Author: admin

THE Clare tourism industry is primed for a bonanza in 2014, with tourist numbers visiting the county projected to grow by more than 10 per cent on last year.

A number of new initiatives – such as increased flights through Shannon Airport, the establishment of a low cost bus service to Dublin and the reopening of the the Spa Wells in Lisdoonvarna – are set to bring tourist numbers to record highs over the next ten months.

This predicted increase comes on the back of a double digit growth in tourism numbers coming to Clare last year – an increase that was driv

A TOTAL of 67 applications for repossession came before the Clare County Registrar at Ennis Courthouse on Friday.

The vast majority of the cases were adjourned to July with 23 of the 67 cases adjourned because the banks and financial institutions can’t locate the homeowners or have their registered letters returned.

In the cases before the court, the largest number of repossession applications came from Ulster Bank at 26; 17 from the EBS; and eight from the AIB; with a single application from the Bank of Ireland.

In one case, Ulster Bank was seeking to proceed with the repossession application.

That application, heard before County Registrar Pat Wallace, involved a West Clare man who owes Ulster Bank € 128,428.35. The figure includes arrears of € 26,011.

The court heard that 10 years ago, the man received a loan for € 110,000. He later got a top up loan of € 15,000.

The man, an unemployed machine operator, said that he missed a repayment in December because he had to carry out roof repairs. He said he outlined his difficulties in a letter to the bank.

The man told the County Registrar, “I am not working. I’m on so- cial welfare.” The man said that after missing the December repayment he received a letter from the bank saying his monthly payment had jumped from € 195 to € 668. He said the value of the house was now somewhere between € 65,000 and € 70,000.

The court heard the man was made redundant four years ago. He told the County Registrar that he is now considering renting out the house. Mr Wallace said that would be a good idea.

Mr Wallace told the man he was adjourning the application for two months but wanted to see some progress the next time the matter came before the court. He said the property is in negative equity. “If there is no repayments, there is no point hanging around,” he added.

Mr Wallace adjourned the case to July. He said, “I’d like you to do something concrete and increase the payments. If you got a job, you might surmount this debt.”

NEW charges have been brought against a Polish couple charged with offences arising from the discovery of an alleged cannabis grow-house in West Clare earlier this year.

Jagoga Gajewska (19) and her partner Adam Wrobel (22), both with a former address at Lislanahan Lower, Kilkee appeared before Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

They are both charged with offences relating to the alleged discovery at Lislanahan Lower, Kilkee on January 13. On Wednesday, the court heard that new charges have been brought against the pair. Mr Wrobel and Ms Gajewska are charged with knowingly permitting premises at Lislanahan Lower, Kilkee on January 13, to be used for the manufacture, production and preparation of a controlled drug.

Mr Wrobel is charged with possession of cannabis, which at the time had a market value of € 13,000 or more. He is charged with possession of a cannabis plan and cultivating without license, plants of the cannabis genus, contrary to the misuse of drugs act.

Garda Eoin Daly of Kilrush Garda Station gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution in respect of both accused. Counsel for both accused, Alice Harrison applied to have the legal aid certificate extended to cover the new charges.

Judge Patrick Durcan granted the application. Insp Tom Kennedy requested the matters go back to April 2 to allow time for the preparation of the book of evidence.

Counsel consented to the application and to time being extended for the service of the book of evidence.

She told Judge Durcan that Mr Wrobel has secured bail in the High Court but has been so far been unable to take it up. Ms Gajewska has taken up High Court bail, the court heard. Judge Durcan adjourned the cases to April 2.

WEST Clare has produced not one but seven new millionaires, as the € 8.3 million Lottery Jackpot of March 5 was claimed on Thursday morning last.

Each of the lucky winners will receive almost € 1.2 million as a result of the € 24 prize winning ticket they bought in Miniter’s, Henry Street. Kilrush.

The secretive seven have elected to remain anonymous.

One of the lucky syndicate members spoke of the excitement the group felt since they became millionaires more than a week ago.

“Last Thursday morning I heard that the winning ticket was sold in Kilrush. I logged on to the lottery website and was in total disbelief when I saw we’d won.

“I couldn’t focus on the numbers. I thought that there must have been a mistake,” he said.

“I felt about 90 per cent sure we’d won, so I phoned the rest of the group and said, ‘I think we’ve won the lottery.’

Some of them thought I was messing and one said, ‘we’ve either won or we haven’t – there’s no think about it.’

It’s an amazing feeling. We’re absolutely delighted – it’s made millionaires of us all,” he added.

The lucky syndicate has played Lotto each week for the last two and a half years.

Their winning ticket was a mixed- play ticket and a Quick Pick was the winning line that landed them the massive € 8.3 million win.

The happy winners plan to have a quiet celebration and take some time to let the news settle before making plans.

This is the largest Lotto jackpot winning ticket to be sold in County Clare in Lotto history.

Over € 45 million in Lotto jackpot and Lotto Plus top prizes has been paid out in the Banner county since lotto began in 1988.

EVEN on the back of the Gathering and a reinvigoration of the American market.

Early bookings for Clare in 2014 indicate a major growth in visitors from England, mainland Europe, especially Germany, and Irish tourists.

Despite a slow start to 2014, brought about as a result of the storms in January and February, early booking at the Cliffs of Moher put them on target for a sizable increase on 2013, which was the attraction’s best year on record. If these number continue throughout the year, the Cliffs should break the one million visitor mark for the first time ever.

Despite a 12 per cent drop in visitors numbers to the Cliffs of Moher so far this year, manager Katherine Webster is predicting a healthy growth over the 12 months of 2014.

“No less than the rest of coastal County Clare, the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience had a challenging enough start to the year with the storm conditions experienced in January and the first half of February. Extreme weather led to the visitor centre clos- ing on a total of seven days in these two months. Prior to 2014, the Cliffs of Moher visitor centre had closed a total of 7 times in 7 years,” she said.

“As a result of the storm closures our visitor numbers for the first two months of the year are down on last year by 12 per cent on the same period in 2013. However, the month of March has started strongly and our advance bookings for the remainder of this month and for the season ahead are ahead of last years levels.”

Ennis hotelier Brian O’Neil yesterday urged Clare businesses to take advantage of the tourism trends and put Clare back on the Irish and inter- national map. He cites the introduction of a regular and inexpensive bus connections between Dublin and Ennis by Dublin Coaches a game changer for the local tourism market.

“There is a sea-change coming for tourism in Ennis and in Clare. The problem for tourism over the last few years has been the day tours coming out of Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher and other venues and spending very little in Clare,” he said.

“They [Dublin Coaches/Quick Tours] are going to make Ennis their mid-west hub. So people can stay in Ennis for a number of days and take day trips to the Ring of Kerry.

MORE than 110 Bur ren locals, including 60 local businesses, have come together to help force the creation of better broadband services in rural Clare.

The group have formed a co-operative style organisation to bargain directly with broadband providers, and entice them to build a better broadband network in the Bur ren area.

The group will meet with representatives from Airwire today, March 18, who have al ready committed to building one new signal boosting repeater station in the Burren region. Group organiser and owner of the Bur ren yoga Centre, Dave Brocklebank, believes that if he can prove an even greater local demand he will be able to negotiate for better broadband right across the area.

“It’s not rocket science to boost these signals but the companies don’t do it because they don’t see a market for it in the more r ural areas. But if we get together and show them there is a market then we can get repeaters stations built all over the Burren,” said Mr Brocklebank.

“I am a member of the Burren Ecotourism Network and I used that as a platform to get it going. At the moment we have maybe 60 businesses signed up around 50 individuals. I think if we can get a couple of hundred people to sign up we should have proved the demand for them to build repeater stations right across the Bur ren. The more numbers we get the better chance we have of getting the service boosted.”

Airwave will conduct a technical survey in the Burren area tomorrow with a view to constructing a new repeater station. This station will receive a direct, heavy duty, internet connection, which is will then transmit to the local area.

“These stations receive a di rect connection, so the signal strength will not degrade no matter haw many people are using it. Something like this will help maybe 15 or 20 users in that area, so we need to entice the providers to build more of these in the Bur ren,” continued Mr Brocklebank.

“The aims here is to get more and more people to sign up and then we can boost the signal for the entire area. This is just the beginning; if this works for broadband and can see us getting together again to work for other services.”

To sign up to the broadband initiative visit www.bur renyoga.com/ broadband.

THE amount of funding awarded by the Irish Arts Council to local arts festivals in Clare has dropped to its lowest level in almost a decade.

Just € 20, 500 was awarded to Clare festivals under the Festival and Events Scheme (formally the Small Arts Festivals Scheme) for the first half of 2014 – a drop of more then 16 per cent [€ 4,000] on the same scheme for 2013. This is the joint lowest first round funding offered to Clare festivals in more than a decade – equalling the previous funding low which was allocated in 2012.

The Inishcealtra Arts Festival was the worst hit, with a year-on-year funding drop of 64 per cent. The festival’s 2013 Arts Council funding of € 7,000 was slashed down to just € 2, 500 for 2014.

This is the second major funding blow for the Inishcealtra festival, which saw its funding cut from € 9,000 to € 7,000 last year.

Both the Corofin Traditional Festival [€ 6, 500] and the Doran Piping Tionol [€ 3,000] maintained their funding levels this year with the Ennis Book Club Festival actually recording an increase of € 500 – to € 8, 500.

This funding also represents a de- crease of almost 65 per cent from the € 57,100 awarded to Clare festivals under the first round of the Small Arts Festivals Scheme on 2007.

There was also bad news for Glór, which saw a 7 per cent cut to it’s programme funding – down from € 86,000 to € 80,000 for 2014.

The Arts Council’s annual funding scheme saw a slight decrease for Liscannor’s Salmon Poetry, down by € 1, 250 to € 40,750 this year, while the Willie Clancy Summer School remained the same at € 80,000.

There was a slight increase under the Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme with Padraig Rynne [€ 30,000] and the Hunka, Dunne, Robinson Trio [€ 8, 500] receiving a combined total of € 38, 500 compared to the € 37, 500 guided to Guidewires and Nicola Henley of the Wise Ways Projects last year.

CLARE gardaí will be loosing their hair on the streets of Ennis on Friday but it’s all in aid of a good cause.

Members of the force, including Clare’s most senior Garda, Chief Supt John Kerin, will participate in a ‘Shave or Dye’ event in O’Connell Square, Ennis on Friday, March 21, between 12 noon and 4pm.

A total of 18 members of Ennis Garda Station will take part in the event, which is being held to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society.

The Shave or Dye event is part of a nationwide campaign run by Today FM aimed at raising funds for the Irish Cancer Society.

Ten gardaí are expected to shave their heads on Friday. A further eight have opted to dye their hair purple – in recognition of Ennis’s bid to renew its Purple Flag status.

Last February, Ennis became the first Irish town to receive the Purple Flag. The award aims to broaden the appeal and improve the standard of nighttime destinations.

Over 35 English town and city representatives attended the workshop in Ennis on October 23. The Purple Flag award is seen as the benchmark for good evening and nighttime destinations. At present, over 40 towns and cities in UK and Ireland have been awarded Purple Flag accredita- tion.

Friday’s Shave or Dye event is supported by Roots Hair Salon, The Temple Gate Hotel and the Rowan Tree Café and Hostel.

Students from Rice College secondary school will also be giving their support on the day.

Community Garda and event organiser Deirdre O’Doherty said Gardaí are grateful for the support they have received from the business community.

“A couple of businesses have helped us out and if anymore want to come on board they are more than welcome. We’ll be at the Square up to 4pm. We’re hoping to do the shaving at around 3pm so there should be a good crowd around,” explained Garda O’Doherty.

People can contribute on the day or by logging onto the www.mycharity. ie web page.

Funds raised through the event will go towards the Irish Cancer Society.

A NUMBER of people in Clare have received a bizarre phishing email, written entirely in the Irish language, offering them $4.1 million dollars to take part in a business venture in Africa.

The emails, which are addressed from a Mr Ignacio Nwaku, are understood to be the first phishing emails of their kind written as Gaeilge.

A number of Clare people have reported receiving the email since they first appeared last week but there is no indication as yet that the emails are targeting Irish people because of the proximity to St Patrick’s Day.

The email professes to be from Ignacio Nwako – a barrister from the Togo Republic. Mr Nwako claims to be acting on behalf of his late client “Mr David” whose $4.1 million fortune has been lodged in a “coded deceased account”.

Phishing email work by enticing people to reveal important personal details like their online usernames, passwords and even their bank account details.

A spokesperson for Údarás na Gaeltachta, who examined the email for The Clare People , said it contained “jumbled up, nonsensical Irish” and was most likely made using automatic translation software.

The spokesperson also confirmed that this was the first phishing email in Irish that Údarás na Gaeltachta had ever come upon.

“I didn’t notice it at first [that is was written in Irish]. I saw that $4.1 million dollars and I knew straight away it was a scam. I was about to delete it and then I noticed that it was in Irish. I couldn’t believe it,” said one Ennis recipient who asked not to be identified.

The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources have asked members of the public to delete the email straight away.

The email reads: Tá mé Barrister. Ignacio Nwaku ó Phoblacht Tóga, chuaigh mé i dteagmháil leat ar feadh méid togra gnó i gceist é US $ 4.1 milliún dollar mbaineann le mo chliant go déanach Mr David agus tá sé sábháilte sa chuntas códaithe éagaigh. Beidh níos mó sonraí a relayed do duit ach má f haighim do freagra dearfach. Go raibh maith agat. Mr Ignacio Nwaku.

THE Minister for Health James Reilly has said that there will be a new Maternity Hospital on the grounds of the University Hospital Limerick, Dooradoyle, in four years.

The Minister for Health said the relocation is earmarked for completion in 2018.

The first public meeting of the new mid-west hospitals group board, outlined that one of its key objective was to secure capital for a new maternity unit on the Dooradoyle campus.

There was no confirmation as to the timing of the project forthcoming at the meeting last month.

The minister has given a four-year projection for the hospital and Clare TD Joe Carey (FG) believes that is a realistic and feasible timeline.

“The Minister for Health has confirmed the co-location plan is underway and that the hope is for it to be completed by 2018,” he said.

“It has been accepted and recognised by the HSE and Government that the University Maternity Hospital in Limerick, needs to move to a modern purpose-built unit on the grounds of the University Hospital, Limerick.

“Co-location of maternity hospitals with adult acute services is the optimal solution for the provision of hospital-based maternity services, as it can provide access to the full range of medical and surgical specialties and clinical support services in sufficient volume and complexity to provide added value,” he said.

“I am pleased that work is on-going to develop a brief for the co-location of both facilities and would hope this will progress swiftly and efficiently.”