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MAGOWNA House in Inch is the latest Clare hotel to go under the hammer at an Allsop Space Auction with a reserve price of € 350,000.

Last year at the auction, Ashford Court Hotel in Ennis was sold to Clarecastle businessman and farmer JJ McCabe for € 305,000.

The millionaire also bought the Kilkee Bay Hotel that failed to sell at the same auction in a private deal afterwards.

Now the sellers of the 10-bed Magowna House are hoping for similar success.

Three two-bedroom cottages and an 18-hole pitch and putt course are also part of the sale.

The hotel is not the only property for sale at the February 25 auction however.

16.67 acres of land in Doonbeg, as well as an apartment at Town Court, Shannon and 22 acres of land at Ard- nacrusha are also to be sold off.

The “irregular-shaped plot of land” at Doonbeg is being offered with a reserve of € 75,000.

The 60-square-metre apartment in Shannon will sell for no less than € 20,000.

The two-bedroom property is on the first floor and includes off street parking.

Meanwhile a parcel of land in Ardnacrusha extending to approximately 8.963 hectares (22.13 acres) will go on sale with a reserve of € 75,000.

This irregular-shaped plot of land is subject to a tenancy expiring in March 2015 at a current rent of € 450 per annum.

The Clare properties and land are just five of 190 properties to go under the hammer in the RDS, Dublin, on February 25 starting at 9am.

Allsop Space director of auctions Robert Hoban maintained that no repossessed family homes would be sold at any of the company’s auctions.

THE Irish Red Cross said it is available to help the people of Clare affected by flooding and storms.

More than a month after the first two storms that destroyed homes, infrastructure and livelihoods on the west coast of Clare and along the Shannon River and estuary, and weeks following the third storm, those affected are still referring to the fallout as an emergency.

In Doonbeg a special group has been set up to lobby for “emergency works” along the coast, while families in Cloughaninchy in Quilty battle with insurance companies as they struggle to repair their homes.

In areas like Loop Head, main roads remain impassable and farmers through out the county struggle to reclaim land in time for spring.

Acknowledging the issues facing people in the county the Red Cross said it is there to help.

James Lafferty, Irish Red Cross Clare Area Treasurer, said anyone in Clare’s affected areas that wish to apply for assistance from the Irish Red Cross should contact Fintan Breen, National Services, to be put in contact with their local Community Welfare Office. His e-mail is f breen@redcross.ie. Meanwhile the Red Cross is under financial pressure to provide such services.

“The Irish Red Cross, Clare Area, wish to make an appeal for funds and over the next few weeks we hope to raise much needed funds through church gate collections all over Clare,” said Mr Lafferty.

THE number of people signing on the live register in Clare has increased for the third straight month – with North Clare continuing to return worrying statistics.

While a slight increase in the live register is normally seen in January, with temporary Christmas workers returning to the list – the concentration of continued poor live registers results from the Ennistymon area office have been seen by many as a cause for concern.

Indeed, nearly half of the entire increase reported in Clare last year was recorded in North Clare. The number of people signing on at the Ennistymon Social Welfare office increase from 1, 541 to 1,605 – a month on month increase of more than 4 per cent or 64 people.

The number of people signing on in the county as a whole increase by 133, amounting to a county wide average increase of just 1.4 per cent. This increase was largely driven by the number from Ennistymon.

The Ennis figures showed a increase of just 1.09 per cent with the number of people signing on increasing by 56, from 5,111 to 5,167 people.

The increase was even less in Tulla and Kilrush which recorded increases of just 0.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively. The live register figures from Ennistymon have been increasing quicker than anywhere else in the county in recent months.

It had been thought that this increase was due to the areas dependence on the tourism sector. However, the continuation of the trend long past the end of the tourist season has caused some in the region to worry about long term difficulty.

Despite this results from Ennistymon, the overall outlook remains positive with last month recording the lowest number of people on the live register in January since 2009.

THE awards continue to roll in for the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience, with the North Clare tourism location involved in the business end of three separate awards over the past week.

This glut of awards and recognition comes in the wake of the best year for tourism number on record at the Cliffs of Moher – with almost 950,000 people visiting the world famous tourism site last year.

Management are hopeful of breaking the one million visitor mark this year – and maybe reclaiming the title of Ireland’s most visited tourism site for the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.

The website of the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience has just been shortlisted for the Samsung Digital Media Awards in the ‘Best in Travel and Tourism’ category, with the results due to be released later this month. This comes just weeks after the website was shortlisted for the prestigious Eircom Golden Spider Awards, finishing runner-up.

“The website is designed to have a high visual appeal with full screen background images and exciting video and 360 degree image content bringing the site alive. It can be viewed on mobile devices including smartphone and iPad,” said Geraldine Enright of the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience.

“Visitors planning their trip have use of an interactive map with suggested walking routes and can even book their tickets online at a dis counted price. The website is fully integrated with social media including Facebook and Twitter, YouTube, TripAdvisor, Pinterest and Stumble- upon. The story of the Cliffs of Moher is told along a timeline reaching back into the distant past.”

Meanwhile, the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience last week was presented with a Silver Merit Award at the 2014 CIE Awards for Visitor Attractions. The awards are chosen from an independent evaluation of feedback surveys completed by over 17,000 CIE Tours International customers.

JUST over € 91,000 was paid out to eight of the nine members of Ennis Town Council last year.

The payments were made up of expenses, wages, and the cost of attending conferences and seminars, with the two councillors who served as mayor for six months each during the year accruing the largest payments.

Current mayor Cllr Mary Coote Ryan (FG) and former mayor Cllr Peter Considine (FF) received € 17,166 each.

The sum included the councillors’ taxable salary of € 8,362 as well as mayoral allowance of € 5,750. Cllr Considine’s expenses also included a trip to Charleston, USA, while mayor.

All town councillors are entitled to the taxable salary, with the exception of those who also serve on Clare County Council – Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind), Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) and Cllr Brain Meaney (FF).

The deputy mayors also receive a deputy mayoral allowance of € 2,625 for the six months of the year they serve. In 2013 that payment went to Cllr Brennan and Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind).

Members of Ennis Town Council are also entitled to claim for 50 per cent of vouched mobile phone costs, as well as the cost of a mobile phone and other “IT equipment” and office costs such as printing.

Cllr Flynn was the only councillor not to receive any payment from Ennis Town Council as he did not claim any expenses. He also refused to claim expenses as a member of Clare County Council, receiving only his Clare County Council salary.

When it came to attending town council meetings, including specialised committee meetings, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) was top of the class, having been to 23 meetings.

Two thirds of the councillors however had a full attendance rate for the monthly town council meetings with everyone in attendance at the budget meeting.

AN ATTENDANCE is excess of 10,000 is expected in Cusack Park this Sunday as Clare’s senior hurlers kick off their 2014 Division 1A National Hurling League campaign against Brian Cody’s Kilkenny.

The ground is expected to be able to host the fixture despite the inclement weather forecast for the week, with up to 12mms of rain possible on Friday. Clare come into the game on the back of a fourteen point loss to Tipperary in the Waterford Crystal Final under lights in the Gaelic Gounds on Friday night.

That game highlighted the gap between the All-Ireland champions and the other top hurling counties in terms of preparations according to Banner boss Davy Fitzgerald:

“We are way behind all the other teams in terms of work done. This time last year, going into the league we were eight weeks ahead of where we are this year.

“That’s the price of winning an AllIreland and we’re happy to pay it. It just means we might struggle in the early rounds of the league because we have an awful lot of work to do on catching up with the other teams. But we’ll knuckle down and we’ll get it done,” he told The Clare People this week.

Clare’s team won’t be finalised until closer to the weekend although it is expected to contain a couple of changes from the fifteen that started the All-Ireland final.

Cathal ‘Tots’ O’Connell and Seadna Morey are just two players expected to be pushing for starting places, while Peter Duggan, Shane Golden and Donal Tuohy are also in the reckoning.

Brian Cody is bringing a strong panel to Ennis, with Henry Shefflin expected to start the match. The Cats will be providing a guard of honour for Clare before the game starts.

THE first step towards what could the formation of the first ever Women’s Shed initiative in Ireland will be taken in Ennis on Thursday.

A meeting will take place at the offices of Clare Women’s Network at the Clonroad business park on February 13, 12 noon.

The proposal to develop a Women’s Shed in Ennis was put forward by local women Paula McNamara and Mary Howard.

It is similar to the Men’s Shed initiative – an international movement that provides opportunities for male volunteers to participate in voluntary community projects e.g planting housing estate green areas with native trees, shrubs and flowers. The ethos of the Men’s Shed is that men talk better shoulder-to-shoulder rather than face-to-face, this activity has many benefits – companionship, nonalcohol social outlet, mental health benefits, and skill development and enhancement.

The Ennis Men’s Shed is based at Centrepoint, Orchard Lane, Ennis. Paula McNamara says the success of the Men’s Shed was the inspiration for the Women’s Shed.

She explained, “We would be swapping skills teaching each other woodwork, crafts, computer, but mainly it’s an excuse to get out of the house, meet other women, and make friends. In this day and age it’s very easy to feel isolated when you become a mum, finish school, if you’re out of work, if your friends have emigrated or if you’ve retired it’s very easy to feel cut off, so the hope is that women of all ages all backgrounds would come together and work projects to help the community and hopefully have fun and make friend in the process”.

She added, “The women’s shed would be using the same facilities as the Ennis Men’s Shed at different days and times. The aim is to promote social interaction and aim to increase the quality of life and help out in the community. Our first meeting is next week and we should be ready to launch the Women’s Shed mid-March and we will be one of the world’s first Women’s Sheds running alongside a men’s shed. The women’s shed would be run on the same principles as the Men’s Sheds as non-profit organisations, to advise and improve the overall well being of all women”.

It is thought this would be the first Women’s Shed in Ireland. Mary Howard, a Fine Gael member of Ennis Town Council, said, “I am delighted to be asked to come on board as an advocate and facilitator with both the Ennis Men’s Shed and the upcoming Ennis Women’s Shed Project. There is a huge need for both of these facilities. The men who have set up the Ennis Men’s Shed are absolute gentlemen who have the most infectious enthusiasm and the biggest hearts. I am thrilled to be on board.”

IT APPEARS that Christianity and paganism coexisted in the Burren for hundreds of years – far longer than than had been previously thought.

Radiocarbondating of three bodies discovered at the Caherconnell Stone Fort in Carron has revealed that the woman and two infant children died somewhere between 535 AD and 649 AD.

The human remains, which were discovered underneath the fort last summer, have given archeologist a new perspective on the relationship between pagan and Christian peoples in the area.

The burial cist was discovered underneath the remains of a stone fort built in the area in the 10th or 11th century. The placing of the cists indicates that the fort was built on top of the ancient burial site, with part of the site actually visible inside the fort.

The current theory is that the people who built the fort were drawing on their connection to this pagan people buried their 500 years earlier to help legitimize their own rule in the area.

It has previously been determined that the fort belonged to a high status local, Christian clan.

“The fort was built on top of the burial site and it must have been done on purpose. By all accounts Christianity should have been fully in at this time, but it seems that the high status people who lived here were happy to keep one foot in each world,” said John Davoran of the Caherconnell Stone Fort.

Testing on the remain has shown that they belonged to a woman who was at least 45 years old, a baby aged between one and two and a very young baby, possibly a newborn or still born child.

The bodies were discovered during annual excavation led by Michelle Comber of NUI, Galway, last summer. There will be further excavation on the site this summer.

“I’d say we will be digging here for another 1,000 years. We have plenty left to discover,” continued Mr Davoran.

“We will be focusing on the fort again this year.

“We’d like to locate the original house of the people who built the fort. We feel that this could unlock a few more of the secrets of the fort.

“But we will be moving from the fort in the years to come.

“There is a large amount of interesting sites in the area and we are very keen to see what they contain.”

A CLARE woman who endured a four-year sentence in a € 300,000 ‘debt prison’ has secured a 70-day protection period from her creditors.

The woman, who lives in Shannon, has a mortgage of € 329,000 with a financial institution, the Personal Insolvency Court in Ennis heard on Friday.

The Circuit Court heard the 30year-old secretary took out the mortgage on an investment property with her then boyfriend.

The relationship has since ended and it is thought the man has left the jurisdiction.

The court heard the woman has monthly repayments of € 1,600 and a credit card debt of € 3,600.

She is now living in rented accommodation. Judge Patrick Meaghan was told the investment property cost € 345,000 in 2007 but is now worth € 170,000.

The court heard the property is in poor condition with repair costs estimated at between € 20,000 and € 25,000. Judge Meaghan said he was satisfied to grant the protection certificate, meaning the woman now has 70 days to strike a deal with creditors.

The woman was not in court for the brief hearing, but was represented by Ennis based Personal Insolvency Practitioner (PIP) John Hogan.

Mr Hogan said the court’s decision would come as a relief to his client.

He said, “For 70 days she doesn’t have to worry about court appearances or things like that and just the level of hope that an arrangement can be reached”

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Mr Hogan said the emotional toll of struggling with debt had been “huge” on his client.

“She has put down four years of virtual trauma from her point of view. She obviously suffered the effect of the break-up of a relationship and then as a consequence of that, to be left holding the proverbial baby with regards the mortgage”.

He said the volountary surrender of the property would have been ideal for the woman but she would have been left with the balance of the mortgage – € 200,000

Mr Hogan added, “It really is a life sentence. Most traumas that people suffer heal in time, but when it comes to finance, you’re getting that letter every week, that phone call.

“There are statements coming in. It never leaves. It’s like a continuous sense of trauma.”

“She really has and people like her have suffered virtually a three year prison sentence”.

Mr Hogan said people he believes the personal insolvency process offers hope to debtors and banks.

“The real hope for people is that they are not expected just to exist. They are expected to be able to live and be socially included.

“What’s actaully happening is that people are trying to pay as much as they conceivably can to satisfy their creditors at the expense of food, light and heat..

“This process actually turns the tables a little bit”

THE cost of the unprecedented run of storms which battered the Clare coast over the past five weeks has grown to a massive € 36.8 million according to new estimates published yesterday by Clare County Council.

This means that more than € 12 million worth of damage was inflicted on the county over the past two weeks – with the giant sea swell and high winds of the St Brigid’s Day storm causing the lion’s share of this new damage.

This, coupled with the € 24 million worth of damage cause during the storm in early January, has left Clare County County with the possibility of a large hole in its budget should central government fail to make sufficient money available.

It was also revealed at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council that the local authority has already spent € 750,000 of its own money on repairs and clean-up operations to date.

County Manager Tom Coughlan admitted yesterday that the local authority has no budget for this € 750,000, admitting that the council was spending money that it did not have.

The council’s Corporate Policy Group (CPG) met before yesterday’s main council meeting and compiled a letter for the Government which stated that the council couldn’t, in good conscience, continue to spend money on repairs without central government giving firm details of the funding that will be made available. The most expensive storm damage was recorded in Lahinch where the council estimates that € 6.064 million will be required to fix damage done to the promenade and surround areas. The cost of repairs at Cloughaninchy in Quilty is now estimated at € 4.716, with the bulk of this going towards the re-construction of more than two kilometres of sea armour. There was also significant damage at Kilbaha in West Clare (€ 3.498 million) and New Quay in north Clare (€ 3.449 million) where roads and sea walls have been destroyed. Other badly damaged areas include Carrowmore (€ 1.628 million), White Strand/Doonmore (€ 1.550 million), Clahane in Liscannor (€ 1.487 million), Kilcredaun Irish College (€ 1.226 million), Carrowdotia, Moneypoint (€ 1.115 million), Doolin (€ 1.025 million) and Liscannor itself (€ 1.011 million). Serious questions have also been raised as to what agency or agencies are responsible for coastal defenses. There are 14 different agencies which have some interest in coastal and river flood defenses. “Until there is some clarity as to who is responsible for these areas this is going to be a very difficult project. We are all talking about providing leadership, but we cannot lead unless we know where we are going,” said county manager Tom Coughlan. “There are a lot of agencies involved, but there is no clarity who is responsible. We need a co-ordinated approach and that has to be led by Government. This is something that is outside the scope of Clare County Council.”