Category: News

AN INITIATIVE which will form a solid link between Ireland and America – which is the brainchild of a Quin resident – is poised to become official within weeks.

Gerry O’Neill, who has lived in Corbally, Quin, for the past 53 years, is a retired employee of Clare County Council.

A number of years ago, Gerry who is a native of Athlone – came up with the idea of presenting an official document – a Certificate of Irishness – which would certify the Irish heritage of those whose ancestors originated in Ireland. Irish emigrants and their descendants will be in a position to formalise their Irishness for a small fee.

It now appears that the certificate will be launched by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore in New York later this month.

Gerry told The Clare People yesterday that he was delighted that moves are being made to rubberstamp his idea. “It’s for the sake of the country . . . I believe that we owe something to the generation before us,” he said.

He is hopeful that any links set up or strengthened between the US and Ireland would primarily benefit the Shannon region. This idea has been supported by Independent County Councillor James Breen, who is a long-time supporter of the initiative.

“I am delighted, provided it takes the right turn. The key is that any- thing that comes out of it goes to the west of Ireland,” he said.

Gerry developed a love for the US through visits to Shannon Airport while working with Clare County Council. He visited the US more than 50 times over the years, during which time he developed several connections.

He put his idea forward to government officials in 2008 and felt it would provide an economic boost to Ireland through increased visits by those from the US.

Those who apply for the certificate will be required to submit details of their Irish ancestral connections.

Mr Gilmore said earlier this year that he expected the certificate to be in place by October and was in the process of being established “in direct response to a strong demand for such a scheme from those members of our diaspora who are not entitled to Irish citizenship”.

THERE have been calls for the bandstand at the Town Park in Shannon to be removed, after bricks were taken out of the centre piece.

Local town councillor Mike Fleming raised the issue at a meeting of the town council last week.

A motion was tabled by the Fine Gael councillor, who said that several bricks have been taken out of the bandstand. “They are piled up around it. I can’t see the guards having the time or wasting their time going up there,” he said.

He said that the centre piece is becoming a serious problem due to this and said that the bricks are being used to break windows of apartments and cars at Brú na Sionna.

Labour Councillor Tony McMahon supported the calls, saying, “It’s unsightly and dangerous. Either the bricks need to be put in place in such a way they can’t be easily removed or the whole thing needs to be changed to something else or moved altogeth- er out of it.”

“I don’t think anybody went in there with a pick axe. Probably a few loose bricks made way to others,” he said.

His party colleague, Cllr Greg Duff said, “The Town Park should be there for the use of the community. If the vandalism is ongoing, the guards are right beside it. Perhaps they should look at patrols.”

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said, “It’s a bad design. It’s a disgrace. It can’t be left in that condition. Damage will be caused. It’s getting un- sightly. It’s dreadful.”

In a written response to the meeting, it was stated that Clare County Council is in the process of taking the Town Park in charge.

“The provision of a bandstand for the park was a condition of planning associated with the Brú na Sionna development and therefore any changes to it will have to be consented to by the planing authority. Any vandalism and anti-social activity occurring in the Town Park should be reported to the gardaí,” stated the response.

THE county manager has said he does not see the need for an inquiry to be carried out in relation to an affordable housing scheme in Shannon.

After repeated concerns were expressed by residents, and in turn councillors, over the affordable housing scheme at Cluain Airne, there were calls for County Manager Tom Coughlan to carry out an inquiry.

The 22-unit scheme development got underway in June 2009 and it was initially envisaged that it would be completed within a year. How- ever, it was subsequently halted and the initial contractor’s contract was terminated.

The scheme got underway despite concerns from local residents, who objected to the project. They stated that they did not want the houses built in the area and argued that there was inadequate infrastructure in the area to cope with the new houses. Residents have also expressed concerns over the closure of the right of way. A new contractor was appointed in July of this year and the council expressed hope at the time that the project would be completed within 16 weeks of its restart.

In a letter to Shannon Town Clerk Liam O’Connor, which was read out to councillors at their meeting last week, Mr Coughlan stated, “As the purpose of an inquiry is to elicit facts and as the relevant facts are being advised to the elected members, the need for any such inquiry is not apparent and as all relevant facts have been or will be provided by the Town Manager, I fail to see the need for an inquiry.”

He said if councillors were of the view that an inquiry was necessary, “I would appreciate exact criteria which would necessitate” it.

In response, Councillor Gerry Flynn (Independent) said he was disappointed.

“It’s a cop out. It’s no more than I expected. It’s regrettable he did not accede to the request. The place is destroyed,” he claimed.

Fine Gael Councillor Seán McLoughlin asked why it had taken so long to secure a new contractor to complete the works.

The Town Manager Bernadette Kinsella explained the circumstances surrounding the development and said, “The facts clearly show the land was zoned for housing in 2003 and in a subsequent plan.”

She said there was a high level of demand for housing among first time buyers in Shannon, during a study which was carried out.

“I have endeavoured to implement the agreed policy and decision of the council, the democratic wishes of the council. The county manager hasn’t refused to carry out an inquiry. An inquiry is to determine the facts. The facts have been presented this evening,” said Ms Kinsella.

“If there are further facts that members would like to be put in front of them, I’d be happy to do that,” she added.

She said the delay in securing a contractor to complete the works was due to a procurement process and officials had to wait for a nomination from the guarantor.

CLARE County Council is making preparations for another winter freeze with an estimated 3,500 tonnes of salt to be available for the county’s road network. That capacity could increase to 9,000 tonnes in the coming years if plans for a new salt depot run by the National Roads Authority (NRA) prove successful, it emerged yesterday.

The details are contained in a report on the Council’s winter maintenance programme, which was outlined at yesterday’s meeting of councillors in the Ennis Electoral Area.

Senior Engineer Tom Tiernan told the meeting that there is currently 600 tonnes of salt in the county but that will increase to 3,500 over the coming months with the “significant expansion” of facilities at the Beechpark depot. He said the Council would aim to cover 706km of road throughout the county.

Mr Tiernan said he was confident that there would be adequate capacity at Beechpark to cater for a “very severe weather” conditions.

The meeting heard that the Council has spent € 1.1m of its own resources on winter maintenance over the past two years. “We have had to spend a huge amount of money for maintenance that we hadn’t really bargained for”, explained Mr Tiernan.

Mr Tiernan also told councillors that responsibility for maintenance of the country’s motorway network will be transferred to the NRA over the next two years.

He also revealed that the NRA intends to seek planning permission for the development of a salt storage dept on the outskirts of Ennis.

The depot, which will have capacity for 6,500 tonnes of salt, is proposed for the Tulla Road interchange near a section of the M18 motorway.

Questioning the need for the NRA facility, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said Clare could end up with a total of 9,000 tonnes of salt. Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) urged the Council to purchase a smaller salting vehicle to be used in housing estates in Ennis and surrounding areas. Cllr Brennan was also critical of the NRA’s plans, saying they represented a duplication of services.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) also expressed concern over the depot. He said the site was in the ownership of Clare County Council and could be used a potential site for a new secondary school to cater for the estimated population of 7000 living in the Doora area.

Mr Tiernan explained that the site is an area of surplus land left over from work on the Ennis bypass. He said that while the site was registered to the Council, it had been purchased by the NRA.

OPINION is divided on how Dr Brendan O’Regan should be honoured in Shannon.

While members of the local town council agree that he should be remembered in a notable way, the exact project to be chosen was the subject of debate at a meeting last week.

The motion was proposed by the town’s mayor, Councillor Mary Brennan, who said that Dr O’Regan’s achievements should be remem- bered.

His immense contribution to the airport and Shannon Development was recalled, with councillors expressing the view that this should be linked to the project.

“One way we could honour him would be to have a viable airport. He would be very sad to see what we have today,” said Fine Gael Councillor Seán McLoughlin.

Independent Councillor Patricia McCarthy said she was opposed to naming streets and buildings after people.

“He was associated with Shannon Development and associated with the airport and the industrial estates. It’s a pity Shannon Development when they were naming their building that they didn’t name it O’Regan House,” she said.

Independent Councillor Gerry Flynn said he was in agreement with Cllr McCarthy. “I don’t agree with buildings and roads being named after people,” he said.

“He was a man of vision. He was a pioneer of his time,” he said.

Fine Gael Councillor Mike Fleming made a suggestion that a bus shelter be named after Dr O’Regan.

“I wouldn’t be in favour of any road or sign but there’s a new bus shelter going into Cronan. It could be the O’Regan bus shelter,” he said.

Fine Gael Councillor Vincent Coleman suggested a connection to the Lynxs Cargo facility. “If it gets off the ground, it will bring development opportunities to the airport,” he said.

COMPLAINTS of unsavoury odours in the Smithstown and Ballycasey areas of Shannon are being investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Clare County Council. The Clare People can reveal that an investigation has been launched, which involves EPA inspectors carrying out odour checks in the vicinity, in an attempt to isolate a potential source for the smell which has been circulating in recent weeks.

“So far, no particular source has been identified but work continues,” a spokesperson for the EPA told The Clare People .

This has come about amid several complaints about odours in areas including Smithstown, Ballycasey and Tullyvarraga, in recent weeks.

According to some reports, the smell is an unsavoury pungent odour, while other people are complaining of a sewage smell.

Last week, Independent Councillor Patricia McCarthy called for Shannon Town Council to write to the EPA to investigate the issue. She said that it should be addressed as a matter of urgency, after a previous odour was in circulation for two years.

“My concern is the length of time it is going to take to sort out this issue. We have been here before, albeit not the same area. A number of complaints have been lodged.

“They need to sort it out and let the people know what is the cause of it. We need openness and transparency and we need to know when they carry out their checks,” she told The Clare People.

“They need to act straightaway,” said Cllr McCarthy.

Meanwhile, the town’s grading in terms of EPA monitoring has dipped in recent days. Last week, the air quality was deemed ‘very good’, by the EPA, but has now changed to ‘good’. According to the EPA, this arose out of monitoring on August 31.

In March of this year, the EPA put monitoring measures in place and recorded a result of ‘good’ at the time.

The EPA’s mobile laboratory which is located in the town actively analyses the quality of air in the town and surrounding areas. When the EPA announced the measure in March, it indicated that the initiative would continue for up to a year.

The assessment is done via a trailer which is located at the rear of the civic offices in Shannon. Analysers are contained in the trailer and these are read on a regular basis.

There is also a fixed network whereby a number of sites around the county are monitored on a continuous basis.

THE statesmanship shown by Clare president Dr Paddy Hillery in times of crisis has been held up by Fine Gael candidate Gay Mitchell as the template for his style of presidency should he succeed in becoming the ninth incumbant in Áras an Uachtaráin.

Speaking to The Clare People on Thursday during his first visit to the county since being selected to contest the November 27 presidential election poll, Mr Mitchell hailed Dr Hillery political courage during his 14-year stint in office from 1976 to 1990.

Dr Hillery took office following the constitutional crisis sparked by his the decision by his predecessor Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh to refer the Emergency Powers Act to the Supreme Court, which prompted the Fine Gael Minister for Defence Paddy Donegan to label him “a thundering disgrace”.

President Ó Dálaigh resigned in the fall-out from these remarks, and now 35 years later Mr Mitchell, who is bidding to become the first ever Fine Gael president, used his visit to Clare to highlight the crucial role the Spanish Point man played in restoring the honour of the presidency in the wake of the crisis that rocked the office.

“I’m not just saying this because I’m in Clare,” Mr Mitchell said during his visit to Ennis, Kilrush and Shannon.

“I’ve said this a lot of times. Dr Hillery restored the presidency after the resignation of Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh.

“And when his own party came looking for him (in January 1982) not to grant a dissolution of the Dáil to the government of the day, he had the experience and the integrity to stand up to that pressure.

“The president is an important person in terms of the independence of the office. The president is like the sentry in the box. Those are the qualities I will bring to the office. I am an independent soul. I made it very clear that I want the support of more than Fine Gael – I need that. I want to reach out to all of the community not just Fine Gael. I need to do that,” he added.

THE horror of September 11 has been recalled this week by a Doonbegman whose daughter escaped with her life thanks to a decision that changed the course of here life in a number of ways.

Claire Ring, daughter of PJ Harvey from Banhsa in Doonbeg, worked in the North Tower of the World Trade Center – her office with Oppenheimer being on the 34th floor.

Harvey was at home in Hyde Park, New York, when the tower was hit at 8.46am that September 11 morning and for a few frantic hours after learning of the terrorist attack sought the whereabouts of his daughter.

“It was incredible,” Harvey told The Clare People this week. “It changed the face of the free world and changed the face of travelling forever. Straight away I said to myself ‘Claire is at work in the World Trade Center, is she safe?’

“Everyone who worked on the 34th floor got out, but the thing was, knowing Claire she would have waited for her friend Jennifer, who worked higher up and who was pregnant. She would have waited just to make sure she was alright. That’s what happened to a good many people. They never thought the whole building would come down and they hung around waiting for friends.

“We got a call to turn on our television and after that we were frantically trying to track her down. We thought she was gone to work – it wasn’t until around 12 o’clock in the day that we found out that she hadn’t gone to work that day, that she had gone to the doctor.

“What a relief that was. Going to the doctor that day probably saved her life – it was the day she found out she was pregnant. She was 31 at the time – she had a lovely baby boy Kyle and has had three more since. We could just thank God,” he adds.

The 70-year-old, who is home on holiday, worked in New York City for many years and was head of the local 608th union, giving work to many people who were subsequently lost in the Twin Towers attack.

“We lost ten carpenters from our union,” he recalls. “We lost two brothers who were working with the financial company Cantor Fitzgerald. A great friend of mine from Fermanagh lost two sons that day. I remember sending them out as apprentices from the 608th Carpenters Union and they went onto work for Cantor Fitzgerald,” adds Harvey.

THE tender process of the € 12.8 million second phase of the Ennis flood relief scheme is at an advanced stage, a meeting has heard.

Under the scheme, flood defences will be improved along the river Fergus from Bank Place to Doora Bridge. Measures introduced in phase one of the scheme ensured large parts of the Ennis town centre were spared from flooding in November 2009.

According to the latest quarterly progress report on Ennis Town Council projects, “the Office of Public Works (OPW) are awaiting pre-contract documentation from the preferred bidder and the OPW will be in a position to proceed with the award of the contract once this is received”.

The report by Town Engineer Eamon O’Dea also provides details on a number of other flood relief scheme currently underway in Ennis. It states that work will start on the Lough Girroga Scheme (Gort Road Industrial Estate) in September and should be finished by early December.

The report continues, “The part 8 planning procedure for the Fioruisce works started on August 26 and will be on display until October 7 with submissions by October 21. The part 8 planning procedure will be before the Council for their consideration in November. The tender process will follow.”

The report states that site investigation is underway at the Watery Road / Elm Park scheme. It adds, “It is expected that the tender process will be completed b the end of November 2011. The commencement date of works will depend on river levels. The Council has a temporary pumping system for the storm drain in place at Watery Road to cater for high river levels until permanent works are in place. The Council monitors the Fergus and Claureen river levels.”

According to the report, detailed design is nearing completion on the St Flannan’s / Tobertascáin – Ballybeg lake flood relief works. Site investigation is currently underway.

Speaking yesterday at a meeting of councillors in the Ennis Electoral Area, Senior Engineer Tom Tiernan said every area hit by flooding in Ennis in 2009 is covered under the current flood relief programme of works. He said the tender process of phase two of the Ennis flood relief scheme was at an advanced stage. Mr Tiernan said a wide range of works are currently underway to ensure Ennis withstands the effects of any future flooding. “An awful lot is happening. It many not be visible but the work is going on. An awful lot is happening,” he added.

FINE Gael presidential election hopeful Gay Mitchell has pledged to do everything in his power to mobilise the party’s troops in the county to ensure he wins the vote in the Clare constituency in the November 27 poll.

Speaking to The Clare People during his whistle stop tour of the three biggest centres in the county – Ennis, Shannon and Kilrush – said the key to his objective was enlisting the services of members of the Fine Gael election machine within the county at a time when the party is the dominant player in Clare politics at local and national level for the first time in its history.

“It’s very important that I get strong support across the board everywhere. I’m in Clare because I want to build on the support that I have in the county.

“I really need that support,” Mr Mitchell told The Clare People .

Clare Fine Gael have an unprecedented four Oireachtas members in Deputies Pat Breen and Joe Carey and Senators Martin Conway and Tony Mulcahy; there are 26 councillors between Clare County Council and Town Councils in Ennis, Shannon, Kilrush and Kilkee, while party also holds the mayoral chains of of- fice in three of the four town councils.

“I’m out here with the Oireachtas members in Clare and the organisation in Clare is fully behind me,” said Mr Mitchell.

“We are one of the few organisations with people in every corner of the country and I need that organisation out behind me.

“We had a two-day meeting of the Fine Gael Parliamentary and we gave a good part of the meeting to stretegy and getting the vote out in each county – getting the vote out in every corner of Clare. I think that’s very important.”

Mr Mitchell secured the Fine Gael party nomination to contest the presidency on July 9 when winning a three-way contest that also involved Pat Cox, who originally hails from Shannon and fellow MEP, Máiréad McGuinness.

Mr Cox, a former TD, MEP and president of the European Parliament, was eliminated on the first count, while Mr Mitchell received 54 per cent of the vote, as against Ms McGuinness 46 per cent in the second count.

“I wouldn’t have sought the nomination if I didn’t think I could win and win the presidential election,” Mr Mitchell told The Clare People . “I believe I can win. The polls will show that in October.

“The reality is that if a story breaks in New York the farmer on a tractor in Clare will hear at the same time as someone in Dublin.

“Society is changing. Ireland is a small country and I think that I can get the vote out. I will be in every corner of Ireland that I can be. I will be back in Clare several times,” added Mr Mitchell.