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ENNIS Town Council will not be represented at the annual St Patrick’s Day in New York after councillors declined an invitation to attend the event.

Catherine T Hogan, President of the County Clare Patriotic Benevolent and Social Association of New York City, had issued an invitation to the mayor of Ennis Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) and the town manager, “or their respective representatives” to attend the parade in the Big Apple on March 17.

At yesterday’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Brennan turned down the invitation, saying the mayor’s place on St Patrick’s Day should be in Ennis.

Mr Dollard said that a member of the Ennis / Phoenix twinning delegation would be in Arizona for St Patrick’s Day and that it might not be appropriate for the council to attend both events.

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) proposed that Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) represent Ennis in New York. Cllr Meaney said he was not in a position to go and that the trip might not be advisable given the current economic circumstances.

Cllr Meaney then proposed that Cllr Johnny Flynn should go. Cllr Flynn also declined the offer, saying it was not his policy to go on foreign trips. He said councillors should instead stay at home and support local events.

Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind), who as deputy mayor represented Ennis at last year’s parade in New York, said it was important the council send someone to America to show support for emigrants.

Cllr Guilfoyle too turned down an invitation to attend, citing “other commitments”.

PLANNING permission for a planned train station at Crusheen is due to be lodged with Clare County Council in the coming weeks. The Clare People has learned that details of the much anticipated station will be release this February, when final plans are lodged with the planning section of the local authority.

While no firm timetable has been announced for the construction of the station, Iarnród Éireann confirmed last week that construction will commence in the summer of 2011 with the stations being completed by early 2012 – should planning permission be granted.

This follow a long running campaign by a local group to secure a stop on the Western Rail Corridor in Crusheen. The corridor, which was officially reopened last year, currently has stations at Sixmilebridge, Ennis and Gort. Locals believe that a large number of commuters living in the north and east Clare areas will use the service once it is completed.

According to Clare Fianna Fáil General Election candidate Dr John Hillery, the new station could prove to be a “shot in the arm” for the local economy. The construction phases of the project will provide a number of jobs for the local area while there could also make the region more attractive for business people looking to set up new operations.

The new station will feature a platform and ticket vending machine, with a number of help points for those with mobility and sensory impairments. Bicycle parking and car parking facilities will also be provided.

“It makes economic sense for a rail stop to be provided at Crusheen as it will become the only stop on the stretch of the Western Rail Corridor between Ennis and Athenry. Crusheen also is an ideal location for people coming from Ruan, Gort, Ballyline, Corofin, Tubber, Boston and elsewhere in north Clare as well as Tulla and other areas of east Clare,” he said. “I would like to congratulate members of the local community and Clare County Council for working together to putting forward the strongest possible case for the opening of a rail stop at Crusheen. I also wish to acknowledge the contribution of my colleague Deputy Tony Killeen in the campaign.”

THE pioneering work of renowned Clare musician Peadar O’Loughlin dating over 50 years has been brought to a new generation of traditional music lovers thanks to a decision by Na Piobairí Uilleann to re-release of the storied Seancheol ar an Seannós album.

The famous album, originally recorded in 1960 on the short-lived SPOL label set up by Breandán Breathnach, featured the legendary Kilmaleyman on flute and east Galway fiddler Aggie White.

“It is a measure of the musicianship of both Peadar and Aggie and indeed the depth of appreciation of Breandán Breathnach that this beautiful recording resonates today,” a spokesperson for Na Piobairí Uilleann told The Clare People .

In describing the recording as “an archival gem”, the Piobairí Uilleann has called the historic recording as “a perfect blending of fiddle and flute these two musicians illustrate in well chosen melodies the richness of Irish folk-music”.

“In his original sleeve notes, Breathnach extols the virtues of this wonderful duet and details Peadar and Aggie’s contemporary achievements as prominent traditional musicians during the 1950s.

“Aggie Whyte, who hails from the Ballinakill district in Galway, comes from generations of musicians; her father, Tommy Whyte, was a member of the famous Ballinakill Céilí Band. She was awarded the Gold Medal in the competition for traditional fiddle playing at the Oireachtas in 1958 and in the same year with Peadar O’Loughlin won the competition for duets at this musical festival.

“Peadar O’Loughlin, who had four years previously won the competition for flute playing, comes from Kilmaley, County Clare. He is an all-round musician, having many firsts to his credit for flute, fiddle and pipe playing,”

‘Seancheol ar an Seannós’ was officially launched as as part of the Breandán Breathnach Commemoration at Henrietta Street in Dublin. O’Loughlin, a longtime member of the Tulla Céilí Band, was awarded the Hall of Fame Award at the annual TG4 Gradam Ceoil awards in 2005.

CLARE’S only retiring member of Dáil Éireann, Deputy Tony Killeen, is set to receive over a quarter of a million euro lump sum for his years of service in Leinster House, which also takes into account his time as being both a Minister of State and full member of Cabinet.

The lump sum pay-off to Fianna Fáil’s biggest vote-getter in Clare over the past two decades with 19 years Dáil service to his name is part of overall payments to retiring TDs, which is set to cost the Irish exchequer over € 10m during the next cou- ple of years.

Deputy Killeen will receive a € 276,163 once off payment for the 19 years he represented Clare in the Dáil, while his pension will be worth € 68,984 when it kicks in.

Deputy Killeen first entered political life when he was elected to Clare County Council in 1985. He retained his seat in the 1991 election and he served as both chairman of Clare County Council and the Shannon Status Committee before winning his Dáil seat in 1992 and retaining it in subsequent elections in 1997, 2002 and 2007.

Deputy Killeen’s distinction of holding down junior ministerial and full-ministerial portfolios over the past seven years will ensure that he will benefit from better pension terms than retiring deputies who were backbench TDs.

Under the pension structures for retiring TDs, former ministers are deemed to be office holders and are therefore paid an office holders’ allowance on top of their TDs salary.

Deputy Killeen was elevated to ministerial rank by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2004 when he was made Minister of State for Labour Affairs. After the 2007 election he became the first ever Minister of State for Environment and Energy, while in 2008 he became Minister of State for Fisheries and Forestry. His elevation to full Cabinet status came in 2010 when Brian Cowen became Taoiseach and made him Minister for Defence.

Deputy Killeen is one over 40 current Dáil deputies, who have announced their retirement ahead of the General Election, the most high profile of these being the man who appointed him to Cabinet, Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

IN LAUNCHING his campaign to be elected to the 31st Dáil, Independent candidate Cllr James Breen has told The Clare People that expenses for TDs should be “abolished altogether”, forcing them to live off their salary € 90,000 a year.

Cllr Breen, who became the only Independent to top the poll in a Clare election in 2002 and the first nonparty member to be elected in the county in 54 years, has called for the abolition of expenses as part of “a complete reform of government”, both at national and local level.

“It’s not an election gimmick,” Cllr Breen told The Clare People this week. “There has to be a complete reform of politics, a meaningful reform of government and that includes Dáil and county council level.

“There are 166 TDs in Dáil Éireann. That’s too much. Dáil representation should be reduced.

“The Senate should be meaningfully reformed or abolished. The numbers of county councillors should be reduced.

“We should reduce the numbers of foreign conferences that’s costing the country millions of euros every year. We should reduce Dáil expenses and abolish them altogether and oblige TDs to live on their salary with no expenses,” added Cllr Breen.

The Clare County Council website, which publishes county councillors’ expenses on-line, shows that Cllr Breen claimed € 28,739.89 from June 2009, when he was re-elected to the local authority, to June 2010.

This figure includes his basic salary of € 8,361.96 for the last six months of 2009 and € 9,717.75 for 2010. During the 12 months he also claimed € 4,368.61 for attending conferences, while he availed of the annual allowances in those two six month periods of € 2442.13 in 2009 and € 2,947.44 in 2010.

“We need openness and transparency in government, which we haven’t had over the last number of years,” continued Cllr Breen in championing a overhaul of the expenses regime. “The TD earns nearly three times the average wage of people and they should be able to live on that. The person driving to and from Shannon working on the average industrial wage is getting no travelling time.

“I have no qualms if expenses are abolished in the morning. It’s not a gimmick to get elected. It’s something I believe in,” added Cllr Breen.

During his five years in Dáil Éireann from 2002 to 2007, Cllr Breen was entitled to the Independent TDs allowance. Currently the allowance given to Independent members of the Dáil is over € 40,000 per annum.

ONE young west Clare man is fighting back against the current cynical reaction to politics by preparing to put his own name forward for the General Election.

Brian Markham, a member of the well know Kilmurry McMahon family, is determined to have his name on the ballot sheet on polling day as an Independent candidate.

The 23-year-old told The Clare People he “wants to make a difference” and “go out and do something”.

A qualified PE teacher, he currently works in O’Flaherty’s Electrical Shop in Ennis.

A keen sportsman, he has represented the county and province in athletics at international level.

He has been involved with Shannon Gaels and Coolmeen GAA clubs and is known for organising several Community Games events for local children.

A past pupil of St Flannan’s College in Ennis, he attended university in London.

“During these four years I began to learn how important it is to make your opinions heard and how important it is to have a representative that you can trust in. I was an active member of the Students Union where we were told about the issues troubling the student body. It was then our duty to convey the thoughts of the students to the relevant boards and do our best to get different rules and improvements implemented,” he said.

“I have now been back home in Ireland for five months. During this time I have witnessed possibly one of the worst periods in Irish politics. The country is in an extremely poor state and this is primarily down to mismanagement and big name politics.

“In the time I have been home I have seen several of my friends unwillingly being forced to leave our wonderful country in search of employment and what looks to be a better future than the one that is in store in this country,” he added.

“I would like to make clear that I do believe in co-operating with big business and foreign multinationals because of the jobs and growth they bring to our country. However, pandering to the banks has resulted in a loss of sovereignty, in that we are bound by conditions imposed by the EU and IMF bailout, high unemployment and a generation of our best and brightest leaving by the day. This is where traditional politics has let us down.”

He believes that Independent TDs will be very influential in the next Dáil.

Among the issues that he believes the election campaign should be fought on are the demise of Shannon Airport and the Shannon area, the future of Ennis General Hospital and the need for improvement to local infrastructure.

CLARE County Council this week confirmed that it had spent almost all of the money it was allocated to care for the county’s roads – completing all work with the exception of two projects.

Fears were expressed at the end of last year by Deputy Joe Carey (FG) that the roadwork’s budget would not be spent and therefore lost.

In total the local authority spent € 22.687 million on all road works.

The allocation confirmed by the Department of Transport in relation to Regional and Local Roads for 2010 was € 15, 586,498, € 15, 281,462 of which was spent by the council.

The shortfall of approximately € 300,000 was attributed to the fact that a sum of € 500,000, allocated in respect of the Killaloe By-Pass/ Shannon Crossing, could not be spent as planning and design stages documentation were under consideration by the Department of Transport.

According to senior engineer Tom Tiernan, “To all intents and purposes the council completed its Roadworks Programme in 2010. Any minor elements, which were not completed, were as such due to circumstances outside of the council’s control. For example, it became apparent in early summer 2010 that it would not be possible to spend a sum of € 300,000 allocated to Blakes Corner, Ennistymon, due to the complexity and sensitivity of the procedures involved because of the conflict between the proposed junction improvement and the location of adjacent protected structures.

“The Roadworks Programme was implemented systematically while taking account of the specific needs of the various work sites involved, the climatic conditions required in each case, optimisation and allocation of plant resources available etc. Certain difficulties were encountered both at the beginning and the end of 2010 because of the very severe weather conditions, which pertained. Certain improvisations and strategy alterations were required but ultimately the job was completed as effectively as it could be in the prevailing circumstances.”

Among the routes to benefit from road improvement works were the N68 at Edenvale, Caherea, Lissycasey and Kilrush, the N67 at Moyasta and the R352 in Tulla. The main road north of Lisdoonvarna to Corkscrew Hill has also been upgraded while the road between Corkscrew Hill and Ballyvaughan is currently being upgraded. Works are scheduled to take place in the coming weeks at Ballyduff beg, Inagh on the N85.

THERE was celebrations in Liscannor over the weekend as Dennis Vaughan was crowned Irish Seafood Chef of the Year. Vaughan, who runs Vaughan’s Anchor Inn Bar and Seafood Restaurant in the village, was officially presented with the prestigious accolade by the Minister of State with responsibility for Fisheries, Sean Connick, last week.

“We are very happy to get the award. We have always aimed to produce the highest quality of seafood in the restaurant. It’s what we have always done, we were brought up on it with all the fishing so even from a very young age we have aimed to produce top quality seafood,” he told The Clare People yesterday.

“In the restaurant the focus was always primarily on fish. The total focus of the restaurant is on local fish and shell fish. We are one of the few restaurants in the country who proc ess all their own stuff – from crabs to prawns to fish – everything that we use comes in either on the bone or in the shell and we work with it from there. Everything is as it comes out of the sea.

“I think that the public do recognise a product. You could be in a restaurant beating yourself up and going down the road of putting cheaper products on the menu but I think you will lose the loyalty of people who come to you looking for that grade of product. It’s is about giving people what they want and not cutting any corners.

“We give it as good as we can give it, with a premium product that peo- ple seem to like and so far it is working out well for us.”

While a number of restaurants around the county have closed for the winter months or have installed limited opening hours, Vaughan’s Anchor Inn Bar and Seafood Restaurant has been able to remain open all year round, seven days a week.

Meanwhile, it was also being confirmed over the weekend that 13 Clare eateries have been named as part of the BIM Seafood Circle – with the majority of the chosen restaurants located in the north and west of the county.

There are currently 200 members of the Seafood Circle nationwide. It was set up to champion retail and hospitality outlets that offer the best quality seafood and service to customers.

THE West County Hotel, which forms part of the Clare-based Lynch group, will remain under Lynch management, the group’s managing director has confirmed.

The Clare Inn Hotel became the second hotel in the Lynch Hotel group to enter receivership along with the Breaffy House in Castlebar on Friday. Around 150 people are employed at the Clare Inn and Breaffy House.

Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton was appointed receiver last Friday. Pat McCann, founder of Maldron Hotels has been appointed to oversee the management of the Clare Inn and Breaffy House. Michael B Lynch told The Clare People on Monday that “The West County will remain under Lynch management and its business as usual.”

Mr Lynch added that the recent weeks “had been very difficult time” for everyone associated with the business.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Mr McAteer confirmed that, “Michael McAteer was appointed receiver of the Clare Inn Hotel in County Clare and at Breaffy House Resort in Castlebar in County Mayo on Friday, 28 January, 2011.

“As the appointed receiver, it is Mr McAteer’s duty to realise the maximum value from the assets over which he is charged, and discharge any receipts in accordance with the priorities as set out in the Companies Acts.”

In a statement last week, Mr Lynch said he will work with the receivers and the banks to ensure that the jobs are protected and that the affected hotels remain open.

He said, “We had a duty to move to protect the 500 employees’ jobs in our seven properties and do right by their families in these harsh economic times. It is with great regret that we have had to make this decision but I am happy that in our discussions with the bank and receiver we have secured a position where the properties will remain open and continue to trade.”

Mr Lynch said the decision of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) to withdraw from this market “had a serious impact” on its “ability to source working capital over the winter months”. The Lynch Hotel group successfully emerged from examinership in 2009.

THE opening of the West County Inn Hotel over 40 years ago was the foundation stone of the Lynch Hotel Group that in recent years that became one of the flagship hotel chains around the country under the direction of Michael B Lynch.

The West County Inn was developed by Michael Lynch Snr and when officially opened in April 1968 by the then Minister for Labour and future President of Ireland, Dr Patrick Hillery, it was labelled “a very substantial addition to Clare tourism”.

And, while both the Clare Inn Hotel and Breaffy House Hotel went into receivership last Thursday, the West County still remains one of the industry leaders in the county and beyond, having been developed as one of the flagship hotel in the midwest region in terms of numbers of visitors over its 43-year history.

In 2009, the group, which employed over 500 in seven hotels in the west of Ireland, gained court protection from its creditors as it endeavoured to re-organise its finances. Judge Mary Finlay Geoghegan appointed Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton as interim examiner of Ireland’s largest family-run hotel group.

The judge made the appointment after being told that an independent accountant’s report showed that the group has a reasonable prospect of survival as a going concern. The examinership gave the company 100 days to reorganise its finances. The court heard that the group owed € 22.85m and was unable to pay its debts.

After being established in 1968 the group expanded further in Clare by and into Mayo, Limerick and Galway. In 2008, the group opened a luxurious family-friendly spa at the Breaffy House Hotel in Castlebar, while other hotels in the group included the George Boutique Hotel in Limerick City and Haydens Gateway Hotel in Ballinasloe.

The hotel group pulled out of Dublin a couple of years ago, selling the 270-bedroom Green Isle hotel at a € 10m loss for € 40m. It also sold the South Court Hotel in Limerick for an estimated € 15m and then leased the 127-bedroom building back.

Mr Lynch, remains a director but the company is now run by his son, Michael B Lynch, a former finalist in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition.

“We are professional hoteliers with a fundamentally sound business and at this time are planning to restructure our financial position,” Michael B Lynch said in 2009.

“We are confident that our 40 years of experience in the hotel business, our customer and staff loyalty and recognised innovation practices will see the company through this process,” he added.