Category: News

AN ANIMAL rights group has offered a € 5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the deaths and dumping of 17 animals in Doonbeg.

The decomposing carcasses of approximately 10 horses, four cattle and three calves were discovered at the bottom of the spectacular Baltard Cliffs last week.

The animal carcasses, which have been at the scenic cliffs for up to two months, have not yet been removed as there is some difficulty in getting the proper equipment to where they are located. See page 9 for more

AN ANIMAL rights group has offered a € 5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the deaths and dumping of 17 animals in Doonbeg.

The decomposing carcasses of approximately 10 horses, four cattle and three calves were discovered at the bottom of the spectacular Baltard Cliffs last week.

Gardaí in Kilrush, along with Clare County Council, the Department of Agriculture and the ISPCA are investigating how the animals died and who dumped their remains.

One horse was found at the top of the cliff, barely alive, and had to be put down by a local vet.

Questions also remain if the animals at the bottom of the cliff were fully dead at the time their bodies were dumped over the cliff edge.

The animal carcasses, which have been at the scenic cliffs for up to two months, have not yet been removed as there is some difficulty in getting the proper equipment to where they are located.

“The council is trying to determine if it can get a tracked machine down to where they are located, which is not easily accessible.

“The HSE has advised the council that the animals are not going to cause a public nuisance in the meantime due to their remote location,” said a council spokesperson yesterday (Monday).

The group, Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN), has now offered a reward for information.

John Carmody from ARAN said, “The new laws which the Minister introduced recently are clearly not going to deter these cowards from taking their issues out on whomever is available to them.

“As a nation we should now hang our heads in shame that we’ve reached a point where animal abuse has now gone so out of control that those who are involved in it, simply don’t have anything to fear. We’ve been saying it for years.”

ENNIS Town Council yesterday heard calls for shaving foam, eggs and other messy substances to be banned from the town during certain public events such as St Patrick’s Day Parade.

The ban was called for by Cllr Mary Howard (FG) in the wake of a number of unsavoury incidents which were reported to have taken place during this year’s St Patrick’s Day festivities in Ennis.

“I think that it is obvious that if a group of 11 or 12 year-olds are buying lots of shaving foam that they are not all going home to shave their legs,” said Cllr Howard. See page 17 for more

CLARE drill makers Mincon made a record profit of € 15 million last year, despite a general slowdown in the international mining sector. The Shannon-based company last week posted operational profits in excess of € 15 million for 2013, despite a sizable shrinkage in their overall sales.

The company, who famously played a key role in a mission to save a large group of Chilean miners trapped un derground for 69 days in 2010, saw their overall sales drop from € 63 million in 2012 to € 52 million last year. Despite the reduction in overall sales, Mincon managed to raise their overall profits by nearly 20 per cent over the last 12 months.

The company’s increased profits came against the background of a shrinking global mining market, with the price of precious metals continuing to decline in 2014. Mincon’s yearly sales were also hot in 2013 through by currency fluctuations in some of its key markets, particularly in South Africa and Australia.

Indeed, according to the company’s accounts, this currency fluctuation cost the company € 1.3 million in profits last year. The company determines that the profit increase has been brought about by increasing its share of the global rock-drilling products markets, which generates higher margins than what it can earn from the sale of third-party products.

Earlier this year, the company’s two biggest shareholders gave employees € 1.2 million from their own private funds to reward them for their hard work over the years. Company founder Paddy Purcell and Kevin Barry initiated the employee recognition plan, which excluded all members of senior management. The money was paid to Mincon’s 140 eligible employees across the group and was based on years of service with a payment of € 1,000 per staff member per year of service.

The company was founded in 1977 and listed on the Dublin and London stock exchanges late last year. Many of the company’s Shannon based employees have been there for a number of decades.

SHANNON Airport has taken to the Big Apple to promote the latest strengthening of its US network – Aer Lingus’ first year-round service to New York since 2009.

The airport kicked off the most significant week for route commencements in almost a decade as it held meetings with travel, trade and US media in New York to promote the enhanced services.

Airport chairman Rose Hynes and marketing manager Marie Slattery led the Shannon delegation and during the four-day visit also held meetings with New York-based business interests and investors with regard to the wider Shannon group activities, including members of the influential Irish diaspora.

According to the airport chairman, the American market for services into the west of Ireland is heating up. “We have had a tremendous response from the trade, which is our key audience this week, as well as US media. There is a particular demand from the US for services into the western half of the country and Shannon because of the uniqueness of the product we have.

“Shannon is, of course, the only airport on the entire Atlantic coast with direct access from the US and we are delighted to have strengthened the services this year again. The Wild Atlantic Way is also generating considerable interest. It will be the longest coastal driving route in the world and that’s the type of product the discerning US market demands,” she said.

Aer Lingus will add 31,000 seats on its transatlantic services in 2014, a significant increase in capacity over last year when it operated seven flights a week between Shannon and the US compared to 13 flights a week this year.

Said Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America Alison Metcalfe, “The Shannon region has extensive links with the US, forged over generations, and it has been a major gateway to the West of Ireland for US visitors over the years.

“Getting to the Shannon region has never been easier with great value non-stop flights from cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia with a welcome that is second to none.”

AN ENNIS postman is on the verge of making a big splash in the film world with two new film credits to his name in 2014.

Local postie, Kerry Whitehouse, took up composing as a hobby a number of years ago and has been inundated with offers of work, including two films which will receive Irish releases in 2014.

Kerry worked on the sound effects and title music for Irish film ‘Somebody’s There’, which will released on DVD and Blueray across Ireland and the UK in June of this year.

He also completed the score for the American horror film ‘Slender’, which will be shown at a number of Irish film festivals in the coming months.

Indeed, Kerry has been in so much demand lately that he was considering giving up composition altogether because it was taking up too much of his time.

“It is going really well. So much so that I was considering packing it in before Christmas because I was just too busy.

“I work a full time job and the film composition has always been more of a hobby,” said Kerry.

“If the opportunity arose I’d go into it [film score composition] in a heart beat. I work in the post office and I get my fair share of bad weather going around the place.

“It is difficult though – even composers who are working on film shows in America often have another job. But if the opportunity arose I’d jump at it.”

Kerry is also in line to work on a new TV series which will deal with the events surrounding the famous Roswell alien sighting in 1947.

“I think one of the maddest things that I’ve been involved in recently is to do with the UFOs.

“I do music for a radio station in America and through that I came across Jessie Marcel, the grandson of Lieutenant Jesse Marcel – who was first on the scene at the Roswell UFO incident in 1947.

“He is putting together a new series for the Sci-Fi channel in America and I am in talks about doing that as well,” continued Kerry.

DOONBEG is hoping for All-Ireland glory this weekend as its drama group is in the All Ireland Drama Final in Claremorris, Co Mayo.

Having reached the top nine of the 34 drama groups doing the “competition circuit” nationally, the group are now in a position to bring national gold to the long village.

The Doonbeg Drama Group is no stranger to the pressures of national competition having come runners up by just one point to the All-Ireland winners in 2012.

Producer and co-founder of the group 34 years ago, Mary Egan said the 22-strong crew and actors were looking forward to taking to the stage in Mayo on Sunday night with The Cavalcaders written by Billy Roche.

The group was reformed in 1980 by Ms Egan and Murt McInerney who also served as producer for the group for numerous years. In 1990 Doonbeg Drama Group began competing in competitions around Ireland and has been one of the stronger groups on the circuit since.

Those wishing to see the play one last time before the set and cast relocate to Claremorris for the All-Ireland Final, can do so in Doonbeg Hall this Thursday, April 3, at 8.30pm.

The winner of the All Ireland will be announced on Saturday, April 12.

MORE than half a million euro has been made available for the upgrade of parking facilities at the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience.

The cliffs, which attracted just under one million visitors to Clare last year, has been operating using a gravel car park since the opening of the € 31 million re-development of the facility in 2007.

Management at the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience announced the € 550,000 investment last week which includes an upgrade of the existing public car park, provide additional coach parking as well as an upgrade the centre’s exhibition.

Contracts have already been awarded for the coach parking and exhibition upgrades with works due to commence shortly, while a plan ning application has been submitted in respect of the proposed car park improvements.

“The upgrades to the coach park and car park will provide an improved experience for our group and car-based customers with increased capacity and a better layout including e-car charging points, additional disabled parking and improved pedestrian flow,” said Katherine Webster, Director of the Cliffs of Moher Visitors experience.

“The new exhibition content will bring fresh exciting new experiences and greater visitor interactivity to the cliffs exhibition. The upgrade is being provided by Dublin-based Rockbrook Engineering and we’re delighted with how their proposals will bring some of the outdoor ex perience of the cliffs inside into the dome area.”

Advanced booking at the Cliffs of Moher for 2014 indicate that the facility is likely to top one million visitors this year for the first time ever.

This follows a 10 per cent increase in 2013, when 960,134 people visited the world famous tourist attraction. This compared to 873,988 visitors in 2012.

The Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience has also been identified as one of the three Signature Discovery Points in Clare on the Wild Atlantic Way, alongside the Bridges of Ross and Loop Head Lighthouse.

A NEW commercial training centre could be on the way for Shannon as plans for the facility have been with an Bord Pleanála.

The Shannon Airport Authority lodged the proposal with the planning authority last week, which would see an existing boiler house at Shannon converted into the a new commercial training centre.

Little information about the nature of the proposed development is available except that the application was made under the Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID) system at an Bord Pleanála, which is normally reserved for very large projects which would have a regional impact. How- ever, under current planning legislation, every development at the airport is required to go through the SID process – even if the development is small and will be referred to planner at Clare County Council.

Clare County Council is currently working to remove the planning law, which requires all building projects at Shannon Airport to be first lodged with an Bord Pleanála but it is currently still required in order to gain planning.

This news comes just over a week after Shannon Development an nounced plans to clear a massive 10,000 square metre site in the Shannon Free Zone for an unknown future development.

The agency applied to Clare County Council last month for permission to clear the site, which is located at Block C in the Shannon Free Zone.

In the planning file lodged with the local authority, Shannon Development has requested permission to clear a number of existing light industrial and office buildings in Block C, with a total cleared space of more than 8,050 square metres.

There is at present no indication that a particular development has been earmarked for the site, but a spokesperson from Shannon Development said that the area has been earmarked for “redevelopment”.

“The work we are carrying out at Shannon Free Zone is part of our strategy to position this area of the Zone for redevelopment with a view to developing this site in the future,” said the spokesperson.

GARDA resources are being stretched to the limit trying to deal with the rise in burglaries in Ennis.

Yesterday’s meeting of the Ennis Joint Policing Committee heard that 59 burglaries were recorded in Ennis for the first three months of the year. That is an increase of three burglaries on the same period in 2013.

Supt Derek Smart of Ennis Garda Station told the meeting burglaries are the area of most concern to gardaí.

He said a large number of Garda resources, including the establishment of crime checkpoints near Ennis, are being allocated to tackle the crime.

“Burglaries are taking up a lot of time and effort. People’s homes should be their castle. So a lot of my resources are stretched trying to tackle that and detect that crime,” he said.

“We’ve taken checkpoints and brought them back closer to Ennis town where the majority of our burglaries are being committed. There are a lot more crime checkpoints which are directed at trying to find the culprits,” added Supt Smart

In his report to the committee and members of the public, Supt Smart detailed crime figures for Ennis for the first three months of 2014.

He said there have been five robberies of persons in 2014 compared to one in the same period as last year.

A number of people are currently before the courts in relation to the allegations.

There were three incidents of criminal damage by fire in the first three months of 2014; 28 reported thefts and 26 thefts from mechanically propelled vehicles.

Supt Smart told the meeting there is an 81 per cent detection rate in thefts from persons.

Garda have investigated 13 reports of missing persons, conducted 50 drugs searches and 46 searches under warrant.

There have been 11 drink-driving detections compared to 12 for the same period in 2013.

Three people were detected on suspicion of drug driving in the first three months of the year. The meeting was attended by a large number of business people who expressed concern about the level of anti-social behaviour on the streets of Ennis.

A number of them highlighted incidents that occurred on St Patrick’s Day.

Supt Smart urged people in the town to contact them anytime an incident occurs.

In response to questions on the use of Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBO), Supt Smart said very few of the orders have been issued in Clare.

On the prospect of increased Garda resources for Ennis, Supt Smart said the force in Clare has been hit hard by retirements in recent years. Committee member Michael Guilfoyle (Ind), quoted a recent comment by Chief Supt John Kerin who said 55 gardaí had retired from the force in Clare over the last few years.