Category: News

THE NEWLY elcted chair of the East Clare Municipal District, Joe Cooney (FG) has admitted that councillors will face a major challenge to meet the need of the people living in the newly redrawn constituency.

Cllr Cooney, who was elected after the first count of last months local election with a massive 2,843 first preference votes, also said that making due with the council’s tight budget for works will not be easy.

“My priority is to try and make sure that people in the new Killaloe district get proper representation on Clare County Council. It is a massive big area – from Clonlara back to New Quay, to Whitegate and up to the Galway border.

“It is not going to be easy to make sure that all areas are well covered and people are property looked after and the right services are there in communities and in villages,” he said.

“It wont be easy but it is important that all areas are looked after.

“With funds limited, as they are at the moment, it is also important that everything is kept to a proper standard.”

While all of the councillors elected in the area are based in the eastern section of the constituency, Cllr Cooney insists that they people of North Clare will be represented.

“They do have councillors. There are six councillors nominated to represent that area.

“I will be representing the people up there [North Clare] and if there are any issues there, I will be there,” he said.

“Unfortunately, it is badly balances, there are six councillors in the east side of the area and none in the north side – but it our jobs to represent those people.

“I definitely see that as my job and I will be doing that for the next five years.”

Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) will serve as Cllr Cooney’s deputy for the next 12 months.

A MAN has appeared in court charged in connection with a string of burglaries at businesses in Ennis in recent weeks.

Brendan Sherlock (21) was brought before a special sitting of Ennis District Court on Saturday morning.

Mr Sherlock, with an address at Dromard, Lahinch Road, Ennis, is charged with six offences allegedly committed between May 31 and June 12.

The charges concern four burglaries and criminal damage and theft offences.

It is alleged on dates unknown between May 31 and June 3, Mr Sherlock entered Delia Keane’s coffee shop on O’Connell Street on as trespasser and stole € 300.

Mr Sherlock is charged with trespass and criminal damage at Mocha Coffee, Arthur’s Row, Ennis on June 5; trespass and theft of € 50 in coins at The Tan Lab, Barrack Street, Ennis on June 11 and trespass and theft of € 70 in coins at D’Barber Shop, Francis Street, Ennis on dates un known between June 10 and June 11.

Mr Sherlock is further charged with the theft of € 120 from Enzo’s Fast Food on Abbey Street on June 12.

It is also alleged that on June 7 at Taste of the Sea, Market Place, Ennis, Mr Sherlock did without lawful excuse damage a wooden door. It is alleged the cost of the damage is € 50. In court on Saturday, Detective Garda Michael Kelly of Ennis Garda Station gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution in respect of five of the charges.

Garda David Hannon of Ennis Garda Station gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution in respect of the other charge.

The court heard Mr Sherlock made no reply to any of the charges after caution.

Judge Mary Larkin granted legal aid following an application from solicitor John Casey.

Mr Casey said legal aid was appropriate in the case and the State had no objections to his application.

Mr Casey’s application for bail on his client’s behalf was opposed by the State.

Detective Garda John Casey of Ennis Garda Station outlined the objections to bail. The court heard gardaí would say they have strong evidence against Mr Sherlock in respect of the charges.

Mr Casey said his client was born and bred in Ennis and would live with his girlfriend at her home in the town. He said Mr Sherlock was willing to sign on daily at Ennis Garda Station and observe any curfew conditions set down by the court.

Judge Mary Larkin said she would only consider granting bail on the basis of a substantial cash bond from the accused or from an independent surety.

Mr Casey said the money is not available and Mr Sherlock did not have anyone to stand as independent surety for him at the moment.

Judge Larkin refused bail. However she said it was open to Mr Casey to raise the issue of bail again if his client could meet the strict bail terms sought by the court.

Judge Larkin remanded Mr Sherlock in custody to appear again at Ennis District Court on June 18.

THE COST of renting a house in Clare continues to fall, despite anecdotal evidence of a recovery in the property market in the county.

The average monthly rent paid by Clare people in for the first quarter of 2014 was € 513 – a drop of € 4 on the € 517 per month average recorded over the same period last year. These figures represent a 25.2 per cent decrease on the average monthly rent of € 686 which was recorded for Clare in 2008. The report also signals a clear disparity in the cost of renting a domestic property in different parts of Clare.

The least expensive place to rent a home is Kilrush – with an average monthly rent of € 469 per month while Newmarket on Fergus was the most expensive Clare location at € 582 per month. Sixmilebridge comes in at € 576 per month, Shannon at € 573, with Ennis at € 511 and Killaloe at € 544.

These Clare figures are in contrast to the national average where a year on year increase of 3.5 per cent was recorded for the first three months of 2014.

The largest increase was in the apartment sector – where average rents have climbed by 5.6 per cent while the cost of renting a house has increased by 1.6 per cent.

THE Ombudsman for Children is to be asked to investigate a case where children in State care in Clare were unallocated a social care worker for more than three months.

Judge Alan Mitchell directed that the children’s Guardian Ad Litem also refer the matter to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).

The children, who were found to have been neglected by their mother, have since been allocated a social care worker.

Figures supplied to the Clare People yesterday by the Child and Family Agency (CFA) show that there are currently 10 childcare cases unallocated in Clare.

The Children in Care team in Clare (CIC) is currently providing services to approximately 160 children in Clare.

The order that HIQA and the Ombudsman for Children consider a particular case involving social care services in Clare formed part of an extensive written judgment delivered at a sitting of the Family Law (District) Court on Tuesday.

Judge Mitchell was told by senior social worker Tina Wiseman that due to staffing difficulties, a “con- siderable case load” of the CIC team in Clare had been unallocated since November 2012.

The Judge said, “That’s a source of serious concern to me”. He said the un-allocation of childcare cases is something that the CEO of the CFA, Gordon Jeyes could hardly condone. He asked Ms Wiseman if it was worth highlighting these deficiencies both locally and nationally. She said, “I’m in total agreement with you. It is scandalous”. Ms Wiseman said, “I can’t stand over what has happened and at the end of the day, the children are in state care.” Judge Mitchell granted a full child care order on application from the CFA in respect of a number of children. The children’s parents were not present or legally represented in court. The children were represented by their Guardian Ad Litem. Judge Mitchell commended Ms Wiseman “for not trying to defend the indefensible”. After hearing the case Judge Mitchell ruled that the Court was satisfied the children “have been neglected that their health, development, welfare has been and is likely to be avoidably impaired or neglected and the child requires care or protection….” He ordered that the Guardian Ad Litem “refer this case to the Ombudsman for Children to request her to carry out a preliminary investigation under Section 8 of the Ombudsman for Children Act 2002 and to HIQA to consider the non allocation of a social worker to the child in excess of three months, without sufficient reason being acceptable to the Court and the Court finds this practice was not in the best interests of the child and may have adversely affected the child”. The court was told that Clare CFA social workers have written to Gordon Jeyes, and the Minister for Children to express their concerns over resource concerns. Judge Mitchell adjourned the case for review to October.

THE announcement by Ryanair last week that it will retain five new routes from Shannon airport has already saved jobs in Clare, a meeting has heard.

The airline will continue to operate services between Shannon and Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Fuerteventura, Krakow during the winter.

At a meeting in Ennis on Thursday, the managing director of the Rowan Tree Café and Hostel in Ennis, Brian O’Neill, said last week’s announcement has already stabilised jobs.

He said, “Those announcements have already stabilised jobs in the tourism industry in Ennis and in Clare throughout the lower season of this year. A lot of businesses, like our own hostel, are seasonal businesses. We have a low season and a high season. But from that announcement we will re-plan for the winter and maybe stay open for longer than we previously would have, keeping more people in employment. More people living in and around Ennis and Clare will then go and spend money in businesses in Ennis and Clare. It creates a cycle. It will help for the future.”

Mr O’Neill addressed the meeting in his capacity as Chairman of Promote Ennis – a local partnership that aims to bring more tourists to the town.

He told businesses the recently launched Wild Atlantic Way represented both a “threat” and “advantage” to Ennis.

“We now have a very good motorway bypassing the town of Ennis on the east and now we have a new heavily marketed driving route bypassing the town on the west. The goal for Ennis obviously has to be to draw people in the town,” he explained.

Mr O’Neill said there are now 35 people employed as a result of Labasheeda man John O’Sullivan’s decision to extend his Dublin Bus and Quick Tours service from the capital to Ennis.

He told the meeting that local food producers are playing an increasingly important in Clare’s tourism industry.

“Tourists can go an experience it [food producers] themselves and the key to is to overnight in Ennis, they can go into restaurants and experience what culinary experts can do with the produce. They can see how it’s produced, how it’s made, support that employment,” he said.

MOTORISTS accused of speeding offences on Clare roads have been told their cases will not be dealt with until a High Court case on the Go Safe speed camera network is resolved. At Ennis District Court on Friday, Judge Patrick Durcan ad- journed 17 speed camera prosecutions to September 19.

A total of 18 people faced prosecutions for alleged speeding offences allegedly captured by cameras mounted in Go Safe vans.

Judge Durcan struck out a case against one person following an application from the State. The privately run Go Safe has operated speed camera vans in Ireland since winning the Garda contract in 2009.

The cameras operate on sections of road, which have a history of collisions occurring where speed was a contributory factor.

In recent months, Judge Durcan has been critical of Go Safe and has struck out a number of speeding charges brought against motorists in Clare. On Friday, Judge Durcan told all those who had answered summons issued by Insp John McDonald, that the law with regards to issuing of fixed charge penalty notices is the “cause of some controversy in the land”. He said a colleague has sent a case to the High Court seeking clarification of the law under-pinning the speed camera system.

He said he was adjourning all cases until the issue in the High Court has been dealt with.

He told those people facing prosecutions their cases were adjourned to September 19. He told them they are not required to be present in court on the day.

There was a brief exchange when the Judge told a Cork man facing a Go Safe prosecution he would get “brownie points” for being present in court on Friday.

To laughter in the court, the man replied, “Which points?”

Judge Durcan said, “Brownie points, a different category of points to the ones concerned with here.”

Five Go Safe Inspectors were present in court for the adjournments. As they left the courtroom Judge Durcan asked them to convey to Inspector McDonald “that it is a total waste of time and public money you guys turning up here until after September 19. Any prosecutions before then will be adjourned.”

“I don’t like to see State money wasted seeing five strapping men sit here all day,” he added.

THE acclaimed debut album from two Clare men has caught the ear of one of the biggest rap stars on the planet.

John Lillis and God Knows will perform the biggest gig of their lives tonight when they share the stage with hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg in Dublin.

Ennis DJ John (mynameisJohn) and Shannon MC God Knows are among the support acts for the veteran rapper’s shows in The Academy, tonight and tomorrow.

John and God Knows landed the prized support slot at one of the most eagerly anticipated rap shows of the year on the strength of their acclaimed debut album, Rusangano/ Family.

A copy of the album found its way to Snoop’s management team who were said to be very impressed by John and God Know’s thrilling blend of grime and hip-hop.

“We’re delighted with it. We’re buzzing. I remember listening to Snoop when I was 13. It’s hard to believe we’re going to be playing with him,” said John last week.

Rusangano/Family has attracted huge critical praise since it’s release in May.

Hot Press described the album as a “hip hop stunner”. Influential music writer, Nialler9 hailed Rusangano/ Family as “a game-changer in the way it drags Irish hip-hop into a fully-formed album/mixtape format with a confidence and skill that is unfamiliar in this country’s rap output”.

Music blog The Point of Everything said Rusangano/Family is the “best album of 2014 so far.”

“The reaction to it has been absolutely amazing. Its something that we definitely didn’t see coming” says God Knows, “When we started out, we just wanted to make music for ourselves.

“We’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The amount of support we have got from people in Clare and Limerick has been brilliant.”

The pair describes themselves as a “Zimbabwean Christian and Irish Pagan who sat down with a cup of tea to discuss making an album.”

“We’re two people who really enjoy making music. We’re gob smacked at how it’s been received so far,” said John.

John has been involved in DJ’ing and music production for the best part of a decade. In 2013 he released ‘The Struggle’ EP with Limerick producer Graeme S.

God Knows moved to Ireland with his family from Zimbabwe.

The former St Caimin’s Community School student is a founder member of the music collective Random Acts of Kindness (RAOK).

The pair will hold an album launch at Limerick’s Belltable theatre on July 4.

NORTH Clare was stunned last week following the tragic death of two men in a freak motorcycle accident on the N67 Lisdoonvarna to Ennistymon Road on Thursday night.

The deceased men have been named locally as Ferdinand “Ferdi” Waidel, a 55-year-old German national who had been living in Clare for more than a decade, and Ricardo ‘Ricky’ Godoy, Chilean television presenter and motorcycle enthusiast.

The men were travelling in opposite directions when the accident took place. Mr Waidel is thought to have been returning home from a shop trip in Ennistymon when the accident took place.

My Goday was one of a party of six people driving in the opposite direction on three pillion motorcycles. It is thought that both men were leaning into a corner travelling in opposite directions when collision took place.

Two units of the fire brigade from Ennistymon along with ambulances from Ennistymon and Ennis rushed to the scene. A rapid response advanced paramedic unit from Ennis also responded to the incident.

Mr Waidel was pronounced dead at the scene and as paramedics battled to resuscitate Mr Godoy, the Emergency Aeromedical Service (EAS) air ambulance was called in to airlift him to hospital.

However, he was also pronounced dead while being transported by ambulance to the helicopter. His pillion passenger, wife Pilar, was also injured in the collision and was airlifted to Galway University Hospital where she was treated for non-lifethreatening injuries.

Mr Godoy is a television personality in his native Chile and travels around world filming for his motorcycle show Mototemáticos. He is understood to have visited the Isle of Man last weekend for the famous TT races. Gardaí have appealed for witnesses and have asked anyone who was in the area to contact the Gardaí in Ennistymon on 065 7072180.

A CLARE woman and former novice nun has further lifted the lid on the hor rors faced by women in the Magdalene laundry industrial institutions.

Kildysart woman Patricia BurkeBrogan, who was one of the first people to highlight the plight of the Irish women forced to serve in the Magdalene laundries, will this week publish a memoir which detailing her time with the Sisters of Mercy.

Burke-Brogan was forced to oversee the work of more than 100 women who were forced to work in a laundry in Galway.

Her experiences with these women led to her leaving the Sisters of Mercy, and writing the short story ‘Sun Flowers’, which was the first artistic work details the life of women in the laundry.

In her memoir, which is entitled ‘With Grykes and Turloughs’, she describes first entering the laundry.

“She [the Mother Superior] opens another heavy double-locked door. A deafening noise hits us. We’re in a room with huge machines from which steam is hissing. Prison bar patterns the roof-windows. The greasy walls are sweating. There is a stench of soiled clothing. Bleach fumes sting my throat, I gasp for air,” she recalls.

“Gradually I see that the room is full of women: elderly women, middle-aged women, and young girls all seem to merge with the gray of the womb-like washing machines.”

When the 21-year-old Burke-Brogan challenged the Mother Superior about the imprisonment of the women, who were held behind two sets of locked doors, she was told that the imprisonment was to “protect them from their own passions” and that “no one wants” the women in the outside world.

The book also describes a strike at the laundry, which took place short- ly after Burke-Brogan’s arrival.

“At a signal from the two ringleaders, all of the women except from the white-capped consecrated penitents, sit down on the flagstone floor. Some hold baby cloths in their hands and rock back and forth as they sing lullabies,” she remembers.

“Suddenly, three of the consecrated penitents join the mothers on the floor. To and fro, to and fro. Mothers grieve their babies.”

‘With Grykes and Turloughs is published by Wordonthestreet Publishing and contains a forward written by President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins.

A JUDGE has granted the State further time to serve the books of evidence on two brothers accused of assaulting a hotel worker in Shannon last year.

Mark Hayes (25) and Sean Hayes (24), both with addresses at Aidan Park, Shannon, appeared before Ennis District Court on Wednesday, on charges arising from the alleged incident. They are both charged with assault causing harm to the man at the Oakwood Arms.

Mark Hayes is further alleged to have caused criminal damage to a bar table.

It is alleged that a male member of the hotel’s night staff was seriously assaulted at around 4am on September 29, 2013.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) directed trial on indictment in the Circuit Court for Mark Hayes.

The DPP directed summary disposal of the case of Sean Hayes in the district court, on a guilty plea only.

The alleged facts of the incident were outlined at Ennis District Court in March to allow Judge Patrick Durcan consider jurisdiction.

Insp Tom Kennedy said a dispute arose between a member of the night staff and the Hayes brothers at around 4am on the morning in question.

Insp Kennedy said it would be alleged Mark Hayes became involved in a verbal dispute with a member of the hotel’s night staff.

The court heard it is alleged that Mark Hayes then punched the alleged victim, knocking him onto the ground. The alleged victim was punched again while on the ground, the court heard.

Insp Kennedy said it is alleged that while the man and Mark Hayes were “grappling”, Sean Hayes stood behind the alleged injured party, punching him repeatedly into the back and kidneys.

Insp Kennedy said the incident lasted a few minutes and was halted when members of the public intervened. Judge Durcan refused jurisdiction of the case of Sean Hayes in the District Court, meaning it will proceed to the Circuit Court.

On Wednesday, Insp Kennedy said the State required a further two weeks to serve the books of the evidence on the accused.

“I’m assured the books will be here”, he added.

Both men were remanded on continuing bail to appear again at Ennis District Court on June 18.