Category: News

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The case, which was taken against one of the founding members of CLCI, Kevin Clohessy, was withdrawn last week because of a technical issue involving the search warrant used by Gardaí in the case.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.

PLANS are underway to recognise three Clare people who were passengers on Titanic.

This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the sinking of the Belfast built cruise liner.

Over 1,000 people died in the tragedy and now an Ennis councillor has called on Clare County Council to commemorate the Clare people who were on board the Titanic’s maiden voyage.

In a motion submitted to last Monday’s meeting of Clare County Council, Cllr Mulqueen called on the council to mark the “memory of the two Clare men who lost their lives on board the Titanic and also remembers the relations of Mary Agatha Glynn who survived this huge loss of life 100 years ago.”

Cllr Tony Mulqueen told the February meeting of Clare County Council that two men – Martin McMahon from Cragbrien, Ennis, and Daniel Keane lost their lives when the ship went down in the North Atlantic.

However, one Clare woman, 18year-old Mary Agatha Glynn from Flagmount, survived the sinking after being rescued from one of the ship’s lifeboats.

Cllr Mulqueen told the meeting that the council should commemorate Clare’s links with the Titanic by erecting a plaque in memory of the passengers.

Mayor of Clare, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF), said plans are already under- way in east Clare to remember Mary Agatha Glynn. Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) backed proposals to erect a memorial plaque.

West Clare councillor, Christy Curtin (Ind) said recognition for the three Clare passengers would be appropriate.

He said Clare is a maritime county with a strong association with the sea. County Secretary Michael McNamara said the council is open to receiving suggestions about how best to mark Clare’s link to the Titanic.

ORGANISERS say there was a high turnout at a protest against new Government taxes and charges in Ennis on Saturday.

An estimated crowd of 200 people attended a protest march, according to the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes (CAHWT).

The rally was organised as part of a national day of protest. Recent meetings held around Clare have highlighted growing public opposition to the new charges

CAHWT organiser Chris Quinn explained, “Protest marches were planned to go off all over the country at 2pm, which is why we planned the same start time.

“It was initially my idea to gather at the O’Connell monument and go from there, with the organising committee assembling earlier to pass out a few leaflets and pass out protest posters/placards. Just before 2pm, I got a phone call from the Limerick organisers wishing us well and letting me know they had roughly 450 at their march.”

He added, “My colleague Pamela Rochford first addressed those assembled, followed by Brian O’Coillin as the rest of us distributed the 70 or so placards we had.

“As more people gathered, we were asked to briefly delay our start time as more people were making their way to join us. Finally, we felt we could delay no longer, and set off from our start point at 2.15pm. We had, by my estimation, more than 200 with us at this stage, of all ages. As we headed up O’Connell Street, more joined our march.”

Chris explained, “After swinging through the Market Square and then up Parnell Street, we returned to our start point. I, along with the others at the head of the march, began to place our posters around the plinth, and others followed suit. By my estimation, we had at least 325 to 350 likeminded people with us.”

Chris believes the protest spirit is alive and well in Clare. He hopes that Saturday’s march can be the spark to organise other protest movements around the county.

He added, “I thanked all the marchers and asked for a round of applause for themselves, which was thunderous. Any and all people that wanted to volunteer were invited to present themselves to us so we can begin to organise in as many areas of the county as possible.”

THE VOICE of one of Clare’s greatest living traditional musicians is set to appear in a revolutionary new album – which has been composed entirely from a series of spoken word interviews with some of the leading lights in Irish music.

East Clare fiddler Martin Hayes will feature on a new record entitled ‘The Speech Project’ which is the brainchild of Mancunian fiddler, composer and producer Gerry Diver.

Diver has taken a series of interviews with Hayes, as-well-as the likes of Christy Moore, and Damien Dempsey and harnessed the technical cadence of their speech patterns and composed melody lines to complement the musicality inherent in their words.

This revolutionary new way of composing music has led to a number of interesting discoveries – not least of which being the fact that Martin Hayes speaks in the key of G-minor.

According to Diver, Martin Hayes’ Clare brogue “drips with musical- ity”.

“There was even some parallels between Hayes’ words and music. A lot of his tunes are in G minor and Martin speaks a lot in G minor, too,” said Diver.

“Really, this all started as a happy accident. I heard an interview with Galway accordion player Joe Cooley and just happened to notice his voice pitch. There was no grand plan.

“Some of it was about the speech melody – taking the pitch and rhythm and putting those into a musical context by finding the musical and melodic contours that are there. For me, the parts that tended to stand out were where the interview became quite emotionally charged.

“So, for example, when Christy Moore talks about something that was quite emotional for him, he tended to go into D minor. So there’s a link between emotion and the more tonal parts of speech.

“I think people might listen to The Speech Project at different levels. They might listen to the content – to what is being said, but, in terms of the context, there’s more of a slight of ear pattern happening as well. Music sometimes expresses things which words can, and I hope that I’ve managed to find that balance between content, emotion and context.”

After spending decades based in America, Martin Hayes returned to East Clare last year. He has recently released his second album as part of the Triúr group which also includes Peader O’Riada and Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh.

BUSINESSES and residents have been urged to dig deep to fund a € 10,000 “fighting fund” for the next phase of the campaign against a planned retail park on the outskirts of Ennis.

A public meeting in Ennis last night heard that € 3,000 had been spent by business groups so far against plans by Michael Lynch Ltd to build a 70,000 foot retail park.

The developers have appealed Ennis Town Council’s decision to refuse planning permission to the proposed development at Tobertascáin / Clare Road to An Bord Pleanála.

Local businessman and former En- nis Chamber President, John Dillane said towns such as Naas and Tralee had been “completely decimated” by out-of-town retail parks

“We are not afraid and we do not object to competition but we’re afraid of our town being destroyed,” he added.

He called on street leaders to appeal to businesses to donate money to the “fighting fund”.

He told the meeting that Tesco, the anchor tenant for the proposed development, would operate a “mini town under one roof” which would have disastrous consequences for jobs in Ennis. He added, “It should be a matter of pride that we’re not going to be steamrolled by them.”

Architect and planner Michael Leahy, who prepared Ennis Chamber’s submissions against the proposed development and planned changes to the Ennis Development Plan, told the meeting that An Bord Pleanála would likely deal with the appeal through an oral hearing.

He explained that the council re fused permission pending the upgrade of the wastewater treatment plant at Clareabbey and pending the implementation of the Ennis South Flood Relief Scheme. He said it was “quite likely” that the Board would accept the developer’s suggestions to deal with wastewater treatment.

He said an oral hearing would allow specialist evidence to be given on flooding and wastewater issues. Mr Leahy said the likely cost of the appeal process would be € 10,000.

The purpose of the meeting on Monday evening was to inform the business community and others of the appeal process to An Bord Pleanála, which has a closing date of Friday, March 2, for acceptance of submission.

The meeting in the Old Ground Hotel also heard calls for a more community-orientated form of protest. One Ennis resident said businesses should be “cultivating” customers to adopt the same position as them.

A spokesperson for the Ennis Development Forum said that in a recent meeting, all of Clare’s four Dáil TDs had backed the business community’s position on the proposed development.

A NEWMARKET-ON-FERGUS man remains in a serious condition in hospital following a weekend car accident in which his 33-year-old cousin was killed.

Wayne Fitzgerald was the passenger in the green Toyota Corolla that crashed on the main Tulla to Ennis Road on Friday night last.

The 22-year-old is believed to have sustained serious head and neck injuries during the single-vehicle accident.

The driver, his cousin Michael Maloney Jnr, was fatally injured in the accident.

Originally from Glencinnane, Kildysart, Michael had played under-age hurling for his county.

He captained the Clare under-16 hurling team, and had been involved with Clarecastle GAA club in his early years. Sport came naturally to him, according to local people, as he enjoyed both football and hurling.

The eldest of a family of three, Michael was the only son of Tina and Seán Maloney, and brother to Fiona and Lisa.

He is to be buried today (Tuesday) following a private ceremony.

Meanwhile, gardaí in Ennis are appealing for information about the accident.

The tragic incident occurred at approximately 7.50pm at Clooney, Quin, on the main Ennis to Tulla road, not far from Clooney Church.

The green Toyota saloon, which contained just the driver and passenger, collided with a wall and a tree.

The scene was attended by local emergency services and both occupants were taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick, where Mr Maloney died from his injuries.

Gardaí are now appealing for witnesses to come forward.

“The key times of interest to the gardaí are between 7pm and 7.45pm. Did anyone see this car in the Clooney-Quin area during these times and did they notice anything about this car which should be brought to the attention of the gardaí?” a Garda spokesperson said.

NORTH Clare has lost one of its iconic local businesses with the closure of Crosbies shop in Ennistymon after 21 years in operation. The shop, which was located in a prime retail spot at the Square in Ennistymon, closed last month with the effects of low-cost air travel being blamed for the demise.

According to proprietor Robert Crosbie, the shop was already facing difficulty before the beginning of the recession. Robert, who is also one of the driving firces behind the Project Ennistymon local business iniatitive, believes that a mixture of Irish people holidaying abroad and tourists having more restricted baggage allowances has put pressure on many high-end gift retailers.

“The viability of shops such as Crosbies was already threatened in due part by low-cost air travel. Cheap flights out of Ireland meant a lot of Irish people were going abroad for holidays, thus not spending at home,” said Robert.

“This, you might say, was balanced by tourists coming to Ireland but, because of luggage restrictions, these visitors did not have the same capacity to spend. And this was happening long before the recession hit.”

The window displays created by Suzanne Crosbie have been a local highlight for many years. Accord- ing to Suzanne, the fun of interacting with the local customers will be one of the things that she misses the most.

“We catered for the high end of the gifts and home accessories market and, as everyone knows, when money gets scarce, luxury goods are the first to feel the pinch,” said Suzanne.

“We loved the shop. and our customers. There wasn’t a day when you wouldn’t have a laugh about something. We are not young enough or old enough to stay in this type of business.

“I had always envisaged that by 2010 I would be able to ease up on working hands-on in the shop but the reality was that I was there six days a week, and after two years, I felt it was time to turn the corner.”

Crosbies first opened in June of 1991 and very quickly became an iconic feature of Ennistymon and North Clare. The high profile of the shop was in part due to Robert’s creation of the Folding Apple Basket, which was featured on the Late Late Show in 1994 and became an overnight success for the business.

The shop received the Best Traditional Shopfront Award from Clare County Council in 1995 and Robert and Suzanne won Clare Retailers of the Year in the FBD Excellence Awards for 2010.

Robert and Suzanne are currently looking at a number of new possibilities for the premises.