Category: News

THE amount of funding awarded by the Irish Arts Council to local arts festivals in Clare has dropped to its lowest level in almost a decade.

Just € 20, 500 was awarded to Clare festivals under the Festival and Events Scheme (formally the Small Arts Festivals Scheme) for the first half of 2014 – a drop of more then 16 per cent [€ 4,000] on the same scheme for 2013. This is the joint lowest first round funding offered to Clare festivals in more than a decade – equalling the previous funding low which was allocated in 2012.

The Inishcealtra Arts Festival was the worst hit, with a year-on-year funding drop of 64 per cent. The festival’s 2013 Arts Council funding of € 7,000 was slashed down to just € 2, 500 for 2014.

This is the second major funding blow for the Inishcealtra festival, which saw its funding cut from € 9,000 to € 7,000 last year.

Both the Corofin Traditional Festival [€ 6, 500] and the Doran Piping Tionol [€ 3,000] maintained their funding levels this year with the Ennis Book Club Festival actually recording an increase of € 500 – to € 8, 500.

This funding also represents a de- crease of almost 65 per cent from the € 57,100 awarded to Clare festivals under the first round of the Small Arts Festivals Scheme on 2007.

There was also bad news for Glór, which saw a 7 per cent cut to it’s programme funding – down from € 86,000 to € 80,000 for 2014.

The Arts Council’s annual funding scheme saw a slight decrease for Liscannor’s Salmon Poetry, down by € 1, 250 to € 40,750 this year, while the Willie Clancy Summer School remained the same at € 80,000.

There was a slight increase under the Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme with Padraig Rynne [€ 30,000] and the Hunka, Dunne, Robinson Trio [€ 8, 500] receiving a combined total of € 38, 500 compared to the € 37, 500 guided to Guidewires and Nicola Henley of the Wise Ways Projects last year.

UNTREATED raw sewage is being discharged into rivers and bathing areas at five locations in Clare, including key tourist towns such as Kilkee, Ballyvaughan and Liscannor. A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revealed that the discharge of raw sewage is still a major problem in Clare, with nearly 20 percent of all offending towns – five of the 28 towns nationally – located in Clare. Five Clare towns, with a popula- tion of more than 500 people, were identified as discharging raw sewage. The report also reveals a lack of progress made in recent years in tackling the problems each of the five Clare towns – Kilrush, Clarecastle, Kilkee, Ballyvaughan and Liscannor – already identified as having on sewage infrastructure by the EPA in their 2006 report.

The Shannon town sewage system was also identified in the report as not reaching mandatory effluent quality and sampling standards. The system, which was identified as the source of a mysterious odour, late last year, will undergo a € 1.02 million upgrade of four pump stations later this year.

It is hoped that this upgrade will bring the system up to the standards set by the EPA and also rectify the ongoing odour issues in Shannon town.

A campaign to construct a sewage treatment system at Kilkee has been underway for more then a decade, with an investment promised by the Government as far back as 2005. The wait looks set to continue for the time being however as the transfer of responsibility for the project from Clare County Council to Irish Water adding an extra layer of uncertainty to the project.

The Kilkee sewage system was included in the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government’s investment programme for 2010 to 2013 but remains a number of steps away from development.

While Clare County Council will be involved in the day to day provision of water and sewage services for a number of years through a Service Level Agreement with Irish Water, all responsibility for funding new schemes now rests with Irish Water.

PASSENGERS flying in and out of Shannon airport for St Patrick’s Day celebrations sighed with relief on Wednesday when a strike scheduled for Friday was called off, just over 36 hours before it was due to begin.

There was however some disruption to plans as Aer Lingus had cancelled 29 flights at the three airports affected and made changes to more than 40 others on Thursday and Fri- day.

Despite the upheaval however a delegation of council staff along with the mayors or deputy mayors of Clare, Kilrush, Ennis and Shannon made their flights to represent the county at parades, official functions and trade meetings in New York and New Jersey.

The Tulla Pipe Band also boarded a flight from Shannon to New York on Saturday to lead the Clare delegation down Fifth Avenue for the New York St Patrick’s Day parade.

On Wednesday the High Court granted an injunction preventing the union from staging the planned fourhour work stoppage at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports on Wednesday.

The threatened action was part of an ongoing dispute between workers, the Dublin Airport Authority and the Shannon Airport Authority over pensions.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan upheld the injunction sought by the DAA and urged the parties to cooperate with the expert panel to resolve the dispute.

The DAA, Ryanair, Aer Lingus and the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, welcomed the move.

“I have said on a number of occasions that the strike should have been deferred given that the expert panel is currently engaging with all parties involved in the dispute,” said the Minister.

Fianna Fáil’s Transport and Tourism spokesperson Timmy Dooley said, “Around 10,000 passengers have been affected by this action on one of the busiest weekends of the year for the Irish tourism industry. The disruption has the potential to blight the good reputation that Ireland has built up over many years,” he said.

“While every worker has the right to strike to protect their interests, it should only be used a method of last resort, and not a threat issued when negotiations are still ongoing.”

The workers union SIPTU said it would be considering the judgment.

WEST Clare has produced not one but seven new millionaires, as the € 8.3 million Lottery Jackpot of March 5 was claimed on Thursday morning last.

Each of the lucky winners will receive almost € 1.2 million as a result of the € 24 prize winning ticket they bought in Miniter’s, Henry Street. Kilrush.

The secretive seven have elected to remain anonymous.

One of the lucky syndicate members spoke of the excitement the group felt since they became millionaires more than a week ago.

“Last Thursday morning I heard that the winning ticket was sold in Kilrush. I logged on to the lottery website and was in total disbelief when I saw we’d won.

“I couldn’t focus on the numbers. I thought that there must have been a mistake,” he said.

“I felt about 90 per cent sure we’d won, so I phoned the rest of the group and said, ‘I think we’ve won the lottery.’

Some of them thought I was messing and one said, ‘we’ve either won or we haven’t – there’s no think about it.’

It’s an amazing feeling. We’re absolutely delighted – it’s made millionaires of us all,” he added.

The lucky syndicate has played Lotto each week for the last two and a half years.

Their winning ticket was a mixed- play ticket and a Quick Pick was the winning line that landed them the massive € 8.3 million win.

The happy winners plan to have a quiet celebration and take some time to let the news settle before making plans.

This is the largest Lotto jackpot winning ticket to be sold in County Clare in Lotto history.

Over € 45 million in Lotto jackpot and Lotto Plus top prizes has been paid out in the Banner county since lotto began in 1988.

EVEN on the back of the Gathering and a reinvigoration of the American market.

Early bookings for Clare in 2014 indicate a major growth in visitors from England, mainland Europe, especially Germany, and Irish tourists.

Despite a slow start to 2014, brought about as a result of the storms in January and February, early booking at the Cliffs of Moher put them on target for a sizable increase on 2013, which was the attraction’s best year on record. If these number continue throughout the year, the Cliffs should break the one million visitor mark for the first time ever.

Despite a 12 per cent drop in visitors numbers to the Cliffs of Moher so far this year, manager Katherine Webster is predicting a healthy growth over the 12 months of 2014.

“No less than the rest of coastal County Clare, the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience had a challenging enough start to the year with the storm conditions experienced in January and the first half of February. Extreme weather led to the visitor centre clos- ing on a total of seven days in these two months. Prior to 2014, the Cliffs of Moher visitor centre had closed a total of 7 times in 7 years,” she said.

“As a result of the storm closures our visitor numbers for the first two months of the year are down on last year by 12 per cent on the same period in 2013. However, the month of March has started strongly and our advance bookings for the remainder of this month and for the season ahead are ahead of last years levels.”

Ennis hotelier Brian O’Neil yesterday urged Clare businesses to take advantage of the tourism trends and put Clare back on the Irish and inter- national map. He cites the introduction of a regular and inexpensive bus connections between Dublin and Ennis by Dublin Coaches a game changer for the local tourism market.

“There is a sea-change coming for tourism in Ennis and in Clare. The problem for tourism over the last few years has been the day tours coming out of Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher and other venues and spending very little in Clare,” he said.

“They [Dublin Coaches/Quick Tours] are going to make Ennis their mid-west hub. So people can stay in Ennis for a number of days and take day trips to the Ring of Kerry.

A DOZEN shops and businesses have closed in the county town in the past month, causing concern for the county’s commercial sector.

Ennis Chamber of Commerce said that while it is particularly concerned about the number of older, often family-run businesses, that could not keep the doors open, it does not believe the town is dying.

The most recent spate of closures has hit a variety of business from the food sector to retail to the service industry.

CEO of Ennis Chamber of Commerce Rita McInerney said that a lot of business people hold out for Christmas in the hope of an upturn, but for many there are many pressures during a recession.

Uncertainty about commercial rates as the town council merges with the county council, is of particular concern to businesses. There is currently an 11 per cent difference between both area rates, which must be evened out in the next three to ten years. As much as 50 per cent of Ennis Town Council’s income comes from these rates, compared to the national average of 38 per cent.

There are also pressures to those businesses with an older renting lease that allows only for an upward rent review. Online shopping has also impacted on the retail business.

Despite the businesses closures Ms McInerney refuses to believe that the town is dying. “It is all relative. We are saddened that businesses and jobs have been lost, but compared to other towns around the country we are performing well, but we are not at the top in terms of occupancy and there is an unemployment rate,” she said. “Investment in the town centre needs to take place.”

The Chamber CEO also pointed out that a number of new businesses have opened in Ennis in the last few months that will help address the issue. “We are conscious however that there is a challenge out there,” she said.

THE M18 will remain closed northbound between Barefield (Junction 14) and Crusheen (Junction 15) until Friday to allow the National Roads Association (NRA) to carry out a safety assessment following a spate of recent accidents.

The northbound carriageway of the motorway between Barefield (Junction 14) and Crusheen (Junction 15) closed yesterday morning and will remain closed until Friday, March 14, to allow for “drainage assessment and improvement works” to take place.

This closure follows months of pressure from Clare County Council, Clare Gardaí and the local media, following a spate of accidents on the road over the Christmas period. The NRA had previously rejected calls for a safety audit to be conducted and speed restrictions to be introduced, but had a change of heart last week, confirming that a safety “engineering assessment” would take place in the coming months.

The move was welcomed yesterday by Cllr Pat Hayes (FF).

“I’m happy that the NRA are finally seeing some sense about this and I hope that the assessment will lead to the problem on the road being rectified,” he said.

The closure will commence at 9am on Monday and run until approximately 2pm on Friday. Traffic will be diverted from the existing M18 Northbound onto the R458 (the old N18) at Junction 14 Barefield and then returning to M18 Northbound at Junction 15.

“During the period June to September 2013, the NRA assumed responsibility for maintenance on the M18. Since this time, routine maintenance works have been undertaken including road sweeping and cleaning of gullies, slot drains and outfalls in addition to other general maintenance activities which assist with rapid drainage of water from the road sur- face,” said an NRA spokesperson.

“In addition, the NRA monitors and assesses the network under its direct control with a view to carrying out any maintenance or remedial works which might be required to improve road drainage and maintain the design capacity of the drainage system. However, the possibility of the occurrence of surface water due to extreme weather events cannot be fully eliminated.”

CLARE’S bid to bring Fleadh Ceoil na hÉireann to Ennis has been thwarted once again, with the county missing out on the 2015 event at the selection elections over the weekend.

The Ennis bid was pipped by Sligo – who also beat off Ennis to secure the 2014 Fleadh – with Drogeda finishing third in the vote.

This latest set back come in the wake of the decision to back away from the Ennis bid to host the 2013 Fleadh. This decision was made in order to allow Derry to host the Fleadh Ceoil in the same year that it was European City of Culture. This was also the first time that the competition was ever hosted outside of the Republic of Ireland.

The Fleadh is the single largest music event to take place in Ireland each year and is worth tens of millions to the local economy.

Michael Ó Riabhaigh of Clare Comhaltas said that he was disappointed with the result but hopeful that this precedent meant that Ennis will secure the Fleadh for consecutive years in 2016 and 2017.

“We are very disappointed but it was always going to be a big ask this year. Normally towns will get it for two years. The first is usually a struggle and they reap the benefits of in the second year,” he said.

“It was always going to be difficult to unseat Sligo this year, so we are very hopeful for next year. We feel that Sligo will be out of the equation for next year. I’m not saying that it will be an easy task for next year but if we do get it I feel that we will retain it for 2017 as well.”

The votes between Ennis and Sligo was closer than expected with a second count being needed to separate the two towns, once Drogeda was eliminated.

SURVIVOR of prostitution and recovering drug addict Mia de Faoite left an audience in tears on Friday night last as she recalled the true, disturbing face of prostitution.

Ms de Faoite, who is an activist for Turn Off the Red Light campaign, told the gathering organised by the Clare Women’s Network that the only way to shine a light on the issue is to hear from those who lived that life.

Refusing to let her past define her, she said she could never forget the life she has left behind and how she entered it.

“My decision to enter prostitution seemed to me at the time quite a rational one. I had developed a heroin problem at the age of 33 having never taken a drug in my life before,” she said knowing she had one valuable commodity she could sell – her female body.

She thought she would not have to do this for long, just until she and her girlfriend, who also had a drug problem, would be “sorted”.

Life in prostitution “owned me in a short period of time” however, she explained adding that it was very difficult to see choices.

The softly spoken NUI Maynooth student brought tears to the audience’s eyes as she recalled “the inevitable” – rape.

Her first rape was in the form of a gang rape.

“From that night on I no longer lived. I just existed and in a world I could no longer comprehend. I could no longer make sense of. The only reason I coped was thought disassociation.

“The young woman who was with me that night did not survive. Her drug use spiralled out of control and she died alone of an overdose about two months later. To many her death was just another sad statistic but to me she would always be of value.”

A year later Mia was raped again. Afterwards she was sitting on the street, her money and phone also sto- len. One of her “regulars” pulled up in his car, he was a taxi driver. She told him what happened and he took her home, and even though he knew she had just been raped and robbed he insisted she have sex with him to pay the “fare”.

Her last rape was by two men on cocaine.

“We as prostituted women were a primary target for any man who wanted to fulfil his fantasy of rape. Only with us they can do it for real and get away with it. Society and the laws that govern it play a major role in keeping it that way, and it will remain unsuitable while it remains le- gal to buy a human being in the first place,” she said. She had to accept her rapists would never be brought to justice.

The drugs helped her cope with life on the streets, and she was caught in an never ending spiral.

She gave accounts of being humiliated by teenagers who threw eggs at her and men who urinated upon her.

One of her friends who were trafficked from Africa into Ireland was regularly beaten by her trafficker, her young post-pubescent body already almost broken from starvation.

While an addiction to drugs led Ms de Faoite into prostitution, many of her friends were trafficked into Ireland.

Ireland is targeted by these traffickers because of the law, and due to the prices that can be charged here compared to mainland Europe.

And the stories went on, as the tears flowed.

This mother of one was speaking from the heart about a cruel heartless world she inhabited and teenage girls and women continue to live in today in Ireland, Clare and small towns around the county.

She shared a letter from her daughter, who knew at a young age her mother would have to unwillingly leave her at night to sell sex, and how this changed her mother’s demeanour as night approached.

The only way to address this issue of prostitution, according to Ms deFaoite, is to criminalise the purchasers of sex and not to continue to further victimise those forced into prostitution.

Men of all ages and creed, as many as one in 15, buy sex every day.

These are often family men of high social standing – the “good citizen” according to Ms de Faoite.

She challenged everyone present in Ennis to reconsider their definition of a good citizen, and argued the law must lead if attitudes are to follow.

THE use of unmanned flying drones could help halt the growing problem of illegal dumping of household waste at areas around Ennis, a meeting has heard.

In addition to the use of CCTV, Clare County Council is assessing a number of measures aimed at reducing illegal dumping.

The issue was raised at yesterday’s meeting of councillors in the Ennis West electoral Area where Fianna Fail’s Brian Meaney suggested the council explore the use of drone aircraft.

He requested the local authority to consider using CCTV to “counteract the upsurge in dumping of sorted domestic waste on roads in the Ennis west area”.

He told the meeting new technologies such as cameras and drones would make it easier for the council to enforce its litter laws while at the same time act as a disincentive to dump rubbish.

Cllr Tom McNamara (FF) agreed the council had to find a solution, describing the litter problem in the Ennis area as “absolutely awful”.

In his reply, acting senior engineer Paul Moroney said the council are currently dealing with dumping of domestic waste at various locations around Ennis. He said CCTV has been used at certain “problem locations in the county”.

He continued, “The Environment section are also dealing with a number of CCTV companies currently with a view to installing high grade cameras in the county. Decisions on the scale of the operation will be determined by a number of factors including site suitability, information technology compatibility and budgetary constraints.”

Mr Moroney said the adoption of new draft byelaws on waste collection would see the council begin a process of determining how individual householders and commercial operators are disposing of their household waste.

“The onus will be on the householder to either have a waste collection service or alternatively produce receipts from Clare County Council’s amenity centres when requested,” he added.

Mr Moroney said the illegal dumping of domestic waste at locations around Ennis is difficult to monitor “due to the sporadic nature of the activity”.

“The pattern of this type of dumping is that the waste is very rarely dumped at the same precise location but more likely to be dumped at varying locations on the same stretches of road. The difficulty is, recording this activity of CCTV cameras is not always possible due to the random nature of the dumping. Clare County Council environment section will continue to address the issue of illegal dumping.”

Ennis Town Manager Gerard Dollard said the council has significantly invested in measures to prevent dumping.

Responding to questions from Cllr James Breen (Ind) on farmers being held responsible for rubbish illegally thrown on the land, Mr Dollard said, “I agree it seems unjust and unfair but that is the law.”