Category: News

THE people of Ennis should have a cleaner safer, albeit temporary, water supply within the next three weeks.

According to Clare County Manager Alec Fleming the council is a little behind time in installing the treatment system. It is now unlikely that the system will be in place by May 1 as previously thought, but the delay is not likely to take more than two weeks.

County Engineer and Director of Services Tom Carey said, “To date, this project has been progressing fairly satisfactorily. I can report that the membrane banks are due for delivery within a matter of days.

“While it was intended that the plant would be commissioned on May 1, we are experiencing some delay on the delivery of the necessary pumps. This is likely to delay the commissioning by not more than two weeks,” he added.

Green Party Cllr Brian Meaney said he had concerns about the long-term suitability of the Ennis water supply. Mr Fleming explained that there was nothing wrong with the supply. “We have a large town and we didn’t have adequate treatment, just disinfectant,” he told Mr Meaney. “Disinfectant just doesn’t deal with cryptosporidium (parasite),” he added.

A 56-YEAR-OLD man was last night (Monday) fighting for his life in hospital, after being found lying unconscious on a pavement in Lisdoonvara in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Gardai are at a loss as to what happened to Jim Kearney and say they are not ruling anything in or out at this stage.

Mr Kearney, who lives locally at Rooska, was found with severe head injuries at Kincora Road, close to the Square in the town, at around 2am.

He was seen leaving a pub in the town just 10 minutes earlier, having been socialising for the evening, and is understood to have been on his way home at the time.

A passer-by noticed him lying on the pavement close to Burke’s garage and notified gardaí.

He was rushed to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Ennis, before being moved to Limerick. He was later transferred to hospital in Cork, where he underwent emergency surgery and was still in a critical condition there, at time of going to press last evening.

Gardaí say they have no evidence to suggest any suspicious activity took place, but are keeping an open mind.

“We are not ruling anything in or out. We have to find out what caused the injuries,” said a garda spokesman.

“One of the head injuries is consistent with a fall, but we have not ascertained what caused the other injuries,” he added.

A number of people who were socialising with the man have been interviewed and house-to-house enquiries were being conducted in Lisdoonvarna yesterday, as gardai tried to piece together what exactly happened. The street where Mr Kearney was found was closed for much of yesterday, while an area close to the garage was cordoned off yesterday morning.

Mr Kearney, a native of Wexford, has worked as a chef in various north Clare restaurants for more than 10 years and is well-known in Lisdoonvarna.

“We want to speak to anyone who was in his company during the night,” added the spokesman.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Ennistymon Garda Station on 065 7071020.

A KILRUSH youth who inflicted ‘near fatal’ knife injuries on a man has been warned he will face four years behind bars — if he steps out of line within the next 12 months.

The 17-year-old pleaded guilty last year to assaulting another man, causing him serious harm, on John Street, Kilrush, on November 23, 2003.

On that occasion, he was ordered to obey the Probation Services and to refrain from associating with youths who would be engaging in anti-social behaviour.

However, Ennis Circuit Court heard yesterday (Monday) that earlier this month the youth was sentenced to four months’ detention for assaulting two gardai, last December.

During the incident the two gardaí were headbutted.

Defending barrister Mark Nicholas said the accused’s probation report was favourable. Referring to the assault on the gardaí, he said, “It is a shame that he has slipped in this regard. . . It is a very serious slip.”

“He has been punished and is serving four months’ detention for that. He has no intention of appealing it,” added the barrister.

Mr Nicholas said the assault in November 2003 was “dreadful” but that his client had owned up to it and has since met most of the conditions imposed in the Circuit Court 12 months ago.

Judge Carroll Moran said the assault central to the case was very serious.

“The evidence last year was that the injured party suffered near-fatal injuries when he was attacked with a knife. He was in hospital, first in Ennis and then Limerick, for a total of eight days. The victim did make a full recovery, but has suffered psychological strain.”

The judge added that if he sent the youth to jail, he would be more likely to lead a criminal career than he would if he hadn’t been jailed.

“But he has got into trouble since, by headbutting two gardaí,” said the judge.

He said he would adjourn the case for another year, on condition that he stay out of trouble.

“If he gets into trouble, he will get a sentence of four years,” he said.

Detective Sergeant Sheedy recommended that a curfew be imposed. “My belief is if the accused has any chance of staying out of trouble, a curfew should be imposed,” said the garda.

A curfew — between the hours of 11pm and 7am — was imposed and the youth was ordered to reside with his parents in Kilrush.

ENNIS Town Mayor, Frankie Neylon, has said “there is no way in the world” that Council housing should be provided on a pro-rata basis for local asylum seekers.

He made his comment after figures released yesterday showed that 40 per cent of the applicants on the housing list are asylum seekers and refugees.

The number of asylum seekers on the housing list has increased by 90 per cent in the past three years.

In 2003, there were 148 asylum seekers on the list, which totaled 590, and this increased to 282 on the list that now accounts for 680 applicants.

Asked if asylum seekers be allocated housing on a pro-rata basis which would entitle them to 40 per cent of new Council housing stock, Cllr Neylon said: “there is no way in the world that should happen.

“I would be totally against that. That would be very unfair to people born and reared in this town who are on the housing list.”

“There is no hint of racism in what I say. I welcome all the asylum seekers to Ennis, but I do have a problem when it comes to housing stock if the government isn’t prepared to provide additional funding to build the extra homes.”

Council figures show that houses are not being allocated to asylum seekers on a proportional basis.

Last year, the Council allocated just four homes out of 46 to non-nationals, while in the new Council development of 48 homes at Roslevan, only nine have been allocated to nonnationals.

Cllr Neylon said the Council was playing “catch-up” in trying to deal with the growing housing list and that asylum seeker families will get preference over local families because they had larger families.

“The list now stands at 680 and will be 1,000 soon enough. There is no way of solving it with the current level of new housing.

“We will soon provide 48 homes in Roslevan, but it may be another three years before we open another development and the list will continue to grow.”

“If only one asylum seeker gets a house, that means one of our own didn’t qualify. If that is going to happen, I have no problem, but extra government funding should be made available because of the influx. Ennis is particularly vulnerable to a housing crisis due to the amount of asylum seekers. We have had more than our fair share.”

Nigerian-born councillor Dr Taiwoo Matthew said that, while the Council wasn’t meeting its housing targets, it was doing as much as it could with the resources available.

“We work as a team. The Council provided 46 homes last year, but I wish it could have provided 500 if it got the funding.”

A HOMELESS man who was jailed for two years last month for threatening hospital staff with an imitation gun, has been jailed for a further 15 months, for separate offences.

Oliver Boylan (38), a Dublin native who has lived in Ennis for a number of years, was jailed at Ennis Circuit Court in March, after he pleaded guilty to an offence at Ennis General Hospital, in May 2004.

He appeared before Ennis District Court last Friday, on a number of charges, relating to dates in 2004 and 2005.

The court heard that on June 24, 2004, Boylan pushed a garda out of the way, while another garda was trying to arrest him.

On another occasion he refused to leave the area when directed to do so, while drinking at the Cathedral in Ennis.

Inspector Michael Gallagher said the accused was arrested for breaching a barring order, in Ennis, on June 20, 2004 and on July 15, 2004.

Defending solicitor, John Casey, said his client had an extremely difficult life, having suffered badly in a school in Dublin, at the age of 12.

He said he ran away when he was 12 and lived rough. However, despite that, he pulled through and set up his own landscaping business.

The death of his mother, when he was 30, had a “catastrophic effect” on him, said the solicitor.

“Oliver Boylan was drunk more often than he was sober. He lost everything. He lost his wife, he lost his children.

“His life has been one continuous drinking session. He had nothing to keep him off drink,” said Mr Casey.

He said that when the other case [relating to the imitation gun] came before Ennis Circuit Court in March, Boylan agreed that his only option was to go to prison.

“He has been a pain in the proverbial to the guards in Ennis,” said the solicitor.

“He will have spent his entire 30s in an alcoholic stupor. I’d ask you to leave him with some light at the end of the tunnel,” said Mr Casey.

Judge Joseph Mangan imposed two six-month sentences, for two separate offences under the Domestic Violence Act and a three-month term for an offence under the Public Order Act.

He must serve the sentences, on top of the two-year term he is currently serving.

THE family of abuse victim Peter McCloskey, who was found dead at his Kilkee home earlier this month, say many questions remain unanswered, following their meeting with the Bishop of Limerick on Sunday.

Peter McCloskey died on April 1, days after a mediation meeting between himself, representatives of the Clerical sex victims support group One In Four and church representatives.

His distraught family met with Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray on Sunday, a meeting described by Peter’s brother Joseph as “very challenging.”

“Yesterday was an extraordinarily difficult day. There is clearly going to be a need for some form of investigation into the events. I still feel the Limerick Diocese has failed Peter,” said Joseph, yesterday (Monday).

He said it was “very positive” that the meeting took place as it “needed to happen.”

“I think the Limerick Diocese have a huge journey to travel in understanding the implications and knockon effects of their actions,” he said.

He said his brother’s death was “no accident. It could all have been so easily avoided.”

A joint statement was issued in the wake of the meeting between the Bishop and the family.

In it the Bishop acknowledged that he completely accepts the truth of Mr McCloskey’s experience of clerical child sexual abuse. He also acknowledged that there was a failure on the part of the diocese to inform itself as to Fr Daly’s suitability for the ministry. The diocese accepts that the information available at that time should have prevented Fr Daly from taking up ministry in Limerick. In an emotional press conference last week, Mary McCloskey, Peter’s mother, called on Dr Murray to resign as Bishop of Limerick over the way in which he and the diocese handled the case.

Peter was abused while serving as an altar boy at the age of ten in the Diocese of Limerick by Fr Denis Daly, a priest who had been run out of a parish in Sydney for a “moral lapse”.

Peter had been locked in a fouryear battle with the Diocese after responding to church calls for priests’ victims to come forward and tell their stories.

A PUBLIC order charge against Garda Pat Keating was dismissed at Ennis District Court, after his legal team submitted there was a conflict of evidence between witnesses.

Garda Keating (33), who is based in Shannon, was accused of engaging in offensive conduct in the carpark of the Shannon Knight’s pub, in the early hours of March 13, 2004. He denied the charge.

Garda Keating’s then girlfriend Eavan Drysdale, of Ballycasey, Shannon, told the court that the accused’s behaviour worried her.

“I got very nervous because I saw Pat’s behaviour that evening. I noticed he was getting quite drunk and aggressive,” she said.

She said he wanted to go home to her house in Shannon that night.

“I didn’t want him coming home that night. I asked him for the key. He wouldn’t give it back to me. I tried to avoid him as I was getting embarrassed,” she said.

She said she then decided to stay at a friend’s house.

Ms Drysdale wept in the witness box as she recalled the events of the night. “He just wouldn’t let me go home to my house. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He had come back to my home a number of times uninvited, very drunk and wouldn’t leave,” she said, adding that she was “terrified”.

She said she got into a taxi to go home with her friends, and he tried to pull her out of it.

She said she had very little to drink on the night in question.

“The type of relationship I had with Pat Keating was a roller coaster ride. He was very unpredictable . . . I had my mind made up. This man was bad news,” she said.

But Keating’s Counsel Pat O’Connell replied, “You are trying to blacken Mr Keating. You had drink taken. You were drunk and argumentative.” She denied this.

“The only pulling involved was he was trying to get his keys off you. He never tried to pull you from the taxi and he never gave you any abuse,” said Mr O’Connell to Ms Drysdale.

“Your complaint stems from the breakdown of your relationship with Pat Keating and nothing else,” he added.

Another witness, who was in the taxi, said the accused tried to take Eavan Drysdale out of the taxi, while a statement from another woman who was there, concurred.

However, the driver of the taxi, Robert Martin, said Keating was trying to get a bunch of keys from Ms Drysdale.

“I asked him to leave it ‘till another day. He put his two hands up and walked away. He was just looking for something Ms Drysdale had in the minibus. He was no more drunk, or sober, than anybody else,” he said.

Keating’s barrister submitted that there was a “serious conflict” of evidence. He said the offence with which Pat Keating was charged referred to a particular time between 12 midnight and 7am, but that no specific time was referred to by any of the witnesses.

Judge Mangan agreed that no specific time had been mentioned.

“I believe the most reliable witness is Mr Martin. His evidence weighs very heavily with me and his evidence totally exonerates Mr Keating,” said the judge.

He added that there was a conflict between witnesses regarding how much alcohol Ms Drysdale had consumed on the night.

“In all circumstances, I believe it would be inappropriate to compel the defendant to go into evidence. I am dismissing the case,” said the judge.

HOUSE prices in Ennis have jumped by almost 25 per cent in just over a year, a leading property dealer has revealed.

And the trend is likely to continue, with demand for homes in the town and environs on the rise.

David Costello of Costello Auctioneers says that the value of property in Ennis over the last 14 months has shot up.

The auctioneer pointed to examples where values rose by as much as 27.7 per cent over fifteen months.

A two-bed ground floor apartment in Ard Caoin on the Gort Road launched in February 2005 at €157,500. These are now making €195,000 an increase of 24 per cent.

“We would expect the next phase at €200,000,” Costello said.

Four bed semi-detached homes in Shanballa, on the Lahinch Road, went on the market at €197,500 and were reaching €250,000 towards the end of 2005, an increase of 25 per cent in 14 months. These properties are now costing €265,000.

Detached houses in Ballyalla Grove started at €360,000 in late 2004 and by 2006, they were selling at €460,000, an increase of 27.7 per cent over 15 months.

Costello says there are “a number of reasons for this kind of increase. One is that previously, houses in Ennis did not appreciate at the same rate as in other towns of similar size. Some part of the increase can be attributable to catching up. Also, the investment market in Ennis was very flat and it started coming back in 2005.”

A lack of residentially zoned land coming on the market is also fuelling the climb, he said. The town’s multicultural make-up is also driving the price of property, with an increase in the number of migrant workers needing accommodation and with many now buying property in the town.

“There’s exceptionally strong demand from indigenous home owners and first time buyers coming in,” the Ennis property expert said.

Costello said he believed that home-values in Ennis would continue to increase.

“I can see detached houses having an increased rise in value now as they also begin to catch up. The only thing that might slow house prices down would be a substantial increase in interest rates. I can’t see a rise of one or one point five having a major impact,” he added.

IT was a relationship breakdown that, sadly, ended up in the public domain, through two court cases.

Pat Keating and Eavan Drysdale first met, when she reported a stolen bicycle at Shannon Garda Station, on June 21, 2003. Hours later they bumped into each other in Tesco in Shannon. Later again that day, according to Keating, Eavan Drysdale rang him at work and asked him out.

The couple enjoyed many happy times together during the following nine months, but two incidents in particular led to their private lives becoming very public.

An incident between the two in the carpark of the Shannon Knights in March 2004 led to Keating being charged with an offence under the Public Order Act – a relatively minor offence which would be dealt with in the District Court. But matters were to take a more serious twist when Eavan Drysdale alleged that Keating had threatened her in August 2004.

She claimed comments he made to her over the phone in the early hours of August 18, 2004, led her to fear for her life.

Keating went on trial, accused of threatening the mother-of-two, at Ennis Circuit Court in February. After hearing evidence over four days, the jury took less than an hour to decide that Keating was not guilty.

He was subsequently reinstated to his position at Shannon Garda Station, following a 19 month suspension. However his role was officebased, pending the outcome of last Thursday’s District Court hearing.

Last week’s dismissal of the charge should pave the way for his return to full duties.

But while the curtain has been drawn on the court cases, the relationship enjoyed by two individuals has now become a matter of public discussion. Personal matters between the two were heard during the Circuit Court case, and during a 78-minute District Court hearing last week.

Details of hundreds of text messages and several phone calls between the pair were heard by a jury in the Circuit Court case.

Pat Keating and Eavan Drysdale gave somewhat contrasting descriptions of many aspects of their time together. Keating told the Circuit Court case that Eavan Drysdale gave him a key to her house just three weeks after they first met and that he could “come and go as I wished and could class myself as part of the family.”

But Eavan Drysdale disagreed with this. She told the District Court last week that while Keating had a key, he was not living in her house.

“Pat Keating told lies up here three weeks ago. I am telling the truth . . . I was not living with Pat Keating,” she told the court, adding that Pat Keating was “very persistent.”

The strain was very much in evi dence at last week’s court sitting, as Ms Drysdale wept openly in court.

“I’m sorry, just I’ve been through so much in the last three weeks, with the other case,” she explained to Judge Joseph Mangan, after breaking down in tears.

During his evidence in the Circuit Court, Keating said regardless of what happened in any court, his life was shattered and his career was in ruins.

MORE than 200 people converged on Lisdeen Church outside Kilkee on Saturday afternoon for the wedding of Brixton Prison escaper Nessan Quinlivan.

Quinlivan, 41, a native of Limerick, married his long-term girlfriend Eileen Price, from Dublin, at a lowkey 50-minute ceremony.

The former IRA figure managed to evade the waiting photographers, as he arrived 30 minutes early for his wedding.

Many of the wedding party had an early drink in Keane’s public house across from the church, but the groom was nowhere to be seen.

There was no sign of prominent senior Sinn Féin figures, who had been expected to attend the nuptials.

Quinlivan was centre of attention during the wedding mass, which was said by Fr Donagh O’Meara, and appeared to thoroughly enjoy the attention bestowed upon him and his bride.

Wearing a dark grey suit, white shirt and pink tie, Quinlivan travelled the short journey from the Ocean Cove Hotel – where the reception took place – to Lisdeen church at lunchtime on Saturday.

Prior to leaving the hotel for his big moment, he chatted to family and friends in the hotel reception, and showed no sign of any nerves on his big day.

Just before he departed the hotel for the church, he tried on a pair of sunglasses belonging to one of the other guests and asked all around did they suit him – before deciding to go without them!

Moments later, he and his best men, Maurice Quinlivan and Sean Bromell, travelled to the church in Lisdeen.

Quinlivan lapped up the attention during the ceremony. When the couple were exchanging their wedding rings, Eileen had difficulty in placing his ring on his finger, and giggled loudly.

He turned to the crowds and laughed, “Big hands,” before giving his bride a peck on the cheek and then bowed to the crowd.

While Eileen was photographed entering the church before the wedding mass, 15 minutes late, there were no photographs of the happy couple afterwards.

The couple’s friends shielded them with umbrellas, as they left the church for an awaiting Lexus car, which sped off towards the Ocean Cove hotel in Kilkee town.

The wedding group partied until the early hours, before the couple began their honeymoon in Dingle.

“They can’t leave the country, because of the extradition,” a family member confirmed.

The wedding Mass was a traditional event, with songs such as ‘Amazing Grace’. ‘Bind Us Together’ and ‘Morning Has Broken’ the order of the day.

Fr O’Meara said the couple were destined to be together.