Category: News

A SINGLE father ran along the bonnet of his car before jumping feet first at another man during an incident outside Supervalu on Main Street, Tulla last year.

Terry Cassells (42) with an address at Magherbawn, Feakle pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and dangerous driving in March. Details of the incident involving Mr Cassells and another man were heard at Ennis Circuit Court yesterday.

The court heard that on February 20 (2010), a man was exiting the Supervalu store when he was struck on the leg by a car driven by the accused. The court heard that the accused then ran across the bonnet of the car and jumped at the complainant, knocking him against the window of the store. A garda told the court that the window broke during the incident causing € 1050 worth of damage. The court heard that a fight developed between the men. CCTV footage shown in court also showed that another man was present during the incident. The Garda said that Mr Cassells and the complainant knew each other prior to the incident. The court heard that the accused man had expressed regret for his actions and had written a letter of apology to the other man. In a victim impact statement the man said he had felt terrified during the assault. He said he had been out of work for 13 months. Judge Carroll Moran was shown a medical report stating that the victim had sustained a fracture to the base of his skull. Counsel for the accused, Pat Whyms BL, disputed the cause of the victim’s injuries. He said there was no evidence to suggest that the fracture had been the result of the incident outside the store.

Mr Whyms said his client’s judgment had been clouded by the break up of his relationship and an allegation he had heard about the com- plainant. Judge Moran said that the victim had suffered a serious injury. He said he was satisfied the fracture had been caused during the incident, either when the man fell against the window or further up the street when he was knocked to the ground.

He ordered that the accused bring € 1050 to court on January 9 (2012). He disqualified Mr Cassells from driving for 12 months. He adjourned making a decision on the assault charge until January 9.

MOUNTSHANNON can become Clare’s new international aviation hub drawing thousands of people to the mid-west region and eating into Dublin’s dominant position in the lucrative tourism market.

That’s the claim sounded out this week by Harbour Flights Ireland Ltd after being granted an operational license for a commercial seaplane base on the shores of Lough Derg at Mountshannon.

This is the first approved Com- mercial Sea Plane base in Europe and launches not only a new era in aviation history but a welcome development to the tourist industry,” Harbour Flights’ chief executive Emlyn Heapes told The Clare People .

“Failte Ireland and Shannon Development should be supporting this innovated enterprise which has now taken four years to archive this historical landmark in aviation and in tourism development.

“It will enable Lough Derg to become a major and vibrant tourism market leader as its prime location is perfect for sea plane owners to visit from all across Europe and a fantastic scenic introduction to beautiful Mountshannon and Lough Derg.

“Dublin receives half of our annual tourists with the west of Ireland predominately being a day destination. Our intention is to change this perception and make Dublin the day visit while opening up all of the tourist destinations in the west and have them easily accessible by the sea plane.

“Instead of attraction visits being a full day, with the majority of the visitor’s time being spent on a bus, we will shorten this to being under an hour.

“We are looking at opening the west and not only has our concept attracted the support of Failte Ireland, but we have also engrossed Tourism Ireland in the concept who have stated that it is an innovated tourism idea that they will use to promote tourism aboard,” he added.

Up to 45 new jobs are expected to the created by the Mountshannon based company that’s now set to embark on securing licenses for flights between Dublin Bay, Galway, Limerick, Foynes and Cobh.

The National Flight Centre, currently the largest flight training school in Europe, will also be using the Mountshannon base to establish the only European Aviation Safety Association (EASA) approved ‘Floats’ training base in Europe.

“This exciting development will greatly influence tourism revenue and help create a thriving training base that will attract budding pilots from all over Europe,” revealed Mr Heapes.

WHILE Malbay Manufacturing played a central role in life in Miltown Malbay and the wider west Clare community for more than half a century, there are young people in the town for whom the famous factory holds almost no relevance.

Indeed, as the town marked the quarter-century anniversary of its closure last week, one of the most common phrases to be heard around town was “I can’t believe it’s been that long”.

With a whole generation of teenagers and young adults born too late to remember the landmark facility, students at Youthreach Miltown Malbay, with the help of textiles texture Nicola Barner, have created a docu- mentary featuring interviews with employees from the facility and a host of old photographs.

“Most of us hadn’t realised that the factory had even existed so, when we came upon the idea, it seemed to us like a really good thing to do the documentary on. It took a lot of work but after a while we were able to find out more about the factory, the people who worked in it and the type of work that they did there,” said Rebecca Walker from Kilkee.

“We did a lot of work on the internet to find out about the factory and then we interviewed a lot of local people who would have worked in the factory going back down the years.”

Students from Youthreach took part in every stage of producing the documentary, from research and camera work, to interviewing and digital editing.

“It was very interesting to be part of making the documentary. We found out a lot about making documentaries and about using cameras and interviewing people,” said Grace Burke from Ennistymon.

“My job was to do some of the interviews, which was very interesting. Some of the other people who took part learned about using the cameras and more technical things like that. We get a FETAC Level Three certificate from doing the course in digital film-making and it is something that we would be interested in doing more of in the future.”

The work included a section of development education which tracked the changing global trends in textile manufactoring over a number of decades. This, according to Youthreach co-ordinator Josephine Dempsey, was a key part of the course for students.

“As part of the documentary, the students also did some work on development education and a lot of work on clothing and where a lot of the cloths that are coming into Ireland from Asia and other places are coming from. They also interview a lot of people around Miltown to check what they knew about where their own clothes were coming from, asking were the cloths produced in a sweat shop or in a more equitable environment” she said.

“That is the main reason why the factory closed. They just couldn’t compete any longer with imports coming in from the Third World. The factory here was very successful for a long time and produced a really good quality product. They used to supply a lot to the Italian market, to Macy’s in America as well as to Dunnes Stores, Marks and Spencers and Penneys.

“The impact that it had on the town was huge. There were all the people who worked there but it also had a big impact on the local shops and pubs. It also helped generate a lot of cottage industries around the area because women who had children and could no longer come into the factory were encouraged to work from home. It was the biggest employer in west Clare and, at one stage, there were three buses being shuttled in every day.”

THE decision by the Irish Aviation Authority to grant a license to Harbour Flights Ireland Ltd to operate a seaplane service from Lough Derg brings to an end a campaign that was first started 35 years ago.

In 1976, aviation history was made in Clare when a flyingboat flew into Killaloe and landed on Lough Derg for the first time, which revived the mid west region’s association with the flying boat era from the 1930s to late ‘40s.

The Southern Cross was piloted by Captain Charles Blair – who had piloted the last schedulted sea plane flight from Foynes in 1945. Thirty one years later, Blair was accompanied on his historic flight by his wife Maureen O’Hara and Captain Paddy White of the Department of Transport and Power.

The Killaloe landing was part of a feasability study by the Department of Transport and Power into using Killaloe as a base for flyingboat operations, following a decision by Aer Arann Teoranta to apply for a license to run a service.

As part of the Aer Arann Teoranta application, the plan was to provide one-hour flights along the coast from Lough Derg at a £15 a head. However, the plan came to nothing.

Thirty five years on, Harbour Flights Ireland Ltd chief executive Emelyn Heapes has estimated that the cost of flights for his new operation would be between € 50 and € 160.

“This is huge news for us,” said Margaret O’Shaughnessy of the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, “given our history with sea planes and the museum. I am just back from a promotion visit to the US and we got a fantastic response. The fact that we will now be able to offer flights on sea planes will just be mega for Foynes and tourism in the wider region”.

SHANNON is ideally located to become a global air freight hub – the first stage of which was signaled with the signing of a Heads of Agreement between Dublin Airport Authority and the Lynxs Cargo Group, which proposes building a new cargo facility at the airport.

That’s the message from Transport Minister, Leo Varadkar this week as Clare’s international airport gears up to cash in on the emerging air cargo market that could yield hundreds of jobs in the short and longterm.

“I see great scope for the development of the air cargo business in Shannon,” Minister Varadkar said. “I hope it will lead to a dynamic business partnership to develop and expand the air cargo business through Shannon. This would benefit the airport, the entire mid-west region and the national economy’

“The airport has a significant industrial hinterland, with a large volume of high-value products transported by air. But a very significant proportion of air cargo, around 80 per cent, is currently taken out of Ireland by road and flown onwards from airports outside the country. This is something I would particularly like to see addressed by Shannon airport.

“The signing of this Heads of Agreement confirms the continued commitment of both parties to further develop the valuable air cargo market. Shannon’s lengthy runway means it can take very heavy cargobearing aircraft, unlike many other airports, giving it a unique capacity to exploit air cargo,” he added.

This final agreement between the DAA and Lynxs brings to an end a process that started in 2009 when the a memorandum of understanding was first signed on developing a € 15m cargo facility in Shannon.

“The creation of a logistics centre at Shannon and the development of a marine transportation hub on the estuary could potentially lead to the creation of further employment for 5,000 people in logistics and related high-end manufacturing in the wider region over the next 10 to 15 years,” said SAA chairman Brian O’Connell.

“Lynxs will give Shannon Airport an excellent opportunity to exploit its central location between the major economies of the US, Europe and Asia and to develop as a significant cargo destination,” Mr O’Connell added.

CLARE County Council is to go ahead with a plan to demolish and rebuild the historic listed buildings at Blakes Corner in Ennistymon, with a Part 8 planning request likely to be completed before the end of this year.

This follows the completion of a report which recommends the demolition and reconstruction of the building to make space for a new road design at the dangerous junction.

It is unclear whether the report will be circulated to councillors before the Part 8 planing permission is formally lodged, despite repeated calls from Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) to take the “cloak and dagger” out of the development of Blakes Corner.

“I am concerned that there is a perception out there that we are dragging out feet on this,” said Cllr Arkins (FG). “We need to take the cloak and dagger out of this – for once and for all. If this report is done, and the people who have compiled this report are experts, then it should be able to stand up to scrutiny. The report has been done for almost a year now and I have asked for this to be circulated to elected members a number of times going back to last February or March.”

Cllr Arkins also asked that his latest request for the report to be circulated to all elected members be formally marked on the meeting of yesterday’s North Clare Area meeting. Despite these protests, it is unclear whether the report will be made public before it is included in the official Part 8 planning documentation.

“To my mind, to let the report out now properly contextualise the whole development process. I would have a concern that this report could become the subject of unbalanced debate because it is not accompanied by other documentation,” said senior engineer at Clare County Council, Tom Tiernan.

Cllr Arkins urged the local authority to reconsider this approach saying that if there were any flaws in the report it would be best to identify them sooner rather than later.

It was also revealed at yesterday meeting that the Part 8 planning permission is likely to be before the a full meeting of Clare County Council before the end of this year.

“I ask that the preparation of the Part 8 be an absolute priority. The only person who seem to be left out of this process is the general public and there are 400 students, elderly people walking to mass and people just trying to do business in Ennistymon,” said Cllr Richard Nagle (FF).

“We need a definite date for this Part 8 and when the development will take place. We have been waiting for a long time for this and we can’t be waiting much longer.”

THE development of a cargo-hub operation in Shannon with the potential to provide employment for up to 5,000 people is dependent on the opening up a cargo pre-clearance facility at Clare’s international airport.

Local Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, has admitted as much this week followed exploratory lobbying for a official round of bilateral negotiations between the Irish and US governments to extending the existing passenger pre-clearance facilities at Shannon to freight traffic.

“A huge selling point for us in promoting and encouraging tenants to set up their Cargo operations will be the availability of US Cargo pre clearance at the Airport,” he told The Clare People from Washington, where he opened negotiations in his capacity as Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs & Trade.

“I met with a number of key Congressmen to discuss this possibility. They included the Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Congressman Peter King, Congressman Chris Smith, Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee as well as Congressman Richie Neal, former Chair of Friends of Ireland and Congressman Dan Burton, Chair of the Europe Subcommittee of the House Foreign Relations Committee.

“They were all very supportive of the proposal to extend the Pre Clearance facility at Shannon to include freight and certainly the signing of the Heads of an Agreement has strengthened our case in pursuing this,” he added.

In May, The Clare People revealed that DAA backing for the cargo facility in Shannon to the tune of € 6m would only bring a longterm jobs dividend if it came on stream with a pre-clearance facilities.

“Lynx will only be a major success if the Irish and US government can reach a deal on the pre-clearance of cargo at Shannon,” an Shannon Airport Authority insider told The Clare People .

“This has been done for passengers and for Lynx project to realise it’s full potential it will have to be done for cargo traffic as well.”

This claim has been backed up by local Fianna Fáil TD and the party’s transport spokesperson, Timmy Dooley, who has challenged the Government to play its part in transforming Shannon into a new world-wide cargo hub creating thousands of long-term jobs.

“I am delighted after a prolonged period of time that the DAA are prepared to invest appropriate funding in Shannon to enable Lynx to build a facility there,” said Deputy Dooley.

“It’s a vote of confidence in the airport – the short-term potential is limited, there is long-term potential if the Irish government can secure a deal with the US administration for the pre-clearance of cargo at Shannon,” he added.

The DAA investment in the Shannon project will amount to infrastructural works on the ground – making the site identified accessible by road, providing connection to the airport taxi-ways and fencing – before Lynx would step in and invest € 2m over in building their temperature control facility.

The project was first heralded in 2009 when Lynx and the Shannon Airport Authority signed up to a memorandum of understanding to develop an international logistics hub in the Shannon Free Zone.

In 2009, the Mid-West Task Force called on the Government and DAA to back the Lynx project to, while Shannon Development chief executive and task force member, Dr Vincent Cunnane warning that “the airport will not survive on passengers alone and needs a cargo hub”.

A PROPOSAL to impose strict limits on the number of motions that can be raised by councillors at local area meetings was proposed at yesterday’s North Clare Area meeting in Ennistymon.

The proposal, which would see each councillor limited to just one motion per meeting, was suggested by Lahinch-based councillor Bill Slattery (FG).

Cllr Slattery says the measure would help staff members to deal better with individual enquiries.

According to Cllr Slattery, there is an increasing amount of repetition among the motions put forward by the elected members and the manpower is currently not there to deal effectively with requests.

“At the moment, we are allowed to put forward three motions each per meeting. Between the five of us, that amounts to 15 different motions every five or six weeks and we are all highlighting the same issues over and over again.

“I know that some councillors are waiting more than two years for some issues that have been highlighted to be resolved,” said Cllr Slattery.

“We all know that numbers have been reduced in the local offices all over the county and I think that their time could be better spent in dealing with a lower number of requests rather than a large numbers which contains a lot of repetition.

“I think that this should be done on a temporary basis, just until after the recession.

“If the money and the manpower was there I wouldn’t mind if we were putting in six or seven submissions each meeting.”

Meanwhile, a number of north Clare areas where flooding has taken place over the last two winters have been omitted from a National Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment being compiled by the Office of Public Works (OPW).

North Clare areas such as Doolin, Ballyvaughan and Miltown Malbay have not been included in the assessment, despite a number of unprecedented flooding events taking place in those areas in recent years.

The North Clare Area councillors will now make a submission to the OPW, requesting that these areas be included as part of the assessment.

This assessment, which is currently being conducted all over the country, is likely to inform the OPW’s strategy for tackling flooding for the next decade.

PRIMARY schools across Clare are now among the most overcrowded in Europe, damning statistics secured by The Clare People this week have revealed.

Department of Education figures relating to the pupil-teacher ratio in Clare and given to The Clare People by the Irish National Teachers Organisation this week have shown that the majority of primary pupils in the county are in classes greater than the EU average.

Figures have revealed that 17 per cent of Clare schools have 20 or less pupils; 63 per cent with between 20 and 29 pupils, with 20 per cent of schools with above 30 pupils.

“The EU average is 20 and the way you look at that is that in county Clare you have 83 per cent of pupils in classes that are above EU average,” said Clare INTO chief Sean McMahon.

“It’s a fairly shocking statistic that in 2011 one in five primary students in Clare are in a class of 30 or more, particularly when you take the geography of Clare into consideration. You have 124 schools in Clare and along the western seaboard you have a lot of relatively small schools, so that statistically implies that some schools have very large classes,” Mr McMahon added.

Meanwhile, INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan described the figures as “shocking” and represent “a wake-up call for the parents of Clare’s 13,000 primary school pupils in advance of the 2011 budget”.

“What we’re concerned and worried about is that the upcoming Budget is going to exacerbate things even more,” said Mr McMahon. “We are being told we are in fiscal situation where very little can be done, but when the Celtic Tiger was roaring among us very little was done for primary education.

“It’s wrong that children in primary school would pay the price for fiscal recitude. We are saying to the Minister for Education, not only do we not want class sizes increased, we want them reduced. We are the second highest in Europe when it comes to class sizes. The problems with the economy haven’t been created by primary school pupils. I fail to see why they should be the ones paying for it,” he added.

THE BODY of a Spanish national who was seen jumping off the Cliffs of Moher earlier this year has never been recovered, an inquest heard yesterday.

As Coroner Isobel O’Dea returned a verdict of suicide, she told the family of Laureano Peláez Garcia (44) that it was always difficult to have an inquest when no body has been recovered and said it was “particularly difficult for a family to try to come to terms with it”.

Mr Peláez Garcia, from Madrid, travelled from Spain to Ireland on April 2, 2011, and went to the Cliffs the following day.

The inquest heard details of statements made by several tourists who were visiting the Cliffs of Moher on April 3. One of them, Brendan Kenny, from the US, took a photograph of Mr Peláez Garcia, shortly before he disappeared.

He said that he saw a middle aged man sitting on a wall smoking a cigarette. “He was staring out towards the sea,” he recalled. He said he was a bit “freaked out” by this and felt it was “weird”. He said he then saw him blessing himself before running straight out off the cliffs. This was at around 1pm.

Another witness, Johanna Schmidt, said she saw a man taking items out of a rucksack. A short time after, she heard a scream and saw a man falling out from the cliff. Another witness recalled finding a rucksack with personal items including a wallet, watch and jacket, on the ground nearby.

Paul McDonagh, a driver with Bus Éireann, drove from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher that day. Mr Peláez Garcia got on in Galway at 10.30am and said he was going to Lisdoonvarna. However, when the bus reached Lisdoonvarna, he remained on the bus and got off at the Cliffs of Moher. Mr McDonagh told him that he would be leaving the Cliffs of Moher at 1.30pm and Mr Peláez Garcia said if he was returning, he would go at that time.

Mr McDonagh said that Mr Peláez Garcia asked him did he have children. He told the bus driver that he didn’t have any children. The bus driver noticed a lot of sweat on his forehead. He said he saw him walking up towards the cliffs but he then lost sight of him.

Tom Doherty, a ranger at the Cliffs of Moher, said that three girls approached him at around 1pm with a rucksack. They told him that a man had jumped off the cliffs. He said he could see the casualty at the base of the Cliffs in a pool of water. The tide was out.

He called for the rescue helicopter and boat. He said that that body was too near the cliff for the helicopter to approach and the sea was too rough for the boat to attempt to recover it. There was a three metre swell at the time. The area was surveyed by Doolin Coast Guard for 90 minutes, before the casualty then disappeared from view.

Searches continued for 10 days but the body was never found, he said.

Mr Peláez Garcia’s brother told the inquest that he last saw his brother a week before he went to Ireland.

Ms O’Dea explained to Mr Peláez Garcia’s family that medical evidence was not available because his body was never located. She said that the deceased had been positively identified through the photograph.

“In this instance I’m very much aware of the conversation Mr Peláez Garcia had with the bus driver. Unfortunately the appropriate verdict for me to bring in is a verdict of suicide,” said the Coroner.

She paid tribute to gardaí who carried out a thorough investigation and also lauded Doolin Coast Guard for its efforts to recover Peláez Garcia’s body.