Category: News

A PLAN for the development of the mid-west region for the next 20 years has been branded a “complete waste of money”.

The € 1.2 million Mid West Area Strategic Plan (MWASP) will cost Clare County Council € 184,000, yet local county councillors claim that its main concern is furthering the development of Limerick City at the expense of Clare.

Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), who is a member of the Mid West Regional Authority, is particularly critical of the plan stating, “It is a document that serves no purpose other than to further the needs of Limerick City.”

The plan is described as a “Planning Land Use and Transportation Strategy” that covers North Tipperary, Limerick City and Limerick County and County Clare.

However following the next local elections in 2014 Tipperary North will cease to exist, as it will be amalgamated with Tipperary South.

Cllr Kelly has now called for the plan to be reviewed if there is any “territorial change”.

Following the local authority changes in Tipperary, the Clare county councillor believes Tipperary North will have to be omitted or the South included making the current plan, which is in its final draft stage, nul and void.

Senior Planner with Clare County Council Gordon Daly told The Clare People that the MWASP was similar to strategies that have been prepared in other parts of the country.

Asked about the costings he explained, “The overall cost of the strategy over a four to five year period is € 1.2m. A grant of € 600,000 was received from the Department of Transport, primarily focused on the transportation and smarter travel assessments of the plan. This would have involved a substantial amount of survey work and traffic counts. The balance of the funding (€ 600,000) is shared between the four local authorities in the region on the basis of population. The overall cost to Clare County Council over the four to five year period is approximately € 184,000,” he said.

“Also, one of the main benefits of MWASP has been the development of an overall transport model which is available to the local authority for future traffic assessments and the model is available to Clare County Council and can be used by the council in the future,” added the senior planner.

LAHINCH hotelier and head of the Irish Hotel Federation, Michael Vaughan, has withdrawn his calls for an independent investigation into the e-coli outbreak which forced the closure of the Clare’s three main swimming beaches over the weekend.

This comes following the confirmation by Clare County Council that the temporary closure of beaches at Lahinch, Kilkee and Spanish Point was the result of run off from nearby farmland, and not as a result of a breakdown in the sewerage infrastructure in either of the three locations.

Mr Vaughan confirmed that follow a lengthy conversation with County Manager, Tom Coughlan, yesterday, he was satisfied that the sewage treatment plant in Lahinch was not the source of the e-coli.

In a statement to The Clare People last night, a council spokesperson confirmed that it was run off from nearby land and not sewage which caused the e-coli build-up.

“The excessive rainfall in recent weeks was a major contributory factor to the detection of e-coli in the water. Lahinch, Kilkee and Spanish Point beaches are each located in bays, unlike other bathing areas along the west coast of Clare.

“As a result, the run off from land surrounding these beaches became concentrated in enclosed bodies of water resulting in the greater concentration of bacteria levels. The results of water samples taken at beaches which are located at less enclosed locations along the coast did not show such elevated levels.

“The effluent from the wastewater treatment plant in Lahinch has been consistently within the permitted limits for the three main parameters for measuring the discharge of effluent from treatment plants, namely Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and suspended solids, and the plant has capacity to treat the existing town including increased population during holiday periods.

“Neither have there been any untreated overflows from the network during the period in which the water samples resulting in exceedances of the Blue Flag limits were taken at Lahinch beach.”

Clare County Council say they will continue to consult with the HSE as well as carrying out further water quality tests on the effected beaches.

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A CLARE teenager could be on the way to becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg through his creation of PearUp – a new social network based on sports.

Bunratty youngster, Tiernan Kennedy, is currently in New York where he and two of his classmates from Trinity College Dublin have been accepted into a prestigious incubator programme organised by American conglomerate General Electric.

The intensive 10-week incubator course is intended to bring the best and the brightest of young technical stars – in an effort to further their business start-ups. Tiernan, along with his co-company founders Alex Mann and Dermot Markey are the only non-American students accepted to the Manhattan course.

PearUp is a new form of social network which aims to link together people with different sporting interests in different parts of the world. It is operational as a mobile app for smart-phones and works by allowing strangers to meet and play in sporting events together.

While the application is aimed at individuals looking for people to play sports with, it is primarily aimed at sports clubs who can use its software as a virtual booking agency.

When the programme comes to an end of August 17, Tiernan and the rest of the PearUp founders will get a chance to pitch to General Electric executive for the chance to win € 10,000 in start-up capital.

Tiernan nearly missed out on taking part in competition as the PearUp’s entry to the event was only confirmed weeks before the start of the incubator programme – leaving them without enough time to obtain visas to travel to America.

However, after letters were written on their behalf by former Tánaiste, Dick Spring (Lab) as well as US Congressman Todd Akin and highprofile venture capitalist, Will Porteous, they were able to process their visas in just two and a half weeks.

Despite missing out on the first eight days of the programme, Tiernan and the rest of the PearUp team are reported to be competing well with their American counterparts.

For more information on the PearUp website visit www.pearup. tumblr.com.

THERE is no Clare man currently opting for life in the priesthood and just one from the diocese of Killaloe studying in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.

The student from Birr is still a minimum of three years from ordination as the diocese undergoes more changes as it adapts to life with fewer priests.

Today (Tuesday) the Bishop of Killaloe Kieran O’Reilly SMA will announce changes to personnel as he reinforces the cluster system of the last few years that allows for less clergy to administer to the dioceses of 117,000 Catholics.

Bishop O’Reilly will confirm that four priests from the Killaloe Diocese, including Fr Paddy O’Brien from Tuamgreaney, will retire from active duty from September 1.

Four new parish priests will also be appointed including to the Clare parishes of Kildysart/Coolmean and Cooraclare.

The bishop has also named his new Vicar General, the man who along with Fr Michael Sheedy from Kilrush will become his closest confident in all matters relating to the diocese.

Fr Pat Malone will take on this role as the new Vicar General, replacing Fr Seamus Gardiner who is to retire.

Fr Tom O’Gorman has been appointed Administer of Christ the King Cloughleigh within the pasto- ral area of the Parish of Ennis.

As well as being appointed new Parish Priest of Cooralcare Fr Tony Casey will be appointed Coordinator of the Diocesan Pastoral Development Group. This is a new position and will involve a team working with Fr Casey from among the priests, religious and laity of the diocese “to engage in the area of pastoral planning for the future”.

“The development of the Clusters continues to be a key element in the organisation of the pastoral life of the Diocese. Through the listening process, over the past few months, there is now a growing awareness of the value and importance of the clusters as units of collaboration and sharing of resources of our parishes and communities. The sharing of the gifts and talents of many people – enriching our life in the community and in the Church, reaches beyond parish boundaries,” said Bishop O’Reilly.

“I hope the Clusters will continue to develop and offer new opportunities for ministry in the Diocese.

“A further development this year is the creation of two new clusters, after consultation, the Mid-Clare Cluster is divided into two Clusters: MidClare North comprising the parishes of Milltown Malbay, Inagh, Mullagh and Kilmaley with moderator Fr Pat Larkin and Mid Clare South comprising the parishes of Kildysert/Coolmeen and Ballyncally with Moderator Fr Albert McDonnell,” he explained.

Fr Maurice Harmon who continues to teach at Mary Immaculate College will assist at weekends in the Cluster of Scath na Sionnaine which includes Killaloe, Castleconnell, Clonlara, Broadford and O’Callaghan’s Mills.

The large diocese that takes in the majority of County Clare and parts of Tipperary, Offaly, Limerick and Laois has been managing the decrease in priest numbers in the last number of years through a cluster system which will now be increase from 11 to 12 clusters.

There are currently 89 Killaloe parish priests and curates in fulltime parish ministry, with six more engaged fully in school chaplaincy, teaching, diocesan administration and other pastoral work throughout Ireland.

Six more priests from the diocese are serving over seas in various ministries, while 12 priests are now retired from active ministry.

The Diocese also benefits from the service of four priests from other dioceses or religious congregations serving as priests in parishes of the diocese and from the ministry of the clergy based at the Franciscan Friary in Ennis and the Cistercian Monastery at Mount St Joseph’s, Roscrea.

A LOCK of hair belonging to Irish revolutionary hero, Peadar Clancy, has resurfaced – 92 years after the Clareman was shot dead by British soldiers in Dublin Castle.

The hair was presented to relatives of the executed revolutionary in Cranny on Sunday, after spending most of the last hundred years lost in an envelope in America. It was discovered by Irish Historian, Professor Eunan O’Hailpín, who is himself a grandnephew of executed revolution- ary, Kevin Barry.

The hair was given to Professor O’Hailpín by an American relative – who was disposing of a collection of family artifacts from Ireland, and had no idea of the significance of the hair or its owner.

Clare man, Pat Shannon, accepted the hair on behalf of the decedents of family and says that he has no intention of selling the lock of hair to collectors.

“We were shocked when we heard about the hair. This all came from a relation of Kevin Barry’s in America. Kevin Barry had served under Peadar during the War of Independence and when Peadar died a relative of Kevin Barry must have taken the lock of hair from him – along with a lock of Kevin Barry’s own hair,” he said.

“It is incredible for this to come back to us but there was a tradition in those days to take a lock of hair from someone when they died young – as a momento.

“We are certainly going to hold onto this lock of hair ourselves – we wont be selling it on ebay or anything like that. There are a number of descendants of Peadar Clancy still in Clare and our plan would be to use the hair to mark the hundred anniversary of his death here in Cranny.

Peadar Clancy was shot and killed by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday, November 21, 1920, as a reprisal for the murder of a network of British spies by the IRA. Also killed on that day were fellow prisoners Dick McKee and Conor Clune as-well-as 14 people attending a football match at Croke Park.

A WEST Clare man has been found not guilty of the alleged rape of a teenager in the county two years ago.

A jury of six men and six women returned a unanimous not guilty verdict at the end of the six day trial before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Ennis last Wednesday.

Defence solicitor Patrick Moylan, of O’Kelly Moylan Solicitors, stated afterwards that the not guilty verdict returned by the jury was a just and appropriate one. “The accused has been vindicated”, he added.

It had been alleged that the man forced the then 16-year-old to have sex with him in the bedroom of her home in 2009.

It took the jury one hour and 51 minutes to acquit the 23-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The court heard that forensic evi- dence of the accused’s DNA had been found on a bed sheet.

Prosecuting counsel, John Aylmer SC said that when interviewed by gardaí, the man denied ever being in the house.

He said the DNA evidence should remove “any reasonable doubt as to the complainant’s statement.”

The court that the man and the alleged victim first met in 2007 and that there had been “considerable” phone communication between them around the time of the alleged assault.

A complaint was first made to gardaí a week after the alleged assault. The court heard that threats had been made against the girl around the time of the alleged assault because of text messages she had sent to another man.

Mr Aylmer said the girl had been “petrified” and had attempted to put the rape to the back of her mind.

Defence Counsel, Brendan Grehan SC, said that the alleged victim had admitted lying in her original statement to gardaí. He told the jury that she had also tried to persuade a friend to lie to the gardaí.

Citing the example of former US president Bill Clinton, Mr Grehan said his client not the first man in history to lie about a sexual experience.

Mr Grehan said the fact that no “fresh complaint” had been made should set the jury’s “antennae twitching”.

He added, “The bottom line is that there is simply none of the indicators that a violent sexual assault took place, none whatsoever.”

He said the girl had falsely claimed that his client and others had stolen money from her house. Mr Grehan said she had admitted deleting text messages sent from the accused to her. He said the scientific evidence proved that ejaculation had taken place but not intercourse. He added, “I suggest there is a glaring gap in the prosecution’s case.” The jury returned a not guilty verdict.

TWO Kilkee community groups were prevented from providing 20 nights of local entertainment due to what has been described as “exorbitant” costs charged by the theatre at Cultúrlann Sweeney. According to Kilkee town councillor Paddy Collins (FG), Kilkee Amphitheatre was quoted € 4,200 to stage 10 shows at the Clare County Council-run theatre. They would also be required to pay up to seven per cent of ticket charges. “They usually make € 1,000 to € 1, 500 when they were in the community centre,” he said.

Likewise the Kilkee Civic Trust was prevented from using the theatre for its popular summer talks due to high costs. Cllr Collins said the voluntary group that hosts the talks free of charge were asked to pay € 1,500 for the use of the theatre.

“The two groups wanted to use the theatre for 20 out of the 60 nights in July and August,” he said. “Both had to pull out. There are now just four nights booked for the remainder of July and August.”

He said that Kilkee National School also wished to hold a presentation night at the theatre but could not afford to, due to costs.

The Kilkee councillor told a meet- ing of the West Clare County Councillors last evening (Monday) that there are now fears that the theatre, which was opened in February, will be “moth balled”.

“The theatre is state of the art but it is not being used due to the exorbitant cost.”

He said it was being run as a commercial business rather than a community facility. “I don’t feel that Clare County Council and the Arts Council are suitable to run this,” he added calling for a board of management to take over the role.

Since the library and theatre opened five months ago it has been run by Clare County Council.

Director of Services Anne Haugh said that the last meeting of Kilkee Town Council was advised that the local authority would review the rates at the end of the season. She added that it is being operated on a full cost basis.

Cllr Collins argues however that as the theatre and library was funded by donations from a Kilkee emigrant the building also belongs to Kilkee.

It was agreed that he would meet with the Director of Services responsible for Cultúrlann Sweeney Bernadette Kinsella, mayor Claire Haugh (FF), and local county councillors Pat Keane (FF) and Gabriel Keating (FG) in a bid to find a resolution.

A MAN with an address in Crusheen has been charged with having what gardaí have described as ‘large quantities’ of heroin and cannabis for sale or supply at two different locations is due back again in court later this month.

Simon Bracken (45), with an address at Cappamore, Crusheen, appeared at Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

It is alleged that Mr Bracken had diamorphine for purposes of sale or supply at Cappamore, Crusheen on June 1 (2012).

Mr Bracken faces another charge of having cannabis for sale or supply at Ardrahan, Galway on June 13.

The court previously heard that the cannabis seized by gardaí was estimated to be worth € 20,000.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that the State are awaiting directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

He said quite a “sizeable” amount of drugs had been seized and that the case “might attract another charge.”

Solicitor Tara Godfrey said she intended to make a bail application on behalf of her client.

The court heard that Mr Bracken had previously been remanded in custody with consent to bail in relation to the cannabis charges.

Inspector Kennedy said the State would consent to bail on the heroin charges.

He sought a further adjournment in the case for DPP’s directions.

Ms Godfrey said that her client could not achieve bail at this time on the current terms.

She added, “I am concerned that DPP’s directions have taken some time.”

Judge Patrick Durcan remanded the accused in custody with consent to bail to appear again on July 25. Judge Durcan added that given Mr Bracken’s continued “incarceration”, he was concerned that DPP’s directions had not yet issued.

In response, Insp Kennedy said, “Mr Bracken is in custody having been caught in possession of a large quantity of drugs on two separate oc casions within a week.”

A JUDGE has declined jurisdiction in the case of a man accused of breaking into an apartment block in Shannon last month.

At Ennis District Court on Wednesday, Judge Patrick Durcan referred a case involving Derek Quaid (23) back to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The court had heard that the DPP had directed summary disposal of the matter.

It is alleged that Mr Quaid, who gave an address at 218 O’Malley Park, South Hill, Limerick City, trespassed at flat at Kincora Apartments, Shannon in such a manner that was likely to cause fear in another person. The alleged offence is alleged to have occurred in Shannon on June 27.

A woman was in the apartment at the time of the break in, the court heard.

Solicitor Jenny Fitzgibbon requested that the court consider jurisdiction of the case.

Inspector Tom Kennedy outlined a summary of the alleged facts.

He said a woman was in the apartment when she heard someone banging and kicking on the door.

The woman rang the building caretaker and the gardaí.

The court heard that gardaí found Mr Quaid going through drawers in a bedroom of the apartment. The accused was subsequently arrested by gardaí at the scene, the court was told.

Judge Patrick Durcan declined jurisdiction. He granted an extension of time for the service of the book of evidence.

He remanded the accused on continuing bail to appear again at Ennis District Court on September 12.

He also consented to a request to have Mr Quaid’s bail conditions amended to allow him to visit his solicitor’s office in Shannon.

Judge Durcan ruled that the accused could visit the office as long as he has in his possession an official letter of appointment.