Category: News

CLARE FM’s profits have dropped by almost a fifth, partly because of rising staff costs, according to figures recently supplied to the Companies Office.

To the end of 2004, Clare FM secured a profit of €92,000, which was €21,000, or 18.5 per cent, down on 2003. Turnover increased during the period, to €1,505,000, but so did costs. The figures also show that the station secured €1.505 million in advertising revenue in 2004, up on the 2003 figure. Staff numbers increased by one to 34, and costs by 11 per cent, from €660,000 to €734,000. The station’s managing director, Liam O’Shea was appointed to the Board during 2004 and has the second largest number of shares held by a member (20,365). The board member with the highest number of shares is Michael Evans, with 30,000.

Clare FM’s drop in profits coincided with a drop in market share and listenership in 2004. Figures published in August of that year show that listenership had dropped 7 per cent. However, the most recent figures show that market share increased by 5 per cent. And the station’s long-term future is secure after it obtained a 10-year licence from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) in 2002. Clare FM – which started broadcasting in 1989 – was sole applicant for the continuation of the licence.

Meanwhile, the station yesterday launched a new opt-out service for south-east Clare, Clare FM 2, in a bid to secure more listeners. This involves the return of Ger Sweeney to present an afternoon country music show, initially for three hours per day.

Commenting on the new service, Clare FM’s Managing Director Liam O’Shea said: “this is hugely exciting for us as a company. We have always wanted to provide diversity of programming for our listeners and with our new state of the art Studio in Shannon we now have that opportunity.

“Our listeners in the South East of the county will be the first to experience this diversity, although any of our listeners in other parts of the county who can pick-up 95.9Mhz on their radios will also be able to tune in.”

THE provision of a hostel for homeless people sleeping rough in Clare is the priority for the newly appointed outreach officer with St Vincent de Paul.

Sandra Cox has recently taken up the post, which will see her providing support for homeless people across the county.

The Homeless Forum in Clare has said the lack of supported hostel accommodation is a major problem, in meeting the needs of the homeless.

Ms Cox, who has previously worked with the homeless in Limerick, will have a tough task ahead of her in Clare, where the number of homeless people has doubled in just two years. More than 500 people reported as homeless to the local authorities in Clare last year and Ms Cox is the first ever Outreach Officer for St Vincent de Paul in the county. Her role will be to focus on those who find themselves homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, amid difficulty acquiring a site for a hostel for the homeless.

A particular accommodation, on the outskirts of Ennis, which would provide an emergency home for 20 men, has been identified by St Vincent de Paul as suitable, but this has yet to be agreed by the relevant authorities.

“There have been three deaths in Ennis – on the streets – in the space of six years. Nobody is working with that group at the moment,” she said. “We are provided supported housing for people, by placing them in B & Bs, which is unsuitable. St Vincent de Paul is hoping to acquire houses, to be used as temporary accommodation, rather than B & Bs”.

Comparing the situation with Limerick, Ms Cox said, “Limerick is more advanced in that there is a homeless peoples’ unit and three hostels in Limerick.”

Clare people are currently referred to hostels in Galway and Limerick, but this is not satisfactory.

“People don’t necessarily want to go to Limerick or Galway. They want to stay in the area they are familiar with,” she said.

She believes people find themselves on the streets due to a variety of problems and issues, including domestic violence, alcohol and mental health issues and various family problems.

“They tend to be young males, between the ages of 18 and 25 and they are generally more town-based. You get a culture of people drinking on the streets over a period of time and they get used to it,” she added.

Anyone with queries should contact Sandra by calling Clare County Council homeless unit on (065) 6821616.

A MAN with 27 previous convictions, who stole a mobile phone from a woman’s handbag in a pub in Lahinch, has been jailed for six months.

Father-of-two Thomas McDonagh (37), of 3 Dún na hInse, Claureen, Ennis, was also jailed for one month for engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, at a Lahinch nightclub.

Sgt Mick Gallery told Ennis District Court a woman was approached by the accused and another individual at the Spinnaker bar in Lahinch on July 10, 2004. At around 1am she noticed her mobile phone was gone.

On the same night the accused went to a disco and was refused entry. He tried to force his way in past the door staff continuously for 30 minutes.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said the accused has 27 previous convictions, mostly for motoring-related matters, while there was a conviction for assault, criminal damage, larceny and public order, in the 1990s.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said in the past five years, her client has not come to the attention of gardai, for assault, theft or public order offences. Ms Godfrey said her client does not recall taking the mobile phone and walking out with it, although he does accept he had it.

She asked Judge Joseph Mangan to give her client the opportunity to continue to build his life.

Judge Mangan imposed a six month sentence for the theft charge and a one month sentence for public order. He fixed recognisances in the event of an appeal.

A 19-YEAR-old man questioned in connection with a serious assault in Shannon town centre has been released without charge.

A 21-year-old man from the Newmarket-on-Fergus area sustained head injuries in an incident at around 4pm last Tuesday. He was detained at the high dependency unit at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick and is still in hospital.

Shannon gardai reviewed CCTV footage of the incident and interviewed a number of people who were in the area at the time. They then made an arrest early on Thursday. The man arrested was detained at Shannon garda station under Section Four of the Criminal Justice Act on Thursday, before being released without charge that evening.

“A file is being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. We are not looking for anybody else in relation to this incident,” said a garda source.

Separately, gardai are following a definite line of enquiry after a 25-year-old man was assaulted in Shannon early on New Year’s day.

The young man, from the Newmarket-on-Fergus area, was assaulted in the face, close to the Shell garage in Ballycasey at 2am. As a result of the blow, he fell to the ground and hit his face off the kerb in the process.

He was taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick and was discharged some time later.

Shannon gardai are also investigating an alleged incident in which a 36-year-old non-national was threatened with a knife on New Year’s Eve.

It is claimed that at around 6pm two men who were travelling on a motorcycle approached the man close to the Oakwood Arms Hotel. He has claimed that one of them threatened him with a knife, before they made way with his laptop and mobile phone.

“We are appealing for anyone who may have seen any suspicious activity in this area at around that time to contact us,” said a garda spokesman.

Shannon gardai can be contacted on (061) 361212.

The students decided to undertake this project after observing the use of stimulant drinks and herbal remedies to aid study, and wanted to investigate the actual effects on short-term memory. Twelve volunteers took part in a series of memory tests, including visual, olfactory, aural and tactile tests, that were carried out over a number of days. Then the participants were assigned one of three stimulants, drinks or herbal remedies to be taken over a three-week period. The group are using a method known as blind testing, which means they will be unaware of what each volunteer is taking. After the three-week period elapses, another similar series of tests will be carried out. NEXT Tuesday, the RDS in Dublin will play host to the opening of the largest Young Scientist Exhibition ever in the history of the competition. The BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2006 received some 1,150 entrants this year, the highest amount ever received in its 42 years.

More than 60 County Clare second-level students and their teachers will be in Dublin for the final showdown and hopes are high that one of the 23 projects from Clare schools will make an impact on this year’s event.

The projects range from tracking radiation from mobile phones to examine how different fertilisers effect the soil, and comparing the quality of Clare’s drinking water.

One project even uses cubes of potato to test the effectiveness of moisturiser on human skin.

After registration next Tuesday, the exhibition will be officially opened at 2pm on Wednesday. After the opening, it’s straight into the business of the competition and the first round of judging on Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday brings with it the second round of judging and the primary school tours before the public gets its first chance to look through the projects when the door are opened to the public at 1.30pm.

Lucky or unlucky, this Friday the 13th will be judgement day for the young students at the competition. Final judging takes place in the morning before the award ceremony begins in the BT Arena at 5.30pm.

Win or lose, the show must go on and Saturday offers the public its last chance to look at all the projects before the curtain comes down on the 42nd Young Scientist Competition at 5.30pm. Their project is based on the claim made by drink companies that diet drinks are a healthier alternative to soft drink brands. They wanted to investigate to see if this claim was true. Almost all EU drinks and many other products contain the sweetener E951, more commonly known as aspartame. Unfortunately, when brought to body temperature, this chemical breaks down into other complex chemicals, including methanol which is very toxic and is considered an accumulative poison — which is to say when taken in small amounts over time it is very damaging. They are very interested to see the final results and experiments, which were completed without the aid of science classes, and are eagerly looking forward to travelling to the RDS. In their project, Claire, Michelle and Megan tackled an issue which is close to the heart of every Irish woman, and more and more Irish men — the perception, effectiveness and cost of beauty products. The three Leaving Cert students not only tested the effectiveness of a variety of moisturising products but also conducted a survey to discover the attitudes that people have towards beauty and beauty treatment. To discover which moisturising product worked best, they weighed a group of cubed potatoes, applied different types of moisturiser and then weighed the pieces several more times to discover the loss of moisture over time. This test and survey results produced surprising results.

CHAIRPERSON of the Clare Tourism Council, Paddy Maher, has criticised the work of Tourism Ireland, the agency whose job it is to promote Ireland to foreign markets.

Speaking after the announcement of a 5 per cent increase in the amount of foreign tourists entering Ireland, Mr Maher, who is also the manager of the Burren Centre in Kilfenora, accused Tourism Ireland of neglecting its role in the west of Ireland.

“We are out there trying to present what we have and we are getting very little support from Tourism Ireland,” said Mr Maher. “We find them very weak at filtering out the big tour operators to the rural areas.

“When it come down to the nitty gritty they really have not focused on the product on the west of Ireland at all. The rural areas are just not getting any attention,” he continued. “Everyone wants to get a slice of the cake but we just can’t seem to get our slice.”

Preliminary figures released by Fáilte Ireland indicate that almost 6.7 million people travelled to Ireland from foreign countries in 2005 but that an increasing number were staying in urban centres and the average length of holidays was decreasing.

“We would be of the opinion that the 5 per cent increase has been seen in some parts of the mid west but definitely not in others,” continued Mr Maher. “We have seen a growth of about 3 per cent but most of that has come about as a result of the Ryanair Flights to Shannon Airport.”

Indeed, earlier this year the Burren Centre in Kilfenora joined the cross border promotional group, Heritage Island. This move essentially means that the centre is paying Heritage Island for the promotional work that the government organisation Tourism Ireland should be doing for free.

AN 18-YEAR-old Galway youth, who is facing a charge of dangerous driving causing death in west Clare, will make two separate court appearances in London this week.

The Department of Justice are attempting to have David Naughton extradited to Ireland, and the English police are pursuing other criminal matters against him.

Naughton, who resided at a voluntary residential care unit in Galway before he skipped court bail here almost two years ago, is due to appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court in London today for a further hearing in ongoing extradition proceedings against him.

The matter is not expected to be concluded today however as he faces trial later this month, also in London, for alleged unrelated criminal matters, including a number of motoring charges.

The Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed that the “domestic charges (in England) will probably take precedence over extradition proceedings,” further delaying plans by the Irish authorities to have Naughton extradited to face offences here.

The accused is wanted in Clare for a charge of dangerous driving causing death, arising out of a crash in October 2003 in which Kilkee girls Stacey Haugh (16) and Lorna O’Mahony (13) were killed. They died instantly when the car Naughton is alleged to have been driving crashed into a wall in Carrigaholt.

After he was originally remanded to St Patrick’s Institution, Naughton was granted bail at Ennis District Court. He was later returned to St Patrick’s for breaching his bail conditions.

He was again released however after claiming he had been assaulted by other inmates while in custody. Soon afterwards, he fled to England.

DRIVERS in urban areas, over the age of 30, accounted for the majority of drink driving arrests in Clare during the Christmas road safety campaign, The Clare People learned.

So far during the campaign, which will conclude on Sunday, 31 people have been arrested for drink driving, 10 of which were during the past week.

While this figure is a reduction on the same five-week period last year, the overall figure for the year shows a 10 per cent increase in the number of people arrested for drink driving in the Clare garda division.

283 drivers were arrested for drink driving during the whole of last year, compared with 257 during 2004.

And while warnings on drink driving does appear to be hitting home in rural parts of the county, the same cannot be said in urban parts.

The head of the Clare garda division traffic bureau Inspector Kevin Moynihan said while the checkpoints were “evenly spread” throughout the division, the majority of the arrests during the Christmas campaign were in Ennis and Shannon.

“The arrests during the campaign so far have mainly been urban. “There have been very few arrests in rural areas. Possibly people are paying attention more in rural areas. has don’t seem to be listening,” he said. “There is more public transing more. Most people arrested were

“Younger people seem to be listenport in urban areas but people just over 30 and all will face court in the new year”.

Meanwhile the number of drivers issued with fixed charge notices for speeding decreased by 21 during the first four weeks of the six-week Christmas campaign, when compared with the corresponding period during 2004.

During the same period, 62 drivers were issued with notices for failing to wear seatbelts, a decrease of 15 on the same month in 2004.

However year-on-year, there was a significant increase in the number of drivers caught speeding or failing to wear their seatbelts.

There was extra enforcement during the year while an additional five personnel are expected to be appointed to the traffic corps in the division this year, as part of government plans to increase the national traffic corps from 563 to 805 nationally.

Inspector Moynihan said that overall, the road safety campaign over Christmas was a success. While there were a number of minor accidents, there were no major crashes.

“It certainly has been a success. Thankfully there were no fatalities and no serious injury accidents. There were a number of minor accidents and these were down to road conditions,” he said.

A total of 12 people were killed in road crashes in the Clare garda division during 2005, compared with 11 during 2004.

COUNCILLORS have called for more money to be spent on saving parts of the Clare coastline from disappearing into the sea.

The calls came after County Engineer, Tom Carey said that he was satisfied that Clare is getting its fair share of the national fund for preventing coastal erosion.

Answering a query from Cllr Martin Lafferty on what anti-erosion work has been done, Mr Carey said that “coastal protection work was carried out in 2005 at two locations in Clare, namely, Ross and Carrigaholt. This cost €190,000, of which €145,000 is being recouped from the Department of the Marine.

“The amount of funding being provided nationally for Coastal Protection Works is very small and in the context of the amount provided centrally, I am satisfied that Clare gets its fair share.”

Cllr Lafferty said he was not happy with the reply.

“The coastline is disappearing before our eyes but if we have the county engineer saying we are getting our fair share of money to prevent this, then that does not help our chances of getting more,” the councillor said.

But Mr Carey pointed out that the council has “a plan submitted to the Department of the Marine and a request for funding for both 2006 and 2007 at a number of locations in the county.”

A 24-YEAR-old west Clare man sustained a horrific injury after being stabbed in the eye, while attending a Christmas party on St Stephen’s night.

Gardai say the injured man was approached at a house party – which was taking place in an apartment block close to the town centre – and stabbed with what is believed to have been a fork.

A number of people who were also attending the party were interviewed, as part of the investigation into the incident.

A foreign national in his 20s, who was in the apartment at the time, was arrested by gardai and detained at Ennis garda station under Section Four of the Criminal Justice Act.

He was subsequently released without charge and a file is being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

“The injured man received a very serious facial injury. We are not looking for anybody else in relation to this matter,” said a garda spokesman.

Meanwhile Ennis gardai received an allegation of a sexual assault in the toilets of The Grove public house in Roslevan on St Stephen’s night.

However it was not followed up by the alleged injured party.

“A female alleged she was sexually assaulted in the toilet area but todate a formal complaint has not been forthcoming,” said a garda spokesman.

Separately, a foreign national in his 40s will appear in court later this week, charged with theft, arising out of an incident in Ennis town centre shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve.

The man was arrested on Parnell Street at 11.25pm, after he was stopped by gardai who were travelling in an unmarked patrol car.

He is accused of stealing a ladie’s handbag from a licensed premises in town.

Meanwhile, gardai are investigating an incident in which two panes of glass were broken at The Clare People offices on St Stephen’s night.

The glass was smashed on the Turnpike road entrance to the premises. However entry was not gained to the building.

Ennis gardai are appealing for information and can be contacted on (065) 6848100.