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THE Ennis Youth and Community Resource Building in Cloughleigh, Ennis, was officially opened on Friday by Frances Fitzgerald, TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, and Councillor Tommy Brennan, Mayor of Ennis.

The Junction, which was constructed on land owned by Ennis Town Council, features a youth café/drop in centre and will be used as a base from which youth services and programmes to targeted groups will be delivered.

The project costs amounted to € 645,000, of which € 357,000 was allocated to the Council under the Social and Community Facilities Capital Scheme 2006. The balance of the capital expenditure was provided from the Council’s own resources. The Council was the contracting authority for the construction of the building and has leased the completed building to Clare Youth Service.

Mayor of Ennis Cllr Tommy Brennan described the new youth and community facility as a major addition to the town’s community and recreational infrastructure.

He added: “The Council has worked closely with the Clare Youth Service to bring this project to fruition. A range of youth programmes will be delivered from this building and in addition the facilities here will also be available to the wider community.”

“I would like to compliment and congratulate the contractor Liam O’Doherty of Gildoc Ltd and the design team, which was led by Richard Rice of Healy and Partners, on completion of an attractive, modern energy efficient building.

Michael Byrne, Chairperson of Clare Youth Service, commented: “This new initiative will see the development of youth-led community facilities for the benefit of all. It will bring all sections together building the relationships which are the foundation of strong communities.”

He said the youth service was aware of the “myriad” of social problems affecting young people such as addiction, unemployment and youth emigration.

Mr Byrne added that communities around Ennis had recently been marred by “violent death and suicide”. He said, “There are still enormous needs as a community we need to respond to.”

Speaking at the official opening Ger Dollard, Ennis Town Manager, stated that extensive negotiations had taken place since the project was first mooted almost 10 years ago. He highlighted the roles played by Youth Service CEO, Margaret Slattery, and local young people in the development of the centre.

He added, “We have established an advisory board comprising of representatives of the Youth Service, local community, Town Council and Gardaí to oversee the development of the facility. Ennis Town Council looks forward to continuing to play its role in what we expect will be a very successful community facility.”

Clare Youth Service has been at the forefront of the development of many initiatives in its 42 years of working with young people and their communities throughout the county. Set up in 1969, Clare Youth Service today provides direct services to over 3,000 young people aged 12 to 25 years around the county.

THE contribution of young people in Cloughleigh to the development of a new youth and community facility was hailed at the official opening of The Junction on Saturday.

A team of volounteers, comprised mainly of young people from the area, played an important role in determining the need for such a facility when it was first proposed in 2006.

Among those present at Saturday’s opening were Clare Youth Service volounteers Victoria Hart, Aishagh Faithfull and Barry McDonagh.

Work on the project started in 2006 with the group conducting surveys and gathering the views of teenagers in Cloughleigh.

Aishagh (21) explained, “We’ve been involved since the start in planning the building and deciding where it was going to be and what is was going to be for. We were trying to get the young people on board to help us out. We knew from the start that there was a need for it.”

According to Barry (22), there was a clear need for more youth and community facilities in the Cloughleigh area. He said, “We knew ourselves because there wasn’t really anything around for us. I’m delighted with the way it turned out. I think it looks lovely. We can’t wait to get everything going; all the programmes up and running. It’s for the whole town and county not just the area around here.” Youth worker Tommy O’Hara has worked with the project’s core group of volounteers, helping them to get young people from the area and around Ennis to participate in programmes run at The Junction. He said, “The next step really is to try and get young people into the building and develop the café. My own specific job is to develop smaller project groups within the actual centre, to go out and physically recruit them [young people] and bring them up through in much the same way as the core groups came up through the youth service. That’s what we always aim and strive for, to bring young people to that level.” Tommy, who is also from the Cloughleigh area, said the building will serve a wider community purpose. He explained, “We definitely are looking at an inter-generational programme as well that would incorporate older people and young people together, such as gardening, computers or whatever that might be.”

HE’S the Government’s assistant Chief Whip, thanks to Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s latest round of key appointments to his Fine Gael/Labour coalition, but another honour has come Deputy Joe Carey’s way this week.

All because the assistant chief whip has been voted the sexiest Clare TD in Dáil Éireann, with the Clarecastle deputy topping the poll in the Clare constituency when it comes to sex appeal.

Deputy Carey, who has been a member of Dáil Éireann since 2007, edged out his government party colleagues in the county for the title of Mr Clare Dáil Éireann in an on-line opinion poll that rates the sex appeal of all 166 members of the lower house of the Oireachtas.

The www.sexytd.com rates Deputy Carey, who turns 36 this Saturday, as the 45th sexiest member of Dáil Éireann, a rating that places him ahead of party colleague Pat Breen, who also in the top 50 with a rating of 49.

Hot on Deputy Breen’s heels is Labour’s Michael McNamara – the first time TD, who was in the same St Flannan’s College class as Deputy Carey, coming 52nd in the sexy TD roll of honour, while Fianna Fáil Timmy Dooley, much like that party nationally received a disappointing poll rating, coming at 106 in the online survey.

THE phrase ‘give us this day our daily bread’ will have particular significance at one mass service in Ennis over the coming months.

Renovations to Fahy Hall in Roslevan means that from June 25 onwards, Saturday mass will be held at O’Connors Bakery on the Tulla Road, Ennis.

A note in the Doora Barefield parish newsletter explained that final mass took place in Fahy Hall on Saturday, June 18.

It added, “Fahy Hall will then close until further notice to facilitate major development. From Saturday, June 25, onwards. Mass will take place each Saturday at 6pm at O’Connors Bakery, Tulla Road, Ennis. Ample parking available.”

Speaking yesterday, parish priest Fr Jerry Carey confirmed that Saturday mass would now be said on the grounds of O’Connors.

He explained, “O’Connor’s are facilitating us by welcoming us into a building attached to the main bakery to facilitate 6pm mass on Saturday.”

Work on Fahy Hall is expected to be completed by December. The project will see the complete re-development of Fahy Hall, including the addition of a kitchen, meeting rooms and toilets. Fr Carey explained that a new oratory would essentially provide a “24/7 church” for the local community.

The oratory, which will accommodate 95 people, will be linked with the community hall to facilitate larger crowds for Saturday mass and other, larger church services.

Fr Carey added, “The community centre will then be retained, almost as a separate part of the building, for the rest of the week.”

The project involves renovating and extending the existing community hall for community and ecclesiastical use, constructing a new site entrance, access road and carparking together with all associated site development works and services.

THE race to succeeed Mary McAleese in Áras an Uachtaráin is getting congested, but when it comes down to the home straight it could be between two contenders from Clare, and even more parochially than that, candidates from the same parish.

They are Labour’s Michael D Higgins, who secured his party’s nomination to contest the election on Sunday and Pat Cox, who launched his campaign for Fine Gael nomination on Friday.

Higgins originally hails from Newmarket-on-Fergus, while Cox played his Clare card at the launch of his bid for the Park when talking about the years he spent living in Shannon when his family moved there in the 1960s.

Back then the emerging Shannon town was in the parish of Newmarket-on-Fergus, hence the real pros- pect of the contest of the presidential office turning into a very local affair if Cox manages to secure the Fine Gael nomination ahead of Máiréad McGuinness, Gay Mitchell and possibly Avril Doyle.

Already this week, Clare Fine Gael senator, Tony Mulcahy, who is Shannon’s first ever Oireachtas member told The Clare People he won’t be backing Pat Cox. “I will be either going for McGuinness or Mitchell,” he said.

However, Cllr Joe Arkins has said “for me Pat Cox is the candidate who has the knowledge, the experience and the judgement to be a candidate for the presidency. Cox is only electable Fine Gael candidate. He is the most able candidate presenting to Fine Gael”.

Councillors, parliamentary party members and members of the national executive will have a vote in deciding the Fine Gael candidate.