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THE Bishop of Killaloe has been asked to intervene after a “septic relationship” developed between some parents and the principal of a small West Clare primary school. Dr Kieran O’Reilly has been asked to mediate on issues at Labasheeda National School, details of which were aired at Kilrush District Court on Tuesday.

Martin Tubridy (55), with an address at Quarry Vale, Mounthshannon, Labasheeda, was found guilty of assault causing harm to Liam Woulfe at the school on December 9, 2011. Mr Tubridy, a father of two, denied the charge.

The court heard that Mr Tubridy punched Mr Woulfe in the face after complaining about the treatment of his son. The court heard that some parents had withdrawn their children from the school because of alleged disputes with Mr Woulfe.

Judge Patrick Durcan said this was a case where there were “no winners”. He said, “I want to say how saddened I am to see such divisions in Labasheeda over a septic relationship between the two parties.” He said he found the entire episode “distressing” and warned that the dispute threatens the future of the school and the local community. Judge Durcan added, “I know this kind of thing can sound the deathknell for a school and the deathknell for a school is a deathknell for the local community.”

Mr Woulfe, who has been principal of the school for 17 years, said Mr Tu- bridy drove to the school after hours on the date in question. The court heard that Mr Woulfe had been talking to another parent in a classroom at the time. Mr Woulfe said he went out to Mr Tubridy and asked if he could come back to meet him again. He said Mr Tubridy told him he had put his son outside of the classroom and that he (Mr Woulfe) had been “at him all week”.

Mr Woulfe said, “He struck me and hit me in the face.” He added,“I recoiled back into the classroom. I was obviously shocked and dazed.”

The court heard that Mr Woulfe suffered a swollen nose, black eye and a broken tooth as a result of the assault. His injuries were disputed by defence solicitor Patrick Moylan who said they had not been noted in a dental report handed into court. Mr Moylan said Mr Woulfe had exaggerated the extent of his injuries.

Mr Moylan said in court that parents had withdrawn their children because it had been alleged that Mr Woulfe had behaved in an “aggressive” manner towards them.

The court also heard that Mr Tubridy’s wife made a complaint to the of- fice of the Bishop of Killaloe.

Mr Woulfe admitted issues had arisen in his dealings with the Tubridys. He described their behaviour in a previous meeting as “aggressive and over the top”. He said that 2011 had been a “difficult year” at the school.In his evidence, Mr Tubridy denied this and said it was Mr Woulfe who behaved in an aggressive fashion. Mr Woulfe denied Mr Tubridy’s version of events.

Parent Caroline O’Shea, who was in the school at the time, told the court she saw the assault. Mr Tubridy said she could not have seen what happened as the glass on the classroom door is opaque. He claimed Mr Woulfe grabbed him by the back of the neck and he reacted by pushing him away. He told the court that he drove to the school to meet Mr Woulfe because his son was very upset.

Judge Patrick Durcan said there had been “bad blood” between the parties. He said he did not accept Mr Tubridy’s version of events, describing it as “improbable.” Judge Durcan said he accepted Mr Woulfe’s and Ms O’Shea’s evidence. He adjourned the case for just over an hour to allow for discussions between the parties.

On the resumption of the case, Supt Gerard Wall told the court that Mr Tubridy had offered a “full and unconditional” apology to Mr Woulfe.

Judge Durcan said he accepted a proposal to invite Dr O’Reilly to mediate on the matter. He adjourned the case until April 9, 2013 and ordered Mr Tubridy to pay € 400 compensation to Mr Woulfe and Ms O’Shea.

, said he regarded the Mid West Business magazine as a rival for advertising revenue to The Cla re People . He said, “There was a fundamental breakdown in the office and he (Mr Collison) was the root cause of it.” Mr Moloney said there had been an “acrimonious relationship” between he, the shareholders and Mr Collison. Mr Moloney said he had never seen the agreement entered into between the company and the NUJ. He told the court that the paper had gone though a difficult period but that circulation is now growing. Judge Patrick Durcan said it was his view that Mr Collison was not in breach of the agreement. Judge Durcan added that he could not see how the reputation of the paper had been damaged when circulation had gone up in the context of Mr Collison leaving. He described Mr O’Rourke as “obviously a talented man” but someone who may have been “naive”. He said that in engaging Mr O’Rourke, Mr Collison’s behaviour was “despicable and manipulative”. He described Mr Moloney’s evidence as “honest, professional and refreshing”. Judge Durcan awarded Mr Collison € 4,700 but said he was making no order for costs “by virtue of his (Mr Collison’s) behaviour”. Judge Durcan dismissed the counter claim, making no order for costs.

CLARE tourism will be damaged internationally, while both private and State-run tourism operators will be the big losers if Clare County Council gives the green light for the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to develop car park facilities near Mullaghmore.

This claim is a major plank of the Burren Action Group (BAG) submis- sion to the planning authority, opposing the controversial NPWS application, that has been secured by The Clare People this week.

In a hard-hitting submission, BAG says that the car park proposal “makes no consideration of tourism practice in the area and does not appear to inform itself as to the policies of other statutory agencies or of the objectives of the County Development Plan”.

According to the BAG submission, permission for the car park facility would “endanger the reputation of the Burren” and “poses a risk to investments of other tourism operators” throughout North Clare.

“Substantial inter-agency efforts helped secure Geopark status for the Burren and efforts are ongoing to achieve a UNESCO World Heritage Site listing,” says the BAG submission.

“Smaller operators have undertaken international marketing activities through the Burren Ecotourism Network and have developed an accreditation scheme for green tourism that has been adopted as the Irish standard and has been approved by Fáilte Ireland.

“News of the existence of a statemanaged facility that is operating contrary to the precautionary and sustainability principles will harm the area’s reputation and the international perception that it is a prime ecotourism destination.

“The application runs counter to the objectives and principles of ecotourism, is contrary to the objectives of the County Development Plan and will endanger the tourism investments of both private and statutory tourism providers.

“It is not compatible with the area’s reputation for ecotourism and thus poses a threat to tourism operators in the wider Burren,” the submission to the Clare County Council planners adds.

IARNRÓD Éireann has come in for fresh criticism over the length of time it has taken to create an online booking system for the Western Rail Corridor. At present, it is possible to view timetable information for services between Ennis and Galway but not to price a ticket or make an online purchase.

This was identified as one of the main areas for reform earlier this year and prompted Iarnród Éireann to commit to developing an online system. The delay in developing a system was described as “perplexing” by North-West MEP, Jim Higgins (FF), last week.

“I cannot understand how you can book most buses in the country on line, but not the train. I wonder if this was a train on the east coast, would a solution to the online booking problem have been found by now,” he said.

MEP Higgins was also critical of the time taken to travel on the Western Rail Corridor when compared to a car journey. “I’ve raised this issue before, and I will raise it again. To drive between Galway City and Limerick takes one hour and 25 minutes but on the train, it takes two hours and 15 minutes,” he said.

Iarnród Éireann confirmed last week that journey times between Limerick and Galway on the Western Rail Corridor will be reduced by as much as 15 minutes in the coming months.

Latest passenger numbers for the Western Rail Corridor show an increase of 6 per cent for the first nine months of 2012, the first positive passenger number trends since the service was established.

Meanwhile, the future of the proposed development of a new train station at Crusheen remains unclear. A final planning decision on the station was due in early November but no decision has yet been released.

CLARE’S hopes of gaining bilingual status from the Department of the Gaeltacht have been boosted significantly this week on the back the 2011 National Census of Population report which says that nearly half of the county’s population are able to speak the language – the second highest ranking of any county in Ireland.

The findings, published by the Central Statistics Office as part of the latest bulletin report on last year’s census, called ‘What We Know – A study of education and skills in Ireland’, have revealed that the number of Irish speakers in the county is now running ahead of the average for the rest of Munster.

“A total of 53,853 persons in County Clare, accounting for 48 per cent of the population aged three and over, indicated that they could speak Irish. This compared to 41 per cent for the State as a whole,” a CSO spokesperson has revealed.

The breakdown of these figures has revealed that only Galway, with 51 per cent of its population being able to speak Irish, has a higher ranking than Clare. This means that Clare has a high percentage of its population speaking Irish than Gaeltacht counties such as Kerry and Donegal.

A further breakdown of these Clare figures has revealed that the majority of Irish speakers are females, with 29,145 females proficient in the language as compared to 24,708 males.

Meanwile, the upsurge in knowledge and interest in the language has been reflected in figures which show that there are now Irish speakers in over 60 per cent of households in the county. The figures show that of 42,648 households in Clare, 25,704 of those have Irish speakers in them, a figure which represents 60.3 per cent of households throughout the county.

However, a breakdown of these figures has revealed that only 1,539 people in the county speak the language on a daily basis outside of the education system, a figure that accounts for just 1.4 per cent of the total population aged three and over, compared to the state average of 1.8 per cent.

The largest concentration of Irish speakers is in the county capital of Ennis, with 11,277 of the town area’s population of 25,360 claiming to be speakers of the language. This trans

lates into ?? per cent of the population, a figure that represents a boon to local hopes the ‘Inis Dom’ project will see the town granted bilingual status by 2018. “We have a five-year plan to make Ennis a bilingual town and we think we can do this,” said local language activist, Domhnall Ó Loinsigh when launching the Inis Dom project last year. “As a town, Ennis would very much be to the fore as an urban community that is promoting Irish. We are very confident that through Irish, something can be done to make Ennis a place apart.

“This is about enhancing the visibility and use of Irish in the town and there is no cost involved. It is also about promoting the cultural image of the town, making it a more attractive place for visitors and as a more attractive shopping destination,” he added.

The second largest number of Irish speakers is located in Shannon, with 3,759 of the town’s population of 10,058 able to speak the language, while third and fourth in the county’s league table of Irish speakers are Kilrush and Sixmilebridge with 966 and 895 respectively.

GLÓR’S continued survival as a centre of excellence for the performing arts in Clare is down to grant aid provided by cash-strapped local authorities in the county.

New figures released this week show that Glór wouldn’t be able to operate as a beacon for the performing arts, but for the grant aid given to it by both Clare County Council and Ennis Town Council.

The figures reveal that an addi- tional € 154,000 was given to Glór by Clare County Council and Ennis Town Council last year, so that historical financial losses could be addressed at the centre which first opened its doors 11 years ago this month.

This aid comes on top of the annual € 270,000 subsidy that the two local authorities provide between them to the state-of-the-art facility that can cater for up to 600 people.

Glór’s losses of € 112,103 last year were on top of the € 154,146 accumulated losses that were in place at the start of 2011.

The figures for 2011 show that Glor’s income last year decreased from € 1.16m to € 1m with its spend remaining static at € 1.164m.

The centre has received huge financially backing over the past 12 years, since it was announced as a flagship arts project for the county under Sí le de Valera’s watch as Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht from 1997 to 2002.

Only a few months before it opened, Minister de Valera stepped in to secure the future of the € 8.2m the centre after a short-fall of € 2.5m emerged in the project by securing the money through her departments Access Scheme.

That allocation now brought Minister de Valera’s total contribution to the project to € 5.7m.

Along with the € 5.7m allocated by the minister, the project also received € 1.9m from Clare County Council and Ennis Town Council, as well as € 635,000 in European Union funding.

Glór’s new director, Gemma Carcaterra, has said that the additional grant aid from the two local authorities was to deal with accumulated losses, with the centre projected to break-even for 2012.

“This is a significant achievement within the current climate when all arts organisations are facing considerable challenges,” she said.

“For the past number of years, the recession impacted on the organisation and continues to do so.

“This is a similar situation to the majority of arts organisation across the country and Glór is surviving well in comparison,” she added.

FURTHER discussions are expected in the coming weeks over plans to erect a memorial in Ennis to Irish people who fought in wars in South East Asia.

Councillors and officials from Ennis Town Council held preliminary discussions with representatives from business groups and American war veterans in recent weeks.

It follows a contentious proposal tabled at the July meeting of Ennis Town Council calling on the authority to commemorate Irish men who fought in the Vietnam War.

The motion, tabled by Fine Gael councillor Johnny Flynn, provoked strong opposition.

Cllr Flynn said the council should consider marking the contribution of soldiers of Irish descent who served in the United States armed forces during the Vietnam War.

Cllr Flynn said, at the time, that such a memorial would send out a positive signal to ex-soldiers about Clare as a tourism destination.

According to Cllr Flynn, the Vietnam veteran tourism market num- bers close to 1.9 million people.

It is estimated that 2,500 Irish people served with the US armed forces in Vietnam.

However, some councillors were wary of the proposal.

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Ind) said that Vietnam is a “sensitive issue”, while Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) has expressed concern about the actions of some American soldiers during the war.

However, it is understood that following recent meetings, councillors are close to agreeing on a memorial for Ennis.

It is thought that any memorial would honour Irish people who fought for the Allied Forces in conflicts in South East Asia from the 1950s to ‘70s.

Meetings have also taken place with representatives of a group of Vietnam veterans who have been travelling to Clare in recent years to attend the Ennis Trad Festival.

The talks are still at a preliminary stage and no decision has yet been taken.

Friars Walk in Ennis has been mooted as one possible location for any memorial.

THE courage shown by pioneering author and broadcaster from Clare, the late Máiréad Ní Ghráda, will be celebrated in Glór in the coming weeks thanks to a series of workshops that built around her most acclaimed piece work.

The workshops on Ms Ní Ghráda’s play called ‘An Triail’ comes in the wake of the move by the Department of Education to include the work on the current syllabus for the Leaving Certificate Irish exam.

The workshops are being provided by Irish language enthusiast Fidelma McDonnell, starting this Wednesday and continuing for six weeks – a programme that’s seen as the first step towards a fully-blown production of the play in Glór next year.

“The play’s storyline features a single mother in 1960s rural Ireland who was forced to go into a Magdalene Laundry due to pressure from family and society around her,” reveals Ms McDonnell. “This theme was very controversial to write about at the time and Ms Ní Ghráda showed great courage in raising this subject through her writing.

“It is a great thing for a playwright from Clare to feature on the Leaving Cert and it will bring her work to the forefront of people’s consciousness once again,” adds Ms McDonnell.

Ms Ní Ghráda, who hailed from Kilmaley was the first female pre- senter on Ireland’s first national radio service, then known as 2RN that started broadcasting in 1926.

An Triail is thought to have been based on an incident near her home that Ms Ní Ghráda remembered from her youth: the victimisation of a pregnant young single girl while the man involved escaped condemnation.

While some people were shocked at the “filthy immoral” drama others saw it as being ahead of its time. Tomás MacAnna, who produced the play, praised it as the precursor of women’s lib. It still ranks with Brendan Behan’s ‘An Giall’ as the most successful play in the Irish language.

CLARE Haven’s refuge service provides emergency accommodation to women and children experience violence in the home.

While staying in one of the organisation’s six units they receive oneto-one support, medical assistance, legal assistance including a court companion and financial direction including help accessing housing and social welfare payments.

Childcare services are also provided to help care for the children and liaise with the child’s school where necessary.

Clare Haven also provides support services that include a drop in centre in Ennis and outreach centres in Kilrush, Shannon, Scariff and Killaloe.

During these visits women meet privately with support workers.

“It is important to note that when a woman come to us we don’t tell her what to do. We outline her options.

“We will support them around what they want to do,” explained Ms Dunne. Often this support can take years, with many women returning to the services years after they first made contact.

Domestic abuse is not a straight forward issue with a straight forward solution, according to Clare Haven’s manager, and the support workers work with the woman at her own pace. The service also provides a 24hour helpline.

While 73 women and their children stayed in the refuge so far this year, it is not as high as other years, not because there are less cases of abuse but there are less follow on services.

Accessing homes for these women is proving particularly difficult in the last 12 months, so they have to stay longer in what should be temporary accommodation at Clare Haven.

This causes somewhat of a backlog in the refuge adding to Clare Haven’s problems.

“The volume of women needing support has increased so much in the last number of years,” said Ms Dunne. Yet the funding continues to be cut. Clare Haven has to fundraise every year to ensure its doors stay open, with the Clare 10K providing most of its charitable funds.

It also relies on one-off donations from the public and the donation of goods especially food, clothes, baby goods such as nappies, and underwear (new) to help the families survive until social welfare payments come through.

“That [donations] keeps us going,” said Denise, outlining how they have had to cut their school’s education programme and awareness programmes in the community.

“We’re left with the critical service. If they cut us any more, the board will have to look at cutting back services next year,” the manager warned.

“We are a critical service in this county. By cutting funding you are cutting the service.”

“16 Days of Action and Awareness on Violence against Women” begins on November 25 to December 10.

The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness on the whole issue of violence against women.

VICTIMS have told how they battled addictions and attempted suicide after the abuse they suffered at the hands of Ennis man James ‘Tony’ Maher.

One of the men stated that he was afraid to speak up after he was first assaulted by Mr Maher (69).

Detective Garda Beatrice Ryan read out the man’s victim impact statement in Ennis Circuit Criminal Court. The man stated, “It’s sad that I was always blaming myself and family for what this paedophile was doing to me.”

The man first met Mr Maher through his involvement with the Banner GAA Club. He recalled how he started to drink alcohol heavily at an early age.

He stated, “At 15, I was hospitalised for drink and I tried to commit suicide.”

The court heard that the man again tried to kill himself aged 18 and almost ended up taking the life of another person.

The man stated that he had battled addictions to alcohol and gambling.

He described Mr Maher, of Clonroadmorebeg, Ennis as a “monster” and said the abuse had a “dramatic effect” on his life.

He said he had never told his wife and children about the ordeal he had suffered. The man said his life had been robbed. “I hope that if there is a God, he (Mr Maher) will burn in hell.”

Another victim of Mr Maher read his victim impact statement in court yesterday.

He told the court that he was 11 when Mr Maher first assaulted him. He said the incidents had a “horrific impact” on his life.

He said he sank into a deep depression after Mr Maher “robbed” him of an ability to trust anyone. The man, whom the court heard grew up in poor circumstances in a rural part of the county, said he had attempted suicide.

He added, “I suffered enormous pain and I will always remain scarred by the actions of this man.” Mr Maher will be sentenced on January 14, 2013.