Month: May 2006

DEPUTY Pat Breen has called for a united front within Fine Gael as it gears up for the challenge of winning two Dáil seats in Clare for the first time since the 1989 General Election.

Deputy Breen made his comments to The Clare People in the wake of his poll-topping performance at the Fine Gael selection convention on Sunday evening. And he called on party headquarters to stick with a two-candidate strategy going into the general election campaign.

“There has to be a united front now. That is very important. I don’t know if they are going to add another candidate. I would urge that they take their time about this – we have to try and maximise our vote as much as possible. We will have a united front,” he said.

“The crowd at the convention shows that people are full of enthusiasm and support for the party. It was wonderful and this is the first obstacle surmounted in the race to get two seats in Clare. We mean business and the business is that we are going to get two seats in Clare. I’m confident we can do that with two candidates.

“Membership don’t like the adding of candidates. This is their day out. They are the bosses – most people feel that if we pick two candidates that we should leave it at that. However, I have no problem if they want to add another candidate. I will go along with that if it gets two seats for Fine Gael in Clare,” he added.

Deputy Breen put his poll-topping performance down to hard work on the canvass in recent weeks as well as his record as a TD for the past four years.

“I set it as a task to meet everyone in the organisation over the past six weeks. I felt it paid off at the convention and I also think that my work over the past four years in the Dáil paid off,” he said.

“I’m delighted at topping the poll, but it’s not about topping the poll. I’m delighted that people have that confidence and faith in me. I asked for that support and people rallied around me.”

TONY Mulcahy’s selection as the second candidate on the Clare ticket for Fine Gael sparked a major controversy on Sunday evening, even before the official confirmation was announced.

As chairman of the Convention Deputy Jim O’Keeffe announced that Mulcahy would join Deputy Pat Breen on the ticket, some disgruntled voters at the back of the room booed loudly.

However, Mulcahy’s loyal supporters were having none of it and the Shannon Mayor was held shoulder high. Moments later Mulcahy, a native of Newcastlewest, spoke of his relief.

“I am relieved. It was a tough campaign. I knew it was going to be a hard battle,” said Mulcahy, a chef who works in the catering business in Shannon.

The huge increase in the number of people in the Shannon area declaring themselves as Fine Gael supporters benefited Mulcahy, who lives in the town and is involved in many sporting and social groups there.

“At the end of the day, I don’t apologise for anything I have done. Anyone is entitled to vote. If the people of Shannon come out and support me, I am not going to turn them away,” he pointed out.

Mulcahy dispelled any suggestions that the decision by Cllr John Crowe to withdraw at the last minute was part of a plan. Crowe first introduced Mulcahy to politics and encouraged him to enter politics 12 years ago.

The two formed a close alliance in the build-up to the Convention.

“I didn’t expect John not to contest. There was no preconceived plan. John is a great servant and campaigner and I regret him doing that. I am absolutely devastated for him,” Mulcahy said.

With the margin so tight in the end, Mulcahy believes his campaign team’s work swung the verdict in his favour.

“It is down to hard work. I had a team of 50 to 60, who have worked hard, while people came from all over the country to vote here today,” he said.

During his speech to members earlier in the evening, Mulcahy said, “Today is the proudest day of my life.”

Mulcahy was first elected to Shannon Town Council in 1994. Five years later he held on to that seat, and also won a seat on Clare County Council.

In 2004 he received 1,195 votes and retained the county council seat. He received almost two-and-a-half times the quota (820 votes) in the town council elections and retained his seat.

FINE GAEL made history in the West County Hotel on Sunday – the largest selection convention in the party’s seven decades was staged, but it brought with it a whiff on controversy following the controversial decision by the top brass to deny a vote to 300 members of the youth wing of the party.

It prompted the 11th hour withdrawal of Councillor John Crowe who hit out at the party’s top brass over the decision. However, Fine Gael General Secretary Tom Curran was making no apologies for the controversial move.

“There is a procedure whereby one has to register as a voter. It was deemed that proper procedures weren’t followed,” he told The Clare People .

“If you were a new member of Young Fine Gael you had to attend an AGM.

“What we were really concerned about was the thought that there was a possibility that people would be signing up members to try to get selected at convention.

“We have to be very transparent in all our dealings, so the matter was appealled and the executive council of the party made a decision at the end of the day and some people were denied the opportunity to vote,” he added.

Convention chairman, Deputy Jim O’Keeffe, refused to be drawn on the controversy, preferring instead to dwell on the positive that the event represented the largest gathering at any Fine Gael selection convention in the country.

“I wouldn’t get involved in that controversy at all,” he said. “I think it is a great thing that we have so many members here. Quite a lot of them are new members and we are delighted to see new members coming in.

“We are a very open party and it’s great that they are coming in. I hope that they stay the course and become committed and long established members of the party.

“I want each of you delegates to secure ten votes for Fine Gael candidates selected for the General Election – if you do that Fine Gael will have two quotas and two seats. That’s the objection of this exercise. It is crucial that there are two seats in Clare for Fine Gael in the next election.

“I will be reporting to Enda Kenny on Tuesday – it will be a very strong report, it will be a very encouraging report.

“I have evidence before my own eyes of the vibrancy of the party in Clare. I think it is a great sign – I am hugely enthused by what I have seen here.

“I would wish that the enthusiasm and commitment that I have seen was translated in like measure all over the country in every constituency,” added Deputy O’Keeffe.

AN INAGH man accused of threatening to kill or harm a man, and of recklessly discharging a shotgun, has been acquitted by a jury at Ennis Circuit Court.

Brian Barry (53), of Ballyea, Inagh, was also accused of assaulting Patrick Nilan, causing him harm.

He had denied all charges, which arose out of an incident outside Purcell’s bar in Ruan, on January 8, 2005.

Mr Nilan, a farmer in Ruan, told the court he was in the bar on the night on January 7, where he met a number of people including Brian Meaney and Gavin and Derek Barry, who are both sons of the accused man.

He said he left after 2am and chatted to Mr Meaney in the pub carpark. They discussed going elsewhere for a drink and Mr Meaney asked the Barry brothers if they wished to join them.

Mr Nilan said Gavin Barry had said he had rang someone.

“I presumed it was somebody that was going to join us,” said Mr Nilan.

He said some time after, a car drove into the carpark and a man – who he now knows to be Brian Barry – jumped out, carrying a gun.

“He waved the gun towards me and said not to be holding his sons at ransom. I put my hands out and said, ‘What is going on?’ He said ‘I’ll tell you what is going on’ and fired a shot towards my feet. Next thing I got a belt of the gun above the eye,” Mr Nilan told the court.

He said he did not know what was the motive for this.

Defending barrister Michael Collins said Gavin Barry had phoned his father to say that they were in trouble and that he feared for his brother’s safety. As a result, Brian Barry drove from his home in Inagh to Ruan.

The barrister said when the accused got out of the car at first, he had no gun, and that Mr Nilan laughed at him.

“Mr Barry went back to the car and got the gun and he loaded it and you still approached him laughing,” said Mr Collins. Mr Nilan denied this.

Mr Collins said the accused had the gun pointed downwards at all times and said he was using the gun to frighten Mr Nilan off.

“He hit you into the side of the head with the barrel to get you to stand off,” said the barrister.

Brian Meaney, who lives in Ruan, told the court the accused pointed the gun at him and told him to stay in the jeep. Mr Meaney said he then heard a shot and got out of the jeep.

“He (the accused) said, ‘I’ll blow your head off’,” he told the court.

Mr Collins said his client told Mr Meaney to stay in the jeep, but that he did not point the gun at him.

“He didn’t point the gun at anyone,” said the barrister.

Mr Collins said there were “gaping holes” in the prosecution.

“This prosecution has raised more questions that Chris Tarrant in Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? ” he said.

The jury returned a verdict of not guilty on all three charges, on the second day of the trial.

AN Afghan national, who lived in the Corofin Hostel until last September, has told The Clare People that he is prepered to die on hunger strike if he is not granted refugee status in Ireland.

Hashmat Habbib is part of the 41strong group of men who are entering the second day of their hunger strike in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin protest at the Department of Justice’s refusal to allow them to remain in the country.

“My life is in real jeopardy if I return to Afghanistan. My enemies will kill me,” Mr Habbib told The Clare People through an interpreter yesterday.

“I am okay, but the situation here is getting harder as time goes by. I will stay on hunger strike until the Department of Justice lets me stay. I will keep going until I die if I have to. We are all committed to it.”

The hunger strikers, who are being led by Osman Hotak, claim that they are at risk of torture and death if they are forced to return to Afghanistan.

The group also includes blind diabetic Sultan Kabirchakari, whose health will be seriously affected by the lack of food and water.

“We want people to know that we are in worse circumstances than them. We have been mental prisoners for years,” said Mr Hotak yesterday.

“All of us will die unless we are allowed to stay. We are willing to end our lives.”

The stand-off began just after midday on Sunday when 33 Afghan asylum seekers, including Mr Habbib, entered the Cathedral and declared that they would refuse all food and water until the were granted refugee status.

The men were asked to leave by a member of the Gardaí on Sunday afternoon but have since been granted sanctuary by Cathedral officials. No attempt has been made to forcibly remove them.

These men were joined by eight others yesterday morning and it is believed that a number of other Afghani men are currently on their way to the Dublin Cathedral to join their countryman.

The men are aged between the ages of 16 and 45 and have all been living in different parts of the country for the last five years.

They believe that their claims for asylum have not been taken seriously by the Irish authorities and that they are just trying to highlight their situation.

Orla Ni Eili of the Ennis Refugee Council told The Clare People that it was an unsafe time to return these people to Afghanistan and that the Minister for Justice must look at each case on an individual basis.

A SENIOR Clare Garda has said he expects the Criminal Assets Bureau to make a significant move on criminal gangs in Clare within the next year.

Speaking at yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Council, where Chief Superintendent of the Clare Garda Division Liam Quinn delivered a comprehensive overview of policing in Clare, Superintendent John Kerin said that he was confident that CAB would deal a major blow to criminal activity in Clare.

Responding to questions concerning the measures in place to deal with criminal activity Mr Kerin said, “Within the next 12 months, there would be very significant movement by the Criminal Assets Bureau” on criminals within Clare, but we need the help of the public and we would be keen to extend our drug education programmes to more schools.”

On the issue of increased resources for the Divisional Drug Squad Superintendent Kerin said that current staffing levels were adequate for the force to operate effectively, but that extra resources would be welcome

Earlier, Clare’s most senior Garda said the introduction of tough new Anti-Social Behaviour Orders would serve as an effective deterrent to crime in the county. Although saying he was reluctant to comment on matters which were still to be enacted into legislation, Chief Superintendent Quinn said that fear in communities and the broad groundswell of support for the measures would be welcomed.

Anti-Social Behaviour Orders form part of the proposed new Criminal Justice Bill which is due to pass before the Houses of Oidreachta later this year.

Responding to queries from Councillor’s requesting his views on a wide variety of policing issues Mr Quinn said if adopted the measures would be useful.

“Normally, in matters to do with policies such as this, we tend to keep our noses out as they can get chopped off. There is fear in communities out there. I have worked in communities where fear is a very real situation and it is terrible. If and when the Minister does enact legislation we will make use of it straight away and there does seem to be a huge public support for it”

When pressed over his views on the formation of the controversial Garda Reserve Association (GRA) Mr Quinn said that in line with recent comments by the Association of Chief Superintendents he was not opposed to the proposal.

“There is a need for more resources. In so far as what the idea might be, I would like to see a Garda presence in every town but unfortunately that is few and far between.”

Cllr Jerry Flynn had earlier expressed his disappointment that Shannon was not to be considered a divisional Garda station while Cllr Bernard Hanrahan (FF) echoed the calls of many councillors that more resources should be provided for isolated rural areas to deal with the growing problem of drug abuse.

Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF) said that more policeman were needed on the street and Councillor Brian Meaney (GP) said drug problems had to be dealt with through cross body initiatives.

Mr Quinn expressed his frustration over the delay in the roll-out of essential CCTV services in Ennis.

THE trial of a man accused of murdering Ennis native Fergal Landy outside his Killarney apartment has heard the deceased received two stab wounds, one of which was through the heart, and proved fatal.

Mr Landy (27), a native of Considine’s Road, Cloughleigh, Ennis, had lived in Killarney for some time prior to his death, in January of last year. He had worked as a chef in the tourist town and had been friends with the accused.

Joe Greaney (35), a native of Limerick, and with an address at Cahernane Meadows, Muckross Road, Killarney, denies murdering Landy, but admits manslaughter.

Outlining the Prosecution case to the jury at the outset of the trial, Senior Counsel Patrick McCarthy said the accused arrived at the deceased’s house – a short distance away – armed with a knife and a golf club and was “spoiling for a fight.”

“It appears that Mr Greaney contacted Mr Landy a short time before the fatal death,” said Mr McCarthy.

He said the initial contact was through a text message, and this was followed by a telephone conversation between the accused and the deceased.

“The telephone conversation was overheard on speaker phone by Mr Landy’s partner. A number of threats were made by the accused to the deceased,” he said.

Mr McCarthy said the accused had asserted that he was “coming to get” Mr Landy.

“He shouted, ‘Come out. I’m going to kill you’,” said Mr McCarthy.

According to Mr McCarthy, the accused said, ‘You are so dead,’ and ‘Come out you f***** or b******’.”

“We would say he [Greaney] was the aggressor,” said Mr McCarthy.

“The deceased came out of his home with a golf club. It was clear in the light of what was said, the accused was the aggressor. A person faced with a violent attack is entitled to defend himself. He took something with him to defend himself,” he added.

Mr McCarthy said, it’s the Prosecution’s case that, taking into account what was said by phone and text and the accused’s visit to the deceased’s home, the accused presented a “hostile” environment. He said that violence was committed on the deceased before midnight on January 24, but that he was not pronounced dead until after midnight on January 25.

Mr McCarthy said the fatal wound entered the chest cavity sack around the heart and went through to the heart. He said the weapon “has been described as a chef’s knife.” The wound was 12.2 centimetres deep and the knife was more than 29 centimetres long. Mr Landy sustained several other minor knife wounds.

The trial continues this (Tuesday) morning and is due to conclude later this week.

THE Central Criminal Court in Tralee heard how 35-year-old Joe Greaney, a native of Limerick, implied he would “get” Ennis man Fergal Landy, after an incident in a bar a week before Mr Landy was knifed through the heart.

Greaney of Cahernane Meadows, Killarney, denies the charge of murder but has admitted the manslaughter of his best friend and former colleague between January 24 and 25 at Cahernane Meadows, Killarney.

The court previously heard evidence from Landy’s partner of how she had tried to pull his killer off him while holding their baby in her arms. Rachel Doyle told the court that Landy “looked at me and said, ‘Rachel, he has a knife. He’s after stabbing me.’” Those were his last words to her.

On the night of January 24, 2005, the two men met in the car park outside the apartment of the deceased wielding golf clubs, after the accused texted that he was going to Landy’s apartment. Greaney also carried a wide bladed kitchen knife which has been identified as the weapon which killed Landy.

Witness John Drummond, a chef at the Gleneagle Hotel and a friend of the accused joined Doyle, Landy and Greaney on the night of Sunday, January 16 at the Whitegates pub near the Cahernane Meadows housing estate where all four lived.

When Greaney went to the toilet, Drummond heard Doyle say to Landy “he’s texting me again”.

When he returned from the bathroom, Landy started shouting at Greaney “You’re a f***ing idiot when you’re drunk.”

Landy then punched the accused who fell over.

“Fergal was pointing at him, saying ‘I’ll f***ing kill you,” Drummond said.

On the walk back, Greaney was upset.

“I can’t remember exactly what he said. I’ll get Fergal, or he’ll be sorry for that, something like that,” Drummond told the court.

Evidence was given that Greaney stayed at the scene and tried to help the injured man. “I did it, I stabbed him, I am so sorry, I killed him. I am so sorry. He was my best friend,” he told Garda Brendan Cronin.

In a signed interview with Det Garda Pat Kelleher on January 25, he said he was drunk. He denied setting out to do Mr Landy harm, and only intended to frighten him.

The court also heard that Greaney was on medication for depression at the time of the incident.

The trial before a jury of seven men and five women, presided over by Justice Paul Carney, continues.

A KILMIHIL publican who sexually assaulted a woman in her twenties in the toilets of his pub has been jailed for two years.

John Carey (52), a separated father-of-four, of Church Street, Kilmihil, was found guilty by a jury at the end of a two-day trial, at Ennis Circuit Court last week. He had denied two charges of sexual assault, one in March or April, 2001, and the other in May of that year.

The injured party said she went into the bathroom of the pub at around 1am. The accused entered the toilet, put his hand down her top and started feeling her breasts.

She returned to the pub in May 2001 to attend a birthday party. Asked why she went back there after what had happened previously, she said, “I didn’t think he would do it a second time.”

On that occasion she said he followed her into the toilet again, and “started feeling” her.

She said the accused threatened her not to open her mouth. However defence Counsel Micheál Ó Sé said, “This is the first we have heard of that.”

Mr Ó Sé asked the jury why the woman would return to the pub, if something had happened on the first occasion. He said there were “severe gaps and significant inconsistencies” to the allegations.

Sergeant John Ryan told the court the accused was a well-known publican in Kilmihil for a number of years.

He said he no longer runs the pub – which is now closed – and worked as a machine driver on the Ennis bypass.

The court heard details of the victim impact statement. It stated that the victim had spoken about committing suicide and had lost confidence in herself, as a result of Carey’s actions.

She said that Carey was a “powerful man” in his area and she was afraid, while the incidents made her feel sick and would always remain with her.

She said she felt that the accused was “laughing and sniggering” at her, while she gave evidence in the trial. Mr Ó Sé responded by saying, “That is not the impression I had from him.”

The barrister said his client would be known as “a drinking man” who was a “very good customer of his own premises.”

Judge Con Murphy said the accused was “very invasive to this lady.”

He said the offences were committed in the ladies toilets, which was a sanctum for ladies.

“This man was a man of substance in Kilmihil, looking after his children, but now his life and reputation are effectively ruined,” he said.

He jailed him for two years and placed Carey on the sex offenders register for five years.

A MAJOR search of the Cratloe Woods was carried out on Sunday evening, after an eight-year-old boy went missing while out walking with his family.

The boy, from Limerick city, was out walking with his mother and brother, when he became separated from them at around 6pm.

The alarm was immediately raised by the boy’s distraught mother and gardaí were called in from Shannon, Sixmilebridge and Ennis, while the Garda Dog Unit was deployed from Henry Street in Limerick.

The Shannon-based Irish Coastguard helicopter was brought to the scene and the searched continued for over two-and-a-half hours. There was huge relief when the boy went to a house some distance from where he disappeared, after he managed to make his way out of the woods.

The householder had seen the helicopter in the distance and telephoned gardaí. The boy was then reunited with his family, shortly before 9pm.

Dozens of local people assisted in the search, along with 20 gardai from the various stations.

Shannon gardaí co-ordinated the operation. Sergeant Dermot O’Connor said everyone was relieved it turned out to be a success.

“Thankfully it was a success story and the boy was located uninjured. When we became aware that he had been separated from his family, we immediately commenced a search of the woods. We consulted with the last people who had seen the boy,” said Sgt O’Connor.

“We became concerned due to the terrain in the area and as darkness loomed, we deemed it necessary to call in the assistance of the Garda Dog Unit and the Air Support helicopter,” he added.

He paid tribute to the assistance provided by the Coastguard helicopter and the local people who offered assistance in the search.

“The main thing was to get in the support services,” he said.