Category: News

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.

AN ENNIS company has manufactured a new fish pass which could save a number of endangered species of fish from the threat of extinction.

Enform Plastics Limited, which is based in the Doora Industrial Estate, has played a major role in the development of Ireland’s first ever plastic fish pass. The company, which was selected by the MulkearLIFE, helped design and manufacture a series of hardened ABS plastic sheets, each containing of pegs, which would aid the passage of fish upstream.

The project is focussed on helping to preserve the stock of Sea Lamprey in the Shannon but the design could have far-reaching implications for other rivers and other breeds of fish.

“This is a revolutionary design – it is the first time that a plastic fish pass has been designed which can be easily attached to barriers to allow fish like these massive Sea Lamprey to pass successfully upstream,” said Ruairí Ó Conchúir, Project manager with the MulkearLIFE Project.

“Sea Lamprey are under serious threat at the moment and the River Shannon as well as rivers like the Fergus are very important for them. They have suffered a 50 per cent decline in their population numbers and one of the reason for this is man-made barriers which have prevented them from accessing their traditional spawning grounds.”

MulkearLIFE is a new € 1.75 million European Commission funded project which is focussed on the Lower Shannon Special Area of Conservation. An initial instalment of the passes has proved to be a great success in recent months.

“We have worked with researchers in America, Canada and France to develop the design that would work best for the Sea Lamprey. The easiest way of describing the design is like an inverted egg-box made out of a special type of plastic. Enform Plastic worked with us on the design and manufactured the sheets for us and so far it has proved to be a great success,” continued Ruairí.

“This is a unique design and the first time anything like this has been used in Ireland. We have been making night-time and early morning observations of weirs and that is what proved to us that the design have been very successful. On one of the most recent counts we recorded 170 fish used the wire itself and 140 of them used the fish passes. We are confident that this is proving to be a big success. We know that we can easily adapt this to other rivers.”

ENNIS took another large step towards hosting the All-Ireland Fleadh in 2012 this weekend when it hosted a delegation from the National Standing Committee of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.

With just 10 days to go until the announcement of who will host next years All-Ireland Fleadh, this was the local committees last change to influence the destination of valuable votes on the National Committee.

Ennis is currently in a three way competition to secure the Fleadh with Sligo and Cavan Town all bidding to host the event. Hosting the All-Ireland Fleadh is worth an estimated € 35 million to the locality which hosts it – and it could be worth a multiple of that in spin off tourism opportunities around the county.

“They seemed very pleased by what they saw in Ennis and we got a very positive response from them. There was a very impressive presentation for them, not just from he local branch but from the entire community here in Ennis,” said Rory Casey of the Local Steering Group.

“We took the delegation on a tour of all the prospective around the town and they were very pleased with what they saw.

“It was a really good presentation and we think that nothing more could really have been done to try and sway them. Whatever way things turn out we can look back at this and know that we did everything we could possible have done to bring the Fleadh to Ennis for next year.

“We have been so impressed by the amount of local support that we have received. Everyone has gotten together behind the bid. It hasn’t just been the local Comhaltas, all of the state agencies, the business and tourism communities – everyone has pulled together to try and make this a reality. What was really great about the presentation is the sheer amount of other interested bodies who took part.

“This could be the making of the summer for Ennis. You are talking in the region of € 35 million and in the current climate that will be a major boost not just for Ennis but for all of County Clare. That is one of the main things that we are pushing – that this will be not just an Ennis event but something that can be spread out to all of the county and something that can benefit all of Clare.”

AN ALL-IRELAND champion fisherman believes wetlands along a section of the N85 Western Relief Road could be transformed into a wildlife sanctuary. Ennis man Jimmy Allard says he has contacted Ennis Town Council about developing the area of land between Beechpark and the One Mile Inn as a sanctuary.

Jimmy and Clarecastle fisherman Michael Colleran recently released a new batch of 80 mallard ducklings into a lake in the area.

“I wanted to make a sanctuary out of it. It would be a great thing to have especially in the summer,” he says. “We released a few ducks in the lake; about 80 in the last two months. It’s a lovely area to put them in. They have plenty of freedom and room there and it’s grassy and they seem to be getting on well.”

Jimmy also believes that the re-built river wall at Parnell Street car park is too high and is denying children a chance to interact with wildlife.

The wall was built as part of works on the Ennis Flood Relief Scheme, a two-phase project to improve flood defences in the town centre.

The defences are credited with ensuring that large areas of Ennis town centre were not submerged under water when heavy floods hit the town in November 2009.

He says, “The big wall is a problem all the time. You have to lift a child to feed the ducks. It’s a pity you can’t raise the footpath or something. You see a lot of tourists down there trying to take photographs of the field.”

One of Ireland’s most successful fishermen, Jimmy is a three-time All-Ireland fly fishing champion and international gold medal winner. He was the first person to introduce ducks and geese to the River Fergus in 1990 and is currently chairman of the Clare Regional Game Council.

Jimmy believes that apart from a few lakes, it was a bad year for fishing because of the weather.

THE Merriman Summer School, which concluded in Lisdoonvarna on Sunday, has backed a campaign by a west Clare county councillor to create a bursary in honour of former Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald.

Fine Gael councillor, Gabriel Keating, was behind the motion that was tabled at the June meeting of Clare County Council, and now two months later, the 44th Merriman Summer School has endorsed his move that’s to be considered by local authority chiefs.

“Garret Fitzgerald attended a number of Merriman schools over the years and made a value contribution to this Clare festival,” a Cumman Merriman spokesperson told The Clare People on Sunday, “and it would be fitting indeed if this contribution was honoured in Clare,” he added.

Councillor Keating has called for “Clare County Council in conjunction with Clare VEC to award an annual bursary to promote the development of innovation in our secondary schools in recognition of Dr Fitzgerald”.

The motion won the backing of fellow councillors but Clare County Manager, Tom Coughlan pointed out that “the awarding of a bursary had financial implications” and that “the matter would need to be considered in the context of the 2012 Clare County Council Budget”.

“I would hope that this move to honour Dr Fitzgerald in Clare would happen,” Cllr Keating told The Clare People this week.

“Dr Fitzgerald was a man who helped shape modern Ireland and was a regular visitor to Clare and had connections with the county. In this context and as an educationalist, I think that it’s fitting that a bursary should be awarded in his honour,” added Cllr Keating.

“DON’T let it fail again”. That was the message from local priest Fr Harry Bohan at the official reopening of the Sixmilebridge Mart last Saturday.

Fr Bohan, who was deeply instrumental in the campaign to reopen the mart, warned that the only way that the mart could fail is if the local farmers stopped supporting it.

More than 500 cattle were sold at the mart last Saturday, far exceeding the number hoped for by the management committee. The mart, which was purchased by a co-operative style group of more then 600 local farmers earlier this year, has it’s first day of trade in almost two years.

The premises had been the subject of a protracted negotiations big between the local farmers and Golden Vale Marts (GVM) who had originally the land at almost twice the 300,000 that was paid for it.

According to local farmer Jim Enright, the first day of trading exceeded all expectations, and has firmly put the mart on the road to success. It had been feared that the protracted closure of the mart might have scared away it’s traditional sellers and buyers but that proved not to be the case on Saturday.

“It really was a great day, it exceed- ed all of our expectations. We had a massive crowd of people there for the launch itself and there was also a large crowd both buying and selling,” he told The Clare People yesterday.

“It is now a case of getting people back used to coming to the mart again and Saturday went a long way towards that.

“We had a lot of sellers from Clare but there was also a large crowd from Limerick and Tipperary and even some up from as far away as Kerry. We also had a good number of buyers in from the midlands and from the east coast which is also a good sign. In total we had more then 500 animals up for sale which was a good number.

“Fr Harry also gave a great address to open the mart. He said that if we are too lose this mart again that it would be our own fault for not using it.

“It was a great day overall. At lot of work has done into getting the mart up to scratch. Over the past weeks and months there has been teams of 30 of 40 men down there on the weekend and even in the nighttime cleaning, welding – doing whatever was needed to get the mark back into shape again.”

The Sixmilebridge Mart will be open every Saturday from now on between 12pm and 5pm.

THERE has been call for extra warning signs at a popular fishing spot near Kilkee where an off duty garda tragically fell to his death last week.

Adrian Martin (46) had been fishing from a 75-foot cliff at Dunlickey Point near Kilkee on Thursday with his six year-old son when the accident occurred. Other fishermen in the area raised the alarm when they saw the Monaghan native fall into the sea. A double tragedy was averted when another man out fishing intervened to ensure Mr Martin’s son didn’t fall over the edge.

Members of Kilkee Marine Rescue Service received a call to go to Dunlickey Point at 1.14pm. The rescue boat reached the scene at 1.32pm and a body wearing a red tracksuit top was seen floating in the water. Mr Martin’s body was recovered from the sea at 1.32pm and brought back to Kilkee Marine Rescue Centre where it was attended to by a local doctor, members of the ambulance service and the parish priest. Gardaí were present and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Manuel Di Lucia, a spokesman for Kilkee Marine Rescue Service, said, “A terrible tragedy especially for his young wife, his young little six yearold boy, who was on the cliff at the time and saw his father fall to his death. Only for other mackerel fishermen on the cliff, there is no knowing to what might have happened to that boy. They held him back.”

Mr Di Lucia has urged fishermen visiting Dunlickey Point to be careful. He said, “This is the first tragedy from that particular spot. My advice for people that are going there is to be very careful. It’s a very popular fishing area. At this point in time there is no point in saying people shouldn’t fish of it. They will. I would request that Clare County Council put up another sign to tell people that this cliff is a very dangerous area for fishing.”

As members were being de-briefed about the tragedy, the service received a call between 3.30pm and 4pm that snorklers had got into difficulty in Kilkee Bay.

One of the snorklers had returned to the shore but re-entered the water in order to save his friend. Mr Di Lucia explained, “He was in danger of actually drowning and his friend saved him and brought him onto the rocks in Kilkee. But in doing that he got badly cut to his knees and to his hand and a couple of marks on his head. The man that rescued the man actually got some injuries as well”.

The man received treatment for cuts and bruises, initially from members of the rescue service and later at Ennis General Hospital. The men are said to have made a full recovery.

A KILMIHIL woman is celebrating after becoming the first Clare musician in 10 years to take first place in the senior button accordion competition at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann.

Vanessa Millar took the prize at Ireland’s largest festival of traditional music and dance in Cavan earlier this month.

The 25-year-old musician hails from Greygrove in Kilmihil.

Vanessa has being playing classical and traditional music since she was eight years old. She entered her first fleadh competition at under 15 level.

A four time county champion (under 18 and senior), Vanessa has also won four Munster titles.

She is one of the founder members of Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Éireann (CCE) St. Michael’s and is currently Youth Officer with Clare County Board Comhaltas.

Her family are steeped in music. Vanessa’s grandfather, the late Paddy Murphy, was a concert flute player and the late Willie Clancy was a regular visitor to house dances at the old farmhouse at Greygrove. Her late grandaunt, Ida Millar studied classical piano and organ under Music Professor Ernest de Regge (1901-1958), who tragically lost his life in the Carmody’s Hotel disaster in Ennis in 1958. Her grandmother, hails from Kilfenora and Vanessa’s cousins there are keeping the tradi- tion going.

A former student of Clonigulane National School, Vanessa also attended St Michael’s Community College Kilmihil.

Vanessa furthered her studies at National University of Ireland, Galway and completed a masters in Irish traditional music at University of Limerick.

Vanessa said she would like to thank her parents for all the time and effort given to get to this level and to her younger sister, Caoimhe (All Ireland Winner 2010, U18, Button Accordion),

She adds, “Also, a special thanks to her Teacher and Master Accordion maker and former All-Ireland Senior Champion, Martin Connolly, whose help and master classes were invaluable over the last ten years”.

WELL known Clare priest and rural campaigner Fr Harry Bohan has called for a complete change in the way that the Church in Ireland is organised – with a return to a style of Church that was originally envisioned by Jesus.

Speaking to The Clare People yesterday, Fr Bohan said that the Church in Ireland had never fully embraced the changes suggested by the second Vatican Council which had resulted in an organised Church which was disconnected from the feeling of the people on the ground.

Fr Bohan said that is was because of this historic disconnect with the people that recent scandals with the Church and subsequent cover-ups were allowed to take place.

“As we look to the future of the Church in Ireland, I think that we have to look to the past – Jesus was a man of the people and the Church in Ireland has been one dominated by the hierarchy of clerics. It has been this top-down attitude which has led to the disconnect which exists between the Church and lay society,” he said.

“I think that we need a new defi- nition of leadership in the Church in Ireland. There has to be a systematic change in the way in which the clergy interacts with lay people. The number of priests are declining and there will be a much bigger role for lay people in the Church but that is not the reason why they must be involved – they should be involved because it is there right to be involved.”

Despite the current crisis in the Irish Church, Fr Bohan is confident that there is a future for organised Catholicism in Ireland.

“When you look back through history, which is something that I like to do, you begin to realise that a crisis like this is not something to be feared. It is through things like this that God brings us closer to his people,” he said.

Fr Bohan also described the recent abuse scandals in the Church – the crimes themselves and the Churches decision to hide from the scandals.

“I can say for certain that I didn’t even know that things like that existed,” he said.

“On two levels I’m appalled with the thing. Firstly, the fact that this kind of crime could have been committed, but secondly, the hiding of it.”