Category: News

MEMBERS of an interfaith group from Clare were honoured to be included on the President of Ireland’s diary in recent weeks.

President Mary McAleese hosted a garden party for various groups from around the country and the interfaith group from the mid-west was included on her schedule.

Members of the Mid-West Interfaith Network hail from Ennis, Shannon, Sixmilebridge, Broadford and Limerick.

The group was set up a year ago and consists of all religions including Catholic, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, Baha’i and Zoroasterian. The members meet regularly and take part in meditation, prayer vigils and organise general meetings.

One of the members, Trish FallonBarry from Shannon, said the interest in the group has been significant and the meetings focus on positivity.

“It was set up by Alan Hillard, a Catholic priest from Ennis and Abed Aldaka, the integration officer with Doras Luimní. They were talking about the desirability of setting up an interfaith group. It would be very close to my heart. I believe all the religions are one,” said Ms FallonBarry, who is a member of the Baha’i group in Shannon.

“We have a core group. We meet up and broaden it out when we can, with meditation evenings, and we will go on a walk soon,” she said.

“It is faith based. It is very positive and peaceful. We share what we have in common and foster an understanding,” she said.

“We have more to celebrate together than we do separately. There is such a positive atmosphere at our gatherings,” she added.

Among those who visited Áras an Uachtaráin were Bart Gruzalski from Sixmilebridge, Alan Hillard from Ennis, Gurmukh from Sixmilebridge and Trish, who lives in Shannon. “We wrote to the President and she included us. She is so positive and supportive of us,” said Trish.

YOUTH depression and suicide are reaching epidemic proportions in parts of County Clare, where the effects of the recession are forcing many young people deeper and deeper into isolation.

These effects are being made worse in rural parts of the county where the breakdown of old community structures and a change in traditional attitudes during the Celtic Tiger years has created a situation where young people may not have anywhere to turn.

One west Clare councillor and therapist has described the rise of youth isolation as “alarming” and warned that rural communities may no longer be strong enoughto help young people, even if those young people ask for it. According to Kilrush-based therapist Michelle Bradley, the local community structures which existed during previous recessions are no longer in place.

“In the older days, people used to go out even when they didn’t have any money. That has changed now – money seems to be the main focus and people seem to have lost the ability to connect to people without spending money,” she told The Clare People .

“The whole focus for younger people now is the money that is no longer there. It can make people very uncomfortable when they go to meet their peers. They don’t want to say that they have no work or no money. There was a much better sense of community back then.

“At this stage, I’m not even sure how supportive the community might be. Everyone has pulled back and is minding themselves. We could be sending them [isolated people] out to a community that is just not there anymore.”

Ms Bradley, who has personally known three local people who have taken their own lives in recent year, says that much of the problem is as a result of people not being able to express themselves.

“It is a huge problem here. It is to do with the isolation and not being able to express for themselves what is going on or not being involved in any group which could offer support,” she continued.

“People are trying not to spend money and not going out but in reality they are actually doing themselves harm. It is quite alarming really and is something that is just not being spoken about. I would say everyone would know at least one person who is in this situation. I can see it myself and I can see the effects it is having on people.”

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.

SEVEN Clare people yesterday became the first unemployed people in Ireland to get a year-long job under the new Tús scheme.

The scheme, which is being ran under the supervision of the Clare Local Development Company (CLDC), will give unemployed Clare people a chance to get paid € 20 extra a month to take on a job at a community or social project around the county.

Two of the employees will be based at the offices of the CLDC itself, implementing the Warmer Home Scheme in the county and designing websites for a number of different community group around the county.

Other groups to benefit from the scheme yesterday are the Moyasta Community Group, St Pat’s Soccer Club in Kilmihil, Clare GAA at Cusack Park, the Tulla Soccer Club and the Kilkishen Development Association.

Workers at 11 more Clare organisations will begin next Monday, July 11, and a total of 100 places have been allocated to Clare in total.

Currently more than 104 community projects have asked to be considered for a work placement but, according to Jackie Bonfield of the CLDC, the organisation is desperate for people in North Clare and in the south east of the county to put their community group forward.

“The candidates for this scheme were chosen through random selection and we have been conducting interviews with 300 clients to determine what kind of work would suit them best. Someone might have worked in an office all their life but wanted to get into gardening – so we can try and match them with a group who needs gardening work done,” said Jackie.

“Even though we are already oversubscribed for with community group looking for workers, we are desperate to talk to groups in the North Clare area – from Ennistymon up to the Ballyvaughan area – and to people in the south east of the coun- ty; we have a shortage of community group in this area.”

Tús works by giving short-term quality work opportunities for the unemployed both in the community and voluntary sector. Each work placements will last for a 12-month period and the participants will receive an additional € 20 a week payment on top of their social welfare payment. The project was yesterday welcomed by Clare TD Michael McNamara (Lab).

“Work carried out by Tús must benefit the community. Participants will learn new skills and will also be able to apply the skills they already have to the work they will be undertaking,” he said.

A CLARE woman made history at the weekend when she was one half of the first two-person Irish relay team to swim the English Channel.

Maighread McMahon (33), who is from Kilmaley, and swim partner Lynsey Dunne battled fatigue, motion sickness, jellyfish stings and darkness to complete the swim from England to France in 13 hours and 53 minutes.

Accompanied by a pilot boat, the pair set off from the English coast at 9am on Friday morning. Alternating two-hour shifts in the water, the journey was eventually completed at 11.40pm when Dublin-born Sligo resident Lynsey climbed out of the water in France.

A jubilant Maighread told The Clare People yesterday that she was delighted to have been part of the record-breaking challenge. She said, “It was a long day but a good day.”

In crossing the channel, Maighread and Lynsey raised € 10,000 for the Irish Cancer Society. Most crosschannel swims are attempted in groups of six or as solo efforts. However, Maighread and Lynsey are believed to be the first Irish two-person team to complete the swim.

A former student of Killable National School and Coláiste Muire secondary school in Ennis, Maighread started training for the challenge last April.

She said, “I had been doing a lot of triathlons and swimming would have been my best event. So I said to Lynsey, would you be interested in swimming the channel?”

Training involved swimming six days a week in the seas around Ireland. Mairead, a quality manager with Diageo, explained, “It’s hard work when you are working as well. You have to do a lot of ‘carbing up’ to put on weight so you don’t get hypothermia.”

The rules of the challenge meant that Maighread and Lynsey could only be in the water for a maximum of two hours at a time.

Conditions may have been warm and relatively calm but the pair did have to contend with jellyfish.

Maighread said, “I got a few jelly- fish stings across the face. Some of them were really quite painful. But I thought, there’s no way a jellyfish is going to get the better of me.”

Despite temperatures hitting 29 degrees, Maighread had to stay well wrapped up while she was on the boat to keep her body temperature high. On board, she also had to fight the effects of motion sickness. However, the most dangerous part of the journey came right at the very end.

She said, “The tide changed and it was dark so you couldn’t see what was above or around you.”

Maighread is still in England, taking a well-deserved break. Now living in Carlow, she intends to take part in swimming events in Ireland and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of attempting a solo cross-channel swim. “I need to have a think about it. But after doing it, it would be fantastic to do it solo.”

THE young students and teachers from the Mol an Óige primary school in Ennistymon last week paid tribute to two German trainee students who have lived and worked in the town for free for the past 10 months.

German students Anika Fuchs and Johanna Hohn have spent the last 10 months in Ennistymon, immersing themselves both in the life of the school and in the workings of rural Ireland.

Both women have also been a huge help to the school, which is the fastest growing school in the county.

“They have been absolutely invaluable this year. This is the first time that we have had volunteer teachers from abroad and we are really happy with the way that it turned out. It was a big boost for the school this year,” said Sinead Barrett of the Mol an Óige school.

“Both girls had some experience before they came but I think they have both learned a massive amount while they were here. The girls were facilitated to come here by Léargas, who were able to fund a host families for the girls – which was a great way of helping them settle in and to learn more about the area.”

As well as immersing themselves in the school and the local area, the trip also allowed the girls to learn more about the Steiner method of education.

“I really wanted to work with children and to improve my English at the same time. The kids are lovely here so it was a good experience,” said Johanna.

“I live near Berlin so it was a big difference coming to the west of Ireland. But I really liked it here – I got to know the Irish culture very well and the landscape, so it was a really good experience. My time here was great and now what I want to do is study social studies back in Germany and work with children.”

Both girls say they have enjoyed their time in Ennistymon and will be returning to Clare again in the future.

“It is my dream to become a German and English teacher so I thought it was a good idea for me to come over and work in a school and get some good training,” said Anika.

“It was very nice here. I love the countryside in Clare and Ennistymon is a really nice town. The school has been very good. At first it was a little difficult, I had to get used to how things work at a Steiner school, but I love being here with the students and the teachers.”