Category: News

A FARMER has been acquitted of dangerous driving causing death of a German tourist near Bunratty Castle.

However John Boyce (57) with an address at Moyhill, Cratloe, was found guilty by a jury of careless driving.

The three-day trial at Ennis Circuit Court last week heard Mr Boyce was driving a tractor at the time of the crash, which killed Inge Schmidt (76) at Low Road, Bunratty, on October 29, 2010.

Ms Schmidt was walking across a zebra crossing when she came into contact with the tractor. She died in hospital later as a result of her injuries.

In his closing speech, Counsel for the State, Stephen Coughlan BL, told the jury that two eyewitnesses had seen Ms Schmidt on the crossing.

He said there was consistent evidence that it had been raining on the day of the accident.

Mr Coughlan said, “The fact that there was someone on the pedestrian crossing required the motorist to stop.”

He said that there was evidence that Mr Boyce did not stop at the point of impact.

Mr Coughlan said, “Speed is not an issue. There is no suggestion that the speed Mr Boyce was traveling contributed to the accident.”

The court heard that it had been impossible for gardai to determine the point of impact.

Mr Coughlan said Mr Boyce should have approached the junction with more care. He described Bunratty Folk Park as a very busy area.

Defence Counsel, Lorcan Connlly, told the court that this was a “very different case from most dangerous driving cases”.

He said alcohol and speed were not factors in the case.

Mr Connolly said Mr Boyce had told people at the scene of the acci- dent and gardaí that he had not seen Ms Schmidt.

He said this was not a case where Mr Boyce had attempted to “pull a rabbit” out of the hat on the day of the court case.

He added, “Mr Boyce has been consistent throughout. He did not see the woman.”

The court heard that no certificate of roadworthiness is required for tractors.

Mr Connolly said, “I am inviting you to find that he (Mr Boyce) is not criminally responsible for what happened on the day.”

Mr Connolly told the jury that Mr Boyce will have to “carry the cross” for what happened on that day for the rest of his life.

After seeking clarification from Judge Gerard Keyes, the jury found Mr Boyce not guilty of dangerous driving but guilty of careless driving.

Setencing was adjourned until Tuesday.

CLARE has the second highest rate of same-sex civil partnerships in Ireland, with 15 couples from the county tying the knot since the civil partnership legislation became law in January of 2011.

According to figures released by the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), Clare has the second highest incidence of civil partnerships per head of population – with only Dublin registering a higher rate of civil partnerships.

While 15 Clare couple have been granted civil partnerships, only two couples have been able to have their ceremony in the county.

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

“It has been an incredible take-up in such a small space of time. I think once same-sex couples become more visible in Clare and other places, more and more people will see that a same-sex couple is no different from a heterosexual couple. This is people making a really profound commitment to each other,” said the West Clare man.

“I think people are starting to realise that this is a marriage, with all the same responsibilities and commitments.

“So more and more people are starting to see that gay couples should have all the same rights as other [heterosexual] couples. I think it has demystified it for a lot of people.

“When you look at the figures and see that 14 people over the age of 70 have had a civil partnership, you realise that people have been waiting for this for a long time, to have their relationships recognised. Many of these couples will have been together for 30 or 40 years.”

Under the current civil partnership legislation, there is still a legal connection between a civil partner and the biological children of his or her spouse.

This also creates issues surrounding adoption, when same-sex couples are not allowed to adopt jointly.

A MAN has been found guilty of the intimidation of two witnesses who gave evidence at a trial in Clare last year.

At Clare Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, Martin Joyce (22), with addresses at 113 Dun na hInse, Ennis and 2 St Patrick’s Mews, Clarecastle, was found guilty by a jury of the intimidation of his brother-in-law Michael Ward and Mr Ward’s wife, Rose Ward.

He was acquitted of a charge of threatening to kill Mr Ward at Shannon Airport on May 3 2011.

The Wards had travelled to Clare from England to give evidence at an arson trial against the Mr Joyce’s brother David. David Joyce was acquitted of the charge.

It had been alleged that Mr Joyce told Mr Ward that he would never be able to come back to Shannon and that he would be shot if he gave evidence at the trial.

It was alleged that Mr Joyce also told Mr Ward that there would “guns in court waiting for him” if he gave evidence.

Mr Ward told the court that he “felt very terrified” when he saw Mr Joyce entering the arrivals hall of Shannon Airport.

Mr Ward was with his wife and two children at the time.

The jury was shown CCTV footage of the encounter between Mr Joyce and Mr Ward.

Asked about Mr Joyce’s body language on the day, Mr Ward said, “he looked ready for action.”

He said, “I just felt very terrified to be honest with you.” Rose Ward said she got a “terrible fright” when she saw Mr Joyce.

“I got very badly disturbed when I saw him,” she added. The court heard that Ms Ward went to the airport police.

She said, “I was afraid that something that was going to happen. I was afraid Martin was going to do something bad.”

Patrick O’Neill of Shannon Airport Police told the court that Ms Ward seemed “very upset” at the time.

Mr Joyce was arrested two days after the incident. When asked by gardaí why he had come to Shannon, Mr Joyce said he was bringing his child to the doctor. Mr Joyce told gardaí that Mr Ward called him names at the airport. He denied threatening his brother in law.

Counsel for the accused Pat Whyms BL said every detail of the CCTV footage vindicated Mr Joyce’s account of what happened. He said his client had urged gardaí to review the CCTV.

Mr Whyms added, “This is a man begging for the objective evidence to be shown so he can be vindicated.” He said there was no evidence that Mr Joyce had threatened Mr Ward.

Mr Whyms said there were inconsistencies in Mr Ward’s evidence.

He added, “The evidence in this case has come nowhere close to the standard of proof required.”

It took the jury 89 minutes to unanimously find Mr Joyce not guilty of threatening to kill Mr Ward but guilty of intimidation.

After a further 36 minutes of deliberation the jury unanimously found Mr Joyce guilty of the intimidation of Rose Ward.

Judge Gerard Keyes adjourned sentencing to October 16. Mr Joyce was granted bail subject to conditions.

THE number of people signing on the live register in Clare has dropped to its lowest level in more than three years – but it is emigration and not job creation which is credited for the drop.

According to new information from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), a total of 9,674 people signed on the live register in the county in September. This is the lowest number on the live register since May of 2009, and represents a month-on-month drop of more that five per cent.

While some of this drop can be attributed to students returning to third-level education, emigration is considered to be the main driving force behind the record low.

According to Rita McInerney, CEO of the Ennis Chamber of Commerce, job creation has been flat in the county in recent months, with some sectors making gains while other sectors are being forced to let people go.

“It is slow at the moment and it is very different from one sector to the next. The retail sector is certainly having a difficult time of it but hopefully that will change coming up to Christmas,” she said.

“Export businesses in the county are doing well and that is good news, they employ a lot of people, but if we are to see some new job creation, we really need people to get back to spending again.

“Emigration is certainly a big factor in all of this. It is one of the unavoidable outcomes of a recession. It is about people looking at their options and deciding what is best for them and their family, whether that be going back to education or emigration.”

The numbers signing on in Clare last month were 300 down on the September 2011 figures and 500 down on the same month in 2010.

A NEW initiative to support local community groups to access Leader funding for projects that upgrade buildings and structures of heritage value has been launched by the Clare Heritage Forum.

The Community Built Heritage Animator Programme will run until autumn 2013 and kicks off with a series of local seminars that will help communities identify projects and explore the technical and funding aspects of conservation works.

The seminars will take place over the next two weeks starting on Tuesday, October 16, in the Lakeside Hotel, Killaloe, and Thursday, October 18, in the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis.

The following week’s events are in the Stella Maris, Kilkee, on Tuesday 23 and Falls Hotel, Ennistymon on Thursday 25. All seminars are from 7.30 to 9.30pm.

Dick Cronin, Architectural Conservation Officer with Clare County Council, is inviting local groups to the seminars or to get in touch to explore the potential of projects in their communities.

“Clare Heritage Forum, Clare County Council and local communities have been working together for many years to identify, preserve and promote the county’s rich built heritage,” said Mr Cronin.

“Right now, there is a great opportunity for community groups to conserve and enhance this heritage with Leader funding from Clare Local Development Company. We are looking for groups to propose projects and we will assist them with technical expertise in applying for Leader heritage grants,” he added.

The Animator Programme is being operated by Leahy Conway Architects who have widespread experience in the preservation and conservation of heritage structures. Conservation architect Paul Conway is encouraging groups to consider all types of structures in their area.

“It may be a flagship building but equally it may simply be the clearance of ivy in an old church or graveyard. Other examples include gate piers, mausolea, village pumps, old castles, lime kilns, follies and so on. There are many places in your community where the past lives but which could benefit from a heritage grant,” he said.

GARDAÍ in Shannon have this week renewed their appeal for information about a serious assault that took place in the town last Sunday week when a man was stabbed in his home in the Cluain Airne estate.

The man was attacked at 6.30am in the morning after he opened his front door and was then stabbed in the stomach by a man who was standing outside. The man then fled the scene.

Last week Gardaí released details of the person they believe is responsible for the attack.

He is described as being 5’8” in height and approximately 20-21 years of age. He was wearing a navy jacket with an Eircom logo on the back. Gardai say he may have had a black eye.

Now, a week on, Gardaí have released a photograph of the type of jacket being worn by the man who committed the attack.

“We hope that this picture might jog someone’s memory,” a Shannon Garda spokesperson said. “This is the kind of jacket he was wearing and we believe him to be local to Shannon and living in Shannon,” he added.

MORE than a dozen people who previously worked in the area of middle management and are now seeking employment are benefiting from a new initiative set up by the St Vincent de Paul.

The local St Joseph’s Conference of the St Vincent de Paul set up a support and information network targeted at this group, when it became apparent they were finding their new job-seeking status particularly difficult. To date an average of 12 to 15 people attend the monthly meetings, but the local SVP believe it can help even more.

Its next meeting is in the Information Age Park, Gort Road, Ennis, at 10 am on October 11.

The agenda includes a presentation from Gerard Kennedy, Clare Local Development Company, and from Michael Byrne of Acton BV.

Gerard will be outlining the activities of CLDC and the supports they have to offer and Michael will be talking on how the members can use the net to source jobs. Clare Connect is a network for unemployed supervisory and executive personnel and it meets on the second Thursday of each month in the Board Room of the Information Age Park.

Those wishing to attend would let the organisers know by emailing clareconnect123@gmail.com.

AN ILLEGAL dump, discovered in a turlough in the North Burren, has the potential to seriously pollute public and private water schemes in the Gort and Kinvara areas.

That is according to Senator Lorraine Higgins (LAB), who also described the illegal dump at Caherglassaun Lake as being a “significant” operation.

The cost of cleaning up the estimated two tonnes of rubbish which have been discovered in the waterway could also run into the tens of thousands.

The rubbish is understood to be mostly household waste, and has the potential to cause significant impact to the turlough and its surround plant and animal life. The waterway is renowned for it fish and is also a top quality natural habitat of plants and animals.

“When I was first contacted on the matter, I went to the site and it was clear this was an illegal operation of some significance,” said Senator Higgins.

“It would be a place which would have special amenity value in the area certainly, and perhaps recreational as well. More disturbing again is that if there was run-off from it, it might enter the water supply and could make people in the areas of Gort and Kinvara sick.

“I would urge people in the constituency that if anyone arrives at their door and offers to dispose of household waste for a fee that seems below market price, or any price for that matter, they are fully entitled to find out if that person has a permit to dispose of the rubbish. If they do not have a permit, I would urge people not to use them because it is the householder that will be liable for prosecution,” said Senator Higgins.

Caherglassaun Turlough is located about six kilometres to the west of Gort, just outside of the Coole Nature Reserve and 5km south-east of Kinvara. Caherglassaun is both a lake and a turlough, with a permanent lake at its centre and a large surrounding area which floods at areas of heavy rain.

ALMOST half of the fees paid to Clare solicitors under the criminal free legal aid system were paid to just under 20 per cent of those on the legal aid panel.

Figures from the Department of Justice show that solicitor Tara Godfrey was the highest earner from criminal legal aid cases in the county for the second year in a row.

The Ennis solicitor earned € 144,434 last year, a decrease of € 19,265 on the previous year when her payment reached € 163,699.

The payment to solicitors in Clare last year was down more than € 100,000 on the previous year in total.

In 2011 € 468,892 was paid to solicitors in Clare, with a further € 235,723.60 paid towards the provision of up to two counsel or barristers, doctors, psychiatrists, engineers, forensic scientists and language experts for defence cases in criminal hearings in the Clare District and Circuit Courts.

Among the other top earners on the Clare legal aid panel last year was Ennis-based solicitor Darragh Hassett who earned € 96,092. Mr Hassett had graduated from third to second place on the top earners list. In 2010 he earned € 110,130 but was then surpassed in earnings by Ms Godfrey and former Kilrush-based solicitor Eugene O’Kelly.

Mr O’Kelly who was appointed to the bench in March this year and is now a district court judge in Limerick, earned € 71,602 from free legal aid cases in 2011.

He earned € 135,748 the previous year.

Judge Kelly’s clients are now served by his former legal partner of five years Patrick Moylan.

John P Casey, based in Ennis, earned € 30,293 from legal aid work in criminal cases last year; Jenny Fitzgibbon from Shannon earned € 29,838; and, according to the Department of Justice, William Cahir Solicitor took in € 29,287.

In total, the top six earners on the legal aid panel earned € 257,112 between them. There were 23 solicitors or firms named in total.

A LOCAL campaign to amalgamate Ennistymon’s three secondary schools has been resurrected, with a number of meetings taking place between the schools and local representatives in recent months.

A meeting involving representatives from the three schools – Scoil Mhuire, the Ennistymon CBS and the Ennistymon Vocational School – and a number of Clare politicians took place in Ennistymon last Monday, October 1. The meeting was attended by Fine Gael TD’s Pat Breen and Joe Carey and it is hoped that the renewed local campaign could help kick-start the project on a national level. The Clare People understands that the project is currently stalled by a complex legal issue involving the site designated for the new school. Until this issue has been resolved at a national level, progress on the school cannot be made.

A campaign to amalgamate the town’s three secondary schools has been ongoing for more than two decades.

It was announced more than ten years ago that a new school build- ing was to be built on a patch of land close to the current Scoil Mhuire building. Despite this announcement, construction work never began on the project.

The campaign to bring about the school amalgamation restarted in earnest earlier this year with a meeting between representatives of the schools before the summer break. This was followed by last week’s meeting and a third meeting is now planned for November of this year.

Responding to a parliamentary questions from Ennistymon Senator Martin Conway (FG) earlier this year, the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn (Lab), confirmed that the Government still planned to go ahead with the amalgamation – once any outstanding issues with the site have been resolved.

The three schools in Ennistymon currently have around 600 students between them.

Campaigners for the school amalgamation believe that educational facilities could be offered at a higher standard if the three schools pooled their resources into one large school. Students in the senior cycle also walk between the three schools as some classes are already being shared between the schools.