Category: News

THE Cliffs of Moher is in line to reclaim Ireland’s top tourism spot and once again become the most visited tourist attraction in the country.

The iconic cliffs have seen a massive turnaround in visitor numbers in recent months, which could see them leapfrog other attractions such as Dublin Zoo, the Guinness Storehouse and the National Gallery and into first place.

Visitor numbers for the first six months of 2011 have increased by 19 per cent compared to the same period in 2010. A total of 345,398 people visited the tourism location so far this year. Typically, the second half of the year is busier than the first six months, meaning that visitor numbers could be close to 800,000 for 2011.

Should this trend continue, it could bring visitor numbers back to the previous high of 2007 – the year that the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience was first set up.

“We are delighted with the significant increase in visitor numbers to the cliffs this year. The increase is especially noteworthy considering the poor weather conditions experienced in May and June in particular,” said Katherine Webster, Director of the Cliffs of Moher.

“The provision of visitor facilities, such as the exhibition centre and our new café, have ensured that the Cliffs of Moher is further establishing itself as an attractive year-round visitor destination, irrespective of the weather conditions.”

Nine jobs have also just been created at the Cliffs of Moher through the opening of a new style café, the Cliffs View Café. The Cliffs of Moher Centre now employs a total of 50 people, making it one of the largest employers in north Clare.

“The Cliffs View Café is operated by Cliffs of Moher Centre Ltd and the focus is on good value and locally sourced food. The café is focusing on offering a selection of the fantastic local food products available in County Clare and includes local spring water, cheeses, baked goods, smoked fish, ice-cream and fruit and vegetables among the fare on offer. The café can seat 100 and free WiFi is on offer throughout the area,” continued Katherine. A € 200,000 community astro-turf facility will be officially opened in Tulla tonight. The 60×40 pitch is located at Tulla United’s Cragg home grounds and represents the latest step in the club’s emergence as a new power in Clare soccer. Forty qualified coaches cater for an estimated 200 underage players at Tulla United, while the club’s junior team enjoyed a promising return to the Premier League last year, finishing in fifth place and narrowly losing out to Avenue United in the semi-final of Clare Cup. Perhaps the club’s most visible imprint on Clare soccer could be seen in their contribution to the county’s youths team, which this year contested the semi-final of the All-Ireland inter youths league for the first time since 1971. Tulla players Daragh Corry, Niall Whelan, Paraic O’Malley and Thomas McKeown were all key members of the Clare panel that was managed by their fellow clubman, Mike Moloney. Moloney returns to club duties alongside Denis Corry for the coming season, replacing the long serving Barry Murphy as junior team manager. With final preparations underway ahead of the FAI visit, club chairman Mike Hoey last week paid tribute to the progress being made by Tulla at underage and adult level. He said, “The schoolboys have done well over the years and have been unlucky in a number of competitions. It has really brought the club on. Some of those players have come onto the A team. It has really made a big difference. We went up to the Premier last year. It’s nice to see young fellas come through.” The completion of new astro-turf facilities also brings to an end an eight-year project of re-development

at the Cragg.

Hoey explained, “We bought the land in 2004 and started reclaiming it in 2005. The grass pitches were developed in 2006. It was left for 12 months to mature and was opened in May 2008. We are absolutely thrilled and very proud of it.”

Work on the astro-turf project was carried out in conjunction with the local community council and was backed by LEADER funding. Hoey added, “It is part and parcel of the parish. Other clubs will avail of it. We have rugby, hurling, football and camogie that will be taking part in it. It has been well supported by everybody.”

Tulla’s underage structure was reinvigorated in the early part of the last decade. The club now fields teams at under 11, 12 and 14 as well as operating a blitz tournament for children aged seven and nine. Hoey is equally enthusiastic about the progress of the club’s girls teams.

He said, “This is their first really serious season at it. We had a team back in the early ‘90s but it disbanded. It’s good to see them back now. They have a big panel. And they also have an under 12 panel of players playing friendly games during the week. To see all those youngsters come along, it’s fantastic”.

Tulla has also been earmarked by the FAI as a potential site for an Ireland schoolboy international.

Hoey said, “‘Tis a very proud day for the club to hear that. We’re just waiting on clarification. They (FAI) are trying to work in a suitable date that would suit their home and away fixtures. It would be nice to get it. It would be great for the whole of Clare to see an Irish team in action.”

‘MISTERMAN’, one of the most important theatre pieces at this year’s Galway Arts Festival, was inspired by a tragedy which led to Clare man Brendan O’Donnell being convicted in 1996 of the murders of Imelda Riney, her three-year-old son Liam, and Galway priest Fr Joseph Walsh.

The playwright Enda Walsh revealed in an interview this week that he was inspired to write the drama after reading about O’Donnell and the three tragic deaths in Whitegate.

“I like characters who are always on the edge and there’s something about a one-man show; it feels very, very concentrated and it’s like cracking open someone’s skull and dropping the audience in there and going, ‘There you are now, what do you think of that?’” he said.

O’Donnell was arrested after a massive manhunt following the disappearance of 29-year-old Imelda, her three-year-old son, Liam and local priest Fr Joe Walsh. All three had been shot and O’Donnell was subsequently convicted of killing them. He subsequently died in prison.

Clare author Edna O’Brien came in for a storm of criticism when she wrote In The Forest , a book based on the murders.

Landmark Productions and Galway Arts Festival’s co-production of ‘Misterman’ is written and directed by Walsh and stars Cillian Murphy. Walsh described the reworked version of the one-man show as a psychological examination of a sympathetic yet unnerving character living on the periphery of a small town.

A NORTH Clare publican will this week install a lotto style “big wheel” into his pub which will allow his patrons to decide how much they have to pay for their booze.

The big wheel will be the latest in a series of recent new arrivals at The Roadside Tavern in Lisdoonvarna, who are also preparing to officially launch a series of home-brewed Burren drinks and Ireland first pub loyalty card later this month.

According to the pubs owner Peter Curtin, the three new Burren brews, the big wheel and the loyalty card is being introduced as a way of keeping his family pub alive.

“The pub trade in Ireland is in a tailspin. I am interested in learning new things and trying things. I’ll be 58 at my next birthday and I don’t want to have to close the door of this pub. This is a family pub and I’m happy to do what need to be done to keep it going,” said Peter.

“The loyalty card system is the first of its kind in Ireland. People can come along a Burren Brewery Club member, once they are over 18 and drinks responsibly. When someone buys something in the pub they get points on their card and after awhile they can claim back produce for their points.”

On Sunday, July 21, the three new Burren Brews will be launched with a day-long celebration at the Roadside Tavern. The day will also see the official launch of Burren Brew- ery’s Loyalty Card and the world’s first pub spin-the-wheel machine.

“This will be the first pub in the world to have a big wheel. All the Burren Brewery Club members can come in and choose to pay the display price of the produce or they can spin the wheel,” continued Peter.

“The wheel will have a € 4 slot, a € 3.50 slot, a € 3 slot and so on down and whatever the ball falls on – that’s what they pay. There will also be a euro symbol on the wheel and if it falls on that they will pay the regular price and also pay € 1 towards a local charity.”

Peter has developed three Burren Brews with the Brendan Dobbyns who was involved in setting up of the Biddy Early Brewery in Inagh. From July 21, the Roadside Tavern will unveil the Burren Black, a smooth stout, the Burren Red which is slightly sweet ale and the Burren Gold which is a characterful lager.

A CLARE student, with dreams of reaching for the stars, is over the moon this week having seen his research launched aboard the last flight of the space shuttle.

Third-level student Gerard Newsham (24), a post-graduate student at Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT), is currently working at the Space Life Science Lab in Florida. On Friday, he was on countdown at the NASA Kennedy Space Centre for lift-off of the final space shuttle mission which has his science project onboard.

Speaking from the Space Centre, the Corbally student said, “I can’t describe how I feel; amazing is just not a strong enough word. Most of the time it just seems so unreal. I have to keep pinching myself.”

Gerard is working on a project entitled, ‘Symbiotic Nodulation in a Reduced Gravity Environment (SyNRGE)’, which set out to learn how plants and bacteria work together in space.

In an interview with The Clare People , Gerard revealed that his sights have always been on the heavens.

“Ever since I was younger, I always wanted to be involved in the space program but never thought it would happen. I had always told myself if I could just see the Kennedy Space Centre and see a shuttle launch, I’d be more than happy. Today and every day since October 2008, it’s to my delight I get to go there, do research and watch the shuttle launch.”

Gerard has been in Florida at the Kennedy Space Centre since October 2008, courtesy of an internship at the FÁS Science Challenge. His project was selected for flight in 2010, as his research at Limerick Institute of Technology at the Controlled Environment Lab for Life Science (CELLS) is directly linked to SyNRGE.

Staff and fellow post-graduate stu- dents from LIT watched live feeds from the Kennedy Space Centre, where the final mission for the 30year-program took off. The space shuttle Atlantis is destined for the International Space Station.

The Clare student says that he hopes to continue his exploration where no man has gone before.

“I hope to be here for the rest of my career. The staff and the facilities at the Kennedy Space Centre are worldclass and second to none,” he told The Clare People .

A € 12.8M FLOOD defence scheme along the River Fergus from Ennis town centre to Doora Bridge has received the green light from the Government.

The Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan TD, last week signed off on funding for Phase 2 of the Ennis Drainage Scheme.

Welcoming the news, Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Clare TD Pat Breen said that “Phase 1 has already being completed very successfully and the works in Phase 2, which will be carried out under the auspices of the OPW, will alleviate the problems which were caused by flooding in Ennis in December 2009. The area covered will be from Bank Place in the town right down to Doora Bridge.

“It is very good news for the town of Ennis. When this work is completed it should prevent further flooding which has caused a lot of hardship in December 2009,” he added.

The scheme is expected to be officially launched by Minister for State Brian Hayes in Ennis on Friday.

Part of the scheme, which involves the construction of a walkway and handrail along the left riverbank in Fergus Park to Knox’s bridge, has been opposed by local residents.

Members of the Fergus Park Residents Association are concerned that the proposed handrail will encourage anti-social behaviour and the ease of access to the back of 20 houses in the area.

In a report to Ennis Town Council on the Ennis Flood Relief Scheme, Town Engineer Eamon O’Dea said the OPW anticipates work will begin on phase two in September.

He explained that the tender assessment procedure for the Lough Girroga Flood Relief Scheme (Gort Road Industrial Estate) has been completed and work should start in August.

He stated that final design details for flood relief works at Fioruisce have to be confirmed with the OPW. The Council is also proceeding with the part 8 planning procedure at Watery Road / Elm Park Flood Relief Scheme. Mr O’Dea said the matter should be before the Council at the September meeting. He added that detailed design has commenced at St Flannan’s Tobertascáin – Ballybeg flood relief works.

THE sun shone on Tubber over the weekend as hundreds descended on north Clare for the annual Tubber Agricultural Show. One of the main attractions of Saturday were the show-jumping classes, where a large entry ensured a high standard in all competitions.

The pony classes saw a notable double win for Noelle Barry who took the overall first place 1.1 and 1.2 metre classes on Cottage Flight. Other winners in the pony classes were Amy Johnston on Amber Leaf, Kevin McCabe on Cradle Oberdash, Olga Burke on Little Bob and John Murray on Heather Molly.

The main competition in the horse section was dominated by Gabriel Slattery, who took an unprecedented treble in the Connacht Grand Prix. He took first place on Castlelawn Kannan, second on Captain’s Magic Touch and third place on Ballintoghr Bud. Fourth place in the competition went to Stephen Egan on Le One with John McManus on Dino coming in in fifth place.

The Amateur Leddy League and HSI Qualifier was won by Peter Brady on Hollymount Cruise Hill, while Jacinta Fahy won the Amateur Speed on Chicken Wall.

Other winners in the horse section were Amanda Fahy who won the 1.1 metre competition on Lackyle Limited Edition, and Niamh Quinn on Cloon Cappain who won the 1.2 metre competition.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the Rosengrave Perpetual Cup for the Best Pin of Lambs went to Frank Donoghue from Tubber. There was also a huge interest in the dog show on Saturday and the festivities continued on Sunday with a fun day with food and craic in and around Finnerty’s Pub.

COMMERCIAL traffic through Shannon Airport rose by 22.5 per cent last month, according to figures released by the Irish Aviation Authority.

It compares with a 3.5 per cent increase in Cork and numbers remaining static in Dublin Airport during the month of June.

There were 1,905 overflights and airport commercial movements at Shannon in June, compared with 1, 555 in June of last year.

The figures are a significant improvement on poor figures at the mid-west airport in recent months. Figures for 2010 showed that commercial traffic fell by 32.2 per cent and overall traffic at Shannon fell by 21.7 per cent.

En-route flights, which are flights transiting between Europe and North America – the majority of which do not land in Ireland – increased by 2.1 per cent, when compared to June 2010.

Spokesperson for the IAA, Lilian Cassin, said the figures are positive. “We are delighted with it. What’s more significant is the overhead flights between Europe and North America are up. That tends to be a barometer of international traffic, a barometer of how the global economy is,” she said.

She said she is hopeful that terminal traffic will increase as a followon from this.

“When the recession hit the first impact was on the en-route traffic and the terminal was after that. Hopefully this will be followed by an increase in terminal traffic,” said Ms Cassin.

According to the IAA, traffic figures for the first six months of the year are subject to distortion when compared to the first half of last year, due to the impact of the Icelandic volcanic ash crisis in April and May 2010. However, when adjustments are made to compensate for this, the en-route traffic movements for the first six months of this year show an increase of around five per cent over the same period in 2010.

A GOOD Samaritan who slowed down when he saw what he believed to be a late night traffic accident was robbed for his trouble near Ardnacrusha recently. The driver saw a car across the road and a man limping towards the front of the car. There were two other men lying on the grass at the side of the road.

As he slowed down the ‘injured men’ got up and attacked the driver of the car, forcing him to open his door, threatened him with a knife and robbed him of € 400. He was saved possible further injury and loss when an oncoming car prompted the thieves to make their getaway. Gardaí are appealing for potential witnesses or anyone who may have seen the thieves on the morning of June 25th at Carmody’s Cross.

AFTER more than 15 years of local campaigning, the dangerously corroded metal fence that protects the tens of the thousands of summer beach-goers from a 40-foot drop onto the rock at Lahinch beach is to be replaced.

The metal alloy fence, which was described as rust-proof when it was first erected in 1982, has been completely eroded by rust over the last 20 years, making it structurally unsound and, according to locals, a dangerous accident waiting to happen.

The fence, which runs for more than 140 feet along the most dangerous section of the beach, was damaged by construction work in the 1990s, with many sections simply breaking away.

A delegation from the Lahinch Community Council met with local engineers from Clare County Council in June, with the replacement of the corroded bars the top item on the agenda.

“The community council have been campaigning for these bars to be replaced for 15 years now so we are delighted with the news that they are going to be replaced,” said Gerry Hartigan of the Lahinch Community Council.

“When they were first put up, we were told that the poles were made from a special alloy and that they would not be affected by rust – but that proved not to be the case. Clare County Council have done their best to maintain them as best they could but it really is great news that they are to be replaced.”

Newly appointed Lahinch Cllr Bill Slattery (FG) welcomed the € 48,750 in funding for the project but said that Clare County Council must now get working on completing the much awaited Lahinch Prom Master Plan.

“This work has been delayed for too long already, due to the lack of funding. Now that the Government have resolved this issue, there can be no further delays in getting the job done,” he said.

“I am delighted with the work that has been done in Lahinch in recent years, particularly the new lifeguard facility and the recently opened playground. I am also calling on the council to speed up the completion of the much needed and long awaited Master Plan for the prom in Lahinch.

“There are hundreds of thousands of euro generated in car parking charges in Lahinch each year. The village needs this Master Plan in order to make the resort a world-class tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, a total of € 26, 250 has also been allocated to repair and upgrade the existing slipway at Liscannor. This project, which has been a long-term goal for Ennistymon-based Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) will see much needed repair works undertaken at the pier.

CLARE’S newest sporting heroes will return to Shannon, Sixmilebridge and to Inagh later this evening for a homecoming which should rival anything seen in the county for the last decade. Double Special Olympic silver medal winner, Ciara O’Loughlin, and silver medal winner Michael Neville will touch down in Dublin with the rest of the Irish team just before 1pm today.

Ciara won the silver medal in the shot putt and the 4×100 metre relay while Michael, from Sixmilebridge, was part of Ireland silver medal winning soccer team.

“We’re just so proud,” Ciara’s father Malachy told The Clare People