Category: News

THE establishment of a Certificate of Irishness could bring five million tourists to the mid-west region over a ten-year period.

That’s according to Clare County Councillor James Breen, who is strongly in favour of the establish- ment of the scheme, as proposed by Quin resident Gerry O’Neill.

Cllr Breen has endorsed the campaign established by Mr O’Neill and raised the issue at a meeting of Clare County Council last year.

“There are over 80 million people of Irish decent living in the US. I think this can turn Shannon Airport into what it was like in the Brendan O’Regan era,” he said.

He said that if the scheme is put on a firm footing by the government, the mid-west should be given priority, given that it is the brainchild of a man living in County Clare.

“It should be in the mid-west. We should get chartered flights into Shannon again. We want something in the west to make Shannon viable.”

“The idea was hatched in the midwest. There should be a central point in Shannon and people can travel around Ireland from there,” he told The Clare People . “I personally believe that it would bring over five million tourists into Shannon over 10 years. It will lead to strong links being forged,” he said.

He said that the introduction of such a scheme would bring pride to those of Irish ancestry. “Irish people are so proud of their heritage. The economy can be boosted. We can make Shannon Airport viable and into profit.”

A PROPOSAL from the Food Safety Authority to ban the sale of all unpasteurised milk will not effect plans by North Clare farmers to sell milk directly to the consumers. New Quay farmers Brid and Roger Fahy had planned to develop a number of milk dispensers in shops around the North Clare area where people could bring their own reusable containers and buy milk directly from the farmers.

The Fahys, who also own the Linnalla home made ice-cream company, have put the project on hold for the moment because of the recession but do plan to return to the direct sales model in the coming years.

According to Brid Fahy, the proposal put forward by the Food Safety Authority, while unusual, will not hurt their own business.

“The Food Safety Authority seem to want to ban it [the sale of all uspasteurised milk] even though it is something that is on sale commonly in many other countries all over Europe. It does seem to be a strange one but honestly there is very little unpasteurised milk out there,” she said. “I think that it’s is a case of somebody making a job for themselves – there are so few people producing milk which is unpasteurised at the moment. I really don’t think this will make a huge difference for people.

“We haven’t started up the milk vending machines yet but we had planned to put pasteurised milk into that and not unpasteurised. The only difference between our milk and milk that you would buy in a shop is that our milk would not be homogenised – which is something that many people would see as having a lot of health benefits.

“We haven’t been able to go ahead with that plan yet – we have been concentrating on getting the ice-cream business on a firmer footing but milk vending machines are something that we would intend to do in the future.

“Most of the people who want unpasteurised milk really want it because they want unhomogenised milk. In homogenised milk the cream on top or fat cells have become mixed with the milk so that you can’t take the milk without the cream.

“There is a wave against homogenised milk because it is believed that the broken down fat cells can go straight into the blood stream and in that way cause more damage to the body.”

LAST orders have been called for legendary Lahinch publican, Tom Frawley, who has been forced to give up working in his beloved pub because of ill health. Tom, who at 91 years-old was the oldest working publican in Ireland has been forced to call time on his working life after spending the last number of months at a nursing home in Liscannor.

Tom has worked in his world famous pub for more than 80 years having first began to help his mother behind the counter at the age of just 7 years.

DRUNK-DRIVING is more acceptable in Clare than in any other county in Ireland with more than half of all Clare drivers would “take the chance” of driving while possibly still drunk from the previous nights drinking according to a survey from the Automobile Association of Ireland.

According to the survey, which had 14,000 responses and is the largest survey of its kind ever undertaken in Ireland, 52.4 per cent of Clare drivers would drive while still a little drunk compared to 49.8 per cent in Cavan and 49.7 per cent in Limerick.

The survey also revealed that Clare people were the third most likely in Ireland to get into a car with someone who was possible drunk.

Ennis man and head of the Irish Drivers Association, John Lernihan, says that people need their head examined if they get into a car driven by someone who is over the alcohol limit.

“Would you go on a flight with a pilot who had drink taken? I know I wouldn’t. It is the same thing, you could be killed in the car just as easily as a pilot in a plane,” said John.

“Clare is a rural county and people don’t have the public transport which is available to them in Dublin or places like that but there is no excuse to drink and drive. If you are down in a place like Kilbaha, let’s say, and want to go into Kilkee, it just can’t be done with public transport.”

Mr Lernihan has blamed the governments policy of allowing drunk drivers to pay a fine and collect penalty points for putting a price on human lives.

“The idea is to make money. They are saying that it’s okay to chance killing someone by being drunk behind the wheel and people can get away with it by paying a fine. They are doing away with the court route – it’s about fines and penalty points now and that is all about making money for the government,” continued John.

“They are putting a value on people’s lives and I think that this is an insult to the people who have lost loved ones through drunken driving. They are now saying you can take a chance and drink and drive – and buy back your license after that. The Irish Drivers Association would be in favour of a mandatory ban – it is an insult to people and their right, especially those who have lost loved ones.”

PRESIDENTIAL candidate Michael D Higgins made a return to the place he calls home when he visited Newmarket-on-Fergus on Friday.

The Labour party’s choice to contest the presidential election opened the Newmarket Village Carnival, which was headlined by Dublin band Republic of Loose.

Mr Higgins was raised by his uncle and aunt at their home in Ballycar and went to school in St Flannan’s College.

He recalled, “It was really where I was reared. My father, my grandfather and great grandfather are all from Ballycar. My sister lives in Shannon. My brother farms in Ballycar in the home place and his nephews are now building their houses there. It is where I have my roots. I was born in Limerick city because my father had his business there before his health broke but I was reared from the age of five in Ballycar. I went to St Flannan’s so my brother and myself went in and out every day. I was 19 when I left Clare. I worked for a few months in Progress International in Shannon and then I took the offer of a job with the ESB in Galway.”

He added, “So then I worked there for two years and then I went to England and went through university in America and then in England. Then I came back to teach and then I decid ed to give myself to the public world and stand for the Labour Party. But Clare is where my roots are.”

Mr Higgins was speaking in Ennis at the opening of the Ennis Guitar School, a new venture started by another Newmarket native, Mike Varden.

Former Horslips guitarist Johnny Fean was among the musicians who performed at the opening.

Mr Higgins, a former Minister for Culture, said “Clare has a rich tradition in traditional and contemporary music and this guitar school will help to develop and advance this. The Ennis Guitar School is an invaluable resource for the people of Ennis and the surrounding area, allowing its students, young and old, experienced and novice, to embrace the power of music and develop their talent.”

IT LOOKS certain that one of Ireland’s most controversial clerics, Bishop Eamon Casey, will never again say Mass in public after he was taken into a Clare nursing home last week because of ill health.

The former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora has been in a virtual limbo in the parish of Shanaglish on the Clare/Galway border since his return to Ireland in 2006.

Bishop Casey has been technically a practicing priests for the parish but has not been allowed to say Mass locally and has instead had to content himself by saying Mass for himself in his home.

Bishop Casey, who is a popular figure in the locality, was admitted to a Clare nursing home last week for a period of “respite”. One local man, who is a close neighbour of Bishop Casey, says that the disgraced bishop is “a proud man” and is hoping to return to his own home as quickly as possible.

“I was told that he would be making an appearance in the local pub this week, that he would be given a passout for the night, but we will have to wait and see,” said one neighbour.

“I know that the woman from the shop in Gort will be asking me when he [Bishop Casey] be back in to collect his daily paper again. But we don’t know. He is a proud man and I have no doubt that he will want to back to his house in Shanaglish again soon.”

A spokesperson from the Galway Diocese declined to make any statement of the health of Bishop Casey yesterday saying it was a personal matter but did confirm that there had been no change is Bishop Casey’s position regarding saying Mass again locally.

Bishop Casey was one of Ireland’s most popular religious figures before it was discovered that he had fathered a child with an Irish American woman, Annie Murphy, in 1974. This was one of the biggest scandals ever to hit the Irish Church when it came to light in 1992 and prompted Bishop Casey to tender his resignation and leave the country.

After 1992, Bishop Casey then chose to embrace the life of a foreign missionary in South America and worked with members of the Missionary Society of St James in a rural parish in Ecuador.

After a number of years in South America he moved to England before returning again to Shanaglish in 2006.

THE future of Shannon Airport should not be reliant on the activities of the United States military.

That’s according to the Labour Party’s presidential candidate Michael D Higgins who said last week that he thinks “it’s very wrong to be saying to the people of Clare that you approve war under conditions”.

New figures have shown that almost two million US military personnel have passed through Shannon since 2001.

The figures provided by the UD Department of Defence also suggested that the number of flights and personnel traveling through Shannon more than doubled in 2003 when America began its invasion of Iraq.

Asked on Friday for his views on the US military’s continued use of Shannon, Mr Higgins told The Clare People

FORMER Clare Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Daly was the unlikely name mentioned in the latest round of leaked cable released by the WikiLeaks organisation last week.

Mr Daly, who departed political life after the 2007 General Election, was mentioned in a communication between the US Embassy in Dublin and the American Government in Washington in relation to the “Shannon Five” who damaged an US plane parked in Shannon Airport.

The leaked top-secret document claimed that Mr Daly, who was a Senator at the time, contacted the Director of Public Prosecutions and requested an appeal against the notguilty verdict handed out to the protesters.

Speaking to The Clare People last night Mr Daly said that it was no secret that he was in favour of the use of Shannon Airport by the US Military.

He also said that he had no direct contact with anyone from the US Embassy but did remember receiving a call from someone who identified themselves as being from US Homeland Security around the time of the trial but had assumed that it was a crank call from some of his “friends in Dublin”.

“I felt at the time the we were right to allow the US to use the airport and my opinion on that hasn’t changed. It is something that is creating jobs locally and if we said no to it then they would simply fly out through Amsterdam or some other airport instead,” he said.

“I do remember at the time getting a call from someone saying they were from Homeland Security in America but I assumed at the time that it was Dooley [Clare TD Timmy Dooley] or some of my friends up in Dublin making the call.”

The Shannon Watch Organisation have been critical of Mr Daly’s stance on the matter, saying that it showed a lack of respect for the Irish judicial process.

“This cable suggests that he was not satisfied to take the decision of an Irish court – he wanted to interfere and find some way that the decision could be overturned,” said John Lannon of Shannonwatch.

“We don’t know what contact Mr Daly may have made with the DPP – whether that it was official or non official contact – but we do know that it became known to the American Ambassador that Senator Daly wanted to overturn the decision of an Irish court.”

THE men and women of the Irish Coast Guard’s helicopter search and rescue service based in Shannon will be the subject of a major new RTÉ series that begins

RTÉ cameras have been given exclusive access into the Irish Coast Guard’s helicopter Search and Rescue service based in Shannon. Filmed over a number of months, the six-part series follows the rescue crews at Shannon helicopter base, otherwise known as RESCUE 115, as they battle to save lives in one of the most hostile environments in the world.

Highlights from the series include the rescue of a group of young chil- dren stranded on a boat on the Shannon mud flats, and the dramatic rescue of a crew from a British nuclear submarine.

Even in the darkest nights and roughest seas, the men and women of the Irish Coast Guard continue to do a courageous job. With no second chances this small and efficient band of professionals and volunteers often put themselves in danger for the lives of others. In this episode the crew of Rescue 115 are called when a boat full of young children face danger on the River Shannon.

In another area a man is dangerously close to falling into rough seas and clings to some rocks with the hope of being rescued. And an injured woman on the top of Mount Brandon needs Rescue 115’s assistance.

Members of the Shannon-based rescue service joined Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind), at a special preview of the series in the Old Ground Hotel last week.

The Irish Coast Guard has contracted six medium-lift Sikorsky Search and Rescue helicopters deployed at bases in Dublin, Waterford, Shannon and Sligo. The helicopters are designated wheels up from initial notification in 15 minutes during daylight hours and 45 at night. One aircraft is fitted and its crew trained for under slung cargo operations up to 3000kgs and is available on short notice based at Waterford.

GARDAI have outlined details of a number of recent burglaries that have taken place around Clare in recent weeks.

Gardai in Scariff are investigating a burglary that occurred at a house in Furnace, Whitegate, between 8.40am and 6pm on August 25.

Thieves gained access through a rear window. Items taken include a small amount of cash, two gold wedding rings, one diamond engagement ring (two small diamonds set beside a large diamond on a gold band), a gold wishbone ring, a thick gold chain with a weave design halfway round, a gold bracelet with red stone on the top, a gold chain and a gold ring with three red stones.

A burglary took place at a house in Lenabeg, Ennis, between 2.50pm on August 24 and 5.50pm and August 25. A 19-inch plasma television, an X-Box 360 console, a silver chain, a small sum of money and a black Nintendo DS.

A house in Tullagower, Kilrush, was ransacked between 8pm and 10pm on August 28. Burglars gained entry to the house by forcing open the rear door. A landline telephone and television were taken in the incident.

In Knockera, Kilrush, a quantity of diesel was stolen from two diggers parked in the area. The burglary occurred between 7pm on August 23 and 9am on August 24. Also stolen were two sets of sockets, tool box with tools inside, two large spanners and three ratchets.

A burglary took place at a house in Clarehill, Clarecastle, between 11.45pm on August 28 and 3.30am on August 29. Items stolen were a Dell laptop, a house key and a lady’s purse.

Also in Clarecastle, an incident of criminal damage occurred when two back passenger windows were smashed in a car parked outside a house at St Joseph’s Terrace.

In Kilnamona, the front bumper, front grill, front headlights and two wing mirrors were stolen from a Grey Isuzu jeep that was parked in a field. The incident occurred between 6pm on August 25 and 8am on August 26. Gardaí in Ennistymon are investigating.