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IN HER first interview since being released from prison, Ennis woman Sharon Collins has protested her innocence of the crimes she was convicted of and spent nearly four years in jail for.

The 49-year-old, who was socialising in Ennis over the Christmas period and is believed to be planning to move back to live in her native town, has stated publicly that she hopes to find out who framed her for the crime of trying to have her partner PJ Howard and his two sons Niall and Robert murdered.

“You just have to try to be dignified and hope that eventually you will be able to prove that it wasn’t you,” said Collins in an interview in a Sunday newspaper.

“It is so elaborate and there is so much. I couldn’t imagine doing that for starters – but if you could try to put yourself in the position of somebody who did that?

“Well you wouldn’t leave that sort of trail. It’s just too much. It’s just too much. It wasn’t me. That’s all I can say to that. I didn’t leave that trail behind me. I just hope someday I will be able to prove who it was,” she added.

In November 2008, Collins was was jailed for six years after a Central Criminal Court jury found her guilty of soliciting a man to murder PJ Howard, and his two sons, Robert and Niall Howard, on August 15, 2006.

Collins, who was accused of using the internet handle “lying-eyes98” to investigate the hiring of a hitman on the internet, was also found guilty on three counts of conspiring to kill the three men.

Her trial heard she tried to hire Egyptian-born Las Vegas poker dealer Essam Eid to carry out the killings. While sentenced in November 2008, she was convicted in July 2008, and was held in prison from that date.

In late 2011, Ms Collins lost an appeal against the conviction with the court rejecting all 23 grounds of her case, but she was granted temporary release after serving three years and nine months of her sentence ahead of the completion of her sentence in December.

Ms Collins has revealed that she is now concentrating on her career, with two books on her story now in the pipeline, while a movie deal is also in the offing as several shows in the US fight to secure her first television appearance.

CLARE’S President of Ireland, Dr Patrick Hillery, was caught in the eye of a diplomatic storm in 1982 over the birth of Prince William, the son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana and second in line to the throne.

The State Papers from 1982 reveal that President Hillery was accused of snubbing the royal birth, but that what happened was that diplomats had wrongly advised him not to send a message of congratulations to Queen Elizabeth on the birth of Prince William.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach’s office became embroiled in a row over whether or not to send a message of congratulations. A memo sent from assistant secretary Richard Stokes to Charles Haughey outlines advice given by the Chief of Protocol, who said it would not be appropriate for a message to be sent as Prince Charles and Princess Diana were not Heads of State.

The Chief of Protocol had been asked for his advice following a press query by a journalist to the President’s office. Stokes told the Taoiseach he “would strongly disagree with the Foreign Affairs advice on this”.

“I believe that a message of congratulations should be sent by the President to the Queen on the birth of her grandson,” he continued.

President Hillery’s chief of protocol in the Aras sought advice on the issue, with his own thinking being that a message was not necessary, as Prince Charles, was not a head of state. Foreign Affairs backed the advice, as did a Mr Ó hAnnrachain in the Taoiseach’s office, who also said then Taoiseach Charles Haughey was not to be consulted.

However, Mr Stokes believed “an explanation will be no substitute for a warm and gracious message for this happy event on our neighbouring island”.

Another document from HJ Dowd, an official in the Department of the Taoiseach, shows that he was in agreement with Stokes. He also said it would be of “no harm” to tell the Foreign Affairs Department that “they were in error when they said that their files suggest that a message should not be sent”.

He points to two further precedents for sending such a message. On the 15 November 1948, President Seán T Ó Ceallaigh sent his wishes to King George VI on the birth of a son (now the Prince of Wales) to Princess Elizabeth (now the Queen). On the 16 August 1950, he sent a similar message to King George on the birth of his grand-daughter Princess Ann.

A note made out on the 22 June shows that the Government then scrambled to reach an agreement that the President should send a message of congratulations. The draft was cleared with the Chief of Protocol at 12.50pm.

PLANS to construct a massive Rotterdam-style transshipment port at Kilrush were lodged with an Bord Pleanála in December.

The multi-million euro project has been earmarked for banks of reclaimed land adjacent to the Moneypoint Power Station and could create hundreds of sustainable jobs locally if successful and transform the area into one of Europe’s largest freight ports.

The Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company lodged papers with the national planning authority seeking to have the development classified as a Strategic Industrial Development (SID).

The deep waters of the Shannon Estuary would allow larger vessels from America and Asia to unload massive volumes of cargo in the area – which would then be transferred to smaller ships and brought to shallow ports in other parts of Europe.

The 16-metre water depths on the Shannon is rivalled only by Rotterdam in Holland. The Dutch port employs well over a hundred thousand people directly and indirectly around the Europort facility, the biggest in Europe and currently operating at full capacity.

A Spokesperson from An Bord Pleanála said a meeting with the Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company would likely take place in January but could not confirm any details about the specifics of the proposed port.

If the facility is deemed to be of strategic national importance, An Bord Pleanála will give it SID status – which means than a decision on planning will be made by them and not by Clare County Council.

The application was made by the Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company – who are not currently listed with the Irish Company Registrations Office (CRO).

The Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC), who had previously examined the possibility of creating its own deep water transshipment facility in the Shannon Estuary, confirmed yesterday that the application had not been made by them.

A spokesperson said that that the organisation had “no comment” to make on the proposal currently before an Bord Pleanála but did say that the company would assist “any marine or shipping related projects” in the area of the estuary.

In 2004, the Shannon Foynes Port The Shannon based Atlantic Way group commissioned a feasibility study on a deep water port in the Shannon Estuary in 2009. That report, conducted by international expert Dr John Martin, indicated a massive demand for a deep mater port to service shallow ports across Europe.

Speaking on behalf of Atlantic Way yesterday, former chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority, Brian O’Connell, said that his organisation were not responsible for the application to An Bord Pleanála.

THE number of people born on Clare soil swelled by one in May when baby Eirinn Christina Robbins Logue came into the world on the side of the road in Corofin.

Eirinn’s parents, Caralyn Robbins and Phil Logue, were about to drop their two older children at their aunt’s house at Laghtagoona in Corofin before carrying on to hospital in Galway, when Eirinn decided that her big moment had arrived.

The momentous birth took place on the road outside Caralyn’s sister Crystel’s house, with dad Phil acting as a more than capable midwife.

“By the time I got to the driveway, I couldn’t even drive up to the house, I had to stop right there. I was like a headless chicken,” said delighted Phil.

“It was me that delivered the baby. Caralyn was standing up, she had got out of the car to try and get into the house, so she was standing up leaning on the door of the jeep. She said ‘the baby is coming, the baby is coming’.

“Sure enough, the baby’s head was already out. She told me that the baby was coming right then so I cupped the baby’s head in my hand. There was a big whoosh and the baby came flying out and I caught it.

“Crystel was on the phone to the 999 operator, who was giving us advice, and she then came over and helped wrap up the baby and we handed it up to Caralyn. Out of the three of us, I think Mum was the most calm. Myself and Crystel were panicking but Caralyn was the most calm of all of us.

“I really have to give my sincere thanks to Crystel, I don’t know what I would have done if she wasn’t there, and Peter and the rest of the ambulance crew and paramedics and also the 999 operator for their professionalism and for taking care of us so well.”

According to Phil, his partner Caralyn had a dream last week that the baby would be born in the car on the way to the hospital and the baby would be born a girl. Weighing just over six pounds, baby Eir- inn is fit and healthy and is already being doted on by her four-year-old sister Isabelle and her three-year-old brother Aiden.

Figures released by the Central Statistic Office (CSO) last week revealed that the number of people born in County Clare have plummeted since the removal of maternity facilities from the county’s hospitals in the late 1980s.

“This is the first of my children to actually have been born on Clare soil and that is something that we are very happy about,” continued Phil.

“I think if we hadn’t already decided on a name for Eirinn, we would have called her Clare, but we already had the name picked.”

THE future of Clare’s international airport was finally resolved in December when the new vision for Shannon Airport and Shannon Development was announced in Dublin.

The decision to separate Shannon Airport from the control of the Dublin Airport Authority was confirmed by the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar (FG), who said that as many as five thousand new jobs could be created in the new company over the next five years.

It was also confirmed that Shannon Airport debt, understood to be in the region of € 100 million, would remain with the Dublin Airport Authority – but Shannon would also lose any stake in Aer Rianta International.

The new airport authority was been provisionally named as NEWCO. The Minister for Jobs, Richard Bruton (FG) confirmed at the announcement that there would be no compulsory redundancies form Shannon Airport or Shannon Development. The Clare People also reported on December 4 that Clare woman Rose Hynes was being lined up to become the first chairperson of the new airport authority.

The Bellharbour woman, who chaired the Aviation Business Development Task Force that drafted the new airport plan, was rubber stamped into this role later in the month.

At the Dublin announcement the government set a ambitious target for boosting passenger numbers at Shannon by one million over the next nine years, Minister Varadkar telling The Clare People that “if Shannon can’t achieve that kind of growth, then there is no future for the airport”.

However, it’s in the area of jobs that Shannon can expect its biggest windfall with the transport minister revealing that a new international aviation services centre has “the potential to create between 3000 and 5000 jobs within five years”.

Minister Bruton said the airport’s independence, which will see two companies in Shannon provide up to 850 in the coming months represents “a new chapter in regional development” in Ireland.

“The independence of Shannon Airport has been sought for many years,” said Minister Varadkar. “It certainly is a risk, but the risk with doing nothing is far greater. It is an historic decision and it will bring a new future for Shannon Development and Shannon Airport.”

Shannon was formally separated from the DAA on December 31. The government now plans to appoint a new boards for the NEWCO in the new year. The government will also have to address the possibility of industrial actions as Shannon Development workers hav raised a number of worries about the new arrangement.

CARERS from all over Clare took to the streets of Ennis in December to raise their concerns about budgetary cuts to the Respite Care Allowance. More than 50 people too part in the impromptu including parents of young children with disabilities, older parents of adults with special needs and full-time carers of the elderly.

One of the organisers, Niamh Daly, said that a similar protest organised in Dublin by the Carers Association was an indication at how upset people were but, as most carers cannot travel to protest, the carers of Clare decided to have their

say on their own streets.

“Carers cannot all get to Dublin but, at the end of the day, we have to have our voice heard,” she said.

Many more Clare carers were unable to attend the protest as the people they care for are house-bound and therefore could not come to En nis.

It is not just the cut to the respite grant, however, that is affecting Clare’s carers. Family carers, providing unpaid care to family mem- bers and loved ones, have been seriously affected through the number of cumulative cuts, including the cut to the Household Benefit Pack- age, increases to the prescription charge from 50 cent to € 1.50, the new carbon tax on fuel and the drug payment scheme threshold increase from € 132 to € 144. The Carers Association said it was extremely disappointed with the level of reduction of over 19 per cent in the respite grant paid to over 77,000 family carers, 20,000 of whom receive no other support from the State for providing full-time care for a family member from their own resources. The grant is designed to be used by carers to buy in home care or pay for residential respite care for the caredfor person in order to give the carer a much needed break from their caring role. However, many carers are using this grant to pay for necessary therapies and services for those they are caring for. Despite intense pressure from lobby groups and concerned citizens the government has, to date, help strong on the issue of the Respite Care Allowance. It is as yet unclear whether the Cares Association or other interested organisation will host more protests or other actions in 2013. Wed02January13

IN AUGUST this year, Gabrielle Fennessy, 51, her husband Chris Kearns, 51, and youngest son Finn, 16, decided to uproot from Kinvara, in Galway, and take up a job offer in Boston.

They left their home and the security provided by family and friends to see whether the grass really is greener on the other side.

“The job opportunities are a lot better here than Ireland for both of us,” explains Gabrielle, “and the education system is a hell of a lot better!”

Chris says he was happy “to get away from the economic and political environment in Ireland”. From the beginning, Finn noticed how, “much more positive people are here.” The couple agree that it is much easier to save money working in the US than it is to do so here.

Gabrielle had work secured before leaving and was straight into it once she arrived. Chris and Finn took a little longer to settle in. At first, setting up the new family home kept them busy. Unlike their countryside home in Ireland, they moved into a suburban apartment. A car had to be bought, insurance cover arranged, phone and internet access organised. And Finn had to be registered in the local high school. It was all very new and exciting.

Five months later, Chris is working with an international, high-tech firm which specialises in cloud computing. Finn has settled right into the American lifestyle. He has replaced hurling and rugby with American football, which he plays with his high school team. They will not be home for Christmas. “We’re going to have an Irish Christmas here instead,” says Gabrielle. While they will miss their extended family and the traditional Christmas round of visits to friends and neighbours, they are lucky to have some family travelling over for Christmas. Gabrielle reflects that Christmas in Boston is different to Ireland. “It’s seen as a Christian holiday here,” she explains. They live in a predominantly Jewish community. Cribs and baby Jesuses are left out in favour of more secular Christmas decorations such as snowmen and reindeer.

The traditional Irish Christmas dinner of turkey and ham is considered more of a Thanksgiving staple. At Christmas, a wider range of foods are eaten. Many people that they work with are only taking one day off work.

Whether this is just their first of many Christmases state-side remains to be seen. Gabrielle says that while they initially left for the US with the intention of staying one year, “now we’re looking at extending it.”

WHEN Marie McNamara went to Australia in 2008, it was with a sense of adventure.

At home, she found herself in a job that just wasn’t the right fit for her, she had always wanted to travel and had heard stories from her brother and friends who had spent a year travelling around Asia and Australia.

It was a now-or-never attitude that saw her fill her backpack and travel around Asia for three months before finding herself in Australia.

This was to begin an adventure that would take no longer than a year, then she would be back home in Ballynacally.

Four years on and the reality she left behind in 2008 has changed sig- nificantly.

Now Marie is working full-time in Australia, something she knows would not be possible if she returns home.

She is therefore home for three weeks at Christmas to visit family and friends rather than returning, as she would wish, for good.

“You are really doing the same thing over there as you would be doing here, it’s just that the weather is better. You get into a routine and a way of living,” she said.

“Everyone thinks the grass is greener but we are living away from all our family and friends.”

Marie said that she hopes to come home some day as “home is home” but for now “the country is in a mess and I know if I stayed, there would be no work here. I have to be practical and go back to Australia where the work is. There is nothing for me to come back to now. It would be great to stay home but I have to be practical.”

The Clare native has had a number of various jobs since she arrived Down Under. She worked for six months in an office and then travelled around the country.

As with most backpackers, she then ran out of money but decided she would stay for another year.

To be allowed to stay in the country for a second year, she was obliged to spend it working in rural Australia.

So she ended up weeding, sorting tomatoes and potatoes and doing general agricultural work on a farm.

“It was great craic. There was no pressure and you met a load of people. You experience a different side of Australia that you would not see otherwise,” she said.

After her time on the farm, she came back to Sydney and was sponsored to stay in the country working with the company she had worked with previously.

She is now home for a three-week holiday, her third Christmas trip home in a row.

“The first Christmas in Australia was great craic, having Christmas on the beach and watching the fireworks on Sydney Bridge on New Year’s Eve. By the second Christmas, the novelty has worn off,” she told The Clare People .

“To sit beside an open fire for Christmas – there is nothing like it.”

MAURETTE and Barry Crowley were just newlyweds last December when they decided to go to Australia for a least a year.

Maurette, a teacher originally from Tulla, and Barry, an engineer from Knockerra, are now adapting to life down under and enjoying all that it has to offer, although they admit they do miss home at Christmas time.

“We would love to be home for Christmas, but it’s a good experi ence to be here for one Christmas,” said Maurette, explaining that they both intend to be having turkey and Christmas pudding in Clare next year.

The weather in Melbourne does not lend itself to the Christmassy feel. However, one morning last week, as Maurette got the train to work, the temperature dropped for a few minutes and she had to put on her coat as she passed a busker playing ‘Silent Night’ on a trumpet.

For a brief moment, it was Christmas time as she knew it.

The new Christmas experience consists of high temperatures and summer dresses, different foods and blue Christmas decorations.

“The decorations seem strange. They are all blue. There is no green and red like at home,” explained the Tulla native.

The Christmas carols also give the Clare woman pause for thought and a smile. She is currently working as a relief teacher in an Australian pri- mary school and is teaching the children ‘Ozzy Jingle Bells’.

“Instead of singing about the sledge, they sing about putting on the barbie. It is very funny and worth people Youtubing just to hear the difference,” she said, laughing.

Teaching in an Australian school brings home to Maurette how many Irish people of her generation have emigrated there, many with no other choice. There are Irish pupils in each class in the school, some who have recently moved to Australia with their families and others who were born to Irish parents in Australia in the last five years.

There are also a number of Irish teachers teaching in the school so she is not the only Irish accent in the staff room either.

And as the staff all settle in for an Ozzy Christmas, Maurette and her husband Barry are heading to the Goldcoast to celebrate their first married Christmas with her sisters in 35- to 40-degree heat with blue Christmas decorations. “HOW is it being away from home at Christmas?” asks Jason Ryan of himself. “I’m in my shorts; we’re all in our shorts; it’s blistering hot outside and I have the The Clare People here in front of me.” It’s true, like the old Harp ad, the sun tan is for free and unlike back home in Clare, if one wanted to hit the town on Christmas Day, there’d be plenty of pubs with a ‘fáilte isteach’. It’s Phoenix Arizona, where 36year-old Jason Ryan has called home for the last seven years, moving permanently in 2005 after first visiting a year previously. With a wife and four children, ranging from the age of seven down to only a couple of months old, he’s not for moving. Back home or anywhere. Jason has The Clare People and Clare Champion thanks to his parents who landed for a week before Christmas. “There are 5,000 miles between Newmarket-on-Fergus and Phoenix,” he says, “so when they come over, it’s a long 14-hour trek. You won’t do it too often, so when your parents come over before Christmas it’s special and it’s important. You miss the craic of home around Christmas so having them over is great,” he adds. Before emigrating, Jason freely admits that Phoenix was never on his radar but that all changed when he met his now wife in NUIG. “Arizona and Ireland – the first thing I thought was total opposites but, after meeting, we came out and it wasn’t until I got here that I realised there’s such a big Irish community here.” And it’s something that Jason has immersed himself in over the last couple of years, mainly through the GAA. Like his father Christy, who is synonymous with the GAA back home, as are his uncles and first cousin Colin who inspired the Newmarket Blues to a first county hurling title in 31 years this year. “Five thousand miles is a long way,” he says, “but the world is a smaller place and, when you’re away, it’s more tolerable. It’s not just an evening phone call – there’s text messaging, Skype, Facebook, Twitter…

and you keep in touch that way with matches back home and what’s going on.

“With the GAA here, I am manager of the Phoenix Gaels and chairman of the South West Board of the GAA, so that keeps you in touch with home as well. When there are big games, you’d go and meet lads and watch them. Tony McCarthy from Killaloe and Eanna Mulkere from Crusheen would be two that I’d meet to watch matches. My brother Johnny is in Perth and there are eight or 10 more from Newmarket there, so we’d keep in touch through the social media.”

Still though, there’ll be a few home thoughts from abroad, but not for too long because he’s well ensconced in Arizona now and so comfortable with life a world away from Newmarket that he has a slow southern drawl.

“When I’m home, my wife can’t understand me but when I’m here you have to slow down for people to be able to understand you,” he says. “Everything is different, but it’s great. There isn’t the big Christmas dinner and turkey wouldn’t be traditional because of Thanksgiving, you’d just do a ham.

“Then you have movie theatres open on Christmas Day and people go there or to the bars – it’s not like home when everything shuts down. Even some of the stores are open for people to go shopping.”

He’ll hardly shop, because it’s not the done thing back home, catching a movie mightn’t be on his radar either, but a pint and toasting the great year that both the Blues and Newmarket Celtic enjoyed on Christmas Day.

Now, there’s a thought.

A CLARE homeless charity has began donating food to hungry Ennis families – who are not homeless but are unable to feed themselves as a result of the recession and government cutbacks.

According to Josie O’Brien of Help the Homeless in Clare, the situation among poor Clare people is as bad as it has ever been. The group are expecting their largest ever turnout at the Christmas Day dinner this year – with more than 100 people likely to attend.

According to Ms O’Brien, the situation is now drastically worse than it was just 12 months ago.

“Besides the homeless, we’ve started helping other people who look for food. We’ve been helping some families around Ennis. Someone will contact me and say that they know of a family who don’t have any food and we provide the food. It’s not just people who are homeless – there are now families out there, living in houses and they don’t have food,” said Josie.

“It’s very sad. We’re talking about families with children – and they are hungry. It’s gotten worse this year a lot worse. It can be very difficult for families out the now. But the other side to that is that people are so generous. All I have to do is put up on facebook that food is needed and without fail someone makes a donation. The people of Ennis and of Clare are so so generous.

The Help the Homeless in Clare Christmas dinner will take place from 3pm to 7pm at Fahy Hall in Roslevan on Christmas Day.

“It’s not just for the homeless. Anyone can come – anyone who is on their own or needs a dinner,” she said.

“I normally cook for around 60 or 70 but I’ll be cooking for 100 or more this year because it looks like it is going to be busier.

“I’ve been doing this for eight years and I’d say that this is going to be the biggest year. So we are preparing lots and lots of food. That said – there will be no shortage of food. People have been very generous so we will have plenty of food.

“People are becoming way more aware of the problems that are out there. It’s not just homeless people anymore. Its a lot of different people. Some people just need food now,” she said.

A large number of Clare people and businesses donated food to Help the Homeless in Clare this year. To find our more search for “Help the Homeless in Clare” on Facebook.