Category: News

THIRTY people have signed up to take part in the Clare Conquest amateur boxing competition. Organised by Ennis Chamber and Clare Crusaders, the event sees competitors with little or no previous boxing experience square off inside the ring. The aim of the game is to raise money for the Clare Crusaders, one of the country’s best-known providers of services to children with special needs.

After being through their paces over a tough 10-week training schedule, 36 boxers took part in last No- vember’s White Collar Boxing night in the West County Hotel. A crowd of over 1,000 people turned up to support the fighters who came from a wide variety of sporting and professional backgrounds.

The event was managed by former Olympian and professional boxer Cathal O’Grady of White Collar Boxing. Thirty first-time pugilists will step into the ring at this year’s fight night, which will take place at the Queens Hotel on November 25.

But before the boxing begins, all participants will be put through a tough training regime to make sure they are in peak physical condition,

Coached by Darren Ward of Fitness Solutions and Ennis Boxing Club coach Ollie Markham, a former national champion, this year’s group are facing eight weeks of stretches, push-ups, skipping, sparring, weights and punch bags in order to be fighting fit on the night.

Training got underway on Monday night at St Joseph’s Doora Barefield’s redeveloped facilities at Gurteen. The training sessions will continue at Ennis Boxing Club in Chapel Lane, the spiritual home of Clare boxing, which this year celebrates 50 years in existence.

According to a spokesperson, the event “enables the hosts, Clare Crusaders and Ennis Chamber, to continue their services to disabled children and to promoting and enhancing the local economy respectively. Sponsors have an opportunity to be associated with the most sought after event of the year and the people of Clare enjoy a fantastic eight weeks of excitement and interest, culminating in the fever-pitched exhilaration and entertainment of Fight Night. There are no losers in this boxing event, it’s winners all the way.”

A FREE event aimed at helping parents to recognise the early signs of suicide in their teenage children will take place in Ennistymon later this evening, October 4.

The event, which is being organised by the North West Clare Family Resource Centre will see the HSE’s Suicide Resource Officer, Bernie Carroll, talk to parents about what to look out for in their children and what they can do.

“It really is an excellent talk. Infor- mation about this is power and as a parent, if you have information, then you know where you can go and what you can do if you notice something,” said Barbara Ó Conchúir, Community Development Worker with the North West Clare Family Resource Centre.

“I think a lot of parents can feel powerless when they are faced with an issue like suicide. I think the talk can help show parents what they need to do but also it can show them the supports that are there to help if they are not able to do it themselves. I think that the talk takes the fear out of the subject of suicide and that is great for parent and gives them the feeling that they can do something about it.”

The suicide prevention event is an early taster of a number of events planned to take place in North Clare to mark World Mental Health Week – which runs from October 10 to 14.

A series of four events are being organised by the Ennistymon Interagency Network and the North Clare Mental Association under the theme of ‘Building Resilience Together’.

“The event will kick of next Monday with laughter yoga at the new An Grianán Resource Centre. This centre is a great resource for us know and it gives us a place to run events like this,” continued Barbara.

“On October 13 they have a session called Happy Parents, which is an introduction to parenting run by Clarecare, while later that evening there is a Happy Teens event organised by Clare Youth Services.

“The following day there will be a musical evening with the Scoil Mhuire School Choir, Ennis Gos- pel Choir and Toonta Ceoil, which will take place at the Lahinch Seaworld. The whole theme of the week is building resilience so it is about getting people out to do things that make them feel well as well.”

The free suicide talk will take place at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon from 7.30pm later today, October 4.

For more information or to book any of these events call the North West Clare Family Resource Centre on 065 7071144 or email info@northwestclarefrc.ie.

A CAMPAIGN to save a pioneering newspaper set up by Clareman Breandán Mac Lua in London has been successfully concluded with news that The Ir ish Post will be back on the newsstands next week.

The weekly newspaper, which had a circulation of 70,000 at the peak of its popularity, was founded by Mac Lua in 1970 and had been closed by Crosbie Holdings in August but has been bought by Irish businessman Elgin Loane.

Five bids were received by Belfastbased liquidators FPM for the title, with Mr Loane, who owns the classified ads magazine Loot emerged as the winner for an undisclosed sum.

Mac Lua was born in Lisdoonvarna and raised in Miltown Malbay and was a long-serving editor of the newspaper that was inspired by his devotion to the preservation of Irish culture in London.

He began his career in Dublin as a full-time GAA official and freelance journalist. In the early ‘60s, he was one of the first two full-time executive officers appointed by the GAA at Croke Park and he was also a member of the association’s central council policy committee.

In 1967, he wrote the definitive book on the GAA’s controversial ban on foreign games, The Stea dfa st Rule , and he reported on Gaelic games and boxing for the Irish Press Group.

Following publication of The Stea dfa st Rule , he was chosen as the sole (and secret) inheritor and custodian of the only extant volume of GAA founder Michael Cusack’s 1880s weekly newspaper, The Celtic Times , the first periodical devoted to Gaelic games, which he donated as a complete volume to the Clare County Library in Ennis in the mid80s.

The ethos of Cusack’s newspaper “for the preservation and cultivation of the language, literature, music and pastimes of the Gaelic race” was the template Mac Lua followed when he established the Irish Post in 1970 with his business partner, County Waterford-born, Londonbased accountant Tony Beatty. Mac Lua served as editor and joint publisher until the pair sold the paper to the Smurfit Group in the late ‘80s.

Circulation grew to peak at about 70,000 copies a week.

“Everyone involved in the ‘Save the Irish Post’ campaign is delighted with the news,” spokesperson Fiona Audley said.

“The voice of the Irish in Britain is back, the voice that was started by Clareman Breandan Mac Lua, who was a huge figure in the Irish community in Britain,” she added.

Breandan Mac Lua passed away in January 2009.

CLARE County Council are poised to make the final grant allocation to Rural Resettlement Ireland for four once-off houses in west Clare that were inspired by a local community’s desire to save its local school from closure.

The four houses are being built by the Kilbaha-based national organisation in Tullycrine and Knockaderry on the back of funding from the Department of the Environment to the tune of € 400,000 and now a supplementary grant of over € 50,000 from Clare County Council.

“It’s a grant of € 56,670,” Clare County Council staff officer Deirdre O’Keeffe told The Clare People. “Kilrush area councillors have given approval but it now has to go before the monthly meeting of Clare County Council this October.

“The way it works is that there will be final budget costs submitted by the quantity surveyor for the houses. Rural Resettlement Ireland have reached the fund they are looking for and we have to go back to the Department of Environment to sanction that approval. We did that a while back and now we have to go before the council to get the councillors approval for that,” Ms O’Keeffe added.

The four houses are six years in planning, being part of an RRI plan to build 11 houses in depopulated parts of west Clare that were lodged with Clare County Council.

At the time RRI chief Jim Connolly revealed that plans for the four houses in Tullycrine and Knockaderry were lodged in direct response to a call from the chairman of Tullycrine national school board of management.

“We are working alongside schools by bringing in families to ensure that the schools’ future is secure,” Mr Connolly said.

Mary Lynch, one of two teachers at Tullycrine national school, said that the four new families moving into the area would mean the difference between Tullycrine being a one or a two-teacher school. “We currently have 12 pupils at the school and that is just enough to justify two teachers. But if four new families move into the area, that will help secure the future of the school.”

The house-building project was stalled for a number of years, before Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Michael Finneran in response to a parliamentary from Clare Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, revealed in 2010 that “the project being advanced by Rural Resettlement Ireland at Tullycrine and Knockadereen” was included in his department’s € 157m budget for voluntary and social housing.

“Clare County Council will advise the housing body with regard to the procedures for drawing down the funding in accordance with the terms and conditions of the relevant schemes,” he added.

THE search for the Banner County’s best new musical talent gets underway in Ennis next weekend with the opening round of the Mixtape Music Battle Extravaganza.

This year, the annual music competition, run by Clare Youth Service (CYS), sees greater emphasis on young musicians recording their own music and building their profiles as performing artists. Organised by members of the CYS Music Project, the competition will link in with the ongoing Mixtape series of live music events being run and promoted in Glór in Ennis.

The Music Project committee is comprised of young people supported by a number of staff and volunteers. The committee oversees the purchase of equipment, organisation of all performances and administration of training events.

Giving young bands, singers, DJs and performers of all stripes an opportunity to showcase their talents is one of the project’s central aims.

This year, the competition is again aided and supported by the Mid West Regional Drug Task Force and will take a different format to other traditional young band competitions. The Mixtape Music Battle Extravaganza will be staged over three separate events, each. The aim of the Mixtape competition is to attract all forms of musical creativity, from bands, DJs, producers, solo artists, beat-boxers, acoustic acts, rappers and traditional Irish music musicians.

The opening round commences on Saturday, October 15, in the main hall of the CYS building in Carmody Street in Ennis. Only four acts will progress from the first round to the next stage of the competition.

Contestants must register in advance before October 12. Application forms are available from the Bureau of Clare Youth Service in Ennis, as downloadable documents on our CYS Music Project Facebook page and also by email. Each act will receive 15 to 20 minutes of performance time on the day, and will be required to perform at least three songs, one of which must be original material. DJs and producers must include one of their own original productions in their sets also. The competition is open to the general public and performers are invited to bring along some audience support on the day. Audience admission is € 3. As with all Clare Youth Service events, this is a strictly drug and alcohol free event.

Four acts from the elimination round will be invited to progress to the second round of the competition, which will focus largely on composition and recording. Each act will be asked to compose an original song and will have one full day in the CYS studio, along with engineers, to write and record the song. The whole process will be captured on camera and each act will be asked to use the footage and recordings to develop their band identity online. The two acts that score the highest in this section will progress to the third stage of the competition and be invited to go head to head in the Mixtape Final to be held in Glor in early December.

RESIDENTS of Francis Street awoke with a bang on Monday morning when a delivery truck bashed into a pillar at the historic Franciscan Friary.

The incident occurred at around 7.30am at the entrance to the Friary. No one was injured when the delivery truck accidentally collided with the pillar, sending loose piles of broken stonework.

Details of the accident were provided to Gardaí. A Garda spokesman said there was “nothing untoward” about the incident, which he said resulted from a “truck clipping a pillar”.

The spokesman said all details have been provided to the Guardian of the Friary.

According to a history of building, “The precise date of foundation of the Franciscan Friary in Ennis is unknown but it is likely to have been in existence by 1250.

“The nearby residence of the O’Brien kings of Thomond at Clonroad probably attracted the friars to the site and the O’Brien’s were its chief patrons throughout the medieval period.

“The first substantial friary buildings were constructed on an island in the late thirteenth century under the patronage of Toirdhealbhach O’Brien who died in 1306 and may have been buried there.”

A new chapel was opened in Bow Lane in 1830 and the present friary at Willow Bank House was obtained in 1856. The friary church was officially opened on 11 June 1892. The present friary is the Novitiate house for the Irish and British Provinces of the Franciscans.

SHANNON businesses with queries on the tax system are being encouraged to attend a seminar at the Oakwood Arms Hotel next week. The event is of particular relevance to family-owned businesses.

An overview of the various tax reliefs available will be provided at the event, which is organised by Shannon Chamber of Commerce.

Tips on how to qualify and how to make the most of tax reliefs will also be provided at the breakfast event on Thursday, October 13, from 7.45am to 9.30am.

“Dwindling tax-free thresholds have meant that with each passing year, the tax cost of succession has increased. The four-year National Recovery Plan points to reliefs and exemptions from capital gains ttax (CGT), capital acquisitions tax (gift and inheritance) and stamp duty being either abolished or greatly restricted,” said Shannon Chamber’s Chief Executive Officer, Helen Downes.

“Family-run businesses need to plan their succession strategies, not let them happen haphazardly. Practical issues such as making provision for retiring owners need to be addressed, as does the importance of taking legal advice when formalising arrangements. This seminar is the Chamber’s way of bringing this critically important issue to the fore,” added Ms Downes.

“Handing over assets or businesses to the next generation is a major decision and recent and proposed changes to the tax system have made it an even more urgent consideration,” said Eamonn Murphy, Tax Director with Grant Thornton, Limerick, who will speak at the seminar.

Speakers will share their experiences on structuring succession plans to get the best results for the individuals involved, balancing the intentions of the parties and the tax implications which arise.

To reserve a place at this seminar, contact Jackie Finucane at Shannon Chamber, alternatively participants can email admin@shannonchamber. ie or phone 061 708341.

THE COUNTY’S dog warden has been forced to contend with abuse from several dog owners in Shannon in recent weeks.

Frankie Coote told The Clare People that Shannon is a blackspot for roaming dogs and said that many dog owners are not facing up to the laws that exist.

He said that the issue of roaming dogs is more prevalent in Shannon than in any other part of the county. Kilrush and Shannon were the blackspots in the past, but Kilrush is now less of a headache than it was.

“We have never worked harder than what we are doing in Shannon at the moment,” said Frankie Coote.

He has been forced to contact the gardaí, after dog owners verbally abused him on numerous occasions in recent weeks.

“Shannon is the worst at the moment. I have had to have the guards out with me in the last few months. I’ve issued fines and warnings and taken away several dogs from there,” he said.

“More and more people are getting abusive,” he added.

“If I go to a call in Ennis, it’s rare I have to contact the guards,” he said.

He made the comments as Shannon Town Council has been asked to contact Mr Coote amid concerns over the huge number of stray dogs in the town.

Fine Gael councillor Vincent Cole- man has placed a motion on the issue, which is due to be discussed at a monthly meeting of the council this (Tuesday) evening. Mr Coleman has said the issue is “beginning to cause problems once again”.

Mr Coote said he has received sev eral complaints about dogs running around without leads in sports areas including Lees Road and the fairgreen in Ennis.

“People don’t realise they have to keep their dogs on leads,” he added.

He is pleased with the reduction in the number of dogs roaming around in Kilrush. “Kilrush has improved. There has been a marked improvement,” he said.

In general, there are multiple com plaints about wild dogs on a daily basis. “I could be dealing with 10 complaints some days over dogs being loose, dangerous behaviour and barking,” he said.

THE spirit of enterprise will be alive and kicking in Clare next week as the county plays host to Enterprise Mid West, an event that has been dubbed a showcase for aspiring entrepreneurs in the region.

The event is being hosted by Clare County Enterprise Board in colaboration with four other enterprise boards from around the region.

The event will be targeting Clare’s small business community and also those who may be thinking of setting up their own small business within the county. The programme was launched this week. It includes a wide range of intresting events including a new visitor-friendly map for tourism providers, an interesting and inspirational talk from mountaineer and entrepreneur Pat Falvey, a building workshop from Therese Ryan and many more.

The CEO of Clare County Enterprise Board, Eamonn Kelly, said that the small business community in Clare continues to rely heavily on enterprise supports, delivered at a local level.

On Monday, October 10, the event will start with Therese Ryan and her building workshop at Bunratty Castle Hotel at 9.30am.

Best known from her appearances on RTÉ’s Hea lth of the Na tion and How Long Will You Live , her workshop will focus on the aspects of managing stress in the workplace.

Stephen Kinsella will be delivering a talk around the Irish economy and local development on Tuesday, October 11, at 12 noon at the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis. Stephen himself will be discussing the economic landscape for Clare businesses.

Mountaineer, adventurer and entrpreneur Pat Falvey will be helping small businesses to ‘Reach for the Stars’ during his motivational talk on Wednesday evening at the Woodstock Hotel, Ennis.

Miriam Ahern and Anne Corcoran from Alighn Management Solutions will be the ones to run a interactive networking session just before Pat’s talk which starts at 6pm.

A full day-long mentoring clinic will take place on Thursday, October 13, with three experienced business mentors – Theresa Mulvihill from Smart Marketing, Michael Brynes and Associates and Sharon Cahir, from Cahir & Co solicitors.

Free mentoring appointments will be available from 10am to 5pm. Each session will last 50 minutes with the three mentors at the meeting rooms at the Vandeleur Walled Garden in Kilrush.

Closing the programme of events will be the launch of a dedicated tourism map of North Clare entitled ‘Rugged North Clare – Ireland As It Once Was’.

All of the events are to be presented at free of charge or highly subsided by the Clare County Enterprise Board.

THIRTY people officially defected from the Catholic Church in the Killaloe Diocese in the 12-months before Canon Law was changed to prevent the process from taking place. The Cla r e People understands that 30 people wrote to the diocese offices in Ennis, asking to be removed from the Catholic Church between May of 2009 and May of 2010.0

This process was brought to a close by the Church through a change in Canon Law at the end of 2010 but the “Count Me Out” organisation say that they are on the verge of finding a new way of allowing Irish people to leave the Church – and could be up and running again in a matter of weeks.

“We had a lot of people contacting us about leaving the Church before the change in Canon Law. It was around the time of the Ryan Report so there was a lot of angry people out there. We had thousands of people contacting us in the first couple of days but of course all of them did not go through the formality of actually leaving the Church. Most people are happy enough just to stop going to mass but some people out there are keen to formally disassociate them from the Church,” said Paul Dunbar of Count Me Out.

“After the change in Canon Law the Church in Ireland said that they would no longer accept formal letters of defection, instead they would only keep a register of people who wanted to leave the Church. Since then we have been trying to get around this and we have been working with a Canon Law expert to find a way around this. But at the moment you effectively can’t leave the Church,” he said.

Count Me Out have been working with Canon lawyer Fr Tom Doyle who has just completed a report on the options now available under the new Canon Law.

“We are hoping to have something up and running again in a matter of weeks. It will be a trial and er- ror process and there is no guarantee that that what we do first will work but we are hopeful,” continued Paul.

“We are hoping to do it through Canon Law but if we can’t do that we might look at a civil way of trying to find a way of allowing people to leave the Church.” The Cla r e People contacted the Killaloe Diocese in relation to this story but no official comment was forthcoming at the time of going to press.