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HUNDREDS of jobs are set to be created in the North Clare area in the coming months following the Government’s decision to go ahead with the completion of the M18 motorway from Gort to Tuam.

The decision to complete the motorway, which currently stops at Gort, is expected to create 2, 500 jobs over three years of constructions – with 500 of those jobs coming in local services sector.

The proposal is conditional on the Government securing private investment to match funds from the National Pension Reserve Fund and a € 170 million loan for the scheme secured from the European Investment Bank.

The announcement was broadly welcome in Clare with Clare County Council, the Ennis Chamber of Commerce and all saying it will drive employment in the county. Providing private sector investment is forthcoming, construction on the motorway should begin in early 2013.

“This project will further enhance the road infrastructure in the West and Mid West providing further access to County Clare and playing an important role in attracting more customers to Shannon Airport,” said Rita McInerney, CEO of Ennis Chamber of Commerce.

Clare County Manager Tom Coughlan described the Gort to Tuam motorway as “critically important” for the development of the county.

“Like the Gort-Crusheen scheme, a project that Clare County Council was centrally involved in, the Gort to Tuam motorway will further enhance regional connectivity between Limerick, Shannon, Ennis and Galway,” he said.

The Director of Shannon Airport, Mary Considine, described the goahead for the completion of the M18 as a “significant boost” for Shannon Airport.

“The completion of the motorway to Galway and further to Tuam will significantly enhance travel times to and from Shannon Airport for our existing catchment and also open up a wider market for our services,” she said.

“Today we remain the only airport on the entire western seaboard with transatlantic services and connectivity into one of Europe’s four major hubs, Heathrow so this improvement in the road network will benefit many people accessing our services.”

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TWO Kilkee community groups were prevented from providing 20 nights of local entertainment due to what has been described as “exorbitant” costs charged by the theatre at Cultúrlann Sweeney. According to Kilkee town councillor Paddy Collins (FG), Kilkee Amphitheatre was quoted € 4,200 to stage 10 shows at the Clare County Council-run theatre. They would also be required to pay up to seven per cent of ticket charges. “They usually make € 1,000 to € 1, 500 when they were in the community centre,” he said.

Likewise the Kilkee Civic Trust was prevented from using the theatre for its popular summer talks due to high costs. Cllr Collins said the voluntary group that hosts the talks free of charge were asked to pay € 1,500 for the use of the theatre.

“The two groups wanted to use the theatre for 20 out of the 60 nights in July and August,” he said. “Both had to pull out. There are now just four nights booked for the remainder of July and August.”

He said that Kilkee National School also wished to hold a presentation night at the theatre but could not afford to, due to costs.

The Kilkee councillor told a meet- ing of the West Clare County Councillors last evening (Monday) that there are now fears that the theatre, which was opened in February, will be “moth balled”.

“The theatre is state of the art but it is not being used due to the exorbitant cost.”

He said it was being run as a commercial business rather than a community facility. “I don’t feel that Clare County Council and the Arts Council are suitable to run this,” he added calling for a board of management to take over the role.

Since the library and theatre opened five months ago it has been run by Clare County Council.

Director of Services Anne Haugh said that the last meeting of Kilkee Town Council was advised that the local authority would review the rates at the end of the season. She added that it is being operated on a full cost basis.

Cllr Collins argues however that as the theatre and library was funded by donations from a Kilkee emigrant the building also belongs to Kilkee.

It was agreed that he would meet with the Director of Services responsible for Cultúrlann Sweeney Bernadette Kinsella, mayor Claire Haugh (FF), and local county councillors Pat Keane (FF) and Gabriel Keating (FG) in a bid to find a resolution.

SAINT Joseph’s Education Centre in Ennis was the scene of a new programme for Channel 5 shortly before the unit closed last month under Government financial restrictions.

Staff and students were chuffed to be hosts for the television crew along with Paddy Doherty, celebrity Big Brother winner, and Sally Bercow, wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons, who are central characters in the production. It is being filmed also in Hungary, Spain and Malaysia.

Paddy and the entire company visited other parts of Ireland meet- ing Travellers and researching his heritage in the course of filming. In the Ennis centre, which has been for many years a dedicated facility for Traveller training and education, there were takes such as showing his culinary art in the kitchen.

Paddy and his wife of 34 years, Roseanne, live in England. They have five children and fifteen grandchildren. He says his Irish roots are part of him. The centres in Ireland for Traveller education intrigued him, arousing a desire to get involved with some of the classes.

It was an exciting day at St. Joseph’s and Paddy was very popular among staff and students.

The Channel 5 programme will be screened in September, looking at Traveller and gypsy community life. Last August, Paddy was the third person to enter the ‘Celebrity Big Brother 2011’ house. He made it to the final and was crowned winner, beating Kerry Katona.

In January of this year he appeared in a two-part Channel 5 documen tary, ‘When Paddy met Sally,’ with former Big Brother housemate Sally Bercow.

The Ennis Traveller’s Training Centre was the first in the country. It started as part of a Combat Poverty Programme in 1974. At that time, it was located in the grounds of the Holy Family School, Ennis. In 1982 the centre moved to new building at the Gort road industrial estate.

St Joseph’s, which is located in the Gort Road industrial estate, will close as a traveler only training centre on June 29. The building closed as a traveler only training centre in May.

It is intended that the building will become the first all-purpose skills unit in Ennis.

LAHINCH hotelier and head of the Irish Hotel Federation, Michael Vaughan, has withdrawn his calls for an independent investigation into the e-coli outbreak which forced the closure of the Clare’s three main swimming beaches over the weekend.

This comes following the confirmation by Clare County Council that the temporary closure of beaches at Lahinch, Kilkee and Spanish Point was the result of run off from nearby farmland, and not as a result of a breakdown in the sewerage infrastructure in either of the three locations.

Mr Vaughan confirmed that follow a lengthy conversation with County Manager, Tom Coughlan, yesterday, he was satisfied that the sewage treatment plant in Lahinch was not the source of the e-coli.

In a statement to The Clare People last night, a council spokesperson confirmed that it was run off from nearby land and not sewage which caused the e-coli build-up.

“The excessive rainfall in recent weeks was a major contributory factor to the detection of e-coli in the water. Lahinch, Kilkee and Spanish Point beaches are each located in bays, unlike other bathing areas along the west coast of Clare.

“As a result, the run off from land surrounding these beaches became concentrated in enclosed bodies of water resulting in the greater concentration of bacteria levels. The results of water samples taken at beaches which are located at less enclosed locations along the coast did not show such elevated levels.

“The effluent from the wastewater treatment plant in Lahinch has been consistently within the permitted limits for the three main parameters for measuring the discharge of effluent from treatment plants, namely Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and suspended solids, and the plant has capacity to treat the existing town including increased population during holiday periods.

“Neither have there been any untreated overflows from the network during the period in which the water samples resulting in exceedances of the Blue Flag limits were taken at Lahinch beach.”

Clare County Council say they will continue to consult with the HSE as well as carrying out further water quality tests on the effected beaches.

A CLARE-BASED national organization that looks after the interests of over 100 carers groups around the country has rowed in with its support for a new strategy that has been devised by the Government and launched by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Caring for Carers Ireland has said that the new strategy called ‘The National Carers Strategy: Recognised, Supported, Empowered’, included commitments from all Government Departments to meet the demands and needs of Ireland’s growing number of family carers of all ages

“As far back as 1988, the Department of Health expressed its desire to enable older people to live with dignity and to be cared for as long as possible in their own homes,” said Mary McMahon, CEO of Caring for Carers Ireland. “24 years on, the Government has produced a strategy that we feel provides the framework that will guide the future of caring in the community and help to support a fair and equitable system for family carers in challenging times.

“There are over 74,000 males and 113,000 females registered as family carers in Ireland, including 4,288 carers under the age of 15, who collectively contribute € 2.5 billion to the national economy each year.”

The new strategy was produced by the Minister For Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People, Kathleen Lynch.

Brigid Barron, Innovation and Programme Manager, Caring for Carers Ireland, noted that the publication of the strategy is “timely” as the pressures faced by family carers through- out Ireland have never been greater.

She continued: “The demand for support mechanisms to be put in place for family carers are increasing on a daily basis as a result of early discharges from hospitals, the growing need for long-term care for Ireland’s ageing population and the increase in the numbers of people with complex health issues being cared for in their home by family members. This strategy is geared toward including family carers in care planning and decision making for those that they care for, and the promotion of supports and services to protect the physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing of carers.

“Caring for Carers Ireland, on behalf of its members, now looks forward to a speedy implementation of the proposals outlined in the Strategy,” Ms Barron concluded.

A CLARE teenager could be on the way to becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg through his creation of PearUp – a new social network based on sports.

Bunratty youngster, Tiernan Kennedy, is currently in New York where he and two of his classmates from Trinity College Dublin have been accepted into a prestigious incubator programme organised by American conglomerate General Electric.

The intensive 10-week incubator course is intended to bring the best and the brightest of young technical stars – in an effort to further their business start-ups. Tiernan, along with his co-company founders Alex Mann and Dermot Markey are the only non-American students accepted to the Manhattan course.

PearUp is a new form of social network which aims to link together people with different sporting interests in different parts of the world. It is operational as a mobile app for smart-phones and works by allowing strangers to meet and play in sporting events together.

While the application is aimed at individuals looking for people to play sports with, it is primarily aimed at sports clubs who can use its software as a virtual booking agency.

When the programme comes to an end of August 17, Tiernan and the rest of the PearUp founders will get a chance to pitch to General Electric executive for the chance to win € 10,000 in start-up capital.

Tiernan nearly missed out on taking part in competition as the PearUp’s entry to the event was only confirmed weeks before the start of the incubator programme – leaving them without enough time to obtain visas to travel to America.

However, after letters were written on their behalf by former Tánaiste, Dick Spring (Lab) as well as US Congressman Todd Akin and highprofile venture capitalist, Will Porteous, they were able to process their visas in just two and a half weeks.

Despite missing out on the first eight days of the programme, Tiernan and the rest of the PearUp team are reported to be competing well with their American counterparts.

For more information on the PearUp website visit www.pearup. tumblr.com.

A WEST Clare man has been found not guilty of the alleged rape of a teenager in the county two years ago.

A jury of six men and six women returned a unanimous not guilty verdict at the end of the six day trial before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Ennis last Wednesday.

Defence solicitor Patrick Moylan, of O’Kelly Moylan Solicitors, stated afterwards that the not guilty verdict returned by the jury was a just and appropriate one. “The accused has been vindicated”, he added.

It had been alleged that the man forced the then 16-year-old to have sex with him in the bedroom of her home in 2009.

It took the jury one hour and 51 minutes to acquit the 23-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The court heard that forensic evi- dence of the accused’s DNA had been found on a bed sheet.

Prosecuting counsel, John Aylmer SC said that when interviewed by gardaí, the man denied ever being in the house.

He said the DNA evidence should remove “any reasonable doubt as to the complainant’s statement.”

The court that the man and the alleged victim first met in 2007 and that there had been “considerable” phone communication between them around the time of the alleged assault.

A complaint was first made to gardaí a week after the alleged assault. The court heard that threats had been made against the girl around the time of the alleged assault because of text messages she had sent to another man.

Mr Aylmer said the girl had been “petrified” and had attempted to put the rape to the back of her mind.

Defence Counsel, Brendan Grehan SC, said that the alleged victim had admitted lying in her original statement to gardaí. He told the jury that she had also tried to persuade a friend to lie to the gardaí.

Citing the example of former US president Bill Clinton, Mr Grehan said his client not the first man in history to lie about a sexual experience.

Mr Grehan said the fact that no “fresh complaint” had been made should set the jury’s “antennae twitching”.

He added, “The bottom line is that there is simply none of the indicators that a violent sexual assault took place, none whatsoever.”

He said the girl had falsely claimed that his client and others had stolen money from her house. Mr Grehan said she had admitted deleting text messages sent from the accused to her. He said the scientific evidence proved that ejaculation had taken place but not intercourse. He added, “I suggest there is a glaring gap in the prosecution’s case.” The jury returned a not guilty verdict.

IN THE last year Clare Suicide Bereavement Support has received more calls than ever before.

Spokesperson for the voluntary group Owen O’Mahony cannot be sure however if the increase in numbers can be attributed to an increase in deaths or the change in the group’s name from Living Links in the past 12 months.

Either way the organisation is proving a necessary support in County Clare as more people seek out its service.

The group is run completely by volunteers and provides one to one befriending at home or at an agreed location, family support and a healing programme. A monthly group support meeting is also held.

“We don’t approach people we feel that is intrusive. We wait for people to contact us,” explained Mr O’Mahony, adding it was essential that the bereaved know this help was available.

He said while people eventually learn to go on and live their lives the most difficult issues to resolve for most is the question “why”.

“They really don’t find an answer to it but they learn to take up activities and live again,” he added.

As many as eight volunteers work for the service which now has a premises in the Roslevan Shopping Centre, Ennis.

Mr O’Mahony stresses that the volunteers are not councillors but will help someone find such support if it is required.

Mostly people get a lot off their chest through the service and begin a healing process.

“People find if they can talk and realise what they are feeling is normal it helps,” explained Mr O’Mahony.

Those wishing to contact Clare Suicide Bereavement Support can do so by calling 086 0565373 or 087 3698315 or get further information on www.claresuicidebereavementsupport.com.

LOCALS say they are frustrated and disheartened following recent vandalism near Barefield village.

Three large concrete flowerpots were damaged at a roundabout near the M18 last Sunday. It followed similar incidents of flowerpots being damaged in the area over the weekend.

Gardaí have been informed of the incidents with members of the Bare- field Tidy Towns Committee blaming the behaviour of boy racers for the damage.

Committee chairman Sean Corcoran explained, “It’s been sort of going on for the past six weeks, cars doing wheelies on the roundabouts and damaging the flowers. Then under the bypass these three concrete pots were smashed.”

Sean says the incidents are a blow to the village’s efforts to do well in the annual Tidy Towns competition.

“We’re disheartened and upset. The guards called out and had a look. The people that are doing this are a bloody nuisance. We’ve been doing work on the roundabouts and the approach roads, planting flowers beds, cutting the grass, to make sure the place looks good. And then along come these people and do this. It really is very, very frustrating.”

The incident couldn’t have happened at a worse time for the committee with judging for the Tidy Towns expected to take place in the coming weeks.

Sean explains, “Judging usually takes place in June or July. That’s what usually happens. So this is a bad time for all this to happen. We had nearly € 2,000 saved from various fundraising events we held in the village like the quiz night. But to buy new pots, we’re almost down to the last few hundred euros. We can only hope that they’ll last.”

The Tidy Towns committee was set up in 2010 with local people volunteering their services. The committee has drawn members from the local community who were eager to roll up their sleeves and help out. Their activities include cleaning stone walls, re-setting grass margins and placing flower baskets around the village.

The project also enjoys close links with Barefield National School and the local Clare Crusaders Clinic.

Sean says, “We’re all doing this on a voluntary basis on our own time. We’re not getting any help from FÁS or anything like that. We’re delighted to do it but when something like this happens, it’s really frustrating.”