Category: Uncategorized

TWO young men have pleaded guilty to charges in connection with a fa- tal road accident which claimed the life of an elderly man in Ogonelloe a year ago.

John Cooney (89) was killed in- stantly when he was struck by a pass- ing car, as he crossed the road after attending Mass at around 8.30pm on the night of September 8 last.

Two men were later charged in connection with the incident and returned for trial to Ennis Circuit Court. Both entered guilty pleas yes- terday, when a date for their trial was due to be fixed.

Tadhg O’Flynn, of Canal Bank, Killaloe, admitted dangerous driv- ing causing the death of Mr Cooney,

on September 8, 2007.

He and another defendant, Patrick Hannon, of Clarina Park, Ballinacur- ra Weston, Limerick, both pleaded guilty to intent to pervert the course of justice, by setting fire to the motor vehicle that had been involved in the accident in which Mr Cooney was fatally injured.

O’Flynn’s counsel told the court yesterday that his client is receiving counselling arising out of this mat- ter. Hannon’s counsel pointed out that he is currently in custody on an- ols slosmpeerelanel a

The court was told the case has OTe ENT OMS SS STUB AYALA (ok Meme: DOC6 MAA) Mam ole given priority on the sentencing date, November 10 next. Evidence in the case will be heard in full on that date.

THE holy grail of Irish surfing has been re-forged and this weekend scores of surfers will compete to be the first to lift the Irish Trophy Cup in almost four decades.

The cup was one of I[reland’s first surfing competition and attracted dozens of surfers to the fledgling sport when held in Lahinch in 1969, ‘70 and °71.

This weekend, hoards of surfers are expected to descend on Lahinch as the West Coast Surf Club and Kenny Bar re-stage the competition for the first time in 37 years.

The inspiration behind relaunching

the competition came when one of Ireland first and most famous surfers visited Lahinch a number of years ago.

“The idea of this came about four or five years ago. One summer, Brian Britton came into the pub. To look at him you wouldn’t think he was a surfer but he walked over to the counter and said that 33 years ear- lier to the day he had pulled into the same parking space and walked into the pub,” said Kenneth Kenny.

‘He was telling us all about the old days of surfing and he mentioned the surfing competition. So eventually we decided to get it going again.”

The original winners of the compe-

tition were awarded a carved stone trophy, which quickly became the most recognisable prize in Irish surf- ing. Having since been lost, com- petition organisers contracted local sculpture Shane Gilmore to remake the holy grail of Irish surfing.

“The trophy is wonderful, like the original it’s made out of stone and has four sides that show off the dif- ferent elements of surfing in Lahinch. We also have a carved bog-oak surf- board that the winner will be able to keep forever. We will also have a larger bog-oak surfboard in the pub which will carry the winners name each year,’ continued Kenneth.

“It’s really going to be more like a

celebration of surfing than a compe- tition. The whole idea is to bring the past and the present together and to celebrate the West Coast Surf Club and the wonderful surfing that we have had over the years in Clare.

“We are hoping that this will turn into an annual event and host it in Lahinch every year.

The competition will take place on October 4, 5 and 6, in Lahinch. For more information or to enter check out www.westcoastsurfclub.com.

THE CLARE fire and rescue serv- ice has reported a decrease in the number of road traffic incidents around the county for the first eight months of the year.

Between January and August, the service was called to 148 road traf- fic incidents in Clare — a decrease of over 12 per cent on figures for the same period last year.

While it may have dampened the holiday spirit, the record-breaking rainfall of recent months led to a 55 per cent drop in the number of forest, grass and bog fire incidents. While house fires were up 8.5 per cent to 64, chimney fire call-outs dropped by 12 per cent. The overall number of incidents attended by the Service dropped from 879 to 823.

Chief Fire Officer Adrian Kelly said the number of fires in Clare was un-

acceptably high and there were five fire-related fatalities in the county between January and August. He en- couraged householders to learn more about fire prevention in the home.

He said that the decrease in the number of call outs to road traffic incidents showed that road safety awareness initiatives were having a positive impact in Clare’.

Expressing disappointment at the number of false alarms, Mr Kelly said there were 93 false alarms, 38 of which were malicious, between Jan- uary and August and these resulted in fire and rescue service resources being deployed unnecessarily.

The release of the statistics coin- cides with the Clare launch of Na- tional Fire Safety Week, which runs from October 6 to 13. The Clare Fire and Rescue Service will host a series of local prevention activities to heighten fire safety awareness.

Open station nights will be held at Ennistymon, Shannon, Ennis, Killa- loe, Scariff, Kilkee and Kilrush fire stations where local fire fighters will offer advice and give out leaflets and posters on fire prevention.

The open nights will be held in En- nistymon and Shannon on October 6; Ennis on October 7; Kilrush and Kilkee on October 8; Scariff and Killaloe on October 9.

Mr Kelly said fire safety week would highlight the importance of testing smoke alarms weekly, having an escape route planned and know- ing your obligations regarding fire safety in the home.

The fire service will also be asking schools and businesses to undertake fire drills during the week.

A MAN whose eyesight was “hazed by cannabis fumes” stabbed his friend with a kitchen knife in a row over a girl during a drink and drugs leyU NT SXen

Martin Donegan (28), a native of Dublin and with an address at Kurva- hon, Main Street, Kildysart, pleaded guilty to assaulting Donal Downes (38), causing him harm, at St Clare’s Terrace, Ennis, on August 5, 2007.

The attack occurred during what was described in court as a rave. When asked by gardai was he trying to kill the injured party, the accused replied, “God no. He’s my friend.”

Garda Francis Brennan told Ennis Circuit Court yesterday that Donal Downes was one of three men liv- ing in the house where a party was held. He said it was a Health Board house.

He was stabbed by the accused with a kitchen knife which was 12 inches in length and had a nine inch blade. He said the accused and injured par- ty had been drinking together over the previous few days and drink and drugs were involved.

“They had drank a couple of bot- tles of vodka. They had hash and ‘e’ tablets. They had a falling out over a girl,” said the garda.

Mr Downes was stabbed a number of times to the chest and received a significant laceration to the sternum. The court was told that Donegan co-

operated but had suffered memory loss from the night of the row.

Defence barrister Brian McInerney said that Donegan has addictions to drugs and alcohol, for which he has received treatment.

‘The party at the house went on for a number of days. It might common- ly be described as a bit of a rave,’ he Cr HeR

“There is no element of pre-plan- ning in this case, or pre-mediation. It arose from consumption of intox1- cants,’ said the barrister.

‘IT would ask you to consider wheth- er there is a benefit to society at large in immediately incarcerating the accused, who seems to have made considerable strides to overcome the difficulties in his life,’ he added.

He asked for the sentencing to be adjourned to ascertain how much progress the accused could make.

Judge Carroll Moran said _ the number of stab wounds suffered by the injured party was a matter of concern. He said he accepted the ac- cused had taken steps to deal with his problems, but said the issue of com- pensation had not been addressed.

Mr McInerney said his client hoped to secure employment, “now that his eyesight is not hazed by cannabis fumes and the waft of alcohol”.

The judge adjourned the case until January 2009 and said if compensa- tion is offered and if the accused’s addictions are addressed, he would not send him to jail.

ONE of the hidden gems of Clare’s vibrant artistic scene will be brought to the fore this Thursday at the Court- house Gallery in Ennistymon.

North Clare’s Salmon Poetry will celebrate National Poetry Day by hosting a free poetry reading at the gallery from 7.30pm.

The evening will include a mixture of poets and styles with a line up fea- turing the best of local as well as na- tional poets. It feature locally based poets Frank Golden and Knute Skin- ner, Galway poets Caroline Lynch

and Peter Mullineaux as-well-as Paul Allen and Michael Heffernan.

“We have a number of visiting po- ets and some local poets involved so it promises to be a very exciting evening,’ said Jean Cusack of Salm- on Poetry.

“We are going to have a great mix- ture of poets. Knute is a very well established poet, Frank would be midway, while Caroline just pub- lished her first collection earlier this year. It’s great to get the newer poets in with the most established poets, it makes for a very interesting reading and give the poets and the audience a

good mix.”

Founded by Jessie Lendennie in Galway in 1981, Salmon Poetry has moved operation to the Burren in recent times. Over the years it has cultivated an image as an alterna- tive voice in Irish literature, focuss- ing greatly on promoting new and female artists.

Over the last quarter of a century the company have published some 200 volumes of poetry and have marked themselves out as great inno- vators in the Irish poetry scene.

“Events like this are great ways of getting poetry out there to the people

but also a good way to show off just how many poets we have based here in rural Ireland. A lot of Salmon’s poets are based in the west of Ire- land,’ continued Jean.

“We have more than 20 books of poems published this year at Salmon so people’s interest in poems does seem to be on the way up. But as well as publishing, it’s great for poets to be able to get their work out there and to perform in from of a live audi- ence.”

Salmon Poetry is based in Lis- cannor and can be contacted at info@salmonpoetry.com

ENNISTY MON students celebrated Sunday’s International Day of Peace in artistic manner.

The first years of the local Voca- tional School, under direction of art teacher Bairbre Geraghty, undertook an international project, Pinwheels for Peace, by ‘planting’ pinwheels with messages of peace on school grounds. They were underscoring a statement that peace needs to be- come more than just a word.

‘Pinwheels for Peace’ was begun by art teachers in 2005 as an art instal- lation project and a way for students to express their feeling about what’s going on in the world and in their

Taste

In its first year, groups in about 1,300 locations were spinning pin- wheels on September 21, amounting to a grand total of about 500,000 objects around the globe. Last year, the number came to over 1.2 million in 2,500 locations, including Ireland, across Europe, the United States, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Middle East, Africa and South America.

Says Bairbre Geraghty, “The word is spreading; we’d love to see more schools and groups join with us next year.”

The first year students in Ennisty- mon created windmills displaying their images and words of peace and tolerance as part of the creation

process, writing their thoughts about ‘war and peace/tolerance/living in harmony with others’ on one side. On the reverse they made collages to express their feelings.

“The project is non-political – peace does not necessarily have to be asso- ciated with the conflict of war; it can be related to violence/intolerance in our daily lives, to peace of mind,” explains Bairbre.

‘To each of us, peace can take on a different meaning but, in the end, it all comes down to a simple defi- nition: ‘A state of calm and serenity, with no anxiety, the absence of vio- lence, freedom from conflict or disa- ereement among people or groups of people.,” she said.

NEW REGULATIONS, which if adopted will mean that planners will have to consider global warming and rising water levels when looking at planning applications, have been given a general welcome.

Clare planners are now studying the Draft Planning System and Flood Risk Management published for pub- lic consultation last week jointly by Environment Minister John Gormley and Dr Martin Mansergh, TD, Min- ister of State at the Department of

Finance.

Unveiling the document, the min- ister said that the new regulations are aimed at ensuring a “more con- sistent, rigorous and systematic ap- proach to fully incorporate flood risk assessment and management into the planning system.”

The new draft guidelines, which have been prepared in response to the recommendations of the National Flood Policy Review Group, focus on considering flood risk in prepar- ing regional plans, development plans and local area plans, and in de-

termining applications.

They also take account of envi- ronmental considerations including the need to manage the inevitable impacts of climate change, and bio- diversity.

The draft guidelines will require the planning system at national, re- gional and local levels to avoid devel- Opment in areas at risk of flooding, such as flood plains, guide develop- ment away from areas that have been identified as being at risk through flood risk and incorporate flood risk assessment into the process of mak-

ing decisions on planning applica- tions and planning appeals.

Bernadette Kinsella, Director of Service for Planning and Economic

Development, said that her depart- ment of the County Council “will now study the new draft Planning Guidelines on the Planning System and Flood Risk Management. The Planning Authority will consider their potential impact in the context of the review of town and local area plans currently taking place.”

She said that the draft guidelines “will also be considered in the con-

text of their impact on the planning and development process in County Ori ow

Clir PJ Kelly, who is vocal on plan- ning issues said that he agrees that there is a need to take account of the risk of flooding and climate change when approaching planning matters.

But he added that it is his concern “that they will go for the easy targets yet again and that won’t be the big urban developments, it will be the person who Is struggling to get plan- ning permission to build a home in a rural area.”

THE Burren Smokehouse in Lis- doonvarna has received it’s second major accolade in a week with the news that it has been selected as one of the fine foods which will be served at the launch of the Volvo Ocean Race in Spain on October 9.

The smokehouse was selected by Tourism Ireland in conjunction with Good Food Ireland to be part of the prestigious launch dinner which takes place in Alicante in Spain later Woo)

The world famous race will this year feature two Irish teams and has also an Irish stop for the first time Oe

Burren Smokehouse founder Bir-

gitta Curtin will represent Ireland at the event alongside Peter Ward of Artisan Food Produce.

The menu for the evening will fea- ture a number of dishes from the smokehouse including honey lemon and pepper hot smoked organic Irish salmon, hot smoked plain and spiced Irish mackerel, honey lemon and dill hot smoked organic Irish salmon, smoked organic Irish salmon and hot smoked Irish silver eel served with lemon wedges.

Other Irish dishes including Con- nemara Irish lamb, Sowan’s organic brown soda bread, beef from James Whelan’s Butchers in Tipperary and Country Choice Cheese will also be Oy NEO)

This news comes just after a week

after the Lisdoonvarna smoke house, along with St Tola Goats Cheese in Inagh, was asked to participate in the Good Food Ireland Award Showcase in Dublin.

The showcase, which took place last night, is one of Ireland foremost annual cullinary events.

‘The key objectives of these awards are to honour those members who epitomise this philosophy and to raise standards within the food and hospitality industry,” says Margaret Jeffares, Managing Director, Good Food Ireland.

“The Good Food Ireland philoso- phy is to prioritise the core indig- enous ingredients of Irish cuisine and promote local and artisan food producers. Members are independ-

ently assessed by an expert judging panel.”

Good Food Ireland is the only all- island food tourism marketing group. Members come together to be pro- moted under the brand.

It is a not for profit organisation and is driven by the industry in a bottom up approach.

The steering group, executive com- mittee and members all work on a voluntary basis.

The Good Food Ireland members vision is to grow Ireland as a food tourism destination by promoting to domestic and international visitors places to stay, eat, cook and shop that are all committed to using above all else Irish, local and artisan food pro- duce.

THE PROBLEM of algal bloom in Lough Derg is “destroying” an al- ready hard-pressed Clare tourist in- dustry, it has been claimed.

Calls have been made to speed up approval of sewerage schemes to stop raw sewerage ending up in the JEN cor

Speaking in the wake of the latest toxic bloom warning, with notices being placed at the lake-shore last week, Teresa Browne of East Clare

Tourism says solutions are not being implemented fast enough.

“I’ve been told by fishermen that there was raw sewerage in the river at Scariff and it follows that that flows into the lake. We’ve had this problem for years now and we’ve been promised a solution but it hasn’t happened yet”.

The tourism businesswoman said that the incidents of algal bloom had not been as frequent this year, largely due to high water.

‘The truth is that even if the weath-

er had been better, visitors wouldn’t be able to go into the water when there’s algal bloom. This is destroy- ing the tourism trade and things are difficult enough”.

While providing treatment plants around the lake are an important part of solving the problem, Teresa says things are not moving fast enough and season after season the lake is being hit by the toxic bloom.

“Look at Scariff – we have a whole new network of pipes almost finished but the money for the treatment plant

hasn’t been approved yet. When is that going to happen?”’

The warning signs on the shores of the lake are to alert people to the fact that there is blue-green toxic algae in the water, which can cause rashes in humans and have previously proved fatal to dogs.

High water temperatures have contributed to the toxic bloom, ac- cording to North Tipperary County Council, who were responsible for erecting the notices.

Local county councillor, Pat Hay-

es, says he is confident that approval will be given in the near future by the minister to finance tenders for the upgrading of the Scariff sewer- age treatment plant.

“Thing have improved in recent years. The Blue Flags for water qual- ity at Ballycuggeran and Mountshan- non are testament to that,’ he told

has learned.

Speaking during his visit to Clare on Friday, the Minister for Commu- nity, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Ea- mon O Cuiv said that his department would like to take a leading role on a project to reopen the railway as a

tourist location.

“There is huge potential in cycle based tourism in Clare. Cyclists want to be out in the countryside but they don’t want to have to battle their way around traffic on small country roads. That is why I think that the idea of opening the old West Clare Railway track as a cycling way is an idea with huge potential,” he said.

“We would need the good will of a lot of landowners but I feel that this project is a very viable one that the

department can support. The com- munity has to be behind the project. If they are really concerned about the challenges facing the tourist industry in Clare then this project is one that they can take a positive step with. “If people can take a larger view and pool their resources on this I be- lieve it can be achieved. Clare has always been at the forefront in terms of innovation in the tourism sector – right back from the early days at Bunratty and place like that. If we

all work together then this slump is something that we can overcome.”

O’Cuiv admitted that areas of Clare had been under funded in the past but said that he viewed this as a chal- lenge for the future rather than a vote of no confidence.

“It is true that things have not been developed to their full potential but I would take a totally different view on this that calling it a failure. We are where we are in terms of history, and I think that it is great to see that

there are things that are still to be done,’ he said.

“There is no point of focussing on the developments that were not com- pleted in the past, I would always prefer to focus on the challenge of completing these development in the future. We would be in a bad situa- tion if we woke up one morning and discovered that all that had to be de- veloped was already developed, that would be a very depressing situation indeed.”