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A 48-YEAR-OLD man who choose to give up drink as his New Year’s resolution, was given a month to stay dry by Judge Patrick Durcan at Ennis District Court on January 2.

Kieran Lynch (48), whose address was listed as Quin, County Clare was found drunk and unconscious in Ennis on June 30, 2012. Mr Lynch, who was described Judge Durcan as “footless on College Road”, was discovered by a member of the gardaí at around 4pm in the afternoon of June 30. He was brought to a station in Ennis and released later that night.

Mr Lynch, who has 20 previous convictions all relating to alcohol, said he had attended a number of treatment centres in the past which, he said, had not helped him.

He told the court that he planned to “quit the drinking” in 2013. He also said that all of his previous convictions had been drink related and that he had been “ruined” by booze.

Mr Lynch was asked to take the stand and swore, under oath, that he would “not be in any situations where drinking was involved”.

Judge Durcan adjourned the case until February 6, 2012, at which time Mr Lynch will be asked to account for his sobriety over the pervious month. “I have noted your undertaking and I don’t want to hear from the inspector that you have broken it,” said Judge Durcan.

A CLARE man home on holidays for Christmas hid in a ditch after crashing his sister’s car into a bridge near Mullagh and was banned from driving for six months at Ennis District Court last Wednesday, January 2.

Brian Keane (26), with an address at Kilcolumb in Kilmaley pleaded guilty to obstruction and failing to give information when asked by a member of the gardaí but a further charge, under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, was withdrawn.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that on December 20, 2012, at around 1am Mr Keane drove his car into a bridge near Mullagh – about five miles away from his house in Kilmaley.

The court heard that Mr Keane left the scene of the crash on foot and was discovered by a member of the gardaí “hiding in a ditch”.

Counsel for Mr Keane told the court that the defendant was driving a friend home when the incident took place.

He said that Mr Keane had become distracted and hit bridge.

He also said that Mr Keane was discovered in a nearby field and not in a ditch.

According to the defense solicitor the car involved in the incident – which was owned by Mr Keane’s sister – was written off in the incident but no major damage was done to the bridge.

Mr Keane has had to pay for a new car for his sister.

Counsel for Mr Keane told the court that Mr Keane was a block-layer by trade and had emigrated to Australia four years ago and had been “getting on well” in his employment abroad.

He was home for Christmas when the incident took place.

The court heard that he planned to return to Australia on the following day, Thursday January 3, unless he was prevented by the court from doing so.

The court heard that Mr Keane had a number of different conviction from various dates in 2008, 2006 and 2005.

The most significant of these was a charge of dangerous driving which was reduced to “careless driving” in March of 2008.

Judge Patrick Durcan noted that Mr Keane had a “bad record for a 26year-old” and said that considering that, he had no option but to disqualify him from driving for six months and fine him € 500.

THE number of patients waiting on trolleys at Ennis General Hospital had fallen back to just one yesterday (Monday) following pressure on staff and facilities over the Christmas period.

Just last Thursday as many as 11 people were waiting on trolleys at the County Clare hospital, according to figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

However as children returned to school yesterday and most people were back at work, life returned to “normal” at the hospital.

Meanwhile a blanket ban has been imposed on visitors to the area’s biggest hospital – The Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick – as a result of the winter vomiting bug (Noroviro).

Visiting to all wards at the hospital is prohibited with the exception of critically ill patients, but visitors must first contact nursing staff before they visit critically ill patients.

Parents and guardians only are permitted in the Children’s Ark and children should be kept away from all areas of the hospital.

“The hospital regrets this inconvenience but it is necessary at this time to prevent the spread of these illnesses to both patients and staff. Where appropriate, mobile phone contact between families should be considered as an alternative to visiting,” a spokesperson.

The hospital is also asking the public that only genuine emergencies should present at the Emergency Department (ED) and that where possible people should consult their GP before coming to the ED.

The vomiting bug is highly contagious and is in the community in County Clare as well as Limerick.

Norovirus does not usually cause serious illness, but it is very easily spread. People who contract it can be infectious for 48 hours after they recover.

The principal symptoms are nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea and generally begin very suddenly with nausea followed by projectile vomiting.

While there is a ban on visiting in Limerick, people can still visit patients in Ennis General Hospital during visiting hours.

CHARGES against Clare hurler Fergal Lynch were struck out at Ennis District Court last Wednesday, January 2, because of the length of time taken to bring the matter to trial.

Counsel for Mr Lynch (30), Darragh Hassett, applied to the court for the case to be dismissed saying that some of the dates recorded for summonses connected to the case were “factually incorrect”.

Mr Hassett also argued that the incident had taken an extremely long time to come to court, saying that Mr Lynch, who has an address at Dangan in Tulla, is a local school teacher who is well known to the gardaí because of his exploits on the hurling field.

Speaking for the State, Inspector Tom Kennedy, asked Judge Patrick Durcan for 14 days to gather “the correspondence about the case” but this request was turned down.

“This all related to an issue which took place three years ago. I am striking out the case,” said Judge Durcan.

LOCAL arts groups and festival organisers in Clare face a challenging 2013, despite a slight increase in funding for the county under the Arts Council’s Festival and Events Scheme.

Clare’s funding under the first round of the Festival and Events Scheme (formally the Small Arts Festivals Scheme) rose from € 20,500 in 2012 to € 24,500 in 2013. Despite this increase, the amount of money being awarded to individual festivals under the scheme has decreased, with an extra festival being added to the funding list.

This has resulted in flagship events such as the Iniscealtra Arts Festival (down 22.2 per cent) and the Ennis Book Club Festival (down 5.8 per cent) losing valuable funding. If this trend is continued into the second round of funding it could have a negative impact on another dozen festivals throughout the county.

This funding also represents a decrease of almost 58 per cent from the € 57,100 awarded to Clare festivals under the first round of the Small Arts Festivals Scheme on 2007.

According to County Clare Arts Officer, Siobhan Mulcahy, the local arts community have shown great resilience in the face of recent quotes.

“I think the cuts have been more challenging than damaging. Obviously, they impact on the quantity of programming that takes place but, inevitably, the quality of the artistic product has been maintained throughout the county, thanks in many instances to the tireless work of volunteer festival organisers and the work of individual artists,” she said.

“The increase in the number of festivals funded reflects the diversity of quality arts practice in the county. Festivals, as well as most arts practitioners, are realistic in terms of the current financial state of the country and in what they can aspire to with the limited resources available to them.

“For many, the success of getting funding from the Arts Council is a reflection on the quality of the festival and this augurs well to lever funds from other resources at local and national level.”

There were also cuts to Clare artists under the Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme. Two Clare groups, trad/folk group Guidewires and Nicola Henley of the Wise Ways Projects, received combined funding of € 37, 500 under this scheme last year. No Clare artists received under the first round of funding this year.

Funding news on Clare’s main Arts Council funded projects, such as Glór and the Willie Clancy Summer School, is expected in the coming weeks.

IT WAS not all bad news for Shannon in the Airport Feasibility Study Commissioned by Irish Aid, however the light at the end of the tunnel was quite dim.

It outlined a potential opening for the airport in EU civil protection.

However the EU civil protection is in its infancy and most member states “are not yet fully on board” with civil protection.

According to the report, an EU civil protection role for Shannon Airport presents a more attractive risk/benefit ratio that the other three roles because the potential European disaster sites are closer the reports author maintains.

It also ascertained that Shannon’s neutral peripheral site could be useful in certain circumstances, and it could fit into the ongoing trends at EU level to strengthen civil protection co-ordination and response capabilities.

Setting up an EC civil protection base in Shannon would also be more cost effective than any of the other roles. The study argues that civil protection also shows as higher variable than other roles because European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) has not yet defined its civil protection policy direction and is exploring various options.

This statement however also argues against such a role for Shannon Airport any time soon, as there is disagreement between different Eu- ropean bodies on the precise role of civil protection and any resolution will take time.

Ireland has provided some resources such as flood management experts in response to requests from other European states which strengthens the Shannon cause although dimming that light again is the National Directorate’s description of Ireland as “not a major player” relative to other states such as Germany, France and the UK.

The Shannon Feasibility Study maintains however, “While the specifics are by no means decided, an EU civil protection role for Shannon Airport may potentially represent better value for money, particularly because there are no clear service providers with whom to compete.”

FAMILY and friends gathered in Ennis yesterday to say a final farewell to the late Jack Wall, who passed away last week.

Originally from Ennistymon, John Joseph Wall was well known in Clare from his ownership of the Auburn Lodge Hotel and his long association with the Ennis Musical Society.

Along with his wife Anne, Mr Wall ran the Auburn Lodge from 1969 to 1990. He was also the proprietor of the Beehive Café in Ennis.

He served as a gunner with the British Airforce in World War II and lived in California for 10 years before returning to Clare.

Mr Wall, who lived in Ballymaley, was a long serving member of the Ennis Musical Society whose talent was recalled at his funeral service in Ennis Cathedral yesterday.

Friends recalled being enthralled by Mr Wall’s memorable performances for the Society. The service heard that Mr Wall was a man with a commanding stage presence and someone who wore his talent with great modesty.

He played lead roles in numerous productions including

THE shock closure of Woodstock Hotel last Friday after less than an hour’s notice was given to many full-time and part-time staff represents the second time in four years that the four star hotel has shut its doors.

In October 2008 the collapse of the Dunne Hotel Group that once owned seven hotels around the country, from Waterford City up as far as Ballina in Mayo, led to Woodstock’s demise before it re-opened in 2008 under new management.

The hotel was built during the Celtic Tiger years and first opened its doors in 2000 and was acquired by the Dunne Group in 2004 as it expanded its portfolio of hotels from the Two Mile Inn in Meelick to include six more in a chain of hotels.

The primarily Clare-based hotel chain had three hotels in the county – the Two Mile Inn, the Bunratty Shamrock and Woodstock – while it also owned Patrick Punch’s Hotel in Limerick, the Fitzwilton Hotel in Waterford, the Clybaun Hotel in Galway and the Ridgepool Hotel in Ballina.

The family-owned business had revenues of more than € 36m in 2006 and has properties valued at € 86m, but two years later, after a downturn in business that was attributed to a fall-off in visitors from America, the business collapsed.

Woodstock Hotel went into examinership in June 2008 before a liquidator was appointed with the closure of the hotel in October of that year. It then re-opened in March 2008 as a result of a new partnership with Ennis hotelier Noel Mulhaire and Wyndham Worldwide, which operated a number of UK hotel franchises.

The new Woodstock Hotel, which initially created 45 jobs, operated under the group Fortmere Hotels, Ireland, while more recently was part of the Grand National Hotels and resorted that included 16 hotels around the country.

CLARE County Council revealed that they would examine eight unfinished housing estates in the county in April where they believe that safety and security has become a serious issue.

The local authority has also con firmed that it believes that half of the county’s Category 4 ‘ghost’ estates should no longer fall into this category, which is the worst category of estates.

According to the local authority, only three of the six housing developments that have been classified by the Department of the Environment as unfinished and developer-abandoned, or Category 4 estates, should still be in the category.

The council say that they intend to contact the Department of the Environment and inform them of their opinion on this.

Speaking at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, Director of Services, Ger Dollard said that the local authority is deploying “quite a lot of resources” to the issue of the Category 4 developments and said that safety was the responsibility of the developer.

He was responding to a joint motion put forward by Cllr John Crowe (FG) and Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) which asked for details on the condition of so-called ghost estates in the county.

“It is the responsibiity of the property owner, the developer or the receivers to ensure that the site is secure and safe,” said a council spokesperson.

“The council has written to developers and receivers with housing developments on the unfinished list, explaining to them their responsibilities in relation to the safety of the site.”

Speaking on last night’s motion, Cllr John Crowe said that some Clare estates were in a “very, very bad condition”.

“There are estates which are not even one-quarter finished and no place for children to play in. There are open drains and other dangers,” he said.

THE 500 year-old body of a Clare teenager discovered in April is helping to paint a clear picture of what life was like for the people of Ireland during one of the most violent periods in the country’s history.

Carbon dating of human remains, discovered in a cave on Moneen Mountain, just outside Ballyvaughan, has revealed that the dead person was between 14 and 16 years of age, and was severally malnutritioned.

According to Dr Marion Dowd of IT Sligo, the evidence suggests that the youth crawled into the cave and died, rather than being placed in the cave after death. This suggests that Moneen Mountain was being used as a refuge or meeting place for poor Clare people at this time.

This period, around the time of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, was one of the bloodiest times in Irish history.

“At this time in Ireland, there was religious persecution, a lot of warfare, Gaelic people are being dispossessed of their land and there are lots of famines.

“But to find the remains of one of these individuals and to see, first hand, the evidence of what was going on is very interesting,” said Dr Dowd. “Another mystery is why the remains were in the cave and not in a burial ground – because there were a number of official burial grounds quite close to the cave. It seems that this young person went into the cave, crawled into a small recess in the cave wall and died there.

“This person may have been completely on his own and died in the cave or there may have been a few people hiding out there.”

The excavation also revealed evidence which suggests that Moneen Mountain may have been a significant place for Bronze Age people.

“The other material dates back to 1,000 BC. We discovered a large quantity of broken-up pots and a deer antler. There is something quite unusual about this also, it does not look like a refuge, there was no-one living inside the cave at the time, and we know that the pots were weathered outside,” continued Marion.