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CLARE’s three main towns are putting final touches to their ceremonies to commemorate the 1916 Rising.

Ennis Town Council will hold a civic ceremony to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the rising, on Easter Sunday, April 16. The ceremony will take place at the 1916 Monument, Club Bridge, Abbey Street, at noon.

The civic ceremony will involve the attendance of the Army Reserve to raise the National Flag followed by a reading of the 1916 Proclamation in English and Irish. Ecumenical Prayers in English and Irish will be said for all those who died. Ennis Mayor, Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind), will lay a wreath at the monument. The Ennis Brass Band will also be in attendance and will play the Last Post, Reveille and the National Anthem.

Kilrush will also honour the men and women of 1916 with a special ceremony. At 1 pm on Easter Sunday, independent TD James Breen will give an oration before a wreath is laid at the Town Hall. Shannon will put the final touches to its plans tonight. Unlike the other areas, the people of Shannon will pay tribute to those who died on the actual anniversary of the Rising, April 24. Early indications suggest the ceremony will take place in the early evening, with the raising of the flag. Once again the Last Post and Reveille will be played before those attending adjourn to the library to listen to speakers on this date in Irish history. Local children may then play a short film followed by some poetry.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis that the Government wanted next Easter to “be an expression of our pride as a nation in all those who took part in the Rising and the subsequent War of Independence”.

“As far as I am concerned, Collins, DeValera, Griffith and many of their leading contemporaries, were all great Irishmen, who played an equal and honourable part in winning Ireland’s independence, as did many distinguished women patriots,” he said.

“It is my firm intention to mark, in the most inclusive possible manner, the passage into history of both these great achievements and deep wounds associated with the transition to political independence.”

THE Clare branch of Macra Na Feirme has expressed concern over the attitude taken by many young Irish people towards alcohol.

A survey produced by the young farmers organisation revealed that 57 per cent of young people did not consider themselves to be “binge drinking” unless they consumed ten or more alcoholic drinks in one sitting.

This is despite the fact that the World Health Organisation defines binge drinking as consuming in excess six drinks in a single session. Less than one fifth of young people surveyed agreed with this definition.

More than three hundred people between the ages of seventeen and thirty five years of age were interviewed as part of the Macra na Feirme national survey.

According to the head of Macra in Clare, Joe Carrig, attitudes in the county could even be worse than those nationally.

“People in the late 20’s and 30’s seemed to have a more responsible attitude towards alcohol,” said Mr Carrig.

“There are a lot of young people in Clare, so I’d say that the attitudes would be worse here if anything.”

More than 53 per cent of those surveyed admitted that due to alcohol consumption, they did not remember how they got home following a night out, on at least one occasion. The survey also revealed that the majority of young drinkers consumed alcohol more than once a week.

“It is very dangerous if you wake up after a night out and don’t remember where you have been or what you have done,” said Mr Carrig.

“I was really surprised with the numbers. It could lead people into dangerous situations, or unplanned pregnancy.”

Mr Carrig said that while the attitudes of young people towards alcohol was a concern in every area of society, people in urban areas tended to be at greater risk than those living in rural communities.

“It’s not just in Clare, there is a problem everywhere.

“I don’t think that it is as bad in rural areas. In a town or city, a quiet person can fall through the cracks, but there is more support available from different organisations in country areas.”

The survey also revealed that only ten per cent of young people considered themselves to be non-drinkers.

A LEGAL service which specialises in dealing with human rights and refugee issues has opened for business in Ennis.

Pendred and Co. solicitors, the brainchild of campaigning litigator, Conleth Pendred, will offer for the first time, a totally independent private service, which is not linked in any way to government agencies.

Pendred decided to set up in Ennis after his Dublin firm began seeing a lot of clients from here and from Galway. Clients whose income from Government was just €19 a week, were travelling to Dublin to ask for Pendred’s help in their applications to stay in this country.

Pendred had learned that there was a large immigrant population in the mid-west “who are undocumented and have no status.

“That’s unacceptable on human rights grounds and it’s hypocritical of the Taoiseach to go to the US to represent undocumented Irish people when there are thousands here who have no security or status.”

A former member of the Garda, Pendred became involved in human rights litigation while working with a legal firm in the US, which handled a lot of emigration work.

When he returned to his native Dublin, Pendred became involved in working with the first trickle of emigrants who came to Ireland.

“It got my goat up to see how they were being treated,” said Pendred, who went on to qualify as a solicitor and set up his own firm.

One of his most high profile cases was that of Bola Fumi Ojo, a Nigerian woman, who was arrested and held in Mountjoy with her five-weekold baby in 2003.

Pendred successfully argued that her detention was unlawful and unconstitutional because there was no deportation order hanging over her.

“Undocumented people here rely on the kindness of the community and what all of them say is that they want to be able to work.

“If they are documented and given a green card, they are free to give their skills to the community,” said Pendred.

Pendred’s practice is a private one and this is important for his client’s peace of mind, he says.

“People who have been persecuted for a long time grow accustomed to living with fear in their lives and they often associate that fear with government agencies.

“It’s important that people know that we don’t work for any government agency – our raison d’être is often to fight the dovernment.”

Pendred can be contacted through his Ennis office at 85 Parnell Street.

A FAMILY say they are “terrified” that a mobile phone mast, to be erected near their house, will cause them serious health problems.

Fionnuala and Mike Casey of Lisheen Cross, Ballynacally, say they will have to leave their house and uproot their two children, if the 02 mast goes ahead.

The Caseys are among dozens of objectors to the proposed 50 ft high mast at Lisheen. Fifty six others, led by the Lisheen Mast Action Group, sent in objections, after a public meeting.

The Caseys, who live just 600 metres away from where the mast is to be erected, say they “hope and pray” it won’t be allowed.

“We are terrified that this mast will act as a trigger for ill health. As a family, we look after our health to the best of our ability, but we are convinced that living so near to a telecommunications mast will cause serious health problems for this family.

“We made this area our home and we had planned to live here for the rest of our lives, but if this structure is granted planning permission, we would be forced to uproot our two children and move to an area free from health risks.

“We hope and pray that common sense will prevail and that O2 Communications are not successful in their request”.

They also claim there’s no need for the mast and that it will slash the value of their property.

“There is not a problem with mobile phone coverage in the Lisheen, Ballynacally area so the erection of this structure is not essential to the development of telecommunication services. The fact that this mast is so close to our house will without a shadow of a doubt devalue our house, as we certainly would not buy property so close to a mast ourselves.”

The Caseys also express concern over the visual impact the mast will have on their lives, describing it as “alien to any other structure” in the area.

Green Party councillor, Brian Meaney, has also lodged an objection against the proposal.

“I am opposed to the mast because it is an area of scenic amenity and there are no proposals in the application lodge to camouflage the structure,” he told The Clare People . As a result, it will have a strident impact on the landscape,” he said.

A decision on the application is due next month.

A WOMAN who was given a stolen laser card in Limerick and told to go to Ennis and do the best she could with it, has been jailed for four months.

Kathleen Stickle (22), of Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, unlawfully obtained goods to the value of €865, in nine premises in Ennis and surrounding areas, on September 30, 2004.

Ennis District Court was told she was given the card in Limerick and told to go to Ennis with it.

Stickle was addicted to cocaine at the time and had fallen into arrears with a drug dealer in Limerick.

Her solicitor Daragh Hassett said his client’s doctor was asking the court to give her a break. He said the mother-of-one would not benefit from going to jail.

“If she goes to prison there is no-one to look after her child. She is petrified she will get a prison sentence,” he said.

“It wasn’t that she stole the card. She was given the card. It was brought on by her dealings with nasty people,” said the solicitor.

Inspector Michael Gallagher told the court that the accused had 17 previous convictions, in Limerick. Mr Hassett said those arose out of a few incidents, most of which were public order offences. “This is her most serious todate, without a doubt,” he said.

Judge Joseph Mangan imposed a four month jail term and fixed recognisances of €500 in the event of an appeal.

A 38-year-old woman who has been involved in a rejuvenation scheme for the John Paul housing estate in Kilrush yelled at gardaí, calling them “a shower of c**** and b*******.”

The incident occurred when Geraldine Rogers, of 7 Willow Green, Kilrush, came home from a hen party to discover her car had been vandalised.

Garda O’Herlihy told the Kilrush District Court that the accused had a lot of drink taken at the time. “She told us we don’t pull the ones that need pulling,” said the garda.

She went in to her home, before she returned and screamed at the gardaí, he said.

Defending solicitor Eugene O’Kelly said his client had never been in trouble before.

He said this type of behaviour was out of character and the garda agreed with this.

“She was agitated by the damage done to her car,”said Mr O’ Kelly.

The garda said someone had thrown a stone at her car earlier in the night. Mr O’Kelly said the accused’s car had also been damaged previously. “There may have been some resentment because of the work done trying to help matters in the estate,” he said.

He stressed that his client had no animosity with the gardai and that she worked with Garda O’Herlihy for many years in the rejuvenation programme.

Judge Joseph Mangan was told the accused has no previous convictions. He adjourned the case to allow a professional report on drug and alcohol abuse to be carried out.

CLARE Library is celebrating a world-first after launching its Internet Geographical Information System.

The digitized maps on the Clare County Library Website will allow users to further investigate local studies and genealogical information.

By clicking on a townland marked on a map, all related information (census records, Griffith’s Valuation, photographs, trade directories and so on) will be presented.

Clicking on a monument feature, such as a castle, tower house or round-tower, will make everything in the library’s extensive Website about each of these features instantly available.

The maps will also provide and demonstrate new relationships between existing data on the site, and users will be able to use feature-layers produced from the maps as a new search facility.

Over 6,000 images were created as ‘tiles’ from original scans of the 1842 Ordnance Survey (OS) Six-Inch maps of County Clare.

More than 2,000 townland pages, and in excess of 6,000 monument pages, were also created in conjunction with the project.

Clare County Library holds two complete sets of the first edition OS Six-Inch maps for County Clare. However, the set scanned for this online project was acquired from the O’Brien family of Dromoland Castle. The Ordnance Survey was originally established in Britain in 1791, and in 1824 the Survey established its Irish headquarters in Dublin, in order to undertake the mapping and measurement of Irish town lands.

The maps were drawn on a scale of six inches to one mile and published between 1833 and 1846. They were later revised on a county-by-county basis.

There were four OS centers in Ireland, at Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Ennis. The Ordnance Survey House in College Road, Ennis, now Maoin Cheoil an Chláir, became their local headquarters in Clare and was the centre of operations for the survey and mapping of Clare, Limerick, part of Galway and Kerry in the earlier stages of the work and, later, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon.

The entire survey was under the direction of Colonel Thomas Colby who realised the need, not just to produce a series of accurate and realistic maps, but also to compliment it with a separate topographical inventory of all places of interest in each county, as well as aspects of architecture and archaeology. At the time of the original publication of the OS maps, Ireland was considered to be the bestmapped country in the world.

Full details are available on the library website at www.clarelibrary.ie.

A SENIOR Clare County Council official has refuted claims that documents were illegally removed from site offices at the Ballyduff Waste Managament facility in Inagh.

Conor Culloo, the Senior Executive Engineer at the Ballyduff Waste Management Facility, said documents concerning the Surface Water Results were being copied in Ennis, when the request was made to view them in Ballyduff Beg on Thursday March 16.

He says that the documents are not part of the Public File which the Environmental Protection Agency requires on site at all times.

In a statement to The Clare People, Mr Culloo said, “The originals of these documents, which do not form part of the Public File, were being copied in Ennis. At no time was the Public File not available for inspection or access to it denied. What happened was a misunderstanding as to what forms part of the Public File.”

Mr Culloo’s comments are at odds with those of local resident Perry Long, who said that all files, including the Surface Water Results, are required to be available at the dump at all times.

FOUR Ennis men have appeared in court, charged with a burglary at St Flannan’s College on St Patrick’s weekend.

Thomas McCarthy (19), Shalee Drive; Shane Miller (19), Childers Road; Brian Shannon (19), Clancy Park and Shane Moroney (18), of Circular Road are charged with the offence, under the Theft and Fraud Offences Act, on March 18.

Garda Tim Ryan gave evidence of arresting and charging Shane Millar and Thomas McCarthy, at St Flannan’s College, shortly before 9am on March 18 last. Neither made any reply after charge and caution.

Garda Stephen Dunne told the court he arrested Brian Shannon at Turnpike Road, Ennis, at 8.45am on March 18. He made no reply to the charge.

Garda Dunne also gave evidence of arresting Shane Moroney at St Flannan’s College, shortly before 9am on March 18. In reply to charge he said, “Nothing to say.”

Solicitor Tara Godfrey, who represented three of the accused, said she was applying for free legal aid. Judge Joseph Mangan suggested she make this application in writing.

The case was adjourned for a month when all four will appear again in court.

THE mayor of Clare has invited the Speaker of the City Council in New York to visit her ancestral Clare home.

The invitation follows the visit by Cllr Pat Keane (FF) to the Big Apple, during which he helped lead New York’s St Patrick’s Day Parade.

The mayor has invited speaker, Christine Quinn, and her father Lawrence, who hails from Kilmurry McMahon, to visit Clare during his term in office.

Mayor Keane said there were strong indications that the visit would go ahead.

On the night before St. Patrick’s Day, Ms Quinn, on behalf of New York City Council, presented Mayor Keane with a framed proclamation.

The presentation was followed by entertainment comprising of Irish music and dancing.

Cllr Keane was one of three people to be honoured on the night, the other Irishman being highly regarded Irish actor, Milo O’Shea, who has lived in the US for the last number of years.

On St. Patrick’s Day, the mayor and his delegation were some of the honoured guests at Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, before enjoying a special breakfast hosted by Ms Quinn.

Afterwards Cllr Keane, along with the Clare delegation and members of the Clareman’s Association in New York, led the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade down Fifth Avenue.

“It is important that we continue to build and consolidate these relationships, which can only be to the benefit of County Clare and to Clare people living in New York,” said the mayor.