Category: News

THE ESB has warned of the “serious safety implications” from acts of vandalism on its overhead electricity network, following two attacks on an ESB transformer in Ennis.

These attacks rresulted in an engineer being hospitalised and homes and businesses being evacuated.

In the first of two incidents in recent weeks, an ESB Networks engineer was injured while helping to evacuate the area around a transformer that had been vandalised.

He suffered severe burns and was treated in hospital for two days.

A chain was thrown onto the equipment resulting in a small explosion and fire.

Several homes and businesses were left without power for several hours.

Two units of the fire brigade, an ambulance and gardaí attended that incident at Ashline on the Kilrush Road.

“There would have been a flash and sparks when the vandalism took place.

“A member of ESB Networks staff was hospitalised while helping in the evacuation and making the scene safe.

“He was detained in hospital for 48 hours before being allowed home,” a company spokesman said.

Vandals struck again at the same location last Monday, but no one was injured in that incident.

The same transformer caught fire when a steel chain was thrown onto it.

Emergency services again responded quickly and made the area safe.

The ESB has warned that those carrying out the vandalism risk serious injury and possible death, as well as compromising the safety of people living in the area as electricity is being brought to earth in an uncontrolled environment.

“We have passed the matter over to the Gardaí who are investigating. The matter of prosecution is one for the Garda as the matter has now been passed to them,” the company added.

One local businessman said, “The first day it happened, we were all told to leave the area and move onto the road, but away from where the transformer was. It is lucky no one was killed. When it happened the second time, we couldn’t believe it. The guards know who did this and hopefully they will take action.”

A 47-YEAR old man said yesterday that he had lost 42 years of his life as a result of been abused by west Clare farmer Joseph Nugent and vowed, “I am not going to lose the rest”.

Four years ago, 74-year old bachelor farmer, Joseph Nugent, from Dromellihy, Cree was sentenced to six years in jail for the abuse of the local boy.

Imposing sentence in November 2002, Judge Brian McMahon said that Nugent had acted in a premeditated and predatory nature for his own self-gratification and beastly pleasure.

The judge said that the abuse on a neighbour, who was aged eight when the abuse started, involved the use of physical violence by an adult on a young child.

A second conviction was secured against Nugent for crimes against another young boy in 2004.

Mr Nugent’s crimes are now back in the spotlight as a result of Fine Gael deputy, Pat Breen tabling a Dáil question into the possibility of Nugent being eligible for an early release. Mr Nugent is due for release in February 2008.

The victim and a father of three told The Clare People: “What were we? Innocent children. We couldn’t add three and three. Someone came along and not alone did they do awful things, but they took away your childhood and they took away the rest of your life. It should be no different to murder. The sentence he got was nothing really, but I have to respect the law and that was the judge’s decision on the day.”

There has never been an apology from Nugent for his crimes. The victim said: “He has never shown any remorse, never apologised. A line would be nothing to Mr Nugent to write a line or any of his solicitors to write a line. A line would mean a thousand lines to a victim.

“It would mean that he has shown some remorse, the statement that he thought more of his cattle than his victims. Are they still his feelings?”

After he was first raped by Nugent, the victim went to tell his mother of the attack.

He says: “When I told my mother when the first attack happened, she said ‘go away ar’ that’ and when I asked her about it in the years later, she said she didn’t understand that there was anything going on like that. Old people couldn’t believe that.

“One of the best things was when we made it up on her deathbed. She said sorry and asked would I ever forgive her and I said yes. I said to her, ‘you explained to me that you didn’t know – that there was none in your day, you didn’t know, grand so’ and we cuddled and she died the day after.”

He added: “There has been very good support from the community. Not at first though, because they were fairly filled with lies before they found out the truth. The community is brilliant, I couldn’t ask for better. You will have the few on their side, you will get that in any case, that’s only natural. I have no bad feelings towards them.”

The man was speaking at an Ennis hotel last Thursday in the company of his psychiatric nurse and broke down several times during the interview.

He said: “It split the family very bad, that was a sorrowful thing. It split both my sisters away from me. They understand now that they were told lies and they have come back and apologised to me. It was hard for them to apologise and they have been good to me ever since. I can walk into any of their houses anytime and have a cuppa tea and they are there in two seconds if I am having a bad day. I’m sure that it hurts them as well that they didn’t understand.”

He tells of the challenge in going to the Garda to make a complaint over the attacks from Nugent.

He said: “He was a big farmer, well-to-do, with a new car every year. He was always in the best of clothes, a pillar of society in the area. It was a lot to take on for someone who wasn’t as well off. Someone that had depression and was living through hell, but you take each day as it comes.”

He added: “When it is a big person, big people in life, it is as if they had a right to do it you because you were poor. He thought that his cattle were more important to him than me. What does that tell you?”

The 47-year old victim who came forward to The Clare People last week said: “The local gossip going around was that the two of us (Nugent’s other victim) were meeting up regular and we had it all planned to get the money.

“We had every sort of a plan going. It was put out that I didn’t get my own place at home and that I was only after his place. What a load of rubbish. It wasn’t about that. It was about justice. I have never seen the other victim since and it would be nice to have a chat.

“I was so glad that I got something out of it, got a sentence and put this bad man out of society. We didn’t do it for money. Money wasn’t a care. I am not rich, I would be in the lower poor bracket, but at least I got my wife, my kids, my close friends and my nurse and my doctors.”

He advises that other abuse victims go and find help, “because you will not cope with it alone. My heart bleeds for the crathurs.”

He said: “I was smiling on the outside and dying on the inside. I was laughing through depression. I laughed myself through the last 41 or 42 years. Some people, God love them, they didn’t make it like. I have close friends that didn’t.”

The man says that his children bring him a lot of happiness. He said: “They don’t know how much they help me. It is happy that you have someone at the end of the day. I like the married life, it is great to come home to someone that they understand and love you. That’s it. My nurse is my angel and I have an angel at home in my wife. I am fairly religious and that has brought me through a lot.”

The man has not worked since the outcome of the trial four years ago. He said: “I have very severe depression, serious stuff. I have only to see someone that resembles him and that just brings it all back.

“I could be having a lovely day. I could be at Salthill in Galway and walking down the beach and see someone that resembles him and that would set me back again. I would be walking along and it gets inside your mind, it eats at your mind and you just start crying walking down the street.

“I’m very optimistic for the future. It’s getting me down now because of what was in the paper. I don’t know what plans for the future are.

Nugent is due for release in February 2008 and the victim said: “I have been advised to move to another area of the parish from being next door and seeing him every day. It is going to be tough, you certainly wouldn’t want your children running around when the man is released.”

ENNIS based company Sellityourself.ie has been shortlisted for a Golden Spiders Award for Best Website Launched in 2006.

The prestigious Golden Spiders Awards recognise and rewards companies for excellence in the Irish Internet industry.

Sellityourself.ie is run by husband and wife team Anne Marie Doyle and Neil Doherty and employs 5 people.

Sellityourself.ie provides a dedicated service to property owners who wish to sell their property without using an estate agent. For a fixed fee of €195, property owners can place their property photos and details on Sellityourself.ie. They will then receive a For Sale signboard and pointer board for outside their property. Sellityourself.ie then advises on an advertising campaign in local and national newspapers, which includes booking, designing and placing the advertisements.

“The idea of selling a property without an estate agent is quite new in Ireland, but is common practice in many countries including the USA,” says Anne-Marie Doyle, director of Sellityourself.ie.

“The substantial cost saving of commission-free property sales, combined with the flexibility and convenience of managing your sale online, has meant that selling your home yourself has become an increasingly attractive option for many people

“This nomination reflects the hard work and dedication of the Sellityourself.ie team,” she said.

“Since we launched our service in May, the response from those buying and selling property has been phenomenal.”

This nomination is also a feather in the cap for Ennis Web design company Advanced Internet Marketing, (aimdesign.ie), who designed the Website.

AIM are also responsible for the marketing and promotion of the site. This is the second time a Website designed by AIM has been nominated for a Golden Spiders award.

The 2006 Golden Spiders Awards nominees have been chosen by a prestigious panel of leaders in the Irish Internet industry.

The panel includes Eamonn and Brian Fallon (Daft.ie), Jim Miley (CEO MyHome.ie), Rachel Harwood (eBay.ie), Gareth Lambe (Pigsback.com), Adele Cooper (Google Ireland) and Brendan Finucane (Enterprise Ireland).

The winners will be announced on November 23 at a gala event in the Burlington Hotel.

THE Post Office field in Ennis has been targeted as the site for a proposed new two-storey library for the town.

Last night (Monday), Ennis Town Council approved a request from the Town Manager to apply for funding from the Department of Environment and An Comhairle Leabharlanna.

The development would see a library built on .3 acres of a section of the field fronting onto Bank Place.

Un-veiling the plans, Tom Coughlan, Town Manager, stated the proposed development would encompass 25,000 sq. feet, a staff carpark, dual access as well as a large glass fronted decking area that would overlook the river.

According to Mr Coughlan, it is likely that the present site of the DeValera library which is owned by Clare County Council, will be sold to pay for the cost of the development, although the gallery area may be retained.

Re-development of the current site is considered problematic due to the likely disruption to services

Consideration would also be given to housing the headquarters of Clare Library Services in the same building.

The post office field is currently zoned amenity and any development will constitute a material contravention to the Ennis and Environs Development Plan and will require the council to adopt a variation to the plan.

Mr Coughlan said the matter needed to be urgently addressed as both the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and An Comhairle Leabharlanna plan to scale back the level of funding they normally make available to such projects.

Ennis Town council had previously voted that any future usage of the field be determined by the Civic Trust who were due to prepare a report on the matter.

However following advice from the Office of Public Works (OPW), it was decided to delay completion of the report until the OPW conducted their own report into the field’s position as a flood plain for the nearby River Fergus.

Councillor Donal O’Beara (GP) stated that the DeValera Library be kept as a public space and not given over to commercial development.

Cllr Frankie Neylon asked “What is going to happen to the rest of the field? It seems to me that we made a decision that the field would not be used and now we are changing it.”

Cllr Peter Considine (FF) stressed that Bank Place reflected Ennis as a modern prosperous town and that any development “should be sensitive to the ethos of the area”.

A BOOK to be released next week about slain Garda detective, Jerry McCabe, harks back to the East Clare post office raids and the shooting dead of Clarecastle IRA man, Hugh Hehir.

But as two of the McCabe killers begin High Court proceedings for early release, the author of the new book, Dermot Walsh, insists it is “a book about Jerry McCabe and not about his killers.”

The Clare connection concerns Kevin Walsh, one of the four man gang who were convicted of killing the detective garda in a botched postoffice raid in Adare in June 1966.

Journalist Walsh – who wrote the book in co-operation with McCabe’s widow, Ann – traces the possible seeds of the brutal killing back to an event in May of 1988.

That was when Kevin Walsh, the man widely believed to have been the one who opened fire with an automatic weapon on the Garda car in Adare, set out to rob the post office in Caher along with Hugh Hehir.

They hadn’t bargained on the pluck of the post mistress, Mary Kelly, who wrestled a gun from Walsh’s hands.

The raiders turned tail and ran while the postmistress alerted gardaí that they could be on their way to Feakle.

The two were indeed bound for Feakle, where they planned to raid the post office.

They were met en route by a Garda car and Hehir was shot in the head in an exchange of fire between the raiders and the gardaí.

Researching the book, Walsh spoke to many people who believed that the surviving IRA man was shamed at allowing an elderly woman to get his gun and make him run.

They also believe that Kevin Walsh felt responsible for Hehir’s death and that this was the event which spurred him on to being at the forefront of IRA activity.

“To The Honour Of Jerry McCabe” will be published next Monday and its author said he “could never have written this book without the McCabe family.”

Last week, two of the men convicted of the killing, Jeremiah Sheehy and Pearse McAuley began an application to the High Court for early release.

But Walsh stated that the timing of the publication is “a co-incidence, This book is not about them.,”said the author.

AN extension to Glór could be on the cards after Ennis Town Council supported a request for the facility to apply for funding.

Government funding to the tune of €1.4 million is being sought by Glór for a 550 sq. metre extension that would include a 200 seat performance area, dressing room, backstage and refreshment facilities.

The extension will also allow for previously redundant foyer space in the main building, to be turned into a gallery.

A €2 million price tag has been put on the development with 70 per cent of the funding sought from the Department of the Arts’ ACCESS funding programme, and the remaining 30 per cent to be got from local authority own resources. If the application is successful, Ennis Town Council will supply funding of €300,000.

In a submission to the council, Glór Director, Katie Verling, outlined the reasons for pursuing the extension.

“Since Glór opened 5 years ago, the board has been conscious of the lack of a middle sized performance space. There has been a demand over the years from community groups, local arts and drama groups and more recently Clare Youth Theatre for a 200 seat Multi-purpose space in which to meet perform and run children’s workshops.

“Glór has built up a strong relationship with community and voluntary groups throughout, Ennis, e.g. Brothers of Charity, Enable Ireland, Irish Refugee Council, Ennis Musical Society, Clare Youth Theatre to name a few. Many find Glór’s main theatre too big and daunting, and would prefer a smaller space.

‘With the announcement of the ACCESS 11 Scheme . . . we were encouraged to apply for an additional 200 seater low-tech durable flexible space. In this hall, the people of Ennis will be able to run meetings, rehearse, attend traditional and folk concerts, run dances and celebrate the many and varied talents of the town,” she said.

Supporting the request, Councillor Peter Considine (FF) said,

“I think we should support it, Glór is one of the flagship entertainment venues in the Mid-West and there is huge demand for facilities of this kind in a town like Ennis”

Councillor Johnny Flynn (FG) praised Glór as being a “fantastic asset to the town”.

ONE solution to the public order crisis in Lahinch is to close nightclubs earlier – that’s according to a judge, who spoke out on the issue last week.

Judge Joseph Mangan was commenting at Ennistymon District Court as one nightclub, at The Claremont Hotel, applied for an exemption until 2am. He granted it, having granted an exemption to Coast nightclub the previous week, but commented on the public order situation in the town.

Several public order cases in Lahinch were heard at the court, as was the case at the last court sitting in September.

“In the absence of any statistics, this court has seen today and last September that the public order situation in Lahinch has not improved and if anything it has disimproved in recent times,” said the judge.

“It seems to me the most prudent thing for the court to do is to shorten exemption times, in an attempt to address the problem,” he added.

The exemptions will take effect for a number of weeks and applications will be made for further exemptions next month.

In another, unrelated case, the judge fined three men involved in a row outside a nightclub in Lahinch, a total of €7,500.

Brothers John (32) and Kevin Darcy (30), of Mullagh Road, Miltown Malbay, and Gary O’Keefe (27), Mullagh, were before the court arising out of an incident in Lahinch, a year ago.

John Darcy pleaded guilty to assaulting a bouncer, damaging a shirt and with engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour and was fined €3,000.

Kevin Darcy pleaded guilty to assaulting Sergeant Michael Gallery and with damaging an off-duty garda’s neck chain. He was fined €2,500.

Gary O’Keeffe was fined €2,000, after admitting assaulting a bouncer and engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour.

Judge Mangan said, “Even by the standards of Lahinch, this was a bad incident.”

He said he was taking their guilty pleas into account and was not going to impose jail sentences.

The comments by the judge came amid ongoing concerns among residents in Lahinch over public order.

Two years ago, locals objected to nightclub licences being granted. They have pledged to oppose exemptions, if public order issues continue to cause concern.

During the summer a petition outlining concerns on public order, was signed by residents in the town and send to Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

Garda management in Clare believe the situation is under control, as Garda manpower has increased in the town.

An additional garda has been stationed in Lahinch full-time, while more back-up is now provided from Ennistymon every Saturday night.

A LATVIAN man who sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in a shop in Kilkee has been given a suspended jail term.

Valentins Gzibovskis (23), of Marine Apartments, Kilkee, pleaded guilty to sexual assault, at O’Curry Street, Kilkee, on January 14 last.

Inspector Michael Gallagher told Ennis District Court yesterday (Monday) that the accused grabbed his victim between the legs, outside her clothes, after he followed her and another girl along the street.

The court heard the victim suffered bouts of anger and temper tantrums in the wake of the assault, which were connected with it.

Defending solicitor Eugene O’Kelly said the offence was committed on the accused’s birthday, after he had consumed a large amount of alcohol. Gzibovskis has lived in Kilkee for the past two years and works locally. His employer told the court he is a reliable, hard-working employee.

“He certainly has no recollection of the incident in the shop. He had not considered himself to have deviant sexual tendencies,” he said.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy noted that the assault was outside the girl’s clothes and said, “A sexual assault on a girl of that age is extremely serious. The courts have to take this seriously.”

He took the guilty plea into account and said the assault was “at the lower level” of the scale. He imposed a seven-month sentence and suspended it for two years. He placed the accused on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

CLARE is among the highest academically achieving counties in Ireland, according to the results of an independent survey released this weekend. The survey which examined the university placements of students from 720 second-level schools in the Republic pinpointed the highest ranking schools as well as the countries educational blackspots.

The survey found Clare to be the fourth best county for second-level education with 38 per cent of its students going on to university, above the national average of 32 per cent, and behind Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown (51.7 per cent), South City Dublin (40.8 per cent), and Limerick (39.2 per cent).

The Clare school to take the highest position was St Flannan’s College, Ennis, which in 39th position nationally and sixth in Munster saw 64.3 per cent of its students gaining a university place.

At 12th position was Seamount College, Kinvara, which climbed from eightieth position in 2005. Despite this, Seamount College is expected to be closing its doors to students over the next couple of years. Another Clare school to reach to top 100 was Scoil Mhuire, Ennistymon which at 45th place made a massive jump from last year’s position of 145.

Among the rest of the 400 schools listed were Colaiste Mhuire, Ennis who dropped from seventy fourth in last year’s ranking to 140th this year and Meanscoil na mBraithire, Ennistymon, which at 148th rose from its 2005 ranking of 152nd.

RESULTS of a survey released last week show a massive demand from commuters for the section of the Western Rail Corridor linking Ennis, Athenry and Galway City.

The MRBI poll reveals that one quarter of the people surveyed would use this section of the line on a regular basis, while eight per cent said they would use it more than 2 or 3 times per week.

These figures are the highest passenger projections to date and according to the West on Track group would put the total passenger numbers well over 1 million journeys per year.

“These figures more than bear out the passenger demand projections of West on Track and are in line with ongoing research being conducted both north and south of Athenry,” said a group spokesperson.

“We welcome the fact that our passenger demand projections have now been independently verified and expect our projections of demand north of Galway to be accepted as equally accurate.”

Should the results of this survey be borne out in reality, they would place the Ennis to Galway section of the corridor almost on a par with the Dublin to Belfast line in terms of passenger numbers and ahead of well established lines such Westport to Dublin and Sligo to Dublin.