Category: News

MEMBERS of Ennis Town Council were left waiting by the two leading figures in Clare GAA this Monday, who were to brief them about plans for Cusack Park.

County board chairman, Michael McDonagh and secretary, Pat Fitzgerald, pulled out of the meeting nearly a half an hour after they were due to be in the council chamber in Waterpark House.

Councillors were told by way of a letter last Thursday that the chairman and secretary of the GAA board would give “a briefing session” on Cusack Park’s future.

“The chairman and secretary of the Clare County Board of the GAA will attend to brief the members of the potential development of Cusack Park. I would be obliged if you could arrange to be in attendance,” said the Town Clerk, Eddie Power’s letter.

This meeting was arranged after it was revealed by The Clare People last week that a consortium made up of businessmen Noel Connellan, Sean Lyne and Bernard McNamara had made a sensational offer to take Cusack Park over from the county board.

The consortium pledged 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.

However, when the county board officials failed to show, the Mayor of Ennis, Frankie Neylon, had to apologise to members.

“I have to apologise for bringing you in here at 3pm,” he told the monthly meeting. “We were supposed to be joined by our friends from the county board, but as you now know they didn’t arrive to address the meeting as they were supposed to,” added Mayor Neylon.

Fianna Fáil councillor, Tom Glynn, who grew up adjacent to Cusack Park on Francis Street then asked the meeting, “did we get any reason why they failed to show”.

In response, Mayor Neylon said “you know as much as I do Tom, they just didn’t arrive.”

When contacted by The Clare People on Monday night, board chairman, Michael McDonagh apologised for the no show.

“I take responsibility. We are going to meet them at a later date, once we get in all the proposals for Cusack Park. The matter will be debated and everyone will hear what we have to say,” said the chairman.

MORE and more children as young as seven and eight are being put through rigorous beauty regimes in the run up to their First Holy Communion, according to reports received by The Clare People .

It is not uncommon now for Holy Communion children to have fake tans and make-up applied for their big day, with use of sun beds being reported in extreme cases.

And while tanned holy communicants are the exception rather than the rule in Clare, Ennis beauticians are reporting a growing trend in requests for fake tans and leg waxes for children as young as 10 and 11 years old.

Ennis beautician Martina Costelloe said that she has been approached by mothers of children of Confirmation age, requesting eyebrow re-shaping, waxing and other beauty procedures. With the wide availability of tanning products in shops and chemists, Ms Costelloe says this can also be done at home.

The Ann Levy’s Health and Beauty beautician also confirmed that she knew of cases where children of Communion age had their “tan done”.

She lays the blame with parents, who she says are taking their own vanity out on their children.

Ms Costelloe said that she, like most of her peers, refuses any beauty procedures on girls and young teens, unless there is an unnatural facial hair growth and the child herself has a complex about it.

Demands for hiring hotels, booking limousines and purchasing not one, but two outfits for the day, are also coming from the school yard to already pressurised parents, adding to emotional and financial stress.

The Catholic Church in Clare is attempting to take the focus off the commercialism, with a new programme for First Holy Communion.

“Do this in memory” started as a pilot scheme three years ago and now runs throughout the Diocese of Killaloe. It helps parents with the spiritual development of their children.

Diocesan Advisor of Primary Catholic Schools, Fr Maurice Harmon, told The Clare People that it was based around the Eucharist and parents had the option of becoming involved in 10 Sunday Masses as part of the programme. Each parent also receives information to help prepare their child for Holy Communion and back up what they have learnt at school.

“It’s the child’s day and this can so often get lost in the affluence of the society we live in,” said Fr Harmon.

A DOCUMENTARY shot secretly on a tour bus in the Burren last Summer, received its world premier at the Burren Spring Conference in the Ballyvaughan School of Art over the weekend.

The documentary, entitled

, was shot by the Director of the NUI, Galway Huston School of Film, Rod Stoneman. It takes an undercover look at the Burren as seen through the eyes of the package tourist.

It raised a number of questions about the quality of products on offer in the Burren, the nature of mass tourism itself and the effects that this form of tourism had on an area like the Burren.

“The first thing that struck me was that the tour guides had a more substantive and well formed knowledge than I had expected,” said Mr Stoneman. “I had thought that there would be far more anecdotal but they did have some good clear information.”

The documentary follows a tour bus through Kinvara, Ballyvaughan, Fanore and Doolin before making its first stop at the Cliffs of Moher. The tour then takes the tourists to the Poulnabrone Dolmen before finishing up at the Ailwee Caves.

“I was really surprised that the tourists arrive here with very little knowledge of the area and without any real sense of where they are,” continued Mr Stoneman. “Despite the speed of their tour, they do seem to get a feel of the area.”

The documentary prompted lively debate at the Burren College when it was shown on Saturday afternoon. A large crowd, including three local tour guides, discussed the impact that large-scale tourism had on the area and whether the industry should be subject to greater regulation.

One of the documentary’s comments came from an Australian tourist at the Cliffs of Moher. When asked about the effects of visitors, she replied, “just look at what is going on out there”, referring to the massive construction work involved in the Cliffs of Moher Interpretative Centre.

There are no plans currently in place to bring the documentary to a wider audience. Stoneman has had success in the past as executive producer of the multi award winning documentary, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” as well as numerous feature film and shorts.

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.

PLANS to transform Ennis’s skyline with a €20 million apartment block overlooking the River Fergus are facing fresh opposition.

Ennis-based firm, Paddy Coleman & Associates, has expressed concern over the proposal by Galway company, Briarlane Development Ltd.

The plan provides for a new pedestrian bridge across the River Fergus to the Abbey Street car-park in Ennis, adding to the four vehicular bridges already in use in and around the town centre.

The new proposal – in common with the application turned down by An Bord Pleanala last July – seeks to transform the Ennis skyline with a six-storey apartment block.

The six-storey building will be arranged around a central podium, while the development also includes a plan to develop a 30-bedroom hotel and 58 apartments.

The plan also includes eight commercial units and 238 car-parking spaces along with one three-storey and one two-storey block.

In their submission however, Coleman & Associates argue that the proposed development does not respect the scale, proportions, designs and architecture of existing neighbouring structures at Bank Place, Bindon Street, or Harmony Row.

It goes on: “Furthermore, the massing of the proposed development would detract from the existing Bank of Ireland building which is a protected structure. New buildings proposed for Architectural Conservation Areas should reflect the scale, proportions, design and materials of the existing structures.

“Clearly, the applicant has made no attempt to comply with a policy of the Ennis and Environs Plan in relation to conservation, as the proposed development does not conserve and enhance the character and appearance of the ACA. It is imperative that new buildings to be constructed within an ACA be faithful to the scale, character and detailing of the existing development.”

In relation to the Bank of Ireland building, Coleman & Associates state: “The proposal would be unsympathetic with and detrimental to the character, appearance and integrity of the Bank Building resulting in an incongruous and visually obtrusive addition to the conservation area of which it would form a part.

“The town does not have many buildings as fine as this bank building. The council must ensure that all of the features and views of this building are protected and that any development of the site that is granted permission is complementary or subservient to it from the point of view of visual impact.”

The submission by Coleman & Associates follows concerns expressed over the plan by Cllr Donal O’Bearra. A decision is due on the application later this month.

CLARE’S INTO District Representative, Declan Kelleher, has expressed disappointment at the reluctance of the Department of Education to increase the number of grants for building expenditure in the case of small and medium sized schools.

In January of this year, the Department announced that 54 primary schools could proceed to early architectural planning for major projects, but none of these were in Clare.

Just last week, the Department announced that 12 Clare primary schools would benefit from improvements under the summer works scheme.

These were Coláiste Mhuire, Harmony Row, Ennis; Ennistymon Vocational School, Ennistymon; Shannon Comprehensive School, Shannon and Kilrush Community School, Kilrush

These works include improvements to toilets, roofs, windows and electrical matters.

At a meeting between the INTO and department officials in Tullamore the teacher’s union asked for a further extension to the scheme and sought to highlight the dire conditions of playgrounds in schools throughout the country.

“Children need safe, secure and well designed playing areas and this is still far from the situation which obtains in many primary schools in Clare and elsewhere. There was also a chronic shortage of PE Halls throughout Clare and this is taking from the emphasis which should be placed on PE especially during the winter months,” Mr. Kelleher told The Clare People.

GREEDY taxi drivers who refuse to bring passengers on longer journeys outside the town of Ennis during peak hours, are a rare exception rather than the norm.

That is according to Union Taxi Federation representative, Martin White. He was responding to claims that a young woman, living miles outside Ennis, was left in town on a busy weekend night, in preference to shorter taxi runs.

Other late night party goers have also told The Clare People that they were asked to wait for half an hour for a taxi, until the driver was finished with local runs.

“I can imagine it happens,” said Mr White. He said, however, that 99 per cent of drivers would take the person home immediately.

“Once a person gets into the taxi to hire you, they must be taken home.

“I know I have never refused such a fare. I can’t see any taxi driver seeing any girl left there.”

The only exception is if a passenger has taken drugs or alcohol and is abusive or threatening to the driver.

There are currently 115 taxis in the county town, an increase of 400 per cent over the last two years. New legislation is currently being considered that will allow taxi drivers refuse fares over 18 miles.

CLARE’s “globetrotting” Oireachtas members ran up an expense bill of almost €300,000 in 2005, records released to The Clare People reveal.

Independent TD, James Breen, almost doubled his Dáil salary, receiving €75,121 in expenses, the highest amount received by any Clare Oireachtas member.

He was closely followed by Fine Gael’s Pat Breen, who received €73,054. Senator Brendan Daly (FF) received €56,259 and Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) received €44,088.

The records, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that Junior Ministers, Tony Killeen and Sile de Valera, received €18,251 and €17,776 respectively. Their figures are lower as their expense funds are drawn from direct Government department funds.

It cost the taxpayer €2,369 to send James Breen on a week-long trip to Tokyo last May, where he was one of a number of TDs to accompany the President, Mary McAleese.

However, Clare’s most frequent flyer was Brendan Daly, who ran up travel bills of €9,965 through his membership of the Council of Europe.

Senator Daly’s travels took him on 10 separate trips to Bucharest, five to Strasbourg, and twice each to Geneva, Iceland, and Paris. The most expensive trip was a three day trip to Iceland last September, which cost €1,575.

“Ireland is one of the founder members of the Council of Europe and it is very important that Ireland is represented as the Council of Europe does very important work and its work on rendition has received a lot of publicity recently,” said Senator Daly.

“However, much of its other work does not receive much attention.”

At one time, Senator Daly led the Irish delegation to the Council of Europe.

Senator Daly confirmed that he stepped down as a Council of Europe representative on January 1. This is expected to result in a drop in Senator Daly’s expense bill this year.

Fine Gael’s Pat Breen ran up a travel expense bill of €8,409 on Council of Europe business. Deputy Breen’s seven separate trips took him to Strasbourg, Baku, Turkey, Paris and St Petersburg.

Deputy Breen’s most expensive trip was to St Petersburg for four days last April, which cost the taxpayer €1,620. A separate four day trip to Turkey last May cost the taxpayer €1,531.

The expenses records relating to Senator Timmy Dooley show that he went on no overseas trips paid by the taxpayer in 2005.

THE Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dick Roche (FF), received a hostile reception from a group of Clare farmers when he visited the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis last Friday.

Some 50 farmers door-stepped the Minister outside the hotel and challenged him on the implications for farming in the county if the new Nitrates Directive is enforced.

“If it comes in, it will destroy the very fabric of rural life, there are still 200,000 jobs dependent on farming in rural Ireland,” said Clare IFA President, Seamus Murphy. “It will lead to massive de-stocking, put fulltime farmers out of business and put a huge amount of pressure on the whole sector.”

The controversial regulations were introduced before Christmas and limited the amount of nitrates and phosphates that can be used on farm land. It has prompted an unprecedented response from farming organisations and has even seen the IFA boycott Teagasc over its role in introducing the regulations.

“We feel that this legislation is totally over the top,” said Clare farming activist, Jim Enright. “As farmers we are custodians of the environment and we know what is good for it more than some civil servant in Dublin.”

Speaking outside the Temple Gate, Minister Roche defended his position to the farmers.

“The directive is the law and we have broken that law for 13 years,” said the Minister. “One of the reasons we are in a difficult position here is that we haven’t put in place a nitrates action programme.

“We are the last country in Europe to do it, even the 10 new member states have their programmes in place, so what we have done is put ourselves up a cul-de-sac. If we continue as we are, we will have daily fines and disruption on our farm payments.”

Mr Murphy said that the large turnout showed the level of anger that Clare farmers had with the current directives.

“It just goes to show you how committed these farmers are,” he said. “There are a lot of cattle in Clare who will be having a late breakfast this morning. But if this goes through, there will be no feed for them at all.

“Wherever Dick Roche goes, we will be there to meet him, lobbying him as intensely as we can. We won’t go away, we can’t. This is our livelihood.”

THE Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has revealed that Shannon Development is to sell a prime 13-acre site in the centre of Shannon town, to allow Enterprise Ireland set up its new Shannon HQ.

However, in a Dáil response, Minister Michael Martin was unable to give a timescale for the decentralisation of 300 Enterprise Ireland jobs to Shannon.

Minister Martin revealed that so far, only 19 existing employees at Enterprise Ireland had indicated their willingness to transfer to Shannon, while an additional 33 public servants had also expressed an interest to move there, giving a total of 52.

“The most immediate implementation step for Enterprise Ireland is to provide for a new headquarters building designed to meet the business needs of the organisation.

“Enterprise Ireland, working closely with the Office of Public Works, OPW, has identified but not yet acquired a preferred site from the submissions received by the OPW in relation to the Shannon location.

“The preferred site is a 13-acre site owned by Shannon Development. In addition, and in cooperation with Shannon Development and OPW, the site was valued and a feasibility study carried out. The site occupies a prime position near the centre of Shannon and is considered suitable for a major landmark building or civic structure.

“It is too early to comment definitively on a timescale, or on the cost of the transfer of Enterprise Ireland’s headquarters to Shannon. The factors of significance in this regard, will be the acquisition of property and the level of interest in the Shannon location expressed by CAF applicants.

“My Department is corresponding with the Department of Finance regarding the acquisition of the preferred site.

In relation to the decentralisation of a section from the Revenue Commissioners to Kilrush, the Minister said that scheme was over-subscribed by 32 with 83 expressing an interest for 50 jobs. Minister Martin said that negotiations were continuing with a property owner to lease a building.

However, little or no progress appears to have been made in relation to the relocation of the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to Shannon where 100 jobs are set to be decentralised. Only 16 people have expressed an interest.