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THE housing slowdown in Clare continues with new figures from the Department of the Environ- ment showing that there were just eight new house registrations for the month of June.

The figures show that there were 98 new house registrations this year compared with 98 new house regis- trations for all of June last year.

[Hustrating the downturn, last year’s figures show there were 145 new house registrations in February; 167 in March and 129 in May. The mas-

sive drop in new house registrations is expected to feed into the number of new house completions next year.

There were 95 new house comple- tions in June and this compares with 159 completions for June 2007. For the first half of this year, there were 1,095 homes completed while there were 1,452 homes completed in the first six months of last year.

The June performance was not the worst return for the year to date in terms of new house registrations. In April, there were just two house registrations while in January there (tom UNL oe

The collapse in new house registra- tions coincides with an Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council embargo on new housing develop- ments in Ennis and its environs be- cause of the inadequate sewage in- JG u-F OMe CeLAUD Kes

In spite of the downturn and the drop off in demand for new houses, developers have warned the council of the economic impact of the failure to accommodate new housing.

In a submission to the local author- ity, local developers claim that de- spite more than ten years of unprec- edented development and growth in

and around Ennis, we are now left in a situation that the area is being choked by a chronic lack of capacity in the wastewater treatment system.

“Although the Ennis main drain- age is being progressed, the obvious deficiencies in the current infrastruc- ture, which include storm water in- filtration into sewer network, lack of treatment capacity and capacity in the pump station network have been ignored for far too long.

“The effect of no development op- portunities caused by this infrastruc- ture shortfall will be widespread,” the developers warn.

THERE was music ringing around the hills of east Clare last week as upwards of 6,000 people came to the town for the six days of events.

Workshops were high on the list this year for visiting musicians sing- ers and dancers.

Gary Pepper, one of the driving forces behind the annual Feakle event, said that enquiries about this year’s musical extravaganza came from all corners of the globe.

“We had people from Japan, which has happened before as there are a couple of local people married to Japanese people. We’ve had people on from the continent and this year

we’ve had enquiries from Denmark and Holland too.”

Every other sector dealing with US visitors has reported a complete slump this year and, said Gary, the festival is no different.

“We saw very few Americans. Other years, there would be a lot of them interested in traditional music, but they don’t seem to be travelling this year,” Gary

But for foreign visitors and Irish people alike, the six days of music proved to be a huge success.

It was officially opened last Wednesday and the organisers used the event to pay tribute to renowned local flute player Paddy O’Donogue. A well-respected musician and com-

poser Paddy recently released a cd of his music with his son Cyril.

Eurovision winner Eimear Quinn performed in the community cen- tre while the concert in St Mary’s Church featured Frankie Gavin and Roisin Elsafty.

TG4 Musician of the Year and lo- cal legend Martin Hayes together with Dennis Cahill were a big draw and the gala concert featured Ceide, Tulla favourite Andrew McNamara and Rob Stein. The workshops con- tinue to be very popular and attend- ance has increased yearly.

As well as the usual classes, for the first time this year, there were four new workshops, for whistle, begin- ner’s concertina, sean nos dancing

and a one-day workshop in tradition- al song writing.

And there was plenty for those who came to listen rather than perform music, with sessions all week in the marquee and in the bars.

“It went very well and we were pleased with the turnout. We’d ex- pected the biggest numbers ever and it’s great to see that the Feakle Fes- tival is getting a name in even more countries abroad,’ said Gary.

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

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