Category: News

MORE THE € 60,000 has been allocated to two separate eco-tourism projects in north Clare. It is hoped that the announcement, which was made by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar (FG), in Clare on Friday, could have a large impact in helping to improve the Burren’s status as Ireland home for eco-tourism.

Funding of € 51,315 has been approved for a series of heritage walking trails in the Burren area. It is hoped that this funding will help to improve the existing walking and cycling infrastructure in the area. A further € 10,000 has also been allocated towards the further development of the existing cycle route in Doolin.

The € 60,000 was announced alongside seven other tourism projects for outside Clare whose combined budgets reach almost € 6.6 million. While the allocation for eco-tourism projects in Clare in comparatively small, locals hope that it can have a big impact.

“This is a great announcement and a huge benefit for north Clare. Walking tourism is getting bigger and bigger all the time – it is an area that is on the up and something that we can capatalise on up here in north Clare,” said Tony Kirby, owner of Heart of the Burren Walks and member of the Burren Eco-tourism Network.

“Walking tourism fits in very well with the idea of eco-tourism. It is about people coming and spending a real amount of time getting to know Clare and the people here. It is about giving them a fuller experience of the county and benefiting the local economy by having them stay here for a longer period.”

Earlier this years the Burren was officially designated as Ireland second certified eco-tourism destinations. A host of representatives from the local tourism industry have been working for more than three years to be trained and certified to take part in the Burren Eco-tourism Network.

The network has been going from strength to strength since it’s inception and more than 40 new members are currently being trained to become members of the Burren Ecotourism Network.

A MOVE to provide top-class sports amenities for the east Clare catchment of Killaloe and Ballina is expected to be taken a stage further this week with backing from Clare County Council planners for a range of new facilities.

The Ballina/Killaloe Sports and Development Facilities Development Company is behind plans to develop two new full-size playing pitches, an all-weather pitch, floodlit training areas, walking and cycling trails, changing and carparking facilities at a site in Moys, Killaloe.

The planning application for the development was lodged on June 15 last, with a deadline of this Wednesday laid down by Clare County Council for a final decision date on the proposal.

The move to provide extra sports facilities in the area comes a matter of months after the local GAA club on the Clare side of the Shannon, Smith O’Briens, was given the green light to develop a major club/community facility at its base on Shantraud.

In May, conditional planning permission was granted for an ambitious project that includes the development that includes a new clubhouse, changing rooms, a sports hall, meeting rooms, a hurling wall, an astroturf pitch and a spectator stand.

The Smith O’Briens club initiative is set to be funded by members of the local community themselves through an investors draw where a thousand people to pay € 4 a week to the development kitty – a contribution that works out at € 17.33 a week and € 208 over the year.

“For that, we will have a draw every month, giving away € 3,700 in cash prizes,” says Tony O’Brien of Smith O’Briens. “There will be 20 prizes including a top prize of € 1,000, two € 500 prizes, two € 250 prizes all the way down to eight € 50 prizes. The plan is to develop under the umbrella of the GAA, but it will be a community facility, open for everyone.

“The idea of the draw is that the community are investing in a facility for themselves. If we managed to get a thousand members we would raise over nearly € 500,000 for the project over three years,” he adds.

CLARE turf-cutters have vowed to take their fight to be allowed to continue the centuries-old practice of cutting turf to the corridors of Dáil Éireann, following the huge attendance at a public meeting that was staged in Moyasta last Thursday night.

The meeting in Garrihy’s Bar attracted nearly 250 turf-cutters from around the county, who stepped up their campaign by establishing a Clare branch of the Turf Cutters and Contractors Association.

Padraig Haugh has been elected chairman of the new group, while the national spokesperson for turfcutters in Dáil Éireann, Deputy Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, has told The Clare People that the new Clare committee is the first step towards Clare turfcutters fighting for their rights.

“We left Moyasta with a committee – a chairman, and treasurer and a secretary, ready to take up the baton in the Clare area when it comes to fighting this issue,” said Deputy Flanagan, who attended Thursday night’s meeting in Moyasta.

“It was the biggest turnout I’ve ever seen at a meeting in Clare,” said chairman Padraig Haugh. “The crowd turned out in such numbers because this is a big issue, a very big issue and it’s not just in west Clare.

“I am secretary of the Creamery Milk Suppliers Association and I was speaking to colleagues over in east Clare and they are very worried about this too.

“Turf-cutting is vital to us, because it was always with us. I started farming in 1948 and I have been cutting turf for as long as that. It goes back centuries. We cannot be stopped cutting turf. We have to defeat this,” added Mr Haugh.

“The purpose of setting up the committee is that everyone in Clare who is involved in turf-cutting can feed into this group and deal with the issues as they come along. Tullaher Lough Bog is the one that’s most important at the moment as the ban has come in on that the end of this year,” contined Deputy Flanagan.

“We want to make sure that people in Clare can continue to cut turf. We have a report from the EPA which has a peatlands plan, which means people will need permits and will need to do studies in their area before they cut turf.

“We need to be ready for this battle down the line. Unless there is someone in Clare to represent turf-cutters, we are facing the distinct possibilty that there will be no turf cut in Clare in the near future,” Deputy Flanagan added.

THOUSANDS OF families in north and west Clare face charges up to € 12,000 to upgrade their septic tanks – with the Burren area likely to one of the worst hit areas in the country under the new Water Services Act.

A provisional copy of the act, which was published last Friday, has revealed that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and not the local authorities will be tasked with providing tests on Clare’s estimated 17,000 septic tanks and the tests will be carried out on a risk-based basis. This means that the thousands of septic tanks located in karst landscape such as the Burren as well as heavy soil areas in the south of the county are likely to be targeted as black-spots.

“The EPA will see Clare as being much more of a risk than other counties. Generally counties with good soil and good grassland would be considered as better able to deal with waste water than Clare,” said north Clare engineer Michael Duffy.

“If the regulations are to implemented you will have situations where a lot of households will have to spend a lot of money because of this.

“There is definitely as case to be put to say that people living in towns and cities have already been subsidised for their waste water management and there should be some way of helping the individual householder in this regard.”

The new legislation also provides for a € 50 septic tank registration fee which people in Clare must pay to Clare County Council. According to David Timlin, Director of Service for Clare County Council, this fee will be used to fund the inspections which will be carried out by the EPA.

“The revenue generated by the license fee will be used to fund the delivery of a national inspection plan which will be developed by the EPA on a risk basis, and its roll-out will be managed by the local authorities,” he told The Clare People

A 51-YEAR-OLD man who lost his life while fishing off Donegal Point in Kilkee on Saturday had received several warnings from locals saying it was too dangerous to fish, according to local rescue services.

The man, who has been identified as Armands Silins from Nagles Terrace in Kilrush, lost his life after being swept from his nine-foot dinghy into rough waters just before 2pm on Saturday. The incident was reported immediately by a local fisherman, who was watching from the shore, and the Kilkee Marine Rescue recovered the man from the sea within 15 minutes.

The man was unconscious and hypothermic when recovered and the rescue service performed first aid and gave the man oxygen. The Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter airlifted the man from Kilkee to the Limerick Regional Hospital where, despite continued efforts to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead a short time after his arrival.

Founder of Kilkee Marine Rescue, Manuel DiLucia, said that the man was not wearing a life jacket and had been warned by a number of people not to take his light craft into the dangerous waters.

“He was in a small and light dinghy and he had to carry that dinghy down a cliff to even get to the water. It was white water with swells of around two or three metres so it was not suitable at all for a boat of that size to be out fishing. It was totally unsafe.

“The location where he was is a very dangerous location, even if the sea had been calm. The man had been warned several times about going out fishing there and he ignored the advice that he was given. He wasn’t even wearing a life jacket, just a high visibility jacket which did help us to locate him.

“We are fed up of telling people where is safe to fish and where is dangerous. People are just ignoring us, especially foreign nationals. This happens quite a lot and is a big problem.”

More than 10 Eastern European men have died while fishing off the coast of west Clare over the past five years. The 51-year-old Latvian man had been living locally for a number of years and worked in Kilrush.

THE people of Shannon have rallied behind a young man who has received treatment for a brain tumour, in the US. Keith Gibbons (34) underwent treatment in Heuston and has returned home, to continue with the treatment. Keith is currently in hospital in Galway.

Keith was initially diagnosed four years ago and, after undergoing treatment in Ireland, the tumour disappeared. Unfortunately, however, it later returned.

His medical bill from Heuston amounted to more than € 40,000 and the people of Shannon have raised several thousand euro through a fundraising campaign. More than € 18,500 was raised prior to a fundraiser in Mayo – where Keith is originally from – at the weekend.

Keith’s friend Don Murphy – who has set up a fundraising campaign said that individuals and groups have come on board to help Keith and his wife Brenda, who is originally from Shannon.

“They are delighted with the funds raised to date and are very heartened by the support they have received. There is a lot of goodwill. The amount of money raised was fantastic. People are rallying around,” he added. “If people want to donate, give me a call. People have been very generous. Companies have given big donations,” said Don.

The couple travelled to the US, after they researched all options open to them.

“We were always being told by doctors that Ireland had everything treatment-wise that was in the US but we didn’t believe that. . . We knew we had to pursue other options,” Keith’s wife Brenda said, while they were in Texas. “Around March I found out about a clinic in Houston, Texas, called the Burzynski Clinic which specialises in a treatment that involves a drug called Antioneoplastons. It is gene-targeted treatment that has seen very good results on brain tumours. It is not a form of chemotherapy and is non-toxic.

“Dr Burzynski’s treatment is not seen as a fully approved treatment yet, even though for years he has been curing people that were told there was nothing more that could be done for them after conventional treatment didn’t work. We sent off all scans and paperwork and, after a lot of correspondence over and back, we heard that Keith was accepted for treatment at the clinic. We knew we had to go for it,” said Brenda.

Anyone who wishes to contribute to the fund can check out the K Project on Facebook or call Don Murphy on 087 9370395.

A YOUNG Kilmihil footballer is continuing to recover in hospital in Portugal having been involved in a serious accident while on holidays.

35-year-old Declan O’Shea remains in a serious condition in hospital after the accident more than a fortnight ago. He fell from a third-storey balcony at an apartment last month and was taken to hospital in Faro. He was later airlifted to a hospital in Lisbon, where his family has travelled from Kilmihil to be by his bedside.

Mr O’Shea, who is married, was attending a rally with two friends in Portugal when the freak accident occurred. He remains in hospital and his condition has not changed, according to sources.

The local community in Kilmihil is rallying around the O’Shea family, as they pray for Declan’s recovery.

“His progress is being monitored by the hospital,” said a source, who added that the support of the people of Kilmihil has been huge.

In the immediate aftermath of the accident, a huge crowd attended Mass for him in Kilmihil, which was celebrated by local parish priest Fr Peter O’Loughlin.

Declan is a full-back on the Kilmihil senior football team. He won a Senior ‘B’ county championship medal with his club two years ago. He has represented Clare in football at minor and under-21 levels. He has worked as a mechanic in Kilrush in recent times, having spent some time living in Australia a number of years ago.

He is a son of Oliver and Doris O’Shea, from Lack West, Kilmihil.

LACK of resources will be a major barrier if a cold snap creeps in this winter. That was the message delivered at a meeting in Shannon last week, amid concerns that poor weather conditions last winter will be repeated this year.

Senior Executive Engineer Eugene O’Shea gave a presentation to councillors at a meeting of Shannon Town Council. “Resources are going to be a big issue in terms of manpower and financial resources. That’s going to dictate what we can and cannot do,” said Mr O’Shea.

“A number of staff will be on call in the event of an occurrence like the past couple of winters,” he added.

“Our own water conservation crews are checking for leaks on an ongoing basis. We have purchased a number of portable water tanks. They can be dropped off at problematic locations,” he said. He said that a number of council staff have retired or are due to retire, adding, “We are going to need a hell of a lot of more local participation. Manpower will become a greater issue next year because we have some people retiring.”

Mr O’Shea said that if water is scarce during the winter, there will be scheduled shut-offs, the details of which will be publicised. He said that some of the pipes that froze last year were as a result of people leaving their taps on. Fine Gael Councillor Seán McLoughlin asked was it illegal to leave taps running, to which the engineer replied, “I’m not aware if it is illegal but it certainly is unethical.”

“The pipe network in Shannon town itself is quite aged and needs investment. Certainly we are talking about millions of euro to do that,” Mr O’Shea told the meeting.

Asked about the industrial estate, Mr O’Shea said that the services are in the charge of the council. “The main issues last year were in premises that were unoccupied. We had difficulty getting in contact with some occupiers. Shannon Development did come on board and assisted us in shutting them off,” he said.

Sinn Féin Councillor Cathy McCafferty said that some footpaths in the Cronan area of the town were “knee deep” in water, which she compared to “swimming pools”.

Independent Councillor Patricia McCarthy said that salt damaged concrete on footpaths and asked was there an alternative solution. Mr O’Shea said that grit is a more suitable option.

Fine Gael Councillor Mike Fleming said that he has been out of work for the past two years and said the council would be “better off hiring people than leasing a fleet of vans”.

Mr O’Shea replied, “We can’t just take on people willy nilly. We have to go through various procedures.”

The town’s mayor, Councillor Mary Brennan (Fine Gael) said, “I think the magic words are lack of money, more lack of money and workers and falling leaves.”

THE number of people on the live register in Clare dropped to their lowest levels in two years last month, with the number of people signing on in Clare now below 10,000 for the first time since September of 2009.

Figures released by the Central Statistic Office (CSO) over the weekend confirmed that 9,989 people signed on in Clare in November, almost 800 people less than were on the live register in August of this year.

Clare unemployment activists have moved to pour cold water on the fig- ures, saying that the drop was more to do with an increase in emigration rather than any concrete job creation. Local campaigner and organiser for the Open Fair, Jim Connolly, says that anyone who thinks that there has been a major turnaround in the employment market is living in “cloud cuckoo land”.

“Things are not getting better, not at all, and anyone who thinks that there has been an upturn in employment is living in cloud cuckoo land. Any major fall in the live register is down to emigration, which is a tragic situation,” he said.

“You cannot have development without people and if there aren’t enough people then it makes development more difficult. It is very hard to say what is driving the statistics but what is for sure is that people in Clare are trying very hard at the moment to stave off emigration for as long as possible. People are in a difficult situation but it is not in the nature of people to just sit down and die.”

Jim is one of the organisers behind the Open Fair which took place in Ennis earlier this year. The fair works by offering local producers and entrepreneurs a free chance to show off their product or service and in this way promote new startup businesses.

A second Open Fair has been organised to take place at the West County in Ennis on November 19. All the stands have been booked and the organisers are hopeful for a similar crowd to the debut fair, which generated more than € 7,000 worth of business for those who took part.

Ennis town was one of the areas that showed the greatest drop in the live register figures in recent months, with 5,612 signing on in October of this year, the lowest level since September of 2009 when 5, 576 were signing on.

CLARE Labour TD, Michael McNamara was working with the United Nations in Ethiopia in 2010 when he read on The Irish Times online edition that Michael D Higgins was going to contest the presidential election.

It proved a pivotal moment for both men. Higgins’ decision has proved an inspired one, while McNamara’s move to pledge his support to the Newmarket-on-Fergus man’s campaign there and then was one of the key factors that brought him into the Labour Party and sent him on his way to winning a Dáil seat.

“I remember writing to him from Ethiopia,” said McNamara after the declaration of Clare’s presdential vote. “It was in May 2010 and I wrote to him offering support in his campaign. I always believed that Michael D Higgins would be an excellent candidate and I supported him strongly in the parliamentary nomination process.

“I knew Michael D before I knew the Labour Party. When I was about 12 years of age, I remember him reading poetry in Scariff, in Mike McNamara’s Bar – it wouldn’t have been a Labour stronghold at the time, either Scariff or Mike Mac’s,” he added.

Now everything has changed. Scariff has a Labour Party TD, Clare has a Labour Party presidential, with Higgins capturing 44.3 per cent of the first-preference votes in the county – when Labour’s Mary Robinson was elected in 1990 she received 13,745 votes which translated into 31.7 per cent.

“It’s a proud day for the Labour Party in Clare and a proud day for Clare,” said Deputy McNamara. “I was worried for a while, because the opinion polls were strange. I was canvassing in Ennis and Shannon last week and was getting a great response. Nationally, I think in the last week people were reflecting that it wasn’t just a celebrity television contest. It was an important office and people were beginning to wonder how much they knew about the candidates. You would have got great odds last year on Labour comfortably winning a Dáil seat in Clare and having a Labour president from Clare.

“There has to be a lot of pride in the county to have a third president after Eamon de Valera and Paddy Hillery. I’m certainly very proud of that,” he added.