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CLARE County Council is set to refuse planning permission for a €50 million retail park adjacent to the Ennis by-pass.

With a formal decision due later today, a council source has indicated that the application by Galway devel- oper, Stephen Harris for a retail park at Skehanagh, Clarecastle is about to be turned down.

Mr Harris has encountered major hurdles in the planning process over the past two years after €18 million was paid to Clarecastle man, JJ Mc- Cabe for the 48 acre commercially zoned site.

Only last week, it emerged that the Department of the Environment made a late intervention to reject the plan because of nature conservation concerns. This related to the fate of the protected butterfly, the Marsh Fritillary which has disappeared from the site due to grazing and

flooding.

The expected refusal will come as a surprise as an independent report commissioned by the council con- cluded that the Harris site at Ske- hanagh, Clarecastle was better po- sitioned to secure planning ahead of a proposal by Ennis developers Sean Dy piler Wem Com Oeiioeevie

However, the local planning land- scape deteriorated in the meantime with a subsequent council report de- claring portion of the Harris site as being at risk to flooding.

It is not known how this has fac- tored into the final decision, but it seems certain to have featured in the planners deliberations as the Depart- ment of the Environment also flagged it as an issue.

The local authorities in the Ennis area have also rejected any future residential or commercial develop- ment pending the commissioning of anew €75 million sewage treatment plant which is not expected to be in

place until 2012.

Ennis Town Council has recently refused developments as small as 26 units and a €50 million retail park 1s expected to be a much bigger burden on the local infrastructure.

Plans for the 48 acre site included a retail warehouse park, motor sales village, Travelodge hotel, drive-thru restaurants, storage and distribution, and a petrol station. The develop- ment was to provide over 30,000 m2 commercial floorspace

Planning was only being sought for the retail park in the south-east quad- rant of the site but the council had already expressed serious concerns over the proposal.

FOUL play has been ruled out in the case of two skeletons that were dis- covered buried in Quin last week.

Gardai had initially feared one of the remains might be that of a Bal- lykilty woman who disappeared 21 years ago.

An archaeological team alerted the Garda after they discovered two skeltons in a shallow grave while conducting a survey for the develop- ment of Quin community centre.

Further tests revealed the remains are more than a hundred years old

and may even date back to Medieval Wbeslone

The grim discovery was made be- hind the centre by the team work- ing under archaeologist Edel Ruttle of TVAS (ireland) Ltd, a Crusheen based archaeological consultancy ooyenh ey Nah Ye

TVAS director, Graham Hull, ex- plained that the company “is obliged to inform the gardai when remains are found in these circumstances”.

He added that osteoarchaeologist Mara ‘Tesorieri, who was onsite at the time, “was reasonably sure that these were antiquated remains but

the gardai had to be informed and a portion of jaw-bone was sent to the State Pathologist in Dublin for ex- ~Neeuper-lu (eye lae

An initial analysis by ‘Tesorieri “suggests that one of the skeletons is that of a female aged over 45. It may be associated with the neighbouring St Fineen’s church and we think that it’s possible the wall of the graveyard around the church may have been moved at some stage”.

Investigating gardai first had to eliminate suspicion that the remains could be those of Mary Guire, a local woman who left her work in Knap-

pogue castle in 1987 and was never Toros mbexe nO

“Once we were told that the remains were more than 100 years old, that would be the limit of garda involve- ment,” said Inspector Tom Kennedy.

Ger Buggy of the Quin community centre development committee, said that he is “very glad there was noth- ing untoward involved. The bodies have been covered over again.

“We had planned to put in a drive- way but a report has been sent to the Department of the Environment and we are waiting to see if any further action is necessary,’ he added.

DESPITE the rain, hail and winds
they danced, played and sang in Kil-
rush at the weekend as visitors and
locals made the most of the Eigse
Mrs Crotty.

The public houses and workshops
were a place of refuge and entertain-
ment, as the crowds forgot one of the
wettest Augusts on record with the
help of an accordion, tin whistle or
bodhran.

The Eigse Mrs Crotty Festival is in
its 13th year and the traditional mu-
sic festival has grown to incorporate
music, singing and dancing work-
shops, a Mrs Crotty memorial con-
cert, singing sessions, recitals and a
vibrant session trail.

The five-day festival would not be
possible without the hard work of the
local committee and the influence of
the talented Mrs Crotty.

Born Elizabeth Markham in 1885
near Cooraclare, Mrs Crotty, was the
youngest of the large Markham fam-
ily. By the time of her death in 1960

she had become recognised as one of
Ireland’s foremost exponents of the
concertina

She married Miko Crotty and to-
gether they established Crotty’s Pub-
lic House in the Square, Kilrush. It
was from this House of Music that
Elizabeth Crotty’s reputation qui-
etly grew. Ciaran MacMathtna’s
first excursion to rural Ireland in the
1950’s with RTE’s mobile unit was
to record the talented woman for the
aba MmODON Len

Mrs Crotty was described as a
gentle and unassuming woman and
a natural musician who enjoyed a
unique mastery of the concertina.

It was said that people would seek
out her company and sit quietly cap-
tivated as she played. According to
the official website “what she loved
most of all was teaching and encour-
aging young musicians”.

The spirit of this inspiring woman
was well and truly in Kilrush this
weekend as young people learnt
from talented musicians and singers
as part of the many workshops.

WHILE there’s no shortage of fes- tivals in Clare in summer, the lat- ter part of the year tends to have a CleVade me) msslotee

Which is why an imaginative east Clare couple have got together with some other creative people to stage a festival with family friendly events for the October bank holiday week- end in Killaloe.

Called An Féile Eile – The other festival – the weekend of events is being organised by Diane Daly and Boris Hunker of the Music in the Glenn music school.

“We named it because there is the Féile Brian Boru and the St Patrick’s

Day festival, but nothing at this time of year. And because it’s the Octo- ber, we won’t have any misplaced optimism that it could be sunny, so most of the events will be indoors’, said Boris.

The organisers hope that after this first festival, the event will grow and expand and for this year, they will concentrate on the musical aspect.

Most of the events are happening in the Kincora Hotel and on Friday, children from east Clare schools will come together for singing sessions and that night there will be a family event, with a gig by the band Hunka Burning Love followed by a disco.

On Saturday, there will be screen- ings of Laurel and Hardy’s early si-

lent movies and a quartet will play live to recreate the old silent movie cinema atmosphere.

There will be workshops for young- sters to compose scores for films. “These are designed for any child aged six to 12 to take part. They don’t have to be able to play a musi- cal instrument,” said Boris.

The Music in the Glen school is this year starting a choir and small orchestra and the children who have enrolled will perform in St Flannan’s OTM LONNCE RY

Monday is the shadow puppet thea- tre workshop where kids will have fun learning how to create shadow puppets and then write and perform a shadow puppet play.

There will also be a day of visual arts in collaboration with the Art- farm facility.

“We want to give our own classes something to work for and to start up a festival that will have something for children and parents as well,’ said Boris.

Boris and Diane are now work- ing on a grand finale for the three day festival, details of which will be available shortly.

“There will be a very nominal charge for the workshops and people can equire now and booking will be available shortly’, said Boris.

Full; details of the September mu- sic classes are available by emailing musicintheglen @ftml.net

will be released on the label this week, but the label has already has a measure of suc- oe It released an EP for Lanzarote based ska band Seven Stars Riot Squad (SSRS) earlier this year which broke into the official Canary Island record charts top 10. Indeed the label was created on the

Spanish island where Meteor Prize winning Gallagher had been play- ing since the break-up of the Revs.

Mr Logue was unavailable for comment yesterday but Gallagher said he was looking forward to the album release.

“T was playing a few gigs in pubs out there when I met Alan. He came up to me after a gig and asked about the original songs. We ended up chatting for ages about it and he said he’d like to get involved in some way, said Gallagher.

“It was as simple as that really. I found myself there six months later as the co-owner of a small indie record label about to release my own album.

“T think it’s very much a team project. I obviously value Alan’s Opinion – he was the one who gave me that lift in confidence after the

Revs by saying that he wanted to get involved in my music, which nobody had said to me in awhile.”

The former Revs front man plays the Burren College of Art in Bal- lyvaughan this Thursday as part of the album launch tour. Despite it be- ing early days for the label there has already been discussion of releasing old atosmr-lolebeehe

“I respect him a lot. He told me that he didn’t know anything about chords but he really liked the songs. So it was great to get that kind of perspective from him. The great thing is that he knows that if the musicians are happy creatively then everything ticks away nicely,” con- tinued Rory.

For more on G

AS the influence of the Catholic Church in Ireland fades, 20 young Clare Catholics discovered the 1m- portant role religion still plays in the lives of their peers from other coun- WUE

The 20 from the dioceses of Killa- loe made the journey to Australia for World Youth Day with the director of youth ministry and Kilkee parish priest Fr Donagh O’Meara, and met with young people from all over the globe.

“When you go to something like this you get a sense of ‘this is 1m- portant’ to other young people from around the world. It is a type of en- couragement especially in a time when it (religion) does not seem to be so important in Ireland,’ he said.

The west Clare priest admitted that it was not as easy to find people to make the flight of faith this year.

“It was easier a few years ago,” he Sr nLGe

As well as a change in religious attitudes Fr O’Meara said that the distance the Irish had to travel for this year’s world youth event played rem Ore va

“This time the journey was long and cost would have played a factor. In the past we would have brought 30 to 40 people,” he said.

The event takes place every three years and is attended by the Pope. It will take place in Madrid in 2011.

Described as a gathering of the young people of the world by Fr O’Meara, the highlight of the event was on Saturday night when half a million of the world’s young adults

aged between 18 and 30 gathered in the Randwick Racecourse in Sydney for a vigil.

The candlelight vigil was followed by a concert and then the young peo- ple slept out under the stars until the following morning when Mass was celebrated by the Pontiff at 10am.

As well as learning to meditate, those that travelled also visited prayer groups and went to concerts as part of the 10-day event.

It wasn’t all prayer and adoration for the group from Clare however.

“People enjoyed themselves. We went out and had that craic and a few Sessions in the Irish bars,’ said Fr O’Meara.

The group also toured famous Australian tourist attraction includ- ing the Blue Mountains, the Opera House and Bondi Beach.

THE long wait for more than 1,200 leaving cert students from Clare will end tomorrow as exam results will be delivered to schools and published on line.

In the same week as the Department of Education announced that third level fees would be a possibility for some families in the future a record 68,112 students will be hoping to be offered a college place this year.

The figure of those applying for college this year is 2,200 higher than last year and has been declared an

all-time high.

Guidance experts have advised stu- dents not to panic if they are disap- pointed when they get their results.

While they may not get the course they were hoping for in the first set of offers, second and third round of- fers could manifest themselves in the coming weeks.

Students are also advised to con- sider other courses that could lead them down their preferred career path eventually.

Interest in nursing, physiotherapy, law and built environment courses has declined this year, while arts,

medicine, science, education and veterinary are more in demand.

The first round of the CAO offers will be published on Monday, and will be available on line at www.cao- ie from 6am on Monday, August 18.

The deadline for acceptance of round one offers is August 26 at 5.15pm.

Meanwhile, celebrating students are advised to be drink aware while partying on Wednesday night.

As many prepare to celebrate their success, drinkaware.ie is urging stu- dents to eat before they head out, carry an ID card, look out for their

friends and plan ahead how they will get home safely.

Ms Fionnuala Sheehan, Chief Ex- ecutive of MEAS said, “We would encourage students to plan ahead and check out the drinkaware.ie website to ensure their night 1s one to remem- ber for all the right reasons.”

As students prepare to celebrate the Minister Batt O’Keefe has been ac- cused of being a party pooper by the NUI Galway Students’ Union.

It has accused the minister of en- gaging in scare tactics by announc- ing third level fees are back on the agenda.

IT’S the battle of the Divas of Doo- nass and there are ten lovely “song- birds” about to take to the stage to give performances that east Clare has never heard the likes of.

And the song contest will be only a part of the show in the Angler’s Rest on Friday night, when the dresses, wigs and make-up will sort the men from the – eh – men!

The wannabee divas will be strut- ting their stuff and giving the songs socks as part of the St Senan’s Fam- ily Festival to raise money for health and safety training and equipment for the under-age GAA coaches and

helpers.

‘We have ten volunteers to perform and the audience will pay ©5 each for a voting card. Each man will be dressed and groomed by two women with make-up short skirts – the lot. It won’t be so much a case of Trinny and Suzannah warning what not to wear – more a case of what never to wear, at least in public,” Fiona McK- eown, one of the organisers said.

Paulette Egan, who came up with the divas idea said she was delighted with the response from local lads.

“People told me Id never get ten men to do it, but they came on board.”

The divas are: Miss Hot Toddy,

aka Tod; Miss Drip-Drop, a plumb- er; former Fianna Fail councillor, Michael Begley is Miss Devalora; Miss Daisy, a farmer; Miss Fortune plays for the senior hurling team; Miss Kerry-Ta-Phoney is from Kerry and works for Eircom; Miss Odette is the senior hurling captain; Paul Col- lins is Miss Caul Pollins and Miss Ju-na-Bee-Star is a junior-b hurling team member.

The entertainment will cap off the family day which was traditionally held to celebrate St Senan, the patron saint of the area.

Starting with Mass at 3pm, the day will include a townlands soccer tour- nament and fun stalls with ‘Steady

Eddie’, tin-can alley, hanging t-towel competitions and barrels of fun.

Proceeds from the afternoon will be split between the local ICA. “It was traditional that on August 15, people here would go to Mass and then go and say the Rosary at St Sen- an’s well. In the evening, they would all go to the Angler’s Rest. It had died down a bit over the years so a few of us decided we’d resurrect it and hold a family and community day on that day,” said Paulette.

No one is taking any bets on what St Senan would make of the Divas of Doonass but it’s hoped a miracle might be worked on the fundraising side of things.

RYANAIR boss Michael O’Leary believes it 1s possible that Shannon Airport could be used in its planned transatlantic low fares airlines.

Addressing the Dail ‘Transport Committee, Mr O’Leary said that Ryanair were working on a plan for a new a transatlantic low fares airline.

Stating they hoped this would emerge from a major downturn, he said it was a possibility this new air- line would fly from Shannon.

The main focus of the plan was to Open up transatlantic services from Rome, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Brus-

sels, Paris and, perhaps, “somewhere in Ireland”’.

“I would be delighted to operate out of Shannon, if only to irritate the DAA monopoly. However, it would be on a much larger scale than sim- ply trying to operate transatlantic services out of Ireland.

‘As for the need for Shannon Air- port to upgrade its facilities and services, poor old Pat Shanahan (chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority) is blue in the ear from lis- tening to me stating he should stop upgrading Shannon’s facilities and services. They are absolutely fine.

“Airports have a compulsion to

spend money to upgrade things. They become nervous unless they are wasting money doing so. There is a brand new terminal there and now its management wishes to upgrade.”

“Ryanair has a major problem with Shannon Airport. It paid out between €30 million and €50 million in vol- untary redundancies to people who had not been very busy in recent years.

“While there is a human element to that, someone must pay for £100,000 redundancy packages. Unfortunately, it will fall back on Shannon because the cost should have been picked up by the DAA.

‘Shannon does not need the level of upgrade of facilities and services that it thinks it needs. It simply needs low costs and more routes from Ryanair and other airlines.

“Unfortunately, 78 per cent of the traffic is inbound. The good people of Ennis are not going to Frankfurt in November. It is generally German, French and Italian people coming back in there.”

“Tt 1s logical with the demograph- ics of Shannon. Its hinterland which takes in Ennis, has a population of about 150,000. I have friends in Nenagh who will always drive to Dublin rather than go to Shannon,” he said.

KILLALOE and Ardnacrusha were two of the last stopping posts on a unique 250 km journey undertaken by a 72-year-old sailing enthusiast.

This week, Donald Attig became the first person to row a cruiser, the length of the Shannon, solo.

Even more stirring is that he took

on the challenge to raise money for a little boy on the other side of the (eye

The nine-year-old boy is known only as Tony and was born with no arms and just one almost boneless leg, with two toes. He was discovered by a friend of Donald’s in a Mother Theresa Orphanage in Tamil Nadu in India and despite being so severely

handicapped, Donald says, “he is one of the happiest and loveliest people. He makes friends everywhere and he just oozes such joy. This child is just nine but he has the potential to change the world. With just two toes he has invented a language through which deaf and dumb children at the orphanage can communicate. He speaks Tamill, English and French

and he’s learning German. He wants to be a lawyer,’ Donald told