Category: News

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.

AN unsigned Clare singer/songwriter is celebrating her very own Christmas miracle this week as she will be the iTunes featured artist of the week over the Christmas period.

Killaloe’s Siobhan O’Brien will be one of six musicians to feature on the iTunes Store during the busiest week of the year for music downloads. While the full lineup of artists is not yet known, these positions are usually reserved for multi-million Euro record artists – with major industry backing behind them.

This opportunity was offered to Siobhan after a senior iTunes executive happened to hear her singing live at a gig in West Clare.

“This means that every time that someone logs onto the iTunes Store, I will be one of the featured artists that scrolls across the top of the screen. It is incredible profile for me – this means that I’m going to be subjected to a much wider audience than I ever thought possible,” said Siobhan.

“I suppose this came about through a combination of perseverance and luck. I was singing live in Doonbeg and a major iTunes executive heard me. I don’t want to mention his name but he loved my voice and he said that he wanted to help me out. I couldn’t believe it.”

Everyone who logs into the iTunes Store over the Christmas period will be given a link to downloading Siobhan’s self titled “Siobhán O’Brien”. As a result of being featured by iTunes, Siobhan has also decided to relaunch the album on March 8, 2013, at Dolan’s in Limerick.

“The album came out last year and it was well received and got some very favourable reviews but U just didn’t have the profile to push it properly at that time,” said Siobhan.

“I’m also now in a position to tour in America so I’m going to tour the West Coast of America in January and then I’ll go back to tour the East Coast in March, after the album launch. So it’s exciting times.

“It is really great to get this kickstart [from iTunes]. It is very hard to get promotion as a musician and to get your foot in the door. It can be a luck thing as much as anything else and hopefully this is my time to get lucky.”

The album is produced by Siobhan’s long time friend and collaborator Eamon Hehir. Eamon has also co-written three of the songs on the album alongside Siobhan.

For more about Siobhan’s music visit www.siobhanobrien.com.

PERMANENT TSB in Ennis is unwittingly in the middle of a tug of love between an American woman and a Kilmaley native over an account in its bank that holds more than € 1.6m, which has now been frozen as a result of court action taken this week.

A 60-year-old American woman has claimed she was defrauded of millions by her younger Irish lover, who she claims had been leading a double life, the High Court heard this week.

The woman also claimed the man, her fiance, a Thomas Queally, de- scribed in court as being a native of Lahaknock, Kilmaley was also engaged to another woman at the same time.

New York-based Elisa Rodino claims Thomas J Queally, who is in his mid forties and who had been engaged to her, has stolen approximately US$4m of her money – a large portion of which was lodged by him into a bank in the Permanent TSB bank in Ennis.

Solicitors acting on her behalf secured a number of temporary freezing orders against Mr Queally.

They prevent him reducing, dissipating or transferring funds below a value of € 1.6m held in a bank ac- count at Permanent TSB in Ennis.

Seeking the orders, Ross Gorman acting for Ms Rodino, said his client was a vulnerable and wealthy woman who had been taken advantage of by Mr Queally.

Last August she agreed to put his name down on one of her bank accounts he said. It was a deposit account that contained US$5m.

Last October Mr Queally was due to meet up with Ms Rodino in Spain, but never showed up. When she arrived back in the US she discovered that money had been transferred to the bank in Ennis and to a US bank account.

Counsel said that his client did not know exactly where Mr Queally is at present and had not seen him for some months.

She has brought a legal action against him in New York as well as in Ireland, and fears that he will dissipate the funds held in the Irish bank account.

Counsel added it has been difficult to track Mr Queally down, but both Ms Rodino’s Irish solicitors Lyons Kenny Solicitors and her US lawyers were taking steps to find him,

The freezing orders were granted on an ex parte (one-side only) basis by Mr Justice Roderick Murphy. The judge made the matter returnable to early January.

THE head of Clare County Council’s Special Policy Committee for housing has recommended that no further money be spent on repairing Traveller accommodation until “underlying situation” concerning these houses are resolved.

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said that it was a recommendation that she “had not come to easily” but one that she felt was necessary given the cost of repairs to Traveller accommodation in 2012.

According to figures released at last Tuesday’s budget meeting of Clare County Council, repair payments for each house designated as Traveller accommodation was more than 10 times higher than the cost of the nonTraveller housing accommodation.

The average cost of repairs to the council’s 63 Traveller accomodation units was € 6,700 per house in 2012. This compares to a cost of just € 616 per house in the council’s non-Traveller stock over the same time period.

“I would recommend that no further money be made available to Traveller accomodation until the underlying situation can be resolved,” she said.

“The council cannot be expected to repair units only to have them damaged again and again while other people are waiting to get accommodation.”

This sentiment was echoed by Cllr Brian Meaney (GP), who is also a member of the Housing SPC who described the money being spent on repairing Traveller accomodation as a “matter of considerable concern”.

The council also heard that € 156,000 was spent in 2012 on security for the Beachpark Traveller Accommodation in Ennis.

A new CCTV facility is put in place on this site, and at a second Traveller accommodation site in the county, at a combined cost of around € 250,000.

Once this system of CCTV is up and running, the € 156,000 security contract for the Beachpark Estate will finish.

The council also incurred legal costs of € 118,000 in defending legal actions in relation to traveller accommodation in 2012.

Director of Service for housing, Bernadette Kinsella, said the costs had been awarded to the council in relation to some of these cases but that these costs had yet to be paid.

Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) also suggested that the Beachpark Estate be reallocated to the settled community as a result of damage which has been done to the property in recent months.

“We’ve seen this down through the years. It is more than 30 years ago that I said ‘they’ll never settle’. A problem like this will not be fixed by throwing money at it,” he said.

CLARE businesses will not receive any rates reduction from Clare County Council in 2013 – despite many businesses already facing an uphill struggle to pay of current rates arrears.

Clare County Council voted on Tuesday to approve the Draft Budget for 2013 – which included no change in the rates for the county. The local authority has seen intensive lobbying from members of the business community in recent month – who claim that the current rates burden could force a viable local businesses to close their doors.

According to the County Manager, Tom Coughlan, the Council is not in a position to reduce the rate for 2013 because of large cuts imposed on other parts of the local authority’s budget.

The money that Clare County Council receive under the Local Government General Fund has been cut from € 16.48 million in 2008 to a projected figure of just € 10.07 million for 2013 – a cut of almost € 6 million or 3 per cent.

Over the same period the council wage bill has been reduced by € 44.8 million to an estimated figure for 2013 of € 35.6 million – a projected cut of € 9.2 million.

“The preparation of the Draft Budget has become increasingly difficult in recent years. The ongoing reduction in income has driven ongoing reductions in expenditure which has resulted in the implementation of ongoing efficiencies,” said Mr Coughlan.

“It appears that that model of operation will continue for the foreseeable future.”

A number of councillors raised the issue of a possible rates cut but this was deemed not possible at this time – if levels of services offered by the council are to be maintained.

Mr Coughlan said that a proposed 10 per cent rates cut – which would yield € 3.6 million – would mean that € 3.6 million of saving would have to be cut from other parts of the budget.

“If we were able to introduce a € 3.6 million reduction in rates, over € 2m would go to 13 ratepayers. That is the impact. The 2,107 ratepayers left would share the € 1.6m,” he said.