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THE trial relating to the accident that claimed the life of father-of-four Howard Flannery was “a case of tragedy heaped upon tragedy” with a lot of emotion, according to the state prosecutor.

In his closing speech to the jury, Stephen Coughlan, BL, said the 1s- sue was “what caused the accused to veer off the road onto the hard shoul- der and onto the grass and strike Mr wtlioa wae

“There was nothing remarkable about his driving, until he began to

veer off the road. Dangerous driving is caused by negligence. If you are satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused drove dangerously, you must convict. If you decide he didn’t, you must acquit. Simple as that,’ he said.

“Nobody gets into a motor car intending to kill anybody, be it a motorist, a pedestrian or a cyclist, but dangerous driving is caused by negligence,” he told the jury of eight women and four men.

He said that Michael Dillon had put in a long, strenuous, 22-hour day the day before the accident and was tired.

He noted that medical examinations carried out on the accused after the accident concluded that the accident was “an unexplained event.”

‘The State is asking you to draw an inference that this unexplained event was caused by the fatigue which the accused was labouring under,’ he said. He said that Mr Dillon had been a tired driver and was slow to react.

However, in his closing speech last Thursday, Anthony Sammon, SC, for Michael Dillon, said the State’s in- ference that fatigue had been a factor was “slightly over-egging the pud- ding.” He said at no stage had it been

put to the accused by gardai that he had fallen asleep.

“Tt has been conjured up during this case. It wasn’t even told to you in the Opening (speech to the jury). The word ‘sleep’ wasn’t even mentioned in the opening,” he said.

“This is a difficult case because of the horror of a decent man, Mr Flannery, losing his life. The horrific consequences of that on his family, colossal. The pressures on my client and his family, colossal,” he said.

“Confronted by the emotional cliff face that hangs it all, you must not lose sight or develop any blindness

because of emotion,’ he urged the jury.

Judge Gerard Griffin told the jury it was important to note that the first mention of fatigue in the pros- ecution’s case had been during the cross-examination of Mr Dillon by Mr Coughlan. “It will be a matter for you which of the prosecution evi- dence you regard,’ the judge told the ury.

He told the jury if they found that the driving was careless rather than dangerous, it was open to them to find the accused guilty of careless driving.

MICHAEL Dillon told the trial that he felt ‘fine’ driving on the day of the accident and rejected suggestions that he had fallen asleep at the wheel.

The father-of-two, a fitter based in Connemara, had travelled to Port- magee in Kerry the day before the accident to join his colleagues from Galway Scuba Diving Club.

He had got up at 5am and left his Inverin home at 5.30am to drive to Portmagee. He arrived there at

9.30am and did two dives off Val- entia that day. He later went out for dinner and had four or five pints of Heineken. He said he remained in the pub until around lam and then went back to a house that was rented by some members of the sub aqua club.

There, he was handed a bottle of beer but only drank a mouthful and fell asleep. He was awakened at 2.30am and went to the hostel where he was staying. He went to bed and slept until 9am when a phone call from his wife woke him. He went

back to sleep until 10am and af- ter getting up, he was between two minds whether to stay in Kerry for another day.

He eventually decided to drive home and left at around llam. He said he got a headache about 40 minutes into the drive and pulled over and took paracetamol and a drink. He contin- ued on with his journey and said the headache went away, but said he did not remember anything after passing Bunratty. “Nothing, ‘til after the ac- cident,” he told the court.

He said after the accident, he re- membered “sitting in the jeep. The windscreen was broken and the bon- net was on the windscreen.” He said he had no memory of seeing the two cyclists and had no memory of his jeep veering off and leaving the dual OF NU UTE

He said he learned that Mr Flan- nery had died when he arrived at his Inverin home later that evening.

He told the trial he had several medical examinations carried out in the aftermath of the accident, in

an effort to ascertain what had hap- pened to him, but no explanation emerged. He said he did not drive for 10 months after the accident and did not dive until April of this year.

Under —_cross-examination _—_—by Stephen Coughlan, for the prosecu- tion, Mr Dillon said he felt “fine” while in Kerry. Asked could he have fallen asleep while driving, he said, “No. I felt comfortable driving.” He denied that his jeep had left the road as a result of falling asleep. “I didn’t feel tired or anything,” he said.

he felt it necessary to have his feelings known when he took part in the teachers and parent’s protest against budget cuts in education.

‘For me it is very clear cut. I am a teacher and at the cold face of it, and long after this has died down as a political issue, for me and other teachers and more importantly the children will be paying the price for months and maybe even years to come,’ said Cllr Crowe.

He said as far as he was concerned there was no conflict of interest in his stance.

“T think it is healthy that I should go out. [ am a Fianna Fail man and wish to stay a Fianna Fail man, but I was elected by the people of this area and this does not sit well with them and it does not sit well with me,’ he

added.

While his own school won’t be af- fected directly by the cuts this year the east Clare councillor has not ruled out crippling affects in the fu- neh ker

‘Down the road new appointments could be affected and class sizes,’ he Cr AKOR

“I think the Government and Fian- na Fail need to rethink this. In mak- ing the necessary cuts you should not touch the young or the elderly.

“We have a very low betting tax and by increasing it by a few more per cent it could net another €100 million.”

Like many more in the profession the young teacher said he has spent his Own money on providing essen- tial materials for the classroom.

‘“T have spent close to €2,500 of my own money to put things in my class room.

“IT bought my own projector and I am out of pocket and I took out a broadband contract that I use for the classroom. This is something that should be in every classroom,” he said. “I am not alone in this. We (teachers) put up with a lot and say very little, but at a time like this we cannot stay quiet anymore,’ said the outspoken councillor.

ALMOST 70 per cent of créches in Clare failed to comply with HSE regulations. That is according to a survey of inspection reports from the county’s créches and schools car- ried out between October 2006 to October 2007 and released under the Freedom of Information Act.

According to the pre-school inspec- tion reports into facilities that ca- tered for 10 or more children, 69 out of the 101 inspected in Clare were in breach of the HSE’s criteria.

Of those, which did not comply with the inspector’s criteria, as many as 33, or almost a third, were record- ed as having minor or very minor

breaches of the regulations. Another 32 had no breaches at all.

Among the most common breaches outlined was the child-adult ratio exceeding the 10:1 limit, bound- ary fencing or doors broken, lack of space for children to move about in and un-nutritious food.

At the Knocklisheen Accommo- dation Centre the inspector found a long list of issues including the need for more space and staff, and a lim- ited range of toys available

The report also recorded that there was no nappy bags or disposable gloves for the staff, no snacks pro- vided to the children in the morn- ing session and sleeping babies were at risk of being hit by falling toys.

There were no toys or equipment in the outdoor area.

The Department of Justice said however that the number of children in this pre-school in the reception centre for asylum seekers had been adjusted to meet the HSE guidelines.

Additional toys and equipment are now in place and a stock of depos- able gloves and nappy bags are avail- able to staff. It said healthy snacks it said were available, and the outdoor play area, which was under construc- tion at the time of the inspection is now complete.

The inspector also out lined con- cerns relating to the prefabricated building in which the Little Rascals Playgroup in St Conaire’s National

School in Shannon was situated. That prefab has since been replaced however and the HSE are said to be happy with the new facility.

In Maghera Gardens Créche the in- spector found that nappies were be- ing changed in both toilets including staff toilets. The creche said that one of the toilets is now designated for staff only, and the other is the chil- dren and changing nappies only.

The Inspector found that the stage area in the Community Centre in Kil- rush was not suitable for the Stepping Stones Playgroup. The playgroup has applied however for funding to fix the concertina doors leading to the stage which they claim provide plenty of room for the children.

, will this week

(Wednesday night, 9pm) focus on the

Brendan O’Donnell tragedy, while

it will also look back at the Patrick O’ Dwyer case.

The final part of the series, next

week, will look at the unsolved mur- der of Ennistymon woman Emer O’Loughlin, on the Galway/Clare border in 2005.

In a case that shocked the na- tion, Brendan O’Donnell murdered Imelda Riney, her three-year-old son Liam and Galway priest Fr Joe Walsh. Their bodies were found in Cregg Wood in east Clare in 1994.

O’Donnell was subsequently con- victed of the triple murder, but died in 1996 while serving his sentence at the Central Mental Hospital in Dub-

lin.

Patrick O’Dwyer, from Shrohill, Ennistymon, killed his 17-year-old sister Marguerite in a frenzied at- tack at their home on November 29, pAuers

O’Dwyer hit his sister six times on the head with a claw hammer and in- flicted more than 90 stab wounds to her body. He told gardai he had con- templated suicide and attacked his sister while she watched television, as he feared she would get in the way of his suicide attempt. He later came

clean to gardai. “It’s like being inside a room with a video and I can’t turn it off,” he told gardai.

At the Central Criminal Court in June 2007, O’Dwyer claimed a de- fence of diminished responsibility, in that he suffered from a mental disor- der when he killed his sister.

The jury in the trial agreed and found him guilty of manslaughter, by reason of diminished responsibil- ity. He was sentenced to six years in jail.

This week’s hour-long programme will address the issue of balance of mind and the prevalence of mental health issues among a high percent- age of those who commit crime in Ireland.

The third Clare tragedy to be in- cluded in the series is that of Emer O’Loughlin. The 23-year-old’s body was discovered in a burnt out cara- van near Tubber in April 2005. No- one has ever been held accountable for her killing. The story of Emer’s killing is one of three unsolved cases being highlighted in the documen- Fe AY

The series is produced by Sideline Productions. It examines the rise in Irish murder rates and assesses the impact of the various killings on the families left behind. It is presented by former T’V3 crime correspondent Maura Derrane.

UP TO €100,000 damage was caused in a suspicious weekend fire in Killaloe that destroyed two boats and damaged two others.

The bank holiday weekend blaze which is being investigated by gardai, led to chaos at the moorings close to the Harbour Village apartment com- plex in Killaloe on Sunday evening, amid fears that the fire would spread

to dozens of other boats that were moored in the immediate vicinity.

A 36-year-old man was taken from the water by two people who dis- covered the blaze. He was taken to hospital in Cork, where he is being treated for burns to the body.

The pleasure boats were parked to the rear of the apartment complex and were privately owned by locals. Gardai are awaiting forensic reports before they ascertain how the blaze

started at around 8pm.

The boats were empty at the time, but several other boats were moved from the area, amid concerns that the fire would spread. Two of the boats are irreparable, while the other two were smoke damaged.

Killaloe Coastguard was dis- patched to the scene, where 15 crew were on duty. Killaloe and Ennis fire crews also attended the scene of the blaze.

THE amount of land zoned for hous- ing in west Clare is not justifiable on the basis of current or predicted de- mand. That is according to the Draft West Clare Local Area Plan 2009 – 2015, which also states that a third of all houses in west Clare are unoc- cupied.

Eilis O’Nuallain, Senior Executive Planner said that even with a high population growth prediction, the land identified as available for hous- ing is 903.85 hectares or 1,390 per cent more than required.

“The current pattern of applica- tions outside settlement boundaries suggest that a sizeable percentage of homes will be sought on unzoned land which will not place a demand on the quota,” she said.

Members of Clare County Council have argued that not all of this land 1s accessible. “There are people sitting on land parcels that see it as money in the bank. They do not want to sell,” said Cllr Pat Keane (FEF).

The draft plan also maintains that 597 new houses will be required in the next three years in the west Clare area, in what is described as a low growth scenario.

Senior Executive Planner in For- ward Planning, John Bradley, main- tains that in the current economic

climate the initial low growth sce- nario for the population of the west is now regarded as the high end of projections.

The low growth projection indicat- ed that by the end of the area plan the population would reach 18,191 peo- ple – an increase of 1,202 people on the 2006 census.

In a high growth scenario a popu- lation projection of 19,856 for 2015. This increase of 2,867 would require 1,019 houses to be built in the area.

As population growth is uneven throughout the area, house vacancy rates range from seven per cent to 65 per cent moving east to west.

According to the population sur- vey for 2006 contained in the plan, as many as 65 per cent of the houses in Kilfearagh and Kilkee are vacant, 55 per cent of the houses in Queerin are vacant, and 46 per cent of those in Rahona.

In its projections the draft plan maintains that Kilmhil will have a population decline of 48 people by 2015, and therefore predicts that 19 less houses will be required in the area. A population decline of 45 is predicted for Knock and 17 less homes.

Councillors said that the predic- tions and survey did not take into ac- count holiday homes and homes no longer fit to live in.

GARDAI believe that a Limerick gang was responsible for the rob- bery of the Ennis branch of super- market chain Lidl – it was the second time the store has been raided in 17 TneCOye ste

A sizable quantity of cash was taken in the raid at the Gort Road premises, which happened shortly after closing time, 9pm, last Tuesday evening.

Gardai believe that a gang of three or four masked men, wielding sledge hammers, broke into the premises,

forcing a door open with the imple- ments they were carrying.

While staff who were on the premises at the time were shaken by the ordeal, none of them was injured in the incident.

Gardai believe that the raiders were travelling in a UK registered silver Vauxhall Vectra car that had been stolen in Mitchelstown on Monday, and later found burnt out in Newport, County Tipperary on Wednesday.

‘There is a propensity to rob high value stores. This is actively under investigation and we are following a

number of lines of enquiry,” said En- nis Superintendent John Scanlan.

“This is a serious crime. We are very concerned that an attack of this nature would take place and we are appealing to retailers to be extra vigilant at closing time, in respect of suspicious activity,” he added.

Meanwhile, gardai are also con- cerned by a rise in the number of home burglaries in Ennis over the past fortnight. Several houses throughout the town have been tar- geted and valuables taken.

This comes in the wake of a report

from Eircom Phonewatch, which states that burglaries across Clare have almost doubled in the year up to June 2008, when compared with the previous 12-month period. In Clare, January was the month during which more burglars struck than in any oth- Hmmm 0eCO) OL O MME TB CO) er- NUR AME Ole K0)o\oi mma s-ks the most popular time of the year for home burglaries. Burglars targeted less in May, June and July than dur- ing the rest of the year.

The report also reveals that goods with an average value of almost €4.000 were taken from each home.

SHANNON will play host to the celebration of a major festival by the Indian community in the mid-west, this weekend.

An Indian cultural programme to celebrate Diwali festival is poised to attract some 200 people to the Oakwood Arms Hotel, on Sunday evening (starting at 6pm).

Diwali is also known as ‘The Fes- tival of Lights’ and is India’s biggest festival. Diwali, a religious and cul- tural festival, celebrated by Indians worldwide. Its celebration date is

today, October 28, but the special event in Shannon will be marked on Sunday.

The event is being organised by the Midwest Indian Irish Society (MIIS). One of the organisers Paramyit Neote said there are up to 80 people from India currently living in Shannon.

“There is a large community of Indians living in Shannon, Limer- ick and Ennis. The idea is to bring them together and celebrate the event together and also to promote Indian culture in the local community,” he nee

Mr Neote moved to Ireland 20 years

ago and has worked in the Shannon area since then. He was born in Ken- ya and his parents hailed from India. He lived in Malaysia with his fam- ily for some time, prior to moving to Nyat-veveteyel

On moving to Shannon in 1988, he set up Shannon Aircraft Motorworks in the Shannon Free Zone. It was later sold to an American company and Mr Neote currently works as a business consultant.

“When I moved to Shannon, at the time Tony Ryan was very active in trying to bring aviation groups here. We were very much encouraged to

come to Shannon,” he said.

“The MIIS was set up a couple of years ago. Its main purpose was to help people to settle in here. We got to the stage where we had to get a larger scale,’ he added.

‘We see there is a need to promote an awareness of our group,’ Mr Ne- ote said.

Sunday’s event will include a short prayer, a welcome speech by the MIIS and a speech from Tara Chand, the first secretary, Embassy of India. There will also be two hours of In- dian cultural events performed by lo- cal artists, a dinner and dance.

CLARECASTLE is famous for it’s sluice gates, but it’s the ones up in the great beyond and not down on the River Fergus that attracted most at- tention on Saturday afternoon. They just wouldn’t shut and were intent of spoiling the showpiece occasion of intermediate hurling year.

But even the rains failed to spoil the Broadford party that started up around the midfield area of Clare- castle’s second field just after Spm on Saturday. It was there that the play- ers gathered in one big scrum to cel- ebrate joining the elite of Clare hurl- ing for the first time in 14 years.

That’s a long time, before Ger Loughnane’s hurling revolution swept the county to Munsters, All- Irelands and high kingship of the game. Maybe that’s why the scrum was so big and why the rains failed to put a damper on a huge day for Broadford hurling.

In time the scrum became one big rolling maul to the sanctuary of a fence on the sideline from where county board treasurer Bernard Keane addressed the crowd from on high and presented the intermediate cup to Padraig Hickey.

A winning captain, Hickey was al- ways going to get to lift the cup, but if ever a man deserved the honour it was the stylish corner-forward. He led by example, scoring four brilliant points from play over the hour in a man-of-the-match display.

“Give me the ball and I’ll score, that’s my motto anyway, but it’s the men that give me the ball, it’s the men that put super ball my way,’ he said after his winning speech and when the scrum had finally left for the dressing room and the bars of Broadford.

“We knew we were going to be there or thereabouts this year. At the start of the year we lost a couple of games and we knew afterwards that we just

had to get things right. Parteen beat us twice this year. Fair play to them, but it was a kick up the backside for us. Once we knew we had a lot of work to do we really got down to it, especially over the last two months. We put the foot to the floor and drove on. The rewards are here by winning the championship.

“It’s a massive step up for Broad- ford hurling. We haven’t played sen- ior championship since 1994. We went up Senior “B’ in ’97 and again in 2003, but playing Senior ‘A’ now is going to be a massive step up again. We’re going to have to put our foot to the floor again to even stay in the gerade, but we’re not going to worry about it tonight.”