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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

that this was the fifth time the sewers in his six-year-old house have been blocked due to rainfall since he moved in there years ago.

On Wednesday last water in the sewers close to his home reached the top, so he was unable to flush his to1- oi

“With all the rain I thought this might happen so I flushed one of the toilets and the water came up to meet me, it had no where to go.”

Two days later just one of the three toilets in the house could be used and then not very often, according to Pe- om

During the torrential rain he had five adult guests from France and two children staying at his home.

“It was very hard to have to tell them that they could not flush the toilets or that they should go to the pub,” he said.

The washing machine and dish- washer were also out of bounds.

Peter said the direct translation of the name of the estate is brown mash and he believed he would be living in

just that if the flooding continued.

Shannon County Councillor Ger- ry Flynn (Ind) believes not just the heavy rainfall caused the flooding in Shannon but an infrastructure defi- ole

“Thousands of homes were built and the people that bought them now can’t flush their toilets. “The writ- ing has been on the wall for years. We knew if we had major floods we were in trouble. The drainage system just cannot cope,’ he added. “If it is a thing that we cannot sustain a few hours of torrential rain without all this damage it is terrible,” he said.

He said that a council policy of in- sisting that houses are built below road level was further exasperating the problem.

Meanwhile a Clare County Coun- cil spokesperson said that Shannon coped well compared to other areas in the country hit by similar rainfall in the past week.

As workers travelled home some roads had to be closed and diversions put in place including at Minister’s Cross. “Land adjoining roads was discharging water so quickly that the drains could not cope,” he said.

From 4.45pm on Wednesday two See Seige Seitalmecanee ees e nis and Shannon fire service worked until midnight relieving flooding, putting up signs and distributing sand bags. The council contractors responsible for the pump houses – Response Engineering – worked all yen rea

THE Health Service Executive has given a clean bill of health to a Crat- loe-based nursing home – but only after an earlier inspection produced a critical report on aspects of its op- eration earlier this year.

After an unannounced inspection in March, the HSE found that best practice was not being implemented in a number of areas in the operation of the 40 bed Sancta Maria nursing home at Cratloe.

The report found that the deficien- cies appeared to be due to insuffi- cient staff numbers, but also reflect- ed inadequate supervision of work

practices.

However the HSE report concluded that the inspection team considered that the nursing home had a good standard of management.

The report found that on the day of inspection, several beds were made up with stained, crumpled and untidy linen and recommended that those beds to be remade using fresh linen.

“Accommodation in some _ bed- rooms was quite congested, making cleaning, nursing duties and circula- tion in those rooms somewhat diffi- cult. A redistribution of beds within the home is recommended.”

The report suggested that “a suffi- cient number of competent staff are

on duty at all times having regard to the number of persons maintained and the extent of their dependency”’.

This followed the inspectors dis- covering that care attendants do the laundry in the nursing home.

‘This is inappropriate, as it reduces their availability to residents: their role should be solely in providing di- rect patient care. Many areas within the nursing home, particularly in the older part of the building and the kitchen, were poorly and inadequate- ly cleaned.”

The HSE recorded that the previ- ous inspection in August of last year found the nursing home to be “sub- stantially compliant with current

nursing home inspectorate regula- tions at the time of inspection”.

A spokesman for the nursing home said that the building was undergo- Thovcmmaet-y(O) Mm Kos AUDMOyEJevON(oUO MEI ME ROCoMmBD Dele of the HSE inspection earlier this year and has since had two inspec- tions where the HSE found it to be fully in compliance.

He said that all the requirements from the first HSE report this year had been complied with.

‘Before the March inspection, we never had a breach. This is a family run home and we maintain the high- est of standards. We get a lot of re- peat business and if families weren’t happy, they wouldn’t return.”

MEN and women from Clare who fought in foreign conflicts will be honoured and remembered at a cer- emony in Ennis next month.

The event is being organised by the Wild Geese, an organisation that seeks to highlight the sacrifices made by Irish soldiers in conflicts through- out history.

Plans are being made for a wreath laying ceremony, followed by a pa- rade, to be held in September.

In all 528 men and women from Clare have fought and died in for-

eign conflicts. The majority of those would have served with the Brit- ish Army while it is estimated that around 100 Clare people served with the United States military.

The ceremony will also recognise the important contribution made by Irish soldiers to United Nation peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and other conflict zones.

Organisers hope that the upcoming ceremony will provide those who fought an opportunity to share their experiences.

Ennis native and Wild Geese mem- ber, John Shanahan explained that

the organisation aims to acknowl- edge, what he believes, is a part of Irish history that people aren’t too familiar with.

‘These men paid the ultimate sac- rifice and that has often gone un- noticed. Its something that a lot of people wouldn’t be aware of, the sacrifice Irish soldiers have made in wars. People mightn’t agree exactly with what people have done but as a strictly non-political organisation, we are trying to tell a story from a soldier’s point of view”’.

Shanahan said that the organisation also seeks to help soldiers and fami-

lies to re-adjust to life after war.

“It can be difficult for people when they come back and we want to get the message out there to families, that we are available to provide help and assistance. Unfortunately, there isn’t much talk about this in Ire- land”. He added, “What many peo- ple mightn’t understand is that there were a lot of reasons for people en- listing in armies. If you look at the history, Irish men would have joined the British army because they had to. A lot of these guys had families to support and there were very few jobs around at the time”.

NEW JOBS are on the way for Shannon in a welcome good news announcement from a Smithstown even er DENA

Bolgers, a leading supplier of fabri- cated products from has completed a €4.5 million expansion and plans to increase it’s workforce by 25 per cent by the end of 2009.

The firm recently completed the building and commissioning of a second production facility at their base in Smithstown. Capital expend- iture on the investment was €4 mil-

lion which has brought total invest- ment on their Shannon site to €10 million.

Currently, Bolgers employ 75 peo- ple. It is forecasted that this will increase to 85 people by the end of this year and to 100 by the close of paulo?

The firm contributes in excess of €2.5 million per annum to the local economy.

Jan Bolger, the firm’s joint manag- ing director, said the move will allow them to launch a range of new serv- ices, including laser-profiling.

“Our success is a result of anticipat-

ing and responding to our customers’ needs and keeping our organisational capability aligned with the market.”, he said.

Bolgers have a turnover of €10 mil- lion, with approximately 87 per cent made up of export sales. This is up from 60 per cent in 2006. In the last two years, the acclaimed fabrication company has more than doubled in size. At present, they are experienc- ing strong growth in export markets, particularly Northern Ireland and the 1S

In March this year, Bolgers became the first European fabrication com-

pany to receive Silver Certificate for Caterpillar’s Supplier Quality Excel- lence Process (SQEP).

Caterpillar introduced this stand- ard in response to rising warranty costs. As a result, the company in- troduced the SQEP standard for all international suppliers.

Currently, Bolgers is the only Eu- ropean fabrication supplier to be recognised by Caterpillar with its ‘silver’ level certification.

“This 1s a tremendous achievement due to the hard selection criteria in place”, a spokesman for the company said.

WEST Clare has seen little commer- cial development under the current area development plan during a time of national prosperity.

According to Eilis O Nuallain, from the Forward Planning Section of Clare County Council there was a lack of applications for commercial planning permission since the area plan was enacted in March 2003.

“Within a period of growth it is strange that we didn’t get more com- mercial applicants within the settle- ments,” she said.

The planning expert was addressing a special meeting of the Kilrush area

councillors called to address the new west Clare area plan. The new plan must be adopted by March 2009, and the draft in place by September 25.

“It does seem that west Clare is not capturing what it should given its ad- vantage,” said Ms O Nuallain.

She told the councillors as part of her research she examined all of the planning permission requests in west Clare to see where the pressure points were.

“In situations where there was no pressure is it worth having land zoned?” she asked.

There are 36 settlements and five clusters in west Clare.

“If a cluster has not preformed or

developed in the period of a plan we need to discuss it. Leaving is as it is not doing any good,’ she said.

Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) asked for a document outlining all the flood planes and storm drains in the area to be provided before the councillors agreed to any new plan.

Rezoning of land was also an issue of concern to council members.

“We need to take a serious look at what is zoned. There is land out in Cree that will never be sold and there are areas trying to develop,’ he said.

Director of Services and Kilrush Town Manager, Bernadette Kinsella assured the councillors that the plan would be the “members plan” and

the council officials would imple- ment it “whether we agree with all of it or not”’.

The west Clare area is now invited to have its say on the 2003 plans and how it worked or more importantly didn’t. On August 26, 27 and 28 council officials will be in Kilkee, Kildysat and Kilmhil to meet with the public to discuss the old plan and how the 2009 plan may work more SLUGS AUU DAY

People are invited to “drop in” be- tween 7.30pm and 9pm at locations yet to be organised and to make sug- gestions.

A draft plan will then be drawn up and the plan will go on display.

A NEW youth group in Ennis aims to assist young people to resist out- side influences and establish their own values.

That’s the message from the lo- cal Baha’i community members of whom started a two week project in Ennis at the weekend.

The aim is to make junior youth groups more widely available.

These groups, which are open to young people aged twelve to four- teen, are an initiative of the Baha’i

Faith and are a core activity offered worldwide by the Baha’is as a service to humanity.

Young people from County Clare and other parts of Ireland gathered to undertake training in running a Junior Youth Group and as part of their training they will invite the lo- cal Ennis Junior Youth to participate in some short taster sessions with the objective of setting up a regular Junior Youth Group starting in Sep- tember.

The materials used in junior youth eroups are Baha‘ inspired but are not

specifically religious. Through study of the materials, service projects and other activities the groups are de- signed to empower young people to express themselves and to see them- selves as transformers of their own characters and of society.

Junior youth groups have been in1- tiated in all parts of the world, meet- ing with great success in diverse locations from Ennis to Mongolia to Australia. Fourteen year old Jani Song from Perth in Australia, who participated in a junior youth group, had this to say, “When you’re in high

school, you see the popular, or cool group and they often take drugs. You see people drinking or doing other sorts of stuff. And you kind of just want to do it because you want to fol- low the crowd.”

Anyone interested in finding out what a group is like, introductory sessions will be hosted during the second week of the project at Cois na hAbhna, Gort Road, Ennis in the afternoons. For further information on participating in the junior youth group, contact Maria McNamara at 086 3613162.