Category: News

TRIBUTES have been paid to one of Ennis’ best-known families who are celebrating 50 years in the bakery business.

Pat and Mary O’Connor opened their first shop in Ennis, in 1961. Today, there are eight O’Connor’s Bakeries, which supply quality breads and confectionary to Ennis, Shan- non, Gort, Galway and Limerick.

At the September meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) proposed that the Council officially congratulate and recognise O’Connors on achieving the milestone. Cllr Brennan said the family had been good employers in Ennis and in other towns and had done an enormous amount of good work without seeking attention or acclaim.

“These people deserve to be recognised,” he added. Seconding the motion, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) described the O’Connor family as “quite hardworking people”.

He said the business employs between 140 and 145 people. Cllr Meaney said the family had implemented a good business model that other businesses should consider following. Councillors also backed pro- posals from the Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) for a Citizen Recognition Awards Scheme.

According to a report prepared by Town Clerk Eddie Power the objective of the scheme is to recognize local people/organizations who have made a significant contribution to community life in Ennis or by their actions raised the profile and image of Ennis.

Nominations will be sought from the public in five categories: (a) sport/recreation (b) community/volountary (c) business/professional (d) youth (e) arts and culture.

Councillors decided against selecting an overall winner. An adjudication panel comprised of councilors will decide who will be honoured in each category. The awards will be presented at a civic event.

IT LOOKS like Dev’s car is not on the move, at least not to Clare County Council’s headquarters.

The car, which was restored by Sixmilebridge businessman and councillor PJ Ryan and which weighs two tonnes, has been located in a garage at the back of the De Valera library in Ennis for a number of years.

Earlier this year, Independent Councillor Christy Curtin tabled a motion calling for the car to be relocated to the foyer of the county council’s building, Áras Contae an Chláir, where it would be prominently displayed.

However, in a letter presented at the monthly meeting of the county council yesterday, it was stated that the proposal was considered. However a number of issues arose.

According to Senior Executive Officer in Corporate Services, Michael McNamara, a number of issues required further detailed examination. These include the weight of the car and the structural capacity of the council’s foyer area to bear the load, along with possible damage to the limestone paviours in the foyer in getting the car into its location.

Councillors heard that underfloor heating distribution pipes are laid in the atrium floor slab and moving a car of his size would have a huge impact on this. Also, moving the car into the building would require one of the entrance doors to be disman- tled and re-assembled, at a significant cost.

“Since the car was restored earlier this year, there has been much interest in the car and several requests have been received for the ‘loan’ of the car for specific functions and events. These requests have not been accommodated,” wrote Mr McNamara.

County Manager Tom Coughlan told the meeting, “We looked at every possibility of trying to do it but unfortunately we can’t do it at this point in time.”

Cllr PJ Ryan (Independent) said, “I’m a bit disappointed that we can’t find a home for this particular piece of iconic history.”

“It has to stay where it is for the time being. The only thing I’m concerned about is if we get inclement weather and the River Fergus flows over, the building is going to get flooded again,” he added.

Fianna Fáil Councillor PJ Kelly said he was “very, very disappointed with the response” from the executive.

He said if the weight of the car would challenge the capacity of the council’s headquarters, “if that’s the situation we had better get out of an unsafe building”.

Mr Coughlan said he wished to refute any suggestions that the building was not safe.

A LEADING teacher in Alexander Technique will visit Clare later this month to present an introductory course in what has become a huge phenomenon in the county.

Richard Brennan, who lives in Galway, will be in the Kilmaley Day Care Centre on September 24 and 25.

The event is organised by Andrea Martin a lawyer living in Inch, who herself has found the technique very helpful.

The course will be of particular interest to anyone who suffers from back pain as well as people who have sustained injuries through sport, mu- sic, acting or various other interests.

Alexander Technique has been credited for playing a key role in assisting several people recovering from various ailments.

Penelope Easten, is an Alexander Technique teacher living in Ogonnelloe, said it is ideal for everyone.

She explained the idea behind the Technique. “If you have a tight back, it is because your brain has the muscles set too short. No matter how much yoga or gym you do, you won’t change that. You can do yoga to strengthen the muscles but you have to work at it. None of them change the default settings, which is what we are doing,” she said.

“It is suitable for anybody. It is for people who want to look after themselves. If somebody’s back hurts, a pill is a quick fix, but it doesn’t get to the root of the problem. Although Alexander is expensive, it is long term,” she said.

“The youngest I have been working with is eight years old and the oldest is 86. Most people come along because they have a bad back or neck or hip or shoulder, or neck or elbow,” said Penelope.

“I work a lot with musicians. They learn to use their body in a better way. I also prepare people for public speaking. We have been taught to think of the body and mind as separate, but in reality they are linked. The body and mind work together.

“Poor computer use can lead to neck strain or headache.

“Most of my work is one to one sessions with individual pupils,” she said.

She said that the Technique is catching on in Ireland. “Any classical musician will know about it. Any actor will know about it. More and more doctors will know about it,” she said.

Anyone interested in attending the course should contact Andrea on 087 2233835 or email andrea_ martin@ireland.com.

CLARE County Council faces a bill of up to € 1.5 million to fix a large number of metered stop valves which were installed incorrectly by developers during the property boom.

Between 1,500 and 2,000 homes in the county are believed to still have the defective valves – which were intended for use in warmer climates and are prone to break during cold spells, such as those witnessed over the past two winters.

Clare County Council has repaired a number of these valves for free over the past two years as many of the developers who installed the valves were either non-contactable or out of business.

It was revealed at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council that the local authority had no funds available to it to provide repairs of this kind in the future.

It was also revealed that the cost of repairs for the existing stock of defective valves could come to between € 1.1 million and € 1.5 million.

“I know that the council have had to do a lot retrofit work for people in these houses because of the hardship that we have seen over the last couple of winters and that a lot of work has not been done to proper specifications,” said Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind).

“Let’s hope that this winter will not be as bad as previous winters, but if it is then we are going to get a large number of people who will have difficulty with this. The problem is that the specifications were not followed.

“The quality of the metres was not the issue but the type of the valves were made for a warmer climate and they won’t stand up to the lower temperatures. There is no funding to fix this problem so the people who are losing out are the people who bought properties in good faith and will have to go without water.”

According to a council spokesperson the defective valves have been installed on houses all over the county and are not confined to any particular type of house or contractor.

“It is awful to see water flowing down footpaths and roads, especially when there is no clean water in the houses beside them. The general public should not have to suffer because of the bad work done by certain contractors,” said Joe Cooney (FG).

ENNIS Town Council anticipates that work on a crucial upgrade of the Ennis / Clarecastle sewerage scheme will begin in the first half of 2012 pending approval from An Bord Pleanála.

The Council’s latest quarterly progress report states that the project is likely to cost € 2.8 million.

The report states, “An Bord Pleanála has indicated that they will make their decision by early November. Clare County Council intends to proceed to tender once de- tails of An Bord Pleanála decision is known and this will take a period of three months. Work should start in the second quarter in the second quarter of 2012 and the contract period is for 12 months. A review of the water services investment programme has included the project to the value of € 2.8 million.”

An oral hearing on the environmental impact survey for the upgrade works at the Clondroadmore Treatment Plant was held in Ennis on July 28.

At the hearing, David Timlin, Director of Environment and Water Services at Clare County Council, described the upgrade as urgent, saying it was needed to cater for future commercial development in Ennis.

The proposal forms part of a coherent plan for the provision of upgraded facilities to treat all wastewater arising in the entire Ennis area.

At the time Mr Timlin stated that certain wastewater license conditions issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), cannot be met until the plant upgrade is completed.

Recommending that the project get the go-ahead, Andrew Hersey, Executive Planner with Ennis Town Council, said that “Since 2006, planning applications for large residential and commercial schemes have been refused in the basis of inadequate capacity in the public sewer and prematurity pending the provision of sewerage facilities in the town.”

Mr Hersey added that without an upgrade to the wastewater network, “future development in the town will stagnate and the success of the town as a hub town for the mid-west region will ultimately fail”.

SINEAD O’Connor left Lisdoonvarna this weekend without finding love, but matchmaker Willie Daly is determined to find the lovelorn singer a man.

Sinead was introduced to a single farmer by Willie and his daughter Claire last Friday but the amount of interest in getting a glimpse of Sinead prevented the couple from really getting to know each other.

But Willie will keep her information on file and hopes to find her another match once the media glare has passed.

“Sinead came in and talked to me for more than half an hour and told me what she was looking for. One of the main things that she was after was a farmer – that is something that would appeal to someone living life in the fast lane. She didn’t say anything to me about the appearance of the man but she said that she wanted to meet a kind person, maybe someone of 40 years or older. She did say that she was looking for someone with stubble and there were plenty of men with beards around the town over the weekend,” said Willie.

“We introduced her to a very nice person. He was a big fan of hers and was very smart looking – he had a farm and a business. They talked for a while in our office and while that was going on a lot of people came in to get photos with her. She was nice about it but after a while she said she was leaving. So maybe Sinead might get back to her match once people are not around.

Despite Sinead’s failure to land a man in Lisdoonvarna, two of her male minders did find some companionship thanks to Willie.

“She had two young lads with her and I introduced them to some girls – I met them late on Sunday night and they said that they had enjoyed themselves anyway. I know that they did get some companionship while they were there.”

Sinead’s visit to Lisdoonvarna also had a benefit for tourism providers in the locality with the biggest crowd for the second weekend of the festival in years.

“Sinead O’Connor’s involvement certainly did help the local tourist trade. The local hotels were never as busy with a lot of people coming to meet Sinead and that was a boost locally,” said Marcus White from the Matchmaking Festival.

“But the festival has also helped people. The dancing is a great boost for a lot of people and a lot of the older people were especially happy in Lisdoonvarna. In the past people were a bit shy about coming to Lisdoonvarna, because they though you had to be single to come here, but these days about half of the people come to Lisdoonvarna to dance.”

STRIKE action at the Accident and Emergency Department of the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick is just seven days away after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) served strike notice to the HSE last week.

The HSE last week announced that the hospital, which is the primary A&E for Clare patients from 8pm at night to 8am in the morning since the reconfiguration of A&E services at Ennis General Hospital in May of 2009, would have to close 25 beds at the hospital and reduce staff overtime by half.

According to Mary Fogarty of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, the industrial action is a direct result of the pressure which has been put on the hospital by the extra volume of patients coming from Ennis. “This has been brought about by the continued neglect at the hospital. The A&E department at the hospital has been devastated since reconfiguration in 2009,” she said. “We were promised more beds and more staff and nothing has happened. We were told by the HSE that this would have no impact on the treatment of patients but this has not been the case either.

“We have seen more patients coming in from Ennis and from Nenagh and we have not been given the resources to deal with it. The patients that are coming in from Ennis tend to be the sickest patients and that is making the situations even more difficult.

The IMO have also confirmed that it is unlikely at this stage that industrial action will spread to Ennis General Hospital. The nurses organisation have also said that they will issue the HSE with details of what form the industrial action will take later this week.

Last Tuesday, September 6, members of the Accident and Emergency Department at the Mid West regional Hospital in Limerick voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action.

It is understood that any industrial action at the hospital will include a work-to-rule and possibly some work stoppages. The INMO has asked the HSE to prioritise the Emergency Department at the hospital so that patients can be given a bed as quickly as possible.

A LONG awaited section of the Ennis inner relief road is due to go to tender before the end of the month, according to Ennis Town Council.

The road, which will link Clare Road and Station Road, is being constructed to ease traffic flows in the town centre.

To facilitate the project, a significant redevelopment of one of Ennis’ best known buildings, Madden Furniture, has been underway for the past 12 months.

According to owner Michelle Madden, work on the building, which was formerly Paddy Con’s Hall, is nearing completion.

“Our building is practically finished. We should be open in a few weeks. We will be opening our showrooms in a few weeks and we welcome the road and we think its going to be good for Ennis and the town and traffic in the area,” she said.

Ms Madden added, “We had to demolish one end of it and build back up the side. Last September we started demolition. We’re very much looking forward to having it open and getting back to some sort of normality. We feel it’s going to be good for Ennis in general.”

According to the latest quarterly progress report on Council projects, section E of the inner relief road should be in place in 2012.

The report states, “The Council is proceeding to tender the works on E-tenders in early September. Temporary work will be in place at side of Madden’s furniture during the tender process until the contractor takes possession of the site. It is anticipated that the inner relief road works will take six months from the date of commencement”.

Speaking at the September meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) said residents in Ardlea Road and Clare Road had concerns over the potential impact of the road on their property. He urged the Council to engage in a public consultation process with residents in the area.

IN ONE of his final interview before his tragic death last week, Clarebased Polish diver Artur Kozlowski, admitted that his mission to map the unexplored caves of North Clare and South Galway was extremely dangerous – with death the possible outcome of each solo dive.

Mr Kozlowski and his diving companion Jim Warny successfully mapped more than 13 km of dangerous underwater caves in the Burren region over the past six years. This work was achieved through of more then 60 solo dives.

“This was virgin exploration so we don’t know what is behind the next corner. We can’t see it because the visibility is so low, about one and a half metres, so it is dangerous,” Arthur told The Clare People last year.

“Because the caves are so small the dives are safer to be undertaken by one person at a time. So if you get into difficulty under there you are really on your own. You are on your own but we do have back-ups to all our equipment and we are both very well trained.”

Mr Kozlowski body was recovered from a cave in Kiltartan, just north of Gort, last Saturday, five days after he undertook his final underwater dive. His body was recovered by a specially trained British rescue team just before 5pm on Saturday, before his remains were taken for a postmortem at University college Hospital in Galway.

The British team, which was led by Coventry firefighter Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, working with the Doolin based Irish Cave Rescue Organisation and the local Gardaí, to complete the rescue operation.

The British team had been flown in as part of an inter-governmental request, due to their international expertise in cave rescue situations. Mr Kozlowski’s mother and sister also travelled to Ireland and prayers were said at the scene on Saturday evening by local priest Fr Tommy Marrinan.

Arthur went into the water at 3pm on Monday, September 5, and had enough oxygen to last until approximately 9.30pm that evening. The alarm was raised when he did not return and it was hoped that the experienced diver might have found an air pocket in a section of the underground cave.

In a statement over the weekend the Speleological Union of Ireland, the national organising body for caving, offered it condolences to his family saying that in recent years Artur has been pushing Irish cave diving to its furthest limits.

“Artur’s life was devoted to cave diving. He died pursuing his dreams, exploring to the limits,” it said.

TWO tragedies marred the summer on the county’s waters.

After a busy summer on the county’s beaches, the 30 lifeguards completed their final tasks of 2010 at the weekend.

The lifeguards at the county’s beaches finished their duties for this year at the end of August, but those at the busiest beaches – Lahinch, Kilkee, Spanish Point and Fanore worked until Sunday evening.

There were two tragedies on the waters in Clare – the death of a Limerick woman while out swimming near Liscannor in June and the death of a man while out fishing in Kilkee two weeks ago – during the summer.

A number of rescues took place during the summer months, the most serious of which were in Spanish Point after two people got into difficulty in separate swimming incidents.

The county’s Water Safety Officer Liam Griffin reflected on the summer, saying, “The weather wasn’t as good as we would like to see. There were a number of rescues. There were a couple at Spanish Point that were quite serious.”

A number of other rescues also took place in Lahinch and Fanore. Lifeguards also had to deal with several missing children in several of the seaside resorts in Clare.

“We had 30 lifeguards on duty covering 12 different beaches; four in Lahinch, four in Kilkee, three in Spanish Point, three in Fanore and two at the others,” he said.

The other beaches covered were Bishop’s Quarter in Ballyvaughan; Doolin; White Strand, Miltown Malbay; Seafield, Quilty; Whitestrand, Doonbeg; Cappagh, Kilrush; Ballycuggeran and Mountshannon.

Mr Griffin stressed the importance of swimming in public areas over the coming months when the lifeguards are off duty.

“In many cases, people are not aware of the dangers of the water. If people are in strange places, they should ask locals. People who lose their lives in the West Clare area are not locals. Locals know and appreciate the dangers and will help,” said Mr Griffin.

“The advice is to go to areas regularly frequented by other users and don’t go swimming in isolated areas. If you are going boating, life jackets are vital. They are not expensive to buy,” he said.