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A WOMAN in her late 80s has been trapped in her East Clare home since Christmas Day because of unprecedented local flooding.

The four houses in the Dooras area of O’Callaghan Mills have been effectively cut off from the rest of the world for the past six weeks – as their only access road now covered by a 200 metre long lake of water.

One family was evacuated from a rented house in Doora on Christmas Eve, with their landlady using a tractor to pass through the flooded road. However, since then the road has been impassable, even for tractors, with sitting water of up to five feet on the road itself, with a further 10 foot of water on either side of the access road.

Three members of another affected family, including three young children, left their homes last weekend but a number of people have no choice but to remain.

The only access to the homes at present is through a long stretch of bog, which is itself flooded and very dangerous to cross.

“The situation is very bad at the moment. There is no access, not even with a tractor. Some of the residents were using a quad to get out through a local bog, but unfortunately the quad got stuck last Saturday, so they have to go by foot to get in and out to the houses,” said Cllr Joe Cooney (FG).

“You are taking your life into your own hands driving down there, even in a tractor. You can’t see the road for 200 metres along the road and there is a a drop of nine or ten foot on one side of the road.”

The road has not flooded since 2009, with Clare County Council raising the road surface following the last prolonged period of flooding. It is understood that a blockage along the O’Garney River could be cause of the current flood.

“Is is very disappointing to have this happen. It’s awful to have people leave our parish because of the flood ed, but in fairness, the council have given us a commitment that when this flooding goes down, they will do some work to rectify the situation,” said Cllr Cooney.

THREE men found guilty of attacking a car while a religious ceremony was underway at Drumcliff graveyard will learn next week if they are go to prison.

Michael Doherty (52), Patrick Doherty (34) and James Galbraith (45) were convicted in December (2013) of criminal damage.

They were ordered by Judge William Early to pay € 7000 compensation to the victim.

Judge Early said if the money was paid, he would recommend a six month suspended sentence for each accused.

Finalisation of the case was adjourned to January 22, 2014 when the court heard that compensation had not yet been paid to the victim.

In December Ennis District Court heard mother of two Kathleen Maughan was visiting her husband’s grave when her Ford Focus car was damaged in a violent incident at Drumcliff cemetery.

Ms Maughan told the court she saw three men armed with slash hooks and hatchets alight from vehicles and attack her car on March 24, 2013.

Ms Maughan, who is from Ennis but now lives in Cork, was one of a group of 20 people attending a blessing of the graves ceremony.

Ms Maughan said, “I’m terrified to come to Ennis.

“I’m terrified to bring my children to see their father’s grave”, she added.

The court heard there was a feud between Traveller families in Clare at the time.

Ms Maughan said she had nothing to do with the dispute, which involved members of her family.

“I wasn’t fighting with them at all. I was terrified”, she explained.

The court heard € 7000 worth of damage was caused to Ms Maughan’s car.

Michael Doherty and Patrick Doherty, both with addresses at St Michael’s Park, Ballymaley, Ennis and James Galbraith, formerly of Lissaniska, Ennis and now living in Bettystown, Meath, all denied the charge of criminal damage.

But after hearing the evidence, Judge William Early said, “I believe the evidence of Ms Maughan.

“I believe she is telling the truth, therefore it must follow that I find them guilty as charged.”

Judge Early said it seemed to be the case that Ms Maughan was a “victim of one of these wretched family feuds that are all too common in the traveler community”.

There was a heated conclusion to the case.

A flurry of insults were fired at Ms Maughan from people sitting in the gallery.

A 41-year-old woman, who was later ordered to pay a contribution to charity after pleading guilty to a public order charge, told Ms Maughan she would “bite her nose off”.

Mr Galbraith told Judge Early he would not pay the victim.

“You can send me to jail, Judge. I won’t give her 10 cents. You can put me in jail now,” he said.

The case came before Judge Patrick Durcan on January 22.

He asked if compensation was available.

Solicitor for Patrick and Michael Doherty, Daragh Hassett, said it was not.

The case was further adjourned to January 28 to fix a date for Judge Early to finalise matters.

On Tuesday, the case was adjourned to February 11 when Judge Early will pass sentence.

All three accused were remanded on continuing bail.

A WELL-KNOWN family business in Ennis was targeted by criminals on two occasions over the weekend.

Thieves stole a number of items after breaking into Guerin’s Shop in the Cornmarket area of the town in the early hours of Friday morning at last.

The burglary occurred sometime between 6pm on Thursday, January 30, and 7.30am on Friday, January 31.

It is thought an axe or other heavy implement was used to smash a hole in the front door.

A number of Gael Linn one euro lottery tickets, an amount of various brand cigarettes were all that was taken.

Temporary repairs were carried out on the door but the premises was again targeted just two nights later.

Between 3am and 6am on Monday, morning another attempt was made to gain entry to the shop by trying to force open the front door.

No entry was gained and nothing was stolen on this occasion.

A crow bar may have been used to prize loose a board covering the damage from the previous break in. It is thought the perpetrators may have been watching the shop in the days leading up the burglary.

It is believed they are from the Ennis area. Investigating gardaí are studying CCTV footage of the area and are following a definite line of inquiry.

They are urging anyone who may have seen anything on the nights in question to contact them at Ennis Garda Station.

Guerin’s has operated as a familyrun grocery shop in the Cornmarket area of the town since 1968/69.

It re-opened six years ago and has previously been the target of breakins.

Shop owner Clodagh Guerin said the latest incidents had a big impact on the family.

“It’s not just the financial cost of the damage caused and the things that were stolen, it’s the psychological cost also.

“You’re wondering is this going to happen again?” she said.

The building is the location for ‘The Stone Outside Dan Murphy’s Door’ – a well-known Clare.

CARRIGAHOLT Postmaster Patrick Gavin’s house has been cut off from the mainland for the last five weeks due to the storms that have been battering the West Clare coast.

With road access is so poor, Patrick has been cut off from much human contact, especially that of his daughter, who he has not been able to see for the last fortnight.

As a sufferer of epilepsy, it’s too dangerous for her to visit in case she becomes ill and cannot access the medical attention she needs.

“It’s starting to take effect you know.

It’s starting to get to me now,” Mr Gavin said.

The Carrigaholt Post Office flooded last weekend for the second time in a month.

“The whole place is destroyed,” he added.

Mr Gavin says that the worst part of the most recent flood damage for the local residents is the lack of action from the Government.

Referring to a visit from Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Brian Hayes, Mr Gavin said the focus of politicians and repair work should be on people affected by the floods, not public amenities:

“He should have come to meet the people, you know and give them some heart.

“The minister should have told them we have it under control, we’ll work at getting funding and getting the place fixed up”.

Mr Gavin claims that more attention should be paid to local residents affected by the storm before attending to public areas such as the promenade in Lahinch.

“I think the six residents up where I live might be a little more important than the prom in Lahinch or the unfortunate people in Quilty that are being flooded out of their houses,” he said.

He also added that plans for coastal erosion should be given priority over proposals for other council and public projects.

Despite the disconnect that Patrick Galvin sees between politics and people the Carrigaholt postmaster was adamant that young people should still get involved in local politics but change their emphasis;

“What we need is people who want to wear the jersey, who want to do it for people, not for themselves,” he added.

The devastation in Carrigaholt and neighbouring areas has seen many homes cut off for the second time in recent weeks as the weekend floods and high tides undid much of the progress that had been made with repairs over the past month from Storm Christine.

ANY repair work carried out along the Shannon estuary following the January storms were quickly disposed of by the St Bridgid’s Day at the weekend, and now up to 2,000 acres of agricultural land remains under damaging sea water.

New breaches have also been added to the Shannon embankment.

The main Ennis to Kildysart road remains flooded at Ballycorrick Bridge in Ballynacally and becomes impassable at high tide.

All low lying areas were still un der water on Monday with agricultural land in Ballynacally, Kildysart, Clonderlaw, Burrane in Kilimer and Carnacalla, Kilrush severely flooded. One house in Shore Park, Kildysart, was also flooded, as was the local graveyard.

The road from Kildysart to Labasheeda was closed on Saturday as the sea wall was damaged and debris littered the road.

Local county councillor Oliver Garry (FG) said local farmers are under pressure to look after the embankment as the Office of Public Works did not take over responsibility for the area from the Board of Works.

“30 years ago the Board of Works serviced those embankments, but when the OPW took over they did not service those areas, they only serviced land from Island Avanna down to Shannon Airport,” he said.

Cllr Garry said a meeting has now been arranged with the Minister for Agriculture and junior minister in the department in a bid to lobby them for a one-off grant to carry out works on the embankment forgotten by the OPW. It is hoped the meeting will take place later this week.

AS THE waters begin to recede along the Clare coast, the focus now turns inland with council engineers monitoring extremely high water levels on a number of the county’s rivers, including the Fergus.

Clare County Council yesterday warned people in Ennis and along the lower Shannon area to be extremely vigilant and take all necessary precautions, with heavy rain likely to swell rivers further in the coming days.

According to rainfall figures recorded at Shannon Airport, the county has already received almost a quarter (194.6mm) of the total rain that fell on the 12 months of 2013. A further 3 inches of rain, or 76mm, is expected to fall in the county over the next seven days.

Senior engineer Tom Tiernan said yesterday that newly constructed flood defenses in Ennis have worked well to date, but warned that the expected rainfall is likely to test these defenses to their limits.

People living in sections of Ennis where flood defenses have not yet been complete have been asked to be particularly vigilant in the com- ing days.

“The pressure on coastal areas is starting to lessen – we’re not out of the woods yet but the tides are starting to drop back. There has been a lot of rainfall and more on the way so there is a real possibility of local flooding in certain areas,” said Mr Tiernan yesterday.

“The Fergus is our main focus at the moment. The new defenses that were built have worked, and that is very significant. But all of the flood relief works have not yet been completed and we would ask that people in flood prone areas would remain vigilant.”

Council engineers are continuously monitoring river levels in the Fergus and in a number of at-risk rivers across the county.

Contingency arrangements are in place to increase pumping capacity in certain areas and a number of emergency flood alleviation measures are also in place.

WAITING times are down in all the University Limerick Hospitals, including Ennis and Limerick, but people are still waiting months for routine procedures.

That was the message from the first public meeting of the new hospitals group board, who also heard that while the hospital group had once again run millions of euros over budget, the over run was significantly lower than previous years.

Chief Executive of UL Hospitals Ann Doherty told the meeting that the hospital group had met govern- ment targets in 2013 and was now aiming to be ranked in the top three Irish hospitals by 2018.

According to the figures presented the longest any patient had to wait for a routine out-patient appointment was one year, a figure acceptable to Government targets.

No patient was waiting more than eight months for scheduled in-patient or day case procedures and no child was waiting more than eight months for a scheduled in-patient of day case procedure. According to the figures released all routine and urgent colonoscopy targets were also met.

Waiting times in the regions only 24-hour emergency department re- mains an issue however.

In December 58.4 per cent of patients were seen in under six hours. However 25 per cent of patients still hadn’t been treated within nine hours of arrival at A&E.

The group had however a financial over run of € 10.119 million which is 4.1 per cent of its annual budget allocation.

Ms Doherty said that the over run, or what she described as a financial challenge, at the beginning of 2013 was € 21.7 million or 9.1 per cent.

“The sizeable improvement in financial performance is noteworthy and is attributed to a number of factors such as additional budget alloca- tion, generation of additional income and the formation of sub committees to monitor, approve and provide visibility and accountability at every organisational level over all areas of spend.”

Launching its three-year strategic plan for the hospital group, Ms Doherty also outlined the plans for this year.

A ten-bed Intensive Care Unit is to be completed as well as an eight-bed High Dependency Unit.

She said that plans are also in place to maximise the use of bed capacity across the hospitals in Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary, and to recruit additional neonatal and obstet- ric consultants.

Plans for 2014 amongst others include more beds for the main hospital in Dooradoyle, Limerick, the opening of a temporary interim paediatric emergency department and continued capital investment.

The new Parkinson’s, stroke, breast and dermatology building, which is being developed with the voluntary sector is ear marked for 2015.

Other works including the new much needed Emergency Department for Limerick is expected to be completed in 2016.

A key objective for the board is to secure capital for a new maternity unit on the Dooradoyle campus.

QUEEN Elizabeth II’s only son-inlaw visited the county last week unbeknownst even to the Clare people he met.

The lesser known of the British Royal Family, Vice-Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence was part of the RNLI Coastal Review Group that visited the Irish Coast Guard Helicopter Head Quarters in Shannon, the RNLI station in Lough Derg and the Kilrush RNLI Life Boat.

The husband of Princess Ann identified himself as Tim Laurence and ingratiated himself by his laid back attitude and his interest in all things nautical.

Pauline Dunleavy from the Kilrush RNLI said the crew found him to be a “really lovely gentleman” and it was only days after he left and with the help of google they worked out his royal connections.

The former British Navy Lieutenant Commander was particularly impressed with the condition of the three-year-old Kilrush lifeboat and the work of mechanic Martin Brew.

Kilrush RNLI were so delighted at getting the green light from the coastal review team to continue work along the West Clare coast, they did not notice the royal visitor.

Tim, the second husband of the queen’s only daughter, was born the son of a London salesman and joined the British Royal Navy as a young man.

He was quickly promoted through the ranks eventually reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In 1986, he was appointed as Equerry to Queen Elizabeth, a post he would occupy for three years.

Equerries to the Queen are most commonly high-ranking military officers who attend to her during public appearances and royal events.

It was during this time he met his future wife, Princess Anne.

A SITE has been identified in Ennis for the establishment of a park to honour the memory of Clare people who died in conflicts around the world.

A green area between Glór and the Temple Gate Hotel will be the location for the Clare Peace Park. There are already plans to erect a sculpture to recognise the sacrifices of men and women who fought in conflicts such as the Vietnam War

The € 200,000 sculpture will be funded by the Vietnam Veteran’s Advocacy Group, whose members have been regular visitors to Ennis.

The memorial will include the following inscription:

“This memorial is dedicated to the Irish men and women who served in Allied military service in south East Asia during the period 1959-1975. Those who were lost are listed in the order in which they were taken.” A Mayo artist has secured the tender for the project.

A local group, the Clare Peace Park Initiative, are proposing to erect a memorial to the estimated 700 Clare soldiers who served in World War I.

The group was founded in December 2012 from a Remembrance Day Service Committee.

It is intended that the park would be a focal point for the existing commemoration ceremony that takes place on November 11 each year.

Dr Keir McNamara of the Clare Peace Park Initiative explained;

“We also intend to remember those who died from Clare in international conflicts since then.

A total of 45 Clare men died in the Second World War (1939-1945), two in The Spanish Civil war (1936-1939) and two in Korea (1950-1953).”

The group are asking anyone who may have information on Clare people who fought in World War I to contact them.

Further information is available on www. clarepeaceparki nt iat ive. com and the group’s Facebook page.

The group also intends to launch a fundraising initiative.

“In a few years you’re going to have the centenaries 1916/17 so if we don’t get things going we may lose momentum,” added Dr McNamara.

FOUR houses were evacuated in Doonbeg during the early hours of Saturday morning as waves smashed through windows and doors.

The houses along the Dunmore road had never previously experienced flooding or such force from the waves as the battlement along the bay protected them.

On Saturday morning last the 70year battlement could not hold back the ferocity of the storm and the homes along with the local caravan park were flooded.

During the storm on January 7, the land was flooded up to 150 metres from the village, reaching the 50 kilometres per hour sign at the bridge.

On Saturday morning the water far surpassed that reaching areas that had never before seen floodwater.

Community activist Tommy Commerford told The Clare People there were a number of vulnerable areas in the parish following the storm.

The stone barrier at Rhynnagonnaught was swept away allowing the water to run as far as Mountrivers.

By yesterday (Monday) up to 150 acres of land in this area still remained under seawater.

Stones and debris once again made agricultural land unworkable for lo- cal farmers, with many contending with reseeding land once again under seawater.

The road to Rhynnagonnaught is also under threat following the storm and the loss of this would maroon the residents on an island similar to what happened at Kilcredaun on the Loop Head peninsula.

Manager at the Doonbeg Golf Course and Spa Joe Russell said that while the golf course was once again victim to the storm the damage was not as significant as in January.

“It brought back the dune face again but not as much as before. The most notable thing is the debris on the golf course,” he said.

A significant clean up at the golf course is underway and plans are beginning for a major clean up at Doughmore beach.

“More needs to be done long term. If this happened every year we would have a problem,” the manager said.

“There is a long-term discussion that needs to be had. A long-term Government strategy needs to be prepared for this instead of going from crisis to crisis every year.”

An estimated € 800,000 worth of damage was done to infrastructure in the Doonbeg area in January, but with more places affected following the weekend that number is expected to multiply.