soon as possible.

THE Health Services Executive came under fire in April amid mounting claims that there’s now a growing drink and drugs problem at the Acute Unit at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Ennis.

Controversy has erupted within the Clare health services after a patient and a nursing representative confirmed to The Clare People that drink and drugs represent an ongoing “problem” at the 38-bed unit that houses psychiatric patients. The Clare People has learned that patient and nursing fears about drink and drugs being smuggled into the unit by visitors has led to the gardaí being drafted in for illegal substance searches.

“There are people smoking cannabis in the Acute Unit in Ennis,” one patient from within the unit told The Clare People on Monday. “There is a garden adjacent to the unit and a number of patients were offering drugs to other patients.

“There was also alcohol being consumed – wine and cider that’s being offered to patients. The doors open from the garden into the ward and the smell of the cannabis comes in when the doors were opened. This has been reported to the nurses by two different patients,” the female patient added.

“Drugs have been an issue in the Acute Unit,” admitted Denis Meehan, a local representative of the Psychiatric Nurses Association. “The staff in the unit have done their absolute best to curtail this problem, but it’s very hard to do anything with it. Staff have called gardaí on occasion and patients have been searched. “In every prison in Ireland there are drugs, so you would expect them to be in the Acute Unit in Ennis. If this is reported to us, all we can do is search people and that’s what we have done,” he added.

CASH strapped parents facing back to school bills of more than € 700 per child were being forced to turn to moneylenders and charities such as St Vincent de Paul in desperation.

The Clare Citizen Information Service surveyed stressed parents who sought their advice and assistance and discovered the cost of one second level student starting school in Clare had reached € 800.

“The € 200 Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance was not taking the pressure off,” warned Clare Citizen’s Information Development Manager Paul Woulfe.

He raised concerns that the financial pressure is forcing people to turn to “legal and illegal moneylenders in desperation”, who charge exorbitant interest rates and in the case of illegal moneylenders can resort to threatening and abusive behaviour when collecting debt.

Parents were also finding some solace in organisations like St Vincent de Paul.

“It is easy to see how the costs add up. Shoes cost about € 250 because you need runners too, € 200 for school uniforms and tracksuit, books cost anything between € 200 and € 250 with miscellaneous classroom costs at least € 50.

“The volountary contribution to schools is usually between € 100 to € 125,” explained Mr Woulfe.

The Citizen Information development manager said many parents find themselves in debt at the start of the school year, especially the Back to School Footwear and Clothing Allowance and children’s allowance is reduced as costs increase. The cost of school tours and extra curricular activities or tuition can also be very high.

“Though not compulsory, such activities are often essential with re- gard to social an educational inclusion,” said Mr Woulfe.

He continued, “Children from lower income families are likely to benefit most and yet be most at risk of exclusion from costly extra curricular activities and supports. Additionally a child who has to opt out of school tours or outings is likely to experience social stigma.

“Evidence from MABS suggests that parents may opt to ensure that their children do continue to par- ticipate in extra curricular activities, school tours etc, but that this brings with it the risk of deepening household poverty, which carries with it not only health risks associated with food and fuel poverty but also the stress of household indebtedness and social exclusion of the parents and family within the broader community or socio-economic context.

“They have so many costs it is crippling and they face a great burden,” said Mr Woulfe.

A MAJOR employment boost could be on the way for North Clare in the months ahead as Ennistymon based sign company Data Display are on the verge of signing a landmark contract with the New York City Department of Transport.

The company, which has been one of Clare landmark industries over the last 30 years, has developed a unique solar-powered signage system that can display the length of time until the next bus arrives at a bus stop.

The system, which is currently on trial in the Staten Island area of New York City, could be spread city wide as part of a major upgrade of the entire public transport system due to take place in 2014.

While the tender process for this redevelopment has yet to be undertaken, Data Display are understood to be in pole position to win the lucrative signage contract.

The new solar-powered signs allows busses to contact directly with signs to give real-time information about how far away their bus actually is.

“In many respects public transport in the US, both in terms of quality and usage, has lagged behind its Eu- ropean counterpart for many years, but they are now looking to leapfrog ahead with live signs and apps,” said Paul Horan of Data Display.

“One of the key aspects is the low power usage.

“This low power system which can be powered by solar panels means that they don’t need any wires,” he said.

Data Displays, which already employs hundreds of people in its Ennistymon factory, gain a foothold in New York after electronics giant Siemens brought it in as a sub-contractor to install signs in the city’s subway system in 2005.

“Data Display has always had an international focus, managing to provide electronic displays from Seattle to New York, from Dublin to New Zealand,” continued Mr Honan.

“Customisation is a very important part of what we do, with customers not only desiring a finish that fits with their own specific environments, but also having different background systems with which we must interface.”

While no details of the 2014 citywide contract for New York City have yet been released, it is understood to include thousands of sign and will be worth millions of dollars to whatever company is successful.

BUNRATTY was the place to be in April as a small school of dolphins took up residence under the famous bridge. The dolphins drew large crowds for weeks – and prompted much concern over their safety before if became clear that they were there by choice and had not become trapped.

An attempt to rescue the bottle nose dolphins was planned early in April but never went ahead. Speak- ing ahead of the proposed rescue missing, the Clare based Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG), said the dolphins appeared “relatively healthy”.

“In my opinion something will have to be tried this week. They are healthy at the moment but with the low tide coming on Wednesday, something will probably have to be tried,” said Simon Berrow of the IWDG in early April.

“The longer this goes on the more stressed the animals will get. They are in fresh water and that is damaging their kidneys right now and it will also start to damage their skin as well.

“We have also heard reports of kids throwing stones at them when they get close to the shore and we would appeal to anyone who comes to visit the dolphins, not to engage in this sort of behavior.”

The dolphins were discovered on March 31, in murky water close to the old bridge over Bunratty River, close to Durty Nelly’s Pub. The last time that dolphins became stranded in this area was in 1995, when Clare recorded one of its finest summers in recent memory.

Some locals are hopeful that the return of the dolphins are a sign of a good summer ahead. Hurling fans are also hopeful that the return of the dolphins to Bunratty may also be on omen suggesting a hurling season similar to what took place in 1995.

AUGUST was the month when Clare’s dreams of capturing an historic All-Ireland double started to gather real momentum.

The Banner’s golden year took flight in Thurles on August 7 when they swept aside Tipperary to win a second successive Munster under 21 title.

Clare’s 1-17 to 2-10 scoreline was built on a solid defensive performance from man of the match, full back David McInerney. The Tulla man was imperious throughout, illuminating his hour with spectacular catches and launched clearances. Tipperary’s much vaunted forward division never got going thanks to dominant displays from Clare’s half and full back lines.

The victory marked the completion of an historic ‘double/double’ for joint manager Gerry O’Connor and Donal Moloney. Having guided Clare to back to back Munster minor championships in 2010 and 2011 the pair followed that achievement with Munster under 21 titles in 2012 and 2013, not to mention and All-Ireland title in 2012.

“I have never seen a bunch of guys to set out a standard in terms of behaviour and in terms of how to work, and anything that strays from that standard, to them is totally unacceptable”, joint manager Donal Moloney told The Clare People afterwards.

Ten days later Clare’s journey to hurling’s summit hit top gear as they produced an outstanding performance to beat Limerick in the All-Ireland senior semi-final.

The brilliance of Tony Kelly, Podge Collins and Colin Ryan inspired Clare to a 1-22 0-18 win over the Munster Champions and prematch favourites.

Captain Patrick Donnellan was hugely influential in a sweeper role that was the platform for Clare’s dominance.

“The way we have to rank this is that Clare have only been in six finals over 120 years and that’s a pretty big achievement whatever happens” said jubilant Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald afterwards.

“I’m so proud of these young lads. They are an example to everyone playing the game because they work so hard and never die,” added Fitzgerald.

“It’s great to be here, great that we played well and great that we have another day to look forward to,” said Patrick Donnellan.

That win sparked a rush for AllIreland final tickets. The hunt began in earnest when clubs across the county received an initial allocation of 9,000 tickets.

The second allocation of tickets to be administered by the Clare County Board via the clubs was predicted to be 3,000, which meant that a total of 12,000 were made available to GAA clubs.

With tickets proving to be scarce many fans took to the internet to source tickets.

Clare fans got the opportunity to meet their heroes when the gates of Cusack Park were thrown open for an open training session.

On the field, Clare kept on winning as the county’s under 21s beat Galway 1-16 0-7 in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Clare blew away the Tribesmen thanks to another dominant performance at full back from David McInerney and a 1-6 haul from corner forward Cathal O’Connell.

THE Mayor of Clare opted to spread Christmas cheer this year by redirecting his € 1,000 Mayoral Christmas Card Allowance to two local voluntary groups.

Each year the first citizen of the county is allocated € 1,000 from the council coffers to send Christmas cards.

This year however, as charities struggle to raise funds the mayor, Cllr Joe Arkins decided to give the funds to the Clare Filipino Community and the Clare Branch of the Irish Kidney Association (IKA).

Both charities benefited by € 500 each.

“I am delighted to contribute my Christmas card allowance to the respective fundraising efforts of both of these organisations who for very different but important reasons rely on such donations,” stated Mayor Arkins.

Commenting on his donation to the Clare Filipino Community, he said, “The entire world watched on in horror as a Super Typhoon wreaked havoc on the Philippines during November. Since then, fundraising efforts have been underway all over Ireland to assist those whose lives have been affected by the tragedy. Clare, and in particular Shannon, has a thriving Filipino community and I am delighted to pledge part of my Christmas card allowance to their fundraising efforts.”

The mayor also paid tribute to the work carried out by the Clare Branch of the IKA and its volunteers.

“I want to thank members of the association for their commitment to promoting organ donation and tireless fundraising efforts to support IKA services. I also want to pay tribute to the many donor families around Clare for their immense courage and compassion in donating their loved ones’ organs, as well as acknowledge those who carry organ donor cards,” stated the mayor.

APRIL began with bad news for Clare primary schools with the news that 60 schools could face closure or amalgamation. According to a leaked Department of Education, small school across the county face an uncertain future.

The ‘Value for Money Report’ recommends the all primary schools should have a minimum of 80 pupils and four teachers. This, according to Irish National School Teacher’s Organisation (INTO) Clare Executive Sean Mc Mahon puts almost 60 schools in Clare at risk of closure, which is 50 per cent of all the primary schools in the county.

According to the most up to date official Department of Education figures for the school year 2011-2012, there are 59 rural schools in Clare with less than 80 pupils.

When asked about the proposal and its impact on the county’s primary education ahead of the INTO congress meeting in Cork in April, Mr McMahon described the suggestion as an April Fools joke.

“Considering today is April 1 and we hear news that a Minister is seek- ing to close down 50 per cent of the schools in Clare and hundreds across the country, it must be an April Fools joke,” said the Mullagh School Principal who is tipped to be elected that next national vice president of the primary teachers union.

“A Value for Money Report is a very narrow way to determine the future of rural schools and their value to the community. It does not take into account location or distance students must travel for an education,” he added.

Should the report get the support of the Minister for Education and the Department of Education and Skills it will mean the closure of more than 1,000 schools across the country, 600 of which have less than two mainstream teachers.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said however that the report’s findings did not mean it would be Government policy to close schools with fewer than four teachers.

Information from the report is emerging as teachers from all over the country meet for their traditional trade union congresses this week.

CLARE farmers were warned to be vigilant in August following a marked increase in cattle rustling – as fears grew that an organised gang could be targeting farms in the county.

An incident of suspected cattle rustling took place in Quin when more than € 10,000 wor th of cattle was taken from the farm of Anthony Flannery.

The raid specifically targeted high value animals which the thieves would likely attempt to re-sell rather than slaughter.

But to sell the animals the criminals would need to provide valid documentation and tags for the animals, which led to a belief the theft could have been part of an organised operation rather than opportunistic.

Clare ICMSA Chairman, Mar tin McMahon, told The Clare People such crimes could be enough to put already stretched farmers out of business.

“The value of this stock now to a farmer is huge. After such a costly winter farmers have been tr ying to get cattle in shape so they could get as much money from them as they could. There are loans to banks and credit to be paid and a theft life this could put someone out of business,” he said.

“These people [cattle r ustlers] would have to have a knowledge of farming and a way of disposing of these animals. If there is someone out there who is helping dispose of stolen animals then this is a very serious risk to farmers in Clare and something that needs to be brought to an end quickly.

“The Guards and the Department of Agriculture need to row in behind this quickly and bring an end to this situation,

Gardaí in Ennis investigated the incident in Quin. Among the cattle stolen were a six-year-old black Limousin cow, two other in calf cows and an Aberdeen Angus.

GARDAÍ have confirmed they are investigating the circumstances in which an Ennis teenager was married by Bishop Michael Cox.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told Ennis District Court earlier this month that an investigation is underway into the apparent marriage of the 17 year-old Ennis teenager and his 18 year-old Cork ‘bride’.

He was speaking after the woman told Judge Patrick Durcan that Bishop Michael Cox married the couple in Birr, Co Offaly in November.

In sworn evidence, the woman said Bishop Cox charged them € 100 for the ceremony.

Bishop Cox had previously attracted controversy when he ordained Sinead O’Connor a priest in 1999 in Lourdes – he is not a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church and is instead a bishop of the Latin Tridentine Church.

In court, Judge Durcan was strongly critical of Bishop Cox.

He said the fact that the couple had paid money for the service was “appalling” and “brings things to the lowest depths.”

“I want to say loudly and clearly that anyone who masquerades as a clergy man and who takes money from young people and imbues in them a mistaken belief that he has married them, is in my view committing the most serious offence”, added Judge Durcan.

Details of the ‘marriage’ emerged at Ennis District Court on December 20 where the boy appeared for sentence.

The teenager, who was described as “naive”, previously pleaded guilty to multiple charges of burglary, theft a and robbery.

He was one of two people who stole a car from Castlewood Park, Ennis last summer.

The teenager pleaded guilty to trespassing on a farmhouse in Lemenagh, Kilfenora last October. He admitted stealing items from a house in the Lifford area of Ennis, also in October, 2012.

He also pleaded guilty to his role in burglaries at houses in Westwood, Ennis on dates unknown between December 25 and 26 (2012) and at Showground’s View, Ennis on dates unknown between December 26 and 27 (2012).

The court heard that after being arrested on a bench warrant, he absconded from custody on December 18 after gardaí stopped at Supermacs, Ennis to get him food.

The boy was due to be transported to St Patrick’s Institution for Young Offenders when he ran from a garda car on O’Connell Street.

Garda James Hanley told the court the teenager was discovered at home where he had used a hacksaw to remove the handcuffs.

Defence solicitor Siobhan McMahon said her client’s immaturity had led him to this point.

“He is happy to settle down in Cork and enjoy married life”, added Ms McMahon.

Judge Patrick Durcan said it upset him “greatly and deeply” that his last case of the year involved the imposition of a lengthy sentence on a young person.

However Judge Durcan added that despite the constant support and help of parents, solicitors and gardaí, the teenager’s list of offences indicates the teenager is becoming a “criminal of the worst kind”.

He imposed sentences totaling 12 months detention.

Recognizance were fixed in the event of appeal meaning the boy will be released until the outcome of any appeal if bail terms are reached.