Category: News

LOCALS in Sixmilebridge were left in anger after eight cars were broken into during a three-hour period one night last week.

Four cars in the Mill Court housing estate, three at Cappagh Lodge and one at Chapel Court, were broken into between 2am and 5am on Thursday last.

All of the cars were searched. While nothing was taken from some of the cars, a stereo was taken from one and phones from two others.

“We would view this as a very serious incident. People in those estates may have heard suspicious activity,” said Supt John Kerin, who is appealing for witnesses to come forward.

“This is not the first time this has happened and we are very concerned about it,” said a community spokesman.

A CLARE TD is warning that “a crisis” is developing concerning the decentralisation of Enterprise Ireland staff to Shannon.

It has been revealed that just 19 existing employees of the national jobs creation company have indicated their willingness to transfer to Shannon out of a total staff of 300 needed to make the move a reality.

Numerous residential and business developments have gone ahead in Shannon on the understanding that there would be an influx of business from the Enterprise Ireland decentralisation process.

Deputy Pat Breen (FG) has called for Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheal Martin to clarify the transfer arrangements to be put in place for Shannon Development staff, who would find themselves redundant after Minister Martin announced the removal of their enterprise support function last year.

“Minister Martin has already spoken of ‘developing the indigenous enterprise base in the region’ and I am calling on him to utilize the skills base that exists with Shannon Development by enabling the personnel specialised in enterprise support to use their skills in Enterprise Ireland.”

Replying to a Parliamentary Question tabled by Deputy Breen, Minister Martin said that the number of applications for transferring to Shannon received from within the civil and public service, including his own department, amounted to 33, giving an overall total of 52 people, but that it was “too early to comment definitively on a timescale for the transfer of Enterprise Ireland’s headquarters to Shannon”.

A 13-acre site owned by Shannon Development is under negotiation as Enterprise Ireland’s proposed headquarters.

Deputy Breen said: “This figure is far short to the numbers and the quality of personnel required to run an effective national development agency.

“With just 19 of the existing Enterprise Ireland staff willing to relocate, the agency will be facing a crisis of appropriately-qualified personnel if immediate plans are not put in place and the uncertainty removed over Shannon Development changes.”

Deputy Breen added that a similar crisis was developing within the Irish Aviation Authority where 100 staff were due to transfer to Shannon under the Department of Transport’s decentralisation plans.

Transport Minister Martin Cullen said just two employees had indicated a wish to move and 11 expressions of interest had been received from external applicants.

Meanwhile, just 93 applications have been made out of the 779 posts moving to Limerick under the Revenue Commissioners banner.

CLARE County Council is not granting planning permission to any development in a number of Clare’s towns and villages due to inadequate infrastructure.

That was the claim made by the chairman of the Council’s Planning Special Policy Committee (SPC), Councillor Richard Nagle.

Cllr Nagle said that the council must look at interim solutions to allow the planning difficulties be overcome.

“No one had the right to make unilateral decisions on planning and the council should not be trying to hinder development.”

Councillor Martin Lafferty (Ind) said, “I’m very despondent over the amount of villages that have sewerage systems in place. I saw a list provided by the council that shows that out of the county’s 70 towns and villages, 39 to 40 had no sewerage.

“We are light years behind having a proper infrastructure in place. I was more than surprised to see the number of towns and villages that don’t have schemes in place.”

SPC member, Padraig Haugh said, “It is terrible that you would have towns and villages releasing raw sewerage.

The council’s Senior Planner, Liam Conneally said that the council was working towards interim solutions towards the provision of waste water treatment plants in relation to a number of developments.

MEN and women from County Clare are travelling in their droves to Galway to take part in a Fight Club style boxing tournament. White Collar Boxing is the brainchild of former Irish Olympian, Cathal O’Grady, who claims to have received a number of enquiries from Clare people about taking part in the Galway event.

This is only the second event of its kind to take place in Ireland, the other been staged in Dublin last year. It is designed to allow office workers a means of using up their excess energy as well as getting in touch with their primitive side.

“The philosophy is very similar to a fight club,” said Mr O’Grady. “The men are liberated mentally by the experience. Fight clubs were underground cult organisations whereas this is safe and structured. The primal attraction is very real though.”

The competitors are put through a rigorous ten week training process in which the average participant will lose a full 13lbs.

When their training is complete they each take part in a Las Vegas style boxing tournament in front of their family and friends.

Interestingly, the Galway event seems to be drawing a large response from women as well as men in the Clare area.

“We have had a number of people enquiring from Clare already,” said Mr O’Grady. “There are also a lot of women showing an interest which didn’t happen in Dublin. It seems to be something just in the West. There must be more of a spirit in the ladies out there.”

Like Fight Clubs, white collar boxing aims to improve the mental and physical health of those who take part in it.

“Our slogan is ‘when 9-to-5 is not enough,’” said Mr O’Grady. “A lot of people are stressed at work and are searching for something to identify with. This can give them a purpose to their lives again.”

Fighters use 18oz gloves and headguards for increased safety while fighters are carefully matched in age, weight and experience.

“Since it first began in 1988, there has been no reports of serious injury,” continued Mr O’Grady. “People have to go back to work the following day and they can’t do that with a black eye.

“It is very real, but well supervised.”

Training for the Galway event will take place in March with the tournament scheduled for June.

More information can be found on www.whitecollarboxing.ie.

WEST Clare is lending its support to the fight to ensure a 24-hour consultant-led accident and emergency service remains at the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis.

A new group, “West Clare Friends of Ennis General Hospital”, emerged from a public meeting on the future of the county hospital last Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the new group told The Clare People , “There is intense anger that the Hanly plan remains Government policy in West Clare.”

He said there was a lot of support for the long running “Ennis General Hospital Development Committee” and more than 20 people had signed up to be part of the new grouping in the West.

The West Clare Friends of Ennis General Hospital will get its first outing at the St Patrick’s Day parade in Kilrush. The group is inviting representative from 20 West Clare parishes to march with them behind their parish banners on March 17 next. Leaflets outlining the group’s concerns are also to be distributed on the day.

In the interim, letters from the West Clare hospital lobby group are to be sent to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and CEO of the Health Service Executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, voicing West Clare’s concerns at being so far from an A and E, should the services in Ennis be down graded. They will also ask the health trinity of Ahern, Harney and Drumm to sign a letter confirming the status of the hospital.

“We need to know what services will be available in the long term and if we will have a consultant-led A and E in the future,” the spokesperson added.

THE couple’s home-help loaned them an electric heater to help them to cope with the recent freezing conditions. But James points out that this just heats the area where it is turned on. His wife’s severe medical problems require that she have a warm home.

While other residents living mid-way on the hill have a good water supply, James says he has been told that what is needed is a special pump to keep the pressure on the water as it climbs up the hill.

“When the water does come back, by the time it makes its way up the hill it’s nothing but a dribble. It would take half the day to fill a kettle,” said James.

Last week, the supply was off for so long, said James, that his neighbour “had to call in Dynorod because her toilet had backed up. There wasn’t enough water to flush it properly. I had a doctor’s appointment and had to wash in a kettle of water. I remember having to do that years ago, but I never thought I’d be doing it again at this age.”

A native of Killaloe, James worked for a time in England, but has been home for more than 20 years and living back in his native place.

SPECULATION is mounting

that US President George W

Bush is to make a refuelling stop

at Shannon Airport tomorrow

(Wednesday) morning.

The President is scheduled to

travel to the Middle East, via

Shannon, on Wednesday. While

it has not been confirmed if he

will make a stop, a major secu-

rity operation, involving gardaí,

the Army and the US Secret

Service, has been underway for

some days at the airport.

A similar operation was in

place in May of last year, when “What really worries me is my wife. She has had to use babywipes for the last three days and if this continues, she’ll be back in hospital. Our GP has written to to the county council six weeks ago and our local Councillor, Tony O’Brien is doing everything he can, but still nothing is being done to fix the cause of the problem.”

An angry Cllr O’Brien (FF) told The Clare People that he had “raised this numerous time with the county council. There was a major leak discovered in the area just before Christmas and that was repaired, but that was not the problem. If there’s any water in Convent Hill, there’s none in Newtown. I’m told that what is needed is a new pumping station and I’m calling for it to go ahead now.” Cllr O’Brien said there are 42 new holiday homes being built and planning permission for 85 new houses.

“Up to €600,000 has been collected in development levies – that money has to be re-invested in providing the pumping station. What are they waiting for – for those houses to be occupied and for no-one in Killaloe to have any water?” the President was due to pass through Shannon.

However the President, who was travelling from Tbilisi to Washington, did not land, following much speculation in the area for several days.

On that occasion, 200 troops and at least 100 gardaí from Clare, Galway, Roscommon and Mayo, were on duty at the airport.

There were members of the Garda Air Support Unit and the Garda Mounted Unit on standby.

One of the largest security operations in the history of the State took place when President Bush visited Clare for the EUUS summit at Dromoland Castle in June 2004.

This latest speculation about President Bush making a stop at Shannon this week comes amid ongoing concern that US rendition flights are passing through Shannon.

Anti-war activists claim that CIA aircraft carrying hostages to interrogation camps are refuelling at the airport.

The Government says it accepts repeated assurances from US authorities that nothing untoward is taking place in Shannon. It was revealed in a Council of Europe report last week that gardaí forwarded two files on the matter to the DPP since 2004, but no action was deemed necessary.

Suggestions that President Bush may stop at Shannon follows US Vice President’s passing through the airport last month.

He passed through, on a refuelling stop, while travelling from the US to the Middle East.

Mr Cheney arrived at Shannon at around 7am on Monday, January 16, but did not get out of the plane. He passed through Shannon again later in the week, on his return journey.

PAT Keating (33), a native of Kilbaha in west Clare, and a garda for 10 years, said the allegations made by his former girlfriend Eavan Drysdale had shattered his career and his life.

He said her allegations were ‘lies’. He had been suspended since they were made in August 2004.

“She made a promise, going back to day one, that she was going to destroy me. Regardless of what happens here in court today, or any day, my career is in ruins. My life is in ruins. She has been successful,” he said.

The separated father-of-one said the break-up of his nine-month relationship with Ms Drysdale in March 2004 had a devastating effect on him.

He first met her on June 21, 2003 when she reported a stolen bicycle at Shannon Garda Station.

He said he met her again in a supermarket the same afternoon and that evening she rang him to ask him out.

The romance moved along at a fast past and he said Eavan presented him with a key to her house for his birthday, just weeks later — a claim denied by her.

Gda Keating said some time later the relationship took a downhill turn. As a result, he cheated on her, something he was deeply ashamed of.

This led them to break up temporarily in December 2003. They got back together and broke up again the following March.

He said following the break-up, Eavan initiated contact with him on several occasions, some of which were in the middle of the night.

He said her calls ranged from abusive to nice. He claimed she called him various names including “psycho freak of nature”, “truly horrible person” and “bad man”, in text messages. Another message suggested there were “crazy voices” inside his head.

After the break-up, he was at “rock bottom” and could not sleep. At one stage, he did not eat for 13 days.

He attended St John of Gods hospital in Dublin under a consultant psychiatrist.

Referring to the date of the alleged incident for which he is on trial, he said he received a blank text from Eavan late on August 17.

He tried to ring her and texted her back a few times.

He said they had a telephone conversation, during which she was “completely wound up”. He denied making any threat to her.

“Under no circumstances would I say that. I wouldn’t even think of the name Geraldine Kissane (a woman who was shot dead by her ex-boyfriend in Shannon, before he shot himself in October 2001). . . I have never threatened Eavan,” he said.

“Since August the 18th, I feel I have been set up.

“I never lost faith in the relationship up to then,” he said.

Asked how he feels about the complainant now, he replied, “I don’t feel anything for her now.”

AFTER weeks of commentary, no comment, speculation and innuendo, the Junior Minister at the Department of Education and Science, Síle De Valera, has announced that she will resign her ministerial portfolio in December.

Last week the Minister was remaining tight lipped on her future as a junior minister, after the Taoiseach spoke of the party’s tradition, “that if somebody is not running in the next election and they hold a ministerial office . . . before the election they bow out.”

Hours following the broadcasting of these comments, the Fianna Fáil leader met with Deputy Sean Haughey in Dublin, who had expressed his disappointment at not receiving a junior post in the latest reshuffle of the junior cabinet.

That weekend, Minister de Valera issued a brief statement through her department saying that she “had a job of work to do” and “intended on completing it”.

Then last week, The Clare People ran a survey, which showed an overwhelming majority of Fianna Fáil councillors, felt their junior minister should resign her position.

On Wednesday, the minister issued another statement from her Department, giving the time of her resignation from the junior cabinet.

In her statement the minister said, “On November 6 last I went to the Taoiseach to advice him on my intention of not standing in the next election.

“At that meeting, I raised the matter of my stepping down as Minister of State.

“I was immediately told by the Taoiseach to carry on with the job in hand.

“I suggested that a time limit should be set for my stepping down as Minister of State. “The Taoiseach and I agreed that I would vacate that position in December 2006.

“To suggest that the Taoiseach was signalling for me to resign when he talked about the tradition in the party is a complete fallacy.

“The Taoiseach and I are friends for many years and we had an agreement on this issue dating back to November 6 2005,” she said.

Síle de Valera was first elected to the Dáil in 1977, and has represented the Clare constituency since 1987.

She has already outlined her plans to write her memoirs and to study for a PhD degree on her retirement.

EAVAN Drysdale said she felt her life was in danger due to a threat from her former boyfriend Gda Pat Keating who, she claims, told her by phone on August 18, 2004 that she was the next Geraldine Kissane.

In October 2001, Geraldine Kissane was shot dead by her ex-boyfriend, Mark Simms in Shannon, before he turned the gun on himself.

Ms Drysdale told the court: “I felt that my life was in danger and that he would take his own life as he was referring to the Kissane case.”

She said that earlier that night, Gda Keating had phoned her to say if he was going down, she was going with him.

Ms Drysdale said this was in relation to a public order charge that Gda Keating was facing.

Ms Drysdale was also a witness in the case that stemmed from an incident involving the two in Shannon in March 2004.

Ms Drysdale said that on the night of August 17, the calls had started from Gda Keating after she mistakenly sent him a blank text message.

Thomas Creed, defence counsel, then read out a series of text messages that Garda Keating has a record of that came from phones owned by Ms Drysdale in April 2004.

They read, “Curl up and die, goodbye”, “Fuck off and die and do yourself a favour”, and “The only people that listen to you are the crazy voices inside your crazy head.”

Asked by Mr Creed were these abusive text messages, Ms Drysale said, “No, I wouldn’t consider them to be abusive.

“They were responding to texts from Gda Keating.”

Referring to the date of the alleged offence committed by Gda Keating, she said he said a few short words to her and she hung up, “having had a long evening of texts and phone calls from him”.

She said she had heard over the

previous four weeks that Gda Keat ing had been admitted to hospital after an attempted suicide.

“I had heard that, some time in July, hence the reason I’d take his accusation very seriously. I was scared.”

It was put to her in cross examination by Mr Creed that she said to Gda Keating she hoped his next suicide attempt would be successful, but in court she said, “I don’t recall saying that.”

THE death of a former official driver for ex-Junior Health Minister Frank Fahey, who was killed in a road accident near Clarecastle, was recounted at an inquest in Ennis last week.

A verdict of “accidental death” was returned at the inquest of John Cahill (68) of Gort, County Galway, who died at Ennis General Hospital shortly after a red Volkswagen van – driven by a drunk driver – collided with his car at Knocknamana, Clarecastle, at 10.30pm on November 5, 2004.

Seargent Michael Haran told the inquest that shortly before the crash, gardaí had received a call about a van which had struck a wall on the Limerick Road in Ennis. Gardaí had gone to the scene, when they were directed to attend a “serious road traffic accident” near Clarecastle.

He said when he arrived at the scene, he found Mr Cahill’s car “in a very damaged state in the grass verge.” Sgt Haran said road conditions and weather were dry and that there were no skid marks on the road. He said, however, that a trail of water could be seen leading from the victim’s car across the road to where the red van had stopped some 40 yards away.

Sgt Haran also said he also saw John Joseph Hogan (43) of Killeen, Corofin, the driver of a red Volkswagen van, at the scene and that he was unsteady on his feet and intoxicated. Mr Hogan was later arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.

The inquest heard details of an autopsy carried out on Mr Cahill at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick. Dr Peter Fawl concluded that Mr Cahill died from “multiple head and thoracic injuries, consistent with being involved in a road traffic accident.”

After being addressed by the Coroner Isobel O’Dea, the jury returned a verdict of “accidental death.”

Last July, at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, 43 year old John Joseph Hogan of Killeen, Corofin and Bushy Park, Ennis, was sentenced to three years imprisonment and was disqualified from driving for 30 years, after he admitting dangerous driving causing the death of Mr Cahill.

Hogan had been convicted of drunk driving on the day before the fatal crash.

However his disqualification from driving for that offence was not due to take effect for three months.