Category: News

CLARE County Council is to begin negotiations with its counterpart in Limerick and Shannon Development to explore the feasability of taking over the management of Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority.

This move was heralded at a special meeting of the local authority’s Special Policy Committee on Tourism and Enterprise on Monday, which came together to discuss the publication of the censored Booz and Company report on the future of Clare’s international airport.

County Council Director of Service, Ger Dollard; Mayor of Clare, Pat Hayes; Mayor of Ennis Michael Guilfoyle all backed the move to open up discussions between the key stakeholders in the region that the Booz and Company consultants say should take responsibility for running Shannon.

The move was sparked by Cllr Joe Arkins (FG), who questioned whether “any contacts, formally or informally, had been made with the other proposed stakeholders – Limerick County Council and Shannon Development.

“It would be advisable that you make contact with them, in order that Clare County Council might be able to find out what the position of Shannon Development and Limerick County Council is, or if there is an agreed position between all the stakeholders,” added Cllr Arkins.

“I would agree with Cllr Arkins,” said Cllr Richard Nagle, who is chairman of the SPC on Tourism and Enterprise. “There has to be consultation with the other bodies,” he added.

“We have had disjointed approach over the years. We haven’t fought a good battle as a region,” said Mayor of Clare, Pat Hayes.

“The decision that’s made has to be in the long term future of Shannon Airport because the west of Ireland is very much at risk if we don’t get it right,” he added.

“I’d be concerned that Limerick didn’t make a submission,” said Mayor of Ennis, Michael Guilfloyle.

“We haven’t have had any discussions since the report was published,” admitted Ger Dollard. “I presume the next step will be for the Minister and the Government to decide what option that we should pursue on foot of the report,” he added before it was agreed that negotiations with the other stakeholders would be kickstarted immediately.

NORTH Clare businessman Marcus White will fly to Moscow next month to sign a deal that could bring tens of thousands of new visitors to Clare, through Shannon Airport, this year.

White and his father, James White, met with the head of Russian company Pegus Tours in Asia last week and have arranged a second meeting in the Russian capital for April 8 when, it is hoped, contracts can be signed.

Pegus Tours are one of the world’s largest tour operators and currently bring more than 100,000 Russian tourist on package holidays to Thailand each year. It is hoped that this contract could open the door for tens of thousands of Russians to visit Lisdoonvarna each year on wellness holiday tours.

An estimated € 5 million was generated in North Clare last year as a result of the 6,000 German tourists who visited Lisdoonvarna as part of the Whites’ seven-day wellness trip to Clare operated with Trend Tours. It was confirmed last week that 16,000 German tourists had already booked to come to Ireland with Trend Tours for 2012, with a large portion of them coming to North Clare.

“We met a major tour operator in Asia last week and he already brings several hundred thousand Russians into Thailand each winter for sun holidays. We met the owner personally and we have another meeting for April 8 when, hopefully, we can sign contracts to bring Russians into Shannon or Dublin Airport,” said Marcus.

“Russia and China are the markets to go after at the moment. We always go after bulk business and, if we can get this Russian charter into Shannon Airport, then I think that everyone in the area will be very happy.

“This is something that we are do- ing completely off our own bat, without the help of any state agencies. We got the Germans in ourselves, myself and my father, and we now want to get the Russians into North Clare and to go after China after that. This has been done with absolutely no help from anyone else.

“If this starts off, we hope that everyone involved in the tourism business will come in and get behind it.”

James White, who is a former Fine Gael TD for Donegal, will meet with the Minister for Tourism, Jimmy Deenihan (FG), in the coming weeks to discuss speeding up the visa system for Russians visiting Ireland.

LIMERICK County Council says they stand ready to play a major role in the future development of Shannon Airport, should a member of the local authority be appointed to the new management structure for the airport.

Following the publication of the Booz Report into the future of Shannon Airport last week, it looks increasing likely that both Clare County Council and the soon to be amalgamated Limerick City and County Council will have a seat at the table when a future management structure for Shannon is announced.

According to the Cathaoirleach of Limerick County Council, Mary Harty (FG), a public voice on board of the airport will prevent it getting “wrecked” in a similar way to the local health services.

“I think it is important that the locally elected representatives have their say when it comes to something as important as the airport. We all know the difference it has made to the health system not to have a local say in how that operates and we don’t want the airport to be wrecked in a similar way to this,” she said.

“Shannon Airport is a massive driver for everyone in the mid-west, for Limerick and for Clare. We are very keen to have a role to play, Shannon Airport is the biggest gateway location in area and there is no question that it is vitally important to everyone in Limerick that it is made to work.”

Cllr Harty also dismissed the notion that councillors would not have the expertise to operate a complex facility like Shannon Airport.

“At the moment we don’t have the experience but we will never get the experience until we have a chance to work with all the other stakeholders and make our points heard,” she continued.

“This is such an important facility for the area it is vital that a local representative has a say in its future.”

EAST Clare could soon become Ireland’s destination of choice for canoe and kayak trails following new proposal to first map, and then open up the scores of rivers and lakes in the area to tourists.

North Clare canoe enthusiast and businessman, Fergus Brogan, is currently at an advanced stage of negotiations with LEADER and the Clare LDC and, all going well, a canoe trail could be up and running in area before this summer.

“There was a book published last year, the first major list of canoe trails in Ireland, and there was not one trail at all in Clare. That got me thinking. It is crazy that a place like Clare, that has so much water, has no real canoe infrastructure. There is 30 lakes within a 10 mile radius of Peppers Pub in Feakle – 30 lakes and not one of them has ever seen a canoe,” said Fergus. “That is just one area. This is a major major resource that is not being tapped at the moment. I would estimate that there must be more than hundreds of lakes in East Clare alone – along the path of the Scariff River. I am going to be the first person to paddle the full length of the Scariff River.

“I know that the English tourists would absolute love to come to East Clare and go canoeing with their family. I am talking about an area between the M18 and the River Shannon – this is an area which at the moment has very little tourism and something like this could really get it going.”

Fergus is hoping to begin by developing between 10 and 20 recognised canoe routes in East Clare. This would require mapping the routes as well as collecting some valuable information for the canoeists such as the distance and time needed for each route, a details description of the routes and any points of interest or facilities along the way.

“I have been talking to LEADER and they do seem keen about the idea. The beauty about this is that with a very reasonable amount of investment you could have a product in place and ready to go very quickly,” continued Fergus.

“You don’t need signpost or things like you might need for a walking trail. It would be very very each to get this off the ground.”

CLARE County Council will only step up to take over the running of Shannon Airport if the Government stumps up enough money for ambitious plans to finally give the airport its freedom from Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) control.

And, the financial package for a local authority takeover in conjunction with Shannon Development would have to include diverting Aer Rianta International profits away from greedy hands of the DAA and straight into Shannon’s coffers, where the inspiration for ARI originated in the first place.

That was the resounding message sent out to Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, on Monday during a specially convened meeting of Clare County Council’s Special Policy Committee on Enterprise and Tourism.

“We need to fund the airport going forward if we are to get involved,” said SPC chairman Richard Nagle. “We are not in a position to come up with large-scale funding for Shannon – money that the airport requires. Funding, that’s the kernel of the issue,” he added.

“The Government owes Shannon,” said local hotelier, John Madden, who addressed the SPC meeting. “I would like to see Clare County Council and Shannon Development involved in the ownership, provided we get back Aer Rianta International,” he added.

“Until the financial data is made available and it’s made clear to local stakeholders what they’re being asked to take, I don’t think formal decisions can be made on this report,” said Director of Service, Ger Dollard.

“The financials at the end of the day have to add up for local stakeholders taking on a liability when they can’t fund that liability,” he added.

In putting the future of Shannon firmly back in the Government’s court, SPC chairman Cllr Nagle highlighted the pivotal role Shannon has to play in terms of balanced regional development.

“We have a spatial strategy. There is supposed to be balanced regional economic development. Shannon Airport is an international airport servicing the west of Ireland,” he said. “It is an integral and essential part of the infrastructure. If we are to have any form of rebalancing in terms of economic growth and development,” he added.

THE Clare branch of Legalise Cannabis in Ireland (CLCI) has vowed to continue to fight for the decriminalisation of the use of medicinal cannabis following the withdrawal of a case against one of the group’s key members last week.

The case, which was taken against one of the founding members of CLCI, Kevin Clohessy, was withdrawn last week because of a technical issue involving the search warrant used by Gardaí in the case. Mr Clohessy suffers from Osteoarthritis, which is a progressive condition that effects his shoulders, hips and knees.

“It is very painful for him to move, and he has reduced flexibility in certain areas. This is a progressive condition so it is going to continue to get worse as he gets older. Cannabis is an anti-inflammatory; it also provides pain relief and is a muscle relaxant.

“When he can smoke, all of his body frees up and he can flex his wrists and his shoulders in ways that he just couldn’t before,” said Niamh O’Brien, founder of CLCI.

“There is a chemical tablet for cannabis about to come on the market in the coming weeks. We can’t understand why it is okay for some pharmaceutical company to grow it, put it in a pill and sell it to people for a massive profit, and it is not okay for us to grow this natural plant for ourselves.”

According to Clare LCI, the decriminalisation of cannabis will help stop people with genuine medical conditions from coming into contact with criminals and help stop the drugs trade in Ireland.

Medicinal cannabis has been legalised in a number of European countries to date, including Spain and Portugal as well as a number of US states.

“We don’t want to be involved in criminality, we don’t want to go down any dark alleyways and be involved with unsavoury people. We want to know what we are smoking. We are being responsible, we know that this stuff works and all we want to do is to be able to treat ourselves in the best way possible,” continued Niamh.

“What we need is more education and information about this issue. The Clare organisation is still going strong but it is hard to get people actively involved.

“People are still afraid of what might happen if they speak up. We really do want to reach more older people in Clare. They are the people who are most likely to get a benefit from this.”

THE financial aspects of the proposed take-over of Shannon Airport by local authorities and other agencies in the mid-west region would have to be hammered out before Clare County Council agrees to enter into such a role.

This message was delivered to transport minister Leo Varadkar on Monday, after Clare County Council was told to “step warily” with any decision to enter into an agreement to manage the airport.

“You also have to be careful what you wish for,” said Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) in voicing concerns about any county council involvement in management role at Shannon.

“This report is very much a first step and there will be many more steps to be taken before there is a model or a solution put in place in terms of the longterm future of Shannon,” said Director of Service, Ger Dollard.

“I would say that the local authority should be very wary of taking on this. It may be a huge burden. Who would pay the losses, rates etc, etc? We’d want to,” said Pat Gaughran, the community representative of the council SPC.

After a debate, it was agreed by members of the SPC that “the council continue to be involved in discussions in the future model for Shannon Airport, with the Deparment of Transport, Shannon Development, and all other local agencies and stakeholders” and that the local authority would undertake a “due dilligence process and obtain whatever professional advice that may be necessary”.

THE quest to reclaim the memory of one of Ireland’s foremost storytellers and social historians begins this weekend in Kilbaha with a lecture on the life of Bríd Ui Choisteala – the blind storyteller of West Clare.

Bríd, who was recorded by Tadgh Ó Murchú on behalf of the Irish Folklore Commission in the 1930s and 1940s, was once recognised as one of the finest tradition-bearers in Ireland. However, over the last number of decades, Bríd Uí Choisteala has largely fallen from social memory.

Cuimhneamh an Chláir, the Clare Oral History and Folklore Group, will host a public lecture in Kilbaha Community Hall this Friday, March 9, to remember Bríd and her work.

“Women can be fantastic bearers of tradition but often dismiss themselves and fade into the background. In our collection of work, we have made every effort to ensure that the memories of Clare’s older women are documented and added to our archive and have been privileged with some of the memories and stories we’ve documented from women in Clare,” said Tomás Mac Conmara of Cuimhneamh an Chláir.

“The case of Bríd Uí Choisteala is a sad example of how, over time, these great storytellers can be largely forgotten outside of their native area.”

Last year, Cuimhneamh an Chláir produced an outreach project called Faces of Folklore, which featured Seamus Ó Duilearga, Stiofán Ó hÉalaoire and Bríd Uí Choisteala.

“We highlighted in Faces of Folk

lore that, in a picture

of Bríd Uí Choi

steala taken in the

1930s, she had been

reduced in the cap

tion to the blind wife

of Mr Costelloe,”

continued Tomás.

“We wanted to ad

dress this terrible

reduction and it re

ally seems to have

struck a chord with

people across Clare.

We received a lot of

interest in the storyteller over the following moths and so decided to arrange a public lecture in her honour in her native place of Kilbaha. In fact, the lecture takes place in the very building she went to school in the late 1800s.”

Cuimhneamh an Chláir have spent a number of days in the Kilbaha area, gathering local traditions about Bríd Uí Choisteala and are anxious to meet with any other people who may remember her from their childhood or have heard any information about her.

ALMOST half of all Clare homes have no recognised waste collector and no indication of how or where they dispose of their household waste. According to new figures released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 47 per cent of Clare homes have no kerb-side waste collection service.

With fly-tipping and illegal dumping now reaching epidemic proportions in every part of the county, fears are growing that the costs associated with disposing of household waste properly are deterring many people from disposing of their waste properly.

This latest EPA figure does not mean that 47 per cent of Clare households are involved in illegal dumping. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that there has been a significant increase in the number of neighbours sharing a single collection service and people bringing rubbish directly to the Central Waste Management Facility at Ballyduff beg for disposal.

“The figures in the report means that 47 per cent of households in Clare did not avail of, or were not offered, a kerb-side collection service,” said Emily Williamson of the EPA.

“However, to qualify this, this does not mean that 47 per cent of households in Clare were illegally dispos- ing of their waste, as we are aware that there are households that bin-share, opt to bring their waste to civic amenity sites or landfills or who can bring their household waste to their workplace for collection.

“The percentage is based on the number of households that the waste collection operators said they collected from and the number of occupied houses in the county.”

It has also been mooted that Clare County Council could soon introduce new bye-laws which would put the onus on the home-owner to show how they are properly disposing of their waste.

Similar bye-laws have been introduced by a number of local authorities, including Limerick County Council, in recent months and they require households that do not have a recognised waste collection service to show some level of proof as to how they are disposing of their waste properly.

According to the EPA report, more than 13,000 tonnes of household waste were disposed of at the Central Waste Management Facility at Ballyduff beg in 2010. It is, however, unclear how much of the waste from from individual households and how much was from commercial operators. The Clare People contacted Clare County Council in relation to this story but no comment was forthcoming at the time of going to press.

A NEW multi-cultural women’s group with the aim of empowering women and promoting greater integration is to be established in the county this week.

Excelling Women Network will be the Clare branch of a national organisation for women of all ages in the county and will be launched by the Mayor of Clare, Cllr Pat Hayes, this Thursday in the Old Ground Hotel to kickstart International Women’s Day celebrations in the county capital.

“Excelling Women is a network for all women,” says spokesperson Orla Ni Éilí, “and will focus on activities that engage, inform and empower women, support and deepen integration and create opportunities for self and community development and fulfillment.

“Excelling Women Clare are delighted to be launched on the 101st anniversary of International Women’s Day, a day that is celebrated and marked worldwide in commemoration of the New York women garment-workers’ strike for equal pay and better working conditions in 1911,” Ms Ní Éilí added.

“The organisation is a network of women from many different cultural backgrounds coming together to learn, celebrate, build relationships and enhance life in Ireland for themselves and the wider community,” explained Kate Njoku for the Excelling Women Network. “Women will have the opportunity to get out of their homes, meet others, cut down on isolation and also engage in society at all levels from the very personal to the political,” she added.

Ahead of launching the new organisation, Mayor of Clare, Cllr Pat Hayes said, “Excelling Women is a very positive initiative for the county.”

The calendar of events for Excelling Women Network includes information sessions and discussions on health and wellbeing, participation in civic and political life, training and employment, child rearing and the family and of course intercultural celebration.

The next event, pencilled in for April, will focus on personal development and active citizenship at local and global level.