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BRITISH anglers, who were once one of the mainstays of the year- round tourism business in Clare, have become a disappearing species.

In years past, happy fishermen and women from the UK and further afield could be seen on the shores of Clare’s many lakes and rivers sport- ing tight lines in every season.

TJ O’Brien of TJ’s Angling in Balli- na/Killaloe says this 1s the worst of his 15 years in business.

“Visiting anglers have all but disap- peared. It was common in years past that a group of anglers would come from a week or a couple of weeks as mates on a fishing holiday and come back again later in the year for a fam- ily holiday. Now, if they come at all, we re seeing them come for a couple of days fishing and they go elsewhere

for the family holiday”.

With his business heavily reliant on visiting anglers, TJ has been anxious to find out what has prompted the Keren labuee

“We’ve asked those who have re- turned and a lot of them say access has become a problem. The loss of the Heathrow slot has certainly ex- acerbated things. They also say that things here have become very expen- sive and that is a factor, along with exchange rate changes.”

Rita Boner has been running a bed and breakfast business in Killaloe for the past 30 years and she is also seeing her quietest summer.

“There is no angling business any more. In the last four or five years, we’ve seen fewer and fewer anglers, and this year I can count the numbers on the fingers of one hand. I have one gentleman who comes every few

weeks and stays for a couple of days, but my doors would have closed a long time ago if I was relying on the angling business.”

She believes a combination of factors are keeping anglers away. ‘“There’s currency rates, and air fares are so cheap that people are just go- ing to the sun,” she said.

Aside from those UK anglers who used to come to Clare via Heathrow, Rita does not think she has lost fur- ther business because of the cessa- tion of the route.

“T wouldn’t normally have gotten a lot of business through Heathrow, but things are desperately quiet general- ly. We should be full – it’s the second week of July but we’re not.”

TO coincide with the celebration of the ancient festival of Lughnasadh, the Mountshannon-based Mogh Roith Historical Re-enactment Soci- ety are taking visitors to Craggauno- wen several steps back in time.

The ancient Festival of Lughnasadh honoured the Celtic God Lugh and celebrates the arrival of the harvest season.

On August 3 and 4 there will be displays demonstrating various apsects of Ireland’s history and herit- age from different time periods, with

showcase events such as a Brehon Law Trial and a hand-to-hand com- bat demonstration.

There will be a Bronze Age dem- onstration at the fulacht fia featuring re-enactors in Bronze Age costume, demonstrating and discussing as- pects of Bronze Age technology and lifestyle.

The Iron Age display will be at the Crannog, and will cover the La Tene period of Irish archaeology, when Celtic art, religion and language first entered the country.

As well as a range of weapons and tools, there will be costumed re-en-

actors demonstrating period musical instruments, stone-carving, cooking, weaving and dyeing.

Described as Ireland’s Golden Age, the Early Christian period display will demonstrate a range of aspects of life from 8th century Ireland, in- cluding ancient hurling and board- games, textile production, bread making, weapons and manuscript illustration

The medieval display at the castle will showcase Ireland’s medieval pe- riod, and feature demonstrations of tapestry, spinning and embroidery, and will offer the braver visitors a

chance to explore the weapons and armour of the Anglo-Norman and native Gaelic warriors and soldiers who once inhabited Craggaunowen or TS Aer

The time-travel goes on each day from llam to 5pm.

PRESSURE continues to mount on Ennis Town Council to solve parking difficulties caused by ongoing con- struction work in the Parnell Street car park.

Traders and taxi drivers operating in the area say that the reduction in car-parking space brought about as a result of the works is contributing to a gradual but noticeable decline in business activity.

Figures put forward be representa- tives of the Parnell Street Trader’s association at the July meeting of Ennis Town Council suggested that as many as 13 businesses have closed in recent months.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) commenced work on the upper section of the Ennis Flood Relief Scheme two months ago.

The main works include the con- struction of new river walls and three dedicated surface water pumping stations at Island car park, Parnell Street car park and Mill Road

Brendan Rochford owner of Roch- ford’s pharmacy located on Parnell Street, said the loss of 26 parking spaces is having a major impact on the area.

He said, “The work that is being done is needed and 1s definitely wel- come but there is no doubt that it has created definate obstacles for busi- eas

“If the Council were able to provide alternative areas for parking within the town for staff then that would free up quite a lot of space for cus- events) ace

John Dillane, owner of Banner Motor Factors said, ““We are not the town planners. The responsibility

for solving ongoing problems with parking in Ennis should not lie solely 21 eb eae

He added, “I know they are talk- ing about freeing up the top level of car park in Dunnes, but how is that meant to help customers who are shopping in Parnell Street?”

Taxi driver Martin White said that further meetings are being sought with the council.

Council officials recently ruled out the prospect of temporarily relocat- ing the taxi rank in Parnell street to another site in Ennis.

The council has however agreed to open 30 parking spaces in Waterpark house on Saturdays.

Meanwhile, planning restrictions mean it is unlikely that the former site of Western Garages on the Mill road would be made available for parking.

FORMER Killaloe-based doctor, Paschal Carmody, has been acquit- ted of 14 charges of deception and false pretences, at the end of a five- week trial at Ennis Circuit Court.

Mr Carmody (60), of Ballycugga- ran, Killaloe, had pleaded not guilty to 25 charges, relating to six cancer patients and their relatives, between September 2001 and October 2002.

He had denied obtaining money by falsely pretending that he would cure six terminally ill cancer pa- tients through photodynamic therapy (Cae

At the end of six-and-a-half hours deliberations last Thursday evening, the jury of eight men and three

women found him not guilty of six charges and returned verdicts of dis- agreement on 11 charges. Trial Judge Rory McCabe had directed the jury to find Mr Carmody not guilty on eight other charges.

The judge discharged the jury at the end of the trial, which had heard from 64 witnesses; 49 for the pros- ecution and 15 for the defence, over 20 days.

Judge McCabe adjourned the case relating to the 11 charges in which disagreements were recorded until September 29 next, at Ennis Circuit Court. The matter will go back to the office of the Director of Public Pros- ecutions, who will decide whether a retrial on the 11 charges – which relate to more than €30,000 in pay-

ments – will take place at a later date.

During its deliberations, the 11- person jury sought clarifications on a number of issues. They asked who ordered the photosensitising drug for John James Gallagher, if William Porter was not a licensed practitioner at the time and also asked where it was stored.

In response to these queries, the judge told them, “There is no evi- dence as to where the photosensitiser was stored… There is no evidence as to who ordered the drug.”

The jury also noted that letters be- tween Dr Carmody’s wife and Dr Porter had not been included among the exhibits and asked could they be read out.

Judge McCabe told them, “We de- cided the letters wouldn’t be exhibits for legal reasons. Disregard them.”

The jury retired shortly after lunch on Wednesday. After hearing that it had not reached unanimous decisions by 6.20pm that evening, the judge sent them to a hotel for the night.

The deliberations resumed on Thursday morning, when the jury sought to watch a video of the East Clinic. Just before lunchtime on Thursday, the jury indicated that it would not be in a position to agree on everything and asked the judge would a majority verdict be accept- re

Judge McCabe addressed that issue immediately after lunch and asked the jury had it reached unanimous

decisions in relation to any counts. The foreman indicated that it had, on some of the counts and the judge then gave the jury the option of a 10:1 ma- jority verdict on the other charges.

Over two hours later, at 4.45pm, the jury was told it was open to them to disagree, where there was no pros- pect of reaching a decision. The jury delivered its verdicts on all counts at 5.20pm.

The verdicts brought tears for the families of John Sheridan, John James Gallagher and Conor O’Sullivan, while a supporter of Pas- chal Carmody clapped at the back of the tense courtroom. Asked did he wish to comment as he left Ennis courthouse an hour later, Mr Carmo- dy simply replied, “No thank you.”

A SPEND of €5.5 million has been put up this year to tempt tourists into the Shannon region and the West of Ireland, before counting money spent by Failte Ireland on attracting visi- tors.

The Discover Ireland’s Wonderful West US campaign has been funded to the tune of €3 million while Shan- non Development have more than doubled their promotional budget, bringing their spend to ©2.5 million this year.

In a statement on the crisis in the tourism trade in the wake of the Heathrow slots going and the imple-

mentation of Open Skies, Shannon Development chairman, John Brassil said that it has to be recognised that this is a difficult tourism year.

“Recognising that, Shannon De- velopment, in conjunction with the tourism and travel industry, is imple- menting a number of actions to se- cure tourism business for the Shan- non Region.”

In the UK market he said, the de- velopment company is “working with Ryanair and the Irish Hotels Federa- tion on a €500,000 tourism adver- tising campaign. In addition to this we also undertook a €200,000 UK TV ad campaign in May this year in partnership with Shannon Airport

and Tourism Ireland which reached a UK audience of over 20 million. We are also working with the Irish Ho- tels Federation to put a major push on selling Shannon Region based short break holidays through the short breaks website www.shortbreaksire- land.ie, and we are working closely with our colleagues in Failte Ireland, Tourism Ireland and airlines to sup- port direct air access routes into the uss) 0F

He added that Shannon Develop- ment has signed agreements with a number of airlines and tourism op- erators to drive additional bed nights to the Shannon region.

“One of these campaigns has al-

ready resulted in 20,000 additional bednights from the US this year. In addition to this, Shannon Develop- ment is working with Tourism Ire- land in association with other tour- ism authorities along Ireland’s west coast on the ‘Discover Ireland’s Wonderful West’ campaign, a ©3 million marketing campaign in the US designed to boost business to the Shannon Airport catchment area post-Open Skies.

Among the initiatives already un- derway as part of this campaign are; US print, radio and online advertis- ing with carriers, tour operators and industry partners, special promo- tions,” said Brassil.

FORMER hostage and East Belfast born author, Brian Keenan will be the official guest of honour at the opening of the Scariff Harbour Fes- tival on Friday evening, August | at 6.30pm at Scariff Marina.

His presence affirms the festival’s now well-established links with Northern Ireland and its essential focus to forge new cross border re- lationships at cultural, political and community levels.

Mike Rodgers, chairman of Scariff Harbour Festival Committee, said that Brian Keenan’s visit to Scariff 1s “indicative of the festival’s commit- ment to fostering on-going relation- ships with all aspects of Northern

Ireland life.”

He added, “For the past five years our guests of honour have come from the north as have the many acts in- cluded in its line-up of events.”

On Saturday, August 2 at 3pm at Scariff Library, Brian will read from his soon to be published memoir with the working title of ‘Il tell me Ma’.

From bungie bulls to bouncy cas- tles, from lazer zone to hotshot foot- ball, from circus shows to puppet acts, Scariff GAA Park will see the biggest ever Family Fun Day on Sat- urday as part of the festival.

According to Karena O’Brien, one of the organisers of the fun day and member of the Harbour Festival Committee, “The GAA field will literally come alive with a line-up

of activities and entertainment on a scale never seen before in Scariff, suitable for children of all ages and set to exceed the amazing success of last year’s event.”

Mayo-based fun company, Toons & Balloons returns to Scariff this year to deliver the festival’s dream children’s event with fun, frolics and safety a high priority for everybody involved.

In addition to the bouncing castles and inflatable games, an exciting fun-packed interactive laser game arena will be set up in an 1,000 sq.ft self-contained covered space.

Another new dimension is a fast- moving competitive pony race called the Pony Hop.

The amazing Franzini Brothers,

who describe themselves as devil- ishly handsome west Kerry Italians, will perform their spectacular antics with a 40 minute interactive circus skills show “Deathwish’. which com- bines magic, mayhem, and high wire tomfoolery.

These heroes of the Irish circus scene will carry out death-defying stunts and spectactular magic giving a hugely comic edge to their whole joLeruCe)want-ni(eon

There will be an air of magic on children’s day not just with the Franzini Brothers but also with the Dog and String Theatre Company, who will bring along hand puppets, shadow puppets and life size figures to delight youngsters and young at heart.

IT would be very wrong to convict an innocent man, but it would also be very wrong to acquit someone if evidence was available.

That was the statement made by Judge Rory McCabe, as he told the jury to consider each charge against Paschal Carmody separately. He said there were two types of charges to be considered; false pretences and de- ception, relating to three patients.

‘Each of the three suffered from a deep-seated terminal cancer. In all but one, all other methods were ex- hausted. All three died within a rela- tively short period of time of receiv- ing treatment,’ he said.

“You may find some evidence cred- ible and some not credible. If any

evidence has two different meanings and one is favourable to the defence, you must use what is favourable to the accused. If you have a doubt, you must acquit,” he said.

He pointed out that Mr Carmody had chosen to give evidence in the trial. ““His evidence is no different to any other evidence in this case. It is up to you to decide what weight to give his evidence. If you feel a charge is proved beyond reasonable doubt, convict. If you have reason- able doubt, you must acquit,” said the judge, last Wednesday.

“To convict an innocent man would be very wrong, but it would also be very wrong to acquit someone when the evidence is there beyond reason- able doubt,” said the judge, who said the ideal verdict on each charge was

unanimous.

He also told the jury that John James Gallagher’s wife Bernadette – who gave evidence during the trial – is suing the accused for damages.

He noted that at the beginning of the trial there had been 25 charges, but directed the jury to find Mr Car- mody not guilty on eight of those charges. “The prosecution accepts there is insufficient evidence to pro- ceed,” he said.

He said there was no evidence of any promise of a cure made in rela- tion to Mary O’Connor, Josephine Durkan or Karen Kurvink.

yester- day that from October 2008 they will be increasing the capacity of the planes servicing the route. The Shannon-Charles de Gaulle service was instigated last February follow- ing the axeing of the Aer Lingus con- nection through Heathrow.

“The decision for Aer Lingus to move their slots to Belfast was a very unwelcome one for the airport and also for the region. But the decision was made and it has happened. For us it has been blow in terms of pas- sengers and spend in the airport – it was our biggest and best route,” said Shannon Airport Director, Martin Moroney.

“We lost it quite suddenly and from that we lost global connectiv- ity. It was a huge loss to the region and to the west of Ireland as well. Twelve months on it’s still a big loss and there is no prospect really of Air

Lingus coming back on the route – in the short term at least. We will keep trying to get someone else to recom- mence the service. We will keep try- ing because we know how important the route was for the business.

“By getting in Air France/CityJet we have been running a very success- ful service to Paris since February. Obviously it a much lower capacity and doesn’t make up for the loss of

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“We believe that this service does give global connectivity through Charles de Gaulle and it will im- prove later in the year when Air France puts on a large aircraft and will possibly move the first flight to an earlier time. So far a large extent this service compensates for the loss of Heathrow but no fully.

“Some people are actually flying to

Dublin in the morning and then go- ing on to Heathrow but unfortunately some people are also driving to Cork in the morning and going form there. Our aim would be to restore Heath- row service if possible because we know it was a profitable route, it’s unlikely in the short term but that is the goal.”

Mr Moroney believes that a number of new routes will be opening up in Shannon in the near future. “We have been in talks with CityJet about the creation of a London City route. There is a large business segment that have been left without a flight to London. We are very hopeful of this but nothing has been decided yet,’ continued Mr Moroney.

“Ryanair did put on extra flights to London to serve that London market – and they have become very impor- tant to Shannon. Ryanair is doing very well here – they have 31 routes here now and that is a great network.

‘Some people are saying that they are dominating everything but they are a major airline. Maybe some people are not keen to come in and compete with them but CityJet have come into Shannon and are doing (3 aan (0) 0 ee

IT IS festival peak season in west Clare this weekend, as three local festivals and a prestigious agricul- tural show will entertain visitors and locals enjoying the bank holiday.

Cooraclare, Kildysart and Kilmihil are making last minute preparations for their annual week and weekends of festive fun.

The Kildysart Cultural Festival will be the first to begin the merrymak- ing, as it starts tomorrow evening with a car treasure hunt.

Flower power will be the order of the day until the end of the festival on Monday, August 4, as the theme of the festival this year is “The Sixties”. The festival has been a major fund-

raiser during the last five years for the provision of a public playground, which is now complete.

A total of €190,000 has been spent on the project to date, but the fund- raising 1S on-going as it is hoped that phase two of the project will begin shortly.

The second part of this ambitious project will include an all weather pitch, dressing rooms, and toilet fa- cilities.

This year the famous Kildysart Agricultural Show will take place on the Saturday of the festival on the Cahercon Road, with the exhibition hall in the village.

In its 66th year the show will in- clude as always the All-Ireland two- year filly championship.

Labasheeda native John O’Sullivan from the Quickpark company this year announced his commitment to sponsoring the Champion Young Horse for another five years.

The Kilmihil Festival of Fun begins on this Friday, August |, with the un- der 12 football followed by “Crazy Ball Game” and barrel racing.

This festival, best known for its “Bonham Racing” began in its present format in 2000.

It has developed from a one-day event to the present day four-day fes- tival, finishing up on Bank Holiday Monday.

Each year new events are added to improve and expand the range of ac- tivities of this family and community eee COLORED

Preparations are also underway for one of west Clare’s longest running festivals. In its 29th year the ever- popular Rose of Clare Festival will begin on Saturday, August 2, with a song contest in Danganelly Tavern, Cooraclare.

The week long festival will run un- til Friday, bringing craic, ceoil and lots of lovely ladies to the villages of Cree and Cooraclare.

This year, as always, a dozen new roses will be introduced to the crowd after the Sunday afternoon Fancy Dress parade in Cree, by Clare man of the year and local man Martin Done

The people of west Clare will be spoilt for choice of holidaying at home this long weekend.

THE summations to the jury of the evidence brought in the trial of Pas- chal Carmody were lengthy and took almost an entire day in court.

The two senior counsel involved with the case had the job of summa- rising the case in terms of evidence for their respective sides heard over five weeks.

Beginning the summation before the jury of 11, Denis Vaughan-Buck- ley for the prosecution said that they ‘can not decided these cases based on sympathy for the accused or sympa- thy for the alleged victims. You must base your decision on the evidence you have heard and that alone.”

He told jurors that they had heard “evidence of a number of patients

who have done extremely well. But you have to decide on the three cases you have before you. You have heard evidence that he (Carmody) put his hand on Conor O’Sullivan’s shoulder and told him ‘Ill cure your cancer or at least keep you alive”.

He said that Carmody had said in direct evidence that he had been trained in PDT as an undergraduate in University College Galway “but there was no training in PDT treat- ment at UCG at the time he was an undergraduate”, the prosecutor said.

In Carmody’s defence, Pat Mar- rinan SC said that some of the wit- nesses whom it might have been ben- eficial for the jury to hear could not prom meellem me

Mark Hadden, who had been a pro- ponent of Carmody’s and had lived

several years after being treated by him had passed away just before the trial. Despite there having been evi- dence that he had met some of the pa- tients involved in the cases, this was “not declared upfront. Why when this was man who had had such a positive experience with Dr Carmo- dy why were they trying to cover that up? Why did the fact that he had met these people have to be dragged from IW STomAW ALB OCerstsonc ei

He told the jurors that the families of the cancer victims were under emotional strain. “Anyone who has been close to someone who is dy- ing of cancer knows that days flow into weeks and everything becomes a blur. It is not an event that you can recall as a day-to-day experience.”

He said that all of the patients,

without exception, had misinterpret- ed what their consultants had said to them prior to coming to Carmody.

“Were they told by their oncolo- gists that they were all clear or was that what they wanted to hear?”

He told the jury that the case “is about fraud. It is for you to judge, having in mind that he has served for 30 years as a doctor, having seen the people who took the stand on his behalf and testified from their hearts, you must judge, is that man a fraud- ster?”