Month: November 2009

LIBRARY staff in Ennis are still as- sessing the level of damage caused by flooding at one of the county’s premier research centres.

Clare County Library’s Local Stud- ies Centre was hit by heavy flooding last Thursday along with the nearby De Valera Library in Ennis.

The centre houses a comprehen- sive collection of historic books and documents relating to the history of Clare and Irish society.

Speaking yesterday, County Li- brarian Helen Walsh said that one floor of the Local Studies Centre was damaged by flooding, along with the exhibition space in the De Valera L1- brary.

Ms Walsh said a clean-up operation FTES BUDMMENTO(oJ mc Niar-TemoLe lH emo LENE CeDneTess and that it was too early to determine the extent of the damage.

She added, “We’ve definitely had flooding and it appears extensive. We’d just been concentrating on get- ting out what we could. It’s hard to say what has been damaged.”

The centre aims to collect all pub- lished books relating to Clare, all books by Clare-born authors and any general publications containing Clare material. This Clare collec- tion contains approximately 2,000 titles dealing primarily with the his- tory, archaeology and topography of the county. Directories, almanacs, topographical dictionaries and un- published works such as theses and

projects are also part of the collec- tion. The Irish collection comprises approximately 8,000 works on all facets of Irish society.

The Local Studies Centre is a refer- ence library and research centre ded- icated to the collection of material on any aspect of County Clare.

The centre also houses a collec- tion of Irish interest material. Much of the material in the Local Studies Centre has been digitised and pub- lished online by the library’s Infor- mation Services Department, based in Library Headquarters.

The centre also contains a com- prehensive collection of Irish jour- nal titles including all major Irish historical and geographical publica- tions. Journals of specific relevance to Clare include The North Munster Antiquarian Journal, Dal gCais, The Other Clare, Molua, The Clare Asso- ciation Yearbook and Sliabh Aughty.

THE appointment of Micheal Mc- Dermott as new Clare senior football manager might just be a rallying call for an upsurge in the fortunes of the flagship football team in the county — that was the message delivered to the county board meeting on Tuesday by chairman Michael O’Neill as he con- firmed that the Cavan man has been given a one-year term in the post.

“It’s an indication of the interest we had in the post that there were four in the running,’ said O’Neill “and it went right down to the wire. We made a mighty trawl. We had Aidan Moloney, Michael Lillis, Micheal McDermott and Ger Lawlor. Aidan informed me last Friday he was pull- ing out of the contest. Micheal Mc- Dermott will manage the team with Liam McHale and James Foran, while one other person will be added to the team.

“T would appeal to football people. Every effort was made with this ap- pointment and we want anyone who has any ambitions to wear the coun- ty jersey to come forward,” added O’Neill.

Meanwhile, Munster Council del- egate PJ McGuane, who was part of

the committee that selected the new manager, said Clare must aim high in 2010. “The carrot is there,’ said McGuane, “because we are in Divi- sion 4 with Waterford and Limerick, while we play Waterford in the first round of the championship and if we beat them we have Limerick in the semi-final.

“The league will be a great barom- eter of our progress. Our first game

is against Wicklow. That will be a barometer. I would ask everyone to throw their weight behind the team for the next year.

“We are a Small county with a small pick but there’s an old saying that if you don’t aim high, you won’t strike high,’ added McGuane.

AS the close of the Clare camogie season comes in, Clare Camogie Board in conjunction with the Clare Camogie Suporters Club are hosting an awards night this Satur- day, November 21, at the Auburn Lodge Hotel, Ennis.

Medals will be presented to the Munster U16 Camogie Champions on the night, along with the U14 In- ter-County Blitz winners from the Galway Blitz.

As this is the 75th Year of Clare Camogie, the board have intro- duced the inaugural Club Star Awards. “These are a small to- ken of the appreciation which the board has for those who work so hard at club level but may never reach county teams, but without whom clubs would not survive,’ explained a spokesperson.

The medal and award recipients have been asked to be in the Au- burn Lodge for 7.30pm for a photo call, and presentation to begin at 8pm with buffet and disco after- SE K6 he

A CLARE businessman, who along with his partners is paying ©20,000 in interest on a planned retail park in Shannon, has made a last ditch at- tempt to save the development.

Last month, Clare County Council refused planning permission to Sean Halpin and Greenband Investments for the neighbourood component of a €60m retail park planned for Smith- stown in Shannon.

Mr Halpin confirmed that he and his business partners purchased the 17.5 acre site zoned for commercial development for €8 million in 2005 and have since paid ©2 million in interest.

Confirming that interest payments are costing ©20,000 per month, Mr Halpin said, “The interest is some- where north of €2 million. This is not some cosy arrangement with the bank where we have interest rolled up.”

In all, Mr Halpin estimates that the exposure to date is €10.5m.

Now, in a last ditch bid to save the development, they have lodged an ap- peal with An Bord Pleanala against the council’s decision to refuse plan- ning to the neighbourhood compo- nent of the scheme.

The council stated that the centre would have an adverse impact on the vitality and viability of Shannon town and contravene Department of the Environment retail guidelines

relating to the location of neighbour- hood centres.

The Greenband development was due to create 250 direct jobs, 200 in- direct jobs and 180 jobs during the construction phase.

In their appeal, the developers “se- riously contest the reason for refusal of the neighbourhood centre of the proposed scheme.

‘The proposed development would in fact not detract from the town cen- tre but serve the remainder of the proposed development and immedi- ate surrounding areas.

“The reasons for refusal cited by the council do not accord with the retail planning guidelines, which specifically recognises the local role

neighbourhood centre’s play in the retail hierarchy.”

However, the plan faces outright rejection, with the McAllen family lodging an appeal against the coun- cil decision to grant planning to any aspect of the development.

The local family state that their health and safety is of paramount importance and “any detrimental environmental impacts in the area, that put our health and safety under threat, will be subject to full legal ac- tion on our behalf.”

‘There 1s an over-intensification of commercial use on the site; loss of privacy and the design is of poor ar- chitectural quality.”

A decision is due in 2010.

TOP energy experts at the TOP Ideal Home Show in the RDS in Dublin proved that going green re- ally doesn’t cost the earth for Clare households by highlighting the mas- sive savings to be made by becoming more energy efficient in the home.

Detached properties, the most frequent home type across County Clare, have the potential to be much more energy efficient and owners of this housing category could knock more than €1,000 of their home heating bills. With over 22,000 such property types in the county, Clare households could be missing out on substantial savings.

While detached properties offer the greatest saving potential, ‘greener’ energy behaviour can also offer sig- nificant reward for other home types,

such as one or two bed apartment cir- ca 750 sq foot – €742; 2 bedroom ter- raced house circa 950 sq foot – €898; 3 bedroom semi detached house cir- ca 1,250 sq foot – £1,070

TOP Tips reflecting the company’s mantra, ‘going green doesn’t cost the earth’ were given to visitors at the TOP Ideal Home Show this year and expert staff were on hand at the TOP Biodome to suggest specific recom- mendations on how people can make some small inexpensive changes and save up to €1,180 per year, depend- ing on their house type. TOP is high- lighting to the people of Clare that they are literally burning money by not making their homes more energy efficient, as well as the environmen- tal implications.

TOP is Ireland’s leading fuel im- porter and distributor and this is the second year the company has been

the title sponsor of the Ideal Home Show.

Speaking at the opening of the TOP Ideal Home Exhibition, Gener- al Manager of TOP, Gerard Boylan, said, “Changing people’s attitude to going green is hard but the environ- mental experts at the TOP biodome will be making it clear in financial terms, that being environmentally Savvy is a sensible choice.”

Mr. Boylan continued, “Unfortu- nately, having a home that is energy efficient has always been viewed as the expensive option but we’re trying to educate people that the opposite is true by showing the actual savings they could be making. We’re trying to put the savings in perspective for people – going green in 2010 could be the difference between going on holiday and not. It’s that simple,’ he concluded.

RETAIL Ireland, the IBEC group that represents the retail sector, has called on all local authorities to cut commercial rates when voting on the matter later this month.

Retail Ireland has written to the Chairperson of every local author- ity as well as all City and County Managers to ask for a reduction of 20 per cent. In addition, the group has written to An Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD, Enda Kenny TD, Leader of Fine Gael, and to Eamon Gilmore TD, Leader of the Labour Party, to request that their councillors support such a move.

Retail Ireland Director Torlach Denihan, said, “Over the last year 30,000 retail jobs have been lost and the sector is struggling to avoid fur- ther redundancies over the coming months. Local authorities must play their part in the retail sector’s efforts to regain lost competitiveness and safeguard employment. As can be seen from the Consumer Price Index released last Thursday, retailers have cut prices aggressively over the last year.

“Over the last decade local authori- ties have been able to fund many projects through development levies and commercial rates paid by the re- tail sector. They now need to act re- sponsibly and help the sector retain

employment in view of the threat posed by the collapse in sales, aggra- vated by cross- border shopping.

‘Since 2000 the annual rate on valuation has increased by a cumu- lative 57 per cent nationally. Last year some local authorities took the incredible decision to increase the annual rate on valuation (Clare 3.8 per cent, South Dublin 3.63 per cent, Fingal 3.5 per cent, Wexford 3.5 per cent and Dublin City 3.35 per cent) despite the fact that the retail sector was in crisis. We are particularly dis- turbed that a revaluation exercise in South Dublin and Fingal is further aggravating the problem, resulting in some retailers facing increases of up to 50 per cent.”

CLOSE on 50 certificates were formally presented in Ennis Adult Education Centre to learners who took part in Clare Campus Skillnet courses. They were conferred by the Further Education and Training Awards Council of Ireland following courses of studies completed in the Ennis area in management develop- ment, presentation skills and English as a second language

By tar the biggest individual busi- ness representation was from the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis. All non-nation- als, this major group took its course in English as a second language in- house as well as at Ennis Adult and Community Education Centre.

They were joined for the occasion by the hotel’s manager, John Maher, as an expression of appreciation of their achievements.

Clare Campus Skillnet collabo- rates with County Clare Vocational Education Committee in the delivery of a diverse range of courses from basic skills to project management and green belt masters in technology management.

Its courses are original in that they are devised as the result requirements identified by local businesses and en- terprises who form a local network.

Clare Campus Skillnet Network 1s about 18 months in existence. In that time it has delivered programmes to network members in Clare that,

among other subjects, covered man- agement development, health and safety, manual handling, project de- velopment and softer skills such as presentation programmes and stress management courses.

What happens is that the network of local businesses and enterprises defines its own training needs and sets out a programme of training and education activities.

In this regard, deep appreciation has been expressed of the steering group comprising Barry O’Brien and Kevin Moore, Vitalograph; Corey Downes, Billpost; David Deighan, Shannon Development; Michael Byrne, Acton BV; Alan Flynn, Old Ground Hotel; Carmel Mitchell, Loyalty Build, and Richard Morton, Time to Market.

“Without this group, we would have been floundering without direction,” acknowledged Dr Sean Conlan, edu- cation officer with County Clare Vo- cational Education Committee, who formally presented the certificates. He also thanked Clare Campus Skill- net Network’s co-ordinator, Sinead Mellett and the network’s adminis- trator, Ina Reddan.

Dr Conlan went on to say that at this time of great challenge for all businesses, when unemployment has risen dramatically, the learn- ing agenda comes into more focus for everybody. Those receiving cer- tificates on the occasion, he urged, should see the occasion not as an end of the road but rather the beginning

of a new learning route.

“Then, maybe together, we can learn our way out of this recession and be well prepared to take advan- tage of the upturn when it comes, as it surely will in a year or two or ab Reromean OComcT-n (Gm

That was what Clare Campus Skill- net was all about as it set about putting together a funding application for the coming two years. Priority areas had been identified nationally as transfer- ability of skills and key competencies

for lifelong learning. This was what the organisation would be working on in the coming weeks with a view to getting a budget to continue the work at local level into the future.

Looking at the broader picture, he noted that at the last count there were 123 training networks in the Skill- nets programme overall, showing it had come a long way since its incep- tion in 1999 as a pilot project in en- terprise-led training.

The success of the concept of busi-

nesses, small and large, identifying and delivering in a shared way on their own training needs had ensured that the Skillnet Training Networks Programme had become a key player in training and learning delivery in Ireland.

LESS THAN six months after she took up the post as head of policing in Clare, Chief Superintendent Mary Fitzgerald has announced that she 1s Kom Kein Ker

Chief Supt Fitzgerald arrived in Clare in June, having previously been the head of the Garda Reserves. Her retirement will take effect on Der ilelo mes

It means that further changes are due in Garda management in the Clare Garda Division — which in- cludes the districts of Ennis, Shan- non, Kilrush, Killaloe and Ennisty- mon. Ms Fitzgerald was the third person to fill the role as chief super- intendent since Liam Quinn retired in December 2006.

He was replaced by Gerry Mahon, who, in turn moved to Limerick and was replaced by Kevin Donohoe. Chief Supt Donohoe was head of the Clare Division between December 2008 and June of this year. Chief Su- perintendent Mahon will also retire in the coming weeks.

The latest batch of retirements have emerged in the wake of several gardai opting out of the force this year for various reasons. Nationally, 708 gardai have retired or declared their intention to retire this year, in- cluding up to a dozen in Clare — in- cluding two garda sergeants.

The retirements include three as- sistant commissioners, 12 chief su- perintends, 26 superintendents, 31 inspectors, 166 sergeants and 466

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The numbers are the highest in 13 years and are far higher than levels recorded in recent years. There were 259 retirements last year and 184 in 2007. There were just 200 recruits to the force this year — there is currently a moratorium on job creation in the public service. Residents in rural parts of the county have expressed Losier u MDA MB Keo OLMmN DELO) INOKMmOercI Mmm ele retirees will not be replaced, due to cutbacks across the board and fear that community policing will suffer as a result.

Meanwhile, Detective Garda Ter- ese Flannery has been appointed the juvenile liaison officer (JLO), based at Ennis Garda Station. She succeeds Garda John O’ Neill, who recently re- tired from the post.

The role of the JLO is to deal with young offenders, under the age of 18.

GENEROUS Clare people haven’t said ‘Bah Humbug’ to charities despite the recession. Operation Christmas Child – also know as the Shoebox Appeal – saw 5,600 boxes sent to children in need for people in Clare up to Monday of this week. And the appeal closing date has been extended until tomorrow so there is still time to get shoeboxes into the main warehouse in Elevation Park in Ennis, Curves or Shoe Zone. Clare co-ordinator for the appeal, Louis Duffy, said that while there are fewer boxes this year than last year, the average donation in each box is up. Louis reiterated the position of the Irish Operation Christmas Child on the controversy about handing out religious information with the boxes. “We are instructed not only that no religious item or information is to go in but that we are to take anything we find in a box out. People are wel- come to come here to the warehouse and see for themselves what goes in,’ said Louis. Meanwhile, Niall Mellon, founder of the Niall Mellon Township Trust led the Clare volunteers onto site in Wal- lacedene in South Africa last week as part of the Niall Mellon Township Trust’s eighth Building Blitz. Over 950 volunteers paraded into site, all kitted out in their coloured team t-

shirts, hard hats and tools. The vol- unteers were greeted with open arms by hundreds of delighted residents. The ‘Walk In’ marks the first day of this year’s week-long build, where the Clare volunteers, together with others from around the country, will construct over 200 houses for fami- lies in Wallacedene. Despite the car- nival atmosphere, all the team mem- bers were building within minutes. In the face of global recession, al- most 3,500 people have volunteered this year with the Niall Mellon Township Trust. This record-break- ing figure comprises of 1,500 Irish and 2,000 South African volunteers and brings the total number of peo- ple who have volunteered with the charity to 8,500, since Niall Mellon first launched his house building in1-

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And Concern Worldwide has launched its 40th annual Christmas Fast, which takes place this year on Thursday, December 3 and aims to raise more than €1 million for the poorest people in the developing world. Throughout 2008, the gener- ous people of Clare raised a total of €765,419 and Concern is hoping for continued participation in the fast this year.

‘The Christmas fast has always en- joyed immense support from Clare and we hope to see this enthusiasm continue in its 40th year,’ said Phi- lomena Daly McDarby from Corofin, who works with Concern in Ireland.

THE talents of an extraordinary young dancer, whose life was tragi- cally cut short, will be remembered at a competition in her honour in SUED Om io.e

Kitty Leyden and friends are or- ganising the third annual dance competition to honour step and sean

nos dancer, Margaret Brohan who died aged just 19.

Dancers will compete for a cup – which is being put up by Margaret’s family – and afterwards there will be a céili for everyone who wants to take part.

“Tt will be a great night – there’ll be music, sandwiches – it will be a real party and any money we have over

will go to two special causes,” said Gia

Remembering Margaret’s fabulous talent, Kitty – herself a noted dancer – said that she was “so lovely and so very talented. She was a step-dancer and a self-taught sean nos dancer. She had a style all of her own, no-one could beat her. She was just lovely, a lovely dancer and a lovely person. She had a smile for everyone.”

The competition takes place in Murray’s in Tulla and Andrew Mac and friends will provide the music, while adjudicators are Mairéad Ca- sey and Susan Lee. Entry on the night is just €5 and any money made will be divided between the Clare’s School Club – which has competitors in the special Olympics, including one girl from Tulla – and the Debra WeOETiemestvelae

The entire community of east Clare and dancers all over the country were shocked and saddened to hear of the death in November 2003 of Margaret

in a car accident in Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania. Margaret was just 19 and her exceptional talent was becoming widely noticed. She spent the summer as a resident dancer in Glor in Ennis where she was spotted by