Category: News

A CLONLARA couple is this week mourning the loss of their sevenyear-old son, who died suddenly at the weekend.

Patrick (Pat) O’Callaghan, who was the son of the CEO of County Clare VEC George O’Callaghan and his wife Patsy, died suddenly while at school at the Model School in Limerick City on Friday.

The little boy was the only son of the O’Callaghans and had one sister Mary.

George O’Callaghan is well known in teaching circles in Clare and has been the head of the VEC for the past few years. He is a native of Quin and currently lives in Clonlara with his family.

Patrick O’Callaghan’s funeral will take place today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday).

He will repose at his home this evening at Clonoughter, Clonlara, from 5pm to 8pm this evening. Requiem mass will take place in the Dominican Church, Limerick, tomorrow at 11.30am, followed by burial at Quin Abbey.

Tributes were paid to the child at a meeting of Clare County Council yesterday. Fine Gael Councillor Joe Arkins said, “The death of a child is a nightmare for parents.”

GARDAÍ are examining footage of drivers on the Clare side of the tunnel who have been caught on camera reversing and even doing u-turns to avoid having to pay a toll.

Cameras at the entrance to the new tunnel toll plaza have nabbed drivers reversing on the hard shoulder of the motorway back on to the roundabout to take an alternative route. Other cameras on the approach to the toll tunnell on the Clare side have cap- tured drivers going as far as doing a u-turn and driving the wrong way up the road.

A spokesman for the Direct Route – the company which operates the tunnel and toll – said that the dangerous behaviour has been filmed on the Clare side of the tunnel with drivers coming from the Shannon direction.

Clare registration plates have been identified in many of the instances, he said, and the footage has been handed over to gardaí and copies sent to the Road Safety Authority.

“This is completely irresponsible and dangerous behaviour,” the spokseman said.

He added that the incidents of reversing and turning are becoming less frequent as drivers become more familiar with the route which brings them to the tunnel.

“If drivers don’t want to pay the toll, there is another route still available and they can take that. But once they are on the mortorway and committed to the tunnel, it’s very dangerous to do anything but drive ahead.”

A 10-YEAR collaboration between local motorbike enthusiasts and Clare VEC has raised an estimated € 70,000 for local and national charities.

‘Wheels within Wheels’ started life as a motorbike restoration project involving students of Adult Education Services in Clare. The project’s aim was to raise money for charity by restoring, in some cases from scrap, vintage motorbikes.

Ennis man Jacko McMahon was the driving force behind the project for many years, helping to highlight various VEC initiatives and raise money for organisations such as St Luke’s Hospital, Dublin, Cahercalla Hospital, Steps youth club and the RNLI lifeboat service.

Since the project’s inception, Clare VEC provided facilities with education officer Dr Sean Conlan helping get the initiative of the ground in the early days.

Members of Clare’s motorcycling fraternity including the Banner Motorcycle Club also pitched in with their expertise over the years.

Jacko still helps out but the baton for Wheels within Wheels has been passed to Joe McConagle, a VEC tutor in motorbike and car mechanics.

For the past four years, Joe, supported by VTOS coordinator Frank Benson, has worked on projects with students at the Adult Education Centre in Kilrush.

Joe explained, “The bike is stripped down completely, rebuilt, finished and then we raffle it.” This year the team intends to fully restore a Suzuki GSX 750F with the aim of raising money for three-year-old Galway girl, Chloe Flaherty. Chloe requires round the clock care after suffering brain damage following complications that arose during surgery last year.

Joe, who is friends with Chloe’s father Patrick Flaherty, said, “She’s in full-time care. Her parents have almost had to stop working to provide care, it’s very specialised.

Work on the latest motorbike project has already begun and is expected to be completed by the end of June.

There are also plans to mark the 10th anniversary of Wheels within Wheels later this year.

Joe added, “The money has gone to different charities, in Clare and around Ireland. We reckon its raised around € 70,000 over 10 years.”

For further information on wheels within wheels contact joe. mcgonagle@yahoo.com.

THE man behind a new multi-million shopping centre in Miltown Malbay believes that a number of businesses have been lost to the town in recent years because of delays in the planning process.

John Jones, whose family have been in business in Miltown for nearly 200 years, gained planning permission for a € 4m supermarket last week – after six years and three different attempts at through the planning process.

According to Mr Jones, the new development could help the town attract other businesses and generate new employment in Miltown Malbay.

“I think this would have made Miltown more attractive for other businesses to come in. Miltown has no factories and it has no large scale employer. It needs something to get more people working and get money generating in the area and that will help the area to prosper. Hopefully this can help kick-start the rest of the town,” he said.

“There should be up to 50 employed in the shop and obviously there would be extra seasonal employment. Miltown hasn’t exactly developed as well as other towns in recent years. What- ever you say about the [planning] objectors, they have definitely put Miltown on the back foot because this project has been held up. Other towns might have factories to provide employment but Miltown doesn’t have that; Miltown has suffered over the last few years.

“I’m delighted to get it finished. I think I always knew that I would get there in the end but some people used the system to hold me up. What we were proposing was always going to go through eventually.

“The last time at we went to Bord Pleanála we were told that we had too much car parking, which was strange in itself. But we decided that we would use that space for an Astro Turf field instead.”

The development consists of a 10,000 square foot supermarket, 150 car parking spaces, a relief road for the town, children’s playground and an Astro-Turf facility with associated dressing rooms and lighting.

Building work is due to begin on the development later this summer and could be completed by Easter of 2012. As well as the 50 full-time jobs, the development will generate as much as 150 new positions during the construction phase.

A KILRUSH pensioner, who has just published his first novel at the ripe old age of 77, says he already has plans for a book of poetry and a second novel…and maybe even a film.

Jim Counihan, who is this week getting ready to officially launch his psychological thriller, To Ba la nce The Scales , says his love of books and writing came from his father, who bought him a copy of Moby Dick in Kilkee in the late 1940s.

Jim left Kilrush as a 17-year-old in 1951 and spent the next four decades working in England and Wales. He began to write in the 1980s but it wasn’t until after his retirement, in the early 1990s, that he turned his attention to fulfilling a life-long ambition and finishing his first novel.

However, it wasn’t until he returned home almost a decade ago that he decided that the time had come to get his work published.

“I was going through a divorce in the mid-1980s and because of that I felt like I needed to do something new, so I took up writing classes. I finished writing the story while I was living down in Wales in 1997 but it wasn’t until I returned home that I edited it and decided to try and get it published,” he said. “It was on my mind for years and years to finish the book and that is why I put the effort in over the last few years. It was a huge effort over the last two or three years to edit and re-edit the book but it was worth it to finally get it finished. “I remember when I was a kid my father brought me back two books from Kilkee Moby Dick and The Ma n in the Iron Ma sk . After that I just read and read everything I could get my hands on.” The book tells the story of a man living on the west coast of Ireland. The man becomes engaged to a redheaded marine biologist who disappears and the investigation into her disappearance uncovers a large and complex web of intrigue.

“It is a psychological thriller because the characters and their personalities are just as important as the plot and what is happening next. It is quite a complex story as well – so if you miss anything in the beginning you could get lost pretty quickly,” he continued.

“Over the last few years, I have written 40 or 50 poems and I am going to work on getting them published. In the story itself, there is a four or five page epilogue. I wrote that to give me some scope to go on and do a sequel in the future. I have also been told that the book itself might make a good film, because the writing is so visual. So we’ll have to see what happens with that. Writing is great escapism for me, there is a huge amount of work in it but I love it.”

The book is available to buy online at www.choicepublishing.ie.

KILRUSH Town Council has backed the introduction a new rates reduction scheme to breathe new business life into the West Clare capital, but has challenged landlords in the town to play their part by reducing rents.

This twin-track approach to attracting new business to Kilrush is set to form the basis of a new Retail Incentive Scheme being pioneered by town leaders on the back of startling figures revealed by The Clare People

A “VACANT” 41-space car park in the centre of Ennis counters the perception that the town suffers from a shortage of short-term parking spaces, senior officials with Ennis Town Council have said.

In a motion submitted to the June meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) questioned if the increase in parking charges “has had a negative impact on the revenue (from same)”, Cllr Howard said she was referring in particular to the Friary walk car park.

She told the meeting that the car park “was nearly always full but is now nearly always empty”.

Parking charges rose to € 1.30 an hour in Ennis in January. In his response to Cllr Howard’s motion, Town Clerk Eddie Power said an examination of income from parking meters to May 31 (2011) showed an increase over the same period last year.

He added, “It is clear that there are now vacant spaces in this car park throughout each day. The availability of significant number of spaces so close to the town addresses perceived deficiencies in short-term parking in the core town centre areas.”

Mr Power told the meeting that the availability of spaces “begs the question, was there a shortage at all”. He said that more customers might use the car park during the summer. He added that Council officials had been “on record” and repeatedly stated that multi-story car parks in Ennis are underutilised.

Town Manager Ger Dollard told last week’s meeting that it was still too early to if the increase in charges has led to a reduction in parking in Ennis.

He said the decision to reduce maximum parking stay at the Friary walk car park from three to two hours had been taken in response to concerns over the shortage of short-term car park spaces. He said the new byelaws delivered 41 spaces within one minute’s walk from the town centre at a time where there had been “very strong public opinion that you couldn’t get parking in Ennis”.

“If it stays vacant for the next six months, then you have to ask will we change it,” he added. Referring to the use of multi-story car parks, Mr Dollard said occupancy of private multi-story car parks is “30 per cent at best”.

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) claimed drivers are boycotting use of the car park. Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said the car park could be used to cater for the “120 buses shooting past Ennis” on a daily basis.

Mayor of Ennis Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) questioned if the car park is not being fully used because they think it is fenced off.

“People are driving around the hotel looking for spaces and the one beside it is empty,” he added.

The Council’s annual financial statement for 2010 shows that parking fees and charges collected by the Council dropped from € 1,484,957 in 2009 to € 1,407,147 last year.

A MAJOR piece of research into the social condition of family carers in Clare will be launched today as part of National Carers Weeks.

The research, which is being launched by Professor Eamon O’Shea from NUI, Galway, will be used to find out how well family carers in the county are able to remain connected with society and not become isolated as a result of their role as carers.

A host of other events are taking place all over the county to mark the fifth ever National Carers Weeks. On Wednesday, June 15, there will be a wellness and relaxation session for carers with Geri Quinn in the Ennistymon Public Library, while Tai Chi for Carers with Margaret O’Connor will take place in De Valera Public Library in Ennis. Also on Wednesday, Caring for Carers West Clare will be promoting positive mental health in Regina House in Kilrush at 8pm.

On Thursday a ‘Go for Life’ session, which involves 60 to 90 minutes of relaxing, fun activities for carers, will be held with Kathleen O’Connor in the Ennistymon Community Centre from 11am, and in Shannon Library from 11am with Deirdre Daly.

On Friday, June 17, MEP Marian Harkin will present certificates for the Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning Project to carers in the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis at 2.30pm. The festivities will culminate on Friday with celebratory dinners for family carers in the Clare Inn Hotel at 7.30pm.

The week’s events are being organised by Caring for Carers in Clare in partnership with Clare County Library, the Clare Volunteer Centre, Clare Sports Partnership and the Health Service Executive Health Promotion Services in Clare.

The aim of this week of activities is to recognise and celebrate the invaluable work that family carers do and to provide them with the opportunity to take time for themselves to concentrate on their own health and well-being. The theme of well-being will run throughout the week and carers will be encouraged to get active and enjoy a programme of fun and recreation.

Family carers are typically immediate relatives who provide very high levels of care at home, for children and adults with severe disabilities, frail older people and people who are terminally ill. According to the 2006 census, there were 4,507 carers based in Clare. For more details on the events taking place during National Carers Weeks, visit www.caringforcarers.org.

THE emotion in the voices of two female friends of Eoin Ryan’s spoke for everyone in Ballyea on Friday morning – holding hands they stood together and delivered an achingly poignant rendition of Sarah McLachan’s ‘In the Arms of the Angels’.

Tears welling in their eyes, the song came as 21-year-old Eoin prepared for his final journey, from Ballyea Church to the adjoining cemetery in the church grounds.

Every seat in Ballyea Church was taken nearly an hour before the funeral mass got underway at 11am, while outside large numbers listened to the ceremony through a public address system that had been erected in the church grounds.

“He, like any young man, would be looking forward to and dreaming of a bright future for himself,” said parish priest Fr Harry Brady in his homily. “His family and his friends have many precious memories of him, but yet the pain is there and the emptiness is there.”

Speaking on behalf of the Ryan family, Eoin’s older brother Daniel drew laughter from the congregation when prefacing his comments by say- ing “I will keep it very quick because nothing would annoy Eoin more than me being the centre of attention.

“On behalf of my Dad, Mam, Lisa and I, I wish express our deep gratitude to Eoin’s friends, our friends and our relations who have supported us and brought us through the last few days.

“I would like to thank Eddie and the choir for their beautuful singing. I’d like to thank the Garda Siochána for their professionalism and their empathy over the last few days and I’d like to thank Fr Brady and all the other priests for their compassion and support.

“Most especially, we want to thank our great neighbours for all their unbelievable assistance. Without you, we could not have got through these last few traumatic days. We will be forever grateful for you. Thank you all so much.

“Please remember Eoin as the peaceful, loving, beautiful young man that he was. Even though he’s gone from us now, he will remain a shining light in our hearts forever. We love you Eoin,” he added.

THERE have been calls for Ennis Town Council to seek a more cost effective way of providing public toilet facilities after it emerged that costs for 2010 stood at almost € 70,000.

Figures contained in the Council’s annual financial statement show that the so-called “super loos” generated just over € 3,000 in income.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) told the June meeting of Ennis Town Council, that the scheme has “obviously not been flush with success”. He questioned whether or not the Council should continue with this level of expenditure.

Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said that while the cost of running the toilets “looks enormous”, they represent a better option than larger public toilet units. “It is value for money,” he said.

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) said it was “essential” that public toilets are available in Ennis in light of the town’s bid to host the 2012 All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann. However he asked if the Council could “get better value”.

Town Manager Ger Dollard said it was his experience that public toilet buildings were “fairly poor facilities” that were expensive to operate.

He said toilets provoked “constant complaints” and caused hygiene problems. “The super-loo arrangement does represent value for money,” he added.