Category: News

SECONDARY school students in Ennis have been learning about the skills needed to succeed in cutting edge world of information technology.

Employees working at Avocent, Shannon, are committing to an initiative which will provide a firsthand insight into the world of work, to senior cycle students from Ennis Community College as part of the Skills @ Work Programme. This programme has been facilitated by the Schools Business Partnership (SBP) and is an initiative of Business in the Community, Ireland (BITC Ireland).

Employees of Avocent will talk to the students about the real-life skills required in the workplace, such as CV writing and interview preparation. They will run ‘A Day in the Life’ session, amongst others, to assist the students in recognising the value of completing the Leaving Certificate and help them explore possible career paths. The students will also be brought on a site visit to the Avocent premises in Shannon and witness the many career opportunities that exist in the industry.

Yvonne Walsh, Leaving Cert Vocational Programme Coordinator (LVCP) at Ennis Community College, explained, “This programme will really help students in fifth year to focus on their strengths and interests and to work towards achieving results that will help them in the next stage of their life whether it is work or further education. We are looking forward to developing the partnership with Avocent over the coming year.”

Barry Healy, HR Manager, Avocent, said, “Avocent are delighted to be partnering with Ennis Community College, to support the students in their final year. Our employees are excited about getting involved and giving the students a taste of our real working lives. It also gives them an opportunity to develop themselves in areas such as team-building, interpersonal and communication skills.”

Dr Eleanor Walsh, Limerick / Clare Regional SPB Co-ordinator added, “In BITC Ireland we are delighted to welcome Avocent to the growing number of companies participating in our programmes and recognise their commitment to the local community. Considering that Avocent is based in Shannon, we are delighted that the students will gain valuable knowledge of the career paths and job opportunities available in their locality.”

Funded under the National Development Plan, The Schools Business Partnership aimed to match 158 post primary schools in Ireland with a local business and achieved that goal in 2009.

CLARE’S chances of securing funding from a € 7 million music education programme, backed by U2, have received a boost with the news that the county’s application has been shortlisted for the prize.

Spearheaded by Clare Vocational Education Committee (VEC), the bid has been included in a list of 23 applications for round one of Music Generation funding.

The money, which has been donated by U2 and The Ireland Fund, will be used to increase music education programmes in counties around Ireland.

If successful, the Clare bid, which is also supported by organisations including Clare County Council and Shannon Development, would see music teachers employed to work in school and out of school settings, teaching music to children and young adults around the county.

Under the initiative, music education programmes could receive a maximum of € 200,000 per annum over a three-year period. Successful applicants will be expected to deliver a matching amount of funding.

Acclaimed musician and scholar Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin has also lent his high profile support to the bid, which is seeking to capitalize on Clare’s strong association with music.

Mr Ó Súilleabhain is Chairman of the Clare Music Education Programme and a founding member of Ennis-based music school Maoin Cheoil an Chláir, whose staff have worked closely with members of Clare VEC in preparing the application.

Dr Sean Conlan, Education Officer with Clare VEC, said that a lot of the work of the Clare bid focused on identifying “gaps in music education” across Clare.

He added, “That was the biggest process, because despite all the music that is being taught all over Clare there is no one organisation or group you can go to get all that information.”

Dr Conlan said that if Clare secured funding then the programme would seek to work alongside and complement the work of existing music schools and groups.

He explained, “We would be careful not to cut across what is already happening in the county or displace what is already being delivered. There are a lot of good music schools out there.”

Round one selection decisions are expected to be announced during May with round two funding announced in the Autumn.

LOCALS and holiday-makers have been warned to be vigilant in the county’s swimming areas this week as no lifeguards will be on duty. As a result of recent good weather and the Easter falling late this year, thousands are expected to take to the county’s beaches in the coming days.

Clare County Council’s Water Safety Development Officer, Liam Griffin, has urged anyone taking to the water to be cautious and to look for advice from the local surf school before swimming at an unfamiliar beach.

“People should be aware if they are thinking about going swimming that while the air temperature may be hot, the water temperature is still very cold. But if people are going swimming, they should swim at a location that they are familiar with,” he said.

“They should swim close to the shore and not over-estimate how powerful a swimmer they are. If people are visiting Clare and want to go for a swim, they should consult with local people to make sure that they are swimming in a safe place.

“Many of our lifeguards work in the the surf schools which are now located at many of the popular beaches so a good thing to do would be to go to a surf school and ask them is it safe to swim.”

The recruitment process for the 30 lifeguards who will patrol Clare beaches this summer will begin on April 30. According or Mr Griffin, Clare’s team of lifeguards are the best trained and most qualified lifeguards in Ireland.

“To apply to be a lifeguard in Clare, you must already have an Irish National Beach Lifeguard Award. Applicants will then be tested in both first aid and CPR and those who are successful will then go forward to the interview stage. We will usually have more than 80 high-quality applicants and from them we will choose the 30 best candidates,” continued Liam.

“We feel that here in Clare we have the highest standard of lifeguards in the country. Someone from Clare generally manages to win the National Surf Lifeguard Competition, which shows the quality of applicants that we get.”

Clare’s four premier beaches at Lahinch, Fanore, Spanish Point and Kilkee will all have a lifeguard presence on the June Bank Holiday Weekend. These beaches, as well as other beaches at Bishops Quarter in Ballyvaughan, Doolin, White Strand (Miltown Malbay), Seafield in Quilty, White Strand in Doonbeg, Cappa Pier in Kilrush and Lough Derg, will have a full-time lifeguard presence throughout July and August.

THE first ever detailed history of the parish of Inagh and Kilnamona has been put into a book by former local school teacher and Mayor of Clare Flan Garvey. The book, which was launched earlier this month, attempts to bring the entire history of the area together – from before the area was settled by man right up to the current day.

The book is the fruit of years of study by Flan in the Tralee Institute of Technology, where he completed a post-graduate degree in history in 2008.

The book was officially launched by the former Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, and there was a second special guest who travelled all the way from Ennis for the launch.

“We had one very important article present for the book launch. We managed to get what is known as the Inagh Chalice. The chalice is located normally at the Friary in Ennis but we managed to get a loan of it for the day,” said Flan.

“There was a Franciscan Monastery in Inagh back in the seventeenth century and one of the Friars there was a local monk call Mortimus O’Gaoife and the chalice bears his name and the year 1671. Fr Seamus from the Friary came out with the chalice and we are hugely grateful to him for helping us out with that.”

The book bring together many different elements of local history, from the geological history of the Burren and how it was formed, to the many interesting characters who lived in the Inagh and Kilnamona areas over the last few hundred years.

“All the proceeds of the book, every single penny after the printing costs, is going to the parish. I have donated my work as a gift to the parish in my latter years. It will be of great interest to local people, I know, but also to people who don’t live in the area anymore and especially people who have lived abroad.”

The book is available locally from the shops in Inagh and from all members of the local parish council.

ENNIS is set to reap a major economic benefit from the All-Ireland and International Irish Dancing Championships, which continue in the town this week.

Figures from organisers of An Comhdail show that in 2009, when the competition was last staged in Ennis, the benefit to the local economy was € 5.2 million.

The figure is based on the total level of direct and indirect expenditure that takes place in Ennis and the wider Shannon region during the duration of the event.

The championships, which run in the West County Hotel until Saturday, have also brought about a welcome boost to the hotel industry, organisers say. The total number of bed nights increased steadily between 2007 and 2009, with 12,123 bed nights being recorded when the championships came to Ennis two years ago.

The championship sees the highest standard of solo and team dancing for ages 10 up to senior level. It is an annual event, which runs every year during Holy Week.

Almost 3,000 solo competitors from all over Ireland, England, Scotland, the USA and Slovakia are expected to take part in the championships. Approximately 8,000 to 10,000 friends, relations, teachers and other Irish dancing enthusiasts will support the competitors during the weeklong event. The level of participation in the event has risen over the past number of years.

According to organisers, the economic benefit that the dancing cham- pionships will bring to Ennis and the Shannon region is enormous, with hotels, restaurants, retail outlets, travel agencies, transport companies and other leisure facilities all benefiting from the huge influx of visitors.

The region won the contract ahead of stiff competition from many other Irish regions, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England.

Events, conference and banqueting coordinator at the West County Hotel, Deborah Coughlan explained, “It is great to see the event coming to Ennis. The fact that the motorway is open and that you have the airport (Shannon) so close by was a really big thing. The airport was key.”

Ms Coughlan added, “It has had a very positive impact. I came through the town on Saturday and it was alive and buzzing.”

THINK of tourism in Clare and for many there’s that default setting which doesn’t allow them look much beyond flagship products like the Cliffs of Moher and Bunratty Castle, or the rugged beauty of the Burren or spots along the west coast of Clare from Loophead to Blackhead. But there’s much more – call them hidden tourism/heritage treasures in the eastern part of the county. Hidden because for many outside the east Clare catchment, places like Holy Island, Mountshannon and Killaloe go unnoticed and, to a large extent, untapped.

Maybe it’s precisely because of the fact that the tourism/heritage sector in East Clare doesn’t garner as much publicity as other parts of the county that the Clare VEC saw an opening and opportunity.

“There would be courses done on tourism around the county,” says course co-ordinator Rita McCarthy. “In West Clare and in Ennis, but this one was more specifically related to heritage. It was an introduction to heritage in the area – an introduction to the whole idea of eco-tourism and tourism. In East Clare, there is a lot of interest in the whole eco-tourism side of things. It was to try and work in with that and see where employment opportunities might be in the future. It was important to bring the course to the people.

“If you are unemployed and if you are on unemployment benefit, having to travel into a place like Ennis is very difficult. Travelling costs of € 30 or € 40 is a substantial amount of money. It’s to make it as easy as possible for people,” she says of the VEC Outreach programme.

The pilot project is now nearing its conclusion, with McCarthy attributing its success to the diversity in the participants – the different qualities they brought to the course as indi- viduals working towards their own individual goals, while always working in a team environment.

“The thing about a diverse group is that you get a good social mix,” she says. “You get people who wouldn’t normally meet each other. It brings together knowledge, talent, ability and all sorts of different things. There is the whole thing of networking and getting to know one another. When you go into local areas, you get more dispersed groups and you will get diversity.

“We were looking at this course in the hope that the results would see progression. We wouldn’t have seen it as a course that was going to start and finish. The plan was always to put on another course out there to take it to the next step.

“We tried to focus it around a particular subject – the goal would be that the people on the course would progress on to other types of education. I know one of them said very clearly that he wanted to learn more about computers and learn more about business studies and be much more focused in that area. When you hear that from people and you see the difference in them, that’s when you really know that it has been a success,” adds McCarthy.

MANAGEMENT at Ennis Golf Club have welcomed new traffic control measures in the area, saying they are “essential from a health an safety point of view”.

Speed ramps have been installed on a section of road near the golf club while work on a new pedestrian crossing is set to commence in the coming weeks.

The club has contributed € 10,000 to the project which is being carried out by Ennis Town Council. The decision to install speed ramps

was criticised by some local representatives at the April meeting of Clare County Council, with Cllr Tom McNamara (FF) claiming the works had caused inconvenience for motorists.

However, speaking yesterday, Ennis Golf Club honourary secretary, John Cullinane said the speed ramps and pedestrian crossing are needed to protect members who used the road to cross from one section of the course into the other.

He explained, “We have over 1,500 members.

“A few hundred of them would be older members and then we have about 300 juvenile and junior members. They are trying to cross the road and it is very dangerous.”

Mr Cullinane said the club had been looking for a pedestrian crossing for a number of years.

He said that traffic had increased in the area since the opening of the N85 western relief road. He added that drivers are often unaware that golfers use the road to cross into the course. Mr Cullinane added;

“It’s unsighted at both sides. You have to run across at your peril.”

A plan to develop a tunnel in the area was deemed unfeasible due to the height of the road while rumble strips had “had no effect” on reducing speed, Mr Cullinane explained.

He said that apart from carrying golf bags, older members often crossed the road in buggies. “We’re lucky there hasn’t been a serious accident on the road,” he added.

Mr Cullinane said members are “very grateful to the council” for installing a pedestrian crossing. “From a health and safety point of view, it’s essential,” he said.

Club member and local Fianna Fáil councillor, Pat Daly, also welcomed the measures, saying;

“It’s a fast stretch of road that motorists will come to understand is a serious health and safety issues to the over 1,000 members that use the golf course on a regular basis”. Cllr Daly said that crossing the road on certain days can be “life threatening”.

RITA McCarthy highlights one case study to showcase the potential that’s there for people who take the plunge back into the education system after many years away.

That first step, often times tentative and loaded with self-doubt, but loaded with promise and possibility at the same time. That first step that together with many others can lead to a whole new vista – it might sound clichéd to call it life-changing, but that’s just what it is.

“I always think of a course we ran in West Clare, and a farmer from Carrigaholt in his late 50s or early 60s who started an introductory course, but he has now ended up doing a third-level course,” says the adult education coordinator for Clare VEC.

“That’s the potential that’s there for people who return to education,” adds McCarthy. “And that potential is in everyone that starts out.”

With those first steps in mind, McCarthy surveys the journey started by the small group undertaking the Heritage and Tourism course in Scariff, a 30-week module at level three Fetac standard that represents a hugely significant step for many of the participants to turn to education once more.

“When people think about going back to education, they often have left education with a bad experience 20 or 30 years ago,” she says, “so it’s natural that you do get people who come into it very nervous, because they don’t know what to expect.

“Third-level education is not on the horizon but this group, and any group, can do it, if they want to. For this group and others interested, what we’d hope to do next is that in September we’d do a level-five post-Leav- ing Cert heritage course with tourism involved, marrying the two. We want to start that out in East Clare.

“It’s up to people themselves. They can go on to third level, or say this is the level they want to be at and get work in this area. People can do it. Third level might seem like a long way away, but it is a very achievable step. It’s step by step. You don’t think about the big goal at the end, but the steps in between,” she adds.

THERE was success for one budding Clare entrepreneur at the national final of the Student Enterprise of the Year awards in Dublin last week.

Emer Mooney, a student at St Anne’s Community College, Killaloe, was awarded third prize in the Junior Category of the awards in Croke Park. ‘Christmas Fair’ from Ennis Community College competed in the Intermediate Category and ‘Starling Records’ from St Anne’s Community College, Killaloe, competed in the Senior Category.

A total of 242 students from 76 different student enterprises from all over Ireland gathered in Croke Park to take part in the event.

Emer received the prize for her company, Natural Hampers, a range of Irish-made affordable gifts. Emer’s aim was to source quality Irishmade products, such as soaps, lotions and shampoos that were free of chemicals. She also donates 20 per cent of the profits to Trocaire.

“Sourcing products at a good price that are Irish and natural whilst fulfilling my aims of a little piece of luxury pampering with 20 per cent to Trocaire at a very reasonable price make my Natural Hampers unique. Altering them to be produced all year round makes the business more viable and innovative,” she said.

Emer is planning to develop her business further. She qualified after her company impressed judges at the Clare finals held in Ennis back in march.

Students from 16 Clare secondary schools together with Youthreach groups, representing 66 different businesses, attended the event that showed that the spirit of enterprise is alive and well in the Banner County.

Lucy Reidy, Clare County Enterprise Board, organiser of the Clare awards, praised the innovation displayed by Emer and her fellow finalists. “The overall standard at the national final was outstanding and it was a great achievement for Clare to be among the winners. It was very encouraging to see the innovation in the projects and to see so many young people are inspired to set up their own businesses. The experience of setting up a small business and the work put into the projects will, no doubt, stand to them when setting up their own business in the future.”

Since last September, an estimated 15,000 students from 400 schools have been researching and setting up their own businesses, through the Student Enterprise Awards, making it the biggest competition of its kind for secondary schools in the country.

The Minister for Small Business, John Perry TD, presented a total of 16 prizes.

“WE live in a beautiful part of the world with a huge range of natural heritage,” says Anne Rasehorn of what she labels the sleepy surroundings of Mountshannon.

On this day, she’s having an open house, with her fellow students sitting around a table and talking about the benefits of going back to education.

There’s camera flash around them as they go into the minutae of being of East Clare and using their surrounds in an educational context.

At the start of their 30-week course they might have been put off but not now, as they talk freely and under the spotlight of what it means to be back in education.

Tutor Shelagh Honan says, “One day, I came into class and brought a video camera with me. I asked them to make a presentation, talk to camera about a subject of their choice. Yes, some of them might have been intimidated by the prospect of doing it, but they did it and they all had something to say.”

With fellow tutors Catherine Bracken and Stephen McKeogh, Honan has overseen the course and is well placed to put its importance in context.

“Having courses like this for people out of work is very important and with increasing numbers of people out of work, the need for training and education becomes more important” she says,

“In times of economic recession, education and training is key. This is because giving people who are out of work the chance to re-train, up-skill and do a course that can cultivate a range of skills like starting your own business, embracing information technology and learning more about the heritage and history of your own area brings a lot of strands together.

“One student was blown away by what computer technology can do,” says Honan, before Eamon Nugent admits, “It amazed me that I could do it. Maybe I thought there was a barrier there and it was an impossibility, but I see now that there’s no barrier.

“It surprised me that you could see what you had written on a computer up in Flagmount on my own computer at home. Emails, I’m talking about. I thought that each thing was locked into its own computer,” Nugent adds.

“What Eamon says is important,” says Honan, “There’s no barrier. They’ve all proved that with their ability to do a range of subjects and bringing their knowledge of their own surroundings – Marie O’Leary talking in detail about Edna O’Brien; Kathleen Dowdall doing the same when talking about the stained glass windows of Harry Clarke and AE Child in St Cronan’s Church.

“The oral tradition on a tap was there and for them to be bouncing that knowledge off each other while learning at the same time was of great benefit,” she adds.