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JUDGE Carroll Moran told the jury yesterday (Monday) evening that it was “common case” that the theme of suicide was prevalent in the case.

He said Eavan Drysdale alleged that Gda Keating told her she would be the next Geraldine Kissane, who was shot dead by her former boyfriend in Shannon in 2001, before he then shot himself.

Gda Keating, in turn, alleged that Ms Drysale had texted him, saying she hoped his next suicide attempt would be a success.

Gda Keating told the court he attempted to take his own life in July 2004.

Earlier, defence barrister Thomas Creed said the complainant, Ms Drysdale, “is prepared to say anything until she is caught out.”

He said she had a solicitor’s letter sent to Gda Keating on May 12, 2004, ordering him to keep away from her, while at the same time she was making “secret contact” with him, by sending him text messages.

“She was dangling him at the end of a string, torturing him,” he said.

“Is this a damsel in distress? Is this indicative of a woman harassed?” he asked.

The barrister said Ms Drysdale alleged that Gda Keating had been aggressive towards her. However, he said a phone conversation between the two — which was recorded by Gda Keating on his mobile phone and was played in court — showed that she, not he, was the aggressive one.

Meanwhile, counsel for the prosecution, Stephen Coughlan, in his summing up, said three telephone conversations took place between the accused and the complainant on the night of August 17, 2004.

He said the threats were made during these conversations.

“It may have looked like the case was all about text messages, but the real issue in this case is what happened on the night of the 17th of August,” he said, making reference to thousands of text messages mentioned throughout the case.

He said when Eavan Drysdale confronted Gda Keating after he had slept with another woman, in December 2003, he admitted in court that in denying he had been unfaithful, he had “lied through his teeth”.

“Pat Keating is asking you to believe him, in preference to Ms Drysdale,” Mr Coughlan told the jury.

CARRON National School, in the heart of the Burren, received a donation of $1,500 last week to allow them upgrade their library services. The school, which has some 20 pupils, was visited by a delegation from The Irish American Partnership last Friday and presented with the money.

“It will be a marvellous help to the children because we are always trying in encourage them to read,” said school principal Martin Clohessy. “Between the library and the stuff that we take off the Internet, it is going to make a huge difference to their lives that they will be able to have an extra resource in the school that they can take home, read it and bring it back.

“With the revised new curriculum, particularly in English, we are going to increase our stock of resource book, library books and novels,” continued Mr Clohessy.

“They asked that we will use the money for library purposes, so we will convert it to euros and invest in library resource books for students. We have a library in the school already, but this will allows to increase our stock of books greatly.

The Boston based partnership has been coming to Ireland for more than 20 years, and in that time has donated more than $12 million to Irish educational and social projects. In the last four years, the partnership has visited one national school in Ireland each year, with Lisdoonvarna National benefiting two years ago.

“We go to a different area of the country each year and this year we picked Carron,” said Patrick Kittredge of the Irish American Partnership.

For Mr Kittredge and his group, the trip was not all work, however, and they took the opportunity to take in some of the sites of the area.

“There is a big social element to the trip as well. We are going to visit a lot of local sites like the Ailwee Caves and a lot of the group is going to Galway City, and we will hit a few pubs on the way,” continued Mr Kittredge.

“The other schools have told us that it has had a bit of impact, so we will keep doing it.

“Two years ago we visited the Lisdoonvarna National School and last year we were at Kill in Waterford.”

A 27-YEAR-OLD man who assaulted another man in the corridor of Ennis courthouse has been jailed for six months.

Stephen Moloney, a father-of-one, with an address at John Paul Avenue, Ennis, assaulted Anthony Gallagher, on June 24 last year.

The court was told that Sgt Haran heard a commotion and a verbal altercation was taking place between the accused and Mr Gallagher, on the corridor of the courthouse.

The defendant told the court that Mr Gallagher had said something to him, but he could not remember what exactly, as it was a “long time ago.”

He told Judge Joseph Mangan that his doctor told him to cease drinking for life in January, due to a liver problem.

“I have to give it up, or just give up myself,” he said.

The court heard that Moloney had a number of previous convictions, most of which were drink-related. Asked by the judge was he happy with his behaviour over the past decade, the accused replied, “Not really, no.”

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said her client had a drink problem and had been told by doctors that if he continued drinking, he would die, as he had a liver problem.

“Drink has taken its toll, physically,” said the solicitor, adding, “If he doesn’t deal with it, he is endangering his life.”

She said he had not drank for more than a month.

“He won’t get the level of treatment necessary for him in prison for his drink or for his bowel problem,” said Ms Godfrey.

Judge Joseph Mangan replied, “He doesn’t seem to be getting it outside either.”

He imposed a four-month sentence for the assault charge and a two month sentence for a public order offence in Ennis on December 22 last.

Both sentences will run consecutively. Recognisances were fixed in the event of an appeal.

WHEN your roots are firmly grounded on the Loop Head peninsula, water is never far from your mind and the next parish always means the Americas.

It can be said to be especially true where Paul Gleeson is concerned – a Limerickman who is the son of Loop Head woman Lourdes Keating, from Cross village.

Gleeson is now resting up after the mammoth journey and achievement in rowing across the Atlantic with his girlfriend Tori Holmes.

They battled through 2,550 nautical miles to get to the finish, arriving in the Caribbean island of Antigua last Thursday morning (11 am on Wednesday, Irish time), 86 days after they set off from the Canary Islands.

After reaching land for 13 position in the race, he told The Clare People “it is hard to put into words how happy the two of us are.

“Coming in this morning just after first light was so surreal. Both our families were there. We were looking forward to this for the best part of two months, it was so unbelievable when it happened. We are just smiling from ear to ear,” he added.

The couple, who met in Australia, had no rowing experience before deciding to take part in the mammoth expedition in aid of Concern. They hope to raise €25,000 for the Third World charity. Two years ago Gleeson cycled across Australia for charity.

This successful crossing gave 29-year-old Gleeson the distinction of being the youngest ever Irishman to cross the Atlantic. He is the first cousin of former Clare football captain Barry Keating, while his uncle Gabriel Keating is a former chairman of the Clare Football Board.

The boat they used was given to them by the Kavanagh brothers of Arklow, who also crossed the Atlantic successfully in it in a previous race. Among the highlights of the trip was being tracked by a Sperm whale, while the lowlights included a freak wave which knocked Tori off the boat.

The Atlantic Rowing Race was first staged in 1995 and first hit the headlines this year when Irish pair Ciarán Lewis and Gearóid Towey were dramatically rescued, when they hit trouble in a storm 1,400 miles from Antigua.

TOURISM and farming are declining in the Burren and what is now needed “is a radically new approach to strategic planning, management and decision making in the Burren region”.

That is the view of Wildlife Officer with the Heritage Council, Dr Liam Lysaght, who told an audience in Ennis last Wednesday that the Government needed to establish a National Park Authority for the Burren.

Dr Lysaght said that a new landscape-scale national park for the Burren should extend from Doolin and Cliffs of Moher on the north Clare coast up to Kinvara in Co Galway over to Gort and down to Corofin. Currently, only a small portion of the Burren, around the Mullaghmore area, is designated a national park.

Dr Lysaght said that the current National Park – covering an area of 1,500 hectares – was really a nature reserve masquerading as a national park and the new proposal would cover 270 sq km.

No progress has been made on the provision of visitor facilities for the existing National Park over the past five years, since the ill-fated Mullaghmore centre was demolished.

Dr Lysaght said the new large scale park had “huge marketing potential – national parks are recognised world wide as special places and such a brand is a distinct advantage”.

He said the existing National Park was “quite simply too small, by necessity it is inward looking, and has no possibility, nor was it ever really the intention to influence, in any strategic manner, the wider Burren area”.

Dr Lysaght – who worked in the Burren for seven years – said that there was a need to help the community in the Burren realise its expectations, because “despite the Burren being of world renown, here agriculture is in decline, tourism is in decline, recreational opportunities are not fully developed, and there are few if any initiatives to develop produce based on the special characteristics of the region”.

Dr Lysaght said that various reports on future strategy of the Burren had failed and were doomed to fail “because there is no adequate management structure that operates at the strategic level; none that plans and delivers strategic action.

“This is a serious problem for the Burren and one that is a major challenge to have established. A Burren National Park Authority could provide that strategic planning and management which the Burren craves for.”

A CLARE county councillor has claimed this week that the county is safe from any extension from Limerick City.

Councillor Cathal Crowe said that following a brief meeting with the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche and the Taoiseach last week he got a strong indication that Limerick City’s proposed extension into Clare will not get the go ahead.

Instead Clare’s youngest councillor believes that Limerick County Council could provide adequate lands in their administrative area to the City Council.

This would not upset anybody’s THE work of members of Clare Civil mediate First Aid Course in 2005. defence was recognised at a ceremoMedals were presented to the memny at the Civil Defence Headquarbers of Clare Civil Defence who won ters, Clonroadmore Business Park, a record three in a row Munster Fire Ennis. The presentations were made Pump Drill Competitions from 2002by Ger Dollard, Director of Services 2004; the team who finished second with Clare County Council. Certifiat the National Finals and the Ladies cates were awarded to members who team who took top spot Munster and completed the Civil Defence Radio National Fire Pump Drill CompetiCourse in 2005/2006 and the Intertions in 2005. sense of county identity he claimed.

“Limerick City councillors need to understand that I am fully prepared to work with them on issues that affect the general mid-west area but I am not prepared to give a single inch of my native County Clare,” said the Fianna Fáil councillor.

“I think the Limerick City Council proposal for a boundary extension makes a farce of the Government’s National Spatial Strategy. The City Council’s proposal states that Limerick City is the urban hub of the MidWest Region. The proposal clearly negates the fact that Government policy has designated Limerick and Shannon as the ‘gateway’ to the MidWest Region.”

Showing Minister Roche a map of the south east Clare area the councillor outlined the various ways in which a boundary extension would negatively impact on local communities.

“I told the Minister that Clare County Council is currently providing a good service to my constituents. A commitment has already been given by Clare County Council to provide a full time Council area office and library facility in the Parteen/Westbury area. The Council has also adopted it’s Annual Roadwork’s Programme this week which provides €1,722,000 for local road surfacing and repairs in south east Clare,” he said.

THERE is “no evidence” to support claims made in files handed to the gardaí and the DPP that prisoners bound for torture are being transported through Shannon airport, Minister Dermot Ahern has said.

But it has also emerged that under Irish law, Gardaí cannot search any foreign planes that have been given permission to land on Irish soil because the planes have immunity.

Sinn Fein justice spokesperson, Aengus Ó Snodaigh has handed what is described as a “book of evidence’ to gardaí concerning the alleged use of Shannon for rendition flights.

Two previous files which had been passed on to DPP showed that there “is a lack of sufficient evidence. The complaints related to a regurgitation of media reports,” the Minister told the Dail.

But according to gardaí, the Government would have to request the US to waive the immunity of flights landing at Shannon to allow gardaí search the flights. The US have not had any such request.

The only other way for Gardaí to get on board the planes, a spokesman said, would be with a search warrant issued on suspicion of a crime being committed.

Meanwhile an attempt to get an emergency debate in the Seanad on a combined Opposition motion to establish a select committee to investigate the rendition claims has failed by 28 votes to 18.

The motion, in the names of 25 members of the house, called for the establishment of a committee to consider the mechanisms whereby the State or its agencies could investigate, on foot of allegations or otherwise, whether persons were being transported, via aircraft landing at Irish airports, to locations where they risked torture or inhuman or degrading treatement and the extent to which such mechanisms had been invoked in the last four years.

And Fianna Fáil MEP, Eoin Ryan, who sits on the EU committee due to question European politicians on rendition flights said it is unlikely that Irish politicians will be quizzed.

It had been thought that the Ministers for Justice, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Transport would face questions fromt he committee, but MEP Ryan said that similar invitations would then have to be extended to most of their European counterparts and this would not be feasible.

SEVEN arts venues throughout the country have joined together to form a new organisation, entitled Nasc, in an effort to support and develop touring Irish theatre.

Nasc (meaning link or knot) was an idea first mooted by Katie Verling, Director of Glór Irish Music Centre in Ennis. It has received a considerable vote of confidence with news that each venue is to receive €16,000 additional funding from the Arts Council.

The collective is made up of the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge, Pavillion in Dun Laoghaire, Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise, Backstage Theatre in Longford, An Grianán in Letterkenny, Siamsa Tíre in Tralee and Glór Irish Music Centre in Ennis.

The group first met last September to discuss the absence of a touring initiative in the Arts Council’s strategy and the difficulties for touring theatre companies in Ireland.

“In Glór we were finding it difficult to receive quality, audience driven theatre, so we talked to other venues experiencing similar problems,” said Verling.

“We decided to make a joint application to the Arts Council because we knew they had recently commissioned a report on touring.

Our hope is to get audience-driven theatre of a very high quality, which will attract audiences in all our areas, so that we know every year in a Nasc tour that we will be getting a particular type of show that will suit the seven of us.”

They are currently in negotiations with a number of Irish theatre companies. Anyone wishing to contact Nasc should do so through Katie Verling, at Glór Irish Music Centre, Ennis, or email kverling@glor.ie.

Early indications that Ennis General Hospital is finally receiving its long awaited CAT scan emerged this week.

The life-saving diagnostic instrument for the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis has finally made it on to a Health Service Executive financial projection for this year.

A document seen by The Clare People relating to the executive’s capital plan for 2006 and currently awaiting approval by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, includes the provision of the CAT scanning services for Ennis.

On the capital plan’s approval by the Tánaiste, notification will be given to the network managers regarding the progression of the project.

Once in place, the unit will mean that 850 Clare people will no longer have to travel to Limerick every year for the service.

While the community has already provided funding to purchase the machine, the health services estimate that the running costs of the service will total one million euro per annum.

A radiologist and a number of radiographers, as well as nursing and administer staff will be required to run the service successfully.

It is believed that the scanning service will be located close to the mammography unit.

Consultants in the hospital have sought the CAT unit for more than two years.

Senator Brendan Daly said that the CAT scan is a “vote of confidence and security for the hospital.

“This will dispel any fears that the HSE is not going to up grade the hospital,” the West Clare Senator said.

“It demonstrates the commitment of the HSE to Ennis and the protection of the Accident and Emergency Services.”

The 18 extra beds promised in the third phase of the hospital plans are now likely to be brought forward to the first phase to accommodate the new service, he said.

A CAT scan or CT (computed tomography) uses special x-ray equipment to obtain image data from different angles around the body.

CT imaging is a particularly useful diagnostic tool for displaying with great clarity, several types of tissuelung, bone, soft tissue and blood vessels.

With this specialised equipment, radiologists can more easily diagnose problems such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, trauma and musculoskeletal disorders.

The equipment is also vital for making quick diagnosis of internal bleeding in the case of accidents or other emergencies.

THE people of Crusheen are in a state of shock today after the body of 19-year-old Joseph Browne was discovered in Achill Island yesterday afternoon. The discovery followed an intensive two-day search involving members of the Achill and Westport coast guard, the Garda Water Unit, Joseph’s classmates from NUI, Galway, as well as his friends and family from Crusheen.

Joseph’s body was discovered in Keel Lake by a member of the Garda Water Unit around 3.30pm yesterday and was identified at the scene shortly afterwards. The body was taken to Mayo General Hospital, where a postmortem is due to be carried out.

Joseph had been in Achill as part of a traditional weekend away for the First year medical students from NUI, Galway. He left his classmates at approximately 9.30pm on Saturday evening to return to their lodgings in Keel Village, but was reported missing sometime after midnight.

One of his classmates managed to contact him on his mobile phone, but raised the alarm when Joseph’s phone suddenly went dead. A major search of the surrounding area took place on Sunday but revealed nothing.

The first trace was discovered at noon on Monday when the hat that Joseph had been wearing was discovered close to Keel Lake. A busload of people had made the journey from Crusheen on Monday to take part in the search.

Joseph is survived by his parents Michael and Riona and his older sisters Lara and Karen, who is also a medical student. MINISTER de Valera announced her retirement from politics at the next election last year and avoided reporters’ questions at the conference in Ennis at the weekend.

Councillors’ reasons for stating that Minister de Valera should resign were mixed in the poll.

Described as loving and quiet by Crusheen locals, Joseph was a talented musician and member of the local branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann.

A pianist, Joseph also played the violin and concertina and was an exceptional student at Scoil Ioseph in Tulla before going on to NUI, Galway. One councillor said: “She has treated her own supporters shabbily since being re-elected,” while another said that “it is no great advantage to the party that she remains on”.

Another said that she should resign, but not now, while another said that she had undermined her own position by announcing her retirement.

One of the three that said she

Indeed, the President of NUI, Galway Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh joined some 60 students from the college in Achill on Monday to help in the search efforts.

Dr Ó Muircheartaigh had presented Joseph with a special entrance scholarship in recognition of his high Leaving Certificate results just last week. should remain on said that “Minister de Valera is a very capable Minister and should remain”.

The council has never been a traditional power base for Minister de Valera as she has never served on the local authority where Junior Minister, Tony Killeen and Senator Brendan Daly would have loyal followers amongst the all-male Fianna

“Our prayers are with Joseph, and his family, and also with the members of the first year medical class, at this extremely difficult time,” said Dr Ó Muircheartaigh. Fáil group.

A spokeswoman for Minister de Valera declined to comment on the findings of the poll, pointing out that the Minister de Valera already said last Friday that she had a job of work to do and would not be distracted by the media in carrying out her job.