Category: News

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.”

COMMUNITIES along the west coast of Clare are coming together to hire their own engineer and access the damage to land and property as a result of two months of storms and high tides.

Led by the Clare Irish Farmers Associations, community groups have decided to take action where responsibility is being denied by government and state bodies.

Of particular concerns are sluices, which were in many cases initially built by the former Board of Works to drain sea water from farm land.

This infrastructure is not the responsibility of Clare County Council according to the local authority, with the Office of Public Works also denying accountability.

Embankment work and coastal erosion along farms and private property is also adding to the confusion, with property owners in many cases prepared to undertake the work but fearful of the bureaucratic consequences if they do so.

Clare IFA county chairman Andrew Dundass said the Minister for State with responsibility for the OPW Brian Hayes gave a commit- ment that he would consider some financial support if the farmers came together to undertake the work.

This would have to be inspected by the council, said the minister, as the OPW did not have the resources.

“These are all jobs that need to be done, even though they may be farm land at the moment, if these jobs aren’t done they will affect people further a field,” said Mr Dundass.

The plan is that farmers will come together to finance the work with some grant aid from the Government, similar to the community road projects a number of years ago.

“We will have to put all the reports together for the areas the council are not responsible for and what can be done for these people.”

Mr Dundass said farmers along the Shannon estuary are frustrated that no commitment has come from the OPW as yet as to what repair work will be carried out there. The OPW is responsible for parts of the estuary, especially areas of conservation.

“A lot of farmers are in a position to build up those embankments but are afraid of the consequences of doing so due to the restrictions on these lands,” explained Mr Dundass.

ALL Clare properties that went under the hammer at the Allsop Sale last week made or surpassed their reserve, as all the banner properties were snapped up.

The only Clare hotel on the list, Magowna House, Inch, was sold for € 370,000, € 20,000 over the reserve. The new owner of the 10-bed house, three two-bedroom cottages and an 18-hole pitch and putt course has not being confirmed, with millionaire business man and farmer JJ McCabe denying he purchased the lot.

A bungalow at Mahonburg, Inch, also sold at the Dublin-based auction for € 105,000.

Meanwhile 16.67 acres of land in Doonbeg reached its reserve price of € 75,000 and was sold, while land in Ardnacrusha surpassed its reserve by € 20,000. The 22 acres of land was bought for € 95,000.

A ground floor appartment also surpassed its reserve by € 11,000. The Town Court apartment was sold for € 31,000.

New hotelier Mr McCabe told The Clare People,

HAIL stones, which struck cars like “little ball bearings”, caused a spate of car accidents on the M18 near Newmarket-on-Fergus, as people made their way to work on Thursday morning last.

The freak hail storm caused three separate accidents involving five cars in just half an hour – with both lanes of Clare’s busiest motorway being closed for extended periods during rush hour.

The first accident was reported on the north bound carriageway just after 8.30am – with the motorway being closed for 90 minutes and one person being hospitalised with minor injuries.

Two separate accidents were then reported at the same location on the south bound carriageway, just ten minutes after the first accident. No one was hurt in either of the south bound accidents but the south bound carriageway was closed for more than a hour.

The National Roads Association (NRA) yesterday blamed the freak hail storm for the spate of accidents.

“Weather totally changes the conditions on how the driver and the road interact. Depending on the severity of the hail, it can act like little ball bearings and therefore the best course of action is to reducing your speed,” said NRA spokesperson Sean O’Neill.

The NRA also confirmed yesterday that it will now conduct an “engineering assessment” of the the M18 north of Crusheen, where six separate accidents took place during stormy conditions on the morning of December 19 last.

Despite requests from Clare County Council, the NRA will not conduct a full safety audit, but have instead committed to completing a engineering assessment within the next next few months.

Mr O’Neill also said that the NRA “cannot fully eliminate” the possibility of water pooling on this section of the road during heavy weather and suggested that permanent signs asking motorists to reduce speed in bad weather could be erected.

THE Magner family from Ross gathered this weekend to celebrate a hat trick of occasions, Mai and PJ’s 67th wedding anniversary, as well as birthdays for the happy couple – 95th and 91st respectively.

The key to a long and happy marriage and indeed life is living a “sim- ple lifestyle, coupled with prayer, and a sense of neighbourly goodness”, according to the couple’s family who have watched their parents live a long “wholesome life” together for almost seven decades.

Undoubtedly one of the longest married couples in the county, Mr and Mrs Magner celebrated the landmark occasions with their seven children and their grandchildren at a special dinner that saw the clan gather from all over.

Both Mai and PJ hail from the parish of Kilballyowen, with Mai living all her life besides the famed Bridges of Ross.

Formerly Mai Fennell, this only child married PJ Magner shortly after World War II, on February 12, 1947.

Rations were still in place, so to ‘obtain’ a bottle of whiskey for the ‘wedding breakfast’ was a major coup.

The wedding breakfast was held in their home, in a room that has since become their bedroom, and was attended by a few neighbours.

The West Clare couple went on to raise seven children in that home, three boys and four girls.

“They have lived a simple wholesome life, growing their own vegetables, raising their own fowl, beef and bacon. In summer, there was also lots of fresh mackerel caught, and this was often pickled for winter consumption,” said their daughter Carmel.

“There were plenty rough spots with bad weather spells at harvest time and so forth, but they came through it all, and now they have the comfort and care of living at home with their son Patrick and daughter in law Mary.”

In their nineties the couple continue to enjoy life.

PJ keeps mentally fit by learning off very long recitations, which he delivers at family gatherings, while Mai was an avid reader and a keen flower gardener up until very recently.

As a leap year baby – born on February 29, Mr Magner celebrated his birthday on March 1, while Mrs Magner reached the age of 95 yesterday (Monday).

THOSE dying for a bargain have the opportunity to avail of a once in as lifetime sale this month, as plots in a West Clare graveyard are part of a once-off sale.

The new extension to Burrane Cemetery can accommodate more than 50 double graves and from now until the end of the month they are available at a knock down price.

A single grave at the cemetery overlooking the Shannon Estuary will set the buyer back € 350 but this will drop to € 300 if bought in the next four weeks.