Month: November 2006

CLARE is among the highest academically achieving counties in Ireland, according to the results of an independent survey released this weekend. The survey which examined the university placements of students from 720 second-level schools in the Republic pinpointed the highest ranking schools as well as the countries educational blackspots.

The survey found Clare to be the fourth best county for second-level education with 38 per cent of its students going on to university, above the national average of 32 per cent, and behind Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown (51.7 per cent), South City Dublin (40.8 per cent), and Limerick (39.2 per cent).

The Clare school to take the highest position was St Flannan’s College, Ennis, which in 39th position nationally and sixth in Munster saw 64.3 per cent of its students gaining a university place.

At 12th position was Seamount College, Kinvara, which climbed from eightieth position in 2005. Despite this, Seamount College is expected to be closing its doors to students over the next couple of years. Another Clare school to reach to top 100 was Scoil Mhuire, Ennistymon which at 45th place made a massive jump from last year’s position of 145.

Among the rest of the 400 schools listed were Colaiste Mhuire, Ennis who dropped from seventy fourth in last year’s ranking to 140th this year and Meanscoil na mBraithire, Ennistymon, which at 148th rose from its 2005 ranking of 152nd.

A LATVIAN man who sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in a shop in Kilkee has been given a suspended jail term.

Valentins Gzibovskis (23), of Marine Apartments, Kilkee, pleaded guilty to sexual assault, at O’Curry Street, Kilkee, on January 14 last.

Inspector Michael Gallagher told Ennis District Court yesterday (Monday) that the accused grabbed his victim between the legs, outside her clothes, after he followed her and another girl along the street.

The court heard the victim suffered bouts of anger and temper tantrums in the wake of the assault, which were connected with it.

Defending solicitor Eugene O’Kelly said the offence was committed on the accused’s birthday, after he had consumed a large amount of alcohol. Gzibovskis has lived in Kilkee for the past two years and works locally. His employer told the court he is a reliable, hard-working employee.

“He certainly has no recollection of the incident in the shop. He had not considered himself to have deviant sexual tendencies,” he said.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy noted that the assault was outside the girl’s clothes and said, “A sexual assault on a girl of that age is extremely serious. The courts have to take this seriously.”

He took the guilty plea into account and said the assault was “at the lower level” of the scale. He imposed a seven-month sentence and suspended it for two years. He placed the accused on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

ONE solution to the public order crisis in Lahinch is to close nightclubs earlier – that’s according to a judge, who spoke out on the issue last week.

Judge Joseph Mangan was commenting at Ennistymon District Court as one nightclub, at The Claremont Hotel, applied for an exemption until 2am. He granted it, having granted an exemption to Coast nightclub the previous week, but commented on the public order situation in the town.

Several public order cases in Lahinch were heard at the court, as was the case at the last court sitting in September.

“In the absence of any statistics, this court has seen today and last September that the public order situation in Lahinch has not improved and if anything it has disimproved in recent times,” said the judge.

“It seems to me the most prudent thing for the court to do is to shorten exemption times, in an attempt to address the problem,” he added.

The exemptions will take effect for a number of weeks and applications will be made for further exemptions next month.

In another, unrelated case, the judge fined three men involved in a row outside a nightclub in Lahinch, a total of €7,500.

Brothers John (32) and Kevin Darcy (30), of Mullagh Road, Miltown Malbay, and Gary O’Keefe (27), Mullagh, were before the court arising out of an incident in Lahinch, a year ago.

John Darcy pleaded guilty to assaulting a bouncer, damaging a shirt and with engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour and was fined €3,000.

Kevin Darcy pleaded guilty to assaulting Sergeant Michael Gallery and with damaging an off-duty garda’s neck chain. He was fined €2,500.

Gary O’Keeffe was fined €2,000, after admitting assaulting a bouncer and engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour.

Judge Mangan said, “Even by the standards of Lahinch, this was a bad incident.”

He said he was taking their guilty pleas into account and was not going to impose jail sentences.

The comments by the judge came amid ongoing concerns among residents in Lahinch over public order.

Two years ago, locals objected to nightclub licences being granted. They have pledged to oppose exemptions, if public order issues continue to cause concern.

During the summer a petition outlining concerns on public order, was signed by residents in the town and send to Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

Garda management in Clare believe the situation is under control, as Garda manpower has increased in the town.

An additional garda has been stationed in Lahinch full-time, while more back-up is now provided from Ennistymon every Saturday night.

AN extension to Glór could be on the cards after Ennis Town Council supported a request for the facility to apply for funding.

Government funding to the tune of €1.4 million is being sought by Glór for a 550 sq. metre extension that would include a 200 seat performance area, dressing room, backstage and refreshment facilities.

The extension will also allow for previously redundant foyer space in the main building, to be turned into a gallery.

A €2 million price tag has been put on the development with 70 per cent of the funding sought from the Department of the Arts’ ACCESS funding programme, and the remaining 30 per cent to be got from local authority own resources. If the application is successful, Ennis Town Council will supply funding of €300,000.

In a submission to the council, Glór Director, Katie Verling, outlined the reasons for pursuing the extension.

“Since Glór opened 5 years ago, the board has been conscious of the lack of a middle sized performance space. There has been a demand over the years from community groups, local arts and drama groups and more recently Clare Youth Theatre for a 200 seat Multi-purpose space in which to meet perform and run children’s workshops.

“Glór has built up a strong relationship with community and voluntary groups throughout, Ennis, e.g. Brothers of Charity, Enable Ireland, Irish Refugee Council, Ennis Musical Society, Clare Youth Theatre to name a few. Many find Glór’s main theatre too big and daunting, and would prefer a smaller space.

‘With the announcement of the ACCESS 11 Scheme . . . we were encouraged to apply for an additional 200 seater low-tech durable flexible space. In this hall, the people of Ennis will be able to run meetings, rehearse, attend traditional and folk concerts, run dances and celebrate the many and varied talents of the town,” she said.

Supporting the request, Councillor Peter Considine (FF) said,

“I think we should support it, Glór is one of the flagship entertainment venues in the Mid-West and there is huge demand for facilities of this kind in a town like Ennis”

Councillor Johnny Flynn (FG) praised Glór as being a “fantastic asset to the town”.

THE Post Office field in Ennis has been targeted as the site for a proposed new two-storey library for the town.

Last night (Monday), Ennis Town Council approved a request from the Town Manager to apply for funding from the Department of Environment and An Comhairle Leabharlanna.

The development would see a library built on .3 acres of a section of the field fronting onto Bank Place.

Un-veiling the plans, Tom Coughlan, Town Manager, stated the proposed development would encompass 25,000 sq. feet, a staff carpark, dual access as well as a large glass fronted decking area that would overlook the river.

According to Mr Coughlan, it is likely that the present site of the DeValera library which is owned by Clare County Council, will be sold to pay for the cost of the development, although the gallery area may be retained.

Re-development of the current site is considered problematic due to the likely disruption to services

Consideration would also be given to housing the headquarters of Clare Library Services in the same building.

The post office field is currently zoned amenity and any development will constitute a material contravention to the Ennis and Environs Development Plan and will require the council to adopt a variation to the plan.

Mr Coughlan said the matter needed to be urgently addressed as both the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and An Comhairle Leabharlanna plan to scale back the level of funding they normally make available to such projects.

Ennis Town council had previously voted that any future usage of the field be determined by the Civic Trust who were due to prepare a report on the matter.

However following advice from the Office of Public Works (OPW), it was decided to delay completion of the report until the OPW conducted their own report into the field’s position as a flood plain for the nearby River Fergus.

Councillor Donal O’Beara (GP) stated that the DeValera Library be kept as a public space and not given over to commercial development.

Cllr Frankie Neylon asked “What is going to happen to the rest of the field? It seems to me that we made a decision that the field would not be used and now we are changing it.”

Cllr Peter Considine (FF) stressed that Bank Place reflected Ennis as a modern prosperous town and that any development “should be sensitive to the ethos of the area”.

A 47-YEAR old man said yesterday that he had lost 42 years of his life as a result of been abused by west Clare farmer Joseph Nugent and vowed, “I am not going to lose the rest”.

Four years ago, 74-year old bachelor farmer, Joseph Nugent, from Dromellihy, Cree was sentenced to six years in jail for the abuse of the local boy.

Imposing sentence in November 2002, Judge Brian McMahon said that Nugent had acted in a premeditated and predatory nature for his own self-gratification and beastly pleasure.

The judge said that the abuse on a neighbour, who was aged eight when the abuse started, involved the use of physical violence by an adult on a young child.

A second conviction was secured against Nugent for crimes against another young boy in 2004.

Mr Nugent’s crimes are now back in the spotlight as a result of Fine Gael deputy, Pat Breen tabling a Dáil question into the possibility of Nugent being eligible for an early release. Mr Nugent is due for release in February 2008.

The victim and a father of three told The Clare People: “What were we? Innocent children. We couldn’t add three and three. Someone came along and not alone did they do awful things, but they took away your childhood and they took away the rest of your life. It should be no different to murder. The sentence he got was nothing really, but I have to respect the law and that was the judge’s decision on the day.”

There has never been an apology from Nugent for his crimes. The victim said: “He has never shown any remorse, never apologised. A line would be nothing to Mr Nugent to write a line or any of his solicitors to write a line. A line would mean a thousand lines to a victim.

“It would mean that he has shown some remorse, the statement that he thought more of his cattle than his victims. Are they still his feelings?”

After he was first raped by Nugent, the victim went to tell his mother of the attack.

He says: “When I told my mother when the first attack happened, she said ‘go away ar’ that’ and when I asked her about it in the years later, she said she didn’t understand that there was anything going on like that. Old people couldn’t believe that.

“One of the best things was when we made it up on her deathbed. She said sorry and asked would I ever forgive her and I said yes. I said to her, ‘you explained to me that you didn’t know – that there was none in your day, you didn’t know, grand so’ and we cuddled and she died the day after.”

He added: “There has been very good support from the community. Not at first though, because they were fairly filled with lies before they found out the truth. The community is brilliant, I couldn’t ask for better. You will have the few on their side, you will get that in any case, that’s only natural. I have no bad feelings towards them.”

The man was speaking at an Ennis hotel last Thursday in the company of his psychiatric nurse and broke down several times during the interview.

He said: “It split the family very bad, that was a sorrowful thing. It split both my sisters away from me. They understand now that they were told lies and they have come back and apologised to me. It was hard for them to apologise and they have been good to me ever since. I can walk into any of their houses anytime and have a cuppa tea and they are there in two seconds if I am having a bad day. I’m sure that it hurts them as well that they didn’t understand.”

He tells of the challenge in going to the Garda to make a complaint over the attacks from Nugent.

He said: “He was a big farmer, well-to-do, with a new car every year. He was always in the best of clothes, a pillar of society in the area. It was a lot to take on for someone who wasn’t as well off. Someone that had depression and was living through hell, but you take each day as it comes.”

He added: “When it is a big person, big people in life, it is as if they had a right to do it you because you were poor. He thought that his cattle were more important to him than me. What does that tell you?”

The 47-year old victim who came forward to The Clare People last week said: “The local gossip going around was that the two of us (Nugent’s other victim) were meeting up regular and we had it all planned to get the money.

“We had every sort of a plan going. It was put out that I didn’t get my own place at home and that I was only after his place. What a load of rubbish. It wasn’t about that. It was about justice. I have never seen the other victim since and it would be nice to have a chat.

“I was so glad that I got something out of it, got a sentence and put this bad man out of society. We didn’t do it for money. Money wasn’t a care. I am not rich, I would be in the lower poor bracket, but at least I got my wife, my kids, my close friends and my nurse and my doctors.”

He advises that other abuse victims go and find help, “because you will not cope with it alone. My heart bleeds for the crathurs.”

He said: “I was smiling on the outside and dying on the inside. I was laughing through depression. I laughed myself through the last 41 or 42 years. Some people, God love them, they didn’t make it like. I have close friends that didn’t.”

The man says that his children bring him a lot of happiness. He said: “They don’t know how much they help me. It is happy that you have someone at the end of the day. I like the married life, it is great to come home to someone that they understand and love you. That’s it. My nurse is my angel and I have an angel at home in my wife. I am fairly religious and that has brought me through a lot.”

The man has not worked since the outcome of the trial four years ago. He said: “I have very severe depression, serious stuff. I have only to see someone that resembles him and that just brings it all back.

“I could be having a lovely day. I could be at Salthill in Galway and walking down the beach and see someone that resembles him and that would set me back again. I would be walking along and it gets inside your mind, it eats at your mind and you just start crying walking down the street.

“I’m very optimistic for the future. It’s getting me down now because of what was in the paper. I don’t know what plans for the future are.

Nugent is due for release in February 2008 and the victim said: “I have been advised to move to another area of the parish from being next door and seeing him every day. It is going to be tough, you certainly wouldn’t want your children running around when the man is released.”

FINE Gael TD, Pat Breen yesterday failed to respond to a call from the primary victim of sex offender, Joseph Nugent to apologise for tabling a Dáil question inquiring into the possibility of the rapist’s early release.

Nugent, a 74 year old bachelor farmer, from Dromellihy, Cree, was jailed in 2002 for six years on each of 23 counts of buggery of his neighbour, then aged eight. The abuse continued until the boy was 14.

The victim, now aged 47, spoke publicly yesterday for the first time about the hurt caused by Deputy Breen’s tabling of the question.

“I really think Mr Breen should apologise if has any decency in him at all. Not alone to me and my family, but apologise to all the victims out there that have been hurt by this. It takes a man to apologise.”

Yesterday morning, Deputy Breen was emailed the text of the victim’s comments, but failed to return phone calls made during the day.

The victim confirmed that he was admitted to Ennis General Hospital as a result of the stress brought on by the publicity surrounding Deputy Breen tabling the question.

Now released from hospital care, he said: “This has set me back a year in my recovery. We’re reliving the attacks.”

Mr Nugent is due for release in February 2008. In response to Deputy Breen’s question when Nugent would be eligible for early release, the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell said that in view of the very serious nature of the offences, he was not prepared to authorise any form of early release.

The victim last week phoned the offices of The Clare People to make public his views on the matter.

He said yesterday: “I just felt bad and hurtful about the things in the paper. I didn’t think it was a question he should have asked.

“I wouldn’t be that educated, but I know if I was asking when someone was coming out, I would have the common sense to ask the gardaí or the prison service, which I think would have been the right thing to do in that case.

He added: “I was very offended. I just can’t see why that question came forward in the first place. It would be completely up to the prison authorities or the Minister for Justice when he should come out. That is how I feel.

“He should have known more being a deputy. I think he should have been a lot cleverer being a deputy. God almighty, no one in their right mind would go and ask a question like that. I’m gobsmacked that he even attempted to ask it in the first place.

The man said that Deputy Breen tabling the question had left him, “very angry and very hurt”.

He said: “He shouldn’t have asked it. In the papers, it said that it was last week’s news, it might be last week’s news for them. It is not last week’s news for the victims. It is every day for the victim.

“I would like Deputy Breen to explain to me, to say anything at all. If he didn’t understand about placing the question, grand we’ll accept that. Say something that we can grasp onto and try to live another day.”

Imposing a sentence of six years in November 2002, Judge Brian McMahon said that Nugent had acted in a premeditated and predatory nature for his own self-gratification and beastly pleasure and that the abuse on a neighbour involved the use of physical violence by an adult on a young child.

THE Kilrush businessman charged with the murder of Limerick bouncer Brian Fitzgerald is to go to the Supreme Court, in an effort to obtain bail, The Clare People can reveal.

Anthony Kelly (49), of Cragg House, Kilrush, is accused of murdering Brian Fitzgerald, at his home in Corbally, on November 29, 2002.

Mr Kelly was arrested in Ennis on October 16 last and later charged with murder. He is currently in custody in Limerick prison, awaiting the preparation of the book of evidence and is due before Limerick District Court again in a fortnight.

His bail application before the High Court last Tuesday was refused, after strong objections from gardaí. Mr Kelly’s solicitor Eugene O’Kelly confirmed to The Clare People that his client would appeal this refusal to the Supreme Court.

He said allegations made in the High Court were without basis and were “wild.”

“The High Court relied unduly on unfounded hearsay allegations,” said Mr O’Kelly.

Gardaí expressed fears for the safety of two main witnesses, if Mr Kelly was granted bail.

“I believe there is a substantial and real risk witnesses will be murdered, even within the confines of prison,” Detective Sergeant Seamus Nolan told the High Court.

The court heard that gardaí believed Mr Kelly and an associate recruited James Martin Cahill (30) and another man to carry out the killing of Mr Fitzgerald. Cahill, who has strong west Clare connections, is serving life in jail for the murder of the security boss and has indicated he will give evidence against Mr Kelly.

Mr Kelly’s sister had offered to pay an independent surety of €75,000 for his release, but gardaí said they would not be satisfied with a surety of €75 million.

Det Sgt Nolan said he feared if Mr Kelly was granted bail, he would take steps to ensure Mr Cahill and another witness Philip Deane, would not give evidence against him.

He said Cahill was terrified he was going to be shot, because of what he had told gardaí and had a minimum of three prison officers with him at all times.

Det Sgt Nolan said Mr Kelly had substantial assets overseas and a car, worth more than €100,000.

He rejected suggestions from Anthony Sammon, SC, representing Kelly, that his client was involved in the furniture business.

‘‘I believe that Mr Kelly’s principal business is the importation of drugs into this jurisdiction, not the furniture business. That is merely a cover for his other businesses. He is regarded as being one of the main drug importers into this jurisdiction,’’ he said.

The court heard Mr Kelly has six previous convictions over a 24-year period, including two for larceny and one for living off immoral earnings.

Mr Justice Paul Butler said he was not entirely concerned about the risk of Mr Kelly fleeing, but he accepted there might be a risk to the lives of witnesses if he was granted bail.

A DAILY service between Shannon and New York is being planned as part of a number of new routes announced this week by Aer Lingus.

The airline will be taking delivery of two new Airbus A330 long range jets next year and it is planning to expand capacity on existing routes to the US and the Middle East with the aircraft. From next summer, the airline’s long haul flights will number 120, an increase of 26.

The Dublin-New York service will operate twice daily and the DublinBoston route will increase from 11 flights per week to two per day with one non-stop service from Dublin and another from Dublin via Shannon.

The Dublin-Los Angeles service will also increase from five flights a week to a daily flight and the Dublin-Dubai service will increase from three flights per week to four.

Making the announcement, Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion said that taking delivery of the new aircraft would mark the first phase of the company’s long haul expansion plans.

He said it gave the airline “the opportunity to develop our presence in the US market and we look forward to a timely decision on the bilateral agreement, which will allow us to take full advantage of open skies.”

Meanwhile, Shannon-based charter, Eirjet, has failed to attract new investment as is to be wound up with multi-million euro debts.

In the last three weeks, management have been trying to get fresh finance for the company, which ran into difficulty earlier this year when an Indonesian leasing deal collapsed.

The deal would have been worth €20 million over three years to the airline. A liquidator is expected to be appointed early this week.

Eirjet was established in 2004 and operated charter services out of Shannon, Dublin, Belfast and Cork.

Their clients included Ryanair and Aer Lingus, but the main business was providing charter services for travel agencies such as Abbey Travel, Falcon, Stein Travel, JWT and Topflight.

The company contacted the Commission for Aviation Regulation in the middle of last month to say that it was unable to fulfil its obligations to the tour operators due to financial difficulties.

The company could not be contacted for comment. But their Website is advising that alternative travel arrangements have been put in place with all tour operators and customers should contact their travel agency for details.

THE need for multi-lingual warning signs and more information for the non-national community about the dangers of fishing off the west Clare coast was highlighted again this weekend following the tragic death of a young father off Doonbeg.

The 27-year-old Latvian man was swept into the sea by a large swell at Blue Pool, leaving his distraught wife and eight-year-old son to look on in terror.

The young family, who have lived in Athlone for two years, were fishing on the ledge when the tragedy occurred.

Clare County Council had destroyed an access route to the area more than 10 years ago, as up to nine people had lost their lives there during the previous two decades.

According to Manuel di Lucia of the Kilkee Marine Rescue Service none of those who died in the Blue Pool had been local, and all had been visitors to the area.

“Non-nationals and visitors to the area who plan to go fishing off the Loop Head peninsula or anywhere along the west Clare coast should seek local advice as to safety,” he said.

Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn said, “It is imperative that multi-lingual signs are urgently erected in areas dangerous for fishing.”

Sunday’s tragedy followed the drowning of father-of-four Piotr Bedzlowitz the previous week off Tullig near Cross.

The Kilkee Marine Rescue, Kilkee and Burren Sub-aqua Club, the Doolin and Kilkee Coastguards, the Civil Defence and the Garda underwater unit were completing the morning search for the 35-year-old’s body, when at 1.30 pm they were called to the scene of the Doonbeg tragedy. Just 15 minutes later the Kilkee Marine Rescue lifeboat under coxman Kieran Deloughry found the Latvian man’s body. His remains were brought to the Kilkee Marine Rescue Centre where local priest Fr Donagh O’Meara administered the last rites The man’s distraught wife then identified the body before it was removed to the Mid Western Regional Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Meanwhile, the Ennis Lions Club will fly the wife and brother of Tullig drowning victim Piotr Bedzlowitz to Ireland this week.The bereaved family are to visit the site where 35-year-old Piotr was swept into the sea, and meet with the local rescue groups that tried to recover the father of four. The club are also planning a fund raiser to help the two families that lost their loved ones.