Category: News

A KILMHIL-BASED construction and civil engineering company has plans to develop, upgrade and expand the Kilrush Marina, which is hoped will bring more business and employment to the area.

During the next five years, L&M Keating will invest € 3 million in the marina, at the end of which it should take ownership of the landmark.

In a deal with Shannon Develop- ment, the West Clare Company will construct a new pavilion building, landing pontoon, fixed and floating breakwaters and additional car marking.

It also sought planning permission from Clare County Council to extend the 120-berth marina pontoon to 160 and will carry out much needed dredging and land reclamation works.

When the work is complete, if Shannon Development is happy with the standard, the ownership of the marina will be signed over to L&M Keating, the company that built the marina’s centre for € 400,000 in 1998.

Managing Director of the company, Louis Keating is both excited and confident about the project. A keen sailor, he hopes to turn it around to what it was 20 years ago.

“The most useful thing we are going to do from a user’s point of view is that we are going to automate the lock gate, which is a contentious issue. Currently, the lock gates only work business hours and we are going to make them 24 hours a day. That will be a huge bonus to marinausers,” he told The Clare People .

Dredging the marina also remains a top priority.

The new building planned on site will be for public use, providing access for dolphin tours and visits to Scattery Island. Plans are also in place to upgrade the boat yard, formally Doherty’s Timber Yard.

“We are going to make it a smart, clean boat yard and hopefully get back the marine businesses – boat repairs, engine repairs and electronic repairs – that were there up to relatively recently, but for various reasons they have gone away. I think by drumming up a bit of business and providing nice facilities, we will get them back in,” he said.

“In terms of jobs, actually employed by the marina, there won’t be any change in numbers but I hope the marina industries will come back.

“My vision is that in five years time you would have eight to 10 people working there – let’s say five all year around and 10 through the summer.”

“I’d be making a serious drive to get in more yachts and more business. It is a fantastic facility. It is fundamentally the best marina on the west coast. I am hoping to drum up business on the west coast and further afield. I actually believe there is a market with the UK boat-owners that are paying probably three to four times the berthage that we are paying in Kilrush.

“We will be on a serious marketing drive once we get the development we are planning done.”

THE only name coming from Kilkee Town Council as a possible contender for the county council election in 2014 is that of Paddy Collins (FG).

Cllr Collins is leaving his final decision until the boundary commission has decided the new electoral areas.

“On a personal level, it depends on legislation in March regarding the size of the districts. It looks like it would be impossible if seats are reduced and the constituency goes up as far as Ballyvaughan. I would need possibly 4,000 votes and there ain’t 4,000 votes back here,” he said.

In Kilrush, councillors Liam Williams (FG), Paul Moroney (Ind), and Tom Prendeville (FF) are likely contenders but again the boundary commission is reducing any commitment.

“I am not prepared to commit. I have an interest but it will depend on the boundary commission,” said Cllr Williams.

Cllr Prendeville said, “I will take all matters into consideration – my family, the people of Kilrush and the boundary commission. If it is favourable, I will stand.”

Cllr Moroney said his family are still young so he would have to take that into consideration. The inde- pendent councillor added that he has already been approached by two parties to run, a fact that he is also taking into consideration.

The boundary issue also proved contentious in Ennis, with Cllr Peter Considine (FF) leaving his decision until it reports.

For other councillors, the decision is more straight-forward. They will not be running in the county election.

Kilrush councillor Tom Clyne (Ind) had already decided to retire after serving 10 years on the council, but others were forced to make the decision.

In Kilkee, Mayor Clare Haugh (FF) said she enjoyed her 27 and a half years on the town council to date, but would not be contesting the county elections.

“I hope I have made a contribution to Kilkee,” she said.

Cllr PJ Lardner (FF) said “There’s enough of them there. I prefer working for the community of Kilkee as I have done since ‘94. Maybe 15 years ago but it’s a no for now anyway.”

Cllr Lily Marrinan-Sullivan (Ind) came to the realisation that being a county councillor to a vastly increased area would be a full-time job.

“I hadn’t even thought about it. I’m still hoping they’ll save the town council. I would have to say no. Well, I have a full-time job and I’m not in a position to give all my time, which is what you would have to do,” she said.

Cllr Elaine Haugh-Hayes (FG) has other priorities at the moment.

“No, not me anyway. I have no intention. I have a new baby so I’m a little busy at the moment,” she said.

In Kilrush, it was disillusionment with politics in general that will help former mayor of Kilrush, Liam O’Looney (FF), to leave the world of politics behind after the next local election.

He said, however, that the town council would be missed when it is gone.

“If I never went, I would like to see a council there.”

KILRUSH town councillor Tom Prendeville (FF) will not be standing down when the council meets this evening (Tuesday).

The father of the council threatened such drastic measures at last month’s meeting of the council, if parking is- sues outside a local primary school were not resolved within the month.

He told

THREE Clare properties, including two hotels will go under the hammer in another auction of distressed properties to take place next month.

The Allsop Space auction will feature the well-known Kilkee Bay Hotel in the seaside town, and the Ashford Court Hotel in Ennis.

A house in Mountshannon is also included among the 155 properties listed.

The familiar landmark hotel on the Ennis Road into Kilkee will go to auction with a reserve not to exceed € 315,000. The 41-bedroom hotel together with bar and function room facilities extend to 18,910.45 square feet. The two-storey hotel neighbours The Kilkee Bay Leisure Centre, a basketball court, and several rows of apartments/holiday homes.

There is extensive car parking to the front of the property.

Meanwhile, the Ashford Court Hotel on the Old Mill Road, Ennis, has a smaller reserve than the West Clare hotel, set at a price not to exceed € 215,000. The 27-bed hotel is being sold on the instruction of receiver Kieran Wallace of KPMG.

Set on 0.072 hectares, the property will be sold with all contents to be included.

The property comprises a hotel building arranged over ground and three upper floors. The property includes a restaurant, bar area and ancillary accommodation.

A freehold-detached four-bedroom house with views of Lough Derg will also be on the books at the March 1 auction in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin.

The Mountshannon house will have a reserve of no more than € 125,000.

THE Gathering Ireland 2013 will be the subject of a unique world recordbreaking attempt this June when the largest ever gathering of persons with the same first name is attempted in County Clare.

The Clare Volunteer Centre, supported by the Gathering Clare Steering Committee, is inviting people with the name Claire, Clair or Clare to travel to Ennis to participate in the potentially record-breaking feat on June 23.

The largest gathering of people with the same first name is 1,096 Mohammeds as part of the Dubai Shopping Festival at Creek Park, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on February 10, 2005.

The record-breaking attempt forms part of the ‘Welcoming Claires to County Clare, Ireland’ project, one of the estimated 230 Gathering festivals and events taking place throughout County Clare during 2013.

According to Sharon Meaney, Manager of the Clare Volunteer Centre, “This is a family event where everyone from babies to grandparents is welcome to attend. You don’t have to be from County Clare, you may not have even heard of County Clare, but you will share a name that is synonymous with being ‘clear, bright and famous’.”

Ms Meaney said the same-name gathering will form part of a weekend of welcomes featuring a free music event on Friday, June 21 in Ennis as part of the Love:Live Music event.

The weekend also will feature street entertainment on Saturday, June 22 and a special-edition ‘Welcome to Clare’ card, which will offer special offers and discounts to various attractions countywide for the weekend.

Tracy Crawford of BallyO Promo- tions and Director of the new Ennis Roots Music weekend added, “As it is the year of the Gathering, we are thrilled to extend the Love:Live event to incorporate a weekend of events, of which ‘Welcoming Claires to County Clare’ will form a part. We are all committed to getting the message out there, that if you want to visit Ireland, there is no better place to come to than County Clare.”

A short film is being filmed and produced by Martin O’Malley of Malbay Studios featuring Claire Daly dancing in various locations around the county showcasing what Clare has to offer.

EDUCATION Minister Ruairi Quinn has warned that it’s “unacceptable” that every national school in the Shannon and Newmarket-on-Fergus area remains under the patronage of a Christian Church.

Minister Quinn made his comments as the month-long school patronage survey close on Friday, just as fears have been raised locally that “pressure” was brought to bear on parents to demand that the status quo of eight Catholic schools remain in the Shannon and Newmarket-onFergus catchment.

“Ireland is a changed place and we have to reflect that change,” warned Minister Quinn, “so it’s simply not acceptable that 96 per cent of primary schools in the country be under the patronage of a Christian Church.

“The Shannon area has to play its part in that, so we have asked parents what kind of ethos they would like to have other than what’s already there. I would expect that in the Shannon region it’s not unreasonable to say of the eight Catholic schools, at least one of them should be in a position to be transferred by way of patronage to the Department of Education.

The eight Catholic schools in the survey area are Scoil na Maighdine Mhuire, Clonmoney and Stonehall in Newmarket-on-Fergus and Gaelscoil Donncha Rua, St Aidan’s, St Tola’s, St Senan’s and St Cronan’s in Shannon. A number of parents have complained that a letter circulated in Newmarket-on-Fergus amounted to pressure from the Catholic Church wanting three schools in the parish included in the survey to remain under Catholic control.

“The schools are rooted in the community and each one has its own distinct identity. A change of patronage would have major implications for staff, boards of management, parents and children,” the letter said.

The results of the survey of these schools will be made known to the Catholic authorities by the end of the month. The church authorities will then have to come back to the Department of Education within three months, ahead of a final resolution of the patronage issue by the end of the year.

“We want to reflect the change in Ireland and provide people with a choice,” said Minister Quinn. “We will assist the Catholic Church authorities in whatever way they want in identifying and selecting a school that could be reasonably transferred.

“In this day and age I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that one or two of those schools can’t change. If this is a true Republic and we accommodate and respect everyone equally. If this is the Banner County, where De Valera was elected for so many years, he would be to the forefront of a republican approach.”

A NUMBER of prominent environmental organisations came together last week to question the public consultation process being undertaken in relation to a giant Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) fish farm planned for six miles off the Fanore coast.

An Taisce, Coastwatch, the Irish Seal Sanctuary and the Irish Wildlife Trust released a joint statement last week in which they requested that all consultation documents related to the project be made public.

The controvertial fish farm has seen the creation of a rift between the two government fisheries agencies with BIM and Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) taking opposing position over the development.

The situation took a dramatic turn last week when BIM released the finding of a Irish Marine Institute study, which claimed that sea lice created by the farm would not cause any significant difference to the local wild salmon population.

IFI struck back in recent days, claiming the 1 per cent threat to wild salmon stocks predicted in the Marine Institute study could be the “tipping point” for wild salmon stocks.

“We welcome the fact that there is now a clear acceptance of the negative impact of sea lice on juvenile salmon and the debate can now progress to identify the best methodologies to reduce or eliminate this impact. IFI would also like to see similar progress in relation to the issue of escaped farmed salmon,” said an IFI spokesperson.

“In recent years approximately five per cent of all juvenile salmon going to sea return back to their native rivers as adults to spawn. Precisely because natural mortality rates of salmon are high, even a proportionally small additional mortality from sea lice can amount to a large loss in salmon returning.

“To put this average of 1 per cent reduction in return rates, as reported by the Marine Institute, in context, if 3,000 salmon return to a river, and this represents a five per cent return rate, a reduction in the return rate to four per cent translates into a reduction of 20 per cent of the adult salmon – 600 fewer fish returning.”

CLARE has one of the highest rates of sheep kills by dogs in Ireland, according to new figures released by the Irish Farmers Association (IFA). Figures compiled by the IFA reveal that Clare recorded the sixth highest number of sheep kills in Ireland last year, despite having a relatively low sheep stock compared to other counties.

According to Clare Dog Warden, Frankie Coote, the number of sheep kills recorded by the IFA is only the tip of the iceberg as most kills are never reported. “There would be an awful lot more attacks than that in Clare. That is only the number reported to the IFA. The real number is likely to be much much higher.

“Just four years ago we had 42 sheep killed by two dogs in one night down in Shannonbanks. That was € 5, 500 worth of damage in one night. We were lucky enough to catch the own- ers in that case and they had to pay for the damage done. The dog owner is always liable in that situation.”

Frankie also urged dog owners to be sure that their animals are secured properly over the lambing season – even if there are no sheep flocks nearby and your dog does not have a history of violence.

“Lambs have been born all over place in the last two weeks and it is inevitable that dogs will attack sheep. Dogs will travel; if they hear sheep far off in the distance they will travel to find them,” continued Frankie.

“Dogs will come out of towns, out of villages, out of housing estates and look for sheep, but also from farm houses. The law states that dogs must be on their own property and secure.

“All dogs will attack sheep, given the opportunity. Everybody thinks that their own dog won’t attack a sheep but the reality is that 95 per cent of dogs will. Dogs gather in packs and the wildness come out with them.”

THE world’s most powerful figures in the field of climate change, including special advisor to Barack Obama Professor Daniel Schrag, will gather in Ballyvaughan later this month for a top-level meeting on the future of the worlds climate.

The Climate Gathering is a closed meeting of experts and government advisors and also includes Head of the European Climate Commissioner, Peter Vis, advisor to the French President Francois Hollande, Marie- Hélène Aubert as well as former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson.

The meeting will take place at the Burren College of Art between February 14 and 17 and is part of a new approach being taken to the development of the college, entitled ‘A Burren Call’. The Burren Calls is a new project which hopes to establish Ballyvaughan as a centre for new ideas and creative thinking on complex local and international issues.

The project started last year with the formation of a community thinktank to tackle local issues in North Clare and the Climate Gathering is its most ambitious event to date. The hope is that the unique atmosphere of the Burren coupled with the creative atmosphere of the college itself will help create at atmosphere for creative thinking and invention.

The Climate Gathering is being convened by Green Part leader Eamon Ryan.

“We were told we would never get the right people to furthest West Clare, in the middle of deep midwinter, but they are now coming. They are doing so because they share our conviction that Ireland could be at the cutting edge of thinking on cli- mate change and because it is just the place to advance creative thinking on the issue,” he said.

“They are coming because what we have to offer is different. Rather than seven-star hype and over-thetop security they will receive the sort of genuine Irish hospitality that sets up a safe space for dialogue. The fact that such talks will take place in a beautiful landscape may help us address the key question as to how we can inspire people with the belief that a transformational leap to a cleaner economy is both possible and preferable.”

PARTNERSHIPS between local authorities, the business sector and the emergency services has been highlighted as the key factor in Ennis’ successful Purple Flag application, details of which were announced yesterday.

Ennis has become the first town in Ireland to earn the international award, which aims to broaden the appeal of night time destinations.

Ennis and Dublin’s Business Improvement District were yesterday named recipients of the Purple Flag, an award handed out by the Association of Town Centre Management (ATCM) in England. It is hoped the award will help enhance Ennis’ appeal as a tourism destination.

According to the judging panel, a key part of the success of both the Dublin and Ennis applications for this award was the partnership approach taken by Ennis Town Council, Promote Ennis, Shannon Development, Ennis Gardaí and the business community represented by Ennis Chamber and Ennis taxis.

The Purple Flag accreditation required excellence in the area of five criteria. The town centre that receives the award must score highly in wellbeing (safety and cleanliness), movement (traffic flow and public transport), broad appeal (appeal for people of all ages and interests), place (vitality and cultural stimulation), and policy envelope (clear aim).

In a statement, the Purple Flag judging panel stated, “The final criterion is the most important – policy and planning. A Purple Flag designated centre must have a clear sense of purpose and a plan for continued success. Dublin’s Creative Quarter and Dame District and Ennis fitted all five criteria perfectly and exemplify what it means to be a Purple Flag honouree.”

Brian O’Neill, Chairman of Promote Ennis, said, “We are delighted to be the first town in Ireland accredited with the prestigious international Purple Flag award proving Ennis’ claim to be the Friendliest Town in Ireland. It is a huge honour and credit to the town, the people of Ennis and Clare and our dynamic working group – a collaboration incorporating the Ennis’ business community, Ennis Town Council, Shannon Development and Ennis Gardaí. Visitors to the town can enjoy a vibrant, appealing, well-managed and safe evening and nighttime economy. This distinguished accreditation brings with it increased tourism potential for Ennis and ranks the county town among over 35 towns and cities in UK who are proudly flying Purple Flag, many of which have direct connections into Shannon Airport.”

Martin Blackwell, CEO, The Association of Town Centre Management UK, commented, “Analysis of visitor numbers in towns and cities that hold the Purple Flag status on average see a 10 per cent increase in footfall numbers and as a result this can lead to increased revenue for the area. With 35 cities in the UK holding the coveted status, Dublin and Ennis are the first locations outside of the UK to win the award. It’s a great achievement and we hope to see more towns and cities in Ireland following in their footsteps in the future.”