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JAILED peace activist Margaretta D’Arcy may serve the remainder of her sentence in Mountjoy, a court has heard.

The 79-year-old writer was arrested and brought to Limerick women’s prison earlier this month after failing to sign a court bond forbidding her from entering areas of Shannon Airport unauthorised to the public.

Ms D’Arcy, of St Bridget’s Place, Woodquay, Galway and her co-accused Niall Farrell (60), of Ballynacloghy, Maree, Galway, were convicted last month of interfering with the proper use of Shannon Airport by going onto the main jet runway with- out permission.

The pair held a peaceful protest on the main jet runway of Shannon Airport on October 7, 2012.

They denied the charge but were convicted and each given a three month prison sentence. The term was suspended on condition both enter a bond to be of good behaviour and refrain from entering areas of Shannon Airport that are unauthorized to the public.

Ms D’Arcy’s refusal to sign the bond led to the activation of the sentence. Ms D’Arcy and Mr Farrell were before Ennis District Court again on Wednesday.

They are accused of interfering with the proper use of Shannon Airport by going on the runway without permission on September 1, 2013.

The alleged offence is contrary to the Air Navigation and Transport Act.

Both accused deny the charge. Their cases were before the court to fix a date for hearing.

Inspector Tom Kennedy sought to have amendments inserted in the charge sheets for both accused. In response to questions from Judge Patrick Durcan, Insp Kennedy said he had not served notice of his application to the accused.

Ms D’Arcy is representing herself. Mr Farrell told the court he had asked Insp Kennedy to send all disclosure to his solicitors in Belfast.

Insp Kennedy said he was aware Mr Farrell had instructed solicitors in the matter but had not received any correspondence from them. He said papers would be sent to Mr Farrell’s legal representatives.

Judge Durcan directed the State supply all discovery to the accused. He also ordered the State to serve notice of the application to amend the charge sheet to Ms D’Arcy He adjourned both cases to February 13 when preliminary matters will be dealt with.

Ms D’Arcy urged Judge Durcan to strike out the charge. “It would save a lot of time if you threw this case out”, she said.

Mr Farrell later told the court there is a “likelihood” his “fellow peace dissident” would be transferred to the women’s unit in Mountjoy prison.

THE number of Clare gay and lesbian couples choosing to become legal civil partners has dropped dramatically over the past year. According to figures obtained from the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), only nine Clare couples entered into a civil partnership in the 15 months from the beginning of October 2012 to the end of December 2013.

This is contrast to the rush of civil partnership granted to Clare couples in the wake of legislation for civil partnerships being introduced. Indeed, in October of 2012, Clare had the second highest rate of civil partnerships per capita in Ireland – with only Dublin boasting more partnership per head of populations.

There has been a slowing in the number of civil partnership across Ireland over the past year. Where there is no clear data on why a slowdown has taken place, it is though possible that a rush to obtain partnerships in the months after the legislation was introduced may be the cause.

It is also understood that the possiblity of full marriage being introduced by the current government is also preventing some gay and lesbian couples from undertaking civil partnerships.

Since the civil partnership legislation became law a total of 24 Clare couples have become legal civil partners. Only four civil ceremonies have taken place in Clare to date, an increase of two on the number from October 2012.

According to Kilrush man and Di- rector of GLEN, Brian Sheehan, the uptake in civil partnerships in Ireland will prove a stepping stone to full marriage for gay couples.

The figures recorded for civil partnerships in Ireland reflect which county the partners intend to live once they have been granted an official civil partnership. Because a large portion of gay and lesbian people from Clare traditionally move to Dublin, Limerick or Galway – the true number of Clare people involved in civil partnerships is likely to be far higher than the figures suggest.

MEMBERS of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard took part in a marathon seven hour-long recovery operation at the Aill na Searrach cliff, close to the Cliffs of Moher last week.

The recovery saw six members of the Doolin unit abseil and climb down a sheer 80 degree incline on the cliff face before recovering the casualty and hiking almost a kilometre along the cliff front.

The whole operation was completed in very rough weather conditions with the coast guard members com- pleting the last three hours of the recovery in near pitch darkness.

“We were called to attend at Aill na Searrach near O’Brien’s Tower where a person had fallen from the cliffs down to the shore. Six climbers abseiled down the cliff, and carried him down the shore line for about 700 metres,” said Matty Shannon of the Doolin Unit.

“The coast guard helicopter was there at the scene but the casualty was positioned too close to the cliff for them to attempt an airlift. It was one of the more challenging operations that we have undertaken in recent times,” said Matty Shannon of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard.

“It wasn’t a sheer drop but they climbed down a drop of about 80 degrees to the foot of the cliff. Between the height of the climb and the wind is a very difficult operation. The ropes get tangled by the wind as we are lowering or hauling so it is very difficult for the climbers as they have the weight of the ropes as they abseil keeping pressure on them.

“The operation was undertaken in blustery condition with heavy showers and strong North Westerly winds.”

No details of the casualty have yet been released.

TWO drug barons targeted in a 25day undercover Garda operation in West Clare are understood to have fled the country.

Gardaí in Kilrush, in conjunction with the National Drugs Unit spent a total of 1,400 man-hours on the operation that spanned five-months from November 2012 through to the first quarter of 2013.

It emerged during the hearing of one of the minor “but essential cogs” in the drug sales operations, that the “principal players” were not before the court, as they are believed by gardaí to have fled the jurisdiction.

Superintendent Seamus Nolan told Kilrush District Court that Michael Burke with an address at 2 Fahy Road, Kilrush, “would not have been a principal player.”

The 27-year-old was pleading to charges relating to the under cover operation and other unrelated charges.

The court heard that he arranged the sale of € 100 of cannabis to undercover gardaí by phone before meeting them to carry out the sale at 80 Dun na Hinse, Ennis, on November 20, 2012.

He also sold a further € 50 worth of the drugs at the same address on November 22, 2012.

Garda Conor Flaherty said Mr Burke sourced the drugs and then handed them over.

“He was subsequently arrested and co-operated with gardaí,” said the Kilrush Garda.

On June 18, 2013 Mr Burke also admitted being in possession of 50 valium tablets for sale or supply contrary to Section 15 of Misuse of Drug Act 1977 and unlawfully impeding a Garda in the exercise of his duty.

In his evidence to the court Garda Flaherty said Mr Burke had the drugs concealed in a kitchen chair.

“He managed to get his hands on them and hid them,” said the garda adding that gardaí later found them on his person.

Solicitor for the defence Gearoid Williams said his client was detained to mend his ways. “He is trying to live a good life now,” he said.

In his summation Judge Patrick Durcan said; “The Garda authority decided a special target operation be set up in West Clare area to detect this illegal activity.”

Michael Burke became an essential cog in that very efficient machine the judge added.

“The drug barons are now living outside the country and have left a trail of destruction and addiction behind them,” he said.

“This would not operate unless there were retailers in the market who run the operation,” explained the judge, adding that Mr Burke fitted into the category.

Judge Durcan sentenced Mr Burke to three consecutive four-month sentences for the sale and supply of drugs and took a charge of drug possession into account.

He handed down a concurrent sentence of four months in prison for obstructing a garda.He suspended the year in prison for two years, telling the defendant “this is a belt and braces job.”

He also ordered that he be assisted by the probation services.

THERE was mixed feelings towards the € 13 million allocated for the upkeep, improvements and general works on Clare’s regional and local roads this year.

The Government approved fund to Clare County Council, Kilrush Town Council and Ennis Town Council was down by € 2 million on last year, which is ultimately bad news for rural roads impacted upon by the storms and heavy rain of recent months.

Clare County Council is to receive just under € 12 million with the Ennis authority to receive € 339,200 and Kilrush to be allocated € 115,000.

Members of Clare County Council have criticised the funding reduction claiming it has “drastically reduced” the council’s ability to carry out basic road maintenance work such as road surfacing, hedge cutting, and road drainage clearing.

Ennis West Councillor Tom McNamara (FF) said the council was fighting a losing battle. “Rather than being financed sufficiently to maintain local and regional roads they have to focus maintenance on the most travelled roads only,” he said.

It wasn’t all bad news from his point of view however with € 50,000 allocated to Connolly.

There was also some good news for motorists using the R474 between Ennis and Miltown Malbay and the much-publicised Kilkee to Loop Head Road.

The maintenance of the later is essential to the Wild Atlantic Way route to begin later this year.

Meanwhile in East Clare there was unease that a project that is not scheduled to begin for at least another decade was again awarded funding from the council coffers.

“It is very frustrating that the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport have again made a substantial fund allocation to the Limerick Northern Distributor Road (LNDR) project,” said Cllr Cathal Crowe.

“The € 140,000 allocated towards the advancement of the Limerick Northern Distributor Road is, in my view, a shameful waste of taxpayer’s money at a time when funding to our county’s existing roads network has been savagely cut.”

In 2013 € 300,000 was allocated from the fund to the project that is meeting with resistance locally.

“If precedence is followed the € 140,000 allocated last week will be channelled into the surveying of the route line and volumes of paperwork which, to date, the public have been denied access to,” said the local councillor.

ONE of Clare’s oldest traditional music festivals has been short listed for the prestigious IMRO Music Festival of the Year 2013 award.

The world famous Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay is in a strong category that includes Electric Picnic, Other Voices, Music Trail, Body and Soul, Longitude, Life, Sea Sessions, Kilkenny Rhythm and Blues, Galway Arts Festival and the Temple Bar TradFest.

More than 8,500 members of IMRO (Irish Music Rights Organisation) nominated their favourite Irish venues and festivals for the awards.

The Best Live Music Festival of the Year will be announced at a special prize giving ceremony, which will take place on Tuesday, February 4.

There will also be a special Hot Press Readers Award presented at the event for Hot Press Best Live Music Venue, as voted by the general public, and by readers of Hot Press Magazine.

The award ceremony will take place at the IMRO HQ from 6.30pm to 9.00pm and will be presented by Paddy McKenna from RTÉ 2FM.

Live Performances on the night will include Kodaline, Gavin James and I Am The Cosmos.

The Willie Clancy Summer School said they are happy to be nominated in the category and are in “good company”.

The members are now just philosophically waiting “to see what happens”.

TWO KILRUSH pubic houses have been ordered to close and the publicans to pay fines for selling spirits on which no duty was paid.

Describing Michael Johnson of Johnson’s Bar, Henry Street, Kilrush as “the worst kind of publican” District Court Judge Patrick Durcan fined him € 4,000 and ordered him to close the pub for seven days from February 4.

“I do not accept he bought these bottles over the counter from someone he did not know and if he did he showed a level of irresponsibility,” he said at the hearing in Klirush on Tuesday.

Mr Johnson had pleaded guilty of having 14 litres of vodka on which appropriate rate of alcohol products tax had not been paid_ Contrary to Section 79 (2) &(7) of Finance Act 2003 as substituted by section 62 of the Finance Act 2005.

In evidence to the court Customs and Excise officer Chris Mulqueen outlined that he called to Johnson’s Bar, on June 20, 2013 and located the bottles of vodka for which no duty had been paid.

He took samples from a bottle of this vodka, tests confirmed that it was under strength and inconsistent with “Smirnoff vodka”. The sample recorded a 33.1 per cent volume as opposed to a 37 per cent volume.

The court heard that Michael Johnson had been running the bar and could not confirm where he got the vodka. He was asked for documents to confirm purchase but did not produce these documents.

Solicitor for the defence Patrick Moylan said his client had paid € 144 for 12 bottles of vodka.

He told the court that if Mr Johnson could identify the seller he would, and that it was not unusual for people to turn up and the pub to sell alcohol.

He said Mr Johnson told him the pub is due to close at the end of February.

Mr Moylan said his client was a good publican and had never been in court before.

Judge Durcan said, “Mr Johnson bought drink from someone he doesn’t know, the quality he knew nothing about and he shelled that out to his customers.”

“In my view, he is the worst kind of publican you can find and not someone who in my view should be authorised to hold a publican’s licence.

“Any publican not knowing the source of alcohol and then dishes it out to their customers – don’t tell the court that he has been a good publican,” he added.

The district court judge said he sympathized with the licensing trade as it was “under extreme pressure.”

He said it was important that customers had faith in their publican however, and it was important that other law-abiding publicans were not put at a disadvantage.

In a separate, but in the words of Michael Linnane, prosecuting for the revenue commissioners, “similar case” the judge fined David Bond of Sheananigans Public House, Frances Street, Kilrush € 2, 500.

He ordered that the public house be closed for two days.

Mr Bond pleaded guilty to not paying the appropriate duty on 10 Litres of spirits.

Customs officer John Grehan gave evidence of finding what he described as “counterfeit vodka” in Shenanigan’s Bar on May 31, 2013.

He said Mr Bond “made frank admissions. He told us where he got it and co-operated fully. He has no previous convictions.”

Solicitor for Mr Bond, said his client was “shocked when he discovered the alcohol was not genuine”.

Mr Linnane informed the court that the maximum fine in cases like these was a fine of € 5,000, which could be mitigated to no less than € 2,500. There is also a mandatory closure order in respect of this, which had to be a minimum of two days, but no more than seven days.

A NEW Accident and Emergency Department for the region is at least two years away, despite construction being descried as “well underway on a new hospital shell block”.

Since the closure of the 24-hour service at Ennis and Nenagh hospitals, the only Emergency Department in the region is in Dooradoyle Limerick.

Just last week nurses again highlighted overcrowding issues in the A&E and the Medical Assessment Unit was closed for four days at the hospital at the beginning of the month to accommodate serious over crowding.

Work on the exterior building of the new wing of the University Hospital Limerick, which is to accommodate the new ED, is due to be completed by April 2014.

The unit will also include a new dialysis unit and a basement car park. “It is then proposed to progress the fit out of the basement to provide approximately 200 car parking spaces over the following six months. Separately, a tender process is being progressed for the fit out of the ground and first floors to provide the new ED and Dialysis Department,” a spokesperson for the hospital said.

“It is envisaged that the ED fit out works would commence in October 2014 with the new ED ready for opening in early 2016.”

“As an interim measure an extension has recently been completed to the existing ED in Dooradoyle,” he added.

The major development work currently underway follows the recent construction of the Critical Care block.

FEARS have been expressed for the safety of Dusty the Dolphin following the stranding of a pilot whale in rough seas off Doolin over the weekend.

The 12-foot long whale was washed ashore on rocks close to Doolin Pier on Friday evening, in the early stages of the weekend storm surge. The whale, which was most likely already dead when it came ashore, was taken out to sea again by the storm on Saturday, before being re-stranded on rocks close to Fishers Street on Saturday evening.

Doolin’s most well-known resident, Dusty the Dolphin has not been spotted since January 10, when she came close to shore in the wake of the New Year storm.

According to Simon Berrow of the Clare based Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, Dusty has most likely moved to deeper waters to avoid the worst effects of the recent storms and will return again when conditions improve.

“The storms might seem incredibly rough to us on the surface, but once you swim down 20 or 30 metres the effects would be minimal,” he said.

“I think it is unlikely that storms like we’ve had in recent weeks would affect Dusty. She is probably safe and well out in deeper waters. Prolonged bad weather, like what we’ve experienced in recent weeks, might make it difficult for Dusty to hunt and find food. That is a bigger concern than the rough seas themselves.”

Last year the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group recorded the largest number of whale and dolphin strandings on record in Ireland. At present, there is no obvious reason as to why so many whales and dolphins were washed ashore in 2013.

“It is a puzzle and unfortunately at the moment we have more questions than answers. Last year was a record year for whale and dolphin strandings and there doesn’t seem to be any reason for it,” continued Simon.

“Sometimes you can identify trends and establish reasons as to why there would be a spike of strandings at one time or another, but the reasons behind the figures for 2013 are a mystery.

“We are hoping to put together a research group to track these strandings and see if we can establish a trend but at the moment it is a puzzle.”

To report a stranded whale or dolphin email strands@iwdg.ie.

THE DEATH of former postman and electricity meter reader Tony McElroy who was found dead in the Ballynacally Community Centre car park on Saturday morning last was one of natural causes.

Gardaí said they are no longer treating his death as suspicious, as a post mortem carried out the University Hospital Limerick on Saturday afternoon showed he probably died from a heart attack.

Mr McElroy, who was 61 years old and from Knockatunna, Kilmaley, had been socialising in Daly’s Bar in Balynacally on Friday night.

His body was found the following morning last 9.45am beside his car.

Gardaí at Kilrush were called and began investigating the circumstances around the sudden death.

The scene was preserved and the Offices of the State Pathologist was contacted, while Mr McElroy’s remains were removed from the scene and brought to Limerick Regional Hospital where the post mortem took place.

It is understood that the results showed the West Clare man died as a result of a heart attack.

Local people paid tribute to the man they got to know well when he worked in the area as the meter reader for the ESB.

He was also recognised as a keen card player and a man who enjoyed music sessions.

Mr McElroy’s funeral Mass will take place today (Tuesday) at 11am in Kilmaley Church followed by burial in Mount Temple Cemetery, Kilmaley.