Category: News

TEENAGERS under the age of 18 have no difficulty getting their hands on alcohol in Shannon, as older people are buying it for them.

That’s according to Independent Councillor Patricia McCarthy, who told a meeting of the town’s Joint Policing Committee (JPC) last week that the issue is of concern.

“There is a certain amount of underage drinking. We can’t just close our eyes to it,” she told The Clare People .

“Some of them are getting older people to buy it for them and give them a few extra pounds for doing it,” she said.

“The gardaí and the suppliers have to be very careful about who is buying regular quantities and if there is a pattern they should be vigilant,” said Cllr McCarthy.

The meeting heard concerns about anti-social behaviour in several parts of Shannon, including Ballycasey, Rineanna View and De Lacey Park.

The chairman of the JPC, Councillor Tony McMahon (Labour) said that a joint approach is required, in an effort to deal with this.

“There was a lot of anti-social behaviour in Finan and Aidan Parks in the past and co-operation between community gardaí and residents’ associations virtually eliminated it there.

“One of the problems, in my opinion, with anti-social behaviour is that a number of people who are engaged in it are of an age where gardaí can’t bring prosecutions. They are too young,” Cllr McMahon told The Clare People .

“It takes a while to take action, but programmes like community alert and neighbourhood watch are helping,” he said.

The meeting heard that incidents of public order have reduced in Shannon.

During the first nine months of last year, there were 133 incidents of public order and this has reduced to 88 this year.

Criminal damage offences have also reduced, from 128 in 2010 to 70 this year.

“That’s a good drop,” Superintendent Peter Duff said.

Referring to the decrease in public order offences, he said, “One of the biggest reductions we had was for public order offences… The stark reality is people don’t have as much disposable income. There is a reduction in the number of people out on the streets.”

Drug searches on the streets have also reduced in Shannon – from 263 during the first nine months of last year to 217 this year – which, according to gardaí is down to the fact that there are less people out on the streets at night.

JUST under € 300,000 has been allocated by the Office of Public Works (OPW) to Clare County Council for the construction of a pipe connecting a turlough in Ballyvaughan to the Atlantic Ocean.

The funding has been made available under the Minor Flood Mitigation Works Scheme which was set up in August of 2009, just before the unprecedented flooding which took place in October and November of that year.

This latest allocation brings the total amount of Clare funding received under the scheme since 2009 to € 1 million.

Clare still lags behind other flood hit counties in allocations received from this scheme with both Galway and Cork County Councils receiving in excess of € 2 million each from the Minor Flood Mitigation Works Scheme.

This is the second allocation of funding to be made to a Clare flooding scheme this year following a grant of € 99,000 for flood relief works to be carried out at Roughan in Kilnaboy in April of this year.

The Ballyvaughan flood works follow extensive flooding of the area during November of 2009. The main road between Ballyvaughan and Kin- vara was impassable for a number of days during the flood, while a large number of smaller local roads were also submerged.

The € 270,000 allocated by the Office of Public Works represents 90 per cent of the total costs of the work with Clare County Council required to invest the remaining 10 per cent, or € 30,000.

“This is welcome news for the people of Ballyvaughan. Severe flooding was experienced on the outskirts of Ballyvaughan during the winter of 2009 and the works proposed will help to alleviate flooding on affected roads,” said Clare TD Pat Breen (FG).

“This funding is allocated to Clare County Council under the Minor Flood Works Scheme and represents 90% of the monies sought by the Council so it is a sizable investment in reducing future flood risks in Ballyvaughan.

“This funding allocation confirms this Government’s support for the implementation of flood prevention measures even in these tightening budgetary times.”

The scheme is still open for local authorities to put forward local projects for funding and Clare County Council is understood to have a number of projects currently working their way towards securing funding.

A REVOLUTIONARY new radar system will dramatically increase the speed at which emergency services can find people lost off the coast of north Clare.

The coastal radar system, which is the first of its kind anywhere on the European Atlantic coast, will give minute-by-minute analysis of the speed and direction of currents off the north Clare coast.

The radar, which was officially launched last week by the Ryan Institute at NUI, Galway, covers a large area of sea from Fanore to Ballyvaughan and up along the Clare and Galway coastline to Galway City.

“The new radar can give us accurate current speeds and direction every 300 metres along the coast of north Clare,” said Dr Mike Hartnett of the Modelling and Informatics Group in the Ryan Institute.

“Over the years we have helped the Gardaí and the Doolin Coastguard with different computer models of the area. If they can give us a place and time where someone fell into the water we can now give them a very accurate assessment as to where they might have gone.”

The information from the new ra- dar scheme will be available live online so the emergency services will be able to access it in an emergency situation and can use it to determine where best to look.

“This will give us actual real-time date which can be used for a lot of things like sailing, ferry services and other waters users but when we feed that data into a computer model we will be able to predict the future movements of objects in the water very accurately,” continued Dr Harnett.

“One of the main things that our computer model does in to predict flooding events and this radar will be able to improve how we forecast flooding events. We are in the process now of creating a new computer model for Galway Bay which will predict coastal flooding.

“This is the only radar of it’s kind in this part of the world. There are some radar installations like this in Spain and in parts of the Mediterranean but in a first of its kind for this part of the world.”

The new radar installations and the computer models have been created by The Martin Ryan Institute in NUI, Galway in collaboration with IBM Smarter Cities Technology Centre in Dublin.

SHANNON should benefit under the government’s smart travel funding package, through the creation of additional cycle lanes.

That’s according to local Labour Town Councillor Tony McMahon, who says that the project should be rolled out across the board.

Under the initiative, various projects across the country are receiving funding for travel-related projects.

These include new bicycle stands, zebra crossings, disabled parking bays and bus shelters.

It is part of a € 2 million national package for smarter travel measures, announced by Junior Minister for Public Transport, Alan Kelly.

Cllr McMahon believes that new cycle lanes should be put in place in Shannon, while existing lanes should be further developed.

“I’m asking what did Clare County Council apply for, for Shannon? How much money is available and what have they in mind for any future funding that becomes available?” he said.

“I would imagine that they would have applied for funding.

“I think that if there is money available, Shannon should be included,” he added.

“If it hasn’t been accessed, then it would be remiss of the council,” he said.

He said that while Shannon is “fairly well catered for” in terms of cycle lanes, there is a significant interest in cycling in the town and the infrastructure should be suitable.

“If the money is there for that purpose, I would like them to advise me what is envisaged. A good lot of people use cycle lanes in Shannon,” he said.

He said that remedial works should be carried out on roads in the town, if money is available.

“According to the guidelines, remedial works are included and they could be done in Shannon,” said Cllr McMahon.

“There are frequent crashes at the roundabout at the Comp. School (St Patrick’s Comprehensive School). There are several junctions that could be looked at,” he said.

“I’m looking for confirmation that Clare County Council has availed of that scheme and that they have included Shannon in the scheme,” said Cllr McMahon.

THE Clare Association in New York has named Ireland’s Consul General in New York, Noel Kilkenny, as its ‘Clareman of the Year’ for 2011, the second honour that he has picked up this year, having been given a Civic Reception by Kilrush Town Council in August.

The 59-year-old diplomat was honoured at the 123rd staging of the Clare Association annual ball in New York recently. “From the very start, Noel made his mark in the Irish and Irish-American communities in New York,” Clare Association president Catherine Hogan told The Clare People after presenting him with his award. “He stepped into his new position full force upon his arrival in New York just over a year ago. In a very short time, he has endeared himself to the people of New York, and the Clare Association takes great pride in the fact that they can claim him as one of our own.

“We are grateful to Noel for his dedication and support of the Irish and Irish-American communities and are proud to add the name of yet another great Clareman, Noel Kilkenny, to our honour roll this year,” she added.

Kilkenny began his career with the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1977, after an initial three-year stint in the Department of Justice following his graduation from UCD with a law degree. Since then his career has brought him all over the world, including various stints in Holland, China, Washington DC, Bosnia, London, Estonia – where he served as Irish Ambassador, Moldova and, most recently, New York, where he was appointed Irish Consul last October.

GIOVANNI Trapattoni proved to be a man of his word when finally fulfilling his commitment to throw his weight behind the Cliffs of Moher’s campaign to be designated as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World on Friday.

The Irish soccer manager and his assistant – World Cup-winning hero from 1982, Marco Tardelli – visited the Cliffs on Friday, nearly four months after he postponed a visit that was pencilled in as part of the FAI annual general meeting in Clare, because of industrial action being undertaken by SIPTU workers at the tourist resort.

“I have heard a lot about the Cliffs of Moher,” he said.

“I am very familiar with long campaigns and hope that November can be a month when Ireland achieves success in both the Euro 2012 playoffs and the new 7 Wonders of Nature campaign.

“It is fantastic. I was also in America [at the] Grand Canyon. It [Grand Canyon] is different but this is very, very beautiful. I think these cliffs are very, very spectacular,” he said.

The Cliffs of Moher was shortlisted in the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition in July 2009, along with 27 other sites, from more than 440 participants representing 220 countries. Among the other shortlisted sites are the Amazon Rainforest (South America), Table Mountain (South Africa), Black Forest (Germany), Vesuvius (Italy), The Great Barrier Reef (Australia) and The Grand Canyon (USA).

The official New 7 Wonders of Nature list, which is subject to a worldwide poll, will be declared on November 11, 2011 – the same day that Clareman Michael D Higgins is inaugurated as Ireland’s ninth president.

CLARE County Council has announced plans to develop a 6,500tonne salt depot on the outskirts of Ennis.

The council is proposing to build a road maintenance depot for the region at Tulla Road, Ennis (old GAMA site), adjacent to Junction 13 of the N18 Motorway with access from the R352 Tulla Road from Ennis.

According to the council, the development will include offices, a storage area and workshop, car parking, salt barns, depot, weighbridge, hard standing area, ESB sub-station, refu- eling bay and an access road directly from the R352 road.

The development will also encompass ancillary services such as water supply, foul treatment, surface water collection, bounding and landscaping around the site, the diversion, protection and provision of utilities and construction of boundary treatments, accommodation works and fencing at required locations.

It is anticipated that the depot will be run by the National Roads Authority. The proposal was first revealed by County Engineer Tom Tiernan in September.

At the time, Mr Tiernan said the council’s winter maintenance pro- gramme would aim to cover 706km of the county’s road network in the event of severe freezing temperatures.

The council has put in place a winter service plan for national primary, national secondary and strategic regional roads. Mr Tiernan explained that priority will be given to the motorway, followed by national primary, national secondary and strategic regional routes.

That programme includes plans to further expand the council’s Beechpark depot to ensure that 3500 tonnes of salt are available in Clare over the winter period.

The council has spent € 1.1 million on winter maintenance during the past two years.

Local councillors have been critical of the NRA’s plans, saying they represented a duplication of services.

An ice detection and prediction system, ICENET, in conjunction with thermal mapping linked to weather stations in Crusheen M18, Kilrush N68, Lisdoonvarna N67 and Ogonnelloe R463, facilitates Clare County Council in its decision-making process regarding whether or when scheduled routes should be treated.

Submissions or observations with respect to the proposed Tulla Road development may be made in writing up to and including December 23.

TREMORS resulting from the extraction of shale natural gas in west Clare could cause major structural damage to some of Clare’s key tourist attractions, including the Cliffs of Moher and the Doolin Cave. That is according to No Fracking Clare, a group set up to oppose plans to extract shale from underneath west Clare.

The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has awarded a license option to UKbased company Enegi-oil to search for shale gas deposits in a large section of west Clare. The area, which is being described as the Clare Basin, covers thousands of acres between Quilty, Kilbaha and Labasheeda.

Should exploration prove success- ful, a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, will be used to create large cracks in the bedrock at the drill sites by pumping large amounts of highly pressurised fluids underground.

According to No Fracking Clare, this process has resulted in large tremors or mini-earthquakes in other parts of the world.

“Whilst pollution of water and air are major concerns associated with fracking, another big concern for Clare is earth tremors in the vicin ity of the Cliffs of Moher, Loophead and the Burren, especially Doolin Cave with the biggest stalactite in Europe,” said Bob Wilson of No Fracking Clare.

“Apart from the dangers to people living, working in and visiting these places, there is also the threat to tourism which is now seen as one of our best potential growth areas. We live in a beautiful and unique place here in the west of Ireland and our potential for tourism is directly related to our landscape and environment. In my opinion, fracking ought to be banned in Ireland altogether certainly in Clare.”

Enegi-oil have carried out research on a well drilled in Doonbeg in 1962. This analysis identified the presence of a large deposit of shale gas be tween 800 and 1,100 metres underneath the ground.

The company has put together a timetable for their on-site research in west Clare, which will determine the best drilling locations for extracting the shale, but it is as yet unclear when this process could begin.

A spokesperson from the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources told The Clare People that the current license option allows Enegi-oil to conduct “shallow geological sampling” but exclude major exploration drills at this time.

“In the event that hydraulic fracturing was proposed as part of a possible future onshore exploration or production programme, it would be subject to environmental impact as sessment, including an appropriate public consultation phase,” said the spokesperson.

The Clare People contacted Enegioil in relation to this article but no response was received at the time of going to press.

GARDAÍ in Clare are warning people who legally own firearms and ammunition to ensure the property is under lock and key – 20 firearms have been stolen in the county in the past four years.

Most of the weapons were stolen during break-ins to homes, with a small number taken from cars.

“In some cases, it was discovered that the firearms were easily accessible and not secured away to prevent their removal. There are considerable obligations on all firearm holders to ensure that their weapons are securely stored away when not in use,” said the crime prevention officer in the Clare Garda Division, Sergeant Joe Downey.

“This applies to both within the home and when travelling to a shoot or a hunt,” he added.

He said that firearm holders run the risk of having their licences revoked if it is discovered that proper security measures were not in place at the time of the theft.

“As the amount of firearms increases in your possession, the place where they are stored should be alarmed. Where you possess six or more firearms, then the alarm must be linked to a central monitoring station and have back-up signalling facilities,” he said.

“During transport, store them out of sight in an area that is not accessible to the driver or any passenger. Never leave them inside the vehicle whether occupied or left unattended,” he added.

JOHN Higgins stood looking up at the Returning Officer, Pat Wallace, as he announced the results of the first count in Clare. It was 7.07pm in the Clare Inn Hotel on Friday evening. He knew what was to come would be music to his ears.

“Higgins, Michael D – 20,828,” said Wallace to thundering applause from the Labour Party family that had gathered around Higgins. By then it had been a long day, in a long few weeks, but the celebrations had just begun.

“It’s a very proud moment,” said an emotional Higgins. “We are very, very honoured – it’s the highest office in the land and it has come to Michael D, a Clareman. There’s great pride in what he has achieved – my Dad and uncles and aunts would be very proud today.

“I couldn’t believe it was happening today. Last week we were all down in the dumps – the gap between Michael D and Sean Gallagher was unassailable as David Davin-Power said on RTE, but he turned it around.

“It was a huge move to go for the presidency in the first place – one that indicated Michael D wasn’t finished with politics. He didn’t go in the last election because he wanted to go forward for the presidency. There will Clare celebration because this is a victory for Clare and it that celebration will start with the inauguration,” he added.

And, why not! After all, it was another Clare presidential moment to park with the two terms of office each that Eamon de Valera and Dr Paddy Hillery served. A victory for Newmarket-on-Fergus, but more parochially than that, a victory for Ballycar.

“He got a great percentage of the vote in Clare with over 20,000 votes,” says Higgins. “And in Ballycar it was 73 per cent and I think it was the same in Clonmoney, which shows that closest to come they really came out and supported Michael D.

“When we came to Ballycar in 1946, Michael was five and I was four. We came from Limerick to live with our uncle and aunt. My father had got pneumonia and it was a very long recovery period because there was no penicillin. “We came out to Ballycar to give them a rest in Limerick and my aunt and uncle fell in love with myself and Michael and agreed that we would stay in Ballycar and our sisters were living in Limerick. “In Ballycar they would have been interested in politics but never went for it. They were very mindful of different politics of the time. De Valera had been in power from ’32 to ’38 and I remember the talk in the house when the Inter-Party government came into power in ’48. “After going to school in Flannan’s he got a job in Shannon and then in Galway with the ESB. There was a man in Galway, Redmond Corbett, who funded him to go to university. It was from there the he became politically mind. That’s where it started and it led all the way to Áras an Uachtaráin.”