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ENNIS man Brian Howe was among the thousands of climbers who braved the steep climb and awkward terrain to conquer Croagh Patrick last week.

Walking in his bare feet, it took taxi driver Brian close to five hours to reach the summit but at no point did he think about turning back.

Whenever the going got tough, and it was tougher than he had antici- pated, Brian recalled his reason for climbing.

Two of Brian’s friends, Pat Tuttle and Michael McInerney, died six

months ago. When Brian decided to climb Croagh Patrick, he decided to do so in memory of Pat and Brian.

Brian explained, “Michael died on New Years eve. Pat had died a week before. Myself and Pat used to do eve- rything together and I knew Michael through a friend of mine, Catriona. I was glad I made it up there and I was glad I was able to do it for the lads”.

“I’m glad I did it,’ added Brian, ‘When I had it done I was very hap- py, its good to be able to do some- thing to show your appreciation of a lifetime.

Brian first climbed Croagh Patrick

eight years ago but found the climb a whole different proposition this time around.

“T definitely found it a lot harder than the first time I did it. The first time there seemed to be a lot more rocks and boulders that you could hold onto and get across. This time, the stones were a lot looser. It was like gravel, very sharp, and it would cut into your feet. In saying that the weather wasn’t too bad. The rain was kind of misty but it wasn’t too bad.”

Still, at the halfway mark, Brian didn’t think he was going to make it to the top.

“Honestly, I didn’t think I was go- ing to do it. I thought I was going to have to be airlifted down. My feet were in bits. But I kept going and got to the top”.

Brian, who keeps fit by jogging every morning, is keen to return to Mayo next year.

This year’s Reek Sunday event at- tracted close to 20,000 people and was marked by the first ever tel- evised mass on the summit of the 2510ft mountain. The mountain, a place of pagan worship before it was christened by St Patrick, is regarded as one of the holiest sites in Ireland.

NEWLY released figures for the first six months of the contentious Bel- fast Heathrow service show that it is more than 50,000 passengers below the numbers from Shannon for the same period last year.

It is now a year since Aer Lingus announced its controversial move to abandon its Shannon Heathrow serv- ice and transfer the lucrative slots to Belfast.

Figures provided by the UK Civil Aviation Authority show that be- tween January and June, 109,309

used the new Belfast link compared to the 169,999 passengers that used the Shannon-Heathrow link during the same period last year — a differ- ential of 33 per cent.

22,102 passengers used the Bel- fast Heathrow service in June while 32,111 used the Shannon Heathrow service in June 2007.

Overall figures for the first six months show that Aer Lingus has se- cured only 10 per cent of the Beltfast- Heathrow service and are now offer- ing seats for free excluding taxes and airport charges during August in a bid to boost passenger numbers.

An Aer Lingus spokesman said the airline had a load factor of 74 per cent during July on its Belfast Hea- throw service and the Belfast base is expected to be profitable by the end of the year.

BMI is Aer Lingus’ sole rival on the Heathrow route with the UK- owned airline flying 219,512 passen- gers from January to May this year which is 132,215 passengers more than Aer Lingus.

The figures show that Aer Lingus passenger numbers are on an upward trend going from 17,520 in its first full month of service in February to VOU OAM lb ier

The Aer Lingus decision to end its Heathrow link resulted in Shannon experiencing a 16 per cent loss of 57,000 on London routes for the first six half of this year.

A spokesman for Aer Lingus workers at Shannon said the figures confirmed that the decision by Aer Lingus management to abandon Shannon and move to Belfast where there was an already saturated mar- ket was a bad commercial decision.

At a Dail Transport Committee last month, Aer Lingus chief executive, Dermot Mannion said he regretted the damage caused to the airline’s reputation in the Shannon last year, adding that they had not ruled out future short-haul operations from Shannon.

CLARE is in the top one third of county’s benefiting from CLAR funding for non-national roads.

The local authority will receive a total of €376,399.43 for improve- ments to the county’s road infra- Seu llelauh ica

The CLAR programme is a target- ed investment programme for rural areas that suffered more than a 35 per cent drop in population between Por: tierce ee

Under its 208 programme a sum of €3 million each is being provided by the Department of Transport and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs for works to local secondary and tertiary roads in these specially designated areas.

Minister of State Tony Killeen said that Clare County Council’s alloca- tion was determined by the county’s percentage of the total population in CLAR areas.

“The grant allocation will enable the local authority to fund local sec- ondary and tertiary roads projects. The council may also use the funds to replace, widen or strengthen bridges on local secondary and local tertiary roads, subject to the prior approval of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government,’ he said.

“The funding announcement is concrete proof that the Government is determined to revitalise declining rural areas. Significant progress has been made in recent years in terms of improving national infrastructure.”

A CENTRE that could potentially become a major tourist attraction in Shannon has been a hive of activity during its first fortnight in operation. The Atlantic Air Venture has opened its doors in Smithstown, Shannon, following more than two years of oe-vevenerce

The facility has held aviation sum- mer camps since it opened and is ex- pected to become a haven for tourists over the coming months.

Its current facilities include an aviation education centre and a flight simulator. It is expected to acquire a second flight simulator in October, while plans are also underway for the

construction of a museum on site.

The initiative is the brainchild of Ballycally resident Eddie Ryan, a former aircraft electronics engineer. Project development director Jane McGill said the first couple of weeks have been hugely successful.

“We have something very different and very unusual and will be the start of Shannon’s Aviation Museum,” she Sr NLGE

She said the remit of the centre is set to expand over the coming months, as educational programmes will possibly be set up.

“The feedback has been great. Everybody is very interested in the project. The children have really enjoyed the summer camps, making

models, using flight simulators and learning about meteorology. We are trying to push the sciences and the maths subjects in a really nice way,” said Ms McGill.

“In September we will hook up with schools and transition year pro- grammes. This will including bring- ing young people up to the air traffic control tower and they will have a point of contact that they haven’t had before,” she explained.

“This is the start of something big for Shannon. If we get to where we want in five years, it will be a major tourist attraction,’ she said.

Management will also look at the possibility of hosting children’s par- ties and various social events. “One

of the big things will be to encourage women in aviation. It has been such a man’s world in aviation,” she said.

The summer camps are continuing to take place at the centre, until the end of August.

The camps are open to eight to 12-year-olds from 10am to lpm and those over 12 can enroll for the af- ternoon sessions, from 2pm to 5pm. The cost 1s €75 per person for the (ste) ©

THE big winner in Shannon losing its ‘stop-over’ status to the United States is Dublin Airport according to the lat- est figures where Shannon has lost 10 per cent of the market share of trans- atlantic traffic.

Confirming the gloomy predictions that Dublin would profit at the expense of Shannon in an Open Skies environ- ment, figures for the first six months show that Dublin Airport increased its transatlantic traffic by a whopping 36 per cent or 206,000 to 820,000.

Full Open Skies was introduced at the end of March and figures provided by the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) from January to June show that the numbers of the transatlantic routes has dropped from 325,438 in 2007 to 262,858 — a drop of 19 per cent.

The figures show that Dublin has in- creased its market share of the trans- atlantic market from 65 per cent to 75 per cent in the first six months of this year while Shannon has seen a corol- lary decline going down from 35 per cent to 25 per cent.

The advent of Open Skies however has seen an overall increase of 8.8 per cent in the transatlantic market and the SAA will be looking to increase its market share in the upcoming years having predicted an initial drop in transatlantic traffic.

The figures showing the DAA prof- iting from Open Skies continues a pattern of other State-owned airports taking advantage of Shannon’s diffi- culties.

The decision by Aer Lingus to end its London Heathrow route from last January has resulted in a drop of 16 per cent or 57,000 for the first six months on London routes on last year’s figure.

However, the main beneficiaries to Shannon losing the Heathrow route the Cork Airport Authority (CAA) which has enjoyed a 13.5 per cent increase on its London Heathrow service, going from 224,669 for the first six months of last year to 255,000 from January to June this year.

In its traffic figures, the DAA also announced that passenger through- put at Dublin Airport exceeded 11.3 million for the first six months of the Merle

Fine Gael TD, Joe Carey said yes- terday that the figures are a huge con- cern. “The transatlantic market has been very good to the local economy over the years. It is disappointing that the Government didn’t invest in the €53 million economic and tourism plan. That would have resulted in a huge amount of marketing, but instead of the €53 million, all that was re- ceived was €3 million for the west of Ireland,” he said.

LAHINCH lifeboat co-ordinator Tomsie O’Sullivan has denied that his volunteers were hampered in their efforts to rescue drowning vic- tim, Fiona Ring at the Clare resort last Tuesday.

The 39-year-old mother, who was a native of Broadford, died after get-

ting into difficulty while surfing with her husband and nine-year old son. Mr O’Sullivan said he was aware of widespread rumours that some- one had left equipment blocking the boathouse doors and the slipway. ‘That is not the case. Our biggest problem was to keep onlookers away from the slipway and to keep the way clear of cars for the boat to get

through.”

He agreed however that three peo- ple were enlisted to help lift the se- curity barrier protecting equipment and materials being used in the con- struction of the lifeguard station.

“The barrier didn’t obstruct us but to make it safer for the Doolin boat, we moved the barrier by sliding it over a couple of feet,” he said.

He got the call-out from Valentia at 9.30pm but was first asked by them to go to the beach to establish if the emergency was genuine.

“Doolin rescue had already been alerted and were on stand-by to launch once we had established it was a genuine call,” he said.

A NORTH Clare business has just won two “food Oscars” for it’s selec- tion of smoked salmon. Birgitta Hed- in-Curtin of the Burren Smokehouse in Lisdoonvarna, returned from Lon- don last week with two gold prizes from the prestigious Great Taste Award 2008.

The awards, which are known as the “food Oscars” were presented to the smokehouse for its Hot Smoked Irish Organic Salmon with Honey and Dill and Superior Farmed Smoked Irish Salmon products.

“We are delighted with this award. Winning a Great Taste Award rec- ognizes the craft and dedication that goes into making superb food and drink,” said Birgitta.

“We only use the finest of salmon from the west coast of Ireland. When you start with a quality product all you have to do is to enhance it with our slow oak smoking and low salt content.

“The honey, lemon and dill mari- nade is very complimentary to the organic salmon adding a fresh herb and natural zangy flavours.”

Besides the recognition of your

peers, winning a Great Taste Award is recognised as one of the most powerful tools to help grow business in the speciality food sector.

In just three weeks last September, the excitement created by the 2007 results increased sales to the tune of €640,000 in 524 guild members’ stores.

Founded in 1989, the Burren Smokehouse is a family business run in Lisdoonvarna by Peter and Bir- gitta Curtin.

SIXMILEBRIDGE has gone inter- national – in the shape of a balloon. A helium balloon which was released GLUT N Toa NACoMM DUE ToM MEK COONMmmCIUIOONDELoIA festival made its way to Italy, while another flew all the way to France, much to the amusement of the organ- isers.

The balloons were among a batch of 500 released into the air during the festival on July 20. Each balloon had

a plastic label attached, with direc- tions to return it to the local Bridge Complex.

While one balloon made its way to Scotland two years ago, no one could have envisaged that any balloon would make its way as far afield as France or Italy this year.

‘About four days after the race we got one back from France. We couldn’t believe it came all the way back from France, then last week another came back from Italy,” explained one of the

festival organisers, Vicky Ward.

“Tt was just so exciting that it went to Italy. In fact the man who sent it back found it the day after the race. We were really excited that it went to Scotland two years ago and now this,” she laughed.

However the identity of the person who bought the balloon at the festi- val for €5 – and who stands to win a Smyth’s toyshop voucher, along with a place in the history of Sixmilebri- dge, no doubt – will not be revealed

until the deadline for the return of the balloons on September 1.

“We are leaving it until September | and we will then look at what balloon went furthest and whoever owns it is the winner. If one went to Italy, there might be another,’ said Ms Ward, with optimism.

This was the third balloon race in Sixmilebridge and given the excite- ment of this year’s event, it undoubt- edly will continue to be a significant part of the festival in the future.

THE west Clare village of Carriga- holt was in shock yesterday as news spread that a local teenager was the latest victim of the county’s roads.

Just weeks before she was due to receive her Leaving Certificate re- sults, Tace Gould-Duff died when the car she was driving collided with another vehicle in Dough, Kilkee.

The 19-year-old St Joseph’s second- ary school student was on a break from her job in Hayes Supermarket Kilkee when tragedy struck at 4.15 pm on Sunday afternoon.

It is believed that Tace, who moved to Carrigaholt from England with her family a number of years ago, died instantly. The occupants of the other car – a husband and wife -were removed to the Mid Western Re- gional Hospital Ennis with injuries

described “as not life threatening”. Shocked locals, yesterday paid tribute to the well-respected young woman they described as “popular”, and “a girl with a great personality”. Mayor of Clare Madeleine Taylor Quinn said the sympathy of the com- munity was with Tace’s family. “Tt is an unnecessary loss of a life that had a huge potential,” she said. Her grieving parents Kate and Sean were in England on holiday at the time of the tragedy and were due back in the country yesterday after- noon. She is also survived by her two brothers, Davis and Brennan. Friends of the Carrigaholt girl were being contacted yesterday and of- fered assistance and counselling. Gardai are still investigating the circumstances that led to the fatal accident.

SINEAD Garvey is a woman on a mission. Her mission, and she has decided to accept it, 1s to find herself some grain in County Clare.

As climate instability and the glo- bal switch to bio-fuels continues to drive food costs through the roof, the Inagh woman is attempting a world first: to create a banquet for 300 peo- ple featuring food grown exclusively btm Oat buss

A simple task you might think but, as Sinéad has discovered, one with many unseen challenges. While the county is undoubtedly self sufficient in beef and milk, there is precious little tillage and, so far at least, no wheat or grain to make any flour or py usreXOe

“The first problem that we came across was that there was no sugar – but we were able to find some Clare produced honey so that will work Okay. The next thing that we discov- ered was that there is no oil. There isn’t a bit of oil anywhere in the county so we will have to use butter for everything instead,” she said.

“The whole thing started to be like a bit of a treasure hunt. I have been scratching my head, along with the chef, trying to figure out what we would be missing – the one we couldn’t get away from is bread. Clare has a load of excellent bak- ers, but there is just no one growing wheat that we can use.

“We are really struggling on the bread issue and if anyone out there knows of any we would love to hear from them. Bread is our staple – we have bread with everything. So we are still looking and you never know, we might just find enough grain to make some bread.

“They must have grown bread in Clare not so long ago. There must have been mills in Miltown Malbay and in lots of other places I’m sure – so there must have been something erown locally.”

With the growth of family gardens and home farmers markets in recent years, Sinéad has already lined up a number of Clare producers willing to supply the food.

“When I started, the first thing I needed to do was find was a chef. I met a friend of mine from Shannon, who has been a chef for more than 20 years down in Kinsale. His name 1s Jim O’Brien and he said he would do

it. At the moment he is helping out at an organic farm so he is getting a feel for every aspect of the local pro- duce,’ continued Sinéad.

“A lot of farmers markets have sprouted up all over the country and people are beginning to recognise the benefits of growing our food locally. It’s becoming a real social WebNeTSar R/S) 0B

‘People are coming out to the mar- kets, buying their food, and having a good chat with people. That beats walking around a big supermarket in silence as far as I am concerned. It’s a real social occasion for the people who come to the market.

“It is expensive, there is no denying that. People are getting more aware of local food but there are still a lot of people, who have a lot of kids, and

they just can’t afford to do it. The thing is that the more people who decide to buy locally, the cheaper it will get.

‘Peoples tastes are changing. I re- member when I was selling goat’s cheese in the market ten years ago you could tell that eight out of every 10 people wouldn’t like the taste of it. But now everyone likes goats cheese – it’s become a lot more normal for people.”

The Clare Banquet will take place in the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon on September 19. The banquet, which will strictly use only products grown in Clare, is a fundraising event for the Asral Charity, an Irish-based or- ganisation that works poor people in Mongolia.

“I was trying to think of a new idea,

something that would be that bit dif- ferent. Originally I had thought that we could run some sort of Clare har- vest – something with food only from the county. I heard that the average meal travels 23,000 miles before it lands on our plate. I started talking to people about the idea and people really seem to like it,” she said.

‘Everyone who works for the char- ity is a volunteer, so every penny that the charity gets goes directly to the people who need it. It’s a very for- wards thinking charity. We have set up a number of craft businesses over in Mongolia so the local people can make and sell their own garments. A lot of these garments will be on dis- play on the night so people can get a feel for what they do.”

The Clare Banquet will feature mu-

sical entertainment from the legen- dary Tommy People among others.

Potential food suppliers are asked to contact Sinéad on 085 7607037 as soon as possible. Tickets, at a cost of €50, are available from Sinéad, the Falls Hotel on 065 7071004 and Un- glert’s Bakery in Ennistymon.