Category: News

AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after tragedy was narrowly averted at Shannon Airport on Sunday morning, when a plane slid from the runway after landing in heavy winds.

The plane, which was carrying 21 passengers and four crew members at the time, was badly damaged in the incident but no-one was injured in the accident.

Investigators are believed to be focusing on the landing gear in the nose section of the plane, which is believed to have malfunctioned on landing.

After landing, the plane veered off the runway and crashed into a number of signs on the side of the runway, causing extensive damage to the plane.

The aircraft, which is operated by Aer Arann, was covering the scheduled Aer Lingus Manchester to Shannon flight when the accident took place.

The incident forced the closure of Shannon Airport for more than five hours on Sunday, with normal service suspended from 10.30am to 4pm.

A spokesperson from Aer Arann confirmed to The Clare People yesterday that an issue with the planes front landing gear is currently being investigated.

“As the aircraft landed on its second approach at around 10.30am, it experienced a suspected failure of the nose wheel landing gear and veered off the runway onto the grass,” said the spokesperson.

“Aer Arann cannot speculate as to the cause of the incident and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU), branch of the Department of Transport have been informed.”

A number of flights, both entering and leaving the airport, were either delayed or diverted but no flights were cancelled as a result of the incident.

The Air Accident Investigation Unit is currently investigating the incident but cannot confirm the likely cause of the accident until that investigation is complete.

The plane is understood to have skidded along the runway for more than 100 metres before it veered off the runway and came to a stop.

Wind speeds in the area were gusting as high as 35 miles per hour at the time and the plane had been experiencing extreme turbulence.

Fire brigades from Shannon and Ennis as well as a number of ambulances from Limerick and Ennis were sent to the scene, and all passengers and staff were evacuated without incident.

A 28-YEAR-OLD man has been charged with raping a female in Ennis.

The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault of a 28-year-old female at an address in Ennis, on January 14 last.

Garda Hilda Moloney told Ennis District Court on Friday that she met the accused that morning and charged him with three alleged offences.

She told Judge Joseph Mangan that the accused did not reply to charge after caution.

Defence solicitor Siobhán McMahon applied for free legal aid for her client and sought bail.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that gardaí were not objecting to bail, on an independent surety of € 5,000 along with the defendant’s own bail of € 2,000; none of which was to be lodged.

Bail conditions were imposed, including that the accused does not contact the alleged injured party or any witnesses in the case. He was also ordered to provide an address to the State.

Judge Joseph Mangan adjourned the case until September, for preparation of the Book of Evidence.

CLARE County Council has been asked to provide information on an investigation into a fire that destroyed a house in the Ballymaley Traveller accommodation scheme last week.

At a meeting of councillors in the Ennis west electoral area, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) called on the council to provide an update on “what inves tigations are taking place and where the occupants have gone”.

A house at the site was burned out at around 4.30pm on Saturday, July 2. Gardaí are investigating the circumstances of the fire. The damage to a unit of Clare County Council’s Traveller accommodation stock follows incidents which took place in the Ennis area last year.

In May, two houses in the Ashline halting site on the Kilrush Road were burnt in an arson attack. One of the houses was extensively damaged, while the other was also damaged by the fire. In February (2010), houses at the Beechpark Traveller accommodation site were also badly damaged in an arson attack.

At the time, Clare County Council was forced to spend € 51,000 on repairs, while a further € 2,800 a week was spent on security arrangements at the site. Traveller families moved away from the site, which was built at a cost of two million euros.

A RELIGIOUS group will spend a week going door-to-door in north Clare this month to raise awareness of a special event being organised to tackle depression in the county, and to inform local people about the Ennis Evangelical Church and spread the teachings of the Gospel.

From July 25 to 29, four volunteers hope to visit as many homes as possible in a five- to 10-mile radius of Lisdoonvarna to highlight a free ‘Coping with Depression’ event.

The event is being coordinated locally by Lisdoonvarna man Phil Pain, who is a member of the Ennis Evangelical Church and whose son suffered from depression.

The Ennis Evangelical Church has been in operation in Clare for more than 34 years and teaches an orthodox Christian faith with an emphasis on the teachings in the Bible.

“The four people will base themselves in Lisdoonvarna and cover as much of the area as they can. They will knock on doors and ask if they can share the word of the gospel with the people inside or if no-one is there they will leave some material about the church and about the depression event,” Phil Pain told The Clare People yesterday.

“Depression is a real issue now in Ireland, especially in rural Ireland. When things aren’t going so well, when the economy is suffering, people feel trapped and lose homes. Suicide is unfortunately a frequent recourse for people in this position.”

Dr Steve Critchlow will be the main speaker at the free ‘Coping with Depression’ event which takes place at the Pavillion Theatre in Lisdoonvarna on Friday, July 29 from 7.45pm. The evening is aimed both at people who are suffering from depression and also at their families and loved ones.

Mr Pain said, “When I heard that my son might have been suffering from depression, I was totally taken by surprise. We were alerted to it when he started acting irrationally – he had quite a good job but he stopped going to work.

“When it came out that he was suffering from depression, I had no idea what I could do. I had never experienced anything like it myself so I could not empathise.”

“My son knew that something was going wrong but he couldn’t talk to us about it. He had felt ashamed to talk to us. That must have been awful, feeling like he could not turn to anyone. I felt totally useless when I heard. I was his dad, I had spent my life helping him but for this I felt that there was nothing that I could do.

“I found that one of the key things was just to be there and to listen just to be there for when they want to open up.”

THE first march aimed at legalising cannabis ever to take place in Clare is scheduled to go ahead in Ennis on Wednesday, August 10.

The march, which is being organised by Bunratty woman Niamh O’Brien, will include a “peaceful protest” and march in the county town followed by an information session at a venue in Ennis yet to be confirmed.

Ms O’Brien, who operated her own business in Ennis, suffers from a painful and debilitating bent spine and uses medicinal cannabis to treat the pain. The use of medicinal cannabis is legal in many states in America as well as in a number of EU countries but is currently treated no differently from the use on recreational cannabis in Ireland.

The Clare branch of the Legalisation of Cannabis in Ireland organisation is encouraging people who have doubts about the movement to come to the meeting and voice their concerns.

“I am hoping to have a little peaceful protest march through Ennis to a place where we can have a meeting and a proper questions and answers session. I would hope that concerned parents, drugs councillors, politicians, nurses and doctors would come along to that. I am hoping to get a large group of people in to talk about this, especially people who are seeing people abusing drugs each day at the side of the street,” Niamh told The Clare People yesterday.

“This is an opportunity to question the Government on the current laws because we feel they are not working. I think it is more important that the people who don’t agree with us come along. It’s about opening up a dialogue and education. We want to show people that prohibition just doesn’t work and has always made things worse.”

One of the main speakers on the day will be Irish American Vincent Lavery, who was the personal secretary to assassinated US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy and a pro-legalisation campaigner.

“This is the first time that something like this will happen in Clare so I think it will be an important day for Clare people to come out and let their opinion on this matter be heard. We are still waiting to confirm the day of the march 100 per cent but when we do we will let people know,” continued Niamh.

Cannabis has been proved to have medicinal benefits as an anti-inflammatory, as a pain relief, to combat depression and anxiety, to promote appetite and to help people who have Alzheimer’s disease, MS and Parkinsons. The Facebook page of LCI, Clare now has just under 1,000 people following it.

AN AVERAGE of 14 people have taken their own lives in Clare in each of the last five years, according to official figures received from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The figures show that the number of suicides in the county reached a 10-year-high in 2007, the first year of the recession, and numbers have remained high in each of the subsequent three years.

The figures also show a massive gender split in the numbers taking their own lives in Clare, with 57 men taking their own lives over the past five years compared to just 15 women.

Shocking as these figures are, they would surely be a lot worse if it wasn’t for the good work being undertaken by a number of worthy organisations on the ground.

For organisations in the front-line against depression and isolation, such as Clare Youth Services, the key can often be to tackle a problem before it becomes too serious, rather than waiting until the situation has gotten out of control.

“When people think of the area of mental health, they think about a sit- uation where things have gotten very serious. But if you look at a youth club, there could be volunteers there talking to young people, treating them like an adult and making connections with them and that could help that young person in the future,” said Brian McManus, who works with Clare Youth Services to encourage youth clubs and youth cafés to open up around the county.

“We are there at that level and just simply having a connection or an involvement with someone might be enough to help them get over a problem.

“Adolescence can be a difficult time and if you have nowhere to go then it can be difficult to change that. But if you have a safe space, like a youth club or a youth café, then maybe there will be a chance for a person to get past a little problem before it becomes a big problem.”

Clare Youth Services cannot offer a counselling services to all the young people involved in a youth club or other organisation.

However, some young people who are involved in the Community Training Centre service can obtain counselling through their participation in that scheme.

A MAN who “made a nuisance of himself” at a garda station found himself before a court on a public order charge.

Seán Dobbin (22), of John Paul Avenue Ennis, was accused of public order arising out of an incident on November 15, 2009.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told Ennis District Court on Friday that the accused “made a nuisance of himself” at Ennis Garda Station.

He said he rang the bell for customer service and banged on the hatch. He said he would not leave when requested and “a struggle ensued; a schmozzle as would be described in sporting terms”.

He said that the accused arrived at the garda station in the early hours of the morning after a number of other people had been arrested.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said;

“To be charged with refusing to leave the garda station seems somewhat perverse.”

Judge Joseph Mangan asked, “What’s perverse about that?” She replied, “Normally the gardaí are at pains to attract people to the garda station and charge them and deal with them.”

She said that her client was highly unlikely to be before the court again. Judge Mangan directed that € 50 be paid to the court poor box. This was done and the case was dismissed.

ONE of Ennis’s most historic buildings may be saved from collapse, courtesy of representations which have resulted in an € 85,000 grant.

But the shelving of a funding system, which was in place up to this year, means that Clare will lose grant aid for other historic structures, according to Dick Cronin, Architectural Conservation Officer with Clare County Council.

Last week, Clare got the highest single allocation in the country under the new Heritage Structures at Risk fund, with € 85,000 being allocated for urgent repairs to the 16th century McParlands, home of the former Bishop of Killaloe.

The house, at the corner of Chapel Lane and Parnell Street, which was built between 1580 and 1620 incorporates a large tripple-stack Jacobean chimney had to be shored up and made safe last year when it became clear that it could collapse.

“The whole gable is leaning more than a metre off the perpendicular and it is in very poor structural condition. This is not only a particularly important mediaeval building – it is also an historically important structure, having been the home of Dr Barrett, the Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, in the late 1700s and also the home of Harriet Smithson, who achieved fame as an actress in Europe and married the classical composer, Hector Berlioz. The house is an icon of mediaeval Ennis and with other recently discovered features, helps to date the whole town centre of Ennis,” Dick Cronin told The Clare People .

The conservation officer said that he is delighted that the grant application was successful. But the reality is that a huge slice of Clare’s architectural heritage and an important aspect of the county’s tourism attraction is in danger of being lost. One in five important structures are in urgent need of repair, he said.

“We have more than 900 buildings on the Record of Protected Structures in Clare and about 20 per cent of those are in need of help. Until this year there was grant aid available under the Conservation Grant Scheme, allowing us to assist in the repair of about 25 buildings each year, but this scheme has been shelved by the department for 2011 with no guarantee that it will be re-instated.

This shelving will result in loss of State revenue through VAT, taxes and PRSI, the loss of important historic buildings and indeed the loss of many traditional building skills, such as masonry, lime rendering and thatching, which evolved over generations and will now dissappear due to unemployment, emmigration and career changes.”

CLARE couples who want to marry with the backdrop of a romantic view or to have a civil ceremony in the hotel where their reception is to be held will have to go join a queue more than a year long in Limerick.

At present, although some of Clare’s most beautiful spots would get the thumbs up as places where civil ceremonies would be allowed, staffing at the Clare registry offices is such that all civil marraiges are being dealt with through Limerick.

And with the recruitment ban in the public service, staff in the Limerick office can’t meet all the requests for civil ceremonies.

Bride-to-be Jennifer Flynn from Westbury was told the next date on which a registrar could come to her chosen hotel is a weekday a year from now.

“I was amazed because I was told three months notice was necessary but I never would have thought they were so booked up,” she told The Clare People .

Staff at the the Ennis registrar’s office confirmed that civil ceremonies for couples in Clare are currently being conducted in the Limerick office.

“We go through Limerick for the civil ceremonies at present. The couples have to contact the registrar there and give three months notice and the Limerick office will take it from there,” she said.

Sources in the registrars office also confirmed that the staff there are stretched and could not meet the growing demand in Clare for civil marraiges in situ.

For Jennifer, who plans to marry partner Colm next year, it means thinking it out again.

“We have the option of getting married in the registry office and then going to our reception and that’s probably what we will have to do. Neither of us are religious so we don’t want a church wedding. But the registry office seems so cold and impersonal and it means we’ll only be able to have our witnesses and a couple of other people at the actual marraige. I’m sure the registrar is very nice and will do everything possible to make it special but why make it legal to marry outside the office and then not have enough people to make that a possibility?” she said.

ARRANGEMENTS have been made to transport the bodies of French couple Michel and Jacqueline Lacave after the pair died in a tragic road accident on the Clare and Galway border last Wednesday.

The elderly couple, who are understood to come from Pontvallain, just outside Le Mans in the north-west of France, were on a sightseeing holiday in the Burren when the accident took place.

The 77-year-old man, Michel, was driving a motorcycle with his 66year-old wife Jacqueline as his pillion passagener when the accident took place between Ballyvaughan and Kinvara on the N67.

The accident took place at an area known as Roo Demesne, right on the Clare/Galway border, when the motorcycle collided with a car while trying to negotiate a difficult bend in the road.

The French couple were pronounced dead at the scene while the people travelling in the car – two adults and two children – were uninjured but shaken.

Two units of the fire brigade from Gort and an ambulance from Galway attended the scene and the road was closed off for some time while gardaí conducted a forensic examination of the scene.

It is understood that the motorbike had difficulty taking one of the large bends at Roo Demesne and collided with the car, which was travelling in the opposite direction.