The Clare People Archive

TWO aircraft confirmed to be in- volved in prisoner rendition activities by the CIA in reports published by the European Parliament, the Coun- cil of Europe and Amnesty Interna- tional, continue to use Shannon Aiur- port to refuel but are still not being searched by gardai.

The Gulfstream IV jets, registra- tion numbers N4/5LC and N478GS, owned at the time by Centurion Avi- ation Services, a shelf company for

the CIA, have been identified by the EU’s “Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners” published in November 2006.

N478GS landed at Shannon on July 26 andN475LC refuelled at the air- port in the early hours of October 30. A formal request for the airplane to be searched by gardai was made on the night by well known anti-war campaigner Edward Horgan from Limerick. Mr Horgan, a retired Irish

Army Commandant, was aware that the plane was due in Shannon and was there when it arrived.

His request to have the plane searched was refused and he made a formal complaint and two days later, received a letter from An Garda Sio- chana stating that “the gardai will not be taking any action on the informa- tion contained in your statement.”

Ata recent conference in Ennis, Mr Horgan asked guest speaker Kath- leen O’ Toole, the head of the Garda Siochana Inspectorate, whether

she would investigate the failure of gardai to prevent the use of Shannon for torture.

Stating that she had no personal or professional knowledge of the situa- tion at Shannon, Ms O’ Toole said that OS DENA OComDOOUUOUKI (cs mmc(oco wm OLE Li-DOhVAES Ro) f| time to assign us to look at anything throughout the country involving garda practices then of course we will do that.”

Centurion Aviation Services was also named in an Amnesty Interna- tional report on rendition last year

and the registered owner of both aircraft 1s now listed as L-3 IS LLC, Great Falls, Montana.

According to the European Parlia- ment report, “Aircraft N478GS and N475LC belong to the company Cen- turion Aviation Services. This compa- ny is relevant, within the framework of CIA flights, as a beneficiary of the so-called “landing permits” in the US military bases all over the world. The Civil Aircraft Landing Permit (CALP) authorizes aircraft to land on US military bases worldwide.”

YOUNG Clare farmers must be giv- en priority treatment if an increase in the quota is announced next year.

That is according to Catherine Buckley, Macra na Feirme’s national president, who said last week that should the EU Commission decide to increase quotas on a once-off basis in 2008 then the increased percent- age must be targeted at new entrants and young farmers in order to benefit the industry.

Buckley said that a small once-off increase in EU milk quota would leave Irish farmers worse off over the longer term relative to getting no increase in quota as outlined in the FAPRI Ireland Partnership analysis

of quota expansion.

The leader of the young farmers’ organisation pointed out that an in- significant increase in quota for all dairy farmers across the board would not benefit the industry.

“Instead, 1f we are to attract young people into the industry, we need to provide young farmers with milk quo- ta access. We have a poor age profile with only eight per cent of our farm- ers under the age of 35,” she said.

“The targeting of increased quota to new and recent entrants is vital in order to allow those farmers who are the future of the dairy industry to rapidly expand their businesses in the years ahead and to prepare for an environment without milk quotas,” she said.

“Dairy farming is a very labour- intensive and tying occupation and young people must see the prospect of proper rewards for their time if they are to commit themselves to the sector.”

Buckley said additional quota tar- geted at new entrants and young farmers would be purely ‘a license to produce’, rather than an asset, and the quota should be allocated nation- ally and completely separately from the milk quota exchange.

Meanwhile, Alltech and Macra na Ferime have, for the second year in succession, joined forces to run a na- tional silage competition in order to encourage the highest standards of silage making amongst young farm- ae

Over 400 samples have now been taken across 20 regions in the coun- try and the national final of the com- petition, followed by an awards cere- mony will take place on December 3 in Alltech’s European headquarters in Dunboyne, County Meath.

The overall national competition winner will enjoy an educational trip for two people to the United States in 2008 to visit a chosen farm enterprise, and 26 county winners and runners-up will each receive an Alltech product vouchers valued at €200, €100 and €50.

On the day there will also be a farm walk and an information seminar. For more information, contact John Graham in Macra national office on Ol 4268910.

A REMARKABLY low level of convictions are being recorded by juries in the Circuit Criminal Court in Clare, with less than a quarter of jury trials resulting in convictions this year.

Just three juries convicted defend- ants in the 13 criminal trials that took place in the Circuit Court during this year. Seven of the trials resulted in acquittals – a combination of jury de- cisions and directions by judges. In two of the trials, the juries could not decide and were advised to returned “disagreed” verdicts.

Of the three convictions, just one individual was forced to spend a pe- riod of more than one week behind bars. One Ennis individual, who was found not guilty of assault causing harm but was convicted by a jury of the lesser charge of assault, was jailed for six months.

In a criminal damage case, a Kil- rush man who was found guilty and was remanded in custody for one week. An 18-month jail term, sus- pended, was later imposed.

In the other case where a conviction was recorded, a two-year suspended term was imposed after a defendant was convicted of making thousands of nuisance phonecalls to the Garda emergency line.

However, there have been several

guilty pleas entered in the Circuit Court and many of those have had tough sentences imposed.

The recent trials in the Circuit Court resulted in juries returning two “not guilty” verdicts – one in- volved a charge of manslaughter and the other indecent assault charges – while a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of a young Kilrush man

who was accused of assault causing harm. That young man was found not guilty by the jury of stealing a mo- bile phone.

Of the seven trials that took place during the June sittings, three de- fendants were acquitted, three were convicted and one jury was unde- cided.

During the court sessions last Feb- ruary, two young men from Kilrush were acquitted of assault, while an- other man, accused of dangerous driving causing death, was also ac- quitted. In another case, of allega- tions of indecent assault, the jury was discharged by the judge, follow- ing legal argument.

The trend follows on from last year, when several acquittals were recorded, during the Circuit Court sittings in the county. Two assault cases, along with cases of danger- ous driving causing death, threat to kill and threatening an individual all concluded with acquittals.

Ennis solicitor John Casey said it is difficult for a conviction to be re- fey xelere

“It is not an easy thing to get a con- viction before any jury, because of the legal intricacies, but every case has to be looked at on its own mer- its,’ said Mr Casey.

THE promoters of a bottling plant for spring water discovered by Cllr PJ Kelly’s “water divining” powers will have to wait a while longer to reap the benefits.

This follows Clare County Coun- cil expressing of “serious concerns” about Clare Spring Water Ltd’s bore well to source the spring water sup- as

In seeking further information on the proposal, the council state that the location of the well may prejudice the future development of lands out- side the control of the developer and

that activity of the adjacent landhold- ing may impact on the water quality of the borehole.

The council states: “Please address these concerns and this should in- clude a revised site layout to indicate the location of the borehole relative to the landholding boundary.

“This should also include, if nec- essary, proposals to ensure that no inappropriate development is con- ducted on lands inside the 60metre radius, to include letter of consent from other landowners affected, if necessary.”

The water source was discovered by Cllr Kelly and a twisted metal coat

hanger and is it expected to produce a €4 million windfall for the village of Lissycasey, it emerged yesterday. The water diviner councillor dis- covered “three major top quality wa- ter springs” in the High Street area 6km from Lissycasey Clare Spring Water Ltd has since lodged plans with Clare County Council for a €4 million bottling plant to bottle the spring water. Along with the €4 million capital outlay, the plant will generate be- tween €1.2 million to €1.5 million per annum in the local economy. Cllr Kelly explains that his ‘water divining’ is carried out through hold-

ing a twisted metal coat hangar in his hands.

He said: “People laugh at it, but 1s 100% successful at finding subter- ranean activity. It gives you a lot of satisfaction when finding new water springs.

Cllr Kelly said that he discovered his talent accidentally 40 years ago when he took a pair of tongs in his hands and he jumped with the shock. Cllr Kelly said: “When searching for water springs, I get positive and negative signals.”

Cllr Kelly’s talent extends to be- ing able to locate injuries in animals such as horses and dogs.

IT APPEARS that the decision to grant commercial independence to Shannon Airport is being rushed through without any proper evalua- tion of the airport’s ability to stand on its own, according to a Clare TD.

Pat Breen (FG) told the Dail that the airport may need €250 million to sustain its future needs.

“Shannon Airport faces an uncer- tain future with 320,000 passengers wiped off the Heathrow route, no guarantees on transatlantic passen- gers, Significant capital cost projec- tions, a dependency on military traf-

fic and an over-reliance on low-cost operations,’ he said.

In recent days, the Shannon Air- port Authority (SAA) lodged the air- port’s business plan with the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) in order to achieve independence and the Minis- ter for Transport, Noel Dempsey also received a copy.

However, Deputy Breen expressed concern that the independence of the airport was being rushed through in order “to deflect attention from the Government’s inaction on Shannon”.

Deputy Breen pointed out that “the extension of car parks, resurfacing the main runway and taxi-ways and

replacing air bridges cost money. When one lands at Shannon one no- tices many temporary buildings in a dilapidated state, all of which require refurbishment.”

On the effect of the “Open Skies” aviation deal on transatlantic routes, Deputy Breen said: “The reality is that direct seats sold from the US into Shannon are falling year by year, down from 577,000 in 2006 to 442,000 for 2007, with projections of 355,000 direct seat sales for 2008.

“The previous Minister told us in Shannon that we should embrace the opportunity, that aircraft were sitting in 22 new US airports ready to take

off and that we would share in that Le LURSIB ELSE

“They have not landed in Shan- non, the story there is very differ- ent. American Airlines has ceased its Shannon operation. US Airways did not operate for the winter and the Aer Lingus chief executive, Dermot Mannion, has only given a guarantee of direct trans-Atlantic flights from Shannon up to October 2008.

‘Therefore it is important that be- fore any decision on the break up is finalised, the airport’s ability to fund its future capital investments should be addressed,” Deputy Breen con- cluded.

THE IFA is once again pilling the pressure on Agriculture Mi£nister, Mary Coughlan, seeking an all out ban on Brazilian beef imports. Following the publication last week of FVO report on the standard of beef production in Brazil and a fresh outbreak of foot and mouth disease confirmed in Cyprus, IFA President says that Coughlan and EU Health and Consumer Protection Commis- sioner, Markos Kyprianou, must act to safeguard the Irish beef sector “The EU Commission has lowered Europe’s defensive barriers against Foot and Mouth disease to unac- ceptably low levels and continues to

expose the European livestock sector and Member States to unnecessary risks,” he said.

“Continuing to expose the Europe- an livestock sector and EU citizens to an unacceptable risk on foot and mouth disease is reckless and imme- diate action must be taken by Com- missioner Kyprianou to tighten up his flawed policy on FMD.”

The FMD virus in Cyprus has been confirmed as Serotype O, which is the common strain found in Brazil and other parts of South America.

Walshe also called for an all out ban on Brazilian beef following the publication of the FVO which found a number of shortcomings and defi- ciencies in the Brazilian beef sector.

The IFA President said Minister Coughlan now has evidence that Brazil still fails to meet EU require- ments.

‘The Minister must insist that EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou delivers on his commitment to 1m- pose a ban on Brazilian beef in view of the fact serious deficiencies previ- ously identified by the FVO have not been corrected,’ he said.

“The FVO report had again high- lighted a litany of serious problems with the standards in Brazil. It con- cluded that as aspects of the iden- tification system were incorrectly implemented, this called into ques- tion the reliability of the 40-day and

90-day residency policy, which the Commission relies on to implement regionalisation. The FVO_ found more animals registered in the SIS- BOV database than were actually present on some farms. “

The report also found shortcomings in the vaccination procedures stating that ‘no routine controls were being carried out by the competent author- ity on holdings to ensure proper vac- cination in some states’.

The vaccination programme as rec- ommended was not been followed and thus the level of herd immunity might not be sufficient to protect against FMD. The FVO observed that the FMD virus 1s still circulat- ing in parts of Mato Gross do Sul.

THE Clare Executive of ICMSA held its North Area meeting last week at Fall’s Hotel in Ennistymon and elected Richard Deveraux as Chairman while Pat O’Donoghue of Kilshanny was elected Secretary. The meeting was addressed by one of the Association’s research officer, James O’ Mahony, on a wide range of farming issues such as the outlook for milk and beef prices, cross-com- pliance, REPS 4, Nitrates deroga- tions and the very abrupt termination of the Farm Improvement Scheme.

The election of Mr Deveraux and Mr O’Donoghue, together with the election last month of Thomas Shan- non of Lissycasey as Chairman of West Clare and Padraig Haugh of Moyasta as Secretary means _ that the Clare now only requires the East Clare area to convene and appoint its officers to fill all its positions.

The Chairman of Clare ICMSA, Martin McMahon, has said that Clare will send a large delegation to the national Annual General Meeting to be held at Limerick Racecourse on November 29.

“I’m confident we’ll be able to turn

out the usual Clare team,’ said the O’Callaghan’s Mills Farmer.

“We’re very excited about the line- up that’s been arranged for this year. Hugh Friel, the outgoing CEO of Kerry group, Tara Buckley, CEO of RGDATA and the Consumer Asso- ciation of Ireland will give presenta- tions on the question of Irish food and who get what?

‘That promises to be a very bracing debate. The afternoon will see John Moloney, CEO of Glanbia, Vincent Gilhawley of Town of Monaghan, Joe Flynn of Irish Dairy Board and Sieta van Keimpema of the Euro-

pean Milk Board give presentation on the theme of Increased Quotas – More work, Less income?

“This is a star-studded line-up of experts in the field of Irish food gen- erally and Irish dairying, in particu- lar. Any member who attends will have a much better idea of his or her business for the next 12 months after hearing these people then they would otherwise.

“The day will end with a full din- ner and a speech from Minister Coughlan. A great and productive day will be had by any member who attends.”

THIS year’s Junior Cert class at St Joseph’s Secondary School in Span- ish Point will go down as one of the best achievers in maths and science in the long history of the school.

Alongside a host of classmates with impressive scores on both subjects, Katie Curtin from Miltown Malbay secured a brace of As to help her be- come one of only a handful of stu- dents to gain a perfect 12As.

She was made to wait for her suc- cess however, having been awarded 11 As and a B in September before her grades were improved after a re- fe SEM oo)

“Any student who gets Il As is a

great result, but to get 12 is amaz- ing. There are very few schools who would even offer 12 subjects,” said school principal Mary Crawford.

“We offer a lot of different subjects to give each student the chance to experience a wide range of topics to choose from.”

Katie’s sister Clare was also the top-achieving Leaving Cert student at the school this year.

“T like trying out different things such as experiments and that. I like physics but I’m doing biology as well and that is also good. I like business as well so I might end up doing some- thing in that area,” said Katie.

The group is taught by maths and science teacher Marie Lynch.

“They’re a great gang and all of them are very good at maths. A lot of them had 90 per cent or more in their maths mocks, so it didn’t surprise me so much that they got on so well. They’re great workers, they wouldn’t have done so well if they didn’t work so hard,’ she said.

“T like Ms Lynch, she is a bril- liant teacher,’ said Geraldine Rynne from Miltown Malbay. “I like doing the experiments. Like today we are doing experiments to measure how fast something is accelerating. It’s very interesting to figure out how different things work.”

Sarah Donnelly, who received 10 As, also enjoys the class. “I really like doing the experiments and see-

ing how things work. We got to burn things in chemistry today, so that was good fun. I would really like to do something in the science area when I go to college. I’m not really sure what yet though,” she said.

“T like going at it and finding out how things work for myself. You learn more if you figure it out for yourself instead of reading it in a book. I’d like to learn more about different things and how they work,” said Sean McMahon from Kilmurry

“We all like the experiments I think. I like to try and solve prob- lem so it’s good fun. Fifth year is a lot tougher than it was in Junior Cert but I still like it,” said Siobhan Talty from Miltown.

BALLYNACALLY woman Catriona Murphy recently qualified as an ac- countant at the Association of Char- tered Certified Accountants (ACCA) eraduation ceremony.

Catriona Murphy, of Rosscliff Road, Ballynacally, was congratu- lated on the occasion by Deane Mor- rice, president ACCA Ireland and Mr Richard Aitken-Davies, ACCA global deputy president at the ACCA Ireland 2007 graduation ceremony at the Helix Theatre, Dublin.

Mr Aitken-Davies said that human

capital, rather than capital assets, is now the main source of competitive advantage for businesses.

Continued Mr Aitken-Davies, °“To- day it’s human capital, the knowledge and skills that talented individuals can bring to organisations, that provides the source of competitive advantage.

“Accountants form a _ substantial part of that human capital and this means that talent management pro- erammes for finance professionals have become critical for business SECO onion

There were two Clare graduates on the day, with Edel East from Lagta-

goona, Corofin also qualifying. Speaking at the event, ACCA Ire- land president Deane Morrice said that globalisation, intensified com- petition, technological advancements and increased regulation have created a complex environment in which to do business. “Organisations are now ex- pected to report on far more than the financials and issues such as executive remuneration, pension funds, corpo- rate and social responsibility and of course, ethical policies all impose new responsibilities on accountants.” ACCA is the largest and fastest- erowing global professional account-

ancy body with 296,000 students and 115,000 members in 170 countries. 7,880 members and 9,220 students live in Ireland.

The ACCA has established more than 50 global accountancy partner- ships which deliver qualifications and a range of services which promote global standards, benefit the account- ancy profession and enhance the value of accountants in the workplace.

The association works closely with more than 4/0 registered tuition pro- viders and nearly 8,500 employers of accountants and finance profession- NESS

MILTOWN Malbay bookworms had good news this week when it was announced that the public library is to go full-time.

As of today, the Dr Patrick J. Hillery Public Library will become full- time with extended opening hours. The move to extend opening hours forms part of Clare County Library’s five-year development plan, which includes the provision of a full-time service that caters for the needs of the town and surrounding areas.

“Up until now, residents of the Mil- town Malbay area have been served

part-time,” said Clare County Li- brarian Noel Crowley.

“One long-standing target of the li- brary service has been to have a full- time branch library in every town with a population of over 1,000. This objective has largely been achieved in recent years. I have no doubt that the expansion of services in Miltown Malbay will be welcomed by the branch members and will also serve to attract new members,” he added.

Meanwhile, Helen Flynn has tak- en over the running of the Miltown Malbay branch library. Helen, who was recently promoted to the post of senior library assistant, previously

worked at Ennistymon library and at Kilrush library.

The origins of the library service in Miltown Malbay date back to 1995 When Clare County Library agreed to renovate the old woodwork room in the disused vocational school.

The work was undertaken in co-op- eration with the local community and FAS and resulted in the provision of a modern, multi-purpose library. The library was funded by Clare County Council, in co-operation with Clare VEC and the Miltown Malbay Area Joint Social Employment Scheme.

The Dr Patrick J. Hillery Public Library opened its doors on April 6,

1995, and now has a book stock ca- pacity of 12,000 books. A children’s section has been provided with more than 4,000 books for every read- ing age and interest. Clare County Library’s Irish traditional music col- lection is also housed in the library.

The new opening hours are: Mon- day: closed; Tuesday: Ipm to 5.30pm and 6pm to 8pm; Wednesday: 10am to lpm and 2pm to 5.30pm; Thurs- day: lpm to 5.30pm and 6pm to 8pm; Friday: 10am to Ipm and 2pm to 5.30pm; Saturday: 10am to 2pm.

For further information contact 065-7084822 or visit www.clareli- brary.ie