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A MAN found in possession of a pair of stolen ornamental gates bought them for a quarter of their normal price, Ennis District Court has heard.

James Keenan, of Childers Road, Ennis, was convicted of handling stolen property, between November 2004 and October 2005. The court heard that two ornamental gates were stolen in Whitegate on November 24, 2004.

The gates were discovered against a wall at the side of the accused’s house.

The accused told gardaí that somebody had called selling gates and he purchased them for €500, which was significantly lower than their €2,000 value.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said a man with a Limerick accent called to her client’s premises with the gates. He asked for €700 and they haggled.

Judge Joseph Mangan imposed a six month sentence and substituted this with 150 hours community service. He adjourned the case, to allow for a community service report to be carried out.

THE head of the Clare Garda Division has confirmed that a complaint of physical assault, concerning a Clare Garda, has been received by the Garda Complaints Board.

The complaint has been made by a mother on behalf of her 16- and 17-yearold sons, who cannot be named because of legal reasons, and concerns an incident which took place earlier this month.

In a letter sent to the Garda Complaints Board last week, the mother claims that both of her sons were physically assaulted by a west Clare Garda at 10pm on Wednesday, January 4.

According to the letter, the Garda, who was accompanied by a second Garda, stopped the car of her elder son on the evening in question.

The brothers claim that both Gardaí abused them verbally before asking the driver to step outside of the vehicle.

“They started calling us loads of names like ‘scumbag’, ‘knacker’ and the ‘three stooges’,” said the driver.

“They called me out of the car and called me a ‘thick c**t’ and asked me for my licence and insurance. I told him that I wasn’t a thick c**t, ‘you might be but I’m not’.”

The brothers claim that one of the Gardaí twisted the driver’s hand behind his back and punched him in the stomach before telling him that he was under arrest.

According to the letter, the younger brother then tried to come to his brother’s aid but caught his foot in the gear stick while his upper body was half out the driver side window of the car.

At this point, the brothers claim that the Garda who had allegedly assaulted the driver kicked the younger brother in the face, knocking him unconscious.

According to the older brother, the second Garda then removed his unconscious brother from the car and placed him on the ground, where he began to have a seizure.

“They started to panic after that and told me to ring the ambulance, they didn’t want to ring it themselves,” said the older brother.

“They said that if anything happened to him, it would be my fault.

“They were talking to each other and said, ‘which one will we ring, the squad car, the ambulance or their mother?’”

The injured brother was brought to Ennis General Hospital where he was treated for facial injuries and was held overnight.

“The family have made a complaint,” Clare Chief Superintendent Liam Quinn told The Clare People . “Should the Complaints Board decide that an investigation is warranted, an independent officer will be appointed to investigate the matter.”

Should the Garda be found guilty of assault the Garda Complaints Board can impose sanctions including dismissal, reduction in rank and reduction in pay.

A 21-YEAR-OLD Shannon man was subjected to what Gardaí say was a “frenzied”’ attack in which he was cut in the throat with a carving knife, as he sat at home with his brother and an eightyear-old child.

The incident happened at around 9.30pm on Friday at a house in Cronan Park in Shannon.

According to Gardaí, a 22-year-old man arrived at the house, went into the kitchen and got a carving knife. He then approached the 21-year-old and slashed him across the throat.

Two Shannon Gardaí, who were in the area as part of a separate investigation, heard commotion and pursued the 22year-old as he left the house.

A carving knife was recovered in the area and both the knife and the house were technically examined.

The injured man was taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick, where his condition was initially described as serious and later stabilised. He is expected to make a full recovery.

The 22-year-old was arrested in a green area close to the house and taken to Shannon Garda Station for questioning. He is understood to have sustained a leg injury, for which he received medical assistance at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Ennis.

He was discharged some time later and taken back to the Garda station for questioning.

He was detained there overnight, before being released without charge on Saturday afternoon.

A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

“Both men are known to each other and we are still investigating a motive,” said a Garda spokesman.

“The injured party was within centimetres of having an artery cut and it was sheer fortune that he survived,” added the spokesman.

Gardaí investigating the incident spoke with the injured party, from his hospital bed in Limerick and their investigation is continuing.

THE young man who tragically drowned after a kayak overturned in Lough Derg on Sunday had selflessly given the only lifejacket to his girlfriend.

The 26-year-old, who has been named locally as John Buckley from Ballyculhan in Glin, County Limerick, went for a trip on the lake with the 24-year old woman, who is from O’Briensbridge.

Their canoe capsized at around 2.30 in the afternoon and the couple struggled to make land but John was swept away.

The young woman was helped to shore by a man living close to the shoreline who heard her screams.

A rescue service source said that the young woman was suffering from exhaustion and hypothermia but had bravely made her way close to shore when the local man spotted her.

“He heard her and waded in to help her the last part to the shore. She was exhausted and cold but was wearing a life-jacket.

“They had just one life-jacket between them and her boyfriend gave it to her,” the source said.

The alarm was raised by a local person who saw two people in the water near Ogonnelloe, four miles north of Killaloe on the Clare side.

The Killaloe/Ballina Search and Rescue service was called out and they put three teams — a total of almost 20 people — out to help with the search for the missing man.

Divers from the Limerick Search and Rescue unit were also called in, as were Shannon-based coastgurad helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft from the Garda Air Support Unit.

The diving team was brought in towards evening as fading light made it difficult for rescue boats to see anything in the water.

The divers located the Glin man’s body at Two Mile Gate at around 9.15pm on Sunday night.

Rescuers said the couple had brought the canoe to the lake themselves and were not involved in water-based events which were taking place earlier in the day at the University of Limerick Activity Centre in Two Mile Gate.

Divers brought the body ashore and it was removed to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick, where a post-mortem was due to be carried out yesterday.

While the dead man’s name has not been officially released, he has been named locally as John Buckley.

The traumatised young woman was treated for shock and hypothermia.

THE number of divorces in Clare has gone up by 40 per cent on last year’s figures.

Figures just finalised by the court service show that there were 111 decrees of divorce issued by the courts. This is in comparison to 79 decrees in the previous 12 months.

All of the applications which came before the court were granted, a spokeswoman for the court’s office confirmed.

The jump in numbers applying for divorce is being reflected in the number of couples who are coming to family law solicitors, a leading practitioner in the field said.

Solicitor Mary Cashin has just returned from a conference in which startling figures were quoted for Britain.

“Research has revealed that almost 50 per cent of marriages there end in divorce,” said Mary.

“We haven’t come to that stage here but in our dealings with clients, we can certainly say that there is a big increase in people seeking divorce.”

Ms Cashin said that once couples meet the criteria of being separated for four out of the previous five years they are opting for divorce.

“Once they meet that criteria, the courts have to give them their decree. And people are opting for that because it is final.”

One company providing divorce services in Clare says that the number of people applying for divorce in Clare is actually much higher than the number of divorces which made it as far as court.

Jim Corbett, Managing Director of Divorce Services in Clare, says that he puts the increase in applications for divorce last year as high as 75 per cent.

Ms Cashin says that she believes that the numbers will continue to increase, with many people opting for the so-called, D.I.Y. divorces offered by non-legal companies.

But while straightforward divorces in which all the issues have been agreed before coming to court may be suitable for this approach, Ms Cashin says she is concerned that some people may be leaving themselves exposed.

“There are far more issues involved than just getting the divorce rubber-stamped. There are issues around property and, very importantly, child access and I would just advise people to be wary.

“When things go wrong, they will end up back in the family law courts and anyone who has been there will tell you it’s not a place you want to have to go back to.”

THE number of couples seeking annulments in the West, including County Clare, is down slightly in the last two years.

While numbers have held in the rest of the country, the western tribunal area, made up of eight dioceses including Killaloe, report a small decrease in the number of people seeking a Roman Catholic annulment over the past two years – a trend that has not been seen throughout the rest of the country.

Each year for the last decade, up to 120 people have requested that their marriages be declared invalid in the eyes of the Church.

Of that figure, just over 50 per cent, or between 60 and 70 couples, were granted their request.

Thirty years ago, four tribunals were set up to cover annulments in the country. Prior to this, every diocese heard its own cases.

The Western region covers Connacht, Clare and Longford.

According to Fr Ray Browne of the Galway Regional Marriage Tribunal, it is almost impossible to determine from what counties in the western area the applications come from.

There is a tendency that when a marriage breaks up, a person moves to another area, often the nearest urban area, which in the case of Clare is often Limerick and outside the Western area.

Fr Browne told The Clare People that annulments referred to the invalidity of a marriage.

He said it was extremely stressful on all involved, as they must go back over the marriage to test the validity of it.

An investigation to discover if the commitment of marriage was entered into with due discretion is often carried out.

“On the wedding day, did each party make a decision and know what they were doing,” explained Fr Browne.

For the marriage to be valid, both parties have also to be capable to “live as husband and wife, day in, day out,” he added. A condition less often investigated is that a party must intend to be faithful when marrying; if this is not the case, the validity of the marriage can be contested. Both parties must also be “open to children”. Couples must also receive a civil annulment, or divorce, to be allowed to marry again.

In 2004, there was an average of 20,000 weddings in Ireland. Up to 4,000 people filed for divorce in the same year, while between 350 and 400 sought an annulment in the same year.

CLARE’S youngest county councillor has been nominated to the EU Committee of the regions.

Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) will represent the Mid-West region on the nine member Irish section of the committee. If for some reason the East Clare councillor is unable to fulfil his role, Limerick County Councillor Noreen Ryan (FF), will replace him.

The Committee of the Regions (COR) is an advisory assembly in areas of Union legislation and policy, created by the Treaty on European Union.

It is composed of 317 representatives of local and regional authorities from the twenty-five member states.

SENIOR executives at Clare County Council can expect up to €72,000 in bonus payments over the coming year. The council agreed to allow a sum, which reflects ten per cent of seven of its official’s wages, to be set aside for such payments. The officials to benefit from the €72,000 allocation include the county manager and the six director of services in the council.

The county manager told councillors that the allocation set aside is to “make sure there is enough there” to cover any bonuses paid.

Cllr Tom Prenderville asked the manager if he was “expecting an increase in activity and productivity” that the bonus payments could reach that amount.

It is as yet unknown when the payments will be paid, but the manager assured the councillors that no section of the public sector is monitored like his sector. The councillors agreed to a €3,500 increase in the mayors allowance to €33,500 at a special budget meeting of the council. Council members expenses for the year has been budgeted at €221,000, while their salleries will cost the council €522,199.

Meanwhile Clare County Council agreed to drop a controversial charge on the collection of recyclables, which would have earned the council a further €70,000. The members of the council objected to the proposal within the budget, which stated, “It would be necessary to introduce a small charge for waste at the recycling facilities for waste other than WEE”.

The council executive did a u turn on the proposal following objections from the members saying that adding a cost to recycling would discourage people from doing so.

The County Manager also expressed concern that while the cost of landfill is reducing, the collectors are not reflecting the reduction in their costs.

AN 18-YEAR-old Clare man has been summonsed to appear in court in connection with a fatal road accident, which claimed the life of a 17-year-old girl in Ennis last year.

The young man is to be charged in connection with the accident, in which Charelle Howard died, on the Shanaway Road, on the outskirts of Ennis, in the early hours of July 16 last year.

It’s alleged that the young man, who will appear in court next month, was driving the car, which was involved in the fatal accident.

The accident was investigated by Ennis gardai, who interviewed a number of teenagers travelling in the car when the accident occurred. A file was then submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who directed that a charge be brought.

Charelle was travelling with friends in a Volkswagen Polo car at the time. The group was travelling from a birthday party outside Ennis town to the town centre, when the accident occurred, in the early hours of the morning.

Charelle, the only child of David and Teresa Howard, from Oakwood Drive on the Watery Road in Ennis, was travelling in the back seat of the car, which was involved in the single vehicle accident.

They had just left Charelle’s best friend’s birthday party and were on their way to Ennis.

The other occupants of the car survived. Two of them were treated for minor injuries, before being discharged from hospital some time later.

CLARE businesses are getting letters from debt collectors and bills for thousands of Euro for ads which they say they were not even aware they ordered.

Spanish based company, European City Guides (ECG) has been sending unsolicited letters to Clare companies, says Paul Woulfe of the Citizen’s Information Centre (CIC).

“We have had numerous complaints about this company,” he said. “The form they send first asks for updated details on the business for inclusion in an inter-professional CD rom.

“This is cost free but further down the form, where the recipient is asked to sign, it says that signing is placing an order for an insertion in the guide which THE Drumellihy/Westby Group Water Scheme in Cree has been granted €12,715 in funding as part of the CLÁR top-up funding.

This will enable works amounting to €35,570 to be carried out at the site. The remaining amount will be paid by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and by private contribution from the Group members.

Three households will benefit from the scheme with savings of €4,238 per household. costs €857.

“And this also involves placing an order for the following two editions at the same cost each time.

“The form is very confusing and a lot of people have been caught, and then they get bills for thousands of Euro for insertions which they never intended to purchase,” said Paul.

Paul added that when business people refuse to pay up, the company hands the matter over to a Swiss-based international debt collection agency “and they send out very intimidating, legalistic letters and in some instances, there have been phone calls asking for payment every day.”

When the CIC brought complaints made to them forward to the director of consumer affairs’, they were informed by the communications unit that as the ECG is a Spanish based company, the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs has no powers to intervene.

But the spokeswoman at the unit informed the CIC that there are now a number of judgements against the company “with regard to breaches of Spanish misleading advertising legislation in forms circulated in 1998 and 1999. A further action was taken against ECG in March 2001 and the judgement was accompanied by a fine of €22,000.”

The spokeswoman said that in the last four years, the Spanish Consumer Department has “received more that 3,500 claims from 40 countries from companies and professional workers concerned by the ECG.”

The company changed the form which it has been sending out and the Spanish authorities have said that the new form is acceptable.

But while in theory the Spanish company could get a judgement against debt defaulters which could then be processed through the Irish courts, the CIC is advising people who have been getting bills not to pay up.

“We believe they are targeting small businesses who pay because they are afraid of having huge court bills if the matter goes to court in Spain.

“But there is not one single instance in which ECG has taken this course,” said Paul.

The Clare People put the issues raised to the company by email, as requested by them. There was no comment available at time of going to press.