Category: News

PPS NUMBERS may soon appear on Clare gravestones instead of names if the current approach to naming roads and other public areas continue, according to one Clare County Councillor.

A plan to encourage community groups to put up their own local name signs was last night accepted by Clare County Council after a number of councillora criticised the roll-out of road numbers which they claim “depersonalise” local communities.

According to Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), the current ethos will see PPS numbers being used instead of names on gravestones in the near future.

“If this continues, we will have a time when we forfeit our own names and just go with our PPS numbers. In times to come, we will have tombstones that read ‘here lies 07235762’,” said Cllr Kelly. “And God help a man who is lost in the middle of the night and can’t find a turn-off for Crusheen or Ballinruan and he doesn’t have a computer with him to tell where the L367865 road leads to.”

Cllr Kelly also described as “discrimination” the process which sees some villages granted signs while others are not.

“I would not have my village discriminated against just because it is on a national primary or secondary road – that is discrimination against villages and I don’t think that this council should be party to this kind of discrimination,” continued Cllr Kelly.

“I sincerely hope that we join together to bring back the culture of our county and our villages.”

Speaking on the motion, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said that road numbers were necessary to help emergency services to locate fires and other incidents quickly.

“I fundamentally disagree with this motion and the way it is being talked about here today. There is a stark need for an all-Ireland approach to this issue,” he said.

“I know that there is a certain amount of impersonality involved with these road numbers but if someone is sitting in a centralised emergency dispatch service – maybe down in Cork – these local names mean nothing.

“I don’t care what you want to stick on stones on the corner of the road in a village, but what has to happen is that these numbers need to exist and every house should be digitally identifiable.”

LAHINCH artist Michael Hanrahan will meet with American ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, later this Tuesday and present him with a one-of-a-kind painting to mark the historic visit of Barack Obama to Ireland last year.

The painting, which illustrates Obama’s famous ‘Is féidir linn’ speech in College Green last May, will be brought by Ambassador Rooney to Washington later this year where it will be hung in the White House to commemorate the historic visit.

This completes a famous hat-trick for Hanrahan after both the Queen and former Irish president Mary McAleese accepted a painting marking their famous state visit last year. Hanrahan will become the first Irish artist to have paintings hanging in Áras an Uachtaráin, the White House and as part of the Royal British Collection in Buckingham Palace at the same time.

“It really has been an unbelievable six months for me,” said Mr Hanrahan yesterday. “I was contacted by Trina Vargo, founder of the US-Ireland Alliance, and she asked me to complete two paintings – one which I am donating to the George Mitchell Foundation and another which will be going to the White House.

“The painting for the White House is taken from the famous ‘Is féidir linn’ speech which took place in College Green. The painting is in the back of the car now and I will be presenting it to Dan Rooney tomorrow morning [February 14], and the Ambassador will then bring it to the White House. Dan Rooney has Clare connections – his brother Pat Rooney has a house in Lahinch.

“It really has been an amazing six months for me. I’m not being paid for any of these works. It’s such a great honour to be able to donate these paintings.”

Michael’s rise in Irish artistic circles has been nothing short of meteoric. He came to art late in his life, having worked as a banker in both Ireland and the UK. After taking early retirement from his position in the bank, long before the financial collapse, Michael set about creating a new career for himself as a painter.

Over the last five years, the Lahinch native has gone from strength to strength – culminating in him being chosen as the only artist to be granted official accreditation for the official visit of the Queen last year.

CLARE County Council have refused to provide year-round rubbish bins on the Lahinch Promenade, despite making more than € 220,000 each year in parking charges and fines in the area.

At present, the local authority remove the litter bins from the beach after the busy summer season, leaving locals to fend for themselves during the winter months.

According to local Cllr Bill Slattery (FG), this has led to a breakdown in the usual beach bylaws at Lahinch, with people refusing to clean up after their dogs because there are no bins available.

The motion was put forward jointly by Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) and Cllr Joe Arkins (FG.

“My concern is that in Lahinch there are parking charges for 365 days of the year and a total income of € 220,000 for this council. A lot of people visit Lahinch over the winter months – there are five surfing schools in operation there – and yet we seem to think that people only visit over the summer months.

“This car park is generating a huge amount of money for the council. I can’t imagine why the council can not continue to service the prom all year round.”

Responding to the motion, Director of Service, Nora Kaye, said that she would not be proposing a year-round bin service at Lahinch.

“Litter bins are provided at Lahinch generally from Easter to October. These bins are serviced by the Ennistymon area staff.

“Presently one employee is assigned to servicing these bins, in addition to other duties in the area. If a litter bin service was provided during the winter months, it would incur additional expenditure on a seven-day-week basis,” she said.

“Litter bins are not provided during the winter season as the number of visitors to Lahinch beach is considerably reduced during this time. The funding for the provision and servicing of litter management facilities at beaches including Lahinch beach is provided under street cleaning in Clare County Council’s revenue budget and is fixed for 2012.

“Therefore, any increase in expenditure in winter will result in a decrease in the summer service. This expenditure cannot be justified in the current economic climate and with a staffing moratorium in place.”

A SPECIAL concert to help save the life of an 11-month-old baby who needs a life-saving operation in America will take place in Ennistymon’s Teach Ceoil this Sunday afternoon, February 19.

Baby Sergio O’Connor was born on March 5 last with a rare condition which prevents him from eating, drinking or swallowing. Sergio, who is half of a set of twin boys, has only left hospital on two occasions since he was born, one being Christmas Day which he was able to spend with his family and twin brother Tadhg.

Sergio and Tadhg were born into one of Ennistymon’s best loved traditional music families, with his father Donal, his grandmother Ann O’Connor (nee Dillon) and his uncle, the former TG4 Young Musician of the Year, Liam O’Connor, all taking part in countless comhaltas sessions over the year.

While Sergio’s family are now based in Dublin, they still retain the original family home on Church Street in Ennistymon, where they spent much of their summers before Sergio was born.

“The little boy has only had two short trips out of the hospital since he was born. He got out for a few hours on Christmas Day but they had to take all of the gear with them from the hospital – he is dependent on equipment to breathe and be fed at this point,” said local comhaltas member Joe Rynne.

“Everyone who is performing at the concert is doing so free of charge and they have been really great to offer their services for the day. We do sessions in Ennistymon during the summer and we put on a great show.

“As well as the music, we will have a good lot of comedy on Sunday – we will have seanf hocail, storytellers, dancers, singers and loads and loads of musicians. We will have a lot of local talent but, as well as that, we will some people travelling from Galway and other places for it. So it should be a great show.

“The O’Connor’s have been part of the sessions in Ennistymon for years and years. Even before they got the building in Ennistymon, going back maybe 30 years or more, they used to attend sessions that we hosted out in a café in Lahinch. They would have been playing at the sessions and, when they were very small, they would even have been dancing ‘The Siege of Ennis’ and taking part in everything.”

A number of other fundraising events have taken place, both locally and in Dublin, in an effort to raise money for baby Sergio’s operation.

A bag-packing event took place in Fitzpatrick’s SuperValu in Ennistymon last weekend, while another fundraising event took place in Willie Daly’s Pub in Ennistymon the January.

Tickets are available at the door on the night for € 10.

A FORMER Clare footballer was hit with a glass in the face during a “melee” in an Ennis pub 14 months ago, a court has heard.

Des Molohan, who last played for the county team in 2010, required treatment for cuts to his face, forehead and the area around his eye when he was struck with a glass in Knox’s Pub on December 18, 2010.

At Ennis District Court last Wednesday, Ronan Nalty (34), with an address 5 Sandfield Mews, Ennis, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm contrary to section three of the non-fatal offences against the person act.

Molohan told the court that he had been standing on the stairs in Knox’s when he was punched in the face by another man.

He said Nalty then followed over the man’s shoulder with the glass. Molohan said that he then hit the other man. He said he had made a full recovery and that the assault had left him with “minor scars”.

Insp John Galvin stated that jurisdiction had been accepted in the matter.

Solicitor Tara Godfrey told the court that another man, who has not been brought before the court, had been involved in the incident.

She said her client never intended to hit the injured party with the glass and had become caught up in a “melee situation”.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy replied that the glass had not jumped out of the accused’s hand and hit someone in the “face of its own accord”.

Ms Godfrey said Nalty, an unemployed blocklayer with no previous convictions, had made a full apology. “This is something he regrets hugely,” she added. The court heard that Nalty is a talented golfer and golf coach.

Ms Godfrey asked the court to acknowledge, that, given her client’s “lifestyle”, there is “a very low risk of him re-offending”.

Judge McCarthy said the act of striking a person in the face with a glass is “an extremely serious matter” that the court cannot ignore. Imposing a four-month suspended sentence, he ordered the accused to be of good behaviour for a period of two years. Recognances were fixed in the event of an appeal.

AFTER four years at the helm of the largest farming organisation in the county, Ennis farmer Michael Lynch has called time on his period as Clare Chairperson of the IFA.

At last week’s IFA AGM in Ennis, Michael handed over the reins of power to Ardnacrusha farmer Andrew Dundas.

Over the last four years, Michael has overseen some of the most interesting times in Irish farm history. After taking over from long-term IFA stalwart Seamus Murphy in 2008, he was immediately put to work dealing with falling commodity prices, disastrous weather conditions and pressures both from Brussels and the WTO.

“I think 2008 and 2009 were the most difficult years. We had very difficult weather conditions in those years and a collapse in prices, especially in 2009. It was a very expensive year, feed was scarce and the weather was so bad. A lot of farmers lost a lot of money in that year,” said Michael.

“There has been so much going on in farming over the last few years and a lot of challenges. Even when the prices and the weather started to improve, we had the cutbacks in all the schemes – in the REPS, the Retirement Schemes and the Installa- tion Aid for new farmers.

“There are always problems but I guess that 2008 and 2009 were the busiest years – we were certainly kept going then. I had a very good team of officers around me, which makes it a lot easier, and a good staff as well.

“It was an enjoyable experience though. A lot of the time you might be cursing, trying to round up people to go to Dublin for a protest when people are busy and don’t want to do. It is demanding but there is great ca- maraderie with the people that you meet, both in Clare and at the national level.”

Michael also paid tribute to incoming chairman Andrew Dundas.

“Andrew is a good chap. He’s a good farmer and he has plenty of experience. The organisation is in very safe hands for the next few years,” he said.

“He is a very capable and intelligent guy who is a good operator himself and will make a great job of it.” In next week’s Clare People , Andrew Ha milton spea ks to the new IFA cha ir person Andrew Dunda s who will la y out his vision for fa r ming in Cla re over the next t wo yea rs.

SHOPPING in the county town of Ennis is not an experience that is open to everyone.

Wheelchair users in the county are limited in the main to one end of the town, and if they require to visit a premises on the other side they have to either drive for up to 20 minutes through a one-way system to get there, or just take their business elsewhere.

That is according to wheelchair users across the county.

Geraldine Gilligan, who works in the town, has ruled out having lunch out or shopping on her break as impossible.

“Dunnes and Boots is basically a one-stop-shop for me. The thought of going up to Carraig Donn is impossible,” she said.

The hills and cobblestones of Ennis town made it difficult for a wheel- chair user to navigate the streets alone, but the greatest difficulty is the width of the footpaths.

Making O’Connell Street a pedestrian street is the dream, according to Geraldine.

For now going past Boots towards the Daniel O’Connell statue is impossible alone.

Even bracing this main thoroughfare brings its problems.

A wheelchair user has to travel the whole length of one street to cross the road and then travel back down the other side to visit a shop directly across the road from where the shopper originally was.

She was also critical of disabled parking spaces branding some of them a disgrace.

The Corofin/Kilnaboy woman was particularly critical of a space on the corner of Abbey Street and Bank Place.

The space is so tight she explained that she “nearly got chopped off by traffic” while parking there herself.

Shannon native Padraic Hayes said he would visit the town more if it was accessible.

“You have oncoming traffic when you come out of Dunnes on to the street. I go as far as Boots, or I would go up the market or I would go as far as Hillbillies and that is it,” he said.

“Moving past Dunnes is too high up and trying to manage with traffic while you are in a chair is impossible and you have people coming against you too. Some people are okay they will move. Others will just stand there,” he said.

Ms Gilligan said that while there is little that can be done about the topography of the town, pedestrianisation of more streets, ramps and improved footpaths would open more of the town to wheelchair users.

CLARE farmers may be forced to assemble every animal on their farm for all future cattle inspections, should new inspections requirements being put forward by the Department of Agriculture come into force.

The new assembly rules were just one of the main sticking points when a team of senior officials from the Department of Agriculture met officials from the farming organisations in Portlaoise last week.

The other main point of conflict was unannounced inspections, with IFA Deputy President, Eddie Downey, strongly rejected the idea that any spot checks should take place.

“Unannounced inspections are totally unacceptable and IFA is demanding that no inspector arrives on a farm without reasonable prior notice. There need to be better coordination of inspections and the avoidance of duplication as well as increased tolerances, reduced penalties and a strict adherence to prompt payment deadlines. Farmers will not tolerate a repeat of last year, where applicants selected for inspection encountered long payment delays.” he said.

“The assembly of animals involves a major additional workload, creates undue stress, adds considerable costs, and is an additional and unnecessary farm safety risk.”

Downey, who described some of the new proposals as “way over the top” saying that the department inspectors should be able to obtain a reasonable sample of tags without the necessity to bring all animals into the farmers’ yard.

He also called on the Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney (FG), to intervene to ensure a more farmer friendly inspection regime. Pressure is also being placed on the Minister for Agriculture to ensure that the delays caused by maps and digitisation not be repeated in 2012.

“There is now significant advantages in submitting on-line SFP applications. Apart from the commitment to be processed and paid earlier by the Department, farmers and their agents can make changes to their applications and maps on line,” said Downey.

“Given the importance of direct payments to farm income it was vital that farmers make sure that their SFP application is made correctly and on time.

“This application is necessary for all schemes including the Single Farm Payment, Disadvantaged Areas, REPS 4, AEOS, Sheep Grassland, Suckler Cow Welfare, Dairy and Beef Discussion groups – it is absolutely essential that no mistakes are made.”

MORE than 700 jobs could be fasttracked to Ennis this year with a planned new private hospital set to circumvent the local planning sys- tem and gain planning permission in as little as 26 weeks. Construction work on a new € 60 million private hospital, which is proposed for the former Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital, could begin before the end of the summer should An Bord Pleanála classify the hospital as a Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID). The project is being put forward by Ennis-based company Duesbury Ltd, which lists John and Allen Flynn of the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis as its company directors. Allen Flynn purchased the site with builder Martin Fitzgibbon and Paul Talty from Clare County Council for € 5.2 million in October, 2005.

A GROUP of colleagues went to Lisdoonvarna to the matchmaking festival this year for a day out – nothing note worthy in that.

Like so many others they travelled by bus and looked forward to a bite to eat, a few drinks and plenty of music and craic.

After a few beers and orange juices in a local establishment some members of the group needed to use the facilities, but soon discovered they couldn’t.

The facilities were working perfectly and others had been using them all day, but still the members of this group had to leave the public house and go to the other end of the town to use the toilets in a small café.

They went to another pub and once again, when they had to use the facilities they were forced to go outside in the cold September air and travel hundreds of yards to use the toilets in the same café.

The local primary school had agreed to allow the group to use their facilities and a local hotel would also have been available to them except it was closed on that day, but their comfort would have been disrupted in any eventuality.

So their day continued like this and all because they were dependent on wheelchairs for mobility.

This experience is not unique for people who rely on wheelchairs to get around County Clare, nor is it exclusive to the North Clare town.

Despite the change in laws and a growing philosophy of inclusiveness, wheelchair users are continuously penalised for needing mobility assistance.

The freedom to move around, use the facilities their tax euros pay for, and access buildings and social settings remains limited. One group of young wheelchair users who meet regularly on a Friday night, explained how their meeting places are limited, especially in Ennis, as access and space remains an issue. As the group spoke they explained how they have legally enshrined rights to integrate socially with everyone else yet they cannot. Shannon woman Majella Nihill explained how she likes to visit the Shannon shopping centre with the assistance of her mother. She said she can navigate the area quiet well but it is not without it difficulties as pointed out by fellow Shannon citizen Padraic Hayes. He does a lot of his shopping in the new Shannon Town Centre, as toilet facilities is an issue in many shop- ping centres.

“I go to the old one [Shannon Shopping Centre] in the Gort Road. That is the best one for me and my chair to get in and get out. The other one you can manage but there is a bit of struggle. I can get in but it is tight,” he said referring to the “disability toilets”.

“I go to Limerick a lot. O’Connell Street (Limerick) is a dream for me because it is so level even if shop accessibility is not great,” he said.

Connie Commane is a regular face in the county town of Ennis.

A proud wheelchair user she makes her way through town with purpose.

But all of the county town is not accessible to wheelchair users like Connie, and the shopping experience is often limited to lower O’Connell Street and the market.

Gerry Quain told how a coffee shop he use to frequent in the Tesco shopping centre in Ennis has since closed limiting the places he can meet his friends.

Ger Arthur from Shannon enjoys the freedom and space of the Friday night catch-up of young wheelchair users in Hassets pub in Barefield, where he can relax and have his pint without worrying about facilities, access and space. This he cannot do everywhere.

As the dinner was served in the Barefield bar last week and the group settled in to a night out, Padraic remarked “everyone has their own definition of accessibility”.

For this group of young people however the definition in Clare leaves a lot to be desired.