Category: News

A TALENTED young hurler sustained serious injuries after he was “rolled over” by a car in Ennis last year, a court has heard.

Clarecastle man Aaron Considine (20) suffered multiple fractures after being rolled over by a car driven by Stefan Coustrain (20).

On Wednesday, Ennis District Court heard that Mr Coustrain initially fled the scene before presenting himself at Ennis Garda Station, one hour and 20 minutes after the incident.

Mr Coustrain, with an address at 23 Ballymoneen, Tulla Road, Ennis pleaded guilty to failing to keep his vehicle at the scene of the occurrence at College View, Ennis on July 8, 2011, and also to having no tax.

Mr Coustrain was ordered to complete 175 hours of community service in lieu of five months in prison. He was also disqualified from holding a license for four years.

The court heard that, on the night, gardaí received a call about a man lying on the hard shoulder of the road outside St Flannan’s College.

Garda Sarah Murphy said Mr Considine, who had been on his way to his girlfriend’s house at the time, couldn’t move and had no re-collec- tion of what had happened.

Mr Coustrain stated that he had been driving home from the shop with his partner and young child when he felt the car “shake”.

The court heard that the incident occurred sometime between 00.51am and 00.59am.

In a statement to gardaí, that was read in court, Mr Coustrain said that when he realised he’d hit a person, he stopped the car and turned around. He said he then drove home, returned to the scene where he saw the ambulance and left again.

A driver who passed by shortly after Mr Considine was struck, stopped, administered CPR and rang the emergency services, the court heard.

The court heard that Mr Coustrain called to the station at around 2.20am. Garda Murphy said he was “distraught, pale and very upset.” She added, “There was no evidence that he was under the influence of any intoxicant.” The court heard that he told gardaí that he was not tired when the incident occurred.

Garda Murphy said the street lighting was not working well on the night.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that it was accepted that Mr Considine had been lying on the road when the accident happened and had not been standing up.

His solicitor requested that the court not impose a custodial sentence as it would harm Mr Coustrain’s ability to keep his family together. “When he realised what happened, he panicked,” she added.

The court heard that Mr Considine is still recovering from his injuries. He was described as “academically bright” and a “skilled sportsman” involved in sport at a high level.

The court heard that Mr Coustrain has previous convictions for road traffic offences Judge Patrick Durcan said, “This is possibly the most serious driving case I have dealt with since my appointment six months ago.” He noted that this was not a case of dangerous driving.

He said the accused had “absented” himself from the scene for one hour and 20 minutes. He described Mr Coustrain’s beahviour on the night as “flagrant, ignorant and abusive disregard for the law.” He said the issue of lighting was “irrelevant” in this case. He said alcohol and tiredness were not issues either.

He imposed a community service order and ordered Mr Coustrain to appear in court on May 9. Recognances were fixed in the event of an appeal.

THE first meeting of Ireland’s newest political party, The Irish Citizens Party, will take place in Ennis in the coming weeks.

The party, which was founded last week by West Clare man, Jim Connolly, has styled itself as a humanitarian party which promises a number of “radical ideas” on how to approach the future of Ireland.

Mr Connolly, who has ran both as an Independent and Labour candi- date in previous elections, says he will not be putting his name forward for election again, but says that he hopes to have a number of candidates in Clare and other counties in time for the local election in 2014.

“I will extend an open invitation to everyone who wants to attend that meeting. There will be no membership fees charged, nothing like that. The meeting will be about throwing the idea of the party around and seeing what people think of it,” he said.

“I need people to get involved for this to progress. This is entirely peo- ple-orientated but there are a lot of radical proposals to it that people may need time to absorb.

“In my view, there is no alternative but to go back to basic humanitarian values, and a system based on rules that the people are happy to live under. I have decided to launch this party long in advance of any election. I have declared that I will not be running again for politics. I think there is need for this party, but it is the party itself that will select the candidates and I won’t be one of them.

“What I am bringing is the drive to set it up but also I have a track record for setting up organisations that work. This is not for financial gain or any other motivation like that; this is about me trying to respond to what is going on in Ireland over the next few years, however long I am alive. I want to combat what has been happened and where it is going.”

Mr Connolly, who is also the founder of the Rural Resettlement Ireland and the man behind the Open Fairs – which are designed to promote new small businesses – believes that his party can spread beyond Clare before the 2014 local election.

“Democracy starts at a local level but I have seen how quickly an idea can spread. The Open Fairs have spread so quickly, due largely to the internet, and they are now taking place throughout the country. We are in a new era and things can happen faster and bigger than ever before. We are talking about this in Ennis today but there is no question that this can be talked about in Donegal or Dublin next week,” said Mr Connolly.

SINCE Scariff Community College has new personnel in its two most senior posts, it was thought appropriate to mark their arrival by planting commemorative trees.

The idea emanated from the Green Flag Committee, which has already put in place many commendable initiatives in the realm of ecology.

Oaks were chosen for the occasion honouring the start of tenures of Angela McNamara as college principal and Brian Crossan as deputy principal.

Green Flag Committee member Frank Blake, who is no stranger to public appearances – he was one of the stars of last December’s ‘All Shook Up’ staged in the college hall by East Clare Musical Society – was chosen to set the tree-planting in motion and in a brief address explained the purpose of the occasion after formally welcoming the new appointees on behalf of staff and student cohort.

Representing the Parents Council was Regina Roskam while Mary Cassidy and Liam Furlong were there to show the appreciation of Tuamgraney Development Association which works on ecological matters with the Green Flag Committee.

One of the latter initiatives is the restoration of a row boat to be installed in the village as a garden fea- ture. Soon the college’s Green Flag Committee will be the subject of a documentary in the Ear to the Ground television series. The RTÉ One programme is being devoted to the rainwater conservation scheme installed in the college through the committee’s research and planning.

THE number of businesses that went into liquidation has been cited as the main reason for the level of uncollected commercial rates in Ennis.

Latest figures show that as of March 23, Ennis Town Council had just over € 2.4 million of “temporary uncollectible rates.”

In 2011 the council had “irrecoverable” rates of € 502,755, a decrease of € 26,175 on last year’s figure.

A report on the schedule of uncollected rates 2011 was presented at last week’s meeting of Ennis Town Council.

Town Clerk Leonard Cleary explained, “In 2011, Ennis Town Council had irrecoverable rates of € 502,755, which represented 6.99 per cent of rate demand for 2011.

“These irrecoverable rates related to rates which were not legally collectable e.g. demolished / vacant properties, charitable organisations, properties occupied by the HSE etc.”

Mr Cleary continued, “At December 31, the temporary uncollectible rates stood at € 2,901,37 which represents 40.32 per cent of the rate demand for 2011.

“However, € 474,000 has been col- lected in rates to March 23. This temporary uncollectible balance is made up of a number of accounts, each with considerable balances owing.

“Ennis Town Council is making every effort to recover these monies by agreeing payment plans to allow people make phased payment or by proceeding through the appropriate legal channels including service of court summons”.

He added, “It should be noted also that a number of companies, who owe rates, have gone into liquidation over the last number of years.

“Ennis Town Council must await the decisions of liquidators to establish the amount of outstanding rates will be recovered from these companies.”

Town Manager Ger Dollard told the meeting that he was quite satisfied with the amount of money collected by the council to date in 2012.

However, he added that rate collection is still an issue for the council.

He said the council is willing to make “reasonable arrangements” with people regarding the payment of rates.

The court heard that the council has issued 70 summonses in relation to outstanding debt.

A CLARE company will later this month become the first group in the world to create a touring van which runs completely on electricity. Vanderlust, which is based on the Quin Road in Ennis, are currently re-engineering a Renault Kangoo van to be the world’s first electric tourism van.

The company, which is run by Ennis man Dave Hanley, plan to launch a series of eco-friendly touring routes in Clare later this month, with several different overnight trips already identified. They aim to complete each route without using petrol or diesel.

“The electric camper van is a totally new thing and this will be the first one anywhere in the world. Our van is based on the Renault Kangoo van and we are reworking that to include a seating area that folds into a sleeping area for two, a cooker, a sink, a fridge – basically everything you need for a camping holiday,” said Dave.

“Everything in the back of the van will be run using solar panels so the van will be powered by electricity and all the amenities will be powered using solar power. So it is totally electric.”

It is estimated that the van will be able to reach 170 km before it needs to stop and be recharged.

“I have put together a number of routes which include a charge point every 100 km so there will never be an issue of running out of juice. People can charge their vehicles in the camp sites on the routes and they will be all ready to go the next morning,” continued Dave.

“We are still working on the van at the moment. We have been developing the conversion using a diesel version of the Renault Kangoo and that went well so we would hope to be able to convert the electric version quite quickly.

“We want to have this van on the road by June at the very latest. We have set out a nice route which people can follow if they want to take a seven-day trip around the west and never run out of electricity.”

WHILE the county’s hurlers are making progress on the pitch, Clare Labour TD, Michael McNamara, has been forced to cut short his own hurling come-back after a spat broke out between the East Clare deputy and Labour’s National Organiser, David Leach, at the recent Labour VS Fine Gael charity hurling match.

Deputy McNamara, who last played hurling for the Scariff Junior B Team in 2006, saw red after a disagreement with the Labour team manager, David Leach, and walked off his party’s team.

According to McNamara, the Labour manager was packing the team with young Labour staff members and only allowing the party’s TDs “cameo” run-outs during the match. McNamara has a loud disagreement with his own manager before leaving the field, without pucking a ball in anger.

The tactic clearly worked for the Labour team, who ran out comfortable winners on a score-line of 68 to 1-12, but left a sour taste in the mouth of the East Clare TD.

“It was billed as a match between TDs on both on both sides. Instead, the Labour manager, one of the [party’s] head back room staff, decided to play young researchers, advisers and secretaries with the TDs making cameo appearances, against a team of FG deputies,” he said yesterday.

“Labour won very easily and Fine Gael, managed by Jerry Buttimer, complained that the format was unfair. It is five or six years since I played a game of hurling, with the

Scariff Junior Bs, and I

was looking forward to

the game. Oh well, may

be next year.”

The Labour team in

cluded just only one

elected member, 66

year-old Kildare TD and

goalkeeper Jack Wall, in

their starting line-up for

the seven-a-side clash.

In contrast to this Fine

Gael fielded six TDs,

including Clare’s Joe

Carey, in their starting line-up, but were no match to the young ringers in red.

Despite conceding six goals, the man-of-the-match award went to Labour Jack Wall, the oldest man from any party to take the itch on the day. It is as yet unclear whether Deputy McNamara intends making a surprise comeback to bolster Scariff’s hopes in their Division 5 A opener against Kilmaley this weekend.

Deputy McNamara’s ‘Tevez moment’ was the talk of Leinster House, with even Miriam Lord mentioning his disagreement in her Irish Times column last Saturday.

A NEW support group that encourages people to take control of their mental health problems will open in Ennis later this month.

Details of the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) were outlined at a forum on mental health held in Ennis last week.

WRAP facilitator Liam Minogue was among the speakers at the event that encouraged “honest conversation” about mental health issues.

Mr Minogue, the co-founder of the Ennis WRAP support group, told the meeting that he had suffered with depression and anxiety, saying that he had “spent many years in a dark place.” He said the discovery of WRAP had enabled him to take control of his battles with depression.

He said WRAP is based around five key concepts – hope, personal responsibility, education, self-advocacy and support.

He added, “When you are in a place of depression, you need to have your voice heard.”

Mr Minogue availed of training as a WRAP facilitator from the Irish Mental Health Recovery Education Consortium in 2009. In 2010, he undertook the position of Volun- tary Co-ordinator for the Clare area with the Community Reconnect and Recovery Network. Their aim is to develop a regional network of peer support groups in the mid-west region of Ireland. The Emotions Peer Support Group will open at the Clon Road Business Park, Ennis, at the end of the month.

The meeting at the Old Ground Hotel heard that, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), 386 men took their own lives in 2010, compared to 100 women.

Citing figures from a survey compiled by the support group Aware, Dr Mairead McGovern said that 45 per cent of people experience depression at some point in their lives; 55 per cent of people who experience depression did not tell family or friends; while 75 per cent said they withdrew from family and friends.

Dr McGovern, who works with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), said that in many cases, people did not talk about depression because they felt “scared, ashamed and overwhelmed.”

Dr McGovern said parenting; school counselling and local services are vital to helping young people suffering from depression.

SPECIAL deals done between governments and individual TDs have been blamed for the slow pace of reform to mental health services in Ireland.

Minister of State for Health, Kathleen Lynch told a meeting in Ennis last week that it was “scandalous” that people would cut deals to the detriment of vital services just to keep a government in power.

Ms Lynch said, “I think governments were too reliant on single TDs in different constituencies.”

The Labour TD for Cork North Central, whose areas of responsibility include mental health, told the meeting that implementation of mental health reforms contained in the 2006 ‘Vision for Change’ document was often impeded during previous administrations “because votes were too tight”.

Ms Lynch was the guest speaker at a forum on mental health held in the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis last Tuesday.

Ms Lynch told the Clare meeting that she had received the most recent report from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

She said that while annual detailed records are available for all young people accessing CAMHS, such records are not available in adult mental health services.

Ms Lynch described this lack of detailed information as a “scandal.”

The meeting heard that there are currently 60 CAMHS teams working in Ireland, 39 less than the target outlined in Vision for Change.

Ms Lynch said that € 35 million had been ringfenced in this year’s budget for mental health services.

She said that an additional 19 CAMHS posts had been allocated for this year.

Ms Lynch told the meeting that mental health had always been the “Cinderella” of the health services but that increased awareness “will take it out of the shadows”.

LAHINCH surfer Ollie O’Flaherty has been shortlisted for one of the biggest prizes in world surfing for riding a massive wave in Sligo last month.

Ollie, who is a member of the West Coast Surf Club, has been nominated along with four other surfers for the Biggest Wave category of the Billabong XXL 2012 contest.

The competition, which carries a top prize of $15,000, recognises the surfers who tackle the biggest waves in world surfing, including Aileen’s Wave under the Cliffs of Moher, Riley’s Wave near Kilkee and the Mullaghmore Head wave where Ollie qualified for the competition.

“The wave was probably 50 foot, so it was a big wave. You can’t paddle into a wave that big so you need someone on a jet-ski to tow you, you hold onto a rope and get whipped into the wave that way,” he said last week.

“It is dangerous enough but we have done a lot of training and put in a lot of time on much smaller waves. Myself and my tow-mate, Peter Conway, have put in a lot of time on this to get everything right.

“Being on the wave is like slow motion. Everything kind of stops and you try not to fall off. You hold on for the ride as long as you can. The ride is surprisingly short – it might only last 15 or 20 seconds on a wave that short but the sheer intensity of it, you could be buzzing for a week or two after it.

“Coming off the wave can be pretty violent but a lot of training goes on behind the scenes. I spend a lot of time training so I don’t drown. You have to have a healthy body and healthy mind. You hit the water hard but you wear impact vests, to stop you breaking any ribs or anything like that. And once you’re under, you could be under for anything up to 20 or 30 seconds. If a another wave is coming, it could be longer that that.”

Ollie is up against Devon-based surfer Andrew Cotton, Garrett McNamara, Basque surfer Axi Muniain and Australian surfer Damien ‘Taco’ Warr for the competition.

HOLIDAY homes in Lahinch and Doonbeg could be sold for as little as € 50,000 each, according to Allsop Space, the British-headquartered estate agents that will have four properties from the county up for grabs at its latest auction of distressed properties.

Details of the Clare properties were revealed this week, with houses in Ennistymon and Crusheen also included in the auction of 106 lots from throughout the country that will take place in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on May 3 next.

In the catalogue for the auction, a four-bedroomed bungalow on Station Road in Lahinch has been given a reserve price of just € 50,000. The property, which is just a couple of minutes’ walk from the centre of the village, also comes with planning permission granted by Clare County Council in December 2010 to demolish the house and build three townhouses in its place.

The Doonbeg property is a semidetached, four-bedroomed house in Dun na Mara on the White Strand Road, which has a reserve of € 45,000, while the Ennistymon property is a two-bedroomed apartment with a reserve price of € 80,000. The final Clare property is a four-bedroomed house in Crusheen that has a reserve price of € 75,000.

In 2011, Allsop held four sales of distressed properties, with the lowest price for any property in the country being in Clare when a site in Cloughleigh with planning permission for a shop unit and two apartments was sold for € 11,000.