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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.

A JUDGE has refused jurisdiction of a case where it is alleged a man confronted another man with an iron bar on a main street in Ennis last summer. At Ennis District Court on Wednesday, Judge Patrick Durcan said it appeared to him that alleged incidents of this nature are becoming “too prevalent in Ennis”.

He was speaking after details of an alleged assault that took place on Carmody Street on July 1, 2013 were outlined in court.

James Galbraith (37), with an address at Lissanisaka, Claureen, Ennis is charged with assault causing harm to Dylan Dinan.

He is further charged with the production of an iron bar while about to commit assault.

Insp Tom Kennedy said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed summary disposal of the charges in the district court on a plea of guilty only.

Defence solicitor John Casey told the court his client would be pleading guilty.

Insp Kennedy said the alleged in- jured party was a passenger in a van when noticed the accused behind him at around 1.30pm on the day in question.

Insp Kennedy said it would be alleged that when the van stopped, Mr Galbraith came towards it with a crowbar and started to assault Mr Dinan.

Judge Durcan refused jurisdiction. “In my mind this type of stuff is becoming too prevalent in Ennis”, he said.

The case was adjourned to April to allow time for preparation of a book of evidence.

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.

DUSTY the Dolphin has become jumpy and wary of human contact, following a number of high profile incidents with members of the public in Doolin last year.

Members of conservation group, Dolphin Day Ireland, spent the weekend in Doolin warning members of the public not to get in the water with Dusty. This follows a number of dangerous interactions with members of the public last year – with one person being hospitalised after swimming with the dolphin.

Vanessa Fagan-Vanhorn of Dolphin Day Ireland says that last year’s incidents have taken a toll on the Clare dolphin.

“She is definitely more jumpy and easier to startle then she used to be. The incidents of last summer do seem to have had an effect and her behaviour has changed. I was last swimming with her in October but I have been swimming with her in Doolin for more than eight years now,” she said.

“What was noticeable in October was when I put my hand into the water, she flinched. After a moment she recognised me from the camera that I bring with me and after that we swam together for two hours.”

Recent storms in Doolin have blown away all the warning signs, advising members of the public not to swim with Dusty. Dusty was not sighted in Doolin for a number weeks during the storms of January and February, leading to concerns that she might have left the area or been injured in the storms.

“Dusty has never left Doolin. She has been there right through the winter and through all the storm. I don’t think she will ever leave the area. She is very territorial and she has made it her home,” continued Mrs Fagan-Vanhorn.

“Really, people should sit on the rocks and enjoy watching her from there. It’s not that people want to cause her harm but they just don’t understand the species. People desperately want to have the experience of swimming with a dolphin and sometimes that gets the better of them.

“On a positive note there has been a big change in people’s understanding of dolphins, which is a result of last summer’s incidents. People seem to have more of an understanding that dolphins are wild animals.”

AN ENNIS based dentist has said his safety and that of his family’s has been “diminished” since a man threatened to kill him almost two years ago.

The doctor outlined his concerns in a victim impact statement read out by Garda Michelle Holian at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court last week.

Earlier this month, Eoin Hannan (41) was found guilty by a jury of making the threat against the dentist at his practice in Merchant’s Square, Ennis on May 11, 2012.

Mr Hannan, with addresses at Kilrush Road, Ennis and Shear Street, Kilmallock, Ennis was also found guilty of two counts of engaging in threatening, abusive and or insulting behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace.

The jury acquitted the accused of making a threat to burn down the dentist’s practice. Mr Hannan had denied all charges, which arose from visits he made to the surgery on May 10 and May 11, 2012.

Mr Hannan denied making the threats to the dentist. He said, “I told him ‘I am a bullet’ and I left as fast a bullet.” He also said: “I told him to take his drills and get off my island.” Mr Hannan appeared before Ennis Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday fort sentencing. In the victim impact statement, the dentist said his general well-being and safety has been diminished and compromised since the threat.

He said he has increased security meaures as his dental practice. He said he no longer feels comfortable walking the streets of Ennis on his own because “the threat on my life still stands.” He thanked his family, friends and gardaí for the support he has received.

Defence Counsel Michael Collins told the court his client still “vigorously protests his innocence”.

The court heard Mr Hannan, who suffers from a form of bi-polar disorder, has previous convictions for robbery, public order offences and possession of knives and other articles.

“I am not a criminal. I do not regard myself as insane in any way”, he added. Judge Gerald Keys adjourned finalisation of sentencing to April 24. Mr Hannan was remanded in custody.

THE € 200,000 repair works to the main road to Loop Head are to be completed later this week.

The main Kilbaha road has been closed since February 1, when high tides and a storm eroded two parts of the regional road previously made vulnerable by December and January storms.

Local businessman and farmer Bernie Keating said that the local people are delighted with the temporary works, but there was a lot of frustration locally getting to this point.

“The ESB brought in crews from England and Northern Ireland when we had a storm three weeks ago, and within a week everything was back up and running. There are shortterm contractors and tradesmen in every parish in the county crying out for work. Why weren’t they brought in to help out the council workers? Considering the scale of the damage in the county it would have been impossible for the county council workers to handle it,” he said.

“It is ten weeks this weekend since the first storm and the road has been closed for seven of those ten weeks by the council for health and safety reasons,” he added.

“One other concern, after storm Darwin only one county was declared a national disaster and that was Kilkenny. Isn’t it amazing that the minister is from Kilkenny?”

Local senior engineer Cyril Feeney said that the road should be open by the end of the week.

While a small amount of water came in and beach shingle was forced up on to the road with the tide last Monday, no significant damage was done.

The council has already begun € 200,000 worth or interim repair work on the road which included the installation of rock armour along the coastline, and are now completing a small retainer concrete wall between the rock armour and the road.

The engineer said that it will take months before a more permanent work can begin as the council have to go through tender, procurement and planning process.

“Some might say the € 200,000 interim work is a waste of money given that we have to do a million permanent job, but what is that against the local economy, agriculture and tourism,” said Mr Feeney.

CLARE County Council has begun an independent investigation into why asbestos material was illegally deposited at nine locations in West Clare and not disposed of properly.

A council spokesperson said there is “no evidence to suggest there are anymore sites”.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Health and Safety Authority has been informed that the council now plans to remove the hazardous waste from the locations in Kil rush and Kilkee.

“All of the asbestos material investigated to date consists of broken pieces of Asbestos Cement Water main. It is considered that all of this material originated on Clare County Council water services mains replacement and mains repai r works. The material appears to have been deposited over an undetermined number of years up to June 2013,” the spokesperson confirmed.

Asbestos waste material disposal is governed by legal requirements and the requi rements of the HSA and the EPA.

“A specialist asbestos consultant has been engaged by the council to advise the authority on the removal of the materials,” he added.

The removal of the material is to be undertaken in three phases.

Phase one, which is done in accordance with the advice of a specialist asbestos removal consultant involves the removal of pieces of broken asbestos pipe on the surface at all sites.

“This work will commence shortly and will take approximately three to four weeks,” said the spokesperson.

Phase two involves the appointment of a specialist asbestos consultant to develop and car ry out soil testing on the sites to establish the extent of asbestos material which is buried at the sites.

“Phase three will involve the removal of any asbestos material at any of the sites which is buried. The timeline for phase two and three is not known in detail as yet because it is subject to estimating the amount of material in each site,” he explained. The costs associated with car rying out these works are not yet known.

BALLYVAUGHAN grandmother Ellen Moore is preparing to share the story of her mistreatment at the hands of the state with the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

Mrs Moore was given a symphysiotomy without her knowledge or consent while giving birth to her first son in September of 1965. She has been living with near constant pain for the past 50 year since the procedure, which she describes as like “being butchered”.

She will be in Dublin today to officially launch a complaints on behalf of Survivors of Symphysiotomy (SoS) to United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) and United Nations Human Rights Committee. The SoS group, who represent more than 95 per cent of the women who were given symphysiotomy in Irish hospitals, say that they are going to the United Nations as the Government continue to ignore their de- mands.

“We are getting absolutely nowhere with the Government so I we don’t really have any choice but to take this step,” said Ellen yesterday.

“We are meeting tomorrow morning to vote on whether to go to the UN, but I believe that that vote is a foregone conclusion at this stage. The details are not 100 per cent clear but someone from the group will go to Geneva later this week. I signed a legal letter last week to say that I am happy that the details of my case go forward to the United Nations and I would be more than happy to Geneva and tell them my story.”

Elizabeth “Ellen” Moore says that she has wanted to die on a number of occasions over the years following her symphysiotomy, which has left her in near constant pain and completely incontinent. This procedure, which involved breaking a woman’s pelvic bone during labour, was carried out on an estimated 1,500 Irish women in the 1960 and ‘70s but fewer than 200 of these women are still alive.

THE people of Gort are in a state of shock following the tragic death of two local people in a house fire n the town last Thursday morning. The victims, who have been named locally as 38-year-old Ben Whiteman and 65-year-old Nuala Sweeney, died after a blaze broke out at 2.50am at Tom O’Donnell’s Flats on the Rail- way Road.

Numerous tributes have been paid locally to mother-of-four Nuala Sweeney and to Ben Whiteman, who worked as a mechanic. The pair have lived locally in Gort for more than a decade but had previously lived in the Caher area of East Clare. Four units of the fire brigade from Gort and Loughrea attended the scene and spent more than three hours bringing the blaze under control.

While the incident is not being treated as suspicious, questions have been raised after the first unit of the fire brigade to arrive on the scene had to delay entering the building for 25 minutes until a back-up unit arrived.

The normal complement of firefighters in Gort is nine, but for several months the station been reduced to just four. The four-man crew had to observe the protocol of having a back-up crew to support them before they could enter the building.

Galway County Council, which administers the service, has been attempting to recruit additional personnel, but has had difficulty in securing appropriate candidates for the positions.

“Would lives have been saved, or would the building have been as badly damaged – and there is a shopping centre nearby – if Gort was fully resourced?” said local Cllr Gerry Finnerty (FF).

“I know the council have been trying to recruit firefighters; I’ve seen the flyers, but we just don’t have too many people who are willing to work in our town. We have lost one-sixth of our working population since 2006.

“I’m very concerned at the impact of the under-resourcing of the fire service is having in the town and in south Galway, which is a large rural area.”

A VOLUNTARY housing association has submitted plans to the HSE and the Department of Health showing it can give round the clock care to older people in a community setting, for one fifth of the cost of long-stay nursing home care.

The innovative proposal put forward by the Kilmaley Voluntary Housing Association outlines how for € 250,000 per annum from the Government, the voluntary organisation could provide 24-hour care and security to older people in its 24 housing units.

This would also move the service in Kilmaley from independent living to assisted living as the current residents get older and require more help.

The housing complex, which was set up in 2000, will open 12 more units next month bringing the number of homes in the community up to 24.

The latest plan sent to the HSE, Department of Health and the Fair Deal Review Committee proposes to increase support for residents of Kilmaley Voluntary Housing Com plex so that they can remain in their homes as long as possible.

Kilmaley Voluntary Housing Association director Tom McNamara said that the complex would then be able to provide around the clock security; assistance and care to the residents as long as they can are mobile.

The business plan shows this can be achieved if each residence pays € 75 in rent every week, which will cover all electricity, heating and other costs, and the HSE pays the required staff. The extra staffing cost would come to € 250, 579, along with the € 150,000 costs already covered for the day-care centre.

The business plan claims that a similar service at Cahercalla Nursing Home would cost € 1.2 million, € 1.3 million at St Joseph’s Hospital, and € 1.1 million in Páirc Na Coille Nursing Home.

The benefits would not just be monetary, said Mr McNamara who is also a member of Clare County Council, but would allow older people to have their own home while also having security and assistance as required.

“All we are looking for is the staff costs. We have the infrastructure and we have the expertise to run it on a voluntary capacity,” he said. “We want people to grow old in as normal a way as possible and to be secure and safe as they do,” he added.