Category: News

A 120-ACRE site near the world famous Bunratty Castle and Folk Park has emerged as a potential location for a major new tourist attraction.

Shannon Development is seeking expressions of interest for the development of a landbank adjacent to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, which attracts over 400,000 tourists every year.

According to tender documents, “Having successfully developed and operated the existing attraction at Bunratty, Shannon Development considers that significant opportunity exists to further develop the overall attraction by utilising the adjoining lands to develop complementary and sustainable visitor facilities and attractions which are in keeping with the authenticity of the existing visitor attraction and surrounding area.”

The regional economic development agency states that Bunratty Castle and Folk Park has developed over the years to become one of Ireland’s top visitor attractions.

Shannon Development believes that all the “key elements” are in place at the 120-acre site to develop a major new tourist facility.

The tender document states that “To tal visitor numbers for the attraction have reached in excess of 400,000 per annum. The company continues to operate the attraction to a very high standard consistent with international best practice.”

It continues, “This commitment is evident through the build / design standards adopted throughout the attraction and also through the strong visitor and customer focused management of the facility. Over many years, Shannon Development has put in place all key elements required to accurately present and efficiently operate the attraction.”

According to Shannon Development, “An area of development land which is partially zoned for tourism development comprising approximately 120 acres adjacent to the existing Bunratty attraction is available for development.”

Bunratty Castle and Folk Park is operated by Shannon Heritage, the tourism and heritage subsidiary of Shannon Development.

According to Shannon Development’s latest annual report, attractions and facilities run by Shannon Heritage attracted over 417,000 visitors to Ireland in 2010. The report states that an additional 13,000 visitors were attracted to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park last December.

GARDAÍ are appealing for information on two serious road accidents in the county on Friday night.

A walker was injured in an accident in Tulla shortly before midnight, while a number of people were injured in a two-car accident at Minister’s Cross, Bunratty, shortly after midnight.

The pedestrian is receiving treatment for serious injuries in hospital in Cork and gardaí are anxious for witnesses to come forward.

The two vehicle accident in Bunratty resulted in some of the occupants being cut from the cars and taken to hospital in Limerick.

Also over the weekend, gardaí are investigating a break-in in which the home of an elderly man in Sixmilebridge was targeted.

Four people went to the man’s home at Mount Ivers, Sixmilebridge, between 6.30pm and 7pm. While there, they stolen a sum of money. One of the four was a small woman of heavy build in her 40s; another was a tall thin man about 6’ 3” who wore a beanie hat. They were accompanied by two young people, aged approxi mately 10 and 16.

Meanwhile, a handbag containing cash was stolen during a break-in at Roslevan, Ennis, between 5am and 6am on Sunday.

Kilrush gardaí are investigating a trespass incident shortly after 10.30pm on Thursday night. A man was disturbed in the back yard of a house at Henry Street in the town by the occupant, after he heard noise outside. The man had his head covered and was wearing a blue top with army style buttons.

Gardaí are investigating the theft of 100 metres of wiring from two poles at Leitrim, on the road between Broadford and Limerick, between midnight and 9am on Friday.

In Cratloe, an incident in which diesel was siphoned from the tank of a lorry is being investigated. The incident occurred in the Gallows Hill area of Cratloe between 11am last Monday and 8.30am on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, gardaí have issued a fresh appeal for information on the theft of a motorbike in Clarecastle earlier this month. A blue and white Yamaha motorcycle was stolen from Skehanagh on Thursday, September 8. It was parked near the new Skehanagh roundabout between 6am and 2pm that day. Gardaí say the bike was unique and is easily identifiable. The registration is 99 CE 5375.

The silencer on the bike is painted blue to match the body colour, while the gold coloured bracket on the right side has been replaced with a silver one.

“It’s an unusual make, a sporty model. It is valuable to the owner,” said Clare’s Crime Prevention Officer, Sergeant Joe Downey.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Ennis Garda Station on 065 6848100.

A MAJOR fundraising effort that got underway in January has so far secured € 85,000 for the development of new classrooms at Knockanean National School.

Construction on a new two-storey development, which encompasses four new classrooms, is currently underway at the school on the outskirts of Ennis.

Work on the € 100,000 project is expected to be completed by December.

The school was built in 1949 with a further extension in 1997. Since then the number of pupils attending the school has more than doubled to 280. Four classes of children plus the school’s resource teachers are currently being catered for in prefabricated cabins.

In 2010 the school received a grant from the Department of Education and Science for new facilities. However the grant fell short of what was required to complete the work. Last September, the Board of Management appointed a fundraising committee to raise the shortfall of € 100,000 required to complete the extension.

Now as a result of the dedicated efforts of staff, the local community and the 175 families with children attending the school, € 85,000 has been raised to date.

Caroline Purcell of the Knockanean fundraising committee explained, “This puts the fundraising right on track to reach their target. The build- ing work is also on track as painting begins on the outside of the new building this week. There is an air of excitement around the school as pupils, staff and families look forward to the new classrooms being opened on schedule.”

The fundraising drive has so far included a buy a brick campaign and a charity CD. Caroline said the campaign would continue over the coming months. She added, “To help the school reach the target, the fundraising committee have organised a flag day and bag packing days over the next few weeks.”

School principal Pat McNamara paid tribute to the efforts of parents and parents of past pupils. He said the fundraising campaign had exceeded all expectations. He added, “We thought this might have been a two year thing but people have really rowed in behind it.”

N E W M A R K E T- O N – F E RG US woman Sinead Corbett strengthened her claims to be recognised as Ireland’s best female plougher as she took second place in the Under-28 Conventional Category at the National Ploughing Championships in Kildare last week. Sinead, who is a nurse by profession, made history in 2007 when she became the first female to win in a mixed-gender competition at the championships.

Having competed successfully for years in the female ploughing category, known as the ‘farmerettes’, Sinead made the jump over to competing against the male farmers in 2006 and won the U-21 category outright the following year.

Her success is the latest in a long line of successes for the family in the championships, following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather.

Last Tuesday’s competition saw- Sinead square up against the best young ploughers in Ireland in the final of the Under-28 Conventional Competition. Having received 80 points from her first plough, Sinead was sitting in fourth place, behind John O’Brien from Tipperary, Aiden Kelly from Longford and Robert John Barry from Cork going into the last plough of the final. The Newmarket woman showed great composure in the final minutes of the competition and was one of the few contestants to improve on her score in the second round of ploughing – registering 84 points, enough to lift her into second place overall.

Sinead is currently on a well deserved break abroad but, speaking after her previous victory, she said that she was not phased by competing against the lads. “I’m used to ploughing against the lads at this stage and I suppose they are used to me. When I started, I used to get a bit of slagging but that’s the way it goes. I guess they have changed their minds. As long as you can plough, that’s all that matters as far as I’m concerned,” she said.

Sinead’s grandfather, John, won the All-Ireland Junior Horse competition in Wexford in 1960, while her father Frank won the All-Ireland Junior Tractor competition in 1997 and 2003.

Sinead was the top-placing Clare plougher at this year’s competition but there were a number of other notable performances, including Barry Donnellan who competed in the Under-21 Conventional Class; Patrick Quinn in the 3 Furrow Conventional Class; John Joe Donnellan in the Junior Conventional Class; Eanna Cronin in the Under-40 Horse Class; Jim Cronin in the Senior Horse Class; and John White in the Vintage Two Furrow Mounted Class.

HOUSEHOLDS are being encouraged to take appropriate precautions this winter as it was revealed that demand for water in Clare increased by almost 80 per cent during the last two extreme weather events.

Speaking last week, David Timlin, Director of Environment and Water Services, said Clare County Coun cil’s resources were stretched to the limit due to the demand for services in the winters of 2009 and 2010. He told a meeting of the council’s Environmental and Water Services Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) that demand for water increased by 70 per cent or 80 per cent during the period. He said that for a number of reasons, including economic factors, the council could not legitimately be expected to provide for that level of spare capacity.

Mr Timlin said that the council had “bent over backwards” to accommodate private housing estates that had suffered interruptions to the water supply where the work was not the responsibility of the local authority. However he warned that there is a “limit” to what the council can be expected to do.

SPC Chairman, Cllr Joe Arkins (FG), said Clare County Council could not be expected to “undo the dirty work of developers”.

His comments came as Clare County Council issued an appeal to homeowners to make sure their property is prepared to deal with cold weather temperatures this winter.

Freezing temperatures caused interruptions to the water supply of homes around the county during December (2010) and January of this year.

Ennis Town Council’s helpline logged 500 calls a day during the period, while 360 leaks were repaired in the Ennis area.

A huge increase in demand for water use in Ennis resulted in production at the Ennis Water Treatment Plant reaching almost 20,000 cubic metres on December 27, 2010.

Normal demand in the Ennis area is 15,000 cubic metres. The council was also forced to turn off water in almost 70 unoccupied premises and businesses in Ennis.

During the supply shortage period, Clarecastle, including the Roche pharmaceutical plant, received water from Ennis and West Clare.

Clare County Council has launched a new campaign aimed at highlighting the importance of insulating and protecting properties this winter.

Leaflets containing advice on reducing the risk of frozen pipes will be made available from the council.

Cllr Arkins said property owners should be aware that responsibility for pipes leading from the water main to the meter box lies with the local authority while all pipework within the house boundary is the responsibility of the homeowner.

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.

A SECOND work stoppage will take place in the Emergency Department of the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick this week as an ongoing dispute between nurses and the Health Services Executive (HSE) looks set to continue.

The dispute, which centres around budget cuts in Ennis, Limerick and Tipperary hospitals, since the reconfiguring of emergency services in the region last year, saw nurses down tool for three hours last Wednesday.

This week marks an escalation in the action as an extra hour has been added onto the time for the work stoppage by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) with the stoppage due to take place from 8.30am until 12.30pm.

The INMO have restated that they stand ready to treat any emergency cases that presents from Clare during the work stoppage and will not be putting patient safety at risk through their actions. The nurses union will have a skeleton staff in place to manage any emergencies that may take place.

Since reconfiguration any Clare emergency instances in which require an ambulance, such as car accidents and heats attack, are redirected to Limerick. As well as this any general admissions to the emergency room between 8pm and 8am must be made in Limerick and not in Ennis.

The INMO have declined to con- firm or deny whether these actions will spread to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Ennis in the coming weeks.

The organisation have blamed the moratorium on the recruitment of registered nurses, the closure of 100 beds in the acute hospital services in the Clare and Limerick region as well as the failure of the reconfiguration process to transfer all day surgery to Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals for the work stoppage.

“It is simply not possible for this hospital to continue to provide regional services in surgery, trauma and emergency with further reduced budgets, closed beds and approximately 70 nursing posts unfilled,” said Clare INMO spokesperson Mary Fogarty.

The organisation also claims that some € 13 million in investment, which they say was promised to Ennis, Limerick and Tipperary as part of the reconfiguration process, has never materialised.

OPPOSITION to proposed changes in retail policy which could pave the way for the development of large out of town shopping centres will be outlined at a meeting in Ennis tonight.

Ennis Chamber of Commerce has called the meeting to discuss its submission on a proposed variation to the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

The submission, prepared by architect Michael Leahy on behalf of Ennis Chamber, sets out the case against changing the zoning laws to facilitate the development of a new a “district centre” at the junction of the Limerick Road and the Tobertascáin Road.

Mr Leahy states, “Our main concern in respect of the proposed modifications to variation number 2 are in respect of what we see as a significant change of retail policy embodied in the proposal to dramatically change the zoning provision for proposal site number PS7, located at the junction of the Limerick Road and the Tobarteascaun Road. We are also concerned at certain other proposed changes to wordings in the development plan which we believe will have a negative impact on the manner in which future retail proposals are to be assessed.”

The site is currently the subject of a planning application from Michael Lynch Ltd, who is seeking to develop a retail park with Tesco as the anchor tenant. It is estimated that the project could create 500 jobs.

Mr Leahy states that Ennis Chamber “are not making specific comments in regard to that application other than for purposes of illustration or where it appears to us that elements of the proposed modification are being introduced to facilitate that application.

The main concerns of Ennis Chamber, as listed in the submission, are as follows:

(1) The proposal to incorporate a “district centre” into the zoning for proposal site PS7; (2) The proposal to permit direct access and egress on to the Limerick road from proposal site PS7; (3) The proposal to delete the requirement, as contained in na- tional guidelines for the carrying out of a sequential test in the assessment of planning applications for retail uses.

Mr Leahy adds, “We are particularly concerned that the above proposals will have a severely detrimental impact on the retail vitality of the central shopping area of Ennis and that as such it contradicts many aspects of the existing development plan as well as the National Spatial Strategy, the Retail Planning Guidelines and accepted planning principles.”

THE management of the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience have issue a call to patriotic action in their bid to make the iconic tourism location one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

A day of action, designed to get Irish people to vote of the North Clare tourist attraction, is being organised for next Friday week, October 7, and management are asking people to support the cliffs, in “the national interest”.

A place as one of the final Seven Natural Wonders of the World is estimated to be worth tens of millions to the tourism industry in Clare – and it is estimated that success in the competition could bring thousands of extra tourists to Ireland each year.

“The vote isn’t looking too bad at the moment. It is not possible to see what position we are in at the moment but voting trends are recorded by the competition organisers and we have been going up in the voting trends in recent weeks,” said Geraldine Enright of the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience.

“We have been doing very well at attracting international votes but we need to keep it up. We are going to have a national vote day and we will be encouraging everyone to vote for the cliffs on that day, in the national interest.”

A series of events, talk and media stunts have been organised for October 7, which is hoped will kick off a major run of votes before the completion of the competition on November 11.

“We are contacting all primary

and secondary schools

in the country, we are

doing some promot

ing with Fáilte Ire

land and there will be

a number of national

radio broadcasts on

October 7 to promote

the voting,” continued

Geraldine.

“There will also be a

abseil down the side of

the National Conven

tion Centre in Dublin

to promote the voting. Someone will come down the side of the building with a big banner saying ‘Vote for the Cliffs’.

“The Cliffs are an iconic site in Ireland and we are pretty confident – we have made it to the top 28 so we are really hopeful that we can make it into the top 7. The spin-offs of this are massive. Fáilte Ireland have suggested that this could bring a 35 per cent increase to visitors not just to the Cliffs but to Ireland as well.”

On October 7 anyone who shows that they have voted for the Cliffs via text message will be admitted for free to the site.

A SURVEY carried out by Ennis Chamber of Commerce indicates that there are currently 44 vacant units in the town centre.

The survey, which excludes Parson’s Quay, hotels, public houses and community buildings, appears to show an approximate vacancy rate of 15.3 per cent in the county capital. The figures are taken from a survey carried out on September 4 and are included as part of Ennis Chamber’s submission to a proposed variation to the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

The submission, prepared by architect Michael Leahy, states;

“This alarming level of vacancy represents an approximate vacant area in the ground floor premises of the town centre of some 3,600 sq meters.”

Mr Leahy states that it is generally accepted that a vacancy rate of 15 per cent “is not sustainable into the medium to long term” and could lead to the development of “ghost shopping estates”.

He explains, “As we all know the period 2002 to 2008 was a period of unprecedented building activity across all sectors and we are now facing the consequences of excessive construction in the housing market in the form of ghost estates with the real possibility that many construction projects will have to be demolished. Can we not draw a similar conclusion in regard to the overprovision of retail space within County Clare and a likely development of “ghost” shopping areas particularly at town centre locations?”

The Chamber says they have prepared the submission to highlight modifications to the plan, which the business community feels “will have a significant negative impact on the vitality of Ennis town centre”.

The submission states that the changing of zoning provisions in the existing plan, which could facilitate the development of a proposed new district centre at the junction of Tobertascáin Road and Limerick Road, “will tend to attract traffic from the existing town centre”.

The submission also highlights concerns over access to and from the proposal site, which is currently the subject of planning application. The Chamber argue that “Any develop- ment of “ about 10,000 sq m” at an out of centre location would clearly have a devastating effect on the retail vitality of the centre of Ennis”.

In conclusion, Mr Leahy states, “It is our opinion that the modifications implemented have the potential to have a significantly detrimental effect on town centre retail.

“This will in turn lead to great difficulties in ensuring the survival of the building fabric in the historic town centre. Decreased viability of the town centre will in turn lead to negative effects on the sense of community within the town of Ennis.”