Category: News

TOM Howard from Ennis thought he was going to Kenya with the Building of Hope to do something for other, less fortunate people. But he came back knowing, in his own words, that he had done himself a favour.

“I think those 10 days were 10 of the best in my life,” he told The Clare People .

Tom had previously supported friends who were going on similar missions, but had not considered going out himself. The boss of his own conservation building company, he had felt the best role for him was a supportive one.

“Then I went to a fundraiser for the Building of Hope volunteers in The Old Ground and there was such an amazing atmosphere, I signed on there and then. I thought I was doing something good for others but what actually happened was that I had one of the most amazing experiences. It was great to see how the little bit you do can make such a difference to people’s lives,” he said.

Now Tom is heading back to Kenya after seeing the plight of the children in the School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the courage of the people living in Migombani.

“We met a woman who was HIV positive whose husband had left. She got up at 5am every morning to go and try to find work so that she could put food on the table and send her children to school, to give them a chance of a better future. However hard things are here for us, they’re a hundred times worse there. You have to feel what parents there feel, knowing what is in store for their children. If you think about how it would feel if you didn’t have the money to feed your own children or bring them to the doctor when they get sick, you can feel the pain of those parents,” said Tom.

But the impression Tom left with was one of a welcoming people struggling to make a life.

‘It was just the most fantatstic experience to actually be there and get involved. I’m a builder but I ended up tiling because that was what was needed when we were there. Everyone rolled up their sleeves and did what had to be done and it was fantatstic. I can’t wait to go back. And I would urge everyone to support the fundraisers that are being held. This project is going to make such a difference to the lives of those children but it can’t be done without funds.”

BILL SLATTERY is set to fill the Clare County Council vacancy in the North Clare electoral, while there will be a two-way contest between Sean McLoughlin and Marinella Rafferty for the county council seat in the Shannon electoral area.

The closing date for nominations for the two county council positions was last Thursday and The Clare People has learned that Slattery, who stood for election in the 1985 and 1999 county council elections, will be unopposed for the council vacancy in North Clare, as he was the only candidate nominated for the position.

“I’m steeped in Fine Gael politics and have been a member of the party since 1977,” Mr Slattery told The Clare People this week.

He continued, “While my grandfather, Bill Murphy, was a member of the county council and a TD for 16 years between 1951 and 1967, I would be honoured to serve on Clare County Council.”

The north Clare vacancy was created by the election of Fine Gael’s Martin Conway to Seanad Éireann last month, which meant he had resign his council seat under the dual mandate rule.

A host of possible candidates were mooted for the council seat in the wake of Senator Conway’s election to the upper house of the Oireachtas on April 28 last.

These included the national president of Young Fine Gael, Eric Keane, local party activist Peter Davenport and David Quinn, son of former TD, Senator and Mayor of Clare, Madeleine Taylor Quinn.

However, Mr Slattery was the only name submitted to Clare Fine Gael Constituency secretary Sean Chambers by last Thursday’s 5pm deadline.

He will be confirmed in his new council role after a meeting of Fine Gael members of the North Clare electoral area on June 9th and his election will then be ratified by the national organisation.

It will represent fourth time lucky for the Lahinch man – he first stood for election in 1985 when he polled 645 first preferences, while in 1999 he polled 573 votes.

In 1995, he was the Fine Gael candidate for the vacancy caused by the death of party colleague Frank Henchy, but was election was blocked by Fianna Fáil who used their then council majority to elect Tom Burke instead.

Meanwhile, this Thursday a tight vote is expected in the race to succeed former Mayor of Clare, Tony Mulcahy as a member of the council for the Shannon Electoral area.

THE NEW seaplane service, which is about to begin in Mountshannon, aims to bring 100,000 visitors into Clare in the first three years of operation. Having undergone inspections with the Irish Aviation Authority, Harbour Flights Ireland is waiting for approval for the green light to go operational.

It’s envisaged that seaplane flights will be landing on Lough Derg before the high tourism season begins and company Chief Executive, Emelyn Heapes says it is his ambition to see tourist numbers in the area climb from a predicted 10,000 in the first year to a massive 100,000 in three years time.

“That is the potential of this service. We’re talking about bringing a level of business in that would change the face of tourism in this area,” Mr Heapes told The Clare People .

“To bring 100,000 people tourists into East Clare is our mission statement,” he said.

Harbour Flights has been in the process of building a number of links for the seaplane service around the country for the last eighteen months.

It’s understood that the company has so far invested € 1 million in the start-up of the business, which will fly visitors directly into Mountshannon and the Lough Derg area.

The company is also awaiting a decision from Clare County Enterprise Board on a funding application.

It is envisaged that, when fully operational, the company will run daily flights from and to Mountshannon, Galway, Aran Island Inis Mór, and Limerick.

The Harbour Flights Ireland boss said the company intends to start operations with two Cessna aircraft and upgrade them when Dublin, Cork and Waterford become operational.

The only other city in Europe hosting seaplane flights is Glasgow.

“Our mission is to change tourism by being able to offer, for the first time in the history of the state, a seaplane operation linked to existing accommodation and attractions based around Ireland,” Mr Heapes said.

It is intended that the seaplanes will be based in Mountshannon and all operations will start from there on a daily basis.

SIXMILBRIDGE is awash with comhrá this week, with everyone sporting badges that announce they have ‘cúpla focal’. This pride in the Irish language comes after the village became the only one in Clare to get through to the next round of the TG4 ‘G-Team’ competition.

Now, the village is in with a strong chance of winning the prize – € 40,000 to spend in promoting their area.

The badges – which declare ‘Tá cupla focal agam’ – have been distributed in shops; a trad music session ‘as Gaeilge’ has been organised; and the local bistro, The Miller’s Loft, is even changing its name to an Irish version in honour of the event.

‘The G-Team’ is a new 10-part television series on TG4 that will feature non-Irish speaking communities from all over the country. The challenge is for these communities to begin using their native tongue in their daily routines.

Film crews descended on the East Clare village a week ago and filmed local people doing their shopping, ordering pints and having business meetings in Irish. Diners in the bistro were filmed enjoying their meals, having ordered them as Gaeilge.

The G-Team winners 2011 win a € 40,000 prize, sponsored by Foras na Gaeilge, to use in promoting their local area.

There was absolute delight at a meeting to announce that Sixmilebridge has become the only village in Clare to qualify.

Speaking at the Irish-speaking trad session and the launch of the badge at the weekend, Brendan Walsh of the Sixmilebrideg Folk Club said, “There is fantastic excitement in the village about the whole thing. They’re really grabbing this and running with.

“There are all kinds of plans coming up. The aim is to involve every organisation in the village, and there are plenty of them.”

TG4 has appointed a mentor to help the Sixmilebridge residents to co-ordinate their next steps in the competition.

Film crews will be arriving to film at intervals and watch the progress of expanding the amount of Irish that people in the community use in their everyday lives.

A ROMANIAN brother and sister who were caught with 25,000 cigarettes between them at Shannon Airport almost two years ago have been fined. Dafina Danila and Eugen Danila both with addresses at Lower Sherrod Street, Dublin 1 appeared at Shannon District Court on Thursday, charged with offences contrary to the Finance Act (2001).

The court was told that Ms Danila was stopped at Shannon Airport on November 7, 2009, with 13,800 cigarettes in her possession. The value of the cigarettes was € 5763.57. The court heard that the offences carry a fine and potential prison sentence.

Mr Danila was charged with having 12,200 cigarettes in his possession on the same date at Shannon Airport. The value of the cigarettes was € 5095.33.

The court was told that the maximum number of cigarettes allowed to a person returning from Tenerife is 250. The pair, who have no previous offences, were on their way back from Tenerife. State Solicitor, Martin Linnane, told the court that Ms Dafina has said that the cigarettes were for personal use. He said that in order for one person to consume over 13,000 cigarettes for personal use, they would have to smoke around 36 cigarettes every day for a year. Judge Joseph Mangan remarked that you would need a “spare chimney to get through that (amount) in a year”.

Judge Mangan said that a person who is returning from holiday may bring back a “moderate” amount of cigarettes for personal use.

However he added that there are other times when a person brings back cigarettes for the purposes of a more sinister application. Mr Linnane said he was not aware that this was the case. Judge Mangan imposed a fine of € 350.

THE former Two Mile Inn in Meelick, which closed in September of last year, has been bought with a view to re-opening it as a nursing home, The Clare People has learned.

The move would bring a substantial number of new jobs to the area.

Those directly involved with the sale were remaining tight-lipped about the detail, but sources in Meelick have confirmed that the plans are to have a state-of-the-art nursing home development on the site.

Tom Crosse of GVM autioneers in Limerick, who handled the sale, would say only that the property had been bought in trust by a firm of so- licitors, and that he understands there possibly may be plans to look at reopening as a nursing home.

The auctioneer would not comment on the purchase price but other sources have put the sale price in the region of € 1.25 million.

It’s not known when work might start on the new home. However, the property would be an ideal location for such a venture, with ample accomodation possibilities and car parking facilities.

The price tag on the value of the once popular hotel plummeted by € 6 million, from more than € 7 million, in the 12 months before it closed. There had ben interest previously but no deal emerged.

When the Two Mile Inn finally shut its doors, 15 full-time staff lost their jobs but many more than that would have been employed when the hotel was at its peak.

A series of efforts were made to find a buyer before Price Waterhouse Coopers put it on the market through GVM at a reduced price tag last November and invited tenders.

It is understood that the sale attracted considerable interest when the lower price tag was revealed.

One of Limerick’s longest-established hotels, the Two Mile Inn was built by Tom Ryan and later taken over by local hotelier Brendan Dunne in the mid-1970s.

In October 2008, Billy O’Riordan of PriceWaterhouseCoopers was appointed as receiver and he placed the hotel on the market as a going concern.

At the time, the price being sought was in the region of € 7 million. However, two years later, when a buyer could not be found, the asking price was slashed to € 1.2 million.

At the time, Mr Crosse described this as a “giveaway price” for such a substantial, high-profile property.

The property features 123 bedrooms, a bar/restaurant area and conferencing facilities as well as extensive car parking space. It occupies an 11-acre site on the Ennis dual carriageway, with easy access to Ennis, Shannon and Limerick city.

THE family behind one of Ennis’ landmark pubs, the Diamond Bar, will celebrate 30 years in business next month. The Kelly family have been pulling pints at the O’Connell street premises since it opened in 1981.

Dad Gerry had been involved in the bar trade nearly all his life, working in pubs in O’Callaghan’s Mills, Clonmel and Portlaoise prior to working in Ennis. He said, “I worked in the Cloister in 1977. I took over the Diamond Bar in 1981. There have been a lot of changes up and down the years.”

Those changes have included renovations to the building, which were first carried out in 1987 and again in 2003. The Diamond may have changed since those early days but the one constant has been the presence behind the counter of the Kelly family – Gerry, wife Theresa, and children Claire, Ursula and Mark.

The family has many fond memories from over the years but for Gerry, Clare’s unforgettable All-Ireland hurling triumphs in 1995 and 1997 really stand out.

“1995 was the highlight. ‘95 and ‘97. The night Clare came back from Dublin with the Liam McCarthy cup, on the Monday night, the like of it will never be seen in the town again. The biggest problem that night was trying to keep people out of the place,” he recalled.

Indeed, the Diamond was the place to be on Monday nights after a big championship game when musician Kieran McDermott could often be heard belting out ‘The Banner Roar’.

Gerry himself was no stranger to sporting success due to his involvement in a number of horse racing syndicates. He said, “We did a lot of syndicates down the years – Gold Anchor was our first success, trained by Liam Brown. Then we had Wimbledon with Dermot Weld. Then we had the ‘God of Love’ with Ger Lyons. Now we have Steele’s Rock with Kieran Purcell. It has been a lucky pub for syndicates and long may it continue.”

Of the changes he has observed in the pub trade over the years, Gerry said that the combined effect of the smoking ban, tighter drink driving laws and the low-cost selling of alcohol in supermarkets have made it a difficult time for publicans.

Mark worked alongside his father in the bar after returning from college in 2003. He now runs two bars in Ennis, Faffa’s and Johnnos.

Like his father, Mark says it is a difficult time for the pub industry. But like all the family he is looking forward to next Friday when the Diamond’s 30-year anniversary will be marked with a series of celebrations at the pub from June 3-6.

FR MARTIN Keane from Cranny takes a close interest in everything that goes on in his Kenyan parish but the organisers of a special fundraiser for the Building of Hope are a tad relieved that the latest project there does not directly involve him. “I’m not sure how appropriate it would be to hold a Vicars and Tarts night for a project Fr Martin is closely involved with,” said Cree volunteer, Marion O’Malley.

When Gerry O’Malley came back from the last Building of Hope project in Kenya, his wife Marion and their friends didn’t expect that he would be so moved by the plight of children he saw at another school there.

“People would ask him how he got on, probably expecting him to say ‘grand’ but instead it would become an hour-long conversation. I’ve never seen him so affected by anything.” said Marion.

After returning from Kenya and seeing conditions in the nearby School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Migombani, Gerry from Cree and two other volunteers, Michael Lillis, also from Cree, and Michael Haugh from Doonbeg had all become firm friends. The three were determined to go back and make life better for the blind children. They teamed up with Gerry’s friend, Paul Rees from Kilnaboy and pal Tina Fitzgerald from Ennis involved and the gang of six decided they would club together in their efforts at fundraising to reach the ambitious target of € 18,000 between them and so began a series of Thursday night planning meetings.

Their first fundraiser was a golf clasic held in Ennis Golf Course on May 14, and a night of fantastic music and dance was held with the Kilfenora Ceili Band and friends at the weekend in the Auburn Lodge. Both events were a great success.

“We’de really like to thank everyone who helped or supported us. It was a great night and people were so generous,” Marion said.

But the push dosn’t stop there and now the six amigos are planning two golf Four-Ball outings, one in Spanish Point and one in Kilrush, on June 18 and July 16 respectively. And going from sport to having great sport, they are also planning a Vicars and Tarts night in the Claremont Disco in Lahinch on July 29.

“Tina’s husband, Ger Fitzgerald, is giving us the disco and there will be music in the front bar as well on the night. We asked all the younger crew what sort of theme we could have for the night to make it a bit of fun. We got a lot of suggestions like a beach party, then one of the young ones suggested Vicars and Tarts and everyone thought it would be great fun.”

Willow in Ennis have kindly sponsored a Guess designer handbag for the tartiest tart and Ennis Fuji Center are sponsoring a digital camera for the vicar with the shiniest halo.

Tickets for the disco and registration for the Four Ball are available from McCarthy’s Garage, Miltown, from Marion at 086 2600844, Tina at 085 7645910, or by contacting any of the volunteers. Fu n d r a is in g e v e n t s gu id e

THE SEAT vacated by newly-elected Senator Tony Mulcahy on Clare County Council is likely to be contested by two candidates.

Town Councillor Seán McLoughlin and Bunratty teacher Marinella Raftery are expected to go head to head in a contest for the Fine Gael seat in the Shannon electoral area.

A decision on who will take the seat will be made when the Shannon District of the Fine Gael party meets on June 2.

The Shannon branch has selected Seán McLoughlin, a cab driver, while the members of the other sections of the Shannon area – Sixmilebridge, Cratloe, Newmarket-on-Fergus and Bunratty – will also cast their votes on that date.

Sources within the party have told The Clare People that Ms Raftery is likely to contest the seat. She narrowly missed out on a seat on Clare County Council when she polled an impressive 766 first preferences in 2009.

She comes from a family with strong political roots.

A lot will be decided on how the party members from the Sixmilebridge area vote.

There are almost 90 party members in the Shannon electoral area; more than 40 of which are in the Sixmilebridge area.

Meanwhile, the Shannon branch of Fine Gael has selected Vincent Coleman to take Tony Mulcahy’s seat on Shannon Town Council. 33-year-old Mr Coleman, who works in Servisair in Shannon, has been the branch chairman for the past year and has been strongly involved in the party in recent years. His selection will be rubber-stamped on May 26.

Secretary of the Shannon branch, Cliona Curley, said Mr Coleman is the best candidate for the vacant position on the town council.

“He is the only one going for that. Vinny (Vincent) has put a lot of time into the party and we feel he is the best person for the job,” said Ms Curley.

STUDENTS from Ennis National School are taking part in a major new study aimed at addressing dyslexia.

Pupils from the school’s reading class are taking part in a research project for 10 to 12-year-olds at the Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College, Dublin. The DEFT study there believes that difficulties in the brain’s executive function system are at the core of dyslexia, and aims to address this through a computer-based brain-training programme.

So far students from the reading class, which caters for children of average or above average intelligence who have difficulties with dyslexia, have travelled to Trinity College to become part of the project.

At the initial visit, they completed pen-and-paper tasks, and computer tasks, while the electrical activity in their brains was measured using an EEG. They will then return to Trinity College and any changes in brain activity and task performance will be noted. The researchers are predicting an “unprecedented level of broadspectrum improvements” as a result of this novel brain function training.

Students have been tackling braintraining programmes, studying for half an hour a day, for eight weeks. The training is aimed at the section of the brain that is linked to difficulties to dyslexia.

Teacher Fiona de Buitleir explained that the college hopes that the research will lead to the development of software to help those struggling with dyslexia. She said students have enjoyed participating in the project. “It’s great for their morale and self-esteem. They get to go to Dublin to do this im- portant job!” she added.