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ADDITIONAL resources are _ be- ing pumped in to fight the spread of drugs in Clare, as major drug dealers are being targeted.

Resources at the disposal of the Clare Garda Divisional drugs unit have increased in recent weeks, as a major focus on stamping out the availability of drugs across the coun- ty gets underway.

Gardai are concerned about young people experimenting with soft drugs and then progressing to harder drugs which have a lethal effect on their TaVene

Superintendent John Scanlan said a major crackdown has got underway and is poised to continue.

“We have seen a significant in- crease in the number of arrests of drug dealers in the Clare division,” said Supt Scanlan.

“We have put significant additional personnel into the drugs squad in En- nis. We are very conscious there is a problem,” he said.

“We are conscious about young people who have not yet caught on to drugs getting involved,’ added Supt Scanlan.

“We have made significant seizures. There is going to be zero tolerance,’

he said.

“We would appeal to anyone with any information on people involved in drugs to contact us in the strictest of confidence,” he said.

“Drugs cause deaths. Parents in particular wouldn’t want to believe that drugs wouldn’t invade their lives. That day is gone. Drugs prevail in all elements of society,” he added.

The cocaine-related deaths of two west Clare men – as revealed in this newspaper two weeks ago – led to grave concerns about the availability of drugs.

It prompted gardai to issue a tough warning on the availability of toxic

forms of cocaine.

“We are still seizing significant quantities of cocaine, which is a wor- ry. Our advice for anyone thinking of experimenting with cocaine is not to,’ said a garda source.

“Cocaine is generally cut with other substances. People who pre- pare cocaine are unscrupulous as to what substances they use to bulk it,” he said.

“The speed at which people get into trouble with cocaine is frighten- ing. We are amazed at this. People are more likely to get into financial bother, followed by addiction prob- lems,” added the source.

highlighted the situation on the Laghtagoona Housing Development in Corofin where a number of houses were left with crumbling exterior plaster as well as dangerous road surfaces.

Last week the company behind the development, Cronan Nagle Con- Struction, announced that it was to go into liquidation. Company direc- tors called a meeting of creditors for later month when the company 1s ex- pected to be wound up.

Residents in the estate now have no way of having their houses complet- ed to a Satisfactory standard.

‘Nothing has been been done what- soever to resolve this situation. We are still in the exact same situation at we were six months ago except not it

appears that Cronan Nagle have gone out of business which means that we have no real chance now of getting the houses that we paid for,’ said one Laghtagoona resident.

“In fact the situation is actually worse now than it was back then as we have also discover a problem with our water pipes in the estate which

burst a number of weeks ago.

“It does seem at the moment that all of this is going to be left to the residents to fix. I believe that Cro- nan Nagle have paid a bond to Clare County Council in respect to this de- velopment so maybe they may come out and finish the work. We really have no idea.

“I haven’t had any communication from Cronan Nagle in the last six months what so ever. All the issues are still as bad or worse as they were before. The roadway is still is a very dangerous condition and the plaster is still peeling off the wall in a lot of the houses.

‘According to the insurance com- pany the damage with the plaster is cosmetic and not structural, which means that they will not cover it.”

In June of this year, residents of the Laghtagoona housing estate in Corofin formed an action group to lobby estate developer Cronan Nagle Construction over alleged non-com- pletion of work on the 100-house de- velopment.

THE life of one of Lisdoonvarna hidden musical treasures will be celebrated in a weekend-long free festival later this month. Accordion and box player Micilin Conlon never gained the same fame as the Rus- Sell brothers from Doolin, but the Lisdoonvarna musician was as well thought of locally in his own time.

Born in 1927, he spent virtually all of this 67 years playing music for the people of north Clare. From Friday October 24 to Sunday 26, a celebra- tion of his music will take place at the Roadside Tavern in Lisdoon.

“He essentially spent his whole life entertaining people, he was like a travelling troubadour. He played at wakes and weddings and everything in between. He played Irish music and that was his life,” said Peter Cur- tin of the Roadside.

“He loved having fun along with the music and he was always there mak- ing fun and entertaining people. He would have played at house dances in the old days before there was any formal pub scene for entertainment. He would just walk to a house in the neighbourhood for the sessions. He would walk from Lisdoonvarna up to Fanore for a house dance and he

could come home and then head off to the Cliffs of Moher for another dance after that.”

The festival will feature some play- ers who have become synonymous with traditional music in north Clare. People like Tommy Peoples, Michael Hynes, Davy Spillane and Seamus Hynes will all feature, along with Micilin’s own nephew Johnny Con- ren

‘He was a musician and his father was a musician. I can remember him telling me about coming into the Roadside on the day of his confirma- tion to play a few tunes. He lived for the music,’ continued Peter.

“We have purposely organised some sessions during the day. We want to get people to chill out a bit, and not to just head out at night and then be worried about getting up the following morning.

“Micilin was a chilled out man himself. I’d say his stress levels never got above zero in his whole life. So this is going to be more like a session than a concert. It’s about people and musicians coming in and getting into iW sTomen one

For more information on the cel- ebration of the music and life of Mi- cilin Conlon check out www.roadsi- detavern.ie.

THE bravado was back. Sharon Col- lins’ beaming smile returned to the Four Courts for a brief sojourn last week, exactly 13 weeks after her pre- vious appearance that had culminat- ed in her being led away to prison.

On the evening of Wednesday, July 9 last, Collins, aka ‘Lying Eyes’, left the building in custody, having been found guilty by a jury of soliciting and conspiracy to murder her multi- millionaire partner PJ Howard and his sons Robert and Niall, in En- nis, two years ago. Despite her de- nials, a jury found her guilty of at- tempting to hire a hitman over the internet – through an email address lyingeyes98 @yahoo.ie – to wipe out the Howard family, in order to get her hands on PJ Howard’s wealth.

At the end of the eight-week trial, She was taken to Dochas, the wom- en’s section of Mountjoy prison, where she has remained since, await- ing sentence. Her departure for the prison in July was laced with tears, but as she returned to court last Wednesday – for her sentence date to be fixed – her radiant smile had also re-emerged.

She faces a wait for her sentence – November 3 is d-day for the mother- of-two – but her mid-week appear- ance was comparable to that of a woman without a care in the world.

The 45-year-old has gained a small amount of weight while in prison. Her neat black trouser suit is less roomy, while her gaunt face has be- come plump and rounder.

Throughout her life, image – and retaining her petite frame – has been a priority for Collins. She has al- ways been eager to remain slim and even took Reductil slimming pills at one stage. Undoubtedly her weight gain, albeit slight, will not come as a source of comfort to her in the lead-up to her sentence being handed Cleni0e

Nevertheless, there was no sign of any concern as Collins displayed a healthy glow on Wednesday. Her well-groomed blond bob – which has grown in length from her high- profiled trial – and dazzling smile became the focus of attention around

the Four Courts for the morning.

Accompanied by her youngest son David, Collins chatted freely to her legal team. There was no shortage of smiles and laughter. The confidence and bravado that had dominated Col- lins’ mood during most of the trial had returned.

That trial had seen two very differ- ent sides to Collins. For the first 25 days of the case, she strolled around the Four Courts, displaying a phe- nomenal air of self-confidence. But her world came crashing down after she went into the witness box on day 26 – Tuesday, July 1. That was the day that Una Ni Raifeartaigh’’s cross- examination tore Collins to shreds. Yet, she continued to display confi- dence and mettle throughout the first bout of probing. However, when she returned to the court the following morning, for the remainder of the cross-examination, what she present- ed was a shadow of her former self. Gone was the confidence; replaced only by streaming tears. The bra- vado had evaporated and the worry emerged.

Remarkably, Collins remained pale-faced for the remaining days of the trial and she never again regained her composure as the dramatic finale took its course.

But Wednesday showed an amaz- ing turnaround. Gone was the strain; the smiles had returned. The com- manding Collins was back; the se- riousness of the situation she finds herself in apparently to the back of the mind.

Psychological reports have been carried out on her over the summer by Dr Brian Glanville, at her new abode in the prison. These will fo- cus on her outlook in the wake of her convictions.

Dr Glanville’s reports, along with character references, will be present- ed to Mr Justice Roderick Murphy as he hands down sentence on Novem- ber 3. Collins faces up to ten years in jail on each of the six charges on which she was convicted.

THE Progressive Democrats may just live to fight another day in Clare de- spite the announcement by the party top brass last month that it would be winding up all operations.

Clare party members attended a meeting of the western branch of the party in Limerick last week in which anger was expressed at the decision of the parliamentary section of the party to unilaterally announce that

the PDs would be disbanding.

‘We had more than 100 people at the meeting last week from Clare, Limerick and Tipperary and the vast majority of the people were very un- happy at how this whole matter was handled. There was a lot of members who felt very aggrieved at how the parliamentary party had handled the whole incident,’ said Tadhg Kearney, former national executive member of the PD’s.

“The room expressed very strong

views about how this whole situation was managed. To be honest there was a lot of anger among local represent- atives about how this situation could be allowed to happen.”

The meeting was attended by party leader Ciaran Cannon who faced questions about procedural errors in how the decision to wind down the part was announced.

“They have moved way beyond their remit in making this decision. Putting it bluntly, this was not their

decision to make,’ continued Mr Kearney. “We have more councillors right now than the Green Party and yet they have decided to call it a day. There was a lot of anger in the meet- ing, in fact that is an understatement. We had more than 100 committed members who said unanimously that they want the party to continue.

“A lot of people have made this party their home. For a lot of people out there the PDs is their political church. We don’t want to give this up

without a fight. At the moment is it unclear what is going to happen.

“There may be too much damage done for us to continue on as the PD, the decision may even be made to continue on but under a different name. We are just gong to have to wait and see.”

All members of the Progressive Democrats will meet on November 8 to vote on a motion put forward by the national executive recommend- ing that the party be wound up.

THE RECESSION is having little impact on the success of start-up business. Winning sales is the key to Start-up success – that was some of the key information from an expert line up of speakers presenting on winning sales techniques to an audi- ence of 200 entrepreneurs, sales pro- fessionals and investors at the second Mid-West Entrepreneur Showcase.

Launching the showcase, Frank Ryan, CEO of Enterprise Ireland said, “While the only constant in today’s business environment is change, Irish small and medium sized companies have shown them- selves to be remarkably adaptable in managing change.

“This flexibility and adeptness has been a crucial factor in the outstand- ing success of Irish enterprises. We have witnessed the emergence of Irish companies competing in global markets and forging ahead as market leaders and innovators in their sec- tors,” he said.

Ryan said that entrepreneurs are “making real and valuable contribu- tions in every part of every county throughout the country – in terms of employment and innovative capac- ity, and through anchoring the social

fabric of their respective localities.” Frank Hannigan, CEO of Yougetit-

back.com, told those attending that

he believes that companies who

think globally are better positioned

He also believes that recessions

to survive than companies who think have little impact on the success rate

locally in terms of winning sales and developing products.

for start-ups. “Inputs cost less and there 1s still

demand for good services and prod- ucts. In spite of all the bad news around a global recession and avail- ability of funds, we should not lose heart. There are billions of dollars in Venture funds. They only make a profit if they can spend that money investing in smart start ups. If the ideas are good enough institutional investors still have to invest,’ he Se HLGE

The Seminar and Showcase event was organised by the Enterprise Ac- celeration Centre (EAC) at Limerick Institute of Technology as part of Limerick City Business Week and consists of a half day Seminar and Showcase featuring clients of the EAC and the Limerick Enterprise Acceleration Platform (LEAP) par- aes Oye D OL Ace

The objective of this year’s Mid- West Entrepreneur Showcase event was to present business people with key techniques, tools and real life experiences on how to win sales in order to drive the development of early stage businesses from start-up to international business success.

AS the main throng of summer tour- ists begins to die down at the Cliffs of Moher, the centre has organised a number of new ways by which the lo- cal community can use the facility.

From this month until the end of May, a number of different artistic and community events will be hosted at the Cliffs of Moher. Starting with an exhibition of paintings this week, the centre will also have children’s events, concerts and a whole host of other special occasions.

The first of these events, an exhibi- tion of paintings by local artist Philip Morrison, opened over the weekend and will run until November 30.

“This is the first exhibition but our plan would be to do a series of events like this throughout the winter. We have a great space here so we are looking at a host of different things that we can do here when the place isn’t packed out with tourists,” said Geraldine Enright, marketing man- ager at the Cliff of Moher visitor centre.

“We’d really like to bring in local people and give them an extra rea- son to come and visit the cliffs. We are very excited about the exhibition – it’s the first exhibition that we have had at the cliffs so we really hopeful that it will go well.”

The Cliffs of Moher Centre will host a number of special event for

Oi elcommshw elle (ore

“On Halloween night from 5pm to Spm we are inviting parents and kids to come. We are going to have a night of ghost-stories and games. Everyone here will be dressed up as different characters so it should be a lot of fun,’ she continued.

‘Separate from that we will be run- ning Samhain at the Cliffs of Moher over the whole bank holiday week- end. That will include face painting and all the traditional Halloween games.

“We have also been inviting groups of active retired people to the cliffs. We have a special package for them with a lecture, a guided tour and a meal.

“This year we are trying differ- ent things to see how they work out. There really are endless possibilities with the space that we have here. It’s such a great space so it’s really out aim to make it somewhere that is fully used by the local people.”

For more information or _ to book contact 065 7086141, e-mail bookings @cliffsofmoher.ie or check out www.cliffsofmoher.ie

SENTENCING in the Ennis con- spiracy to murder case will take place in three weeks’ time at the Central Criminal Court. Sharon Col- lins and Essam Eid appeared in court last Wednesday, when a date for their sentencing was set.

Collins (45), formerly of Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, was found guilty by a jury in July of so- liciting to murder PJ Howard and his sons Robert and Niall.

Eid (52), a native of Egypt and for- merly of Las Vegas, was found guilty of demanding €100,000 from Rob- ert Howard to cancel a contract on

his life and the lives of his father and brother. Eid was also convicted of handling stolen property.

At the end of the eight-week trial on July 9, sentencing had been adjourned as psychological reports were to be carried out on Collins and medical reports were to be made available in the case of Eid. The three-minute hearing last Wednesday was told that psychological reports on Collins were ready, but medical reports in the case of Eid were not yet available.

Collins’ barrister Paul O’Higgins SC, said there had been some confu- sion in the matter. He said that the Courts Service had acquired a psy- chologist to see Collins the week

before. This, he said, caused confu- sion as the defence had previously arranged with the Department of Justice to have Dr Brian Glanville see her. He pointed out that Dr Glan- ville’s psychological reports were at hand. However, David Sutton, SC for Eid, said he was having difficulty assembling medical reports for his client and he was seeking another four weeks to complete this. Una Ni Raifeartaigh BL for the prosecution said the State was ready to go ahead with the sentencing.

Mr Justice Roderick Murphy fixed Monday, November 3, as the date for the sentencing to take place.

DOCTORS who have been called to attend to the injured on a north Clare road have written to Clare County Council to have the road surface mended before anyone else is hurt.

The adjourned meeting of Clare County Council heard that a Baly- vaughan road which was recently re- paired after work was done to install amenities has been the scene of ac- cidents which have caused injury to people and damage to cars.

One cyclist had to be treated for in- juries at the scene by a local GP af- ter coming off his bike and a driver whose jeep overturned also had to have medical attention.

Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind) tabled a motion asking what criteria the council uses to select contractors for water and sewerage schemes.

The finishing of the job in terms of reinstating road surfaces often leaves a lot to be desired, he said. “If you travel this road to Ballyvaughan you take your life in your hands,” he told

the meeting. “Why isn’t there more pressure put on individual contrac- tors to finish the job properly?”

Cllr Michael Kelly (FF) said that that the work on the road “was done in a prime tourist location. The state this road was left in for the summer won’t send visitors back with any good impression of the area.”

Cllr Tony O’Brien said the situation was “not confined to north Clare. We need a policy on what we look for in finishing roads after such work and we heed a strategy which involves

penalties. These people can’t just walk away from a job.”

Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald called for contractors who don’t do the job properly to be “fined, not put in to do another job for us.”

Mayor Madeleine ‘Taylor-Quinn (FG) said that the timing of the work “was terrible. It was done at the height of the tourist season when the roads into that area are at their busi- est.’ A number of councillors said they had seen letters from local GPs outlining the dangers of a badly sur-

faced road and the accidents they had been asked to attend in recent weeks on that stretch of road.

In reply to Cllr Lafferty’s motion, the Director of Services had outlined the full procedure used in selecting a contractor. A contractor is obliged to carry out “temporary restoration” during the course of the contract. A sum of money is provided in the con- tract for the final repairs to the road and this money can be spent by et- ther the council or the contractor to get the work done.

DESPITE the recession putting chains on womens’ purses, one en- terprising Shannon businesswoman has come up with a bright idea to help keep her business in the pink.

Despite having no previous exper1- ence of running a business, Siobhan Hayes has been learning to adapt and change her fashion shop, Pink to do the necessary at the SkyCourt Shop- ping Centre in Shannon.

Hayes’ latest idea, launched just two weeks ago, allows women from the neighbouring industrial estate to buy frocks, fashions and accessories without even leaving their desk.

Pink’s online shopping site 1s prov- ing hugely popular with women shoppers who are long on style but SJaleya me) e manatee

“I often thought about how we could make it more convenient for women working in the industrial es- tate to shop. They are working very close to the town centre, but a lot of them only get half an hour for lunch. That’s just not enough time to come over, browse the rails, pick some- thing and get back to work. Then I was talking to a computer genius friend of my mine and we came up with the idea of the website.”

There are now 30 or more items

from the shop’s stock available on the site, www.prettynpink.1e.

“We can even deliver the purchases to the buyer or they can pick it up at the shop,” said Hayes.

The native of Shannon started the 1,100 sq ft unit when the new Sky- Court opened in 2004. Before that, the only self-employed experience Hayes had was in selling gel nails.

Since opening the shop, she has taken courses with the Enterprise Board in Marketing and Women in Business.

“lve always been interested in fashion and I felt there was a mar- ket for an affordable fashion shop in NJa-NeVelOVeMMcCe)eeloLMODDOTcMmMer-lmUvOlelleMOeKos women fashion at good prices. A lot of women will wear an item six or seven times and they get tired of it so they don’t want to feel they have paid is Levant be oae

She also aims to give choice for women aged from their early 20s well into their 50s.

Hayes has grown the business to employ four people.

“It hasn’t all been a walk in the park, but it’s very enjoyable,’ she told