Category: Uncategorized

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

YOUNG FANS of Artemis Fowl turned out in force in Scariff last week to show what they could con- jure with the help of a camera.

The youngsters came to the library with pictures that they had taken to best represent their favourite charac- ters from the series.

The international best-selling se- ries of books by Eoin Colfer, Ar- temis Fowl, inspired Playstation3 to launch a photographic competition for kids and teens in association with

the Library Council of Ireland and Penguin Books.

The initiative was aimed at eight to 16-year-olds who were asked to get their hands on a digital camera and get snapping and bring the seven million selling series of books to life in a photo.

The results were brought to Scar- iff library – as well as other librar- ies across the county – and uploaded by Playstation3 consoles where they have been stored for the judges to see.

The weird and wonderful photo-

eraphic creations ranged from the abstract to the imaginatively staged and proved that the future of creative photography is secure.

Winners will be announced in Sep- tember with one winner being cho- sen from each participating county council. As well as winning a Play- Station3 console, each of the winners will also receive a once in a lifetime prize of a limited edition copy of an Artemis Fowl book with their own winning image on the cover.

“Playstation and Penguin have linked up to promote the games con-

sole as a device with more than a sole function of playing games. It can also be used to watch movies, upload and listen to music, access the in- ternet and upload, store and browse through photographs,’ a spokesman for the competition organisers said.

SOME 30 Republican Sinn Féin members from all over Munster area staged a white line protest in Ennis on Saturday afternoon.

The protest, which saw the RSF members carry placards and block traffic while walking down the centre of the road, lasted for about an hour. It was designed to highlight Republi- can Sinn Féin prisoners in Maghab- erry Jail which, RSF officials say, are being denied POW status.

“We had a large turnout of mem- bers from the James Connolly and Brugh South branch of Republican

Sinn Féin,’ said Paddy Kenneally of Republican Sinn Féin.

‘The picket was designed to high- light the situation in Maghaberry and was timed to coincide with a simi- lar protest taking place on the Falls Road in Belfast.

“It was a peaceful protest designed to highlight five key demands for the prisoners up there; namely the right of free association, the end to con- trolled movement, the right to full- time education, separate visiting fa- cilities and the right to organise their own landing.”

There was a large Garda presence at the protest.

THE National Roads Authority (NRA) has been accused of target- ing Clare in the number of appeals it has lodged to An Bord Pleandala in relation to proposed homes on the Ennis-Kilrush N67 link.

Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) made the charge after it emerged the NRA lodged an appeal against a council decision to grant planning to Edel Egan for a home at Craggaknock, west Mul- yeaa

Both Cllr Kelly and Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) made representations on behalf of Ms Egan during the plan- ning process and yesterday both ex- pressed their disappointment that the NRA has appealed the decision.

Cllr Kelly said, “I believe that the NRA is targeting Clare in the number of appeals lodged. You trav- el along the road to Galway and you see houses being built on a national secondary route. There is a huge in- consistency there.

“I can’t understand the attitude of

the NRA and it will only result in people being forced to live in viul- lages. Clare has more national sec- ondary routes than any other county in Ireland.”

Cllr Curtin said, “All aspects of the planning application including road safety and local policy had been thoroughly investigated by the coun- cil during the planning process, so I can’t understand why the NRA ap- pealed the decision.”

In its decision, the council ruled that it accorded with proper planning

and wouldn’t seriously injure the amenities of the area having regard to the rural nature of the site, the in- tended use of the proposed building and the policies of the County Devel- opment Plan.

However, in its appeal, the NRA stated, “The proposal, if approved, creates a direct access onto the N67 at a location where the maximum speed limit applies and is at variance with the foregoing national policy in relation to control of frontage devel- opment on national roads.

“The proposed development would endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard due to additional traf- fic movements.”

The NRA also stated that the pro- posal would be contrary to official policy

HEAVY rains resulted in major flooding in Shannon last week and one local sports facility was among the areas heavily affected by the un- seasonal torrential downpour.

When officials from the Newtown soccer club paid a visit to the club’s erounds in Ballycasey, they were surprised but not too shocked at the sight that greeted them.

Four feet of water covered the play- ing surface at Ballycasey turning it from a soccer pitch to a temporary lake. Club chairman Brendan Wall

was among the first to inspect the damage in Thursday morning.

He explained that flooding had been an ongoing issue in the area for some years.

“I knew that after the heavy rain- fall it was probably going to be bad but when I got down to the pitch I was actually surprised at how bad it was. We’ve had flooding here before but never anything as bad as this”.

Wall, Chairman of the Clare Schoolboy Soccer League and a long time member of the Newtown club, said an adjoining stream which runs near the playing pitches, exacerbated

the flooding problem.

“It has happened three times in the past. One of the problems that makes the situation worse is the fact that there is a stream running near the pitch and when that overflows we al- ways have a problem”.

Ballycasey has been the home of Newtown soccer club since 1977 when the club played on land owned by Shannon Development.

21 years later and on the back of a major fundraising campaign, the club moved to its present site in 1998.

Wall, who last night was honored for his lifelong contribution to soc-

cer in Clare said the time has come for Clare County Council to seri- ously address the drainage system in NJetveveleee

“The pumps can’t cope with this amount of rainfall and everyone in Shannon knows this. This problem has been going on for the past few years and its time something was done about it”.

Saturday, August 16th:

THE 2008 Merriman Summer School returns to Ennis next week, the town where it all started 40 years ago.

In that time the school has devel- oped into a major annual forum for debate and discussion. This year’s event continues that tradition by ex- amining the twin themes of continu- ity and change, through the lens of Irish history, from Brian Boru to nu @ubliious

Special focus will be devoted to the life and legacy of former President and EU Commissioner, Dr Patrick J Hillery.

One of Ireland’s most distinguished and effective public servants, Dr Hillery also served for 30 years as patron of Cumann Merriman.

‘Hillery’s Ireland’ takes place in

Glor on Saturday, August 23 and will look at the legacy and achievements of the Spanish Point native.

Dr. John Walsh of TCD, his official biographer, will outline the main contours of the former President’s Tate

John Feeney of RTE will present and comment on his television pro- gramme Dr. Patrick Hillery, Presi- dent, 1976-1990. Fiachra O Ceal- laigh, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, will also share his personal recollec- tions of Dr. Hillery.

Co-hosted by two venues, Glor and the Clare Museum, the Merriman Summer School runs in Ennis from August 17-23

This year’s director is Ennis native Brian O’Dalaigh and again the school has attracted some of the country’s most influential cultural and social commentators.

Topics to be explored include 1m- migration and diversity, the future of the regional economy, the role of traditional music in an increasingly commodified society and modern sexuality. The main focus of the day- time lectures will be on the history of the Thomond region and on County Clare’s various contributions to Irish society. As always, the Merriman Summer School is bilingual, with most of the proceedings in English.

Doctor Brian Maurer, medical di- rector of the Irish Heart Foundation, Ireland’s foremost heart surgeon and another native of Ennis, will offi- cially open the School on August 17. Professor David Fitzpatrick of the School of Histories and Humanities, Trinity College Dublin will give the opening lecture, Politics and Irish Life Revisited at 8.30.

Other Speakers include Marc Cole-

man, economist and media com- mentator, Carmel Wynne and Fintan Valley. Translation of the Midnight Court will be on display in the new Clare County Council offices during the school.

Celebration of the Irish language and traditional music and dance forms an integral part of this year’s Merriman School. Glor plays host to a wide range of performances throughout the week.

Running Beast, the Wednesday evening show, explores the experi- ences of Hugh O’Neill in Rome.

As usual, dancing will feature prominently at the school, with set dancing classes every day and Club Merriman every night. Further de- tails about the 2008 Cumman Mer- riman Summer School are available at WWw.merriman.ie and by email: eolas@merriman.ie