Author: admin

KILMALEY woman Emma Healy got a little help from her friends – 15 of them to be precise – last week when she went to run the Flora Mini Marathon in Dublin. The Clare ladies organised themselves to run alongside Emma and raise sponsership for her trip as a volunteer with the Building of Hope next year.

“They were absolutely fantastic and we had a great day,” said Emma, who works in Ennis General Hospital.

But this is not the first time she has been given a helping hand, or in a recent case a helping head, chest and lots of legs. “We had a waxathon and, fair play to them, the Kilmaley United soccer team turned out to be waxed and shaved. One chap got his whole head of hair and beard shaved off, another got his chest waxed and lots of them got their legs waxed – it was a brilliant night,” Emma told The Clare People .

Also helping on the night at the Bogdale House in Kilmaley were pals Lorraine Tuohy and Anne Killeen, who fed the starving hoardes, as well as Emma’s sister Martina, who did the waxing, and local barber Joey Woulfe, who took care of the shaving.

Irish Pride and Brendan Keane butchers sponsored the barbecue for the waxathon and Barry Lynch of Lynch’s Centra on the Gort Road sponsored lunches for the women on the marathon.

Now Emma – who teaches Irish dancing to adults and children – is planning a fundraising ceili for October 14 in the Auburn Lodge when Michael Sexton’s two-piece ceili band will be playing. The fun will start at 9.30pm.

This will be 27-year-old Emma’s first trip to Africa and she doesn’t know, as yet, what she will be doing.

“Olive told me it could be anything but she did ask me to bring my dancing shoes to teach some of the local kids how to do a bit of dancing.”

THE activities of “cowboy coal-sellers” are hurting Ennis businesses and damaging homes, a meeting has heard.

At last week’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) had sought support for a motion calling on the Minster for Finance to exempt domestic solid fuel from the carbon tax.

Cllr Neylon, who runs a coal and smokeless fuel distribution business, told the meeting that coal-sellers from outside Clare had operated in the county over the past two years. He described the coal as like “burning rubber” and claimed, “the people who were selling coal, 90 per cent of them are on the dole”.

He said coal distributors in Ennis had been hit hard by “outside suppliers bringing in rubbish coal”.

He added, “If we keep going like this, we are going to pay a massive price in terms of pollution.”

Cllr Mary Coote Ryan (FG) told the meeting that a neighbour had almost been injured by coal purchased from people she described as “cowboy coal-sellers”.

“A big stone flew out of the fire and broke everything and just passed this man’s head,” she explained.

Cllr Peter Considine (FF) urged the council to write to the Minister of Finance and the Minister for Social Protection.

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) said the past two winters had been unprecedented. He said it had been so cold that elderly people “had gone to bed early to conserve coal”.

A DECISION to extend the so-called ‘Smoky Coal Ban’ to include Ennis may raise fuel costs and hit elderly people the hardest, according to one local coal merchant.

Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan TD announced last week that, with effect from August 1, Ennis will be added to the list of towns and cities covered by the ‘Smoky Coal Ban’, under which it is illegal to market, sell, or distribute bituminous or ‘smoky’ coal.

While coal merchants have welcomed the plans to reduce air pollution, some say that the cost of new smokeless fuel allied to the imposition of a carbon tax will be too much for some sections of the community.

Coal and gas merchant, Michael O’Brien, explained that while some smokeless coal is “very good” other products are “dirt”. He said customers are unconvinced by a lot of smokeless coal, which he said can be difficult to light. Mr O’Brien, who has run a coal and fuel business for 20 years, said that as a result many homeowners stopped burning coal and “went back to buying heating oil”.

Good quality smokeless coal, he said, was typically € 1-€ 2 dearer in price. He added, “That would put elderly people in fierce trouble. Over the last winter, you had people staying inside with their coats, not buying coal.” Mr O’Brien said business had declined by almost 50 per cent over the past two winters.

A spokesman for Ennis-based Galvin Coal and Solid Fuel Merchants said there were a lot of “grey areas” in the ban. He said it was still unclear whether the ban applied to the burning or selling of bituminous coal. He explained, “It seems to apply to sellers within the zone (Ennis) but then it seems that people are free to go outside the zone, buy it and burn it in Ennis, which is ridiculous.”

Welcoming plans to reduce air pollution, the spokesman said the coal industry had been affected by the recession.

He added,“I did see a massive increase in the sale of cheap coal. It’s the first winter I saw that.”

KILRUSH Town Council has backed the introduction a new rates reduction scheme to breathe new business life into the West Clare capital, but has challenged landlords in the town to play their part by reducing rents.

This twin-track approach to attracting new business to Kilrush is set to form the basis of a new Retail Incentive Scheme being pioneered by town leaders on the back of startling figures revealed by The Clare People

THERE have been calls for Ennis Town Council to seek a more cost effective way of providing public toilet facilities after it emerged that costs for 2010 stood at almost € 70,000.

Figures contained in the Council’s annual financial statement show that the so-called “super loos” generated just over € 3,000 in income.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) told the June meeting of Ennis Town Council, that the scheme has “obviously not been flush with success”. He questioned whether or not the Council should continue with this level of expenditure.

Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said that while the cost of running the toilets “looks enormous”, they represent a better option than larger public toilet units. “It is value for money,” he said.

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) said it was “essential” that public toilets are available in Ennis in light of the town’s bid to host the 2012 All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann. However he asked if the Council could “get better value”.

Town Manager Ger Dollard said it was his experience that public toilet buildings were “fairly poor facilities” that were expensive to operate.

He said toilets provoked “constant complaints” and caused hygiene problems. “The super-loo arrangement does represent value for money,” he added.

A MAJOR piece of research into the social condition of family carers in Clare will be launched today as part of National Carers Weeks.

The research, which is being launched by Professor Eamon O’Shea from NUI, Galway, will be used to find out how well family carers in the county are able to remain connected with society and not become isolated as a result of their role as carers.

A host of other events are taking place all over the county to mark the fifth ever National Carers Weeks. On Wednesday, June 15, there will be a wellness and relaxation session for carers with Geri Quinn in the Ennistymon Public Library, while Tai Chi for Carers with Margaret O’Connor will take place in De Valera Public Library in Ennis. Also on Wednesday, Caring for Carers West Clare will be promoting positive mental health in Regina House in Kilrush at 8pm.

On Thursday a ‘Go for Life’ session, which involves 60 to 90 minutes of relaxing, fun activities for carers, will be held with Kathleen O’Connor in the Ennistymon Community Centre from 11am, and in Shannon Library from 11am with Deirdre Daly.

On Friday, June 17, MEP Marian Harkin will present certificates for the Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning Project to carers in the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis at 2.30pm. The festivities will culminate on Friday with celebratory dinners for family carers in the Clare Inn Hotel at 7.30pm.

The week’s events are being organised by Caring for Carers in Clare in partnership with Clare County Library, the Clare Volunteer Centre, Clare Sports Partnership and the Health Service Executive Health Promotion Services in Clare.

The aim of this week of activities is to recognise and celebrate the invaluable work that family carers do and to provide them with the opportunity to take time for themselves to concentrate on their own health and well-being. The theme of well-being will run throughout the week and carers will be encouraged to get active and enjoy a programme of fun and recreation.

Family carers are typically immediate relatives who provide very high levels of care at home, for children and adults with severe disabilities, frail older people and people who are terminally ill. According to the 2006 census, there were 4,507 carers based in Clare. For more details on the events taking place during National Carers Weeks, visit www.caringforcarers.org.

THE man behind a new multi-million shopping centre in Miltown Malbay believes that a number of businesses have been lost to the town in recent years because of delays in the planning process.

John Jones, whose family have been in business in Miltown for nearly 200 years, gained planning permission for a € 4m supermarket last week – after six years and three different attempts at through the planning process.

According to Mr Jones, the new development could help the town attract other businesses and generate new employment in Miltown Malbay.

“I think this would have made Miltown more attractive for other businesses to come in. Miltown has no factories and it has no large scale employer. It needs something to get more people working and get money generating in the area and that will help the area to prosper. Hopefully this can help kick-start the rest of the town,” he said.

“There should be up to 50 employed in the shop and obviously there would be extra seasonal employment. Miltown hasn’t exactly developed as well as other towns in recent years. What- ever you say about the [planning] objectors, they have definitely put Miltown on the back foot because this project has been held up. Other towns might have factories to provide employment but Miltown doesn’t have that; Miltown has suffered over the last few years.

“I’m delighted to get it finished. I think I always knew that I would get there in the end but some people used the system to hold me up. What we were proposing was always going to go through eventually.

“The last time at we went to Bord Pleanála we were told that we had too much car parking, which was strange in itself. But we decided that we would use that space for an Astro Turf field instead.”

The development consists of a 10,000 square foot supermarket, 150 car parking spaces, a relief road for the town, children’s playground and an Astro-Turf facility with associated dressing rooms and lighting.

Building work is due to begin on the development later this summer and could be completed by Easter of 2012. As well as the 50 full-time jobs, the development will generate as much as 150 new positions during the construction phase.