Category: News

THE case of an Ennistymon man accused of murdering his 17-year-old sister is “one of the most complex clinical cases” ever encountered by the psychiatriast assessing the accused.

Dr Paul O’Connell made the comment at the Central Criminal Court yesterday, in relation to Patrick O’Dwyer (20), who is charged with murdering his sister Marguerite, at Shrohill, Ennistymon, on November 29, 2004.

Mr Justice Paul Carney said he was aware of the enormous trauma the case had caused, and therefore he had attempted to have it heard several times.

“Everytime we assembled in court in Ennis, your side is not prepared to go on with the case,” he told defence counsel Hugh Hartnett.

Dr O’Connell, a psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin, said he had first met the accused in December 2004, for the purpose of carrying out a forensic psychiatric examination on his mental state.

But he said he needed more time to receive the views of a number of additional experts, including one from England.

“In my professional career, it’s one of the most complex clinical cases I’ve had to deal with,” he said.

Dr O’Connell said he had sought the opinion of a consultant neurologist as well as a psychological assessment and brain scans. He hopes to have concluded his final report by June.

Mr Hartnett said the accused man’s family was anxious that he be given the appropriate psychiatric care.

Last week, at a Central Criminal Court sitting in Ennis, Mr Justice Paul Carney said he was frustrated in his efforts to bring an early hearing in the case.

He said it was his practice to give an early trial locally in cases in his court.

A date for the trial will be fixed in June.

IN THE end, all it took was one line.

A line that finally brought closure on something that dragged around the beautiful Burren and beyond for 15 years. Mullach Mór – that mountain of a controversy.

The line didn’t smack of defeat, but that’s what it was. The final admission from the State that the interpretative centre game was up. A game the State started, the game the State lost.

The game started the April 22, 1991 day that the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Vincent Brady, announced that the OPW was going to build a £2.6 million interpretative centre in the shadow of Mullaghmore mountain.

The State moved in the bulldozers – intent on building its centre of interpretative excellence without planning permission. The State was above the law in planning matters, so their rules said.

Game on. The State’s loose interpretation of the planning laws amounted to bulldozing on the rights of ordinary citizens. Citizens like James Howard, PJ Curtis, Emer Colleran, Lelia Doolan, Fionnuala McNamara, John O’Donoghue and Patrick McCormack of the Burren Action Group.

They risked everything – their homes, their livelihoods. Lose and the State would show no mercy. They didn’t lose because An Bord Pleanála finally ruled in 2000 that the Mullaghmore centre “would result in an unacceptable degradation of the physical environment of an area of outstanding beauty and that it would not be in accordance with the principles of published by the Government in 1997”.

Still, the State showed no mercy when it was revealed by The Clare People last month that its agents, Crosskerrys Solicitors, had moved to try and get €35,000 from the Mullaghmore Seven.

It had another storm brewing in the Burren – even Mullaghmore supporter, Minister Tony Killeen, voiced his opposition to the move. The State smelled some small revenge – it only left their nostrils with their climbdown on Friday.

The one line letter to the Burren Action Group told this story. “I wish to inform you that I have now been instructed not to pursue any further the balance of the State’s costs in this matter,” said Chief State Solicitor, David J O’Hagan.

Another victory for the Burren Action Group. The final one. The end of the terrible affair.

A MOTHER-OF-TWENTY allowed her dogs to roam as they wished, and one of them bit an employee of Ennis Town Council.

Ellen McDonagh (59), of John Paul Avenue, Ennis, was charged with breaching the Control of Dogs Act, arising out of an incident on May 24 last year.

Gda John McGovern told Ennis District Court that he went to John Paul Avenue, where an estate agent with Ennis Town Council had been bitten on the heel by a small brown dog.

He said the accused was the owner of the dog. This dog and another one were allowed to roam as they wished and were on the public road.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said the dog, Brownie, had since been sent to Tipperary and her client’s other two dogs were under control and had dog licences.

She said her client was very upset about the matter and felt the best thing to do was to send the dog away.

Gda McGovern said he agreed with what the solicitor had to say. He said while Ms McDonagh now had licences for the two other dogs, she did not have these licenses on the date in question.

Judge Joseph Mangan said the matter was too serious for the Probation Act.

He imposed a fine of €30.

ENNIS Chamber of Commerce has said that closed circuit security cameras may only arrive in Ennis in 2007, despite Government assurances that the town is on its priority list, for the roll out of the new equipment.

Ennis is included on a Department of Justice priority list, for the Garda CCTV programme. Six new areas have been added to that list, bringing to 17, the number of towns on it.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell said last week that more than €5 million had been set aside to extend CCTV coverage to provincial urban centres, this year. He said the initial public procurement process would get underway shortly.

A spokesman for the department told The Clare People all 17 would be rolled out in an “outsourcing initiative”.

“What this means for Ennis is it will be delivered quicker than previously would have been the case.

“Hopefully a lot of this will be done this year or next year,” said the spokesman.

The CEO of Ennis Chamber of Commerce said CCTV should be installed sooner rather than later in Ennis, the tenth largest town in Ireland.

“They [Dept of Justice] say they are starting the process, but the process takes between seven and nine months. It looks like we won’t get it until 2007,” said Rita McInerney.

“The process would want to start immediately in order for us to have it by next Christmas, given the length of time it takes,” she added.

The process will include the establishment of a committee between Ennis gardai, Ennis Town Council and the Chamber of Commerce.

“It is a very complicated process. If the committee is set up immediately, I would see no problem us working with the gardai and the Town Council. The organisations in the town are ready for it,” added Ms McInerney.

The Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Frankie Neylon, has said the CCTV issue has been on the backburner for far too long, having been put back four times.

“We were told we were third or fourth on the 2006 to 2008 priority list. If they have now added on other places, they have probably put them in front of Ennis, rather than behind it,” said Cllr Neylon.

But he warned that the arrival of CCTV should not be allowed to cause the transfer of crime problems to other areas of the county.

A LITHUANIAN man produced a false passport with the aim of getting a PPS number for another man, at the social welfare office in Ennis.

Tadas Grigaitis, with an address at Aiden Park, Shannon, pleaded guilty to one charge, contrary to the Theft and Fraud Offences Act, at Ennis District Court, arising out of an incident on November 11 last.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said the accused went into the office and produced a false passport, in the name of another Lithuanian national, with the aim of getting a PPS number.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said another man had given her client the passport.

She said the other man threatened him that he would hurt him, his car and his family if he did not do what he had asked him.

She said her client was “the tool of the instrument” by which somebody else wanted to obtain a PPS number.

Inspector Kennedy said gardaí accepted others were involved with the accused in committing the crime.

Judge Joseph Mangan said he would dismiss the case under the Probation of Offenders Act, given the mitigating circumstances.

THE newly-published Lonely Planet Guide to Ireland states that the Cliffs of Moher has turned into a “sightseeing circus”.

But, according to the Clare County Council official responsible for a new €32m visitor centre at the Cliffs, the Lonely Planet assessment is, “something we already knew”.

Ger Dollard said, “the fundamental principles of the new visitor experience is to bring order to chaos and introduce better visitor management arrangements to deliver a more positive visitor experience.

“The internal exhibition and interpretative elements are also designed to provide a sensory experience that allows the visitor to become one with nature at the Cliffs of Moher.

“Extending existing walkways will improve, very significantly, the health and safety aspects at the site.

“The cliffs are world-class standard and the new visitor experience project will ensure that facilities complement that.”

Overall, Clare receives a glowing endorsement from the Lonely Planet guidebook.

Its publication coincides with the council increasing its tourism promotion budget by 200 per cent this year.

The chapter states, “Clare sits quietly between Galway to the north and Kerry to the south, unmoved by the starry reputations of those two famous Irish counties. Yet Clare wins hands down when it comes to startling landscape and dramatic prehistoric artefacts.

“It may not boast the great mountains of Galway and Kerry, nor their corrugated coastlines, but there are few more compelling landscapes in all of Ireland than the Burren of north Clare, with its swooping hills of raw limestone and its mosaic of vividly coloured wild flowers. The Burren region is one of those compelling places that will captivate you and may never let you go.

“Here you’ll find the bare bones of ancient burial chambers, the curving walls of Iron-Age castles, medieval tower houses and remote beaches.

“Many of Clare’s towns and villages retain their traditional charm. The county town of Ennis has an engaging network of narrow streets, while villages such as Miltown Malbay and Kilfenora have grand old pubs that host traditional music sessions on various evenings.

“Two villages define Clare’s keynote attractions. Doolin on the breezy west coast draws music lovers and backpackers, while lovely Ballyvaughan, on the southern shores of Galway Bay, is an ideal base for exploring the Burren.”

Mr Dollard said, “I think the guide confirms that whether you go north, south, east or west, Clare has it.

THE owners of Clare’s 143 thatched structures are being encouraged to come together to lobby insurance companies about their costly insurance.

According to Clare’s Conservation Officer Risteard Ua Cróinín there is a move nationally to organise the owners of these buildings in an attempt to reduce insurance costs.

Although those with thatched roofs are entitled to grants, they are still costly to maintain.

A report by Carrig consultants has found that the grants are imperative.

It stated that most historic thatch roofs in the county belong to people in the lowest income brackets.

The cost of maintaining these roofs is also continuing to rise say the experts.

The report into thatch houses in Clare has warned that the number of vernacular thatched cottages in Clare is dwindling fast.

Just 61 vernacular, or historic structures, were recorded in the county.

“Without these historical structures, in years to come there will be no living evidence of how Clare has developed and architecture has evolved,” the report warned. It blames the abandonment, or total modernisation of cottages after the owner dies, for the decline in the number of thatched houses in the county. A grant in the 1940s and 1950s encouraged homeowners to re-roof their cottages with slate.

Today the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government operates a thatching grant, to a maximum of €3,800. In exceptional cases of extreme disability this can rise to €6,350.

Clare County Council are empowered to pay out grants valued at 50 per cent of the cost to a maximum of €13,000 in cases where the building is a protected structure, or proposed by the planning department as such. There are currently eight people in the county availing of this grant.

In the cases of thatched buildings of great importance the Heritage Council provides a further grant. Such buildings are rare, because they are built of mud blocks – cobwalled homes – or, because they were built in the 17th and 18th century.

People can also avail of a grant under essential repairs criteria, or receive a Section 482 tax incentive where the building is opened to the public.

The current cost of putting a spar coat to a three bay vernacular farmhouse is in the region of €11,000.

Meanwhile Clare County Council is looking for thatchers for its trade’s directory. All inquiries to the Conservation Officer at 684 6407.

THE prospect of Clare GAA leaving Cusack Park for a new purpose-built home on the outskirts of Ennis has moved closer this week after three Clare businessmen tabled a €30 million proposal with the county board.

The move by the consortium headed up by Noel Connellan, Sean Lyne and Bernard McNamara to deliver a state-ofthe-art 42,000 capacity stadium to Clare GAA in return for Cusack Park falls into line with the express wish of board chairman Michael McDonagh.

The chairman told The Clare People earlier this month that “what we would be looking at is developing a Nemo Rangers type facility in Ennis, where a developer would come in and in return for buying Cusack Park would develop a state-of-the-art 30,000 capacity stadium for us on another site in Ennis”.

He added that “there’s no sign of that happening yet,” but his wish has come true less than three weeks after he challenged property developers to bring forward their proposals about developing what he said would be “the new Cusack Park”.

Cusack Park was developed by the Ennis Dalcassians club and was officially opened in May 1936 when Clare played against Cork at minor and senior football championship level. It replaced the Ennis Showgrounds as Clare’s premier GAA venue.

In time, possession of Cusack Park passed from the Dalcassians club that folded in the late forties to the county board. In the mid seventies, the board considered selling Cusack Park for housing.

However, the board decided against this and instead, under the chairmanship of the late Brendan Vaughan a major redevelopment programme was instituted and the revamped Cusack Park was opened in 1980.

However, any plans by the board to sell the jewel in Clare’s GAA crown have been called into question by Mayor of Ennis, Frankie Neylon.

In an interview with The Clare People , Mayor Neylon claimed “Cusack Park is owned by the people of Ennis”.

Continuing, Mayor Neylon said “this field was used by the RIC to keep their horses and when the RIC was disbanded in the early ‘20s they donated the field to the people of Ennis. They are the owners.”

However, GAA secretary Pat Fitzgerald, rubbished these claims by revealed that “the County Board took control of the grounds in 1979 and the deeds of the property are now in our possession”.

This means that Cusack Park is the county board’s to sell, something that will happen if they rubber stamp the €30 million offer put before them this week.

All at the same time as the county gears up to celebrate the GAA founder Michael Cusack in this 100th anniversary year of his death.

A LIMERICK woman who was given a laser card in Limerick and told to go to Ennis and do “the best she could” with it, then used it in nine premises in Clare.

Ennis District Court was told that Kathleen Stickle (22), of Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, was a ‘very small link in the drugs chain’ and was being used by drug dealers.

Stickle, a mother-of-one, unlawfully obtained goods to the value of €865 in total, in the premises, which included two phone shops, two sports shops, a newsagents and two service stations, in Ennis and surrounding areas, on September 30, 2004. Six of the premises were in Ennis, and one each in Clarecastle, Shannon and Newmarket-on-Fergus.

The court heard that the owner of the laser card was reimbursed in full by the bank, but that no compensation was paid by the accused.

Detective Garda Brendan Rouine said it would appear as though the accused was being used by other persons and was given the card to use.

Defending solicitor Daragh Hassett said his client was addicted to cocaine at the time and

had fallen into “huge arrears” with a drug deal er in Limerick.

“Somebody obtained the card. She was given the card and was told to go to Ennis and do the best she could . . . The goods are given to a drug dealer and he sells them on,” said Mr Hassett.

He said the card was taken off her afterwards, in Limerick.

“This lady is petrified you would give her a custodial sentence. She says she has prospects. She is very much a small link in the drugs chain. She is paying a very high price for her wrong.

“She is being used by drug dealers. Once they have you within their grasp, it is hard to get out. I’d ask you to give her a chance. She will pay back the full amount,” said Mr Hassett.

Judge Joseph Mangan adjourned the case for two months, for a probation report to be carried out.

A MAN found in possession of a pair of stolen ornamental gates bought them for a quarter of their normal price, Ennis District Court has heard.

James Keenan, of Childers Road, Ennis, was convicted of handling stolen property, between November 2004 and October 2005. The court heard that two ornamental gates were stolen in Whitegate on November 24, 2004.

The gates were discovered against a wall at the side of the accused’s house.

The accused told gardaí that somebody had called selling gates and he purchased them for €500, which was significantly lower than their €2,000 value.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said a man with a Limerick accent called to her client’s premises with the gates. He asked for €700 and they haggled.

Judge Joseph Mangan imposed a six month sentence and substituted this with 150 hours community service. He adjourned the case, to allow for a community service report to be carried out.