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TWO Kilrush brothers who beat a man with a golf club and stabbed him in the buttocks in the West Clare town two years ago have received prison sentences.

Daniel and Martin O’Brien were jailed last week for what a Judge described as a “concentrated effort” to assault the man at Place De Plouzone, Kilrush, in March 2011.

Daniel O’Brien (24) punched the man and stabbed him in the buttocks with a sharp object. Martin O’Brien (31) struck the victim four or five times with a golf club.

Ennis Circuit Criminal Court heard on Friday that the brothers assaulted the man over an alleged debt to Daniel O’Brien.

Daniel, with an address at The Square, Kilrush, and Martin, with an address at the Bungalow, Wood Road, Kilrush, initially denied the charge of assault causing harm at Place De Plouzone, Kilrush on March 1 (2011).

However the court heard that after the victim gave evidence at their trial in Ennis last October, the brothers changed their pleas to guilty.

The court heard that the man declined to give a victim impact report, indicating that he was satisfied with the evidence he had given.

Counsel for Daniel O’Brien, Brian McInerney BL, told the court that his client had been a chronic heroin addict at the time of the offence.

He said Mr O’Brien has since kicked his heroin habit and removed himself from the circle of people he had previously associated with.

Mr McInerney said his client, who is currently serving a prison sentence, has remained drug free while incarcerated.

He asked the court to consider suspending a portion of his client’s sentence.

Counsel for Martin O’Brien, Mark Nicholas, said his client had also been a drug user.

He said Mr O’Brien has since stablised his lifestyle.

Judge Gerard Keyes noted that Daniel has 23 previous convictions while Martin has 35 previous convictions.

He said the use of the golf club and sharp object showed the “viciousness” of the assault.

He said the man was “in essence beaten into submission.”

Judge Keyes added, “Neither of the two of you have shown remorse or offered an apology for your outra- geous behaviour.”

He said that on the evidence of Daniel O’Brien’s previous convictions, he had “displayed a violent temperament from an early age.”

Judge Keyes said Martin O’Brien had a propensity to violence.

He said that despite initially acting as peacemaker, Martin O’Brien turned violent and “viciously assaulted” the victim with a golf club.

Judge Keyes said he was satisfied the man had been seriously tramautised by the incident.

He sentenced Daniel O’Brien to three years in prison, suspending the final 14 months.

Judge Keyes sentenced Martin O’Brien to three years in prison, suspending the final 18 months.

Both men were also ordered to refrain from communicating with the victim.

TWO men who attempted to have an altered cheque lodged to a bank account in Ennis have received prison sentences.

Ondrej Pollak (23), with an address at 9A Dun na hInse, Ennis, and Peter Sivak (22), with an address at 311 Brookville, Drogheda, Louth, appeared before Ennis District Court last Wednesday.

They pleaded guilty to dishonestly by deception inducing a member of the bank’s staff to accept a fraudulently altered cheque in the amount of € 4800 to be paid to the Bank of Ireland held at Bank of Ireland, Bank Place, Ennis.

The incident occurred at Bank of Ireland, Dunleer, County Louth on May 24, 2012. Detective Garda Claire O’Shaughnessy said the cheque had been altered from its original amount of € 22.50 to € 4800.

The court heard that Ondrej Pollak supplied the account for which the altered cheque was intended while Peter Sivak lodged the cheque in Dunleer.

Both men claimed they had been approached by a man named Tony, to carry out the transaction.

Mr Pollak said Tony requested the use of the account as his own had expired. Mr Sivak said Tony asked him to lodge the cheque in Dunleer.

Both men told gardaí that Tony agreed to pay them each € 100.

Det O’Shaughnessy told the court that gardaí did not find anyone named Tony connected with the case. She said that the accused claimed Tony was either from South Africa or Nigeria. Bank of Ireland discovered the deception and contacted gardaí. No money was removed from the account. Solicitor for Mr Pollak, John Casey, told the court that his client has lived in Ireland since he was 11. He said CCTV captured Mr Pollak checking his balance at the Bank of Ireland after the deception had been uncovered.

Mr Casey added, “He was always going to get caught. It was his account, his address.”

Solicitor for Mr Sivak, Daragh Hassett told the court his client, a Czech National, has lived in Ireland since he was 13. He said the father of two was in difficult financial circumstances when he was approached by Tony.

Mr Hassett said it was indicative of his client’s amateurism that he had signed the bank lodgment slip with his own name.

Judge Patrick Durcan said the men were not hardened criminals. He said their story involved the introduction of a “most curious character named Tony.”He added, “I do not believe one word about the existence of Tony or the responsibility of Tony.” He said the men had engaged in “criminal thievery of the worst kind”.

Mr Sivak received a six month prison sentence. Mr Pollak also received a six-month sentence but had the final two months suspended. Reco gnaces were fixed in both cases in the event of appeals.

THE stories of three Clare girls who were sent to Magdalene Laundries in the late 1940s have been recorded as part of the McAleese report into State involvement in the laundry system, released last week.

These records, which were on the file in the archive of Clare County Council, show that the local authority, and many other regional authorities in Ireland, were part of a system of referring girls and young women into Magalene Laundries.

A Clare County Council spokesperson confirm that, up until the enactment of the 1970 Health Act, Clare County Council had some responsibility for the provision of health services in the county. This process ended with the establishment of the Regional Health Boards, which were later replaced by the HSE.

The Clare County Archive includes records from the Clare Board of Health and Public Assistance from 1915 to 1966, as well as records on the operation of the County Home and County Hospital.

There were no records in the Clare archive of girls or women who gave birth outside of marriage being referred to laundries. However, there were a number of reports of “boarded-out children” or foster children, being referred to laundries in the 1940s and 50s.

In those times, financial help to foster parents came to an end when the child turned 15.

“[There was a] frequent refusal of foster parents to provide a home for the children after the age of 15 unless the board continues to maintain them. Recently a girl of 15 was returned to the County Home by her foster parents when payments for maintenance ceased. Nothing is gained by rearing children in foster homes if they are returned to the County Home at the age of 15,” the report says.

Three Clare girls are mentioned in the report – although they are not named. The first was ordered to the Good Shephard Convent in Limerick on December 20, 1947. Records indicate that she was 17-years-old and her mother was alive at the time of admission.

She remained in the Magdalene Laundry for slightly less than two years, before she “went to a situation” or a job.

A second similar case was recorded in 1949 when the 17-year-old girl was also sent to the Good Shepherd Convent in Limerick. There was “no account of parents” for this girl who remained in the Magdalene Laundry for just over five years, at which point she went to the Magdalene Sisters in Belfast.

A third case identified in the records of Clare County Council occurred in 1950. This case involved a 16year-old-girl who was ordered to the Good Shepherd Convent on June 19, 1950. There was no record of parents for this girl, who spent almost three months at the Magdalene Laundry, before she “went to a convent”.

CLARE women were amongst the most likely in Ireland to find themselves in the care of a Magdalene Laundry, according to figures released as part of the McAleese Report published last week.

The report has identified, but not named, 261 different Clare women who each spent various lengths of time in a Magdalene Asylum or Laundry. This means that Clare had the fifth highest number of women in Magdalene facilities in the State. Only counties with much larger populations such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Tipperary had more women in Magdalene Laundries than Clare.

Indeed, the number of Clare women to have spent time in Magdalene Laundries is likely to be much higher than those presented in the report, as no details of any Clare facilities are mentioned in its findings.

This is despite claims by a large number of local people that a laundry operated in Ennis for many years during the 1940s and 1950s.

The vast majority of Clare women referred to in the report attended the Limerick City Magdalene Asylum. This facility was opened by the Good Shepherd Nuns in 1848 and contin- ued in operation until 1984. While entrants into this facility peaked on the 1930s, there was still a considerable number of girls and women being admitted to the facility in the 1970 and 1980s.

Indeed, according to the McAleese Report, a total of six women were admitted to this facility in 1981 – the last years than any new intake of women was recorded.

Members of the Magdalene Sur- vivors Together met with Taoiseach Enda Kenny (FG) and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore (Lab) yesterday to discuss the McAleese Report.

Both the Justice for Magdalenes advocacy group and the London-based Irish Women’s Survivors’ Network decline to attend the meeting.

The groups are anxious that they receive an opology from the State over abuses which took place in the laundries.

REMOVING levies from all developments in the county would give Clare an advantage over other counties and improve the county coffers.

In proposing to rid the county of such development contributions, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) believes this would encourage development within the county boundaries, and improve the rate takings of the local authority.

He told yesterday’s (Monday) meeting of the Kilrush area councillors that he had monitored seven applica- tions for planning for development before the council.

“If they went ahead we would have got planning levies back in terms of rates by now,” he said.

Such developments would also have lead to job creation and knock on benefits for the local economy.

The Lissycasey man requested that the county manager “draw up draft amendments to section 48 levies in order to exempt areas of West Clare, which are in population decline, from charges for industrial and commercial development”.

He later extended the proposal to include all of County Clare.

The Fianna Fáil councillor argued that such a move would give areas like Westbury a distinct advantage over Limerick City, would make areas of West Clare along the estuary more attractive to business than areas to the south in Kerry and such a move would also give Shannon Airport an advantage over Dublin.

Reviewing development contributions as an incentive mechanism was previously referenced in the Shannon Aviation Business Development Task Force Final Report.

“At the moment we have sterilisa- tion. No one is building in the county,” he said.

In his reply Senior Planner with Clare County Council Gordan Daly said that the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government issued Draft Guidelines for Planning Authorities o Development Contribution in June 2012.

“This guidance is designed to assist planning authorities to achieve, through their development contribution schemes, a balance between cost recovery for services provided and the need to support economic activity,” he said.

“The council considers that there are a number of issues that require to be addressed on a county wide basis including issues previously raised at county council meetings.

“It would be prudent to await the final guidelines to be issued by the department before the council would initiate any processes to commence a formal statutory review of the current scheme,” he added.

Cllr Kelly argued that these were merely guidelines and any decision in this respect would be made by the county manager and the council members.

THE group charged with developing tourism in the west of the county is in limbo, as Shannon Development personnel try to find their new role in tourism, and the county council awaits news if the State body is still to take part of the West Clare Economic Task Force.

At yesterday’s (Monday) meeting of the West Clare area councillors, acting senior engineer Cyril Feeney said the area’s marketing officer had written to the body and other inter- ested groups in a bid to regroup for the coming tourism season.

“There doesn’t seem to be an appetite currently for this,” he said, adding that some organisations are involved in amalgamations and restructuring and have not replied.

“But leaving us in limbo is no good to us or ye,” he said.

The West Clare Economic Task Force is in place since 2009, and was drawn up to encourage economic and tourism development in the West Clare region.

It is made up of the council, Shannon Development and other inter- ested tourism bodies.

“I am very disappointed that the agency hasn’t come back. I think a lot of work was done up until now,” said Cllr Pat Keane (FF).

Although not all members of the Kilrush area were as convinced of the vital role the task force had played to date in developing the west.

Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) said, “The task force has been in operation over three years and not one job has been created. We would be deluded to think we have created jobs.”

The Lissycasey man argued that the Loophead Lighthouse project, and the jobs and spin-off jobs it created was the work of Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) who made it one of his pre-election pledges.

Cllrs Christy Curtin (Ind) and Cllr Keane disagreed with Cllr Kelly, and asked that the report on the work of the task force be made public.

A 62-YEAR-OLD man has appeared in court charged in connection with a public order incident at an Ennis estate last month.

Michael O’Neill with an address at 68B Abbeyville, Limerick Road, Ennis, appeared at Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

He is charged with the production of wheel brace capable of inflicting serious injury at Abbeyville on January 21 (2013). It is also alleged that Mr O’Neill did engage in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace at the same location and date. Sgt Mark Murphy of Ennis Garda Station gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution. Sgt Murphy outlined a summary of the alleged facts of the case. He said gardaí were called a number of times to a disturbance at Abbeyville at 1.20am.

He said it would be alleged that the accused came out of his house and started roaring obscenities at another man. Sgt Murphy said it would be alleged that Mr O’Neill took out an item from the boot of his car. Judge Patrick Durcan accepted jurisdiction. Defence solicitor Tara Godfrey told the court that her client is disputing the alleged facts of the case. Mr O’Neill was remanded on bail to appear again at Ennis District Court on March 13.

TOWN councillors from Clare’s four different authorities who plan to run for the next local election have one major fear in common, that there respective towns will be forgotten in a new larger local authority.

They say that the major driving force behind their intention to stand is to ensure that their town and the surrounding area will continue to have a voice.

“I would prefer to be standing for Shannon Town Council than Clare County Council. I think town councils have a lot to offer and I think the current situation with the councils being disbanded should be reversed,” said Shannon’s Greg Duff (Lab).

Kilrush town councillors Ian Lynch (FG) and Marian McMahon Jones (FG) know what it is like not to have town representation at county level, and it is with this in mind that they both had decided to contest a county election, even if the town councils had remained.

“It is of the up most importance that we have a strong voice from West Clare,” said Cllr McMahon Jones.

“The town of Kilrush plays a huge part in the development of West Clare. Kilrush needs a councillor on the county council to ensure that the town and West Clare are represented and the concerns and needs of the electorate served,” said Cllr Lynch.

And while Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) may be preparing to contest the county council election, he will forever be a “townie” at heart.

“Look I’m going to have to see what the results of the boundary commission are but I would be intending to go. I would like to see people from the town have someone from the town to vote for. You could have people running that wouldn’t be inclined to have the same love for the town as a townie. I’d be inclined to run just to give people in the town a chance to vote for a townie,” he said.

Cllr Michael Fleming (FG) is keen to represent his town and area but realized getting the opportunity will not be easy.

“It is going to be difficult for anyone to get elected to these new municipal districts, but for people like me who contested their first election in 2009 it is going to be even harder. But despite that I am willing to throw my hat into the ring. I would be a lot happier to run for Shannon Town Council and not this new district,” he said.

A PERSON living in Clare is 10 times more likely to die by suicide than on our county roads, yet preventing death by suicide seems to be way down the Government’s list of priorities when it comes to funding.

There is just one resource officer for suicide prevention in the midwest region – looking after three counties including Clare.

This professional with a vast wealth of experience is described by HSE area manager Bernard Gloster as “one of the HSE’s most valuable resources”.

However those dealing with people at risk of suicide on a daily basis say more resources are needed.

Concerns have already been raised that the psychiatric nurse specialising in assessing patients out of hours is often redeployed due to staffing issues in other areas of the mid-west region’s hospitals.

Now Pieta House say that not only should that specialist nurse not be redeployed, but more are needed.

As the recession eats more into public funding, figures suggest that there are also more people at risk of suicide, as life gets significantly more difficult.

The Samaritans in Clare receive more than 40 calls in confidence every day from people in crisis.

The organisation, which receives no Government funding and is manned by up to 100 volunteers in Clare, also met in confidence with 295 people face to face last year.

The newly-appointed director of the local branch said that the numbers of calls have increased significantly since the recession.

“Everyone is different. Some peo- ple are very anxious, distressed, lonely, in financial difficulties or have relationship problems,” she said.

Pieta House – the suicide and selfharm crisis centre – receives just 15 per cent funding from the Government.

Tom McEvoy, Funding and Advocacy Department, for the organisation in the mid-west said that the charity is being strongly supported by the community, an indication of how much the service is needed.

Pieta House is to open four more houses in the coming year, bring- ing the number of houses to nine. However more needs to be done at national level to tackle the issue, according to former psychiatric nurse and member of the HSE West Health Forum Cllr Tom McNamara.

“We are going to have to take it on the same way as we tackled the road deaths.

“There are more people loosing their lives through suicide than ever died through the road deaths,” he said. The councillor said that an organisation similar to the Road Safety Authority needs to me employed to deal with the issue.

PIETA House Mid West is helping children as young as eight and people in their eighties from Clare in the battle against suicide and self harm. Tom McEvoy, Funding and Advocacy Department, with the suicide and self-harm crisis centre in the mid-west area said 659 people were helped by the service in Limerick last year. A further 100 family members were also counselled at the centre. Mr McEvoy said the significant increase in the number of people seeking assistance could be attributed to growing awareness of the organisation, but added that there is also a huge increase in the number of people requiring help. The majority of those needing assistance are young men aged 15 to 26 years old, supporting the statistic that 25 per cent of deaths among this age group is by suicide. Pieta House is targeting this demographic this year through a pilot project with the GAA in Limerick and a Mind Our Men campaign throughout the mid-west. “We are going through a male crisis in the country at the moment. We are particularly interested in reducing male suicide this year,” he said. Mr McEvoy explained that 90 per cent of calls made to Pieta House is by a mother, sister, partner or female friend of a man in crisis. “Women are better talkers and better at spotting issues,” he said. The Pieta employee, based in Ennis, advised however that if someone is calling Pieta House they should do so with the full knowledge of the person they are calling for. “If you think someone is suicidal ask them once the moment is right or you have an opportunity,” he said.

“Often people need to be asked if they are all right or need help,” he added.

“It is all about talking – male to male, male to female,” he said.

The prevention and intervention service continues to fundraise for its life-saving services in the Clare area.

The organisation is currently looking for volunteers to take part in its national bag pack on February 15 and 16 at Tesco in Kilrush and Ennis.

The flagship event – Darkness into Light walk – will take part in Lees Road on May 11.

More than 1,200 people took part in the Clare event last year.

“The community aspect of our ethos is our strength. We are reliant on the community to keep Pieta House open,” explained Mr McEvoy.

Those wishing to volunteer during the fundraisers can contact Tom on 087 2430700 or through tom@pieta. ie.

If you need to contact Pieta House Mid West urgently call 061 484444.