Category: News

SECURITY for post offices in the county is to be stepped up following a spate of robberies over the last number of months.

Clare Fine Gael TD Pat Breen said this week that he has been informed by An Post chief executive, Donal Curtin, that a major upgrade of security is on the way.

The latest such robbery in the county saw the postmistress at Whitegate tied up when her post office was robbed just under three weeks ago.

“I wrote to Mr Curtin because Whitegate was the latest in a series of robberies of post offices in east Clare and there seemed to have been little action taken on the matter.

“However, I have now been assured by Mr Curtin that there is a major upgrade of security now taking place involving a roll out of burglar alarms and CCTV systems,” he said.

“This hopefully will have an effect on the number of robberies taking place and will reduce the element of fear among operators,” Deputy Breen said.

Management at An Post are in ongoing contact with the Irish Postmasters Union with a view to rolling out the equipment to the post office network before the end of the year.

A PLAN to develop Ireland’s first full-scale retirement village accommodating up to 300 residents outside Clarecastle has come under fire from An Taisce.

Last December, the Dublin-based Master Group announced the village, costing €50 million. It would create over 100 jobs on 75 acres of grounds of the historic 18th-century Carnelly House, five miles from Ennis.

There would be 120 houses of various sizes, 35 apartments and a 64-bed retirement home. Village facilities would include a leisure centre with a 12-metre pool and a speciallyequipped gym.

The property was purchased for in excess of €3 million by the Master Group last year.

Objecting, An Taisce told Clare County Council that, “There is an ample network of towns and villages, including locations with good service provisions and public transport access for provision of retirement and nursing home locations in Clare, to meet the needs identified by the applicant without having to resort to development in an unsuitable, rural, unserviced location of the type proposed in this application.”

An Taisce’s Heritage Officer, Ian Lumley, has referred the Council “to a number of precedents by which nursing home schemes have been refused in rural unserviced locations, including two relevant refusal decisions by An Bord Pleanala”.

“Any planning application which changes the use and planning status of Carnelly to an institutional one, no matter how well-designed or sensitive, can only be regarded as regrettable,” said Mr Lumley.

An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has been lodged with the application. However, Mr Lumley states, “We submit that the argument being put forward by the consultants in the EIS on location suitability is untenable.

“The effect of the proposal would be to bring an elderly population into an unserviced, non-public transport-accessible rural area, without addressing where the employees in the proposed development, who are stated to be 104, would live.

“An increasing number of employees in nursing homes in Ireland are from the Philippines and other nonEU countries, who would be on low incomes and not car owners. Nursing homes, where possible, should be located close to centres of population with easy access both for staff and visitors.

Mr Lumley states that the claim under the EIS that there are no alternative sites “is absurd, given the level of zoned land in Clarecastle, Ennis and other parts of Clare”.

VISITORS to the Cliffs of Moher may have to pass a picket line in order to see the historic site in the next few weeks, if Clare County Council persists with plans to remove casual traders from the Cliffs.

The warning comes from Cliffs trader, Gerry Cahill, who expects to be served with a court injunction along with his colleagues, when he returns to the Cliffs next month.

This follows an ongoing dispute between the traders and Gerard Dollard, Director of Services of Clare County Council, who is attempting to remove all unlicensed traders from the Cliffs before the new interpretative centre in completed.

The dispute came to a head last month when Councillor Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) offered to mediate between the two groups, in order to prevent the dispute from reaching the courts.

“They are just waiting for us to go back up the Cliffs so they can serve the injunctions,” Mr Cahill told The Clare People .

“If they get a temporary injunction of two to six week we won’t be able to trade there, but we will be up there every day with placards protesting. Then we will challenge it in the courts.”

Mr Cahill claims that he has offered, on a number of occasion, to meet with Mr Dollard and resolve the dispute before legal action is required, but has been refused a meeting on each occasion.

“I have put it in writing to him and he hasn’t even given me the courtesy of a reply, even to say ‘Gerry there is no hope. I am willing to meet him at any time with no conditions attached at all.”

Cllr Taylor-Quinn spoke to Mr Dollard about the possibility of arranging the meeting and said that she had done all that she could do as a councillor to resolve the matter.

“I have spoken to Ger Dollard and he has taken the line that going into negotiations would not be in the best interest of the council,” said Cllr Taylor-Quinn.

“I hope the people who have been trading in the Cliffs down the years are allowed to stay, as they are of a great benefit to the Cliffs.”

The Clare People attempted to contact Mr Dollard for a comment but had received no reply at the time of going to press.

THE Rossport Five received news of a two-week stay of execution from the High Court, while visiting Doolin over the weekend. The five, who spent 94 days in prison last year for breaching an injunction taken out by Shell, were due to appear in the High Court yesterday (Monday) to learn if they would have to serve additional time in prison.

However, it was decided last Friday to defer the case to appear again before the High Court on Monday, February 27. Should the five men be ordered to return to prison, they believe it will set a new precedent in Irish law.

“Everything about this case is unprecedented. In fact, our legal team has told us that if we are to receive further punishment, it will set a new precedent in Irish law,” said Vincent McGrath of the Five.

“They decided, for some reason known only to themselves, to defer the case for two weeks. They gave us no reason at all.”

The five were in Doolin to give a short talk and take part in a concert on Saturday night.

“We had a great time in Doolin. There was almost 200 people there. I think we are almost twinned with Doolin now,” continued Mr McGrath. “It was great to have the head filled with music instead of with facts and figures about gas for a change.”

The five have currently suspended their involvement with the mediation with Shell because of what they describe as a lack of clarity about the scope of the negotiations. Speaking in Doolin, Mr McGrath wished to express his thanks to all the people of Clare who supported the five.

“The support given to us by the people of Clare gave us great encouragement and strength while we were in prison,” he said.

“I remember looking on the TV in the early days in prison and seeing a big Clare banner protesting for us outside. It gave us great heart.”

Meanwhile, Clare Shell-to-Sea are to host a ‘Boycott Shell’ picket at the Shell Service Station on the Limerick Road in Ennis at 1pm this Saturday. The protest comes amid new fears that areas in the Burren and Spanish Point could be targeted as gas resources in the future.

“I would be concerned that the lust for oil and gas in Clare would result in the reneging on committments to proper consultation with local communities, under the Agenda 21 principle of local government,” said Niall Harnett of Clare Shell-to-Sea.

SENATOR Timmy Dooley (FF) has opened up a constituency office in Ennis just over a year before the current Dáil term expires.

With a Fianna Fáil party convention looming to nominate candidates for next year’s General Election, the 36-year old Mountshannon man has moved to up his profile by opening the office on Ennis’s Carmody Street.

Work was continuing on the fit-out of the office over last weekend before it formally opened yesterday (Monday).

“It is in response to the demand of work really that has considerably increased for me in the Ennis area”, said Senator Dooley.

“Up until now, I would be meeting people in hotels and bars so opening up the office makes things far easier. I have a secretary working in Dublin, but there will now be one working full-time at the Ennis office.”

Asked was the opening in any way connected to his campaign to secure a party nomination to run in next year’s General Election, Senator Dooley said: “No, not at all. That will be decided by delegates, that is their decision.”

Senator Dooley said that he took out the lease on the office last October and was planning not to open the premises until after the planned convention in early January.

“When the convention was postponed, I thought I could not wait any longer due to the inconvenience.”

Asked what kind of response he has been encountering in his campaign to secure a party nomination, Senator Dooley said, “It has been very, very good. I’m very, very happy with it.”

Commenting on the move, Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen said, “Senator Dooley obviously sees himself as a potential candidate for the next election and is seeking political advantage by opening up an office in the county capital.”

Senator Brendan Daly (FF) said: “The opening of the new office by Timmy is to be welcomed as it will provide further services to the public.

“I wonder just how effective constituency offices are. There were three in Ennis before the last general election and the candidate, James Breen, who didn’t have any office, polled 4,000 votes in Ennis.

“The demand for such offices is becoming less and less as the public receives a lot of information from the likes of the Citizen Information Bureau and other voluntary groups.”

THOUSANDS of fake driving licences are in circulation on the roads, a Clare court has heard.

The issue of the counterfeit licences came to light after a driver sporting a fake document was stopped at a routine checkpoint.

The judge in an Ennis court handed down a four-month prison sentence to the man in question.

Sergeant Dermot O’Connor told the Ennis District Court that he stopped Trevor Condon (38) of Goirtroe, Corrandulla, in Galway at Newmarket-on-Fergus on July 12 last.

“When I asked for his licence, he produced a document which appeared to be a full driving licence but when I checked it, in my opinion, it was a forgery,” Sgt O’Connor said.

“When I informed him of this, he challenged me and said that he had been issued the licence by Galway Corporation,” the Sergeant told Judge Aeneas McCarthy.

The Shannon-based officer seized the document and sent it to the handwriting section at Garda Headquarters, Dublin, for examination.

Sgt O’Connor said that the experts there “advised that it was a forgery and one of a batch of a few thousand which are in circulation, mainly in the Southern part of the country,” Sgt O’Connor said.

He described the forgery as being “of average quality,” and handed it over to the Judge for inspection.

The court heard that the accused man had a number of previous convictions, but none for road traffic offences.

His solicitor, Bill Loughnane, said that the Galway man’s previous offences had all been when he was a young man and he had not been in any trouble for a considerable time.

“He is on disability payments and has numerous problems. He was offered the opportunity to purchase one of these licences and he foolishly accepted,” Mr Loughnane said.

After asking to see the licence, Judge McCarthy handed the convicted man a four-month jail sentence for possession of a forged document. But he suspended the jail term, provided the driver entered into a bond to be of good behaviour for 12 months. Judge McCarthy also fined Condon €150 for having no driving licence.

THE office of the Director of Public Prosecutions will decide before March 9 what course of action it intends to pursue in the case of four peace activists arrested following a small protest at Shannon Airport last September, a court has been told.

The four defendants gained access to a balcony in the main terminal building at Shannon on September 17 last and managed to unfurl three anti-war banners. All four were arrested and taken to Shannon Garda Station where they were questioned, detained overnight and later charged before being taken to court the following day.

Reappearing at Shannon District Court in Ennis last Thursday were 38-year-old Conor Cregan of 42 Cronan Lawn, Shannon, and Niall Harnett aged 39, originally from Dublin, but living at the time in Liscannor. Both face one charge each of failing to obey directions from airport police officers contrary to Section 33 of the Air Navigation and Transport Act.

Two others, Margaret Liddy aged 34 from North Circular Road in Limerick and 21-year-old St John O’Donnabháin with an address at Áth Stúin in County Kilkenny, face charges of failing to provide names and address to airport police staff also contrary Section 33 of the same act.

The State claims that only Mr Cregan and Mr Harnett, were involved in the alleged incident on the balcony where airport police officers were prevented from entering the area.

Inspector Tom Kennedy sought to have the four remanded on continuing bail until March when, he told Judge Leo Malone, the DPP would have decided what course of action to take. It is understood that further charges may be preferred against any of the defendants

Two of the defendants, who represented themselves in court, attempted to address the court but were advised by Judge Malone that the matter had already been adjourned to March 9.

Niall Harnett was warned that he would be “held in contempt” and “removed from the court” after he began reading from a document in which he accused the justice system of “failing to engage” with him in all respects relevant to his case.

Conor Cregan also sought to address the court but was told by Judge Malone, “the problem with that is that the DPP has not yet directed in the matter.”

All four will appear in court again on March 9 next.

CLARE County Council has come under fire from Limerick City Council for refusing to meet with it to discuss the proposed city boundary extension into South East Clare.

City officials, in a submission lodged with the Department of the Environment that they, “offered to meet with both Clare and Limerick in order to present and clarify the proposal and answer any questions. This offer was declined and no direct discussion or negotiation took place.

“Clare entirely dismisses the idea of tripartite planning cooperation as “too complicated”.

The statement also claimed that a survey conducted by the council showed that the boundary extension proposal would be likely carried by a plebiscite and there was no significant opposition to the administration of the area by Limerick City Council.

With a decision on the proposed extension expected within weeks, public representatives across Clare have vowed not to give up their land, their rates or their hurlers.

Kilrush Town Councillor Jack Fennell (Ind) warned, “there is no hurling in North Clare and West Clare. If we keep whittling away at the hurling area of County Clare we will have no team left.”

His council colleagues have agreed to write to the Minister for the Environment asking him to refuse Limerick City’s request. Councillors in South East Clare have hit back angrily at suggestions made by Limerick City Councillor John Ryan (Lab) that Clare County Council wss neglecting its responsibility for the south east of the county.

His party colleague, Clare County Councillor Paschal Fitzgerald, hit back angrily telling the Limerick man to “stick to his own area”.

He said council’s plans to provide a library and council offices in the Parteen/Westbury area proved a willingness to provide a good service to the people of the area.

“I am very angry as an East Clare councillor, that not one TD in Clare has come out to back the council and the Clare people,” he added.

Meanwhile, Councillor Cathall Crowe (FF) maintains that no boundary extension into Clare will be granted.

“Whilst there is validity to

the boundary opposition argu ments put forward by Limerick County Council, I consider the Clare argument to hold far more substance. At the end of the day, Limerick city and county are part of the one geopolitical entity — Limerick,” he said.

THE country’s leading catering college has voluntarily agreed to move 84 students from two apartment blocks, which it leases in Shannon, to a local hotel, following a fire at the complex on Tuesday night

The blaze has raised serious concerns in the fire authority in Clare about the safety of the buildings.

The Shannon College of Hotel Management, which is governed by the Shannon Airport Authority, has moved the students from Hawthorns and Linden blocks at Drumgeely Flats, adjacent to Shannon Airport, to the nearby Great Southern Hotel, which is also owned by the Airport Authority.

The move follows an incident on Tuesday night last when a fire broke out in a flat at one of the blocks. No one was injured in the incident that is understood to have been caused by a fault in an electric shower. Following the fire however, concerns were expressed by the fire authority and the owner voluntarily made arrangements to vacate the block. Subsequently, a second building, also leased by the Shannon College of Hotel Management, was vacated by the college authorities.

A spokesperson for the Shannon Airport Authority has confirmed, “we were not forced to leave the flats, we took this decision ourselves in the interest of safety. The fire authority has been inspecting the flats and we await their final report. In the meantime the students are being accommodated in the Great Southern Hotel here at the airport.”

Clare’s Chief Fire Officer, Adrian Kelly, has confirmed that there are “some fire safety issues” with one of the blocks.

“We are inspecting both blocks, which have been vacated, and have been in touch with the management company. There are 12 blocks in all at Drumgeely, but we are not aware of any safety issues with the other 10. But we hope to inspect them also.”

Chief Kelly has confirmed, however, that the fire service is trying to establish ownership of the other buildings with a view to inspecting the blocks to ensure they meet current fire safety regulations. Mr Kelly also praised the college authorities for their cooperation and their speedy response to the safety concerns expressed.

IRELAND’S most high profile Muslim has appealed for calm within the country’s growing Islamic community, as outrage over the publication of a cartoon lampooning the prophet Mohammed stretches into a second week.

Dr. Moosajee Bhamjee, who created Irish political history in 1992, when he became the first Muslim elected to Dáil Éireann, has hit out at the cartoons that were published last week in a Danish newspaper.

However, the South African born Muslim is supportive of what he calls, “the majority Muslim view” of a peaceful reaction to the publication of the Prophet Mohammad cartoons.

One of the offensive cartoons was published in The Irish Star , the editor of which is Quin man, Gerry Colleran. Dr. Bhamjee has urged Muslims to react by starting a letter writing campaign.

“By peaceful means is the proper way to react to this controversy and is to use freedom of speech to voice anger at this ridiculing of the Muslim religion,” Dr. Bhamjee told The Clare People .

“Reacting with violence is not good. This is an emotional outburst from Muslim fundamentalists, who feel that their religion has been ridiculed. It has been ridiculed but it should not be met with violence.

“Muslims in Ireland should write to the Danish Embassy expressing their outrage at the way in which their holy prophet has been branded a terrorist by this cartoon. They should also write to An Taoiseach,” added Dr. Bhamjee.

The former Labour TD claimed that the decision of The Star to publish one of the cartoons was very unhelpful and that this highlighted the need for the establishment of the long-mooted Press Council.

“I would go so far to say that it was silly and stupid on the part of The Star . It could affect multi-cultural relations in Ireland,” concluded Dr. Bhamjee.