Category: News

CLARE’S President of Ireland, Dr Patrick Hillery, was caught in the eye of a diplomatic storm in 1982 over the birth of Prince William, the son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana and second in line to the throne.

The State Papers from 1982 reveal that President Hillery was accused of snubbing the royal birth, but that what happened was that diplomats had wrongly advised him not to send a message of congratulations to Queen Elizabeth on the birth of Prince William.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach’s office became embroiled in a row over whether or not to send a message of congratulations. A memo sent from assistant secretary Richard Stokes to Charles Haughey outlines advice given by the Chief of Protocol, who said it would not be appropriate for a message to be sent as Prince Charles and Princess Diana were not Heads of State.

The Chief of Protocol had been asked for his advice following a press query by a journalist to the President’s office. Stokes told the Taoiseach he “would strongly disagree with the Foreign Affairs advice on this”.

“I believe that a message of congratulations should be sent by the President to the Queen on the birth of her grandson,” he continued.

President Hillery’s chief of protocol in the Aras sought advice on the issue, with his own thinking being that a message was not necessary, as Prince Charles, was not a head of state. Foreign Affairs backed the advice, as did a Mr Ó hAnnrachain in the Taoiseach’s office, who also said then Taoiseach Charles Haughey was not to be consulted.

However, Mr Stokes believed “an explanation will be no substitute for a warm and gracious message for this happy event on our neighbouring island”.

Another document from HJ Dowd, an official in the Department of the Taoiseach, shows that he was in agreement with Stokes. He also said it would be of “no harm” to tell the Foreign Affairs Department that “they were in error when they said that their files suggest that a message should not be sent”.

He points to two further precedents for sending such a message. On the 15 November 1948, President Seán T Ó Ceallaigh sent his wishes to King George VI on the birth of a son (now the Prince of Wales) to Princess Elizabeth (now the Queen). On the 16 August 1950, he sent a similar message to King George on the birth of his grand-daughter Princess Ann.

A note made out on the 22 June shows that the Government then scrambled to reach an agreement that the President should send a message of congratulations. The draft was cleared with the Chief of Protocol at 12.50pm.

THE world of prostitution and exploitation was brought home to Ennis in February when it was revealed that the county capital of Clare had a key role in a vice ring being operated at locations around the country that involves non-nationals.

The fact that there are now working brothels in Clare was exposed in a Prime Time Special – the brothel specifically identified in the RTE programme prompted Gardai to reveal that a criminal case was immi- nent against those involved.

Clare viewers of the Prime Time Special were shocked to see footage of three young women being ferried into and out of the brothel in Clare, which was located just off the Mill Road in Ennis, less than 500 yards away from the office of The Clare People .

According to a garda spokesperson, the brothel had been under investigation at the time of the Prime Time Special, was closed down shortly after the footage was recorded and criminal prosecutions are likely in regard to activity in the building. Garda sources told The Clare People that brothel start-ups like this are not uncommon in Clare but they usually close as quickly as they open. “What happens is that girls will advertise online for a few days to gauge if there is a demand for their services. They will then arrive in Clare, set themselves up in an apartment or hotel room and see clients. “Of course, before long they will come to our attention or that of a member of the public. “When this happens, they will move on straight away,” our source said.

Internet advertising and mobile phone technology means that brothels can be set up and dismantled in a matter of hours and garda sources in Clare have identified these operations in a number of Clare towns.

“We are working all the time with the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations,” a garda spokesman told us.

“This means that very often we are aware almost immediately if these persons enter Clare, but sometimes they are here for a couple of days before we are alerted and can act.”

ROMANCE was in the air in September as a Canadian dentist travelled more than 8,000 kilometres to track down the love of his life, a Clare woman he met for just two minutes in Ennistymon more than a year previous.

Dr Sandy Crocker from British Columbia put his life on hold for four weeks, as he took an extended break from work to travel Ireland in search of his red-haired Irish beauty.

The story which made international headlines told how the lovestruck dentist was in An Teach Bia in Ennistymon on July 9, 2011, when he noticed the woman who has captivated his thoughts for the last 14 months. He describes her as being in her mid- to late-20s with freckles and redish-brown hair. Sandy spoke to her briefly before she left the cafe, but realised too late that he might have met the love of his life.

“We were on our way to the Cliffs of Moher that morning and we stopped in Ennistymon to grab a bite to eat. She was eating and I didn’t want to interrupt her meal so I waited until I noticed her leaving and spoke to her. I asked her for directions to the Cliffs of Moher,” he told The Clare People yesterday.

“I was leaving Ireland a day later so, at first, I didn’t see the point in pursuing things more – but after she left I decided that I had to. So we paid our bill quickly and myself and my brother started looking for her. We searched the town for an hour or two and couldn’t find her, so we went to the Cliffs but later that evening we came back and looked for her again for another two hours. But there was no trace of her.”

WEST Clare landowners will not receive any financial payments if fracking is allowed to take place in the Clare Basin.

That is according to Clare Fracking Concerned, who say that Compulsory Access Orders will be used to give companies, such as UK-based Enegie Oil, access to lands rather than Compulsory Purchase Orders. The group also said yesterday that a change to the County Development Plan to ban fracking – which was unanimously voted in be councillors earlier this year – should go ahead, even if it would have little or no legal standing.

“The change to the development plan should go ahead no matter what as it was voted on unanimously by all the public representatives in Clare,” said Clare Fracking Concerned spokesperson, Róisín Ní Gháirbhith.

“However there are far more important things that people in Clare need to be aware of. Farmers will not benefit financially [from fracking], but rather there will be Compulsory Access Orders served to them that will allow Enegie Oil to access their land for free.

“The shale gas in Clare is also shallower than other places – it is only 700 meters down. This greatly increases the chances of our aquifers and waters being polluted by fracking fluids and methane gas.”

Earlier this year Donegal County Council began the process of changing its County Development Plan to include a ban on fracking. According to Director of Services for Planning at Clare County Council, Ger Dollard, a similar move in Clare could create a “false sense of security” for people opposed to fracking in Clare.

“The council is fully conscious of the issue and the genuine concerns expressed by the elected members. We are aware from media reports of proposals for changes to Donegal CDP but such media reports also refer to the legality of any such moves. The council’s view is that the CDP as presently drafted is strong in terms of environmental objectives and these can address and deal with any issues arising on the process of fracking,” said Mr Dollard.

“There is little point of inserting something into the County Development Plan [CDP] that won’t legally stand up and would only serve to create a false sense of security for all involved.

“The national question regarding fracking has first of all to be determined, at which point the council will then be able to conclusively decide if it has any role in the process and if so how should that role be handled within the CDP on a basis that will stand up to legal challenge.”

IN Feburary, it was revealed that the population of Clare is predicted to swell to almost 150,000 people over the next 10 years, with numbers set to continue growing despite the current economic crisis and reports of mass emigration from rural area.

According to the preliminary results of the 2011 census, the population of the county actually grew by 5.3 per cent since the recession began.

Population numbers grew from 110,950 in 2006, just before the start of the recession, to 116,885 last year.

According to a new research document released by the Mid West Regional Authority in Ennistymon on February 17, the population in Clare is projected to reach 131,321 by 2016 and 141,600 by 2022.

If these projections prove to be true the population of Clare will grow to its highest level since before the Famine over the next 10 years.

The Mid West Regional Authority Factfile, which was released at the organisation annual meeting at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon, also set out a number of short-term regional predictions with North Clare predicted to be a major growth area over the next five years.

According to the report the population of the North Clare area is set to grow by an impressive 14.36 per cent over the next five years with the local population reaching 15,675 by 2016.

West Clare has also been earmarked for major growth with the local population set to expand from 16,736 to 18,836 in 2016 – a growth of more than 12 per cent.

While the number of new people coming to live in Clare continues to more than those leaving the county, the rate of migration has slowed over the last 10 years.

Between 2002 and 2006, 4,169 more people came to live in Clare than left the county to live elsewhere. However, according to preliminary figures from the 2011 census, the number of people coming to live in the county was only 986 people more than the number who left the county to live elsewhere in the five years between 2006 and 2011.

Despite the overall growth gain in population numbers, some parts of the county have experienced a dramatic drop in numbers in recent years.

In West Clare, the Loop Head Peninsula and the area around Doonbeg suffered a decrease in population as did the a large section of North Clare between Liscannor and Fanore.

A FULL-SCALE murder investigation began in Clare following the death of a man shot during a wedding celebration.

The victim, who was nRobert Sheehan of Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, received numerous shots to the head and body while he stood outside the Bunratty Castle Hotel on a September Sunday morning.

He died later at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick.

The 21-year-old was attending a family wedding in the County Clare hotel, and had left briefly for a ciga rette break.

At approximately 3.40am, at least one gunman approached him and shot him a number of times. The culprit was then driven away in a dark saloon-type car.

Gardaí have confirmed that they are examining a “short type fire arm” found near the scene.

It is understood that detectives are following a number of lines of enquiry, including a link to a large row in Moyross in July during which two men were stabbed.

Two men in their 20s were arrested in Cork later on Sunday morning in connection with the Bunratty incident.

The late Mr Sheehan had come into contact with Gardaí previously. He was sentenced to two years detention in October 2007, after he pleaded guilty to recklessly endangering the lives of Gavin and Milly Murray.

He admitted acting as a look-out as two other men petrol bombed a car in which the four and six-year-old were sitting.

IN HER first interview since being released from prison, Ennis woman Sharon Collins has protested her innocence of the crimes she was convicted of and spent nearly four years in jail for.

The 49-year-old, who was socialising in Ennis over the Christmas period and is believed to be planning to move back to live in her native town, has stated publicly that she hopes to find out who framed her for the crime of trying to have her partner PJ Howard and his two sons Niall and Robert murdered.

“You just have to try to be dignified and hope that eventually you will be able to prove that it wasn’t you,” said Collins in an interview in a Sunday newspaper.

“It is so elaborate and there is so much. I couldn’t imagine doing that for starters – but if you could try to put yourself in the position of somebody who did that?

“Well you wouldn’t leave that sort of trail. It’s just too much. It’s just too much. It wasn’t me. That’s all I can say to that. I didn’t leave that trail behind me. I just hope someday I will be able to prove who it was,” she added.

In November 2008, Collins was was jailed for six years after a Central Criminal Court jury found her guilty of soliciting a man to murder PJ Howard, and his two sons, Robert and Niall Howard, on August 15, 2006.

Collins, who was accused of using the internet handle “lying-eyes98” to investigate the hiring of a hitman on the internet, was also found guilty on three counts of conspiring to kill the three men.

Her trial heard she tried to hire Egyptian-born Las Vegas poker dealer Essam Eid to carry out the killings. While sentenced in November 2008, she was convicted in July 2008, and was held in prison from that date.

In late 2011, Ms Collins lost an appeal against the conviction with the court rejecting all 23 grounds of her case, but she was granted temporary release after serving three years and nine months of her sentence ahead of the completion of her sentence in December.

Ms Collins has revealed that she is now concentrating on her career, with two books on her story now in the pipeline, while a movie deal is also in the offing as several shows in the US fight to secure her first television appearance.

A CAMPAIGN to save a number of small rural schools in Clare got underway in March, with a number of organisations mobilising to fight against government cutbacks in the education sector.

West Clare group Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI) emerged as the organisation at the vanguard of a new campaign to help West Clare national schools in Querrin and Doonaha, Boston in North Clare and another school in Mayo.

This move comes after RRI was directly approached by the schools.

“We had four phonecalls over the past week from four different schools, looking to see if we could help them secure students to secure their future,” said Ailish Connolly of RRI in March.

“Those schools are in Doonaha, Querrin and Boston in Clare and another in Mayo. As a result, Rural Resettlement is now doing a specific, targeted campaign assisting schools looking for children. We are advertising those schools and the local communities that they are in,”

Rural Resettlement Ireland was set up by Kilbaha-based Jim Connolly, 21 years ago. In 2005, an RRI initiative to build four houses in Tullycrine helped save the national school there from closure, while the new campaign comes despite severe cut-backs in the organisation that has seen its full-time staff numbers cut from five to one in recent years.

“Our own budget has been cut and cut and cut but what we still have to do is try and get the message out there in Dublin that rural resettlement is an option for them. The need is stronger than ever,” said Ms Connolly in March.

“Schools are very much aware now that to survive they need families and therefore they need to forward plan. Thirty nine is the magic number for schools to hold onto two teachers.”

The McCarthy Report, if implemented in Clare, would see the closure of all schools in the county with under 50 pupils, a cut-off point that puts the future of many rural schools in the county, but according to RRI schools under threat are determined to fight back.

“The schools that contacted us are sourcing houses for Rural Resettlement to have a look at in the areas where the schools are located,” said Ms Connolly. “It has now become a campaign to try and save those schools. Rural Resettlement are going to do everything to try and get families to move to these areas to save the schools.”

A NUMBER of strategic sites in Clare were identified as being key to Nazi Germany’s plan to invade and occupy neutral Ireland during World War II, a new top-secret dossier has revealed this week.

The document, which went under the hammer at an auction in England in October for € 2,961 – almost four times the reserve price – was compiled by Nazi spies in Ireland and graphically illustrates that Clare would have been given a crucial part to play in any German war effort conducted from Ireland.

In all, seven Clare sites were singled out by Nazi intelligence as having a role to play in German’s invasion plans in a document that clearly showed that neutral Ireland and the constituency of Taoiseach Eamon de Valera was viewed of strategic importance by the fascist regime.

The detailed document, which includes maps and analysis of the Irish countryside compiled by Nazi spies, shows how under Operation Green/ Sealion, Hitler planned to overthrow the State and turn it into one of six regional hubs for Britain and Ireland.

Ardnacrusha Power Station – which had been constructed by the pride of German engineering, SiemensSchuckert in the 1920s, at the cost of £5.2m, and at that time the biggest hydro-electrical plant in Europe – was circled as being a vital component in the German rule in Ireland.

Other key Clare sites included former capital of Ireland Killaloe, probably because of Lough Derg’s potential to cater for flyingboats, while the key coastal areas targetted by the Nazi regime were the Cliffs of Moher and Blackhead/Ballvaughan area.

The document entitled Militärgeographische Angaben über Irland contains detailed maps and postcards, with a number of images of Ardnacrusha highlighting it importance to the state.

These key places were numbered by military officials before being plotted on a series of eight fold-out maps, which would have been used during ‘Operation Sealion’. However, on September 17, 1940, Hitler was forced to scrap Operation Sealion because of the Luftwaffe’s failure to gain air supremacy over England during the Battle of Britain.

The Nazi offensive never took place after the German defeat in the skies, but experts believe the book reveals what could have happened if the Nazi’s had conquered Britain.

NEWS that smoking on the grounds of the Mid West Regional Hospital in Ennis was to become a thing of the past came to light in March.

At a HSE meeting in March, it was revealed that visitors and patients alike would have to have to leave the hospital campus and walk to the public roadside if they planned to light up a cigarette.

This is despite the purpose-built covered shelter which is in place for smokers on the grounds and just yards from the main entrance of the Ennis hospital, smokers will have to leave the hospital grounds to light up according to new regulations.

The new regulation raises the distinct possibility of patients in dressing gowns, pyjamas and fluffy slippers being visible to passing traffic and the elements if they decided to smoke.

From May 1, all hospitals in the mid- west, including the maternity hospital in Limerick, became smokefree, following in the footsteps of other HSE West hospitals.

But not everyone is a fan of the new regulations that must be imposed in all Irish hospitals by 2015.

Chairman of the HSE West, Pád- raig Conneely (FG) asked if the HSE had gone a step too far by banning smoking on all hospital campuses.

“How are you going to stop people outside accident and emergency in an inebriated state who are smoking, or a person dealing with a tragedy who wants to go outside to smoke?” he asked at the time.

According to figures released at the time, the annual security costs at the Ennis facility are € 34,000.

Clare representative to the HSE West Forum, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said he agreed with the policy, but raised concerns about hospitals like the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis, which has a psychiatric unit.

“It is more than a dependency for people with psychiatric problems,” he said.

He also asked if the HSE planned to extend the practice of allowing unhealthy behaviour on campus, by ceasing to sell sugary foods in its hospital shops, given the rise in typetwo diabetes.

Fellow Clare representative Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) asked about the size of the hospital campus and was told it was a 150-acre site.

“If there were 1, 500 acres, would you have the same rules? Where does it stop?” he asked.