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A KILRUSH man pointed a screw- driver at a neighbour’s daughter, leading her to believe that he would cut her throat, it has been alleged in court.

Stephen Walsh Senior (59), of Pella Road, Kilrush, was accused of a pub- lic order offence, arising out of an in- cident near his home last January.

Garda Richard Burke told Ennisty- mon District Court that he received a complaint at Kilrush Garda Station from Catherine Wright. He subse- quently spoke to the defendant.

“Stephen Walsh was alleged to have pointed a screwdriver at her,” he said. He said the complainant al- leged that the defendant had taken a screwdriver from his pocket and pointed it at his throat, leading her to believe that he would cut her throat.

Defence solicitor Eugene O’Kelly put it to Garda Burke that several complaints have been made by the Wrights against the Walshes. Gda Burke replied, “I believe there were a number of complaints made but as to what they are, I have no idea.”

Ms Wright told the court that she had previously lived on Pella Road. She said that on January 28 last, she was outside her mother’s house on Pella Road. While there, she saw Stephen Walsh — who is a neighbour of her parents — at his car.

“Stephen Walsh spat towards my father on the ground. My concern was to get Dad in,” she said.

She said that the defendant then came from the left hand side of his car and took a screwdriver from his left pocket.

‘He faced towards me and pointed the screwdriver at himself and start- ed laughing,” she told the court.

She made reference to a previous in- cident, but was told by Judge Joseph

Mangan to confine her evidence to what had happened on January 28. She replied, “He pointed the screw- driver directly towards me, smiled, made a gesture towards himself and laughed. I was scared.”

In cross-examination of Ms Wright, Mr O’Kelly put it to her that her part- ner, who was there that day, was a

retired garda. She accepted that this was the case. Mr O’Kelly said, “He drove off. If you were that scared, would you not think he would have stayed?”

Mr O’Kelly said, “This event did not occur.” She replied, “I was there. It did happen.”

Ms Wright’s partner Joe Healy told

the court that he saw Stephen Walsh taking out a red-handled screwdriv- er. “He pointed it towards Catherine and pointed it back towards himself. Catherine was visibly shaken,” he Cr HLG

Mr O’Kelly put it to him that the in- cident did not happen and Mr Healy, a retired garda, replied, “This did

happen. . . 30 years taking the oath, I’m not in the habit of telling lies.”

Stephen Walsh told the court that he saw the Wrights pointing a cam- era phone at him, on the date in ques- tion. He denied spitting or making a gesture and said his priority that day was to fix a speaker in his car. “I didn’t do anything,” he said.

Under cross-examination by Su- perintendent Declan Mulcahy, the defendant said he was using a red Screwdriver to fix his car, but did not have the screwdriver in his pocket at any stage. “What she’s saying is hes,’ said the defendant.

Judge Joseph Mangan convicted the defendant. He heard that he has a number of previous convictions, dat- ing back several years.

Judge Mangan heard from Mr O’Kelly that the Walsh family has had a difficult time since the death of the defendant’s daughter in 2005.

The judge said, “This merits a cus- todial sentence. I’m not going to im- pose a custodial sentence today, but that is nothing to do with the merits or demerits. Ms Wright, twice in her evidence, veered away from the 28th. She was cautioned, yet she persisted. There is innocent inadvertence of a lay witness, but as the partner of an ex-garda, she should know a thing or two about crossing the line in mat- ters of evidence.”

He adjourned the case for a year and granted liberty to re-enter at 24 hours’ notice. “In the event of any further trouble, I think it’s fair to suppose it will take a great degree of persuasion to deter me from impos- ing a custodial sentence,” said the judge.

A JUDGE yesterday refused to con- firm the licence for a pub in Kilkishen after an elderly neighbour expressed concern about the noise emanating from it.

83-year-old Theresa Holahan, of Main Street, Kilkishen, objected to the confirmation of the licence to Brendan Hannon, who leases Glee- son’s public house, next door to where she lives. After she told the court that loud noise could be heard from the premises in the early hours of one morning, Judge Joseph Man- gan upheld the objection and did not confirm the licence to Mr Hannon.

Mrs Holahan told Ennis District Court that she has lived close to the pub for many decades. She first encountered problems in 2004 and 2005 and conditions were imposed, in court in 2005.

She said that those conditions were abided by initially, but the situation has changed in recent times.

“There is a lot of noise out the back and a lot of music,’ she told the court yesterday. Her solicitor Siobhan Mc- Mahon put it to her that one of the conditions imposed in 2005 was that a device to limit the noise would be put in place. Mrs Holahan said she was not aware whether this was used or not as it has been “quite noisy”.

Mrs Holahan said that she had to ring Mr Hannon at 2am a number of weeks ago as the noise was loud. This was due to a camogie team en- gaging in a sing-song, after they had won a county final.

“This is annoying me,” she told the court.

Ms McMahon said that her client “cannot be expected to make phone calls at 2 o’clock in the morning in relation to noise emanating from the premises.”

Solicitor for Mr Hannon, Stiofan Fitzpatrick said that his client has at all times acceded to all the requests made by Mrs Holahan. However Mrs Holahan said this was not the case.

Mr Fitzpatrick said that the noise limiting device has been in full working order. He said that the noise at the back of the premises was due to people smoking, but that people had to smoke somewhere. Mrs Hola- han replied, “I don’t care where they smoke as long as they don’t make LO) onl

Mr Hannon told the court that any time Mrs Holahan has contacted him about music, the issue has been rec- tified immediately. He said he took over the lease of the premises more than a year ago.

He said the noise limiter has been tested and is in full working order. However, while this works for bands

and music, it does not apply to sing- songs.

He told the court he accepted he was “100 per cent wrong” on the night of the camogie sing-song as things got on top of him and was under pressure at the time.

Mr Fitzpatrick said that Mr Hannon would give an undertaking to abide by the conditions.

The owner of the pub Noel Gleeson said that he was aware of the condi- tions, imposed in 2005, but he hadn’t received them in writing. The pub had been leased by two other indi- viduals at that time.

Asked did he tell Mr Hannon about the conditions, he replied, “No.”

ONE of Clare’s true characters will be honoured this week when he re- ceives an honorary degree from NUI, Galway.

Br Sean McNamara is one of just five people who will be honoured in a special ceremony later this week alongside traditional musician Frankie Gavin, RTE’s Northern Edi- tor Tommie Gorman, Galway soccer legend Eamonn ‘Chick’ Deacy and Fr Raymond Browne.

The Christian Brother will receive the award for his lifelong active engagement in voluntary organisa- tions.

Born in Kilmurry McMahon in 1927, Br Sean began his teaching ca- reer in 1947. He taught in Clonmel, Colaiste Mhuire and Marino in Dub- lin, Drogheda, Monaghan, Trim and Ballinrobe from where he retired when the Christian Brothers pulled out of that town in 1990.

During his time as a teacher, and more especially upon retirement in 1990, Br Sean became well known for his active engagement in volun- tary organisations and his campaign- ing on behalf of a number of organi- sations in the media.

As well as this he also served at

various times as Chairperson of the National Garden Association of Ire- land, as Council Member of Trees for Ireland and he was also a founding member of the St Columba’s Garden- ing Club in Dublin.

Over the last two decades, Fr Sean has also enjoyed an amount of fame as an author. He has written a number

of books including

A NUMBER of Clare people have been among the victims of an on-line scam which gets its victims to hand over credit-card details on the prom- ise of a tax refund.

A record 83,000 emails offering fake tax refunds were reported to the UK Revenue authorities in Sep- tember. The attacks have continued this month, with an unprecedented 10,000 reports of the fraud made on one day alone.

The UK Revenue confirmed that they have received complaints from

Ireland about the emails and that a number of these have been from people in Clare, including one wom- an whose card details were used fraudulently.

The email tells the recipient they are due a tax refund and then asks for bank account or credit card de- tails. Anyone who gives these details to the fraudsters risks their bank ac- counts being emptied and credit cards maxed to their limit. The victim also risks having their personal details sold on to other criminal gangs.

The ACCA Ireland (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is

also warning tax payers to not reply to the tax refund e-mails. “The UK tax authorities will not communicate with tax payers by e-mail and will not refund tax to a credit card or directly to a bank account based on filling out an on line form, this is a simple scam.” Aidan Clifford, ACCA’s Ad- visory Services Manager, said.

‘The web pages are very convinc- ing and professional looking. Expect any credit card or banks account de- tails supplied to be cleaned out with- in hours of responding”, he said.

Particularly at risk are people who were recently resident in the UK.

SEVEN former members of Clare County Council, with public repre- sentation records ranging from five years to 35 years, were honoured by the local authority they once served at Aras Contae An Chlair, last week.

Among those honoured were two former mayors, a former chairman, and some of the longest serving members of the council, all of whom served their last term from 2004 to PAU OL

Special tribute was paid to the

former north Clare county council- lor, Martin Lafferty (Ind) who re- tired from the council following an NU Baten

His former colleagues were de- lighted to see him back in the cham- ber, in good spirits and at the end of his treatment.

The Lisdoonvarna man was a former schoolteacher, and first ran for Clare County Council in 1974 as a Labour candidate.

While former Cllr Lafferty began his political career as a Labour coun- cillor, in 1999 he contested the elec-

tion as an independent candidate and topped the poll. He remained one of the most outspoken Independent councillors in the chamber up to his retirement earlier this year.

He was one of four councillors to retire at the last election, along with former mayors Madeleine ‘Taylor Quinn (FG) and Flan Garvey (FF), and one of the council’s most col- ourful characters former east Clare councillor Colm Wiley (FF).

The other three councillors to make the bittersweet return to meet their former Clare County Councillor’s

colleagues and council staff were Peter Considine (FF), Bernard Han- rahan (FF) and Tony O’Brien (FF). The three men, all Fianna Fail councillors were unsuccessful in an election that saw the annihilation of the main Government party in the county council election in Clare. Missing from the line up of former councillors from the 2004 to 2009 era was Kilrush Town Councillor Tom Prendeville (FF) who lost his county council seat in June and John ‘““Mashen” McInerney (FG) who also experienced the disappointment of

losing a seat.

CLARE hoteliers yesterday called on the Government to take emergency action to salvage the county’s tour- ism sector, following the collapse in foreign visitor numbers this year.

According to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday, the number of UK visi- tors travelling to Ireland has dropped by more than 24 per cent in just 12 months.

“The bottom has fallen out of the British tourist market, which is hav-

ing a significant impact on the tour- ism sector in Clare. Not a single meaningful action of substance has been taken by the Government to recover the situation,’ said Michael Vaughan, Chairman of the Shannon Branch of the Irish Hotels Federation Cists)

“The Government can no longer stand idly by and do nothing. We need imaginative solutions from our leaders and, in replying to a recent parliamentary question, Miu£inister Hanafin’s rejection out of hand of an IHF proposal to give free travel

to old age pensioners from the EU shows a reluctance to grasp the issue and adapt to new ways of thinking. It is no longer acceptable for the Gov- ernment to dismiss suggestions that could actually give Ireland a compet- itive advantage in attracting visitors from our main markets.”

Much of the blame for the collapse of the overseas tourism sectors 1s be- ing directed towards the controver- sial €10 travel tax introduced by the Government in March.

In an unprecedented show of unity, Ireland’s three largest airlines have

called for the Government to axe the €10 tourist tax. Christoph Mueller of Aer Lingus, Geoffrey O’Byrne-White of CityJet and Michael O’Leary of Ryanair have issued a joint statement aimed at forcing the Government to go back on the tax.

“The loss of 600,000 visitors so far this year confirms that the collapse in Irish tourism is accelerating as the €10 tourist tax makes Ireland an un- competitive tourist destination,’ said a Ryanair spokesperson. “In recent months the Belgian, Dutch, Greek and Spanish governments have all

scrapped tourist taxes and/or reduced airport charges, in some cases to zero, in order to stimulate tourism.”

Meanwhile, it was revealed yester- day that the Government has fallen short in the money they budgeted to get from the introduction of the travel tax.

From March 30 to August 31 some €57.9 million has been raised through the travel tax, prompting Clare TD Pat Breen (FG) to accuse the Government of scoring an “own goal” by persisting with the travel Fed @

ST Tola’s National School in Shannon has been congratulated for its efforts in caring for the environment, after it engaged in an initiative which en- courages students to walk to school.

The school is preparing for its fourth green flag. To coincide with Road Safety Week last week, the school organised its own initiative, WOW (Walk on Wednesday). Four meeting points were set up and from those, students walked to school, in the form of a walking bus.

Green Schools co-ordinator Lor- raine Connolly said that every effort is being made to care for the environ- ment.

“Members of the school commu- nity will make a conscious effort of a more environmentally friendly way of travel. Staff will try to car pool

and this will reduce the numbers of cars in the car park. We have also launched a green leaves and tree campaign. Every class has a tree and they look after them. That was the first part of our initiative. Everyone was really enthusiastic about that,’ said Ms Connolly.

The next part of the project was WOW, which was a huge success last AYA(ere DaTenNe ENYA

“The Green Schools committee is working very diligently. We are try- ing everybody to work together. We are hoping that this will leak into the community,” she said.

WOW was a huge success and the Green Schools committee is hoping to repeat the feat later in the school Were

“We are hoping to do it a couple of times in the year. Since we started, we did audits in every class. We have

definitely seen more children making a conscious effort to walk to school and the car parks are a lot quieter,” said Ms Connolly.

157 families are represented in St Tola’s school and the Green Schools committee is hopeful that as many of those as possible will play a role in the school’s effort to earn its fourth green flag.

Roisin Ni Ghairbhith from An Taisce’s Environmental [Education Unit paid tribute to the good work of those involved in the initiative at St Tola’s.

“Tam very impressed with the speed at which St Tola’s has jumped to the challenge of their travel flag. St To- la’s is one of only 15 schools in Clare that are on their fourth green flag and they have only just started the theme this September,’ she said.

“They have already done a lot of

work on it, including walkability audits and art work to raise aware- ness about sustainable travel. The children have been learning the safe cross code too, all to prepare them for their mission to encourage the entire school body and community to use their cars less on their route to school, be it walking, cycling, car pooling or parking and striding in- Stead,” she added.

She said the WOW idea is an excel- lent idea. “This 1n itself is very effec- tive because if people start by walk- ing once a week, instead of using the car, that is an immediate 10 per cent reduction in their CO2 emissions and and immediate improvement to their health and pocket,’ she added.

THE Avenue United steamtrain left a hapless Burren United in their wake on Sunday as they maintained their perfect start to the season with a sixth successive victory. The ‘Galacticos’ of the Clare league have put together an enviable squad this year that ap- pears to have seamlessly blended and they demonstrated that increasing confidence on Sunday morning with a strong display of passing and ruth- less scoring prowess.

Granted, the visitors Burren were severely understrength but in all honesty, the way the league leaders performed, it is unlikely that even Burren’s normally spirited full line- up would have taken anything out of this game.

At times, some of Avenue’s move- ment and one-touch passing was a joy to watch and really a lacklustre Burren side were only chasing shad- ows for the majority.

Realising the gravity of their trip to the league leaders, a threadbare Bur- ren side needed a good start to settle them down but instead they found themselves 3-0 behind by the 16th minute. From that point on, it was merely a damage limitation exercise.

All three goals stemmed from Dav- id Smyth crosses with the first com- ing after only seven minutes through Sean O’Meara who flicked a near

post header past the Lifford goal- keeper. Three minutes later, Smyth raided from the left wing where his cross was headed on by O’Meara to the waiting Declan Field to volley to the net at the back post. Everything Avenue created seemed to be goal- bound and in the 16th minute Declan Field was fouled on the right wing. Smyth floated the resulant free into the box where O’Meara again rose highest to deftly nestle his header to the left corner.

By this stage, Avenue were rampant

and probably should have added to their tally with efforts from the pacy Adrian McDonagh and centre-half David Russell who had three chances each spurned.

Burren’s best chance of the half fell to Ghiat Marine who was un- lucky to see a clever lob drift past the right hand post in the 27th minute and it would get infinitely worse for the north Clare side when defender Michael Keating received a straight red for an impulsive slap on the back of Anthony Whyte right on the stroke

Ome ee Neca nbnelos

The gradient of Burren’s_ uphill climb declined significantly just af- ter the breakthough when Avenue were hit with the double whammy of conceding a penalty and losing a man after Evan Talty beat goal- keeper Killian Culligan to the ball just inside the box and was subse- quently tripped. Culligan received a red; midfielder Gary Flynn went into goal and when Mark McCarthy duly converted the spot kick, the whole complexion of the game seemed to have altered.

Instead though, Avenue just altered their formation to 3-4-2 and within five minutes, had restored their three goal lead when the lively Adrian Mc- Donagh burnt the north Clare side’s defence for pace and flicked past Shannon for 4-1.

That was the killer blow for Burren who appeared to drop their heads af- ter that as Avenue laid siege in their half and with fresh legs on board, the goals soon followed. Substitutes David Herlihy and Mikey Mahoney (2) added to Burren’s woes before Declan Field, now the midfield an- chor, completed the rout in the 87th minute by taking on the defence and slipping the ball to the right corner of the net.

In one game, the leaders had al- most doubled their score difference, increased their advatage at the top to

eight points and more importantly, delivered a clear message of intent to their rivals that they certainly mean business this year.

PARENTS in east Clare need not worry about what to do with their children over the Bank Holiday week- end as the Feile Eile festival is back in Killaloe.

After the success of the inaugural festival last year, the people behind the Music in the Glen school, Boris Hunka and Diane Daly, decided to organise a second event and this year have made it bigger, better and, best of all, most events are free.

“It was a great success last year and we wanted to expand this year and have events where the children could perform for their parents as well as for other schools. We’ve been able to add quite a few events this year so we really hope that people will come out and support it,” said Diane.

The first big event of the festival is on Friday with the Schools Song Summit. Children from the seven lo- cal national schools will perform to each other before uniting to sing the Féile Eile anthem as a single choir from 10am to 11.30pm at Ballina Na- tional School Hall.

Saturday is the “Great Big Fun Day of Music, Drumming, Drama and Dance’ featuring four free workshops. Jenny Brown will be teaching the hot- test hip-hop and Bollywood moves. Kids will get to make lots of noise with Boris Hunka’s rare collection of big drums, Kathleen Turner of the Irish Chamber Orchestra will make singing fun and songwriting seem easy while Diane Daly uses Music in the Glen’s instruments, a medley of masks and participants’ imaginations to create a stunning new show on the spot. The workshops are from |lam- 4pm in the Kincora Hall Hotel. Pre- booking is essential on 087 2104583.

Also as part of the festival, cartoon favourite Bugs Bunny will meet the

Irish Improv Orchestra who will try to keep pace with Bugs as he deals with Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam and Porky Pig. This event event will take place at 6pm at Kincora Hall Hotel, NAP

On Sunday, there will be eerie sto- rytelling in the Bell chamber in the 10th-century cathedral of St Flan- nan’s (suitable for children aged five- plus). Times are lpm, 2pm and 3pm and it’s free. There’s a free blockbust-

er show featuring children from the performing schools on Sunday in St Annes School at 4pm and on Monday there’s a Haiku workshop in St Flan- nan’s at 2pm, run by local artist and writer Deirdre Grimes. Pre-booking is essential, call 086 2626525. Local author David Rice offers advice on writing at St Flannan’s Cathedral at 2pm. Again, pre-booking 1s essential, call 087 2104583.

To round off the Féile, musical leg-

ends and former performers with Stockton’s Wing, Tommy Hayes and Kieran and Mike Hanrahan, reunite in a special one-off show at 8pm on Monday in the Lakeside Hotel, tickets priced €22.

CLONDEGAD kicked off a super Sunday for themselves and neigh- bouring club Lissycasey with a strong and emphatic win over Coora- clare. For the opening period nobody sitting in the stand at Kilmihil could have predicted a 15 point winning margin, though.

When the sides broke for half-time, only a single point had separated them after an entertaining 30 min- utes that saw both sides kick some impressive scores. Trailing by one point on a scoreline of 1-5 to O-9, it was difficult to visualise Cooraclare being dominated so much at the turn around that they managed only a single point during the latter 30 min- utes.

With 20 minutes on the clock, Clondegad had pulled away slightly and led by three but Cooraclare struck back. After some confusion in the Clondegad defence, Jason Lillis picked up possession and fed the ball to Joey Martin who rattled home.

The game was wide open but the door was closed during the first five minutes of the second-half. Clonde- gad simply provided a blitz of scores and pressed forward with intent and this was the defining period of the game.

S-Ke bec ecm GaN sev MUD (cre mAeCooUmBNDucImES