Category: News

AFTER hours drinking has become an issue in Kilkee pubs, but will no longer be tolerated, gardaí have pledged.

Two pubs were taken to court last week where fines were imposed for allowing people to be on the premises after hours.

Gardaí say that they will not tolerate law breaking and will crack down on after hours drinking in the coming months – as the tourist season reaches its height in the seaside resort.

Superintendent Gerry Wall, who is responsible for policing in the West Clare area, said the issue is particularly prevalent in Kilkee.

“It is more of an issue in Kilkee. Commonly, public order is blamed on late hours and drink being sold late. Exemptions cost around € 400 to serve alcohol for one-and-a-half to two hours outside the normal closing hours. Publicans need to understand that fact. They cannot be expected to be allowed to trade unless they have an exemption,” Supt Wall told The Clare People .

“The message is not one of putting licensees out of business. It is mere- ly to have reasonable compliance with the legislation. People who apply for exemptions will have the full benefit of exemptions,” he said.

Supt Wall also said that underage drinking will be targeted over the forthcoming summer months.

“We will target licensed premises and off-licences for underage drinking and selling to young people. People who complain of public order and disorder should recognise the fact there is huge responsibility on licence holders to sell drink only to people who are entitled to receive it,” he said.

“Adults buying alcohol for underage people is an issue. They do contribute to public order. It is very important in 2011 that businesses are allowed every opportunity to sell their area to prospective businesses. However, these people are damaging the community,” he said.

“Business in Kilkee is seasonal. We don’t want to hammer them, but they must act responsibly,” he added.

“They have my full support in promoting their businesses, events and festivals. Most of the retailers with wine licenses do act responsibly,” he said.

THE first time Don Ryan, from Parteen, travelled to Africa with the Building of Hope project five years ago, it was a last-minute decision.

He had been asked if he would go because the team needed someone with his specialist training in putting down high-tech soft floor covering.

Don came on board just as the team prepared to fly out to South Africa on its first mission.

As it happened, when he got there, the concrete floors had been too recently poured (the entire building went up in less than eight weeks) and he couldn’t use the special flooring. But he was hooked.

Don has travelled with the final finishing team on the Building of Hope ever since and 2013 is no diferent.

And besides, as Don observes, “Olive Halpin (the project organiser) is a hard woman to say no to and every time she gets on to me to see am I coming back!”

On the last two trips, Don was tiling but this time he hopes to be putting down the soft flooring, the team having planned for it with the experience of the first trip behind them.

Don was one of the many volunteers who built a polytechnic in Kenya in Fr Martin Keane’s parish in 2010 and what he saw when he visited the School for the Blind and Visually Impaired would bring him back, even if Olive let him off the hook.

“Conditions were very bad there. I’m glad we’re doing this project for the kids,” he said.

To help raise the € 3,000 he needs to travel to Mombassa again, Don has organised a quiz night in Flashes, the Tailrace Bar in Parteen.

A great night of fun is promised and there will be finger food as well, making the outing great value for € 10 a head.

“We’ll have tables of four so it’s € 40 a table and I’ll have spot prizes on the night,” said Don.

The quiz night takes place on Saturday, July 2, starting at 8.30pm.

Anyone who would like to donate a spot prize should contact the Tailrace Bar after 4pm on 061 451527. Anyone who wants to go along and support Don can pay in on the night.

SEVERAL stretches of road across Clare will be improved, after funding was injected into various schemes.

Some of the routes were earmarked for funding after concerns were expressed by local residents, who were anxious that improvement works be carried out.

In total, funding amounting to € 230,000 has been allocated for the projects under the Low Cost Safety Improvement Works on Regional and Local roads. The works are expected to be completed this year.

Junctions at local roads in Bodyke and Kilnoe in East Clare will receive € 40,000, while Monument Cross near Newmarket-on-Fergus will receive € 40,000.

A stretch of road at Clonderlaw in West Clare will receive € 30,000 for improvement works, while the R474 at Inch and the R487 road near Carrigaholt have also been included in the scheme. A stretch on the Kilrush Road, Ennis, has also been included.

The funding was allocated after Clare County Council compiled a list, which was then submitted to the National Roads Authority, which in turn granted the allocations.

According to Clare County Council, the scheme is designed to improve road safety at various locations around the county where it is believed there is a genuine safety risk. The Council makes submissions to the National Roads Authority, which decides on whether to grant funding.

“We make applications based on crash statistics and volumes of traffic. It looks at the history of locations,” said Clare County Council’s road safety officer Barry Keating.

“We make numerous applications,” he added.

VISITORS to the world-famous Poulnabrone Dolmen will be greeted by the most unusual site when they visit the iconic tourist location later this month – a twice-life-size replica of the dolmen made as a functioning bouncy castle.

On the eve of the summer solstice on June 21, local artist Jim Ricks will complete a two-week trek across the Aughty Mountains at the site of the Poulnabrone Dolmen. Each day, Jim will be inflating ‘The Bouncy Dolmen’ as part of a public arts programme supported by Clare County Council’s Arts Office, Galway County Council and Ground Up Artists Collective.

Jim, who is a former Master of Fine Arts student at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, dreamed up the bizarre outdoor installation as a means of contrasting the ancient her- itage of the dolmen with the excesses of Celtic Tiger Ireland.

“I found it so interesting that something that was so old but had so little really known about it had become this symbol of Ireland and all things ancient. It had become a marketing symbol for B&Bs; people were making dolmens in their front yard using diggers. There were even coffee cups made in the shape of the dolmens,” said Jim.

“I started thinking, what is today’s monumental structure – what the dolmen would have been 6,000 years ago – and the answer that I came up with was the bouncy castle. Particularly a few years ago, bouncy castles were everywhere and they were a symbol of Celtic Tiger Ireland. I thought building the bouncy dolmen would be a pretty absurd way to pull together these different identities for Ireland.”

The castle was designed and built by Jim and the English company who invented the first bouncy castle over the last four years.

“The consumption of the Celtic Tiger, as seen through the bouncy castles, has changed Ireland forever. While this project is not a scathing critique of that, it is a commentary on it – a playful commentary anyway,” continued Jim.

‘The Bouncy Dolmen’ will appear at different locations in the North Clare and South Galway area between June 7 and 21. It will come to its last destination at the site of the Poulnabrone Dolmen on June 21. ‘The Bouncy Dolmen’ is a functioning bouncy castle and people will be allowed to jump on it while it is on tour.

THIEVES are turning up the heat on home-owners with reports of thefts of copper heating cylinders and home heating oil.

A combination of the rising cost of heating oil and the increasing value of copper is leaving householders in hot water as criminals target both commodities around the county.

Thieves have targeted homes in East Clare and syphoned off large quantities of home-heating oil from unlocked tanks.

A Garda spokseperson said that oil is now so expensive that it is worth the thieves while to wait for the cover of darkness to get at the tanks.

In some instances oil was stolen while the householder was at work or it was taken from unoccupied holiday homes.

Gardaí are advising that people whose tanks are outdoors and accessible should consider extra security precautions, such as gettig a lock for their tank.

The fact that most tanks are in back gardens and, in rural areas in particular, often easy to get at while the house is empty is making oil theft easier.

In other incidents, copper cylinders have been removed from homes in the county, mostly while the houses are empty.

And to add to the householder’s difficulties, removing the cyclinder can result in serious flooding. Gardaí believe that the cylinders are being stolen for re-sale or for the valuable copper.

A NORTH Clare garden, which boasts Ireland’s largest collection of snowdrops, has been recognised as one of the country’s top 100 gardens.

The Caher Bridge Garden in Fanore, which was founded less than a decade ago, has been chosen alongside more established Clare gardens such as the Vandeleur Walled Garden in Kilrush and the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park as one of Ireland’s top gardens.

That is according to a new book by Shirley Lanigan, which is due for release later this week.

The garden, which is started in the Caher Valley in Fanore just 11 years ago, is one of the newest gardens in the top 100.

“This all started as a private garden, and I really had no intention of opening it to the public, but somehow it has become very well known. This is not really a tourist attraction. It is a private collector’s garden, but people do seem to want to come and see it anyway,” said garden owner Carl Wright. “I have a lot of collections of plants. One of my real passions is snowdrops and I actually have one of the largest collections of snowdrops in Ireland here with more than 200 different types.”

The garden was built from scratch in one of the harshest landscapes in Clare to grow plants and flowers.

“One of the problems with creating a garden here has been the conditions. It is a totally unsuitable location to produce a garden in, so I had to work very hard to get this off the ground. There is very little soil here and the conditions are very difficult they are as difficult as you could possibly get. The only thing that I have on my side is great shelter but it has been a real challenge to get it off the ground.”

The Caher Bridge Garden is open to visitors year-round by appointment only. Telephone 065 7076225 for details.

WITH the county struggling to survive this recession a Clare businessman has come up with a novel idea to boost tourism while generating jobs and investment for the region: why not build a casino in Shannon?

Emelyn Heapes claims that a casino in the county could bring untold millions in investment, jobs and tourism to Clare.

“I can think of no better place for Europe’s biggest gambling casino than the Shannon Duty Free Zone. It’s not like we are stuck for space and from a tourist perspective, geographically, it’s in the best location in the world and right alongside an international airport.”

Controversial businessman Mr Heapes told The Clare People that the casino, properly run and legislated for, would attract millions of gamblers and tourists alike into the Shannon Region.

He added that the airport management would be creating a destination that will attract every airline operator to fly into Shannon Airport because they will now have a demand and good reason to come here.

“It will probably fill every hotel room within a fifty mile radius of the place. It will allow every other tourism provider to generate packages to get the ‘gambler’ away from the tables and while here, take in some of the best tourist attractions in the country and it will generate million of euros in tax revenue for the Government, and most importantly, sustainable jobs.”

Clare TD and Fianna Fail spokeman on Tourism Timmy Dooley didn’t dismiss the idea, telling The Clare People :

“While I’d like to hear more about it, any concrete proposal that generates jobs and investment in Clare right now should at the very least be looked at.”

A GARDA campaign which is focused on preventing burglaries and thefts will get underway later this week. Thefts from cars in the tourist areas of Lahinch, Miltown Malbay, Spanish Point and Bunratty generally rise during the summer months and gardaí are advising car owners not to leave valuables in their vehicles.

The campaign gets underway on Wednesday and will continue until the bank holiday weekend. The aim is to engage with and raise awareness within communities of initiatives aimed at preventing crime. It is also geared towards promoting road safety during the summer months.

According to the Crime Prevention Officer in the Clare Garda Division, Sergeant Joe Downey, the primary focus will be on “burglaries, thefts from vehicles, theft of farm machinery, theft of pedal cycles and road safety”.

“Twenty-seven per cent of all burglaries occur through the front door. Thirty-two per cent of burglars enter your home through an unsecured door or window. 23.5 per cent of all burglaries take place between 12pm and 4pm. Thursdays and Fridays are the most likely days on which to be burgled,” said Sgt Downey.

Gardaí are making specific recommendations in relation to preventing burglaries. “Lock all your doors and windows, especially when the house is vacant. Never leave a window open for ventilation when the house is vacant. Use your alarm if you have one, no matter how short the period of absence,” advised Sgt Downey.

“Lock and secure all garages and sheds and secure away any property that could assist a burglar to commit crime,” he added.

He said that almost half of the re- ported thefts from cars last year took place between 12 noon and 9pm. Saturday was the most common day for this type of crime.

“Cash was taken in 27 per cent of incidents, mobile phones accounted for 15 per cent, handbags 14 per cent and sat. Navs. 13 per cent. There has been a 12 per cent increase in laptops stolen and an eight per cent increase in mobile phones stolen,” said Sgt Downey.

“Never leave valuables in the car or visible from the outside. Never leave property under the seat. Avoid parking in isolated areas and use well lit areas during the hours of darkness,” he added.

Gardaí are also advising farmers to take care of their machinery, as statistics show that more than 1,300 items of farm equipment have been stolen during the past year across the country. “Consider installing a CCTV system and an intruder alarm and consider joining a community alert group,” said Sgt Downey.

In relation to road safety, gardaí say that inappropriate speed is the single biggest factor in fatal and serious injury accidents and are advising drivers to slow down and avoid using mobile phones while driving.

WEST CLARE could be about to get another wind energy project worth millions of euro in the development stage as a new application to construct a windfarm at Shanovogh near Miltown Malbay has been lodged with Clare County Council planners.

McMahon Finn Wind Acquisitions Ltd are planning to build the windfarm on a site that’s two miles away from West Clare Renewable Energy project on Mount Callan, the green light for which was given by Clare County Council last August.

The application lodged with Clare County Council last Friday is for a windfarm comprising of six turbines with a height of 85 metres and was submitted to local authority planners by Cian Ó Laoithe Architects.

Last year, Clare County Council invalidated plans submitted by McMahon Wind Ltd for a 12-turbine wind farm on the same site, while a decision date on the new planning application is due in mid-July.

The latest application for a windfarm development in the county falls within the guidelines of the Clare County Council wind energy strategy that has set a working target of 550 MW of wind energy to harnessed in the county by 2020.

Between 2000 and 2010, 22 applications for wind farms were lodged with Clare County Council, with one of the first projects to be given the green light being in 2002 when the ESB were granted permission for a nine-turbine € 20 million renewable energy farm at Moneypoint.

Most recently, last December An Bord Pleanala has rejected an appeal by An Taisce against a Clare County Council decision to allow Hibernian Windpower to construct a wind farm incorporating 11 turbines of approximately 2500kW capacity each, at Boolynageragh, Lissycasey.

The development site, which is three kilometres north of Lissycasey, will have a total rated electrical output of 27.5MW. The capital cost of the project is up to € 50m, while the Mount Callan windfarm that’s set to be the largest community-owned windfarm development in Ireland is a € 200m project that aims to create 300 jobs during the construction phase.

It has been claimed that renewable energy area in Clare has the capacity to create 10,000 jobs in the county from now until 2020.

INFLATION is a word no-one wants to hear anymore but, for one Clare man, it’s a word that is music to his ears. At the weekend, Boris Hunka from Killaloe held the first concert ever to be put on in Ireland in an inflatable theatre.

Ireland’s first fully inflatable arts venue – the Pop-up Playhouse – was launched in Killaloe with performances by Juliet Turner and John Spillane as well as Size 2 Shoes, who were joined by soul six-piece Hunka Burning Love, fresh from their performance at the Europa League Final and the Killaloe Ballina Gospel Choir.

Musician and teacher Boris started looking into how a venue could be provided for the town without quite knowing what he was looking for, he told The Clare People .

“We (the music school) put on a lot of our own performances and that was the initial impetus. There really was no venue in Killaloe where you could stage a big performance. I started looking into how we could have one and it was one of those things on the net when you find what you’re looking for before you even know what it is you’re looking for,” said Boris.

Boris came across a company in China who specialised in making inflatable structures and he started cor- responding with them to see if they could provide something that would meet the requirements of a theatre.

“We were going back and forth for a long time but, eventually, they came up with a plan for what we wanted and it went from there,” he said.

The Playhouse takes the concept of the Spiegeltent – a mobile, stylish, portable venue – into the 21st century.

It takes the best part of a day to prepare the floor and lay it out flat on the ground but, once that is done, it takes just one hour to inflate and it can accommodate up to 500 people if all three sections are used.

“It’s also a structure which only requires financing when it’s actually being used. When it’s being stored on the back of a truck, it’s not using electricity or costing rates,” said Boris.

Leader funding helped pay for the structure, which cost less than € 60,000, as it will be used to provide rural communities with performances of music and theatre.

It is 15m wide, 27m long, 5m high, constructed out of .65mm fireproof PVC with an internal wall dimension of 1m – and can be assembled on any flat surface.

“On the outside, the structure looks part sci-fi, part inverted bouncy castle whilst on the inside it is an otherworldly feel with wooden flooring, velvet curtains, sound system, stage lights, vintage jukebox, inflatable sofas and an illuminated bar. The structure is also equipped with a fullsize cinema screen and a silent disco set-up,” said Boris.

Boris plans for the theatre to be inflated and running in Killaloe for the whole month of July while it will be also be visiting Lahinch, Kilkee and other venues over the summer.

The structure can also be used in smaller modules of one or two sections.

“I know this is the only one of its kind in Ireland and the Chinese manufacturers admitted they had never made one on this scale before. But now we have a theatre that can bring performances to small communities anywhere.”