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A FORMER Clare County Council worker who was found dead at his home in Kilrush last May died as a result of misadventure, an inquest has heard.

The body of Michael Noel Blunnie (61) was discovered by gardaí at his home at 2 O’Gorman Street on May 1, 2011.

An inquest into his death heard that Mr Blunnie died from positional asphyxiation, with alcohol intoxication and heart disease as contributory factors.

County Coroner Isobel O’Dea ruled that Mr Blunnie died by misadventure.

Door-to-door enquires were car- ried out in the area following the death and CCTV footage was also obtained.

Supt Gerry Wall of Kilrush Garda Station told Clare Coroner’s Court on Friday that “no evidence of criminality was established from these lines of enquiry”.

The inquest heard that an ambulance was called to the house on April 30 after Mr Blunnie complained of stomach and chest pains. Mr Blunnie refused to get into the ambulance. A friend, Paul O’Connor, said he placed a blanket over Mr Blunnie when he fell asleep that evening. When he left, he also placed a rag in the front door to jam it shut because there was no lock.

Mr O’Connor said, “He drank a naggin of whiskey while I was there.”

The inquest heard that Mr Blunnie’s house was in poor condition, with no electricity, heating or running water.

Michael Sweeney told the inquest that he had left his family home in Kilrush at around 6am to look for a lighter. After trying a number of houses, Mr Sweeney called to Mr Blunnie’s house. He told the inquest that he had known the deceased for a number of years. Mr Sweeney walked in, took the lighter and noticed Mr Blunnie lying down. He added, “I did not stay there. I panicked and left. I hate dead bodies.”

After calling to his brother’s house, Mr Sweeney phoned the gardaí, the inquest heard.

Of Mr Sweeney’s demeanor, Garda Gander said, “He appeared to be distressed and upset and struggled to get across what happened at 2 O’Gorman Street….He was very forthcoming.”

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Kahlid Jaber told the court that blood and urine analyses showed that Mr Blunnie “was drinking heavily at the time he passed away”.

He said the primary cause of death was positional asphyxiation with acute alcohol intoxication and hyper cardio-vascular disease as contributory factors.

Ms O’Dea said, “It is quite clear from the evidence there was no suspicion of foul play.” She paid her condolences to the deceased’s family and friends.

Retired garda Michael Ryan also paid his condolences to the Blunnie family. He said, “Mick Noel was nice, gentle man.”

A NEW constitution has been drafted for the people of the Burren – a document which, it is hoped, will help preserve the environment and way of life of the area for future generations. After more than two years of consultation with the local people, the first draft of the Burren Charter was released last week. The charter contains a set of aims for all sections of the community involved in the area and the hope is that the entire local population will sign up to uphold it.

The draft document was compiled by the BurrenBeo Trust, The Burren Farming for Conservation Group, Burren Connect, Burren IFA and both Clare and Galway County Councils.

“This has been developed through contact with the local community and it is about the people who live here deciding what they want for the future and what they can do to make this happen,” said Áine Bird of the Burrenbeo Trust.

“This is a draft charter at the moment and a lot of research has gone into it. But it is still a working document and we really want to the local people to get stuck into the document and tell us if they think we are going in the right direction.

“We need to get the community’s input into this and for them to tell us if we are going in the right direction with this or not.”

It is unclear at present whether members of the general public in the Burren will be asked to physically sign up to the Burren Charter once it is completed but the charter will have no legal standing.

“We are already working on different projects that have come about through the work already done on the charter.

“One of these is a community festival for the Burren which will take place in October and should be a great event but we are also working on a series of recordings of the farm- ing tradition with the Cuimhneamh an Chláir,” said Áine. “We are also looking at creating a one-stop-shop resource centre for the people of the Burren and also an audit of the heritage courses which are available in the Burren to see is there a gap in the market. This isn’t just a book exercise, things are going to happen ot of this.”

Anyone who wants to comment on the Burren Charter can download it at Burrenbeo.com or in the North Clare libraries.

THE future of the Burren Farming for Conservation Project (BFCP) is one of the key goals outlined in the draft Burren Charter, which was published last week.

The project, which formed part of the pilot BurrenLIFE project last year, currently supports 266 Burren farmers to farm in a way that will protect the Burren natural limestone pavement, control pollution and prevent the encroachment of scrub.

According to Michael Davoran of Burren IFA, the way of life for the people of the Burren can be saved through this charter.

“This is ground-up management for the Burren. It is about preserving the way of life for the people at the Burren and that is not something that the farmers of the Burren can do by themselves.

“We need help, we all need to work together, that is what this charter is about,” he said.

“It started off with farmers working with the National Parks and Wildlife and that is to broaden out through the Heritage Council to the management of all aspects of the Burren.

“Everyone needs to have a voice in this – it is people in once-off houses, people who live in villages around the place, people who earn a living locally through the service industry and tourism. We all interact with each other and we all need to realise that,” said Mr Davoran.

Along with the preservation of the BFCP, the charter also advocated the development of a one-stop Burren shop and helpline to support and help farmers, as well as increasing the opportunities for local farmers in the areas of conservation, tourism and enterprise to help supplement farm income.

“This is the people of the Burren managing the Burren for the betterment of all. It is the people of the Burren asking themselves, what can we do for ourselves, instead of having something imposed from above,” said Mr Davoran.

“The Burren is managed by the farmer. The archeology, the geology, the flora and the fauna are all a product of the farming which has gone on for generations. ‘If we want people to continue to support us in projects like the Farming for Conservation Programme, the more people who are playing a role in managing the Burren – farming and non-farming bodies – the better.”

ENNIS is well positioned to benefit from any future expansion plans by Microsemi.

That’s according to the IDA who have welcomed the announcement that Ennis has been chosen as the European headquarters for the US company.

Barry O’Leary, Chief Executive Officer of the IDA, said, “Microsemi is a growing company with ambitious plans and Ennis is wellpositioned to contribute to this growth.”

He added, “The contribution of the company to the local economy and community is highly significant, and it is gratifying to see the partnership strengthening with the announcement that Ennis is to become its European headquarters.

According to local Fine Gael TD, Joe Carey, the news that the Ennis facility will serve as the company’s European headquarters is “a real vote of confidence in this region, its workforce and the future of the mid-west”.

He added, “The company will have done their homework and will know that we have a vastly improved infrastructure network in the midwest, easy access to global markets and a skilled and dedicated workforce, all of which will help foster future growth and development.

“I welcome the fact that 50 jobs were created this year and look forward to more announcements on jobs in the future as the company continues to grow and develop and expand its range of products and activities in Ennis.”

ENNIS has been officially named as the European headquar ters for Microsemi, one of the county’s largest employers.

The Ennis plant, which employs 300 people, beat off competition from Microsemi plants in Wales and Bordeaux.

According to the company, the announcement “represents a significant endorsement of the work of the Ennis facility and its contribution to the wider Microsemi global network”.

The statement continued, “Ennis has been a world-class facility and a key contributor in the manufacturing processes of the company’s high reliability products, and is well-poised to contribute to Microsemi Cor poration’s planned expansion and growth strategy.”

Ennis faced competition from Microsemi plants in Wales and France. According to Richard Finn, Vice President of Microsemi Ireland, Ennis was always in a strong position to be chosen as the company’s European base of operations.

He said, “It was something we were working on for a while. 15 years ago this was the only site in Europe but we’ve acquired a lot of countries in the past four or five years. A lot of them are small micro-units in various different countries. We’ve ended up with a total of 15 different sites and 18 different legal entities in Europe. This is an effor t to consolidate some of that and organise it a bit differently. We have all these legal and HR functions, here, for across Europe.”

He continued, “We have a site with the greatest scale. We’ve moved a lot of things in here in the last five years. Everything has worked well. We’ve a good reputation of deliver- ing what we promised. That’s probably the main reason. We have about 300 people which is well up on what it was four or five years ago.”

Microsemi provides high reliable products for aerospace programmes and satellites. Components are specially tested at Microsemi Ennis to withstand the harsh environment in space.

The Ennis facility is the largest Microsemi operation outside of the US and the company is one of the largest employers in Clare.

The announcement was made last Tuesday at a celebration commemorating the company’s 20-year anniversary in Ireland, which was attended by several senior company executives including James J. Peterson, Microsemi’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr Finn added, “It’s good to get it done. We’re in Ireland for 20 years, July 1992 this site was acqui red for what was then Unitrode. It coincides with that. We’ve had our Board of Directors over here for the past three or four days for some meetings. It’s good that they are over here to see what is going on. We’ve made a lot of improvements on the site over the last five or six years.”

A SENIOR executive of Microsemi in Ireland has said the company is considering expanding its operations in Ennis.

In light of Ennis being named Microsemi’s European headquarters, Vice President Richard Finn said operations at the plant could be increased further.

Ennis was selected as a base to consolidate many of Microsemi’s legal and human resources functions.

Microsemi also recently moved a new product line to Ennis, boosting the number of people employed by Microsemi in Clare to 300.

Mr Finn sees similar developments as crucial to the growth of the Ennis plant.

He explained, “Since January we’ve taken on 50. We’ve moved a product line out of Lawrence, Massachusetts, just 20 miles north of Boston, in January.

“We’re still hiring a few engineers and technicians. Hopefully it will continue to grow.”

Asked if the designation of Ennis as Microsemi’s European headquarters could aid expansion of the plant, Mr Finn said;

“Absolutely. My job is to find what the next thing is that we can move in here because we do squeeze some efficiencies in here and we do have economies of scale in what we do which is primarily the test and burn- ing of discreet semi-conductors, which is a fairly narrow field. But we’re the best in the world at what we do. If we can bolt on something else, then so much the better.”

Mr Finn said there was no shortage of skilled workers in the labour market.

He added, “Generally yes. We’ve had a great response.

“We advertised in January and got a great response. We got huge numbers.

“We got maybe 400 people for 30 jobs in terms of people applying. We interviewed about 100. There is no shortage of people looking for work or willing to do it.

There’s always going to be a scarcity in a specialised field.”

OLD age pensioners and young mothers in Clare are resorting to shoplifting to survive as the recession sends a new group of people to the poverty line.

New figures show that older people are also going without certain foods, cutting back on electricity and fuel and are not buying clothes as they struggle to pay essential bills.

Clare Gardaí said they have come across a number of older people and mothers “who basically do not have enough money” and have come to their attention for shoplifting.

Superintendent Gerry Wall said there have been a number of incidents of shoplifting in Kilrush in the last seven months, with those responsible broken into three distinct cate gories – older people, young mothers and general thieves.

The increase in the number of older people and mothers resorting to crime to feed themselves and their families is a growing social concern, he maintained.

Gardaí have been treating the issue with sensitivity.

Supt Wall said that he and his colleagues are sensitive to the social needs of these people and have dealt with them by way of an adult caution. “I must say the shops in question have also been very understand ing,” he said.

Age Action Ireland, which promotes positive ageing and better policies and services for older people, said many older people are finding it impossible to make ends meet.

According to EU SILC statistics 9.6 per cent of over 65 year olds in Ireland are deemed to be at risk of poverty.

Gerard Scully of Age Action told The Clare People that the increase of household bills such as electricity and heating coupled with the reduction in the household package, which once assisted with those bills, is adding to the struggles.

“The social welfare pension has not even cut, but it also hasn’t been increased which is effectively a cut,” he said.

“A lot of older people with pri- vate pensions have also been badly hit. There is a phenomena of a ‘new poor’,” he explained.

“For the year 2010, 23 per cent of people over 65 were unable to pay for an item on the household budget. Older people are cutting back on clothes or shoes, and they wouldn’t be using electricity as much or eating meat in order to save money.

“It highlights the fact that many older people are finding it difficult to make ends meet. It belies any suggestion that older people are doing well out of the recession,” he said.

CLARE businesspeople living abroad are among the international investors who have expressed an interest in buying the West County Hotel. The Ennis hotel was listed for sale in July for between € 2.5 million to € 3 million.

Formerly the flagship hotel within the Lynch group of hotels, the West County was placed into receivership in February.

According to CBRE, the property firm handling the sale, “there has been a lot of interest” in the West County Hotel.

Dermot Curtin of CBRE explained, “We’ve had interest from all over the world and from people in Ireland. There has been international interest in the property. A lot of Clare people are living abroad.”

He continued, “It is more difficult to sell properties than it was in the good old days. Obviously the big thing that has changed is that is more difficult for investors to get finance from financial institutions. But are finding that there is still a good deal still in the country.

“There have been a few more sales in recent months. We’re seeing a small lift in the market. € 2.5 million to € 3 million is the guide price but we’ll listen to the market,” he said.

Formerly the flagship hotel within the Lynch group of hotels, the West County was placed into receivership in February.

It sits on a high-profile six-acre site on the southern approach road to Ennis town centre and its accommodation includes 152 en-suite bedrooms, eight separate and inter-connecting conference/banqueting suites that can cater for up to 1,650 delegates, a modern leisure centre with a 20metre heated indoor pool, jacuzzi, steam room and sauna.

The leisure club includes a gym with more than 1,000 local members. The Boru’s Porterhouse bar and lounge has a capacity for around 500 people, and the hotel also has two restaurants. The site can accommodate 450 parking spaces.

Its arrival on the market follows the recent sale of the Clare Inn, which was also part of the Lynch group of hotels that went into receivership in January of last year.

This freehold and fully-licensed hotel property is only 20km from Shannon International Airport and the Shannon Free Zone, the manufacturing and logistics centre for the Shannon region.

The hotel has been a regular venue for the All Ireland and International Irish Dancing Championships and has also hosted the All Ireland Pool Championships.

Last year the West County hosted the AGM of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the SIPTU annual conference.

GARDAÍ have issued a warning to boy racers that dangerous driving on Clare’s roads will not be tolerated.

Chief Supt of the Clare Garda Division, John Kerin was speaking at the July meeting of the Joint Policing Committee (JPC). He was responding to concerns raised by local representatives that speeding is a big problem around the county.

However Chief Supt Kerin told the meeting that speeding problems have declined in the county in recent years. “The problem with speeding is not the same problem as it was six years ago.”

He explained that one of the reasons for the decline has been that boy racers no longer have the money to spend on cars. “We are aware of them. We have called to them and to their parents to tell them we would be focusing on them…If we do receive a report, we will call and let them know they under garda attention.”

Chief Supt Kerin said, “There is a perception that people are not being caught but they are being caught.”

Councillors had called on the gardaí to clamp down more forcefully on speeding and dangerous driving.

Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) said a stretch of road near Barntick has become like “Shannon runway at time”. Cllr Oliver Garry (FG) said speeding on national roads was a bigger problem while concern was also expressed over cars speeding on the road between Miltown Malbay and Quilty. JPC Chairman, Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) told the meeting that there is a perception that speed vans are put in locations where they catch a lot of people at the same time. He added, “There are many areas in rural Clare where there are problems with speeding that are not served by the speed van.”

Chief Supt Kerin said speed vans are used to monitor roads around the county.

PARTS of the mid-west experienced twice the amount of average rainfall during June and July, according to Met Eireann.

Figures for July recorded at Met Eireann’s station at Shannon Airport was 140 per cent of average in July.

Temperatures were also 1.4 per cent lower than average. The highest mean temperature, however, was recorded at Shannon Airport at 14.9 degrees. Met Eireann spokesman Hugh Daly explained that the rainfall for June and July was significantly higher than normal.

He said, “After a wet June and a wet July, we’ve had two pretty bad months. Not record-breaking bad or out of the ordinary like we’ve previously had. In June and July, rainfall recorded at Shannon was 240 per cent of average, which is significant. That’s twice the normal amount of rainfall for the two months.”

Mr Daly continued, “Having one bad month on top of another has really compounded the situation. A constant period of heavy rainfall meant the saturated soils did not have the time to recover. We had low pressure and northerly winds keeping temperatures down and rainfall high.”

“We had no string of pleasant days, it was constantly interrupted by rain. I was looking through the charts there and I couldn’t find one day in where it wasn’t raining in any part of the country. It was always raining somewhere,” he added.

Apart from being bad news for farmers, the poor weather is also contributing to a decline in domestic tourism in the west.

According to Eugene Maher, CEO of Shannon Ferries, the near constant bad weather is convincing many families to cancel short breaks and day trips.

He explained, “The biggest decline has been in domestic traffic. People just can’t afford to go anywhere anymore. People are not taking long journeys, long trips. That’s a consequence of both domestic economic woes, less money in the pocket, as much as it due to the weather. In tandem with the economic downturn, Ireland has probably experienced five of the worst summers in history that has had a huge damaging effect on domestic tourism.”