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CLARE’S heritage can become one of the key drivers in the local economy for much of the next decade, a leading local government official has said this week just as a new blueprint for the development and preservation of key environmental sites around the county was unveiled.

The county’s Heritage Officer, Congella McGuire, has told The Clare People that the county’s rich heritage has a crucial part to play in aiding Clare’s economic recovery through the creation of new visitor attractions and amenities around the locally built environment.

“The arts get a lot of kudos in terms of national recovery, but heritage is the basis for all that,” said Ms McGuire at the launch of County Clare Heritage Plan in the Vandeleur Walled Garden in Kilrush on Monday.

“Heritage is the base product, if you want to put it in crude terms. Heritage is going to be part of the national recovery and Clare can very much play its part in that.

“The Heritage Council has that message.

“By protecting our heritage, raising awareness of it and giving an authentic experience to people about our heritage, there is great scope going forward for the Clare economy,” added Ms McGuire.

Recent developments such as the opening of the Loophead Lighthouse and a number of walking trails in West and North Clare such the Kilkee Walk and Cliffs of Moher Walk have been held by the environment section of Clare County Council as the local authority’s commitment opening up heritage to as many people as possible.

“The idea is to try and make more sites accessible,” said Ms McGuire, “and this involves partnership going forward.

“If we are involved in a project we work with people who have a vested interest and expertise.

“We have an initiative in Lough Derg to link trails connecting all around the lake.

“This will involve connnected with county council colleagues in North Tipperary and Galway.

“These are ongoing initiatives that we are trying to develop. It’s all about better access to trails and sites, better access to heritage and better interpretation of heritage. One of the challenges for the future would be funding.

“We have to go after funding and avail of funding as it arises.

“We have to this much more than we did in the past and keep standards high,” she added.

PROMOTING a greater understanding of Clare’s rich heritage for both local and visitor alike has emerged as a major tenet of Clare County Council environmental policy from now until 2017.

This commitment going forward, in tandem with conserving and enhanc ing the county natural environment, is contained in the second Clare Heritage Plan (2011-2017) that has been put together over the last year.

The launch of the plan in the Vandeleur Walled Garden on Monday was followed by visit to Scattery Islands – considered to be one of jewels in Clare’s heritage crown – by some of the key partners in formulation of the ambitious six-year plan.

The publication of the heritage bluerprint marks the culmination of a year’s work by the County Clare Heritage Forum and brings together the interests and agendas of the 23 forum members and 64 submissions made by the public.

“There were 66 partners in the development of this plan,” revealed Heritage Officer, Conjella McGuire, “all of whom have generously committed their time, energy and expertise.

“As a result of this, the Heritage Plan brings together a wide range of backgrounds and interests.”

Launching the plan, the Mayor of Clare, Cllr Pat Hayes said “our heritage is about people, place, culture, nature and the opportunities that it can offer in the future.

“Our heritage is one of our greatest strengths in the county and I intend to lead the implementation of this ambitious plan for the benefit of the county,” added Mayor Hayes, who has been chairman of the council Heritage Forum since 2006.

“The plan has three overall aims which are supported by 14 objectives and in total contains 77 actions. It is an ambitious plan and seeks to complement and build on the achievements of the previous Heritage Plan 2003-2007,” said Ms McGuire.

“Community groups have fostered and enhanced their local heritage and a wide variety of community heritage initiatives are underway in the county at present, many of which are showcased throughout the county this week during Heritage Week,” said Cllr Oliver Garry, chairman of the West Clare area group of county councilors.

“Community groups and individuals require funding and technical advice in order to implement best practice,” he added.

CAR sales dropped in Clare during the summer months, but hopes are high that they will recover for the remaining four months of the year.

Overall, new car sales across the county increased by 5.2 per cent since the start of the year. Up to last Friday, there were 1,984 new cars registered in County Clare, compared with 1,886 during the same period last year.

The figures from www.motorcheck. ie show that while car sales increased in Clare in May and June, they decreased in July and August. The increase in May was 2.5 per cent; in June – when car sales surged prior to the end of the popular scrappage scheme – the increase was a massive 73.9 per cent; the decrease in July was 43.5 per cent, while the drop so far in August is along the lines of 90 per cent. There were 136 new cars sold during the first 19 days of August of last year, compared to just 14 this year.

The number of cars purchased in the ‘all cars’ category – which includes new and used cars – has increased by 3.3 per cent so far this year. However, there was a reduction of 77.1 per cent in this category so far this month. There was a decrease of 16.1 per cent in July; an increase of 62.1 per cent in June and an increase of one per cent in May.

In Clare, the Ford Focus is the most popular choice of car, followed by the Nissan Qashqai, the Ford Fiesta, the Volkswagen Golf, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Juke, Toyota Avensis and Volkswagen Passat.

Silver is the most popular colour of car, followed by black, grey, blue and red, in Clare.

Nationally, the number of cars sold in July decreased by 35 per cent, compared with July 2010. However, the figure for July 2010 included cars in the scrappage scheme, which came to an end in June of this year.

A CLARE man says he is confident of winning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records next month when he attempts to swim 10km underwater in under eight hours.

Barefield diver Christopher Healy has been given the official go-ahead from the Guinness Book of World Records to go ahead with the dive on September 18 next. Because this will be a new category for the records, Christopher, who owns the Atlantic Diving School, has been set a target of eight hours to complete the 10km course in order to make the book.

“I am going to go 10 kilometres completely underwater. We are starting off at Crab Island in Doolin and we have a route mapped out which will take us about a quarter of a mile out into the Atlantic, then north up the coast and back again to Crab Island.

“We will be setting a new category for the Guinness Book of World Records. They have set us the challenge of finishing the 10k dive in under eight hours to make the record but I am confident that we can complete it in under seven.

“We are looking to smash the target that they have set and make it very hard for anyone who might want to come after us and want to break this record. We are going to push it all the way and make sure that if anyone wants to come and better us, they will have to earn it.”

The attempt will see Christopher being helped by three safety boats, as well as a safety snorkler and two guide snorklers.

“The guide snorklers will go ahead of me and drag a small lead weight along the bottom of the sea floor that is the mark that I will follow. It is very hard to tell directions under water,” continued Christopher.

“The idea is that we will have two guide snorklers and two safety snorklers who will take the journey in shifts. The safety snorkler will be my son and my wife who will both swim 5km each underwater.”

Sponsorship cards are available for anyone who wants to support Christopher’s record attempt, with all money raised going to the Share A Dream Foundation. To donate money, visit www.mycharity.ie/event/ 10k_world_record_attempt.

AN AMATEUR west Clare DJ has built up a cult following for himself on German radio, with around 8,000 Germans tuning in to hear his programme each week.

Kilkee DJ Patrick Linanne began his career at Radio Corca Baiscinn around six years ago and, after taking a number of training opportunities, he began to podcast an hour-long Electrohouse show over the internet.

The podcasted show, which was entitled ‘Groove On the Loop’, built up a small cult following of listeners, which gave Patrick the inspiration to submit his shows to German dance station Wheee FM.

“I heard about Wheee FM, which is a radio station based in Munich, and I sent them a few of my sets. I didn’t think anything of it but a few weeks later I got an email telling me that I was going to get a regular weekly slot, which was amazing,” said Patrick.

“It you look at the figures from the show, we know that we are getting more than 8,000 listeners a week in Germany. The radio station has some really big-name DJ’s contributing. The ethos of the station is all about promoting new talent and putting them alongside big name DJs. Anyone can join it and if you are good enough you can get a show.

“The station broadcasts online 24 hours a day across the world. It is mainly online but it does broadcast on a frequency in Germany although there is no real way of knowing how many people are tuning in for that.

“The show is really a 60-minute set. I have put some talking between the music on some sets but sometimes I don’t even bother. When I do talk, I talk in English. Myself and Sebas- tian had that conversation back at the very beginning and we decided that, because so many German people can speak English and because they will hardly be able to understand my west Clare accent either way, that there was no point in my trying out the German.”

‘Groove on the Loop’ can be heard on www.wheee.fm/cms each Saturday at 2pm and repeated on Wednesday’s at 12 noon.

THE construction of a new € 200 million wind farm in Mount Callan will stem emigration from West Clare – not just by the jobs it creates but also by showing the young local population that anything is possible.

That is the opinion of local farmer and member of West Clare Renewable Energy John Talty, who believes that the wind farm will keep West Clare communities alive.

“This will keep the next generation here. It will keep the young people here in West Clare not just by the employment that it generates but also because this will show people that anything is possible,” he said.

“What this was about right from the very beginning was generating employment in our community, in West Clare. Anyone who knows this area know that this is an area that is crying out for local employment. People are taking the Hand road down to Ennis and Shannon every day for jobs and this can now open a real opportunity for people in West Clare.

“It is not just about the construction and operation of a wind farm this will have major spin-offs for the whole region. Part of the plan is to build proper walking trails and cycle ways into the design of the windfarm and we believe that this project will become a big draw for tourists coming into the area.”

The wind farm, which has been a local project for more than 16 years, began to take shape properly in 2006 when West Clare Renewable Energy was first established. It was given the green light by An Bord Pleanála yesterday who actually increased the number of turbines allowed on the wind farm to 29, from the 28 which Clare County Council granted permission for earlier this year.

“We’re delighted today. This has come about after a lot of hard work and struggle by a lot of people and we are all really over the moon with the decision,” continued John.

“What we really want to do now is to thank all of the landowners and the wider community for the support that they have given throughout this process which has been brilliant – people like the Traders Association in Miltown Malbay who have been so supportive of this project from the very beginning.

John also paid special to the late Robert Tottenham, one of the groundbreaking thinkers in forestry in Ireland and the person who first conceived of bringing wind energy to Mount Callan almost 20 years ago.

A NEW masterplan for the development and safeguarding of services at Shannon Airport is set to be unveiled in September, just ahead of the 75year anniversary of when the first sod was turned to start the construction of Ireland’s first transatlantic gateway.

In consultation with Dublin Airport Authority chiefs, the Shannon Airport Authority are now believed to be putting the finishing touches to the blueprint that will be expected to chart a new future for the former hub of the aviation world over the next decade.

The plan’s publication will be the culmination of a consultation process between the Dublin Airport Authority, SAA and the public, by way of taking submissions on the airport’s future from key partners in the wider airport infrastructure and catchment area, before finalising the key points of concern and concentration in Shannon’s drive to usher in a new era of profitablity.

“A key element in drafting such a plan is to elicit the opinions of airport stakeholders,” a Shannon spokesper- son revealed in April, after business groups in the mid-west region were invited to a think-tank aimed at coming up with new ideas for the airport going forward.

The masterplan is being formulated against a backdrop of figures contained in the recently released Dublin Airport Authority annual report, which revealed that passenger numbers through Shannon in 2010 dropped by one million over the previous year.

This drop represented a 37 percent decline in passenger traffic, a 12-year low at Shannon.

Only 1,755, 885 passengers used Shannon in 2010, a figure that’s now lower than 1998 levels of 1,840,008 passengers when the airport was still reeling from the loss of its transatlantic gateway status in 1993.

The drastic fall-off in numbers, from 2,794,563 in 2009 represented the fourth year in a row that Shannon’s passenger count when into sharp decline.

Between 2004 and 2005 passenger numbers increased by a record 37.9 per cent as Shannon’s numbers grew to a record 3,639,046 from 2,395,116 over a two-year period.

It’s expected that the new blueprint will concentrate on stabilizing Shannon’s finances – rather that directly addressing the passenger decline with the transformation of Shannon into a worldwide cargo hub development seen as a potential saviour for the airport.

Into this category comes the Lynx Cargo trans-shipment facility, which is to be grant aided to the tune of € 6m by the DAA, while Shannon Development chairman, Dr Vincent Cunnane has said “the airport will not survive on passengers alone and needs a cargo hub”.