Category: Uncategorized

PEDESTRIANISATION of the main shopping streets, Sunday shopping and late night opening are some of the measures being introduced next week in an effort to boost Christmas shopping in Ennis.

The town centre will be traffic free on Saturday 13, Saturday 20, Sunday 21 and Wednesday, December 24 from llam to 6pm.

The main retail outlets will be open for Sunday shopping on December 14, 21 and 28 while there will be late opening on Thursday 18, Friday 19, Monday 22 and Tuesday, December 23. Shops will reopen after Christ- mas on Saturday, December 27.

Ennis Town Council and Ennis Chamber are encouraging custom- ers to park n’shop on the pedestri- anised days by parking in the town

centre public car parks and walking to the car-free areas of Abbey Street, O’Connell Square and O’Connell Nisteem

On pedestrianised days, access can be gained from Francis Street by turning right onto Lower Abbey Street and into Abbey Street car park – making it easy for traffic to circle the town centre to get to any destina- tion.

In addition to the town car parks, the Holy Family School and Ennis National School will be opening their car parks at a cost of €3 per day.

Details of the availability of park- ing and access for traffic on pedes- trianised days are outlined in the at- tached map.

THE significance of next Saturday for Munster increased dramatically this weekend on the back of their 25-19 defeat against Clermont at the Stade Marcel Michelin.

Now, the return game in Thomond Park could prove crucial as Sunday’s result threw the Pool One table wide open with Sale and Claremont now fighting it out with Munster to head the table.

For Clonlara’s Marcus Horan — who scored his side’s only try on Sun- day — Saturday will also be a major personal milestone, as he will have scaled a half-century of Heineken Cup appearances.

And according to Munster captain Paul O’Connell, Munster will need every single player firing on all cyl- inders in Thomond Park if Munster are to overtake Sale on top of the pool table.

“We did get a bonus point on Sun- day and that might be very important for us or it mightn’t count for any- thing if we don’t turn up next week,’ he said.

“But we’re still in with a great chance. It’s going to be a massive game next week, though and it was disappointing to lose on Sunday. Every game in the group is now im- portant because we’re only half way there.”

Speaking of Munster’s poor per- formance in the second half, he said the side failed to make a serious 1m- pression at times.

“If you concede the gain line in rugby you’re going to be chasing your tail. And we did that once or twice and they punished us.”

A FUND of €250,000 is being set aside for members of Clare County Council who fail to get re-elected in next June’s local elections.

A number of long-serving council- lors are in line for a ‘golden hand- shake’ of around €35,000 if they don’t get re-elected next year.

The bumper pay-off is revealed in the council’s draft budget for 2009 where County Manager, Alec Flem- ing has provided the €250,000 fund of ‘retirement gratuities’ for council- Keyace

The fund puts an additional finan- cial burden on the council at a time when it is letting temporary staff go, cutting back on community grants and increasing rates on businesses throughout Clare.

Councilllors such as Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) and Cllr PJ Kelly CFF) with more than 20 years experience could receive around €35,000 each if they are not re-elected in next June’s local elections.

The two — who will be scrapping for one of the six seats in the down- sized Kilrush electoral area — said they have no aspiration to avail of the pay-off next year.

The membership of the council has a high attrition rate and in the 2004 local elections, ten of the 32 council- lors didn’t make a return.

Cllr PJ Kelly said: “The casualty rate has been high each time since I was elected. When I was first elected in 1974, there were 13 casualties. The manager must not be expecting a good number of us back.”

Cllr Curtin said that the fund “‘is

miniscule when set against the coun- cil budget of €118 million”.

Former Clare mayor, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said the Council 1s obliged to make provision for the payments.

Cllr PJ Kelly said: “I didn’t become a councillor in 1974 for the expenses. The only expense then was £5.22 a month. The gratuity payments have been paid agreed by the minister and I’m sure that no councillor has retire- ment is mind who is going for elec- tion next year.”

Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) said the payments are “recognition for long service from long serving mem- bers. It will be the people in the final analysis who will judge if council- lors are worth it. With the local elec- tions coming up, everything is up for analysis.”

DRIVERS who listen to loud music in the car should be hit with penalty points, according to one Ennis coun- cillor.

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) has said that stiffer penalties are required in order to stamp out bad driving hab- its.

Speaking at yesterday’s monthly meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Neylon said the majority of problems on Irish roads were caused by poorly educated drivers.

“There are rules and regulations that people have to abide by. You get people saying that the evenings are getting dark, but the evenings always got dark…..The problem is that you have people sitting in their cars with the radio on full blast. If you can get two penalty points for being on your mobile then you should get four for listening to the radio too loud,” Cllr Neylon said.

He added, “People aren’t focused, they should be focused. When I got my license, there were thee Cs on the top of it – Care, Courtesy and Con- sideration – I don’t see that on any

license any more’”’.

Cllr Tommy Brennan said drivers needed to exercise “common sense” on the road. Cllr Tom Glynn said, ‘The one thing about common sense is that it isn’t very common.”

Cllr Neylon’s calls came as an ac- cident involving a 79-year-old pedes- trian led to strong calls for improved safety measures on Ennis’ roads.

SU ilommaOyser Tema emB DOT LED KcOMmAU YON ELS walking across a pedestrian crossing at Kelly’s Corner in Ennis.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) told yester- day’s meeting that further accidents were inevitable if safety measures weren’t improved.

He called for a report to be pre- pared to address pedestrian and traf- fic hazards at Corrovorrin and the Tulla Road.

Cllr Brennan called for a pedes- trian crossing with traffic lights to be installed at Kelly’s Corner.

He said that pedestrian crossings were also needed near the Ennis Railway station.

“The circuits are already there from before. It wouldn’t be a big job. There needs to be something done before someone is killed,’ he added.

LITTLE David Falconer from En- nis and Katy Judge, who is the apple of her Crusheen grandmother’s eye, were among eight children honoured at the weekend for their unbelievable LoL tb ee FeXoR

The inspirational youngsters were given Children of Courage awards by the Share a Dream Foundation.

Three-year-old David suffers from the extremely rare skin condition, Ichthyosis, which causes him to shed excessive amounts of skin.

His entire body has to be creamed every four hours and bathed for an hour every day. Yet those who know David says he “warms the heart of everyone he meets”.

Four-year-old Katy, who is a regu- lar visitor to her gran, Catherine

Brigdale in Crusheen, developed a cancerous tumour on her kidney last year.

Her kidney had to be removed and then she began a six-month course of chemotherapy, which was harrowing, Catherine explained.

“During it she lost all of her hair,

and her appetite and was a very regu- lar patient at Clonmel Hospital. One of the saddest memories I have of her is when she had to have a feed- ing tube inserted through her nose. I had often seen people with them but presumed they were inserted while asleep. Unfortunately not, as the patient needs to swallow during the procedure. She was literally speech- less with shock after it was done. Thankfully the chemo worked and Katy started school this September and is doing very well.”

Now the plucky youngsters are off to Disneyworld Paris with their families for a well-deserved family holiday.

AFTER almost twenty years, the Kil- fenora branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann has been reformed.

At a recent meeting the following officers were elected to plan a pro- gramme of activities for the branch – Mrs Phil McMahon (President); John Morgan (Chairman); Julie Nea (Secretary); Noel O’Donohue (Treas- urer); Mathew Griffey (PRO) and Sharon Howley (Youth Officer).

The meeting was attended by of- ficers of the county CCE board who

offered every help in setting up the branch.

It was decided to hold a series of concerts with local musicians, sing- ers and dancers starting on Friday next, December 5 in Kilfenora Hall at 8.00 sharp when three generations of Kilfenora traditional entertainers will perform on this very special oc- casion.

To make it an enjoyable night, the new committee hope it will be well supported and give a platform for young musicians, singers and danc- ers to perform .

THE owner of a timber firm lost his life in an industrial accident in east Clare, when a machine he was work- ing on overturned on him.

Noel Reilly (49) – a native of Cavan but who had lived in Feakle – died at Lough Graney Stakes at Leighurd, Caher, on the morning of August 6 last, an inquest into his death has heard.

Mr Reilly’s first cousin Sean Mc- Donnell told Ennis Coroner’s Court he received a phone call from An- thony Naughton, telling him that Mr Reilly was trapped under a machine. He went to the plant, where he saw Mr Reilly’s body trapped under a machine.

Another witness, Seamus Naugh- ton, said that Mr Reilly had been loading trailers with timber waste for about an hour that morning. At one stage, Mr Naughton glanced over his shoulder and saw the top of the arm of a machine moving in a way that wasn’t right. He then saw the ma-

chine capsizing.

“T went down and touched Noel. His face was purple and I knew he was dead,” he said.

Garda Pat McGrath told the in- quest that gardai attended the scene of the accident that morning. Gardai had been told that the owner of the plant had been thrown from a H1- tachi tracker machine and had died. Three employees were on the site at the time.

Pathologist Dr Elizabeth Mulcahy carried out a post mortem examina- tion on Mr Reilly’s body. She said that death was due to cardio respira- tory arrest, secondary to traumatic WN elove-len(emerMUneMDAY IEDM (oKe

Coroner Isobel O’Dea said the ac- cident was “very tragic and sad” and said the only possible verdict was one of accidental death.

She said it must have been particu- larly traumatic for the workers who saw the accident happening, but were powerless to do anything about it. The jury returned a verdict of ac- cidental death.

that doctors are over-prescribing antibiotics as patients continue to look for a quick fix for common ill- nesses. “Patients may not be aware that antibiotics are not appropriate as a treatment for the common cold or

a flu virus. They are effective only against bacterial infections. We need to give antibiotics the respect they deserve and take them only when absolutely necessary; otherwise we are putting lives at risk, not only for patients today but also for future gen- erations. If you are prescribed antibi- otics by your doctor, it is important to take them exactly as prescribed,” he said.

Mr Hillery said that many GPs are very busy with large patient attend- ance and they do not necessarily have the time to carry out the in-depth ex-

aminations they would like.

“Doctors prescribe antibiotics as a means to an end,” he said.

“There is a school of thought out there that antibiotics are prescribed to stop a patient getting a secondary infection.”

This does not work he said.

Patients also put pressure on doc- tors to prescribe antibiotics he said.

“I think when patients go to the doctor they put pressure on to get something. People almost expect an antibiotic,’ he added.

The negative consequences of us-

ing antibiotics inappropriately ex- tends beyond the individual patient impacting on society as a whole re- sulting in the spread of “superbugs” such as MRSA. “Superbugs” are a consequence of more and more bac- teria becoming resistant to common- ly used antibiotics. Ireland has the second highest rate of VRE (a group of bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics) in Europe.

“If in doubt patients should visit their local pharmacist who can ad- vise them on whether a visit to the doctor is necessary or if the patient

can manage their symptoms ef- fectively without antibiotics,’ Mr Hillery said.

A survey carried out by pharma- cists at the “Over 50s Show” found that 37 per cent of people would visit a doctor if they had a cold or flu and one in four admitted they have failed to take a full course of antibiotics in the past, therefore risking a recur- rence of the illness.

A third of those polled said they would visit their pharmacist if they were experiencing cold or flu symp- eyeate

A LONG-STANDING promise to a school principal in Quin was ful- filled last week when Tomas O Sio- chain, former principal of Scoil na Mainistreach planted an alder tree in memory of his predecessor, Frank Gordon, who was principal of Scoil na Mainistreach in the 1960s.

Frank Gordon was a member of Muintir na Tire and a prominent member of the Fine Gael party. He passed on his love of nature to gener- ations of local schoolchildren and, in recognition of this, one of his pupils, Frances Conroy promised to plant a tree in his memory.

The Green school committee of Scoil na Mainistreach chose to plant this particular tree as 2008 has been designated the year of the alder. Al- ders are sturdy and fast-growing,

even in acidic and damaged sites. They are common to Ireland and can be used as a producer of simple oy (ols eaten

Tomas O Siochain spoke of the links between Frank Gordon and the present Green School Commit- tee in their love for the environment and the promotion of a greener and cleaner community.

Tomas also presented the school with a newspaper article from

THE work of a Clare art graduate has been on display at the ‘Best in Show’ exhibition in The Digital Hub in Dublin last week.

Ivan Twohig from Inagh is a gradu- ate of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) and, earlier this year, he was chosen by The Digital Hub to participate in its annual “Best in Show’ exhibition.

‘Best in Show’ is an art exhibition with a difference. Rather than paint- ings and sculptures, it features dig- ital media work produced by gradu- ates of colleges throughout Ireland and the UK.

The exhibits use sounds and im- ages, gaming technologies, music, animation and advertising tools to depict topics ranging from the need for privacy to the golden age of silent cinema.

Ivan graduated with a BA in Fine Art in 2004 and, in 2008, completed his MA in Art in the Digital World at the NCAD. In addition to his in- volvement in “Best in Show’, he has exhibited both nationally and in- ternationally. In 2007, he received the first Tulca Residency award and was awarded artist in residence at the new IMOCA (Irish Museum of Contemporary Art) studio in Dublin beer

For the ‘Best in Show’ exhibition,

The Digital Hub chose a piece by Ivan called “The Fall’, which is made up of life-sized paper figures, sus- pended and falling from the ceiling of the gallery. As they fall, fluores- cent lights illuminate the figures. The piece is influenced by his interest in architecture and the way in which digital technologies are impacting on the conception and creation of built environments. It was previously on display at the Glor Arts Centre in Ennis.

According to Elaine Parsons of The Digital Hub, who curates the ‘Best in Show’ exhibition, the idea for the show came about because of the difficulties faced by art graduates in establishing themselves as serious AMIS Ice

“One of the biggest challenges faced by graduates like Ivan is taking that leap from being a student to be- ing taken seriously as an artist,’ she said. “The feedback we were getting was that it was difficult for gradu- ates to find opportunities to exhibit in a professional gallery environ- ment. Because of this, The Digital Hub established ‘Best in Show’ to give graduates the chance to exhibit at professional level and help them meet key figures in the art industry”.