Category: News

CONFIRMATION that the opening of Loophead Lighthouse as a visitor centre has been the story of the 2011 tourism year in Clare was heralded this week with the news that over 17,000 people have paid into the facility in the six weeks since it was opened to the public. The Clare People has learned that the new tourism venture at Clare’s most westerly tip has netted over € 50,000 in revenues since it was opened to the public on July 18 last – a huge surge of numbers and revenues that has prompted the project promoters to keep the facility opened for a further month.

The lighthouse was due to close on Sunday last, September 4, but will now remain open for the rest of the month as tourism in West Clare reaps the benefits of opening of the facility to the public that was two years in the making after it was first suggested by way of a motion to Clare County Council by Loophead councillor Gabriel Keating in July 2009.

The opening of the lighthouse to visitor traffic for the first time in its 117-year history is a pilot project being pioneered by Clare County Council in conjunction with Loophead Tourism, Shannon Development and the Commissioners of Irish lights.

Traffic figures secured by The Clare People this week have revealed that over 17,000 people have paid € 3 a head to visit the tower of the lighthouse helping push revenues past the € 50,000 mark while over 20,000 have grounds of the Commissioners of Irish Lights owned facility.

“We believe this is another major step in enhancing West Clare’s tourism product offering,” said Shannon Development’s tourism officer Siobhan King said this week.

“Our work on the Loop Head Lighthouse project is part of a range of initiatives that we have undertaken this year in West Clare which include new loop walks in Lissycasey and Kilkee, with more proposals in the pipeline. We look forward to welcoming an increased number of visitors to the area,” she added.

IRELAND’S last living matchmaker, Willie Daly, says he is the man to find a fourth husband for lovelorn singer Sinead O’Connor.

O’Connor, who says she is looking for an older man, with “leather trouser-wearing gardaí” and farmers a special fancy, last month admitted that she would have joined an online dating service long ago but feared that the media would find out and scupper her chances of love.

With the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival just getting underway, Willie Daly believes that he would have no problem finding a match for O’Connor.

“Over the years, quite a lot of celebrities have come and attended the festival. They would be surprised themselves about how much they would be attracted by a lot of the people attending the festival. The men and women who come to the festival do get on very well together and maybe people can be reluctant to go up to someone who might be that bit famous,” said Willie.

“Sometimes people are put off by the bit of celebrity but Sinead O’Connor seems like a lovely person. She sounds like a very down-to-earth person and that is what the people who come to the festival are looking for. Lisdoonvarna is a real holdinghands kind of place. Maybe later on in the night they might have other thoughts but early in the evening it is a very romantic little town.”

This year’s festival got underway over the weekend and will continue for the next five weeks. According to Willie Daly, the people contacting the matchmaking service this years are more serious and more interested in marriage.

“The festival builds up bit by bit each week and we did get a lot of people already this weekend. We got a lot of serious people, people looking for marriage. In the past, anyone who would come early might have been looking for fun but it really seems like marriage is back in a bit way, much more than in the last four or five years anyway,” said Willie.

“I think that the need for security has crept back in. If people are on the dole or they have low incomes, I think that maybe they feel that two incomes are better than one. We did a lot of introductions last weekend we introduced a lot of people on Saturday and Sunday night.

“We’ve had a lot of women down this weekend. Maybe there will be more men as the week goes on. We are looking for a nice balance but at the moment we have a lot of women interested.”

WEST Clare tourism has received a huge shot in the arm this week thanks to the decision by Shannon Development to keep the its tourist office in Kilrush open for a month longer than previous years.

The move by the state agency to keep the tourist office that located on Frances Street in town comes on the back of what was a good tourist season in West Clare and the expectation that this strong showing can continued for the month of September.

Shannon Development, which has responsibility for operating tourist centres in Kilrush, Kilkee and Ennis, confirmed that extended opening hours had been put in pace in at the Kilrush centre “to meet a demand that’s out there for the service”.

And, The Clare People can reveal that the success of the Loophead Lighthouse initiative has been the main driving force for ensuring that tourism in the West Clare catchment area has been boosted in 2011.

“The Kilrush Tourist Information Office was due to close at the beginning of September but with the phenomenal success of the Loop Head Lighthouse in attracting visitors to the area we have decided to extend the opening until the end of September,” revealed Siobhan King, Shannon Development Tourism Officer for the county.

“We are doing this to facilitate additional visitors who are being drawn to the area. To-date almost 15,000 visitors have been attracted to this wonderful heritage site and we intend to do all we can to maximise on this.”

The tourist office was to close last Wednesday, August 31, but will now remain open for seven days a week on the back of the success of the Loophead initiative. It’s opening hours are 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm from Monday to Saturday and from 10am to 2pm on Sundays.

Meanwhile, the Shannon Development operated tourist centre in Kilkee has closed after a three-month season. It re-opened on June 1 last and operated from 9.30am to 5.30pm from Tuesday to Saturday of each week, despite fears locally that there would be reduced opening hours which would eventually lead to its permanent closure.

Now after a successful season, the local Chamber of Commerce is set to ramp up its campaign to have the tourist office moved from its traditional O’Connell Street home to the newly renovated Sweeney Memorial Library, which is set to re-open in 2012.

AIR QUALITY issues have emerged yet again in Shannon, according to local residents in the town.

The town has been plagued by concerns over unsavoury smells emanating in recent years. In March of this year, the Environmental Protection Agency put monitoring measures in place and recorded a result of ‘good’ at the time. This was upgraded to the top possible result of ‘very good’ last month, and the latest figures are set to be made available later this week.

The EPA’s mobile laboratory, which is located in the town, actively analy ses the quality of air in the town and surrounding areas. This is part of a comprehensive assessment of air quality in all major cities and towns in Ireland.

However, Fine Gael Senator Tony Mulcahy, who first brought the issue to the public’s attention several years ago, said that there have been several complaints in recent weeks over odours. “We have a very bad sewage smell and an unsavoury pungent odour. I have had complaints from Smithstown and the lower half of the town; Ballycasey and Tullyvarraga. I am getting a very bad sewage smell myself,” said Mr Mulcahy, who lives in the town. “I am getting complaints about a pungent odour at weekends. A few people have rang me with the same thing,” he said.

“If it is a sewage issue we need it cleaned up as soon as possible. We need it identified,” he said. “Up until now there hasn’t been an issue but in the last two weeks there has been a smell. We had a similar issue last year. It is something we need to resolve. We need to establish where they are coming from,” said Mr Mulcahy.

When the EPA announced the measure in March, it indicated that the initiative would continue for up to a year. The assessment was started, on foot of requests from local town councillors. This 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.

In addition to the trailers that are moved from one location to another, there is also a fixed network whereby a number of sites nationwide are monitored on a continuous basis. One of those sites is Ennis. Concentrations of oxides of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and benzene and toluene are being measured. The index is based on four parameters – sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and particulate matter.

According to data from the EPA, there was one exceedance of particulate matter to-date this year.

THREE local companies will be rewarded for their ingenuity this Thursday with the first ever Innovation in the Community Awards. The awards, which are being organised by Gort solicitor and cleric abuse campaigner Eileen McMahon, aim to recognise local businesses who use the natural resources available in the west of Ireland to good effect.

The identity of the three shortlisted business are as yet unknown but they are drawn from more than a dozen local companies in Clare and South Galway.

“One of my interests in dealing with people who suffered from trauma. When I set up my complementary health business, I tried to source products from Ireland and the local areas and there wasn’t really anything around. I had to import everything from the UK. I think we should be using more of our resources and trying to creat things which are based locally. That is what sparked the idea,” said Eileen. “I was interest in any ideas from the community. Whether someone is a cleaner or the head of a million pound company, there is no telling where the good ideas will come from. Often times it is people in the front line of a business, people who are dealing with a problem on a daily basis, are the people who are able to find a good way of getting around that problem.”

The awards night will take place at the Lady Gregory Hotel in Gort this Wednesday from 7pm. The guest speakers on the night will include Bobby Kerr from the Dragon’s Den, Eileen herself and Richard Griffin, who is a specialist in power generation. “The idea of the competition is to get people to think. For them to look around their area and think how they could survive if they couldn’t get something from outside their area,” continued Eileen.

“The idea is to help local people who have good ideas to be able to take that idea forward. A lot of companies are coming into Ireland and setting up, and that is fine but I think we need to look more about creating something for ourselves.”

Winners of the competition will be announced on the night. For information or to book a table for the finals night call 091 632426.

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.

TRADERS in Ennis are pulling out all stops today in a bid to give the retail trade the kind of boost that can have the domino effect of bringing more people into the county capital to do their shopping.

As part of the ‘Super Tuesday’ initiative that has been pioneered by Cllr Frankie Neylon and Mayor of Ennis, Michael Guilfoyle, traders have come up with a host of promotions in a bid to attract an influx of shoppers to the town.

“It’s a very basic thing,” says the chairman of O’Connell Street Traders, Gearóid Mannion. “It’s an attempt by councillors Neylon and Guilfoyle to do their bit to help the retailers and traders a bit of a boost, to try and generate a bit of excitement and enthusiasm and create a buzz on what might be expected to be a normally quiet enough Tuesday.

“The idea is that business in town would offer something small for free, or a special offer, or a small discount, two for one, or whatever might be. In the case of Tom Mannion Travel, if you buy a holiday, you get free travel insurance,” he added.

“It’s not about giving away big things. There are no flat screen televisions here. It’s something very small to try and generate something that’s brought about by the collective strength of traders themselves.”

The idea for a ‘Super Tuesday’ was first floated by Cllr Neylon at a meeting of Ennis Town Council in July, and since then the former town mayor has spearheaded its implementation along with current mayor, Cllr Michael Guilfoyle.

“The response we have got to the idea has been great,” says Cllr Neylon. “We sent fliers around and the feedback we got was that this was something businesses wanted to do to try and bring more people into the town.

“The idea is that instead of making a profit for the day that they might make a customer. It’s to have a special day. They can do whatever they want. It’s left totally to themselves to do what they want. We want each trader to have their own Super Tuesday – they can do what ever kind of promotion they want with their business,” he adds. “One of the better aspects about the whole thing is that every business is not doing the same thing. It has been embraced by the business community in the town and the good thing about this that it could become an annual thing.

“It’s trying to create the incentive for people to come into the town to shop and then try and keep them coming back,” he adds.

GARDAÍ are investigating the seizure of four kilos of methadrone, a heroin substitute, in two connected hauls over the weekend. The total value of the drug is almost € 175,000.

The first two kilos was seized by gardaí during the search of a car on the Tulla Road in Ennis last Thursday afternoon.

In a follow-up search, another two kilos of the drug was seized in a bog in the Ballymaley area on Saturday evening. The drugs discovered in each seizure is valued at approximately € 87,000, according to gardaí.

A man in his 40s, from county Clare, was arrested at the scene on Thursday. He was detained at Ennis Garda Station, before being released without charge on Saturday evening. A file is being prepared by gardaí for the DPP’s office.

Gardaí say that the amount of this type of drug – which was sold in the head shops nationwide prior to their closure last year – is significant.

The head of the Clare Garda Division Chief Superintendent John Kerin said gardaí are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the seizures of the cheaper substitute for heroin.

“This is the first significant seizure in Clare and we are not aware of too many of them around the country. It’s unusual in this regard,” he said. He described the amount seized as “surprising”. “It is a substitute for heroin and is very addictive. The amount found is quite surprising. We would never have come across anything of this nature previously,” he said. “People of any age group who are sampling them are likely to get addicted. People were using them and there were all kinds of bad reactions to them and they have led to the commission of crime. It has serious side effects and has been known to be involved in the commission of crime, criminal damage and attempted suicide,” he said. “They can be even more addictive than heroin and cocaine,” he said. “We are delighted to take it off the streets. It’s worrying that we have a quantity like this,” he said. This significant seizure follows six seizures of small quantities of the drug from individuals during random searches by gardaí in recent months.

PLANS to pump water from the River Shannon to supply the Dublin region could have “significant impacts” on fish populations, according to Inland Fisheries Ireland.

Dublin City Council has unveiled plans that if passed would result in 410m litres of water a day being taken from the Shannon at Lough Derg during periods of flooding and when conditions are suitable.

In a submission to the council, the fisheries board states that the estimat ed € 500 million project would affect water levels, having an “effect on the lake shore line with fluctuations in water levels which could have significant impacts on spawning success of coarse fish populations”.

The submission continues, “In the fisheries context we still have concerns about the impact on the lake, the fish habitat and fish in particular. An in-depth fish survey of the lake would be required, with particular emphasis on the Irish Pollan.”

The council states, “Modelling results demonstrate abstractions from Lough Derg will not result in changes to current operating lake levels as outlined in the ‘Regulations and Guidelines for Control of the River Shannon’. The proposed abstraction can be off-set by Ardnacrusha generation activities (with ESB approval), which can be modified to compensate for marginal reductions in flows.”

On concerns over the impact on fish habitats, it states, “The proposed abstraction from northern Lough Derg will be managed in conjunction with the availability of external storage at Garryhinch cutaway bog.” The report continues, “The proposed use of external storage (as per recommended Option F2) enables poten tial environmental issues resulting from residence time increases during low flow periods to be minimised/ eliminated (e.g. nutrient flushing and phytoplankton ecology), which have potential knock-on influences up through the trophic levels.”

KILRUSH was once considered as a potential site for the Harland & Wolff shipyard, but it’s as close as the West Clare capital came to the Titanic – the ill-fated White Star Line ship that came to a watery end on the Atlantic 100 years ago next April.

Until now that is, because this Tuesday – 150 years after Harland & Wolff nearly made a home for itself in Kilrush – the Titanic is finally coming to West Clare thanks Jackie Whelan’s West Clare Railway in Moyasta that’s being given a lead part in new documentary on the most famous vessel in maritime history.

International distributor ZDF Enterprises is co-producing a € 1.6 million documentary on the men below the Titanic’s deck with Irish production company Tile Films and German-based Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion.

“They’ve come to the West Clare for a couple of reasons,” Whelan told The Cla re People this week. “I have the only steam-operated engine in the country and the final journey made by a lot of people before they boarded the Titanic was on a steam train. “They are re-enacting that scene, while they also want to film the boiler we have in the Slieve Callan engine, because in many ways its similar to the boilers that were used to power the Titanic,” added Whelan. Saving the Titanic, which will be available to mark the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking on April 14, 2012, will use eyewitness accounts to tell the story of six engineers who were below the Titanic’s deck. The production budget is more than € 1.6 million and will include largescale re-enactments and computer generated imagery to bring to life the last hours of the Titanic. The Irish/German co-production is being funded by ZDF Enterprises, RTÉ, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and the Irish Film Board. “It’s great that they’re coming back to the West Clare,” said Whelan. “Four or five different film crews have been here for filming and it’s great publicity for what we are trying to do,” he added. The West Clare Railway’s first brush with film came back in 1956 when acclaimed Holywood director John Ford used the narrow gauge railway to film