Category: News

KILRUSH native Noel Kilkenny will be named as Clareman of the Year at a gala ceremony in New York next month. The Clare Association of New York will host its 123rd Annual Gala Ball on October 15 and, as part of these celebrations, Mr Kilkenny is to be awarded the prestigious title.

Kilkenny is currently posted as the Irish Consul General of Ireland to New York and has clearly made a big impression on his Clare brethren in the Big Apple.

“From the very start, Noel made his mark in the Irish and Irish-Ameri- can communities in New York. He stepped into his new position full force upon his arrival in New York just over a year ago,” said Cathy Hogan, president of the Clare Association in New York.

“In a very short time, he has endeared himself to the people of New York, and the Clare Association takes great pride in the fact that we can claim him as one of our own.

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

The Cappa native was educated at Kilrush CBS primary school and at boarding school in Waterford before going to college at UCD. He spent three years in the Irish Department of Justice before he began his career with the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1977.

As well as service as the Consulate General of Ireland in New York, he has also formerly served as the Irish ambassador to Estonia.

The Consulate General’s job in New York is to provide help to Irish citizens in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Since the County Association of New York was founded in 1888, its officers, members and friends have joined together each October to celebrate their Clare heritage.

Anyone who wishes to attend the annual dinner dance or has relatives in New York who may wish to attend is asked to e-mail coclareassociation NYC@gmail.com.

Mr Kilkenny is married to Hanora O’Dea, who is also a proud west Clare woman. They visit west Clare on a regular basis and were the honoured quests at a civic reception in the Vandeleur Gardens last year.

THE Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (IRMO) say that they stand ready to treat any emergency cases that present from Clare during their four-hour work stoppage which is due to take place at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick tomorrow, September 21.

Speaking to The Clare People yesterday, the INMO’s Industrial Relations Officer, Mary Fogarty, said that the work stoppage was not aimed at the people of Clare but instead was taking place to highlight the underfunding of emergency health in the region.

Any emergency instances which require an ambulance, such as car accidents and heart attacks, will still be brought to the hospital where the INMO will have a skeleton staff in place to manage emergencies.

“There are still some talks taking place between the INMO and the HSE but at this point it is difficult to see a situation where the action planned for Wednesday will not take place,” said Ms Fogarty. “This will affect anyone from Clare who is brought to the hospital while the accident and emergency facilities in Ennis are closed during the night, and it will also affect any emergency situation in Clare, or anyone who needs to travel to the A&E in an ambulance.

“We will have a staff available to deal with emergency situations. This action is not targeted at the people of Clare, it is an effort to highlight for the people how these critical facilities have been under-funded.”

The planned four-hour work stoppage will take place at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick this Wednesday, September 21, from 1pm to 5pm. The INMO also confirmed yesterday that this is the first of a series of industrial actions planned by the nurses but they have declined to confirm 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.

“Nurses working at the hospital have repeatedly raised their concerns in respect of the clinical safety issues with both HIQA and Senior HSE Management,” said Mrs Fogarty.

“Unfortunately, due to the inability of both bodies to address the deplorable clinical environment now visible daily at the hospital, nurses are driven to publicly highlight the extremely serious situation through industrial action.”

ENNIS Town Council will mark the second anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s visit to Ennis with an event to encourage young people in Ennis to be ‘The Best You Can Be’.

The event, which is due to take place in October, will promote excellence in different areas of life including sport and academic studies.

Ali, a former world-boxing champion, drew crowds of thousands when he visited Ennis in September 2009.

Details of plans to mark the occasion were revealed at the September meeting of Ennis Town Council.

Town Clerk Eddie Power explained. “To mark the second anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s visit it is intended to host an event in Glór. The theme for the event will be ‘The Best You Can Be’ and will be aimed at second level students. It is planned to have notable speakers who can relate their own stories and achievements to the attending stu- dents. The objective of the speakers will be to motivate and encourage the students to aim for excellence in whatever they do and to capitalise on their natural skills and abilities.”

Mr Power continued, “Preparatory discussions have taken place with the Clare Youth Service and contact has been made with secondary school principals in Ennis. The idea has been warmly welcomed and it is anticipated that it will attract high numbers of students.”

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) said more should be done to promote Ennis’ links with Ali.

“Our slice of the cake is getting very small and this town has to be promoted like it never has been before,” he added.

Welcoming the initiative, Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said the event would encourage young people in Ennis to achieve excellence. He said that any project that gives hope to young people should be welcomed.

Questioning if the Council could use Muhammad Ali’s name in promoting the event, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said, “We’re celebrating something that we can’t explicitly mention.”

Town Manager Ger Dollard said the Ali name will not be used by the Council to mark the second anniversary of the sporting legend’s visit to Ennis.

Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said ‘The Best You Can Be’ event could be developed along the lines of the Young Scientist competition.

A RADICAL plan that would see Shannon Airport given its freedom from Dublin Airport Authority control has been tabled with the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, but the controversial move by management at Clare’s international airport has polarised political opinion in the county.

Despite the sale of state assets being firmly on the Government agenda, local Labour Party TD Michael McNamara has rounded on the SAA proposal that the airport be leased out to private intererests for a period of between 15 and 35 years.

This is also the stance taken by Clare’s lone Fianna Fáil TD, Timmy Dooley, who also doubles as his party’s transport spokesperson, but local Fine Gael TDs, Joe Carey and Pat Breen have reserved judgment on the SAA submission, until more details of its contents become available.

Deputies Dooley and McNamara have emerged as the leading voices of opposition to the plan for the aiport, which will celebrate the 75th year of the sod turning that marked the building of the airport on October 8 next.

“Government have responsibility from a regional development perspective to promote and retain the airport,” said Deputy Dooley, “and if it’s passed to a private entity, leased to a private entity or sold, it’s responsibility is gone and they’ve washed their hands of it. That’s not the best thing for the airport,” he added.

“I hope that we don’t ever see the situation whereby there is a shortterm effort to turn a buck in Shannon to the detriment of the long-term development on the region, to which Shannon Airport is central,” said Deputy McNamara.

“What’s to be gained from leasing Shannon. I don’t see that there’s going to be any financial gain – I can see a potential gain for hawkish investors, but I’d be very reluctant to see people who are involved in Shannon Airport turn a buck in Shannon,” he added.

“I’d like to see the full proposal that the management in Shannon are putting forward,” said Deputy Carey, while his party colleague Deputy Pat Breen told The Clare People that ahead of making a decision of Shannon’s future within the DAA “Minister Varadkar is very much aware of the airport’s role in balanced regional development while at the same time conscious of the need to secure the airport’s future on a sound economic footing”.

Ryanair, which has called for Shannon’s separation from the DAA has told The Clare People that government backing for the SAA submission could represent a new start for the airport.

“This could help the airport do what it needs to do and that’s return to a low cost model and have low cost ethos,” said spokesperson Stephen McNamara.

“That’s where it is at across Europe. It’s about a local focus and a local delivery of a really good tourism product. If they can get that the airport can return to growth.”

OFFICIALS at Ennis Town Council have admitted frustration with the National Roads Authority’s (NRA) policy towards motorway signage for Ennis.

The issue was raised at the September meeting of Ennis Town Council, where members discussed a motion put forward by Councillor Brian Meaney (GP).

Cllr Meaney urged the Council to consult with the NRA, pointing out that there are no signposts for Ennis on numerous sections of the motorway network in the mid-west.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Meaney said a stronger case should be made to ensure Ennis is “identified as a major junction in the midwest”.

In his response to Cllr Meaney’s motion, Senior Engineer Tom Tiernan said the NRA does not regard Ennis as termination point.

He explained, “The main reason Ennis fares poorly on the national road signage relates to NRA standard policy, which dictates that the number of destinations to appear on signage should be minimised and that priority is given to destinations at termination points of relevant routes. Unfortuneatley Ennis loses out in a number of situations where one would expect it should feature due to the fact that it is not a termination location on the N/M18. I have received this explanation from the NRA on a number of occasions when I have raised this issue previously.”

Mr Tiernan continued, “Ennis isn’t indicated on signage along the approaches to the Tulla Road interchange because a decision was taken in advance of opening the Ennis bypass that it would not be appropriate to encourage Ennis bound traffic to take the Tulla Road route into town for a number of reasons including: concerns regarding traffic capacity of the route; the risk associated with encouraging increased quantities of traffic (particularly large vehicles) to enter Ennis under the Corrovorrin railway bridge whose clearance above road level is less than desirable; the extent of residential development along the route.”

Senior Executive Engineer Eamon O’Dea admitted that the issue of ter mination points had been “extremely frustrating” for the Council.

“We’re not happy about it and we will talk to them about it,” he added.

Councillors were critical of the NRA’s policy towards Ennis. Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) said it was not “satisfactory” that on main motorways “you find every other sign but no sign for Ennis”.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said the NRA does not seem to realise that there is a community beyond the Ennis bypass. He claimed Ennis had been “treated appallingly” in comparison to other large towns like Athlone.

THE success of the Loophead Lighthouse visitor project that has been running on a pilot basis for the past seven weeks is set to be built on as Clare County Council and its partner bodies put plans in motion to develop a range of tourism products in place for the 2012 season.

That’s the message delivered this week by the local authority’s director of service for tourism, Ger Dollard, who has revealed that a wide-range of new visitor experiences could be in the pipeline as tourism interest groups bid to build on the success of lighthouse experience.

“We went into it thinking that we were going to spend € 20,000 or € 30,000 over the three months and lose it – we were willing to do this on the basis that we were trying to see if we could build something at Loophead,” Mr Dollard told The Clare People this week. “The fact that it has been so successful, every single box has been ticked. The big thing we learned is that there is a very strong tourism product in Loophead – it’s how we develop that,” he adds.

Up to date figures released by Clare County Council this Monday have revealed that 15,507 have visited the tourist attraction since it opened its doors to the public, with children making up 3,793 of these.

Now, a new range of visitor attractions are set to mushroom around the lighthouse, with the county council director of service revealing that the challenge is now to “marry everything together, develop it into something on the tip of West Clare that can financially sustain itself”.

“It’s hoped to rebuild the lookout post between now and next summer – that’s part of history being put back in place. There’s a walk planned around the lighthouse and in this we have worked with local community and are getting it costed,” said Mr Dollard. “That should be in place for next summer. We have been talking to a geology group – a lot of geology work is being done in the area. It’s an element that could developed in a display of the geological history of the area.

“We have been talking to Inis environmental consultants who are working with UCC – they have ideas about a bird observatory on the site and we are seeing how that could be incorporated in an overal visitor product.

“Our biggest problem is that we have too much stuff between maritime, geology, the lighthouse itself, the flora, the fauna, the walks, the lookout post, the coastwatch service. It’s how you bring it all together in a coherent way and to try to prevent the natural beauty of the Loophead area being destroyed,” he added.

LOCAL business interests are on the cusp of making a pitch to take over the running of Shannon Airport in a lease agreement that would see the former hub of the aviation world given its freedom to chart its own future away from Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) control. The Clare People can reveal that a coalition of business interests in the mid-west region could be lined up to lease Care’s international airport from the DAA if Transport Minister Leo Varadkar backs a radical move by the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) to offload the airport to a private company for between 15 to 35 years.

However, the plan has been blasted by Fianna Fáil transport spokesperson Timmy Dooley “as privatisation by another name. This is selling Shannon. It’s selling away a state asset for two generations”.

The SAA board, which is chaired by local businessman Brian O’Connell, submitted its plans on foot of a request for submissions by Minister Varadkar on the break-up of the three state-owned airports – Dublin, Shannon and Cork.

Ryanair have backed the plan, with spokesperson Stephen McNamara telling The Clare People “it should be taken out of the hands of the DAA and there is a case that it should be a local airport, owned and operated by local people so that it can grow”.

“We need an independent Shannon, free of Dublin where we can deter- mine our own destiny,” said Deputy Joe Carey. “The current model has failed Shannon. Something radical is needed,” he added.

The plan was drafted for the SAA by Avia Solutions consultants, but no private company has been listed as being interested in taking control of the airport, something which has prompted local Labour TD Michael McNamara to “call on the chairman of Shannon Airport to come clean and tell us which private company, or companies, or investors have expressed an interest”.

Shannon Airport have declined to comment on the matter.

A PROGRAMME of servicing and replacing storm water infrastructure in Shannon should be put in place.

That’s according to Independent Councillor Gerry Flynn, who raised the issue at a meeting of the local town council last week.

Cllr Flynn said that work is “crucial” for the upcoming winter season.

In response to Cllr Flynn’s motion, a written response from the council stated that poor ground conditions in the town has led to settlement of some roads and adjoining slit channels.

“Subject to available resources, remedial works is undertaken in conjunction with road resurfacing under the multi-annual road works programme,” stated the reply.

“Given the extent of the works required, however, the costs are likely to be significant and will take some years to complete unless specific funding, separate from that provided in the Road Works Programme, is made available,” it added.

According to the council, drains that are subject to flooding will be inspected in the interim and within budgetary constraints, an arrangement will be made for necessary remedial works to be undertaken.

In reference to the council’s response, Cllr Flynn said it was “like Noah saying we’ll trying to repair the ark when it’s sinking”.

Sinn Féin Councillor Cathy McCafferty said that areas which are likely to flood easily should be prioritised when drains are being cleared. “In this day and age, it’s totally not acceptable,” she said.

SEA and coastal conditions are set to return to normal around the county this morning as the last effects of Hurricane Katia are felt along the north and west of the county.

The former hurricane, which was downgraded to a storm before it made landfall in Clare, caused minor damage around the county with a top wind speed of 102 kilometres per hour recorded at Shannon Airport yesterday.

Despite the rough sea, two boat owners risked a swim ashore at Doolin Pier on Sunday when they were unable to dock their boat because of rough sea conditions.

The boat, which carried four passengers, had departed from Doolin to the Aran Island’s earlier that day but was unable to dock safely following the return journey.

Despite the large sea swell two members of the crew jumped overboard and swam ashore to collect their car and boat trailer before driv- ing to calmer water at Ballyvaughan where the boat was able to dock safely.

Meanwhile, opening hours at the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience are expected to return to normal tomorrow after the centre closed two hours early yesterday because of the weather.

The early closure follows a warning by the centre’s management against any visits to the world famous tourist attraction yesterday.

This is not the first time that the centre has been forced to close because of poor weather conditions but it is the first time that a closure has been necessary in the month of September.

“The track of this storm was always predicted to head for the to northern corner of Scotland and the strongest winds of any storm always occur about 100 km from this tip, so we were lucky enough in Clare to miss the very strongest winds from this storm,” said Mark Dunphy of Irish Weather Online.

“The winds will continue to abate but there could be some gusts around the county until Tuesday afternoon. There has been rough seas all around the county but we had not had any reports of coastal flooding yet in Clare, which was a big fear because of the high tide.

“There is another system which is likely to track this way in the days ahead. Maria is a tropical storm at this point and it is likely to track a bit more north than this storm so we should miss the worst of that.”

IT CAME down to one vote – a vote that went against the Banner County’s hopes of bringing 2012 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann to Ennis, which would have bridged a 35-year gap to when the showpiece of the traditional music year was last in Clare.

Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann decided on Saturday by a 14-13 in Dublin to give host town status to Cavan for the third successive year, thereby robbing Clare of a festival which would have brought around 300,000 to Ennis next August and been worth an estimated € 30m to the local economy.