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SINGER Maura O’Connell will perform to a home audience next week after she was announced as the latest addition to the ‘Clare Connections’ concert, which takes place in Ennis next week.

The Nashville-based performer is appearing as a special guest on a bill that already includes Lúnasa, the Kilfenora Céilí Band and the Teetotallers (Martin Hayes, Kevin Crawford and John Doyle).

The concert, which is supported by Ennis Town Council and local businesses, will take place at the Abbey Street car park on Thursday, June 21, at 6pm.

The free music event has been organised as part of Love: Live Music, a day-long celebration of all forms of music in Ireland through free live music events in cities, towns and villages all over the country.

The success of the event could see Ennis receive financial support for a larger concert next year.

Tracy Crawford of Bally-O Promotions explained, “This year’s event is setting the seeds for a new festival in 2013 to tie in with The Gathering. This is an incredibly strong line-up for a free event in the county and one that we hope will be supported as it will lead to other exciting opportunities in the future.”

Members of Ennis Town Council approved the closure of the Abbey Street car park for the concert at their June meeting.

While welcoming the concert, councillors also urged organisers to cater for younger audiences.

Recalling the success of the Beat on the Street event held in Ennis during the mid-’90s, Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) said there was no guarantee that traditional music would draw large crowds to Ennis.

Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said an eclectic line-up was needed to attract a younger audience.

Councillors Tommy Brennan (Ind) and Brian Meaney (GP) called for the concert to be staged at another location in Ennis.

Cllr Meaney said a concert held in the Abbey Street car park for the Fleadh Nua had drawn a “miserable” attendance.

He proposed that an area from Bank Place to O’Connell Square be used for concerts.

Commenting on crowds at the recent Fleadh Nua, Cllr Neylon said the good weather had taken people out of the town.

He said, “We haven’t seen 26, 27 degrees in a long time. The people danced to Lahinch.”

Cllr Brennan proposed that the council examine whether a concert could be staged in the Market.

Town Manager Gerard Dollard told the meeting that the council needs to make a strategic decision on a specific civic space for large events.

A FORMER Mayor of Clare has hit out at the re-allocation of services from Ennis Town Council to Clare County Council saying the local authority faces being “wiped out” if nothing is done.

Independent councillor Tommy Brennan said last week that Ennis Town Council should not make its annual payment of the county demand to Clare County Council.

He claimed Clare County Council had crippled Ennis Town Council by taking over some of its functions over recent years.

He said plans are no longer just made for Ennis but rather for Ennis and its environs while the role of town engineer has been changed to area engineer.

He added, “If we don’t do something we are going to be wiped out.” Cllr Brennan was speaking last Tuesday at a special meeting called to debate the future of town councils.

He claimed local authorities were being sacrificed because the Government “can’t get rid of the Seanad”.

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) said the Government had already succeeded in reducing the roles of town councils by taking away refuse collection and water services.

He told the meeting that local councillors “are the most important people in politics because they are in touch with the people who put them in their jobs”.

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) said councillors often work 12 hour-days on behalf of their constituents. He described plans to reduce the number of local authorities as criminal.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said fewer town councils would result in less representation for people in urban areas.

He said the push towards more regional authorities was comparable to the “spin doctoring” that took place when health boards were abolished to make way for the Health Services Executive (HSE).

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said the plans to cull local authorities are part of the programme for government agreed between Fine Gael and Labour. He said it appeared that the Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, was not keeping his Fine Gael and Labour colleagues abreast of developments, a situation he described as “shocking”.

After Cllr Flynn criticised what he said was the influence of the civil service on government policy, Cllr Meaney said his comments were a “slur” on town council officials.

He said, “My experience of the local government officials and civil service is that they are totally independent and outside of the political system.”

Cllr Flynn said his comments were directed at Dublin based civil servants and not local officials.

Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind), hit out at TDs, Senators and MEPs whom he said were trying to do the work of councillors. The former Fianna Fáil councillor also urged any of his colleagues who are disillusioned with party politics to leave their respective political parties.

Cllr Mary Coote Ryan (FG) said it would “shocking” if the council was abolished.

The meeting at Waterpark House was also attended by the President of the Association of Municipal Authorities Ireland (AMAI) Ted Howlin and AMAI secretary Tomas Ryan.

CLARE’S most westerly village was celebrating on Friday with the announcement that their long awaited playground has got the green light from Clare Country Council.

The local authority granted permission for the nautical themed state of the art playground with eight car paring spaces including one disability car space.

The new playground will be situated between Keating’s and the Lighthouse Inn in the village.

Kilballyowen Development Ltd and the Playground Special Interest group are continuing to fundraise for the project and hope to be granted Leader funding in the coming weeks.

Ailish Connolly spokesperson for the playground group said everyone was delighted with the news.

“We were donated the site for this purpose back in March 2011 and its been a long road to get to this point,” she said.

The playground is likely to attract a lot of local and visiting children.

“Loop Head Lighthouse hope to attract more than 17,000 visitors this summer and this facility they hope will encourage families to stay longer in the area. Kilbaha, Cross and Carraigaholt have a good population of young children with the schools and playschools totalling 121 students this year.

“We have been so lucky with the huge support we have had from the parish of Kilballyowen. We had such huge support from our local councillors Patrick Keane, Gabriel Keating, and Oliver Garry, TD Pat Breen and Clare County Council,” she said.

“The playground is now subject to Leader funding but all going to plan the playground, we hope, will be opened late August this year,” added Ms Connolly.

To date the hard working fundraisers have raised € 20,525 and are hoping to raise the remaining € 10,975 during the next few weeks.

DECIDING to go to hospital, even when they are very ill, is a daunting undertaking for Katie and Jordan Drennan.

The brother and sister from the Lahinch Road in Ennis both live with Cystic Fibrosis, and as there is no CF clinic or unit for people over 16 years of age in the mid-west area, the risk of infection and even more ill health is heightened by any trip to the area’s hospitals and clinics.

“You are thrown in with other clinics and there is a high risk of crossinfection there,” said Jordan (20).

Katie (21) believes going to hospital is a risk that has to be carefully weighed up.

“Now you try to avoid going to hospital as much as possible for as long as possible because, for me especially, when you get sick you have to try to nip it in the bud, because I would have been on a lot of antibiotics over the years and not everything works.”

Even when she travels to St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin for specialised treatment, the risk of cross-infection is even greater as she waits on trolleys for addition.

However, by early 2014, the duo hopes that the new unit will be opened in Limerick, thanks mainly to the hard and unrelentless work of the local group TLC4CF.

Five of the nine beds will be opened to start with, which will provide clean and specialised facilities especially for patients with the condition.

In the meantime, Katie and Jordan are busy with their studies and maintaining their condition as best they can. Every morning of every day of every week, Katie starts by using her nebuliser. She then gets something to eat and returns to physio. This takes at least two hours “on a good healthy day”. Repeat it all again every evening. During the college year at University of Limerick, this means an early start for the bubbly blonde, who is studying business.

Jordan has taken a break from studying Computer Games Development in Carlow IT, but intends to return when his lung function has improved. In order to achieve this goal, he works every day in the gym to increase his lung capacity, while using oxygen. He uses oxygen again at night as he sleeps, and has physio and his “nebs” every day also.

“This is like my full-time job,” he laughs.

With this sense of humour, Jordan and Katie have both signed up to be one of the first to be spraytanned as part of the fundraising tanathon in aid of TLC4CF this week.

THREE different groups made up of 28 people have been charged with responsibility for coming up with a new blueprint for an independent Shannon Airport.

The final make-up of the Shannon Airport Steering Committee and two task forces was revealed on Thursday last in a joint statement issued by Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar and Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton.

Together will overseeing the separation of Shannon from the Dublin Airport Authority, the three groups will also have responsibility for the re-alignment of tourism and enterprise support functions in the region.

The Steering Group is jointly chaired by Tom O’Mahony, Secretary General at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and John Murphy, Secretary General at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and will include senior officials from those Departments as well as the Departments of Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Environment, Community and Local Government.

The group has held its first meeting and is currently planning its work programme for the period ahead.

“The Government recently decided in principle to separate Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and bring it together with Shannon Development to form a new entity with a commercial mandate in public ownership,” said Minister Varadkar.

“The Steering Group is charged with bringing forward proposals for the implementation of that decision, including the optimisation of the en- terprise development arrangements in the region, before the end of the year,” he added.

“We are delighted that so many high calibre people, experts in many different fields, are prepared to serve on the Steering Group and the two Task Forces along with the agencies,” said Minister Bruton. “We are grateful to them for giving of their time and effort to bring forward proposals for the implementation of the Government decision in relation to Shannon,” he added.

THE new five-man Shannon Airport steering committee appointed by Ministers Leo Varadker and Richard Bruton has been challenged by the Government “to bring forward specific proposals for the separation of Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority”.

The committee to be chaired by the departmental mental secretaries of the Minister Varadkar and Minister Bruton’s government departments has been charged with responsibility for five specific areas.

1. To review and assess the DAA plan, when submitted, for the operational and financial readiness of the DAA Group in a post-separation scenario;

2. To bring forward proposals for the transfer of Shannon Development’s functions in relation to indigenous enterprises and foreign direct investment to Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the IDA respectively and to ensure that a plan for the delivery of those functions in the region is developed by each agency.

3. To bring forward proposals for the transfer of Shannon Development’s tourism functions, including the Regional Tourism Offices, but excluding Shannon Heritage, to Fáilte Ireland.

4. To explore options and prepare proposals for the formation of the new entity of Shannon Airport and Shannon Development.

5. To assess the feasibility of creating an international aviation centre of excellence centred on Shannon Airport.

A joint-statement issued by Minis- ters Varadkar and Bruton said that structures have to be put in place new Shannon “to collaborate with IDA and Enterprise Ireland, using its property portfolio in conjunction with the airport business as a catalyst for the development of strategic sectoral opportunities for the region”.

The Steering Group will oversee the work of two Task Forces: an Aviation Business Development Task Force and a Change Management Task Force, both of which will report to the Steering Group.

The Aviation Business Development Task Force will be chaired by Rose Hynes who is a former member of the senior management team of Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA) and the boards of Aer Lingus Teo and Shannon Airport Authority, and who is the current chair of Bord Gáis Éireann.

This Task Force will seek out and evaluate aviation-linked business opportunities that could be associated with the new entity and bring forward proposals addressing all relevant issues in this regard.

The Change Management Task Force will be chaired by John Fitzgerald, former Dublin City Manager and current chair of the National Transport Authority, An Post and the Limerick Regeneration Project.

This Task Force will develop proposals for transitional arrangements and for the appropriate corporate, managerial and operational structures of the new entity, including matters related to IT, HR, Finance and property.

In addition, it will draw up proposals for the transfer of Shannon Development functions to the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Failte Ireland.

CHILDREN from Clare with diabetes are putting up with “dire” conditions as they try to manage their condition.

One of the leading experts in type one diabetes in the country, Dr Anna Clarke is now appealing to parents from the county and across the midwest to begin a letter campaign calling on the CEO of the Mid Western Hospital Group, Ann Doherty, to implement some promised measures that would alleviate the situation.

Parents of the estimated 3, 500 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes, including an estimated 250 from Clare, lobbied politicians last year, calling for diabetes services to be restructured on a virtually cost-neutral basis.

In response, the HSE made commitments to address the inequity, inconsistency and general difficulty in accessing advanced therapies like insulin pumps outside of Dublin.

“The HSE promised to address this imbalance and build capacity for insulin pump therapy in Cork, Limerick and Galway. I am very concerned at the slow progress being made five months after the announcement,” added Professor Hilary Hoey, Chair of Diabetes Ireland.

“The situation in the Paediatric Diabetes clinic in Limerick is pretty dire,” according to Gráinne Flynn, Secretary of the Clare branch of Diabetes Ireland.

“Every child should have immediate access to a diabetes nurse specialist and a dietician on diagnosis but, in some cases, the waiting list for a child with type one diabetes to see a dietician can be up to one year,” she said.

“Another example of the lack of resources in Limerick would be if a parent telephones the clinic looking for some guidance on how to manage diabetes with a sick child, the parent is forwarded to an answering machine which may not be checked until late afternoon. By this time, the family could be highly distressed. On the other hand, if this child is an outpatient of a Dublin hospital, the parent would be put through to a live person.”

Diabetes Ireland is calling on the HSE to put in place promised nursing and dietician support to make the treatment available to children and adolescents with diabetes at Cork University Hospital, the MidWest Hospital Limerick and Galway University Hospital.

A MAN has appeared in court charged with an offence under the child trafficking and pornography act.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

It is alleged that the man, a Pakistani national, did travel with the intention of meeting up with a child, having met up with and communicated with that child on two or more previous occasions with the intent of doing an act that would constitute sexual exploitation of that child, contrary to the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act.

The offence is alleged to have occurred in an area of Clare last July.

Detective Sergeant Kevin O’Hagan gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution. The court heard that the 30year-old man replied “no” to charge after caution. Judge Patrick Durcan refused an application for bail.

He imposed reporting restrictions. Judge Durcan ordered the neither the names of the child or the accused be published.

He also ordered that the location of the alleged offence not be disclosed.

The man was remanded in custody to appear again at Ennis District Court on June 13.

A GROUP of councillors in Ennis are expected to recommend to unions that all teachers receive suicide awareness training. It comes after the Mayor of Ennis said plans to roll out the SAFETALK programme had received the backing of the Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn. Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) said Mr Quinn had told councillors to present their proposal to teachers’ unions during his visit to Ennis on Friday. “We would like to get support for it. The minister seemed to think it was a good idea,” added Cllr Guilfoyle. The issue of suicide awareness was raised at the June meeting of Ennis Town Council. Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) called on the council to request that the minister provide the SAFETALK programme to all teachers and school personnel in primary and secondary schools in Clare and throughout the State. Cllr O’Shea told the meeting that there is solid evidence that indicates that there is a higher risk of suicide during times of economic hardship. He said it would take 12 days to deliver training to teachers in all 135 primary and secondary schools in Clare. Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said that anyone going through a period of suicidal thoughts does so for 72 hours. He explained that a support group was available at Ennis General Hospital for people experiencing suicidal thoughts. Cllr Mary Howard (FG) told the meeting that she believed that anyone dealing with the public should take suicide awareness training. She told the meeting that she supported greater rollout of the SAFETALK programme. She added, “As a community, we can deal with it if step up to the plate.” Cllr Guilfoyle said the high incidence of suicide in Ireland is frightening. Tue12June12

A MAN who a Judge said operated a drugs “mini-market” from his former home has been warned not to come to garda attention.

Judge Patrick Durcan was speaking as he adjourned sentencing on John Gaffney (23) at Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

Mr Gaffney, with an address at 4 Sandfield Mews, pleaded guilty to having diazepam for sale or supply at 4 Sandfield Mews on September 23 (2011)

Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that gardaí found 40 small bags of diazepam during a search of the property.

He said Mr Gaffney admitted to selling the drugs to pay off a drug debt.

Solicitor Thomas Kiely told the court that his client had become highly dependent on drugs at the age of 17.

He said Mr Gaffney had completed a residential treatment programme and after care course at Bushypark.

Mr Kiely said his client intended to become a fitness coach and had obtained a qualification as a nutritionist.

He said Mr Gaffney is a keen athlete who has joined a cycling club.

He said the fact that Mr Gaffney had been placed in custody for a brief period while he waited to have his case heard, had served as a “rude awakening”.

Judge Patrick Durcan said he had to balance the accused’s guilty plea and positive written testimonials handed in on his behalf against his previous record, which includes a conviction for sale or supply of drugs.

Judge Durcan said he had seriously considered imposing a custodial sentence.

He said Mr Gaffney had engaged in “appalling” activity.

He added, “This was 40 small bags, a real little mini-market.”

He remanded Mr Gaffney on continuing bail until November 14. Judge Durcan granted liberty to the State to re-enter the matter at 24 hours notice.

He told the accused not to come to Garda attention.