Category: News

MORE than one person per day in Clare is being told that they have cancer, according to new statistics.

An average of 422 people from the county are being diagnosed with the disease, per year.

According to figures given at the launch of Daffodil Day in the West County Hotel last night, 27 families in the county will avail of the Irish Cancer Society’s night nurse service.

Last year, €1.5 million of the €2.9 million raised during Daffodil Day went towards the service, which allows patients remain at home with the support of a night nurse when they are at an advanced phase of their illness.

A total of €850,000 of the money raised in 2005 will fund the employment of 23 hospital-based cancer liaison nurses, to work in major cancer treatment hospitals across the country. Two of these nurses are employed in the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick.

Some €1 million will be allocated this year to cancer homecare teams, who work in the community to provide specialist palliative care nursing. Out of this fund, €54,825 will be allocated to homecare teams operating in Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary.

Daffodil Day monies will also fund the National Cancer Helpline (Freefone 1800 200 700), which is staffed by nurses trained in cancer care. Last year the Helpline received approximately 7,000 calls, 85 from callers in County Clare.

A total of €93,000 will be allocated for bursaries, which will be granted to approximately 91 nurses, undertaking the higher diploma in oncology nursing.

Daffodil Day monies will also be allocated to the Irish Cancer Society’s education programme for hospital and community nurses. A sum of €40,000 will be allocated to fund a play specialist for the children’s cancer unit in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin.

This year’s Daffodil Day will take place on Friday, March 24. The society is calling on the public to support the day so that it can continue to grow its free patient care and specialist nursing services, by reaching its €3 million target.

The Irish Cancer Society is calling on the Irish public to support Daffodil Day, by “buying a daff”, by donating daffodils, holding a daffodil coffee morning or acting as a volunteer selling daffodils in the community or workplace. For further information please call the Daffodil Day office on CallSave 1850 60 60 60.

PARISHES throughout the diocese, as well as past pupils of St Flannan’s College, Ennis mourned the passing of one of the schools former presidents this week.

O’Callaghan’s Mills native, the V. Rev. John Shalloo, died peacefully on Wednesday last in Tullamore General Hospital, following a short illness.

After ordination, Fr Shalloo served on the staff of St. Flannan’s College for 25 years, becoming vice president of the college in 1969 and president in December 1970.

He served as a priest with the Killaloe Diocese for 55 years, having studied for the priesthood at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth from where he was ordained in 1949.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Fr Shalloo organised vigils to Lourdes from Ennis.

The late priest is also remembered for his work in Shannon. He was appointed curate to the parish in 1974. He became parish priest of Shannon in July 1975.

In September 1983, he volunteered to serve on the Killaloe Diocesan Mission to the diocese of Mutare in Zimbabwe.

On his return from Zimbabwe, he was appointed parish priest in Birr, Co. Offaly in July 1986.

Two years later, he was appointed Canon to the Cathedral Chapter of the diocese and in 1999, he retired as parish priest of Birr, but continued to serve the parish as assistant priest, until his recent illness.

Those who knew him well, described the late priest as popular and well liked.

Long time friend, Fr Cormac Mc Namara, now parish priest in Fr Shalloo’s native O’Callaghans Mills told The Clare People , “he was the most humble and unassuming man you ever met in your life.”

Having studied under Fr Shalloo in St Flannan’s College and later teaching there with him, Fr McNamara was later to work with Fr Shalloo again in Shannon.

“He was one of those people you looked up to. He was a great worker and above all, a very holy man,” said Fr McNamara.

Born into a family of seven in Tierrovan, O’Callaghan’s Mills, Fr Shalloo is survived by two of his sisters, one living in nearby Kilkishen and one in Laois.

Fr Shalloo was laid to rest in the grounds of St. Brendan’s Church, Birr, after Funeral Mass on Saturday.

CLARE’S district court judge, Judge Joseph Mangan, is one of 49 district court judges to jointly scoop €996,299 in expenses last year.

Figures released through the Freedom of Information Act to The Clare People show that district court judges received on average €18,114 in expenses last year.

The payments claimed represented a drop on the €1,160,000 claimed by 46 judges in 2004.

Judge Mangan is likely to be in the upper half, in terms of expenses received, as he has a large area to administer, stretching from south Galway to south-east and west Clare.

The courts in which he presides at include Ennis, Ennistymon, Kildysart, Kilkee, Corofin, Kilrush, Tulla, Gort, Athenry and Killaloe. The payments received come on top on his salary of €124,550.

The breakdown provided by the FOI Unit at the Courts Service show that Judge Mangan and his district court colleagues travelled 324,610 miles, to hearings at the country’s 188 district court venues outside Dublin.

The judges received €351,331 on mileage and €630,198 on subsistence. They spent €14,769 on judges’ attire, including gowns.

The top ten earning district court justices received €400,000 in expenses in 2005.

The detailed breakdown shows that the top five claimants last year received respectively, €54,902, €51,681, €48,680, €42,045 and €40,836.

The top recipients would be those with no designated district, who would be assigned to travel to various court areas around the country, filling in for judges on annual or sick leave.

A statement accompanying the information pointed out that 99 per cent of expenses paid to judges last year arose from travel and subsistence expenses.

“Judges’ travel and subsistence is determined by the number of court sittings and the number of Judges assigned, both of which TWO CARS were overturned in a weekend in which there were four collisions, but no serious injuries to anyone involved. This car went off the Tulla Road, just outside Ennis, at 9.27am on Sunday. Another vehicle overturned at Kilrush Cross at 2.45pm on Sunday. Gardaí were also called to a collision near the West County Hotel at 12.58pm on Sunday and to an accident involving two vehicles at 8.13am on the Limerick Road.

CONCERN was growing yesterday that the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) might have to carry a sizeable proportion of the cost of its estimated €70 million debt, in order for the Authority to gain control of the airport’s finances.

Two years ago when the Government formally announced the establishment of the Shannon Airport Authority and a break-up of Aer Rianta, the then Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan announced that Shannon would be debt-free in the new set-up.

But, in response to a Dáil question from Pat Breen TD (FG) as to whether he would be honoring the commitment of his predecessor, Seamus Brennan on the debt issue, Transport Minister, Martin Cullen, would not give any guarantees.

Deputy Breen told The Clare People that the issue required further clarity.

Further doubt was cast in the Seanad when Clare Junior Minister, Tony Killeen spoke on the matter.

“At an early stage in the airport restructuring process, it was indicated that the intention was that both the independent Cork and Shannon airports would commence on a debt-free basis.

“However, that was always going to be subject to determining the optimum mechanisms for allocating airport assets among the three airports in compliance with the capital maintenance rules and other provisions of the Companies Acts.

“There are technical company law and accounting requirements that would need to be satisfied in any transfer of assets from the Dublin Airport Authority to the Shannon Airport Authority and the Cork Airport Authority.

“For company law and accounting purposes, such transfers of assets would be regarded as distributions made by the Dublin Airport Authority to its shareholder, the Minister for Finance.

“Consequently, the Dublin Airport Authority will be able to make the transfers only when it has available sufficient distributable reserves to match the value of the assets being transferred.

“The level of debt associated with the assets of Shannon and Cork airports and the level of distributable reserves required to transfer those assets to the two authorities will emerge from the work currently under way on the development of business plans by the three airport authorities.

“These data will feed into the decision on determining the optimum mechanisms for allocating airport assets among the three airports.

CLARE women have a higher than average uptake for potentially life saving smear tests, according to new figures covering the last year.

The statistics, released by the Health Service Executive on Tuesday, show that 25,343 Clare women aged between 25 and 60, were on the Irish Cervical Screening Programme at the end of December 2005.

A total of 14,458 Clare women were screened, resulting in a 57.05 per cent uptake rate in the county.

A study into the number availing of the Irish Cervical Screening Programme, being piloted in the Mid West region, has shown that almost 60 per cent of women did not respond to invitations offering the free screening between 2000 and 2004.

This week’s figures show that Clare women’s uptake rate is above the Mid West average, but 43 per cent are still not availing of the free test.

Regular cervical screening can detect cell abnormalities, which if detected and treated early, can be prevented from developing into cancer.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney, this week stated that she was fully committed to the national roll out of a cervical screening programme, “in line with international best practice.”

The Health Service Executive has been requested to prepare a detailed implementation plan for a national programme, almost six years after the programme was planned as a pilot scheme in the Mid West.

A COUNTY Kerry solicitor has claimed that Kilrush District Court is engaging in a policy of “regulating an individual’s behaviour under the guise of the Bail Act”, by imposing strict curfews on defendants.

Pat Enright, of Lees Solicitors, Listowel, was in court yesterday representing a 17-yearold Kilrush youth, who faced having his bail revoked and being imprisoned for several alleged breaches of his bail conditions. The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found to have breached the terms of bail imposed on him in December, when he appeared for an alleged offence under the Public Order Act.

Mr Enright said he had no doubt that the court was entitled to impose conditions, but asked that it reflect on the effects of such conditions.

Pointing out that two other individuals were jailed by the same court yesterday for breaching bail terms the solicitor said, “all that is happening is that another layer of criminality is being introduced to the system. Gardaí are spending their time enforcing curfews when they could be dealing with other more serious matters,” he argued.

Mr Enright agreed with Judge Mangan that he was in court in December when the bail conditions were imposed and did not object at the time.

Judge Mangan revoked to accused’s bail and remanded him in custody to appear in court in Ennis on Friday next.

SIPTU officials at Shannon are to meet with the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen later today to discuss the future of the 60 workers at the Great Southern Hotel in Shannon.

Concerns have also been expressed about the “far reaching consequences” for workers whose jobs depend on work generated from the group.

The Shannon hotel has links with the Shannon College of Hotel Management.

Following news last week that the Great Southern Hotel Group was to be sold off by the Dublin Airport Authority as a going concern, workers in Shannon have asked for assurances that their jobs are safe.

SIPTU officials met with the workers yesterday evening (Monday) prior to the meeting in Dublin today.

A spokesperson for SIPTU Shannon told The Clare People that the union was still not certain that chain of hotels would be sold.

The Government has yet to approve the decision to sell the Great Southern Hotel’s assets.

The SIPTU official expressed disappointment with the Minister for Tourism and Sport, John O’Donoghue, who had previously indicated he wanted to see the hotels remain within the state sector.

Although the minister did not say he changed his mind, last week, he did state the proposed sale was inevitable.

In a statement released during the week, the Dublin Airport Authority confirmed its decision to employ an adviser to assist with the disposal of its hotels, which employs more than 800 people throughout the country.

The Great Southern Hotel group has one of the largest wage bills in the hotel industry, with payroll costs accounting for 46 per cent of the hotels’ turnover.

That is 12 per cent higher than most hotels in the country.

The hotels have been valued in excess of €100 million, and are expected to reach far in excess of this, despite recording losses of €6 million.

One of those mooted as a possible buyer of the chain is Lisdoonvarna native, Bernard McNamara.

According to reports at the weekend, the former Fianna Fáil councillor is understood to be in talks with another businessman about taking over the nine hotels in the group, including Shannon.

McNamara now owns the fourthlargest building construction firm in the country and is a part owner of Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel. He is estimated to be worth €50 million and now lives on the exclusive Ailesbury Road in Dublin.

LAND on the site of the old Our Lady’s Hospital grounds has emerged as another possible site to house a new Cusack Park if the Clare County GAA Board decides to leave its existing county grounds headquarters on the Causeway of Ennis.

The Clare People has learned that a tract of land at Our Lady’s, numbering 14 acres, could yet be earmarked for a stadium development to rival the stadium bid already lodged with the county board for their consideration.

Speculation is that this new proposal will be tabled with the county board in a matter of days, one that centres around transforming the old Our Lady’s site into a technology/ sporting park with hotel facilities on site that would make Clare the provincial equivalent to Croke Park.

The landbank, which would be large enough to hold a stadium, is owned by property developers Martin Fitzgibbon and Paul Talty and hotelier Allen Flynn.

In October 2004 they purchased 14 acres of the Our Lady’s site and the hospital for €5.2 million.

Since then they have lodged an application for the development of a €20 million hotel on the site which has been approved by Clare County Council. The decision has now been referred to an Bord Pleanála on appeal, after Green Party councillor Dónal Ó Béarra lodged an objection over the failure of the developers to provide guarantees over the future of a church on the Our Lady’s site.

When contacted by The Clare People on Monday, Martin Fitzgibbon was unavailable for comment, as were Paul Talty and Allen Flynn.

Meanwhile, Clare GAA chairman Michael McDonagh told The Clare People that “I know that the land is there at Our Lady’s, but nobody has to come to me. I know nothing about a proposal to build a new stadium at Our Lady’s, no one has produced anything to me yet,” he added.

At last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the county board in the West County Hotel, Mr McDonagh told delegates that two more offers were in the pipeline for developing a new Cusack Park away from its current home in Ennis.

This follows on from the commitment given by businessmen Noel Connellan, Sean Lyne and Bernard McNamara to deliver a 42,000 capacity stadium on a 15-acre site on the Quin Road within 18 months of receipt of planning permission from Clare County Council in return for possession of Cusack Park, which would then be redeveloped as a shopping centre.

SHANNON was almost the scene of a dramatic stopover on Saturday night when world record holder Steve Fossett was nearly forced into an emergency landing.

Staff at the airport were on standby late on Saturday night, after it emerged that a fuel leak was detected onboard his Virgin Atlantic Globalflyer. The leak is believed to have occurred shortly after Mr Fossett took off from the Kennedy Space Shuttle centre in Florida, on Wednesday last.

Mr Fossett ignored warnings, during the final hours of his epic journey, that he should set down in Clare, in order to land in England.

His decision was made all the more risky as he had passed the ‘point of no return’ over the Atlantic. Shannon had been designated as a secondary landing area for the 61-year-old adventurer, who was attempting to break the world record for the longest non-stop flight in history.

He had originally intended to finish his journey in Kent, England, but was eventually forced to touch down in Bournemouth after an electrical problem nearly caused the plane’s ventilation system to overload.

As it turned out, it was in the skies above Shannon where the 61 year old former stockbroker broke the record, which had stood since 1986. He completed the 24,987 mile round trip in 76 hours to cement his place in the record books.

“It was looking like we could get him at one stage. He made a decision at 11 o’clock, when he had crossed the point of no return, to continue on towards England. We were on standby, but it never happened,” said Clare McHenry, spokesperson for Shannon Airport Authority.

THE development of new facilities at Dublin and Cork Airports will pose a significant threat to business at Shannon in the coming years as competition for airline services into Ireland intensifies, the Chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority has warned.

Pat Shanahan was speaking following the Authority’s monthly board meeting on Friday, when he also said, “Costs per passenger at Shannon, are significantly higher than at Dublin and Cork airports. It is vital that our cost base is at least equal to our peer airports so that Shannon can attract the business that its tourism and catchment area can generate.”

While welcoming record-breaking passenger numbers of 3.3 million and improved profit levels in 2005, Mr Shanahan further cautioned that, “The outlook for the airport remains uncertain until its underlying financial difficulties are addressed.

“The turnaround in the airport’s finances in 2005 can be attributed to the increased activity by Ryanair since establishing Shannon as a base, and also to the high levels of military traffic operating through Shannon, which is unpredictable and, from past experience, unlikely to continue at current levels.”

Following the best year ever for transatlantic traffic at Shannon, in terms of passenger numbers, “Open Skies” will be introduced in April 2008, with transitional arrangements commencing as early as November this year. According to Mr Shanahan, “During this transitional period, Shannon will be working hard to grow its transatlantic passengers.”

Speaking about controversial plans by the SAA to divest itself of its catering operation Mr Shanahan said, “Shannon is the only major airport in Europe to operate its own catering company. The airport no longer has the critical mass or buying power to compete successfully in this market.”

Commenting on the Programme for Commercial Viability being proposed by Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), Mr. Shanahan said, “DAA is willing to provide financial support to Shannon to implement its restructuring programme.

“I wish to emphasise that there is a limited window of opportunity in which to make these changes,” he said.