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MORE than two decades after the beginning of bitter fight to construct an interpretive centre at Mullaghmore in the South Burren, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has established its first tourism base to serve the world famous national park.

Up until last month the Burren was the only one of Ireland’s six national park’s not to be served by either a information point or an interpretive centre operated by the NPWS. That all changed two week ago when three Burren guides were employed by the NPWS to offer tourism advice and free walking tours from a base in Corofin.

Plans to construct a controvertial interpretive centre at Mullaghmore, which was to be built the Office of Public Works (OPW) and managed by the NPWS, were abandoned in 2000, after a nine-year legal battle to decide planning permission for the site. The new NPWS facility is currently operating from a section of the Clare Heritage and Genealogy Centre in Corofin and poses none of the environmental threats which prompted the campaign against the Mullaghmore Centre.

According to head guide Sheila Murphy, visitor numbers to the facility have been good throughout its first two weeks in operation, with an encouraging number of visitors and local people using the service.

“We have six national parks in Ireland and the Burren National Park is the only one that hasn’t has an information point or an interpretive centre and this is the first year that we have an information point available to the public,” she said. “It is nice to have a place that both locals and tourist can come in and get information and have that service available to them. A lot of the shops in the village and the locality are often asked for information about the Burren and the National Park and they have nowhere really to direct them to.

“I think that this is a complementary development to the Burren Centre in Kilfenora. At the moment we are just an information point but there are plans to have more interpretation in the centre in the future. The Burren is a big area and everyone want to work together to promote it.

“We have three guides in the centre and we can organise free walks on demand if people come in and ask for that and we will also host a free walk every Sunday, which is more aimed at families. It’s a free service and open to anyone who want to use it.”

The new NPWS information point will continue, seven days a week, until the end of September but plans are already in place to run the service for the entire summer season in 2012.

The information point is open from Monday to Friday from 9.30 to 6pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 6pm.

ROADSTONE has declined to comment on increasing speculation that they are about to re-open a quarry, formally operated by the Whelan Group, on the Lahinch Road in Ennis.

In a statement to The Clare People yesterday, a spokesperson that that Roadstone had no official comment to make on the situation, but said that they were aware of the growing speculation linking them and the Ennis quarry.

In December of 2010 the High Court made to wind up five companies in the Whelan Group after the company directors withdrew a petition for court protection. The Clare People understands that a number of people, who have been out of work since the operations ceased at the quarry, have been contacted in recent days about the possibility of returning to work, but it is unclear how many jobs will be reinstated and who will be operating the facility.

The Whelan’s Group employed 120 people in five separate companies when the winding up order was issued in December of last year and the company directors said at the time that they “profoundly regretted” any job losses that would come about as a result.

Clare Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway (FG) yesterday welcomed any increase in employment in the area and said that Roadstone would make a success of the quarry if a deal is completed.

“Roadstone are a company with a great track record and a massive amount of experience in this area and if a deal can be done I have no doubt that they will make a great success of the venture,” the Fine Gael senator said.

“Every job is an important job and that area was hit particularly badly with the closure of the quarry. I would welcome any move that would allow the people effected by this to get back to work.”

The Whelan’s Group is a familyowned company which has been in operation in Clare for the past 40 years.

A TRAINED legal professional, who launched her own business after losing her job in an Ennis legal practice in December, is one of 50 people who have already signed up to take part in Ireland’s first Open Fair event which will take place in Ennis later this month.

The organisers of the Open Fair say that 50 of their 100 stalls have already been taken and are urging budding Clare business people to contact them as soon as possible to reserve a place.

The event, which is the brainchild of general election candidate Jim Connolly, is aimed at start-up businesses and aims to show Clare people that there is a future for new indigenous businesses in the county.

Ennis businesswoman Niamh O’Brien opened her own clothing business in Lifford earlier this year after she lost her job in a local legal firm.

“I could see that work had been fizzling out over the last two years and just before Christmas it was time for me to go. I was always very creative and artistic and that was something that I had left behind when I went to study law. I bought a dress a couple of years in a very fancy shop and I knew myself that I could have made the dress myself,” she told The Clare People .

“I bought myself a couple of books on sewing and I was away in a hack after that. I started on some alterations at the beginning, as my bread and butter, but I like to do the creative side of it so that is what I do now. I like to reuse clothes as much as I can, so I’m always ripping up shirts and making dresses out of them that sort of idea.

“It’s a struggle at the moment but I am still going and events like this Open Fair are great to help me get my name out there and show people what I can do. The idea of being able to network with people in a similar situation to me and just to get the products out there is a great benefit to me.”

The Open Fair will take place in the West County Hotel in Ennis on August 28.

The West County have offered the space for the Open Fair free of charge and also have a number of outside stalls available should the hall become full.

“BUT generally I think it is to do with the place that that we are living, the expectations that we have for life and how things – like the recession – are affecting that,” said ACCORD counselling manager Stephen Cummins.

“Things like the recession have put people under a lot of pressure – not just financial pressure but also time pressure if someone is out there trying to make ends meet or save a business.

“A lot of times, couples who had been working hard through the good years have found that they have been thrown back together, with one or both losing their job. If people are in each other’s faces more often than they had been before, that can be a very awkward situation for them – something that can take a bit of getting used to.”

A total of 12 local relationship counsellors are employed at the ACCORD office on Harmony Row in Ennis. The service is open to all couples – both married and unmarried – who feel that their relationship would benefit from some professional help.

Besides the effects of the recession, distrust brought about by one partner’s activities online is the fastest growing cause of marital instability, according to ACCORD. With many people unemployed and finding themselves with spare time and the widespread availiblity of broadband enabling people to browse online, the temptations here can cause unrest, says Stephen.

“People can be attracted into it quite innocently but the danger is that it can take over your life. It can be very innocent – people going online to buy things without really realising that they cannot afford it, for example.

“The problem is when this becomes a secret compulsion, and a wife or husband is not aware that their spouse is going online and spending money,” continued Stephen.

Recent reports nationally suggest that online gambling and addictions to internet pornography are having detrimental effects on marriages – most likely, says Stephen, because couples do not discuss their problems.

“Communication is the real key. Real communication can help a couple to deal with an awful lot of other difficulties. But if you can’t communicate properly together, how can you deal with other issues? People can take each other for granted – but they just need to realise that no one has the perfect marriage and everybody needs to work at it,” he added.

ACCORD is the largest relationship counselling agency in Ireland. Their Ennis offices can be contacted on 065 6824297.

CLARE marriages are bending under the strain of the economic recession with a record number of Clare couples seeking marriage counselling in 2010. Abuse of the internet is also being highlighted as a recent cause of marital disharmony.

Figures obtained by The Clare People reveal that the number of counselling hours providing by the ACCORD agency in Ennis skyrocketed last year – growing by more than 85 per cent compared to the previous year. Counselling hours provided by the Catholic Marriage Counselling Agency grew dramatically faster in Clare than in any other county in 2010 – with the national average growth in hours provided standing at just 8 per cent.

A total of 517 hours for 100 couples were provided at the ACCORD offices in Ennis in 2010, compared to 278 hours for 68 cases on 2009.

The increase in counselling hours is being blamed on the effects of the recession on couples as well as a number of difficulties being caused by the internet.

According to the agency, the number of relationship difficulties brought about by addictions to internet pornography, online gambling and the abuse of social networking sites increased dramatically in 2010.

“I’m not surprised by these figures for Clare, we have been hearing this from the counsellors in Ennis for a number of months and we had expecting this sort of dramatic rise,” said ACCORD counselling manager Stephen Cummins.

“I think this is a combination of many different factors [which have brought about the increase]. I think trouble in a relationship is rarely brought about by just one factor except maybe in a case of someone having a drink or drug problem perhaps.