Month: February 2006

VISITORS to the Cliffs of Moher may have to pass a picket line in order to see the historic site in the next few weeks, if Clare County Council persists with plans to remove casual traders from the Cliffs.

The warning comes from Cliffs trader, Gerry Cahill, who expects to be served with a court injunction along with his colleagues, when he returns to the Cliffs next month.

This follows an ongoing dispute between the traders and Gerard Dollard, Director of Services of Clare County Council, who is attempting to remove all unlicensed traders from the Cliffs before the new interpretative centre in completed.

The dispute came to a head last month when Councillor Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) offered to mediate between the two groups, in order to prevent the dispute from reaching the courts.

“They are just waiting for us to go back up the Cliffs so they can serve the injunctions,” Mr Cahill told The Clare People .

“If they get a temporary injunction of two to six week we won’t be able to trade there, but we will be up there every day with placards protesting. Then we will challenge it in the courts.”

Mr Cahill claims that he has offered, on a number of occasion, to meet with Mr Dollard and resolve the dispute before legal action is required, but has been refused a meeting on each occasion.

“I have put it in writing to him and he hasn’t even given me the courtesy of a reply, even to say ‘Gerry there is no hope. I am willing to meet him at any time with no conditions attached at all.”

Cllr Taylor-Quinn spoke to Mr Dollard about the possibility of arranging the meeting and said that she had done all that she could do as a councillor to resolve the matter.

“I have spoken to Ger Dollard and he has taken the line that going into negotiations would not be in the best interest of the council,” said Cllr Taylor-Quinn.

“I hope the people who have been trading in the Cliffs down the years are allowed to stay, as they are of a great benefit to the Cliffs.”

The Clare People attempted to contact Mr Dollard for a comment but had received no reply at the time of going to press.

SECURITY for post offices in the county is to be stepped up following a spate of robberies over the last number of months.

Clare Fine Gael TD Pat Breen said this week that he has been informed by An Post chief executive, Donal Curtin, that a major upgrade of security is on the way.

The latest such robbery in the county saw the postmistress at Whitegate tied up when her post office was robbed just under three weeks ago.

“I wrote to Mr Curtin because Whitegate was the latest in a series of robberies of post offices in east Clare and there seemed to have been little action taken on the matter.

“However, I have now been assured by Mr Curtin that there is a major upgrade of security now taking place involving a roll out of burglar alarms and CCTV systems,” he said.

“This hopefully will have an effect on the number of robberies taking place and will reduce the element of fear among operators,” Deputy Breen said.

Management at An Post are in ongoing contact with the Irish Postmasters Union with a view to rolling out the equipment to the post office network before the end of the year.

THE sounds of fireworks crackled in the air, carrying all the way from Shanaglish over the blurred borderline that separates the Beagha parish from the Clare country of Tubber.

The sounds were Shanaglish’s signals of celebration – the Messiah wasn’t among them, but the prodigal son was. That’s what the former Bishop of Galway, Dr Eamonn Casey, is being called in these parts.

He finally landed in sleepy Shanaglish on Thursday afternoon last. Not that Shanaglish was sleeping. Instead the place was soon alive, kicking and basking in the notoriety of it all.

The paparazzi came to the village, staking out the parochial house next to Shanaglish church, where Casey has set up home. It wasn’t a long stake-out. Dr Casey arrived there at 4pm and an hour later appeared at his front door to face the cameras and waiting journalists.

“I am very pleased to be back in Ireland and I would like to express my gratitude to you parish priest (Fr Paddy Callanan) and my bishop (Dr Drennan), for the warm welcome,” said Dr Casey who was flanked by Fr Callanan and Fr Martin Glynn of Galway Cathedral.

“I look forward to settling down here amongst the people of Shanaglish and look forward to getting to know them as my neighbours,” said Dr Casey as he read from notes.

“I regret that, in the past, I let a number of people down. This caused grave hurt to some and, for that, I am deeply regretful and sad. I now ask for privacy as I settle down in my new parish and amongst my own people,” he added.

All the while, photographers present took the first shots of Dr Casey in his old diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora for the first time since he fled Ireland 14 years ago, after it was revealed that he had fathered a son with American divorcee Annie Murphy.

Two locals were present for Dr Casey’s first public engagement in Shanaglish – local publican Michael Whelan and Seamus Clandillon who said, “it’s time the press stopped hounding him and allowed him live his life.”

These words were echoed by Fr Callanan. “He wishes to be left in peace now,” he said on Dr Casey’s arrival, while in Sunday’s 10 am mass in Shanaglish, he suggested local people might “perhaps discourage” photographers from turning up in the area.

Dr Casey was not present at mass.

A BARMAID who had a pint glass thrown at her for refusing to serve a man a drink was then threatened that she would never make it to court if she persisted in giving evidence of the assault.

John Maughan (32) of Stone Court in Ennis was before the Ennis District Court charged with assaulting barworker, Ann Woods and with intimidating her as a witness.

The court heard that the accused man admitted throwing a glass at Ms Woods, hitting her on the side of the head on October 28 last.

She had refused to serve him drink because he was unsteady. The court heard the glass didn’t break.

At a later date, Inspector Michael Gallagher the Ennis District court, Maughan threatened Ms Woods that he would “break her legs if she appeared in court.

He told her, “you won’t get there you c*** bitch.”

Ms Woods gave evidence that she found Maughan “very intimidating.”

The accused man’s solicitor, Tara Godfrey, said her client wanted to apologise to Ms Woods.

He had a serious drink problem for 13 years and his wife had now gone to England with their two children, Ms Godfrey said..

But his family were trying to help him stay sober and had arranged to have him assessed in Bushy Park.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy said that he took “a very dim view of witnesses being intimidated.

“The whole integrity of the justice system depends on people being able to testify.”

He jailed Maughan for nine months on the intimidation charge and a further four months for the assault with the glass.

He set bail for an appeal at €2,000 with Maughan’s own bond of €500.

A LEADING Clare psychiatrist has identified a new addiction afflicting western society, and putting lives at risk.

“Tanoraemia” is an addiction to tanning, according to Dr Moosajee Bhamjee.

“Tanoraemia people wish to look tanned all the time, winter and summer and for every special occasion. These people are called Tanorexics,” he said.

Tanoraemia can occur at any age, and does not discriminate between genders or class.

The outspoken psychiatrist and former TD warned that addiction to tanning can be detrimental to a person’s health as well as affecting their finances.

“They are so addicted to looking tanned that they will not heed advices about the dangers,” he said.

“People are going from one sun bed centre to another and are not listening to the advice of the sun bed owner.”

Dr Bhamjee told The Clare People that a worryingly high number of people were changing tanning centres without informing the owners that they might already have been on a sun bed that day or week.

“Some people are even buying their own sun beds and installing them in their own homes,” he added.

It is not just sun beds that are causing concern for the Clare psychiatrist. Spray tans and self-tanning products are also feeding into the tanning frenzy, he maintains.

“The consequences of the “false tan” are that people may develop an allergy to the liquid. It may harm one’s eyes, it can come off on clothes,” explained Dr Bhamjee.

“Prevention is very difficult and needs community support and for people to heed the advice of their friends and doctors,” he added.

Those addicted are also finding it difficult to take precautions to prevent the development of skin cancer, he said.

According to research by the Irish Cancer Society, as many as seven per cent of people use sun beds in Ireland.

The research also shows three per cent of users use sun beds once per week, five per cent use them twice per month and eight per cent about once a month.

The majority of users are in the 1534 year old age group.

Six per cent of users admit to have used sun beds for the first time before aged 15 years and 27 per cent, when they were between 15 and 19 years of age.

MORE than 100 jobs will be created in North Clare this summer through the launch of a major new tourism company, the Atlantis Holiday Group.

The Liscannor based group will bring together a variety of different forms of accommodation in the North Clare area and hopes to cash in on the new visitor facilities at the Cliffs of Moher, as well as other new visitor attractions throughout the county.

The group consists of two hotels, a guest house, holiday homes and a pub, as well as a new music and performance facility, in the Doolin and Liscannor area. Prominent member of the Clare Tourism Council and former manager of the Burren Centre in Kilfenora, Paddy Maher, will act as Group Development and Marketing Manager for the Atlantis Group.

“We are trying to focus on the tourism markets that are developing at the present time,” said Mr Maher.

“We know from Fáilte Ireland that traditional pursuits, such as music, will be a major focus of development over the next 10 years or so.”

The group is currently involved in redeveloping Joseph McHugh’s famous pub in Liscannor, which was formerly owned by Clare hurling legend, Davy Fitzgerald. They are also developing the new Cliffs of Moher Hotel, on the site of the old Captain’s Deck Restaurant, in the town.

“It will be a 23 bedroom hotel located just across from the harbour in Liscannor,” said Mr Maher.

“We are hoping to receive four star status with a restaurant and a bar area out the front.”

The group also has interests in Doolin, where Ballyvara House, the Tír gan Éan House Hotel and the Doolin Holiday Village will all be flying the Atlantis Group’s flag. The five diamond rated Ballyvara House will also feature a new 40-seater restaurant.

Aside from the portfolio of accommodation, the group has plans to develop a new music and performance facility in Doolin.

“We are hoping to have that up and running by the end of the summer,” continued Mr Maher. “It is going to be open all year round and will be available for any local group who wants to put on plays and concerts.”

Ballyvara House and Joseph McHugh’s pub are scheduled to reopen next month, while the two hotels will be fully operational for the 2006 Summer season.

RESIDENTS opposed to the multi-million euro extension of the Whelan Group’s flagship operation have called for an oral hearing to be held into the contentious proposal.

Last month, in spite of location opposition, Clare County Council gave the green light to the Whelan Group to extend its quarry at Fountain outside Ennis.

In their appeal to An Bord Pleanala, local residents, Michael Halpin, David Copley and John Hehir have requested that an oral hearing be held, “taking into consideration the many issues of public importance raised in this case, the EU dimension and the large number of submissions made.

“There are many issues not least the location of the development in Drumcliffe Springs catchment, an area of extreme vulnerability, and recent public concern about the quality of water in Ennis and environs with the recent ‘boil notices’ issued.

“We have been subjected over the past twenty-five years, to a deterioration in our quality of life as a result of serious vibrations from blasting, noise and dust and as the quarrying moves nearer to our dwellings and into yet another townland the proposals for the future look bleak indeed, should the appeal fail.

The company now has an opportunity to respond the residents’ claims and a decision is expected on the appeal in the summer of this year.

DOONBEG Golf Club Limited has described as “minor alterations”, an application it has made to Clare County Council for retention of works on the multi million-euro development.

“These are minor alterations which in no way alter the foot print, or the shape of the development,” a spokesperson for the golf course said.

The local planning authority received an application for retention and completion of the development on January 25.

As part of the application, the golf club requested reconfiguration of part of a building to omit two one-bedroom suites and put one three bedroom suite in its place.

It also applied to omit a building, which received planning permission in 2003 to accommodate two suites.

It proposed instead, to construct a two-storey building of 536 square metres to accommodate three two-storey three-bedroom suites.

It also requested that the relocation of one of the buildings three metres to the east be permitted.

“There is something they (the golf club developers) wanted to do as it was going along, but it does not change overall plans,” said the spokesperson.

While the golf club maintain that the retention application is for “minor alterations”, local objectors say that the changes involve “significant additional and unauthorised development work at the site.”

LAND on the site of the old Our Lady’s Hospital grounds has emerged as another possible site to house a new Cusack Park if the Clare County GAA Board decides to leave its existing county grounds headquarters on the Causeway of Ennis.

The Clare People has learned that a tract of land at Our Lady’s, numbering 14 acres, could yet be earmarked for a stadium development to rival the stadium bid already lodged with the county board for their consideration.

Speculation is that this new proposal will be tabled with the county board in a matter of days, one that centres around transforming the old Our Lady’s site into a technology/ sporting park with hotel facilities on site that would make Clare the provincial equivalent to Croke Park.

The landbank, which would be large enough to hold a stadium, is owned by property developers Martin Fitzgibbon and Paul Talty and hotelier Allen Flynn.

In October 2004 they purchased 14 acres of the Our Lady’s site and the hospital for €5.2 million.

Since then they have lodged an application for the development of a €20 million hotel on the site which has been approved by Clare County Council. The decision has now been referred to an Bord Pleanála on appeal, after Green Party councillor Dónal Ó Béarra lodged an objection over the failure of the developers to provide guarantees over the future of a church on the Our Lady’s site.

When contacted by The Clare People on Monday, Martin Fitzgibbon was unavailable for comment, as were Paul Talty and Allen Flynn.

Meanwhile, Clare GAA chairman Michael McDonagh told The Clare People that “I know that the land is there at Our Lady’s, but nobody has to come to me. I know nothing about a proposal to build a new stadium at Our Lady’s, no one has produced anything to me yet,” he added.

At last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the county board in the West County Hotel, Mr McDonagh told delegates that two more offers were in the pipeline for developing a new Cusack Park away from its current home in Ennis.

This follows on from the commitment given by businessmen Noel Connellan, Sean Lyne and Bernard McNamara to deliver a 42,000 capacity stadium on a 15-acre site on the Quin Road within 18 months of receipt of planning permission from Clare County Council in return for possession of Cusack Park, which would then be redeveloped as a shopping centre.

CLARE women have a higher than average uptake for potentially life saving smear tests, according to new figures covering the last year.

The statistics, released by the Health Service Executive on Tuesday, show that 25,343 Clare women aged between 25 and 60, were on the Irish Cervical Screening Programme at the end of December 2005.

A total of 14,458 Clare women were screened, resulting in a 57.05 per cent uptake rate in the county.

A study into the number availing of the Irish Cervical Screening Programme, being piloted in the Mid West region, has shown that almost 60 per cent of women did not respond to invitations offering the free screening between 2000 and 2004.

This week’s figures show that Clare women’s uptake rate is above the Mid West average, but 43 per cent are still not availing of the free test.

Regular cervical screening can detect cell abnormalities, which if detected and treated early, can be prevented from developing into cancer.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney, this week stated that she was fully committed to the national roll out of a cervical screening programme, “in line with international best practice.”

The Health Service Executive has been requested to prepare a detailed implementation plan for a national programme, almost six years after the programme was planned as a pilot scheme in the Mid West.