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THE second Building of Hope team to arrive in Mombassa in Kenya have been starting work at 4am and major progress has been made on the train- ing centre for parishioners of Cranny priest, Fr Martin Keane.

‘The heat is incredible in the after- noon so the volunteers have been get- ting out and on-site extra early to get the job done,” said project organiser, Olive Halpin.

Volunteer Tony McMahon from Lissycasey said that the team effort is “amazing”’.

“From roofing to kerbing, to elec- tronics and anything else that needs to be done, everyone is pitching in. There’s a massive willingness from everyone. Everyone mucks in. And the weather is absolutely roasting.”

Electrician Sean Hull, also from Lissycasey, said that “nearly every- one helped with the roof for the first days and now that that’s done, we’ve split into different groups and started some inside work and putting down pavements. It’s all go.”

The roofing is now finished and some of the rooms have been plas- tered with an amount of kerbing and paving also laid.

Volunteers have also been meeting the people of Fr Martin’s parish and learning how their efforts will change lives of the people of Migombani.

Olive said the Cranny priest is “de- lighted with the work and the people

here are amazed that so many people would make this journey to better their lives. It’s such an amazing ex- perience. The volunteers will never forget it and the people of Migom- bani certainly won’t.”

With one of the most difficult parts of the job now behind them – roof- ing in the blazing sun – the next two groups of volunteers will still have plenty to do, with plumbing tiling more electrics, painting, decorating

and a massive clean-up all to come still.

Many of the volunteers brought specialist tools with them but some of the most ordinary items are the most impossible to get in Mombas- sa, said Olive.

“We’re making a special appeal to anyone coming in the fourth group to try to bring paint rollers and paint trays – we just can’t get them here and the painting will be so much slower

and harder if we don’t have them. Please, please bring some out.”

On February 14, in Ballybeg Com- munity Centre there will be a post- poned “Turkey Trot’ to raise money for volunteer Rob O’Neill. It starts at lpm and everyone is welcome.

THE long-awaited children’s play- ground for Lahinch looks set to get the final go ahead in the coming weeks following unanimous sup- port for a license to be granted to the Lahinch Playground Committee at yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Seiee

A local group has been working on a number of proposals to construct a

playground on the promenade area of Lahinch for the last number of years. The group has raised tens of thousands towards the project while funding has also been secured from the council own funding for play- pace Uien

The project had become bogged down with choosing a site for the playground but it now looks almost certain that the green light will be given to construct the playground

on a piece of land belonging to the council supported by Lahinch Sea- (eyule

The local authority will lease a sec- tion of land belonging to Seaworld for £15,000 per year and will in turn licence the operation of the site to the Lahinch Playground Committee for a nominal fee, believed to be €1 per year. Some of this money will be recouped by Clare County Coun- cil through the provision of 12 extra

parking places as part of the devel- opment.

“A huge amount of funding has been raised by the community in Lahinch for this project and we are delighted to be able to proceed with this at last,” said Cllr Richard Nagle ¢3D)

“The playground committee have worked in very close co-operation with the staff here and in Ennis and we are now happy to start this

work.”

Councillor Martin Conway (FG) also complimented the local group on the work they have put in.

“The playground committee have done the rounds in terms of submit- ting the different sites that were up for consideration. They have done great work. This won’t be just a play- ground for the children of Lahinch, it will a playground for all the visitors who come to Lahinch and the people

THE parents of a young Clare school- boy have hailed as “incredible” the impact a special training programme for people with disabilities has had on their son’s life.

Nine-year-old Jack Caldwell and his new best friend, a two-year-old gold- en retriever named Aggie, officially

teamed up at a ceremony in Dublin last week.

Up until a month ago, Jack, who suf- fers from Ataxic Cerebral Palsy, had to use a walking frame to help him move around. The pair were brought together under a scheme operated by Irish Dogs for the Disabled.

Over a period of six to eight months, the charity trains dogs to meet the

needs of its clients.

Aggie has been trained as a stability dog meaning Ennis boy Jack can walk holding her harness on one side and a stick on the other.

In a letter, Jack’s parents John Cald- well and Emer Sherry expressed their delight at the positive impact Aggie has made on their son’s life.

“When we heard that Irish Dogs for the Disabled had identified a suitable dog for him, Jack was motivated to start practicing to walk using tripod walking sticks. Within four weeks, he was confident enough to leave the walking frame at home and just bring his walking sticks to Cork. This was an incredible achievement for a nine- year-old with balance problems and low muscle tone,” they said.

They say that the difference made to Jack’s life as a result of teaming up with Aggie has been “incredible”.

“Aggie is a beautiful two-year-old golden retriever with a lovely calm disposition. Jack adored her from the minute he met her. The difference this has made to Jack 1s incredible. On his second day of training, Jack said to us, ‘I love Aggie because no-one looks at me anymore.’ In his mind, the burden of going out in public with a visible disability had been lifted.”

Irish Dogs for the Disabled aims to assist people with disabilities to enjoy a greater independence and a better quality of life through the provision of specially trained Assistance Dogs.

THE Ennis woman behind a popular Facebook page has said she is over- Wwhelmed by the response it has at- tracted so far.

“You’re a true 30-something from Ennis if you remember…’ invites people to share their memories of growing up in Ennis.

The thread was posted on the social networking site Facebook by local woman Fiona O’Sullivan in early Jan- uary. So far it has attracted over 5,000 comments from the almost 1,000 people who have visited the site.

Fiona said she decided to set up the internet thread after seeing a similar one posted about the Cork town of Carrigaline. “I was using Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family. My husband is from Cork and I saw that there was a Facebook page about growing up in Carrigaline. It had got about 30 hits when I saw it and I thought Ennis could probably do a bit better.”

Fiona said she has been amazed by the popularity of the site.

“T never thought it would be this popular. It’s amazing the amount of people that have been on there. It has

918 friends and over 500 people have posted comments on it. It’s not do- ing so bad. And people are putting up pictures and links to YouTube, which is great. It really adds to it,” she said

‘I’d never heard some of the stories. I’ve laughed an awful lot at some of them. I loved the ones about the old characters from town and the old games like skipping and things like that. I loved the stories about old shops like Bridie Quigley’s chip shop.”

The site has attracted comments from Ennis people now living in various parts of the world. “There

are people living in Dubai and Aus- tralia who have put stories. There are people using it who I wouldn’t have seen in years. It’s great to see people using it to chat and catch up on old mbes lone

One of the Ennis characters re- membered is the late Michael Tier- ney. Fiona has now started a new site calling for a statue to be erected in memory of Mr Tierney in the market area of Ennis.

“It started off as a bit of a laugh but so far about 350 people have logged onto it so it’s getting kind of serious,” she said.

EVEN at knock down prices, Clare County Council is unable to sell its affordable housing stock as numbers on the housing list exceed 2,400. New figures provided by the coun- cil show numbers on the housing list have increased by 40 per cent from 1,716 to 2,408. However, that figure includes those on rent allowance, who in order to qualify for the allow- ance must go on the housing list. Excluding those who are on the list to secure rent allowances, there were 1,594 on the list on January | — an in- crease of 30 per cent on the 1,218 that were on the list at the start of 2009. Special Policy Committee Chair- woman, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said the increased numbers were “extremely worrying and a cause of

concern’.

‘There are real people behind these statistics. There is no way that the council can keep up with the de- mand, but we are managing as best we can. The numbers on the list are high and will continue to get higher,” she said.

The council completed 87 social houses in 2009 and 91 in 2008. A further ten affordable houses were provided through agreement with de- velopers but with the collapse in the housing market, the number of af- fordable homes completed under this scheme dropped to just two.

The council expects to complete 16 affordable homes in 2010 in Shan- non, where there is a strong demand for affordable homes.

However, uncertainty surrounds the number of new house starts for

2010 as local authorities are await- ing a capital allocation for 2010 from the Department of the Environment in relation to the social housing con- struction programme’.

The council has also confirmed that it has 15 unsold affordable homes for sale dispersed over eight locations.

A council spokeswoman – said: ‘These have been for sale for an av- erage of one year. The council has responded to changing market cond1- tions by reducing the purchase price of affordable homes. The reduction in price varies but averages at 15 per cent to 20 per cent below the market price,’ she said.

HARD work and dedication are pushing one group of science enthu- siasts towards a place on the podium at the annual Fl in School’s competi- tion.

Team Firedragons are one of two entrants from St Flannan’s College, Ennis, who will take part in the re- gional finals of the competition in Cork on March 2.

This is the fifth year for the com- petition to run in Ireland under the guidance of the Irish Computer So- ciety (ICS) in partnership with Dis- cover Science & Engineering.

The Fl in Schools challenge is an international competition, which now attracts more than 90,000 stu- dents from across the world.

The competition 1s open to sec- ondary schools to design and manu- facture model racing cars. Student teams will compete against each other in a national championship to determine the best-engineered and fastest car in Ireland.

Team members Tim Janssan, Nor- bert Rosik, Eric Mullaly, Christo- pher Ogbonna and Jack O’Dea are hoping the months of hard work and preparation they have devoted to the project will pay off in Cork.

Team Manager, Norbert Rosik de- scribed the work the students have done to get to this stage in the com- petition. “The team has been very consistent and very committed to the project even with the increasing amount of school work due to three of the team members preparing for the Junior Certificate. The qualitfy- ing stage consisted of submitting a five-page plan on how the Firedrag- ons intended to create their project of a 25cm balsa wood Formula One car by showing their research, proposed

budgets, designs etc. In this compe- tition our team will be using com- pressed air canisters to power their model car to achieve scale speeds in excess of 350kmph.”

Artistic Manager, Christopher Og- bonna said the team decided to de- sign a logo in order to set their de- sign apart from competitors. “The Firedragons came up with this logo because it defines us from other

teams as we have a fiery passion for what we do. Apart from this our logo is very unique as it 1s extremely in- tricate.”

Norbert believes the team deserves to get through to the national finals and win because of the amount of ef- fort put in and the results so far ob- tained. He also thanked the group’s science teacher, Michael Horgan, who has encouraged both teams

from St Flannan’s throughout the de- sign process.

The Fl in Schools National Finals will be take place in April. Visit www. linschools.ie for details.

IF the names of Brid and Roger Fahy are familiar to you it’s probably be- cause youve heard them _ before. Located on the Flaggy Shore of Fin- varra, at the very northern tip of the Burren, the pair set up Linnalla Ice Cream back in 2006.

As we all know farming is a tough gig. Besides the hard work and unso- cial hours – dairy farmers also have to live with the prospect of selling milk to Co-Ops for less than it costs to produce it.

Brid and Roger may just have found a solution to this problem. There new idea, a milk vending machine, could soon allow farmers to sell their milk directly to the customers in a hygi- enic, safe and ultimately profitable EN

By cutting out the middlemen and constructing a machine which allows farmers to sell directly to consumers, the pair might just have cracked one of the biggest problems facing dairy farmers today.

Although largely unknown in Ire- land, the Latteria of milk dispenser has become popular in mainland Eu-

rope and in Italy, where it 1s made.

Besides providing consumers with the freshest possible product, the Latteria also gives farmers a chance of getting a fair price for their milk and cut down in transport costs and emissions and cuts down drastically on packaging.

The local shop owner would receive a “fair” price for hosting the Latteria but the overheads of unnecessary transport and other cost associated with the large Co-Op would be re- moved.

The Fahy’s have received €3,000, sponsored by Clare Ireland recycling, for taking first prize in the Clare Farm Idea Awards Competition and will now go forward to represent the county at the national competition.

Linnalla ice cream started produc- tion in 2006 and the specialty ice- cream is now available in shops and restaurants in the Clare and Galway eer he

In 2005 they met Pat Shannon from the Clare Enterprise Board who en- couraged them to develop their idea.

Over the next two years they had planning approved, secured LEAD- ER funds, worked with officials from the Department of Agriculture and soon were on the way to starting a new and innovative business.

THE people of Kilkee are getting their say in the design of a newly improved library and theatre for the town.

As it approaches its 50th birthday the Sweeney Memorial Library in the seaside town is to undergo a make-over that will see it trans- formed into a modern day public IPTOUSI Ae

The redevelopment of the library into a theatre and enhanced library is currently at the brief development stage, and local people will have their say online and through public

submissions in the near future.

Public involvement in the process has been welcomed by Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) who said it was im- portant that the community was in- volved.

Cllr Pat Keane (FF) told the Kil- rush Area meeting that the develop- ment of the building was a long time in the making. “We are three or four years trying to develop it.”

Cllr Keane raised concerns that Some of the €460,000 donated for the project by the Kilkee Civic Trust may have been lost due to a down- turn in investments, but was quick to add that such development work was

also much less expensive in the cur- rent climate.

Senior Executive Engineer Cyril Feeney informed the meeting that this initial stage of the development process was about “formulating re- quirements, objectives and accom- modation and working with ideas ahead of the formal appointment of a design team.”

Clare County Council architects have already been in consultation with the county arts officer and the county librarian to decide on some of the functions of the new library.

Among the functions proposed for the building is a ground floor library

space with scope for an enhanced li- brary service of all age groups and users, a first floor IT library space Nee Mr DOs. C0 loyialeyi me: Bucr.e

A theatre space with a stage and seating for up to 100 people that will include a film facility will also be part of any final design, as will a first floor multi-function room for use by re

The completed building will con- sist of two floors accessible through lift facilities.

Both theatre and library will be de- signed to work independently of one another, but will share core facilities such as toilets and exhibition area.

ENNIS Town Council does not ex- pect to start or complete any social houses this year – despite the fact that numbers on the housing list have in- creased by 35 per cent over the past year.

Figures supplied by the council show that numbers on the housing list increased by 235 from 671 to 906 between December 2008 and De- cember 2009.

The council completed 62 social houses in 2008 but no homes were completed last year and the indica- tions are that none will be completed over the next 12 months.

The council also confirmed that it has had six affordable houses on the market since 2008 and they remain unsold in spite of the cost being cut from €175,000 to €150,000.

Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Frankie Ney- lon (Ind) said yesterday that he does not expect any new social homes to be completed in Ennis over the next five to Six years.

“There is a lack of activity because the council does not have the money from Government to buy new land or start new schemes. That is not hap- pening and won’t happen for another couple of years and by the time the council does acquire land for hous- ing, it will be five or six years before a new social house 1s built.”

Clir Neylon also called for special EU funding to meet the housing re- quirements of the non Irish nationals

on the list and pointed that there are over 300,000 empty homes through- out the country with a sizeable number in Ennis.

Cllr Brian Meaney (Green) said that the National Assets Manage- ment Agency (NAMA) could provide a substantial part of the solution by allowing developers’ unsold houses be used to address the lengthening housing list numbers.

“There are a lot of empty houses

out there, but the Government should be prudent in not bailing out devel- opers.”’

Stating that there was “a dire need for housing in Ennis’, he added that the numbers on the housing list did not represent the true housing need as people seeking rent allowance must first be on the housing list.

Dismay over swerage delay