Category: News

A CHURCH on the former site of Our Lady’s psychiatric hospital has been mooted as a possible location of worship for people of different religious faiths.

At yesterday’s annual monthly meeting of Ennis Town Council the suggestion was put forward that the use of St Mary’s Church should be explored as one option by members of religious organisations in Ennis who don’t have a suitable location to practice worship. A dispute between developers and the local community was recently settled with the agreement of a four year lease that safeguarded the future use of the building.

Councillors were debating a motion submitted by Councillor Taiwo Matthew (Ind) which requested that Ennis Town Council provide a designated area within the town where members of different religious affiliations could gather for worship.

“I am aware that there is a church on Our Lady’s. Ennis is a fast growing town with different cultures and races. If we are to look at extending the town boundary we need to take into account community development as well. There have been some cases where people have complained about people using houses to worship.”

The motion wasn’t passed but councillor’s advised that religious groups should identify a suitable location and engage in the pre-planning process. Director of Services with Ennis Town Council, Tom Coughlan stated that land for community use has been designated, but that it would be unwise for the council to engage in site acquisition when they weren’t aware of the exact requirements.

Councillor Peter Considine (FF) and Councillor Johnny Flynn both expressed their support for the use of Our Lady’s as a temporary location while Councillor Donal O’Beara (GP) said religious groups should prepare a submission for next year for a variation to the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

AT LEAST ten members of a drugs gang were trying to peddle narcotics in an Ennis pub on Friday night, when undercover gardaí raided the premises.

A total of 75 ecstasy tablets were seized and four Dublin men arrested.

The Garda operation was part of an ongoing initiative, aimed at combating suspected drug dealing in licensed premises in Ennis.

“We believe at least 10 people were targeting this premises. It was organised,” said Ennis Superintendent, John Kerin.

Plain-clothes gardaí mingled with the crowd late on Friday night and bought a number of illegal drugs.

Reinforcements were called to the scene. The four Dubliners who were arrested under Section Two of the Drug Trafficking Act, were taken to Ennis Garda Station for questioning.

They were released on Saturday afternoon. A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Two of the men questioned are in their 20s and two in their 30s. The Clare People has learned that one of the four currently lives in north Clare.

Gardaí believe that a number of others were involved in the operation.

Supt Kerin said the Garda operation had been going on for some time.

“This operation has been going on for a number of months. We are pleased with how it went,” he said, adding that gardaí would be “looking to serve a closure order within a week” on the premises in question, unless the “house is in order.”

“We will have to be satisfied that drugs are not sold in there again,” said Supt Kerin.

In a separate, unrelated development, a small quantity of cannabis resin was seized by gardaí in Shannon on Saturday evening.

A car, occupied by two Limerick men was searched and the drugs were found.

THE pupils and teachers of St Enda’s National School in Lisdoonvarna are celebrating this morning after four students from the school won the All-Ireland U11 Credit Union Quiz Competition in dramatic fashion in the RDS, Dublin, over the weekend.

After ten rounds of gruelling competition, the Lisdoonvarna team were level on 50 points with two other schools, Réalt na Mara Girls National School from Meath and Scoil na Croise Naofa from Waterford. The competition then went into extra time with three rounds of sudden death questions.

Amazingly, after the three additional rounds St Enda’s and Réalt na Mara remained deadlocked. As a tie-breaker, both teams were asked to guess the height of a statue located in London and, to the delight of parents and teachers, the St Enda’s guess was closer.

“We are absolutely delighted,” said school principal John Hehir. “To win an All-Ireland on any day is a fantastic achievement. We were expecting to do well having came so close last year. But this is really fantastic achievement.”

The Lisdoonvarna team, which consisted of Padraic Rubio-Lacey, Eimear O’Sullivan, Robert Hillary and Orla Burke, had already seen off more than 100 teams on their way to winning the Clare/Limerick qualifing round earlier in the month.

This latest victory means that the Lisdoonvarna team outdid more than 25,000 children on their way to claiming the title.

The school will receive some €1,200 (IR£1,000) for winning the competition, with each student receiving a DVD player.

“We hope to use the money to do something to encourage students to do more research, or to use new multimedia technology in some way,” continued Mr Hehir. “It might also be a nice idea to open a credit union account for each of the four students involved.”

The school, with a long tradition of producing quality quiz teams, had been in preparation for the competition for the last number of weeks.

“In the past two weeks, you could get asked any question under the sun when you walked into the school,” continued Mr Hehir. “Two of the teachers here, Maura Hanrahan and Bridget Crawford have been working really hard.”

ATTRACTING new staff and maintaining existing personnel at Clare County Council’s planning department, is continuing to prove problematic.

A senior council official has confirmed that between 2002 and 2005, there were a number of vacancies and the full staff complement was rarely in place. There are currently three vacancies.

She also confirmed that the council received €582,105 in planning fees – down on the €1 million received in 2004 and the €941,244 received in 2003.

The drop is attributable to the deluge of applications to the council in 2004 and 2003 from developers seeking to build hotels, holiday homes and other commercial developments, aimed at seeking to take advantage of Government tax incentives.

In the past five years, the council has received €3.5 million in planning fees.

The revelations came in a response from the council’s Director for Planning, Bernadette Kinsella, to a motion by Councillor Christy Curtin (Ind).

As part of a “secret bonus deal last year, the council authorised payments of €112,500, or €7,500 each to 15 planners for unpaid overtime, as the council grappled to deal with the tax-incentive applications.

The number of planning applications lodged last year showed a drop on the numbers lodged in 2003 and 2004, according to the response.

Last year, 2,491 applications were lodged compared to the 2,773 and the 2,857 lodged in 2004 and 2003.

THE problems faced by up to 15,000 legal foreign workers in Clare will be the topic for discussion when Columban Priest and head of the Irish Immigrant Rights Council, Fr Bobby Gilmore, speaks in Ennis this morning.

Fr Gilmore will speak at the Civic Building at ten this morning (Tuesday) on the invitation of the Network of Service Providers for Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Ennis.

The main focus of the talk will be integration.

“The immigrants tend to cluster in certain areas and with all the industry around the Shannon area, there could be anything from ten to 15,000 immigrants here,” said Fr Gilmore.

“It is very hard to get an accurate number and there is a lot of back and forth all the time with seasonal work”.

Between 1978 and 1992, Fr Gilmore worked with Irish Immigrant’s in Britain where, among other things, he worked with the Birmingham Six and the Guilford Four.

Following this he went to work in Jamaica, where he dealt with the plight of thousands of Cuban Immigrants.

A MAN who gardaí say went on a “serious crime spree” over ten days last month has been charged with setting fire to a house in Kilkee.

Patrick McNamara (29), from Miltown Malbay, and of no fixed abode, appeared before Ennis District Court last week, charged with arson, at Lisgreen, Lisdeen, on March 19 last.

He was also charged with entering Lernihan’s Garage in Cree, Kilrush, as a trespasser and stealing a cash till containing €80 in cash on February 20 last. He pleaded guilty to this offence.

Detective Garda Oliver Downes gave evidence of arresting the accused last Wednesday morning. He said McNamara made no reply after caution. Inspector Tom Kennedy requested that the accused be remanded in custody.

In Kilrush court last month, the accused pleaded guilty to trespass, at Kilkee Bay Apartments on March 21 last; trespass at Cunningham’s caravan park, Kilkee, in January and with entering Matt Lernihan’s garage as a trespasser and stealing €36 of petrol at Cree, Kilkee, on March 17 last.

According to gardaí, he gained access to an apartment and caravan in Kilkee and lived there, on different dates. He also admitted driving without insurance at Ennis Road, Kilrush, on March 19. A report relating to these matters will be available to the court later this week.

Inspector Kennedy said the new charge was “substantially more serious.”

Judge Joseph Mangan remanded the accused in custody to appear again in court later this week.

BUSINESS people involved in renewable energy in Clare have welcomed the introduction of grants totalling €27m to install renewable heat technology in homes.

The scheme was agreed in last year’s Budget and is part of a multiannual finance package of €65m for renewable energy that will also include grants for a range of renewable heat, electricity and transport initiatives.

The “Greener Homes” scheme will allow householders to get grants for the installation of renewable technologies including wood pellet stoves and boilers, solar panels and geothermal heat pumps. Grant aid of €1,100 to €6,500 will be given, depending on the individual technology used.

Michael Neylon of Solargen, an Ennis company which provides solar panels and collectors for hot household water, said that the new grants “will help more people become aware of the benefits of renewable energy and will certainly encourage householders to install this technology.

“It is a major boost to the whole renewable energy field.”

Neylon explained that using renewable energy, such as solar panels, could save up to 70 per cent of the cost of household hot water bills in the year.

“And it doesn’t have to be hot and sunny. Solar panels work on light and will do their job even on a dull day,” Neylon added.

Dick Whelan, project manager of Renewable Energy Skills, a company which trains people in the installation, workings and maintenance of renewable energy technology, says he has had a huge increase in calls.

“We have certainly seen a raised level of interest.

“This is a very welcome announcement, both as part of the Kyoto agreement and with a view to de-coupling from oil prices,” said Whelan.

The company has been training people such as plumbers and electricians over the last two years.

“It will be more important than ever now to have people who are trained and accredited in this technology.

“Qualified people in Clare meet regularly and have now built up an extensive bank of expertise and knowledge which they can share,” said Whelan.

CLARE County Council is to spend in the region of €250,000 demolishing a €1.5 million emergency traveller accommodation unit it built only four years ago to ease Ennis’s traveller accommodation crisis.

Already, the estimated costs for providing 24 hour security at the site in Gleninagh have been put at €378,000, or €9,000 a month since it opened in March 2002.

The security bill arose from a High Court challenge, which brought the council head-to-head with residents, in 2001.

The agreement reached after that challenge to ensure the site opened, saw the council agreeing to implement a report by consultants CAAS.

That report, focussing on a 17.5 acre site at Gleninagh, recommended the provision in the area of a games area, passive amenities and a pathway to adjacent houses.

In recent weeks, council officials have held discussions with representatives from the local residents and St Claire’s School to see what part of the CAAS plan can now be implemented.

“The agreement entered into needs to be honoured to show the bona fides of Council,” said Ennis Town Councillor, Donal O’Bearra (GP).

“One in five of all Europeans are now obese so it is more important than ever to put in elements of CAAS plan because they are all active amenities.

“The residents have kept their side of the deal.

“It is now up to the council to fulfil their side and be generous and speedy in carrying it out”.

No final figure has been put on the works and the council is to lodge the proposed works programme with the Department of the Environment. That is expected back within a couple of weeks.

However, part of the money will be invested in implementing the CAAS report.

In advance of the site being demolished, the Council relocated the six traveller families to a new emergency site on Ennis’s Quin Road last October.

The structures contained in the halting site contained re-enforced concrete.

It is proposed to demolish these and put a layer of top-soil on the surface.

A PIGEON loft in Marian Avenue, Ennis, that has been the source of a bitter neighbours dispute, has been granted planning permission. Ennis Council has granted planning permission to May Guilfoyle to continue housing 30 racing pigeons from a loft at 24 Marian Avenue, in spite of neighbours John and Mary Flynn claiming that they are “prisoners in their own home” due to the presence of the pigeons.

Commenting on the outcome, George Guilfoyle said, “We’re happy with the decision. The loft is kept up to a very high standard and the pigeons are very well looked after.”

Mr Guilfoyle said that Marian Avenue has had a long history of involvement in pigeon racing. “As kids, we didn’t have Playstations or anything like that,” he said, “All we had were the pigeons.”

Relations between the neighbours have broken down due to the bitter fued. “We don’t talk at all,” said Mr Guilfoyle, “We could really do without the hassle that this has caused and I would be prepared to do anything to stop the bickering. I don’t want any trouble and my parents are elderly and they don’t want any hassle.

“We’ve not done Mrs Flynn any wrong by having the pigeons here. They have been here since 1982 so I can’t understand why she objects now. We’d like everything to go back to the way it was. I have nothing against the woman.”

Mr Guilfoyle said that he hopes Mrs Flynn doesn’t appeal the Council’s decision to An Bord Pleanala. He said that if she does, his pigeons won’t be able to race this season.

The Town Council’s planner stated that the details submitted by the Guilfoyles on the management and care of the pigeons would not adversely interfere with the amenities of adjoining properties. The planner stated: “The objectors have not submitted any details to prove their claim that the pigeons have not been kept since 1985 at No 24.”

The Council granted planning after the Health Service Executive (HSE) kept the number of birds to 30 and instructed that the birds are vaccinated annually and that they are checked by a vet on a regular basis.

Efforts to contact the Flynns for a comment failed.

FIVE months after being named the tidiest town in Ireland, Ennis was given the Presidential seal of approval on Saturday.

Flanked by the Ennis Brass Band and members of the Civil Defence, President Mary McAleese addressed the rain sodden crowd assembled outside the entrance of the Ennis Tourist Office.

She said they could feel justifiably proud of the massive community effort that had secured the town its fist ever Tidy Town’s crown.

Ennis scored 279 marks out of a possible 300 in the competition to take top prize last year, in addition to winning the title of Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town.

“Only 32 towns can lay claim to the title of Ireland’s Tidiest Town since this competition was started way back almost 50 years ago in 1958, and now Ennis has joined this elite group.

“It is a huge achievement and a hard-earned one as anyone who ever competed in Tidy Towns will tell you.

“There are no short-cuts, no easy wins.

“Patience and persistence and a community effort worthy of a mobilised army are essential and Ennis has shown these qualities in abundance”.

President McAleese was welcomed on her arrival at the Ennis Tourist Office by a host of Clare’s political and community leaders, including Mayor of Ennis, Councillor Frankie Neylon (Ind) and Donal Griffin, Chairman of Ennis Tidy Town’s Committee.

After meeting with councillors and senior staff of Ennis Town Council, Mrs McAleese unveiled a plaque at Place St Paul De Fenouilent museum plaza in Ennis to celebrate the Tidy Towns win.

Noel Crowley, treasurer of Ennis Tidy towns Committee said that the location of the President’s address held special historical significance to the town of Ennis.

“This was indeed an historic occasion for the people of Ennis and County Clare and was just a metres distance from the scenes and public meetings associated with both Daniel O’Connell and the 1828 election and de Valera and the 1917 elections.”

The man who masterminded Ennis’s triumph, Donal Griffin, praised the contributions of the town’s community organisations and businesses. Welcoming President McAleese, Mr Griffin reflected on the immense feeling of pride that engulfed the county in the wake of Ennis’s success.

“September was the culmination of 11 years’ work from many in the town and by many people and organisations.

“People who took responsibility for their environment and their town, people who wanted to make a difference and who took the first step to get involved.”