Category: News

THE 500 year-old body of a Clare teenager is helping to paint a clear picture of what life was like for the people of Ireland during one of the most violent periods in Irish history.

Carbon dating of human remains, discovered in a cave on Moneen Mountain, just outside Ballyvaughan, has revealed that the dead person was between 14 and 16 years of age, and was severally malnutritioned.

According to Dr Marion Dowd of IT Sligo, the evidence suggests that the youth crawled into the cave and died, rather than being placed in the cave after death. This suggests that Moneen Mountain was being used as a refuge or meeting place for poor Clare people at this time.

This period, around the time of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, was one of the bloodiest times in Irish history.

“At this time in Ireland, there was religious persecution, a lot of warfare, Gaelic people are being dispossessed of their land and there are lots of famines.

“But to find the remains of one of these individuals and to see, first hand, the evidence of what was going on is very interesting,” said Dr Dowd.

“Another mystery is why the re- mains were in the cave and not in a burial ground – because there were a number of official burial grounds quite close to the cave. It seems that this young person went into the cave, crawled into a small recess in the cave wall and died there.

“This person may have been completely on his own and died in the cave or there may have been a few people hiding out there.”

The excavation also revealed evidence which suggests that Moneen Mountain may have been a significant place for Bronze Age people.

“The other material dates back to 1,000 BC. We discovered a large quantity of broken-up pots and a deer antler. There is something quite unusual about this also, it does not look like a refuge, there was no-one living inside the cave at the time, and we know that the pots were weathered outside,” continued Marion.

“It is possible that these were some kind of special offerings that were placed inside the cave. The material was brought into the cave and deposited very carefully on top of a large rock.

“Broken artifacts can have a symbolic value in prehistoric communities and pieces of pottery can be placed in ritual context.”

Research into the excavation, which was funded by the National Monuments Service, is still being evaluated. Ove ra ll a ve ry we t st a rt t o t h e we e k b u t t h e ra in b e c o m in g m o re sp o ra d ic a ft e r t h a t . Ne xt we e k lo o ks so m e t h in g sim ila r.

INCREASED links between Clare and its Australian twin, the Clare Valley, is helping to give Clare people who have been forced to emigrate ‘down under’ a little taste of home. That is according to Councillor Sue Wurst, of the Clare and Gilbert Valley’s Council, who visited Ennis last week.

According to Cllr Wurst, the connection has also led to a boosting of the local tourism trade in both Clares, with tourists travelling back and forth between the two areas.

“We are out of the way of the major cities so we haven’t seen a lot of people from Clare coming to live and work with us, but we have seen a lot of Clare people coming to Adelaide, and making their way up to us.

“It would be hard to put a figure on how many people from Clare have come to us but we know it happens,” said Cllr Wurst.

“I know that a sizable number of people from the Clare Valley visit County Clare and I know that the reason that they do visit is because of the twinning link. We read the Clare papers and we know that Shannon has been going through difficult times so we made sure to use Shannon Airport and support that.

“While we are here, we like to buy as much stuff and we can eat and drink as much as we can. We want to contribute to the local economy. I know that when the Mayor of the Clare and Gilbert Valleys was here last week that he spent € 400 on clothes in one shop.

“The Australian dollar is quite high at the moment so we are very happy to come over here and to visit a place that is very much close to our heart.”

A NEW application for funding to create state-of-the-art sports facilities in Kilrush will be made by Kilrush Town Council within the next month, amid renewed hope that the project earmarked for Gallery Park on the Cooraclare Road area of the town will receive grant aid under the 2012 Sports Capital Programme.

Town Manager, Nora Kaye, told the monthly meeting of Kilrush Town Council that a new deadline of May 11 has been set by the Department of Sport for grant applications for sports capital projects and that work was already underway putting the application together.

“There are very tight rules and regulations,” revealed Ms Kaye. “Last year we made two applications – one for the astro-turf and one for the grass pitches, so that two contractors could work side by side and get the project finished early. This year we have to cost each separate element of the project.

“The maximum grant is € 300,000 so we have to break them up into packages of less than € 300,000 and to prioritise them. There is a bit of work to go into them yet,” she added.

The first phase of the € 1.3m development is set to include an artificial surface facility, grassed pitches (to include a full size playing pitch and two full size training pitches), fencing, lighting and associated works. The second phase of the project will include the development of dressing rooms, car parking, footpaths and associated works.

Plans for the ambitious project were unveiled were unveiled last summer when it was revealed that Clare County Council had reached an agreement with Gallery Park landowners Department of Education and the ESB to develop the site, but the initial application for funding for inclusion in the 2011 Sports Capital Programme made last September wasn’t successful.

“The maximum grant for the whole project is 90 per cent,” revealed the Town Manager, “but in awarding the grant and the monies, one of the terms of the scheme is that if you put more money towards it, you might jump the queue.

“We’ll have to look at matching funding. If we get funding we will have two years to complete the works,” Ms Kaye added.

“I would urge that every effort be made to ensure that we get this grant,” said Cllr Liam Williams (FG) who has tabled a number of motions on the need for developing sports facilities at the Gallery Road site.

“We have to keep the pressure on,” he added.

KILRUSH Town Council is to launch its campaign to play host to the National Famine Commemoration in 2013 – a project that has the capacity to bring thousands of extra tourists into West Clare. The local authority is to apply to the Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht to play host to the commemoration and in conjunction with Kilrush Local History Group have pledged to organised a weeklong event.

The move was heralded at Thursday night’s monthly meeting of Kilrush Town Council, which was attended by members of the Kilrush Historical Society, which since its establishment over the past 14 months has raised new awareness about history in west Clare.

Paddy Waldron of the Local History Group told Thursday’s meeting that Kilrush and West Clare had a compelling case to host the famine commemoration that has been organised by the Government since 2009.

“After the Skibereen, this was one of the worst hit areas. It was also one areas who’s famine history is best documented,” he revealed.

“We have a database of hundreds upon thousands of names of people who were evicted in the West Clare peninsula during the Famine. Those people have descendants all over the world who might like to come back and commemorate their ancestors in Clare. It would be a great opportunity to bring tourists back to West Clare.

“If we publicise it along the lines of the Ireland Gathering Project to try and bring back the descendants of the Irish diaspora to help the tourist industry. It would be good for the town to get national publicity and get national figures to come to the peninsula,” he added.

“It would be great to tie it into the Gathering next year,” said Mayor of Kilrush, Cllr Ian Lynch (FG), who revealed that representations have already been made to bring the prestingious event to West Clare. We are in with a fighting chance of getting this. It would spark something. It would really highlight the great work the historical society is doing,” he added.

This year’s Famine Commemoration takes place in Drogheda on May 13, with an international evetn taking place the same day in Boston.

LOCAL services across the county are set to be slashed because of Clare’s response to the government demand for householders to pay the € 100 household charge.

Figures secured by The Cla re People this week have shown that less than 15,000 of those liable to pay the controversial property tax have done so.

This means that there are over 20,000 property owners in the county who have failed to register with Clare County Council or the Local Government Management Agency to pay the levy introduced by the Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan.

These figures have come to light, after a leading member of Clare County Council released countywide payment figures for the household charge to members of Kilrush Town Council on Thursday night last.

“The most recent information available indicates that circa 37 per cent (leaving a shortfall of 63 per cent) of the estimated properties liable to the household charge in Clare have paid,” revealed Seamus Halpin, nearly two weeks after the government deadline for the payment of the charge passed.

“The department have yet to indicate the reduction if any in the Local Government Fund arising form the collection rate, however, if the household charge payments are not received the government will have less money to allocate for the delivery of local services,” Clare County Council’s administrative officer for finance added.

Mr Halpin made his comments in response to a notice of motion tabled by former Mayor of Kilrush, Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF) at the monthly meeting of Kilrush Town Council at which it was claimed that those who paid the € 100 charge are now being targetted for a raft of other payments.

“It is being used to get more money out of people,” said Cllr Paul Moroney (Ind).

“I met a woman in Knockerra, who told me she registered early for the charge and within a month had a number of visits to her house which is in off the road and very hard to find.

“The TV licence person came around, someone came to inspect her septic tank and she had a water metre put outside her door. They called because they now have her details,” he added.

PLANS to development a major new visitor attraction at the Vandeleur Walled Garden in Kilrush has now gone to “part-eight planning”, Kilrush Town Council has revealed.

The move comes only five months after ambitious plans for a redevelopment of the visitor facility on the old landlord estate were unveiled by Clare Council architect Ruth Hurley at a meeting of Kilrush Town Council that took place at the Vandeleur Walled Garden.

The news was relayed to members of the local authority on Thursday night, in tandem with a confirmation that Kilrush Amenity Trust which oversees the management of the Vandeleur Walled Garden has voted to allowed free access to visitors for the rest of the year.

Plans to develop enhanced visitor facilities at the Walled Garden, which was opened to the public in 2001, hinge on a successful application to the Clare Local Development Company for Leader funding.

“An application has made to Leader to seek funding,” said Town Clerk, John Corry, “and it is something that we’re excited about as we’re hopeful that our application to Leader for funding will be successful,” he added.

“We have to a little bit of work on the theme of the project,” said Town Manager, Nora Kaye. “We got an informal response from Leader that we have to develop the theme of what we’re trying to do at the Vandeleur Garden. Leader need to see the planning application before they can consider funding,” she added.

“They are very exciting plans and every effort should be made to secure the funding”, said Cllr Liam Williams (FG), who as a member of Kilrush Amenity Trust proposed that free access be given to visitors to the Vandeleur Walled Garden for the rest of 2012.

“We had free entry into the Vandeleur Garden last August and it proved very successful in what ever money we lost from ticket sales, we generated extra money in sales in the coffee shop,” revealed Town Clerk, John Corry.

“It was decided by the board to extend the option during the off-season, when traditionally the numbers of visitors to the facility would have been minimal and then at our meeting in March it was decided to offer free entry to the Garden until the end of the year.

“You are losing out on ticket sales but the wider picture is that you are providing access to the facility and we’re hoping that the people visiting will bring along friends and neighbours and will spend money at the centre. We will take it on a trial basis until the end of the year to see how it progresses,” he added.

A MAN smashed an ambulance and insulted paramedics in protest at the location of a temporary exit from Ennis General Hospital last year, a court has heard.

Paul Daly (50), with an address at 41 Sandfield Centre, Ennis appeared at Ennis District Court charged with public order and criminal damage offences.

Mr Daly was charged with engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace and causing damage to an ambulance and jeep, both belonging to the Health Services Executive (HSE).

The charges relate to an incident that occurred yards from Ennis General Hospital on Sandfield Road in Ennis on October 23 (2011).

Linda O’Rourke, advanced paramedic in Ennis Ambulance Station, told the court that she was working as a sole responder on the night in question.

She said the services received an urgent call to respond to a patient who was lying on the footpath on Sandfield Road.

Ms O’Rourke explained that after the ambulance had left with the patient, she started to compile a report on the incident.

As she did this, Ms O’Rourke said, she heard shouting and banging on the jeep.

She said she then saw a man kick the side of the jeep. She added, “I got such fright, I dropped everything.”

Ms O’Rourke called for the gardaí and also for the ambulance to return to the scene.

Alan Massey, a paramedic in the ambulance services in Ennis, said that when arrived back on Sandfield Road, he heard three loud bangs on the side of the ambulance.

He said, “I could see a gentleman in the road just about to kick the vehicle.”

Mr Massey said he was forced to restrain Mr Daly “for his own safety” after he tried to punch him.

He added, “He called me an English c*** and to f*** off home or I’ll kill you.”

In court, Mr Daly denied trying to punch Mr Massey and denied using those words against him.

Tom Casey, Fleet Manager with the HSE West, told the court that € 1,100 worth of damage was caused to the jeep while € 500 worth of damage was caused to ambulance.

Garda Marguerite Wright told the court that Mr Daly behaved “ex- tremely aggressively” towards Mr Massey. She said that Mr Daly fully cooperated with gardaí.

Solicitor Daragh Hassett told the court that his client had made a number of complaints to gardaí regarding an exit on Sandfield Road that had been in use during recent construction work at the hospital.

The court heard that Mr Daly, who is originally from Dublin, moved to Clare six years ago. He admitted in court to banging and kicking the vehicles.

He said he had been very frustrated over the exit and the noise generated by construction work at the hospital at night.

Mr Daly added, “I snapped just enough to go out and have a go at them.”

The court heard that Mr Daly has 18 previous convictions, mainly for public order offences.

Mr Hassett said his client was a complex individual who would benefit from involvement with the probation and welfare services.

He said HSE staff should not have to deal with that level of abuse.

In convicting Mr Daly, Judge Patrick Durcan said the paramedics had been doing their jobs when they were “set upon, abused and put, I imagine, in fear of their lives.”

He said Mr Daly had referred to Mr Massey in the most unbecoming of terms.

He described the comments as some of the “most appalling” he has heard during his time on the bench.

Judge Durcan ordered Mr Daly to engage with the probation and welfare services. He adjourned sentencing until May 9.

A MAN’S explanation for how he came to possess a stolen laptop in Ennis was described in court last week as a “cock and bull story”.

At Ennis District Court on Thursday, Shane Constable (23), with an address at 24 Toormore, Ruan, was convicted of handling a stolen Sony laptop valued at € 600, knowing that the property was stolen or being reckless as to whether it was stolen.

Detective Garda Kieran Kelleher told the court that he carried out a search under warrant of 24 Toormore, Ruan on January 7 (2012). He said he found the laptop on the floor of the accused’s bedroom.

Detective Kelleher said that Mr Constable told him that he bought the computer “off a retard in Ennis for € 100”.

Detective Kelleher told the court the laptop had been stolen from a Polish woman in Ennis.

He said he arrested Mr Constable on January 16. Mr Constable told the court that he bought the laptop from a red-haired man in Ennis who needed money to pay his rent. He said he was told the laptop was

for sale by a group of people he met in the riverwalk area of Ennis. He said he did not know any of the people in question.

Mr Constable said that he did not tell Detective Kelleher that he bought the laptop off a “retard”.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that Mr Constable had struck up a conversation about buying a laptop with a group of people he did not know.

He described this version of events as a “cock and bull story”.

Speaking to Mr Constable, Insp Kennedy said;

“What you are saying is nothing short of incredible.”

The court heard that the accused previously paid € 599 for a new laptop.

Judge Patrick Durcan said the issue in this case was whether or not the accused was reckless as to whether the property was stolen.

He said the fact that Mr Constable knew the value of a new laptop indicated that he was “reckless in the extreme” when he purchased the stolen item.

He said, “Dealing recklessly is an attack on every retailer.”

He fined Mr Constable € 500 and gave him six months to pay. Recognances were fixed in the event of an appeal.

THE actions of a keen eyed resident helped Gardaí apprehend a man who made off with € 104 from Tubber church earlier this year, a court has heard.

At Ennis District Court on Wednesday, William Delaney (37) with an address at 38 Fana Glas, Ballybane, pleaded guilty to stealing € 104 worth of coins, property of Fr Brian Geoghan, from Tubber church on February 15.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that Mr Delaney, a father of four, was seen by a resident entering the church and leaving again within a couple of minutes.

He said this person then contacted Fr Geoghan who discovered that the church candelabra were empty.

Insp Kennedy added, “Luckily the witness who was watching this took the number of the vehicle and contacted the guards.”

The court heard that the accused was later stopped in Gort where gardaí found the coins concealed in the ashtray of his car.

Insp Kennedy said he told gardaí that he went to the church to light a candle. Mr Delaney said he saw the money in a plastic tray and took it.

He said the accused has one previous conviction for a road traffic offence. Solicitor Daragh Hassett said his client had been traveling back to Galway from Limerick when he stopped at Tubber.

He said Mr Delaney could offer no reason for taking the money other than “stupidity.”

Mr Hassett added, “As someone who goes to church on a regular basis, he believes he will be judged by his maker.”

Mr Hassett said the alertness of the person in making gardai aware of the theft was a good sign for rural communities. He added, “Thankfully neighbourhood watch is alive and well in Tubber.”

Judge Patrick Durcan said he had to balance the accused’s early plea and relatively clear record against the nature of the offence, which he described as “mean and miserly.” He added; “This type of offence attacks the whole social fabric of the country.”

Judge Durcan imposed a € 500 fine with two months to pay. Recognances were fixed in the event of an appeal.

CLARE planning is in the dock this week after the county capital of Ennis has been held up by heritage watchdog, An Taisce, as being “an example of some of the most senseless zoning excesses of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ era”.

This damning indictment has been delivered in an Taisce’s hard-hitting annual report, ‘ State of the Nation – A Review of Ireland’s Planning Sys- tem 2000-2011’ that was published on Monday.

Ennis and wider Clare have been singled out for special mention in the 45-page report that turns the microscope on 32 planning authorities throughout the country.

Clare has been ranked 23rd out of the 32, the planning in Ennis coming in for special mention because of a range of decisions that were made during the 11-year timeframe covered by the report.

“Clare was the most over-zoned county in the State with 3,208 hectares allowing for an overall additional population of 273,000,” the report says, while noting that between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of all planning decisions in the county was for one-off housing in unzoned land.

In Ennis, An Taisce have said that “almost 4,500 acres of land was zoned for development, sufficient to increase the population of the town from 26,000 people to over 100,000”.

And in turning the microscope on Clare, An Taisce mentions one high profile planning case – the 48 acres of zoned land sold by Clarecastle man JJ McCabe to a Galway developer for € 18.8m that was subsequently re fused planning permission because it was located on a flood plain.

“Despite the fact that Ennis was one of the worst affected areas by flooding in 2009, and that the town only needed a maximum of 175 acres, the Department of the Environment encountered significant difficulties from local councillors in seeking to get this land de-zoned,” said An Taisce.

Commenting on the report, Clare County Council has said that “through its Clare County Development Plan 2011-2017, was one of the first local authorities in the country to adopt a ‘Core Strategy’ as required under the Planning & Development (Amendment) Act 2010”.

And the council has also stated that as part of local area plans in east, north, south, west Clare and Shannon “hundreds of hectares of lands previously zoned for residential use have been dezoned”.

“In addition, in 2011 Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council adopted variation No. 2 of the Ennis & Environs Development Plan 2008-2014 to introduce a phasing of zoned lands to bring the amount of zoned land in Ennis fully in line with agreed national and regional population targets for Ennis”. Tue17April12