Category: News

SHANNON recorded the highest temperature in Ireland this year, on Thursday afternoon – and we are in for quite a good week ahead across Clare.

Temperatures reached 22.7 degrees Celsius at the weather station at Shannon Airport at lunchtime on Thursday. This was the hottest day of the year and is the third highest April temperature in Clare in 50 years. It was also the highest April temperature since 2003.

Temperatures in Ennis peaked at 21.5 degrees on the same day, according to meteorology figures. County Clare fared much better than other parts of the country last week. Temperatures lowered to 12.4 degrees in Malin Head in Donegal.

However, temperatures aren’t likely to reach those highs this week. Predicted temperatures for the next few days range from 11 degrees (Friday) to 16 degrees (Thursday). Editor of the website www.irishweatheronline. com, Mark Dunphy, said this month is predicted to break records.

“It’s not going to be too bad this week. It is going to get thundery towards the weekend with heavy showers, but it will be a largely bright week ahead. Temperatures could hit 20 degrees in Clare by the weekend,” said Mr Dunphy.

“Other hot April months would have been 1975, 1984 and 1990. This was the third highest. We are on track for the warmest April on record,” he said. “These figures are according to meteorological stations across the country.”

Mr Dunphy, a public relations consultant, set up the website last November and since it was established has commanded 7,500 followers on Twitter.

Indeed if the figures for Clare so far this year are anything to go by, we are in for a bright summer ahead. According to Met Éireann, the weather station at Shannon recorded the highest sunshine levels since 1955 in March. The monthly total of sun recorded there was more than 160 hours.

AS KILRUSH commemorated the 95th anniversary of the Easter Rising on Sunday, a woman from the town has told a remarkable tale of how her father celebrated his wedding on the eve of the rebellion before heading off to join Padraic Pearse’s garrison in Dublin’s GPO.

Belfast-born Thomas McMullen, who lived and worked in Kilrush for many years before his death over 40 years ago, was also one of the few Catholics to work on the building of the Titanic before joining the Irish Volunteers and taking part in the independence struggle.

“My father married Annie McGill on Easter Sunday 1916 in Ss Peter & Paul’s Church in Belfast,” Teresa O’Loughlin told The Clare People . “He got word that night from Padraig Pearse that the Rising was going ahead and he made his way down to Dublin on Easter Monday and was garrisoned in the GPO for the Rising.

“My mother didn’t mind him going off to the Rising. They were both of the one mind that Ireland should be free, so he had her blessing when he went off to the the GPO to fight for Ireland.

“Many, many years later I was in Dublin for Easter Rising commemoration and we went to the National Gallery and saw photograph of my father with Countess Markievicz.

“He was captured sometime after the Rising and was put in jail. He was involved in the whole War of Independence and he went on hunger strike for six weeks and suffered with his stomach for the rest of his life after that,” the 82-year-old from Henry Street, Kilrush added.

Ms O’Loughlin was born in Mitchelstown where her father worked in the local creamery, before the family moved to Kilrush when he took up an appointment with the West Clare Creamery.

“He lived in Kilrush until he died aged 74 in 1969, but he never really spoke to us about his role in the Rising. It was only my mother who’d tell us something about it. ‘Come on now,’ he’d say when we’d press him to talk about his part in the Rising. ‘Don’t fill the children’s heads with this stuff,’ he’d say.

“‘I’ll tell ye all about the Titanic.’ He told us there were awful things written on the hull. He knew because he worked on the building of it; one of the few Catholics who worked on it, but he had a great friend who got him a job in Harland and Wolff,” added Ms O’Loughlin.

A MAJOR tool in cracking down on anti-social behaviour in the Cloughleigh area of Ennis is to be rolled out within weeks.

Gardaí are currently in the process of linking up the main Ennis town CCTV system with the existing system covering Cloughleigh. Up until now, the systems were not linked up, but a decision was taken by gardaí, in conjunction with Ennis Town Council, to change this.

According to gardaí, this essentially doubles the potential success of the invaluable CCTV system.

In 2009, a new state-of-the-art CCTV system was installed at Ennis Garda Station.

A bank of 19 television screens located at a control centre at Ennis Garda Station relays images from 17 cameras locate around the town centre.

The images from those cameras are very clear and the system has played a key role in solving incidents of crime in and around the town centre.

CCTV has played an instrumental role in the investigation of serious incidents, particularly involving as- saults, public order and thefts in the town centre.

The sharp images generated by the CCTV system has also been credited for a reduction in rates of shoplifting in the town.

However, the system operating in Cloughleigh was a separate scheme and up until now, has not been linked to this scheme.

Ennis Superintendent Peter Duff told The Clare People that this new resource will be invaluable in garda investigations in the town.

“We are in the process of integrating the Cloughleigh communitybases CCTV system into the (garda) station.

“Ennis Town Council has 19 cameras in Cloughleigh and it is being integrated into the garda station so that gardaí can access it and view it from the station,” said Superintendent Duff.

“Work has commenced on feeding the system into the garda station. It’s going to mean increased coverage,” he said.

“The separate systems will be connected. It more or less doubles our system. It may help to curb anti-social behaviour and criminal activity,” said Supt Duff.

BUSINESS people in the Ballymaley areas of Ennis have been urged to exchange information in an effort to deter criminals who are targeting businesses.

The advice from gardaí came at the launch of the Ballymaley Park Business Watch Scheme, which creates a structured link between businesses in the Ballymaley area of the town and gardaí.

It is one of a number of schemes set up by gardaí in recent months across the county and follows spates of crime where scrap metal and home heating oil has been stolen.

Business representatives in the Ballymaley area were given tips on improving security by the Clare Garda Division Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Joe Downey, at the launch of the scheme at the Auburn Lodge Hotel on Thursday.

“Prevention is better than cure. The more obstacles in the way of the potential criminal, the better. Make it obvious that you have security measures in place,” he said.

He said that CCTV is essential and urged businesses to ensure images from CCTV systems are good quality. He also stressed the importance of good lighting, alarms and adequate door locks.

The theft of scrap metal has been a huge concern in Clare over the past year and gardaí have stressed the importance of ensuring that areas where scrap is stored is secure.

Ennis Community Sergeant Frank Naughton urged the business community in Ballymaley to work well together, in an effort to prevent crime.

“Use your own eyes and ears. For the people working in the estate, if ye see anything suspicious, pick up the phone and ring the guards,” said Sgt Naughton. “Alert your staff. Make them aware what ye can do to make your own place secure,” he said.

Superintendent Peter Duff told The Clare People that gardaí will continue to focus on setting up community alert, neighbourhood watch and business watch schemes.

“One of my goals here is to increase the community alert and business watch type of organisations because it is all about the exchange of information,” he said.

In relation to the Business Watch schemes, he said, “We are going in and making contact with people. We have recently set up schemes in Ballycasey in Shannon and we are also setting up a scheme for the Quin Road area of Ennis.” However, he said that Business Watch is “not a substitute for calling the guards. If you are in doubt, you should call gardaí.”

“Thankfully Ennis is not a high crime area compared with the rest of the country, but there are criminals around,” he said.

A similar scheme for businesses in the Quin Road area of Ennis is also being launched. Business representatives are invited to attend the first meeting at the Peppermill restaurant on the Quin Road at 4.30pm today, Tuesday.

WHEN Labour’s Michael McNamara was elected to Dáil Éireann in the recent General Election, the spirit of the workers’ revolution was evoked by former party member Christy Curtin when he quoted James Connolly by saying “the cause of Labour in the cause of Ireland”.

The same clarion call was sounded out by Deputy McNamara when giving the keynote address at the 1916 Rising Commemoration in Kilrush on Easter Sunday as he called on “all true Republicans gathered here to renounce murder that so besmirches our tricolour”.

“It is hardly surprising that as a Labour T.D. I propose to focus on one sentence on the Proclamation in particular: ‘The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally…’

“It is also perhaps unsurprising that I would choose wish to focus in particular on the role of James Connolly.

“Connolly wrote: ‘Whenever the clergy succeeded in conquering political power in any country, the result has been disastrous to the interests of religion and inimical to the progress of humanity.

“And indeed the clergy succeeded in conquering political power in the State that followed from 1916, and the consequences, as we can now see, benefited neither the Church nor citizens.

“The religious liberty guaranteed in the Proclamation provides not just for all religions to be able to operate freely, for all parents to be able to bring up their children in a religion of their choice, but also freedom from religion.

“To those parents who wish to have their children educated in a school with a religious ethos, the establishment of a national forum on school patronage which was welcomed ‘very much’ by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, poses no threat,” added the new Labour Party deputy.

RESCUE services have appealed to boat owners and people planning water activities to take precautions, after two weekends of boaters getting into difficulties on Lough Derg.

Five people had to be rescued from the lake near Whitegate last weekend and the previous weekend six people had to be taken off a cruiser which was sinking in Killaloe.

With fine weather bringing heavy traffic out on the water, both the Killaloe/Ballina Search and Rescue (KBSR) service and the Lough Derg RNLI have asked people to check their safety equipment and to make sure that boats which have been tied up over winter haven’t suffered damage.

The RNLI lifeboat was called out on Sunday of last weekend to a 24foot motor cruiser which suffered engine failure off shore at Whitegate. Four adults, a child and two dogs were rescued and the cruiser towed to safe harbour.

The previous weekend, members of the Irish Coastgurad, based in Killaloe, rescued six people and a dog from a hire-cruiser that started to sink after being holed in a collision with the bridge in Killaloe.

A spokesman for the KBSR said that anyone taking to the waters after a winter break should check that lifesaving equipment is in full working order.

“Check that inflatable life-vests are working and that fire extinguishers and equipment on boats is working after being put away for winter,” he said.

Boaters are also advised to be sure that they carry fully charged mobile phones in case they need to call for assistance.

Elanor Hooker, spokeswoman for the Lough Derg RNLI, said that boats which have been overwintered should be checked.

“Just looking out at the lake this weekend, it’s obvious that there is a lot of traffic and we would urge people to check that the inlets and outlets of boats haven’t become clogged with debris. Always let someone know where you are going on the lake and what time you intend to be back and a common problem is that boats run out of fuel. People say ‘it’s a lovely day, we’ll go on a bit further’ and then don’t have enough fuel. Make sure you have fuel for the time you’ll be out.”

A CLARE woman is saving the lives of hundreds of Clare dogs each year by rehousing unwanted Clare animals in Wales. Ennis woman Deirdre Ryan set up Rover Rescue in 2008 and has prevented more then 500 Clare dogs from being destroyed over the last three years.

The charity works by taking in stray Clare dogs, giving them a com- plete medical check, and then transporting them to new homes in Wales or elsewhere in the UK. Stray dogs have virtually been eliminated in the UK over the last ten years meaning that there is now a demand for unwanted Irish dogs.

“These dogs are literally on death row and there is no room for them. Frankie [Cooke, Clare Dog Warden] could have 10 lovely dogs brought into him on one evening and he only has five kennels. So if a home can’t be found quickly for them they will have to be put down. Those are the dogs that I prioritise,” said Deirdre.

“I am doing this in my own home – I live in a terraced house and unfortunately I don’t have lots of room so I depend on a number of dog fosterers who take dogs for days at a time when there is too many. I can keep four or five dogs here and after that I am dependent on help from dog fosterers and from Frankie to hold the dogs until they are ready to be shipped over to the UK.”

Rover Rescue gets a lot of help in preparing animals for transport from Second Chance, Clare Animal Welfare, the Clare SPCA and the Clare branch of the ISPCA.

“I am sending them to quality rescue centres in the UK. If it hasn’t been done already, the dogs will be neutered and will have a full health check before they are placed with a family in the UK. The group will also micro-chip all the animals and will conduct a home check to make sure they are being looked after.”

Deirdre works is the Peter Barks Dog Grooming Parlour and is also the founder of Ennis Dog Club. Anyone who wishes to donate money can lodge funds into the Rover Rescue bank account in Ennis at account number 54547426 and sort code 935387.

Anyone who wishes to help or become a dog fosterer can contact Deirdre on 065 6848684.

A MAN who was involved in a spate of crime in West Clare has been handed a 12-month prison spell.

Stephen Bourke (21), of Moyglass, Crusheen, admitted breaking into two mobile homes and stealing property at Rahona Caravan Park, Carrigaholt, in June 2010.

Kilrush District Court heard that a range of electrical items including a television, DVD player, X-Box and several bottles of alcohol were stolen in the break-ins.

The accused also admitted damaging a car on O’Curry Street, Kilkee, on June 4, 2010.

Garda Ken O’Day told the court that two alloy wheels and spotlights were taken from a car which was parked on O’Curry Street, Kilkee, on the evening in question.

He said that they were later recovered.

“Later the same night, two mobile homes were broken into at a caravan park,” said Gda O’Day.

He said that most of the items were later recovered, except for some of the alcohol.

The court heard that the accused had 80 previous convictions.

Defence solicitor Eugene O’Kelly told the court that his client’s parents had a caravan in the area, but they have been “put out of the caravan park because of the trouble their son has caused”.

He said the accused “has had considerable difficulties with the law over the years. A lot of that has been aligned to addiction and to drink”.

He said that a number of others were in his company on the weekend in question.

“He was not able to resist the promptings of the others to cause trouble,” he said.

Judge Joseph Mangan imposed two six-month jail terms and fixed a bond in the event of an appeal.

GARDAÍ have expressed concerns that an ongoing dispute in Kilrush will escalate.

The comments were made by the head of policing in West Clare, during a court sitting in Kilrush.

Three people are charged under the Public Order Act, arising out of an incident in Kilrush on St Patrick’s Day.

Claire Clancy (45), of Ballynote West, Kilrush; Clare O’Sullivan (23), of O’Gorman Street, Kilrush, and Oliver Dullaghan (19), of Willow Green, John Paul Estate, Kilrush, are all charged with engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, at Market Square, Kilrush, on March 17 last.

At Kilrush District Court on Wednesday, Superintendent Gerry Wall said there was an ongoing issue and he was concerned it would escalate.

“The two parties are abusive to each other verbally and are threatening each other. It has history. It’s an ongoing issue.

“I am concerned at the level of the verbals. I have a strong view that these verbals are getting stronger,” said Supt Wall.

He said the allegations concerned “loose talk of a personal nature to each other”.

Judge Joseph Mangan refused free legal aid in the cases of the three accused and adjourned the case for two months.

The court was told that the two females are on one side and the male is on the other.

Supt Wall applied for a bail condition to be attached – that the separate parties stay away from each other.

This was granted by the judge.

A NORTH Clare man has given the Irish film industry a major boost by helping secure the first major international award for Irish documentary The Pipe .

Ennistymon native Eoghan McGuire emigrated from North Clare during the last recession in the 1980s and, after spending some time in America, he went on to live in Würzburg in German.

Once settled in Germany he set up a GAA club, St Kilian’s, and over the past decade a film society has developed in the club during the winter months. In recent years, Eoghan has become very involved in the prestigious Würzburg Film Festival and this year he managed to convince the organisers to bring Irish documentary The Pipe to Germany.

The film was shown at the festival last week and was followed by a talk from director Risteard Ó Domhnaill. The film went down so well that, despite the language barrier, the film was voted Best Documentary by the German audience – the film’s first international award.

“I had heard about The Pipe a long while ago and I managed to get to a screening and to meet the director in Galway. I felt that there was a profound message there and a message that could translated to a German audience,” said Eoghan.

“It is a tale that is definitely worth telling and the theme of a small community up against a big multi-national is something that I though would appeal to the audience over here. This is an audience award, which means it was the film goers and not critics or experts who picked it, so that is important.

“I think that this can be a stepping stone for the film. Once you win an award in one European festival it makes it easier for it to be shown in other film festivals and hopefully that will be the case for The Pipe .

“I normally look for an Irish film that would appeal to the crowd. We like to scout out up and coming Irish films that otherwise might not get the chance to be on the film circuit in Europe. It is as much about encouraging small Irish films into Europe as it is about the festival itself. We don’t have strict criteria; it’s really about bringing quality films over here,” he said. The Pipe beat out competition from a number of German documentaries as well as films from Canada, Switzerland, Finland, Belgium and France to win the award.