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CLARE primary schools that could be threatened with closure over the next year will be prepared to take to the streets in their fight for their survival, The Clare People can reveal this week.

Taking the ultimate sanction of strike action will loom large on the teachers’ agenda, as early as this Easter as delegates from the county look set to attend the annual INTO Congress in Sligo in large numbers.

At that annual gathering, delegates representing the county’s 122 national schools will voice their concerns and anger over the controversial McCarthy Report recommendation calling for all primary schools with numbers of under 50 be closed.

Last week The Clare People revealed that the Department of Education are studying Colm McCarthy’s recommendations.

This week we publish the list of 44 across the county earmarked for closure under the contentious cutbacks – that second largest number of schools in the country under threat.

“We are talking about a preliminary being done by the department, but at local level, this is as if the Titanic was about to sink,” Clare INTO leader Sean McMahon told The Clare People. “People are standing up on their feet and they are seriously demanding that the INTO support them. The INTO will support these schools and are seriously demanding that their politicians support them.

“I organised the meeting in Spanish Point two weeks ago and out of those 44 schools, 37 attended. I organised another meeting in Nenagh and we had an enormous attendance, including schools from east Clare.

“I have been involved in the INTO for a good while and I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen the same level of participational involvement as there has been in relation to this issue.

“Yes it will be a huge issue. There will be a number of motions at Congress this year in Sligo. Of all the is- sues that have ever reached the stage, the issue of small schools will be absolutely dynamic,” added Mr McMahon, the INTO Central Executive Member for Clare.

The Mullagh NS principal pointed out that its not just teachers and their pupils that would be affected by any school closure, but the communities that they serve across the county.

“I have been getting feedback in the last week and I’m not just getting it from teachers. I’m getting if from a whole variety of rural organisations,” he said.

“The objections will be massive from teachers, but it will be just as massive from parents, from local shops and local community groups. Take the GAA for example.

“The GAA is organised on a parish basis and if you go down the road of closing schools, you may not have a school in a parish.

“Every school would see itself as the cement that holds the community together. The schools and the community they serve would certainly be very strong in demanding that their schools continue.

“If this doesn’t get buried you will have the same type of campaigns that you had in relation to Garda stations and post offices. If you go back west of Kilkee, if these proposals were implemented you’d have an entire peninsula where where there mightn’t be any school.

“Rural schools, large or small, or indeed rural Ireland did not drive the financial madness that became the Celtic tiger. This was instead driven by the greed of banks and the self interest of large developers allied to the inaction of central government to regulate.

“We must not now allow our small, often isolated, rural communities to pay the price in terms of the educational opportunity of our children,” added McMahon.

A NEW plan that would pave the way for a building boom in Clonlara and transform the east Clare village into semi-town status has been lodged with the planning section of Clare County Council.

If the plans of Keelgrove Construction Ltd are given the green light by the local authority, Clonlara’s population would be significantly increased as the planning application proposes the building of 38 new houses together with a town-centre development.

The application was lodged by Keelgrove last week, with the proposed town-centre development involving the “construction of commercial/retail centre comprising of doctor’s surgery, dentist surgery, pharmacy, shops, supermarket and offices”.

The application was submitted by Keelgrove as part of renewed attempts to get the ambitious project off the ground. The plans were originally submitted to the local authority last June, but objections were raised by a group representing Clonlara residents.

The Residents of Clonlara Village group deemed that the development plans would “obliterate” Clonlara and turn the rural village into a satellite of Limerick, without any proper public transport infrastructure being in place.

“We believe the development would obliterate the rural integrity of the village and turn it into a dormitory suburb of Limerick City,” said the residents group. “We note that the developer indicates a ‘Phase 2’ development of a further 27 houses. The two phases together would more than double the number of houses in the village, and it would triple the number of commercial units in Clonlara.

“This would generate much increased traffic in and around the village, with consequent risks to our security and safety. We ask that the council consider if such a scale of development is warranted and appropriate for the proper planning of the village, with regard to the National Spatial Strategy, the Clare County Development Plan, Clonlara Local Area Plan, and the projected demographic profile of the locality for the next ten years.”

In its submission to the planning authority, spokesperson for the Clare branch of An Taisce, Anny Wise said “we are concerned that this development has no demand for it and that there are empty dwellings within the village and this would only add to them”.

Clare County Council’s planning authority is expected to deliver a verdict on the application by in early April.

THE future of tourism in Newmarket -on-Fergus will be outline at a public meeting which will take place in the town this Thursday.

A feasibility study is currently being undertaken by Obair to determine what steps need to be taken to boost the tourism figures in the locality.

Members of the public have been invited to take part in this process, which could see a heritage centre, tourist office and budget accommo- dation being constructed in the area.

“We have nothing in Newmarket at the moment which promotes our heritage and our tourism product. We need a centre or an information point where people who come to the area can get the information they need about the locality and then get out for the day,” said organiser Tracey Mc Nulty.

“We will be looking for a suitable location for this centre and talking to all the community to find out what they want. One of the main points of this is to come up with a tourism plan for the area so that we can promote the area in an organised way.”

The project wants to publicise some of the lesser known tourist and herit age sites in the locality such as the great Newmarket gold find, the Hillfort at Mooghaun and a local tourist heritage trail.

“We want to find out exactly what the village needs and it is critical that the local people contribute to this process. We are talking about very simple things here, like the fact that Newmarket doesn’t have any budget accommodation,” continued Tracey.

“The town is missing a lot of little things which are needed to make it an attractive place for tourists to stop and visit. We need to identify what we need first of all and then come up with the ways of getting funding for these things.

“At this point it’s all about consulting as widely as possible and letting people have their say now, before anything is decided.”

The public meeting will take place at the Obair offices in Newmarket on Fergus, this Thursday, March 31, from 8pm.

THE Clare Volunteer Centre is in desperate need of funding in order to keep the organisation opening and operating to full capacity.

According to information revealed at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, the Clare centre receives the lowest funding of any volunteers centre in the country.

“Clare is the lowest funded in Ireland and has a very small funding allocation compared to other counties,” said Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG).

“We have a history of getting extraordinary results for a much smaller sum of money in Clare. We are getting treated very badly by central government compared to other counties.”

These sentiments were echoes by Cllr PJ Ryan (Ind), who is also involved in the centre.

“This would be a serious loss to Clare if we would lose this centre. They do incredible work and we get great value for every bit of money spent on the centre,” Cllr Ryan added.

“We need to take action on this and not allow for this facility to be lost to us because of a lack of money. Volunteers do great work and we need to support everything that they do especially at this time of economic difficulty.”

Meanwhile, Clare County Council will write to the Department of Agriculture asking them not to renege on a promise to provide information points at marts for farmers. This follows to motion put forward at yesterday’s meeting by Cllr Michael Hillery (FF), who said it was the least that could be done following the closure of the departments facility in Clare last year.

“There are more than 5,000 herd owners in Clare. The Minister of Agriculture need to set up facilities at the various marts around Clare so that farmers can get the information they need,” he said.

ALMOST 30 bags of rubbish were collected by members of Clare County Council’s waste enforcement team during a clean-up carried out last week on the outskirts of Clarecastle.

The clean up was carried out by staff attached to the council’s Ennis area office last Wednesday along a stretch of the N18 road from Clarecastle to Latoon.

The green bags, which were spotted by members of the public along the road, were transported to the Central Waste Management Facility at Ballyduff Beg, Inagh.

The initiative forms part of the council’s ongoing attempts to prevent the practice of illegal littering around the county.

In 2010, a total of 58 litter fines were issued and 23 prosecutions were taken under either the Litter Pollution Acts, 1997-2003 or the Waste Management Acts, 19962010, in the Clare County Council functional area.

Betty Devanny, Administrative Officer with the council’s waste enforcement section explained, “Clare County Council has a dedicated waste enforcement team that responds and takes appropriate enforcement action in relation to waste and litter complaints. Where evidence of acts of littering or illegal waste is found then action is taken under relevant litter pollution and waste management legislation.”

She added, “This is not to mention the litter enforcement work undertaken by Ennis Town Council. The Ennis East Electoral includes areas within both Clare County Council and Ennis Town Council and, as such, the two councils liaise on an ongoing basis in order to share information and expertise, and ensure the optimal use of their respective resources.”

Ms Devanny said the council’s waste enforcement team takes a proactive approach to dealing with illegal waste and litter activities. This includes the deployment of CCTV surveillance, vehicle checkpoints in conjunction with the Gardaí, targeting of illegal dumping at problem locations, planned inspections and audits of waste facilities.

Area offices also work closely with community groups while the environmental patrol warden and community warden conduct routine daily patrols in Ennis and around Clare.

Ms Devanny added, “In county council areas, area-based staff are involved in the removal of waste and litter on public roads and other public lands and carry out these works as part of their other duties within the areas. The waste enforcement section on an ongoing basis encourages and facilitates community involvement in waste and litter prevention and removal.”

Ms Devanny encouraged communities to get involved in the National Spring Clean organised by An Taisce. Communities can register with An Taisce for each year by telephone on 01 4002219 or online at www.nationalspringclean.org. Free passes to Clare County Council’s waste management facilities can then be provided to all registered groups who participate in a local community clean up.

ONE of Ennis’ best known pieces of sculpture, ‘Icarus’, should be unveiled at its new home on the Rocky Road roundabout in June, according to Ennis Town Council.

The 11-tonne statue had occupied a place on a roundabout at the heart of the market area of the town prior to its removal in December 2006.

The statue, which is currently been stored on the grounds of the council office’s at Waterpark House, is due to be moved to another roundabout on a section of the N85 Western Relief Road.

Speaking last week, town clerk Eddie Power explained, “The size and weight of the statue is fairly significant so an appropriate base to hold the statue at the roundabout has to be designed. That design work is almost complete and then we will prepare a schedule for tenders to carry out the work.”

Mr Power added that he “expected Icarus to be in place on the Rocky Road roundabout, roughly by the end of June”. The statue was designed by the renowned Irish sculptor John Behan.

It was gifted to Ennis Town Council by the former Shannon-based company Guinness Peat Aviation in 1990, to mark the town’s 750 year anniversary. Behan titled his work Daedalus though it became known locally as Icarus.

Former Irish Ambassador to the USA and Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Sean Donlon, welcomed the news that Icarus would return and told The Clare People , just how the piece was commissioned by the late Tony Ryan.

“In 1990, Ennis was celebrating 750 years since its foundation – and asked GPA to make a contribution to the celebrations. The late Tony Ryan, GPA’s founder and then its chief executive, decided that we would do something and after some internal discussions hit on the idea of commissioning Ireland’s leading sculptor, John Behan, to do a piece which would be publicly displayed in the town. Behan was by now well established. Behan was fussy about where his works would be displayed and Tony Ryan was equally fussy about how GPA’s money would be spent. On a wet Saturday afternoon in 1990, Tony, John and I walked the streets of Ennis looking for an appropriate site. I had grown up on Bindon Street (no. 11, now Michael Houlihan’s law offices) and thought a site there would be good but Tony thought this was too elitist. Eventually, we settled on the Market Square site and, happily, the council accepted this site. The piece was put in place and, on behalf of GPA, where I was executive vice-president, I unveiled it. There was a reception afterwards in the Old Ground Hotel. For me it was an emotional return to Ennis where my brother Tomas had been killed in the Carmody Hotel collapse in 1958. It was also the last time my father, a former school inspector for County Clare, visited Ennis,” recalled Sean.

Icarus’ place in the market will be taken by a new piece by local sculp- tor Barry Wrafter. The piece will be installed in the market area of Ennis and will be the latest addition to the town’s ever-growing sculpture trail.

The statue, which shows two farmers and cow, is inspired by Ennis’ market tradition.

The sculpture is a joint initiative between Ennis Tidy Towns and the Ennis Sculpture Initiative. Mr Power explained, “It’s appropriate in terms of its depiction of the Ennis area. The pieces involved should be in place by June. As in the case of Icarus, it’s significant in terms of its size and weight.”

The new statue had been welcomed by local businesses. Donie Neylon, whose men’s clothes shop business has operated in the market since the 1950s, said a statue should be located in the area. “It’s a very big space [the roundabout]. There should be something on it.”

On hearing that Icarus would soon be on public display again Sean Donlon promised a ‘second relaunch’.

“It would be great to see it restored. Tony Ryan deserves it, John Behan deserves it – incidentally, he has gone on to many great honours at home and abroad – and most of all the people of Ennis deserve it. To mark the second coming, my former GPA colleagues and I will have another reception in the Old Ground Hotel!” said Sean.