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A NATIONAL funding project, which is expected to be scrapped, could spell bad news for the pro- posed arts centre in Shannon.

The provision of an arts centre in the town has been on the cards for several years. However, it will be de- pendent on funding.

According to the mayor of Shan- non, Councillor Gerry Flynn (Ind), the “Gateway Innovation Fund’ is to

come to an end.

The fund was put in place to facili- tate regional community initiatives and was to pump €3 million into projects across the country between now and 2010.

It was hoped that money would be funded for the Shannon arts centre under this initiative.

Cllr Flynn said he was in receipt of a report that suggested the scheme was going to be scrapped.

“T think it spells alarm bells for us.

We were hoping for funding under that,” said Cllr Flynn.

He said the centre ties in with the master plan for Shannon and given the economic downturn, he had fears for the overall project.

“It was an area of funding that put forward the idea of regional and bal- anced initiatives. For TC2 and TC3 (the master plan for Shannon), there is every chance the developers we have on standby might decide not to develop. It cuts down our options,”

he said.

However, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) pointed out that while it was 1m- portant for the arts centre to be built, there were other potential sources of funding. “It is going to challenge us. It was a potential source of revenue, but not the only source of revenue,” she said.

Sixmilebridge-based Cllr John Crowe said the revelation was a “bombshell”, given that so much work had been put into the centre.

A CONVICTED killer who was caught with two bars of cannabis resin has been jailed for two years, one suspended.

Michael Nihill (33), formerly of Church Drive, Clarecastle, was con- victed in 2001 of the manslaughter of Mikie Shannon, who died in a row at Lysaght’s laneway, Ennis, on April 2, 2000. Nihill has served his sentence for that offence.

At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Nihill admitted possession of can- nabis resin for the purpose of sale or supply, at Limerick Road, Ennis, on July 1, 2006.

Garda Eric Stafford told the court that a garda surveillance operation was in place on the date in question. As part of this, gardai searched the driver and passenger of a car, but

found nothing.

They then searched the car and found two bars of a brown substance hidden in the boot. Analysis of the substance showed that it was canna- bis resin.

Gardai then carried out a search of a house, where they found eight packets of self-sealing plastic bags, a digital weighing scales and €1,060 cash in a holdall bag in a bedroom wardrobe.

‘The accused was interviewed. He indicated he had these two bars of cannabis resin for his own use. He said it was easier to buy it in large amounts,” said the garda.

The court was told the value of the drugs seized was €3,500.

Garda Stafford said Nihill had sev- eral previous convictions, including two for possession of drugs. He was also convicted of manslaughter and

jailed for eight years in 2001.

Defence barrister Michael Collins said his client had endeavoured to plead guilty to the charge in the dis- trict court, but jurisdiction had been declined.

Referring to the manslaughter con- viction, he explained that his client and another man had been charged with murder, after they attacked someone who had bullied them at school.

“The case went to trial. He was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years,’ said Mr Collins.

He said that his client was in a re- lationship and his partner gave birth to a baby girl just eight weeks ago. Nihill’s girlfriend told the court she lives with him in Corofin and she would probably have to give up her job if he went to jail.

Mr Collins said the offence before the court happened two years ago and his client hadn’t got into trouble since, adding, “given his previous offences he is a man who could find trouble if he looked for it”.

He said that Nihill worked as a plasterer until recently and has at- tended Narcotics Anonymous.

He asked for the commencement of any prison sentence to be postponed, because of his client’s personal cir- cumstances.

Judge Carroll Moran said that pos- session of drugs for the purpose of sale or supply was very serious.

“We are told incessantly it is an of- fence to be dealt with severely. I have to impose an immediate prison sen- tence. I may defer it,” he said.

He imposed a two year jail term, one suspended, and deferred its com- mencement until October 1.

AS much as €1 million will be spent on surf-lessons in Clare this year with millions more being generated in related industries, accommodation and food. An estimated 20,000 surf lessons will be given in the county in 2008, with the industry now direct- ly employing 15 full-time staff and more than 60 extra people at peak Wb eslene

With two new surf-based_busi- nesses having set up in Lahinch and Miltown Malbay in the past four months, the county now boasts nine surf related businesses. The oldest, the Lahinch Surf Shop, has existed in Lahinch for decades and was Ire- land first surf shop. The other eight, however, have all been established in the last seven years.

“The season really hots up in July and August, but it’s starting to get busy in June and in September as well. There is some level of surfing going on all the year round though,” said Sinead Finn, Manager of the Lahinch Surf School, who operate schools in Lahinch, Spanish Point and Kilkee.

“The Irish Surfing Association were on to us recently inquiring how many lessons we give in Lahi- nch each year and we estimate it to be roughly 7,000. If you add in the

school in Kilkee and Spanish Point the figure is probably around 12,000 each year.”

The surf industry in Clare has con- tinued to grow rapidly year on year

and at present shows no signs of slowing down.

“We don’t seem to be effected by the the recession or the loss of the Shannon-Heathrow flights or any-

thing like that. The vast majority of the people who come to surf are Irish people. We still do get a lot of tour- ists coming through. We have been getting a decent supply of Europe- ans, especially German people,” said Sinead.

“A lot of the people who we deal with are just dropping in, they hap- pen to be in the area already and decide to try surfing. That said, we do get a lot of people coming over from England who are booking a full package weekend of surfing – ac- commodation, surfing the whole lot. As well as that a lot of Irish people come back again and again. And in the second, third and fourth visit they are coming specificially to surf.

‘To be honest the biggest thing that effects us is nothing to do with the re- cession, it’s the weather. If we could get a few weeks of sun then Lahinch would be booming.”

DESPITE all the doom and gloom about recessions and downturns, one north Clare business is beating all the trends.

Last weekend the Lahinch Surf School opened up new premises on Lahinch’s Main Street, bringing to four the company’s representa- tions around the county. The school, which was founded by senior Irish surf champion John McCarthy seven years ago, now operates surf schools in Kilkee, Spanish Point and Lahi- eee

The new premises will serve as a

booking office and surf shop, as well as showcasing some of the areas best SUM ROE- Iho m-vae

“The school has being going since 2002 and we have been based down in the beach-hut on the Prom since Wee

“We will be holding on to the beach-hut, that’s still where it’s all happening, but the shop is going to be somewhere that will be open all year- round and where people can drop in when the weather isn’t great,’ said surf school manager Sinead Finn.

“We will be selling our own brand materials there like t-shirts and tide tables, anything to do with the surf

shop. As well as that we have gotten on to a few local artists and photog- raphers, people like Ann Vaughan from Liscannor who has sent us in a few pieces.

We also have a number of surf pho- tographers from people like Paudie Scanlan and George Karbus, Al McKennon and Mikey Smith.

‘So as well as a shop it 1s an exhi- bition space and people can come in and buy the artwork and photographs TUE A OCA Vane 00

Over the past number of years La- hinch has been transformed into the surf capital of Ireland. Besides the hundreds who flock to the village

throughout the summer months the local surfers also won a place in the Guinness Book of Records in 2007 for the most surfers to surf the same wave at the one time.

School founder, John McCarthy, was also one of the group who first surfed Aileens Wave, the monster wave under the Cliffs of Moher.

The Lahinch Surf School is open seven days a week from 1lam to 6pm and is fully approved by the Irish Surfing Association.

People can book surf lessons at the new surf shop on Main Street, at the Surf-Hut on the Prom or by ringing 087 9609667.

A RESCUE operation was launched after a man got into difficulty while snorkeling in Kilkee on Saturday.

The man, in his mid 20s and from Limerick, suffered a bruise to his forehead and cut to his nose after he appeared to misjudge the depth of the water and hit the rocks.

A rescue operation, involving Kil- kee Marine Rescue, Shannon coast- guard helicopter, ambulance services and local gardai, was sprung into ac-

tion and the man was flown to Cork University Hospital.

Manuel Di Lucia of Kilkee Ma- rine Rescue said it was the first time a helicopter landed on the Pollock Holes.

‘Because of the nature of his inju- ries, we felt it was not a good idea to have him moved by ambulance,” said Mr Di Lucia.

Initial fears were that the man had sustained a spinal injury, but this was not so and he was later discharged from hospital.

THE purveyors of doom _ were quick to write Cork’s obituary after their laboured win over Dublin last week. Their lacklustre performance prompted rumours of unrest in the camp and Galway were installed as hot favourites for Saturday’s All-Ire- land qualifier.

But a team is always at their most dangerous when written off and Cork defied the odds and even a numbert- cal disadvantage to overturn a two point half-time deficit and produce arguably their best championship performance in two years.

The final whistle was greeted like an All-Ireland win as players ran the length of the field and thousands of supporters invaded the turf of Sem-

ple Stadium, singing and chanting for over an hour after the game.

Cork manager Gerald McCarthy was equally elated but had also a bone to pick with the media over the treatment of the players in the lead up to the game.

“Tl think whether we won or lost, I think it was very unfair, the press treatment that these bunch of players got from the press during the week. I think the way our players were writ- ten off so completely but not just that, they were ridiculed in some eon

“There were a lot of things said about the style of play, there was questioning whether they would ever last again and some of them mightn’t make it through this year. That was disappointing, that a bunch of play-

ers that they are and what they have given to the game and the determi- nation they bring to their training and everything they do in hurling. Somebody questioned ‘had they lost the love for hurling’ in one of the pa- pers during the week and I think the answer to that was out there for eve- rybody to see today.”

Still, he could understand some of the criticism after the Dublin per- formance but explained that it was fatique that affected his players that day after a hard week of training in order to prepare them for the long road ahead.

“Well it’s easy to do off the back of one or two bad results. People are very anxious to look further down the line and say that this team is fin- ished. When you look at the Tipper-

ary game, we really had that game there for the winning but we went into a valley period after twenty min- utes and that affected us.

“But the way we played for the first twenty minutes, if we could have sus- tained that for most of the game, we certainly would be winning many, many games. SO we were very, very determined and the Dublin game last week really brought the critics out but we as a management took a cal- culated risk. We trained the players hard through that week to look be- yond the game with Dublin and per- haps we could have paid the penalty for it but we had to look at this week to get a bit of rest into the players and that’s what we did. That affected the players against Dublin and that’s not taking anything away from Dub-

lin. They hurled very well and they stayed with us in lots of places but that was the reason for it. Our lads were tired.”

So what about the prospect of meet- ing Clare for the fourth time in as many years?

“Tt will be tough, Clare are always tough but to be honest, we hadn’t re- ally looked past Galway. But I can tell you, we are on the crest of a wave and we are going to drive forward. We are not just satisfied with beating Galway, we want to go all the way in this championship and we are quite capable of doing that.”

The fighting spirit is back in Cork. They tore up the script with their teeth on Saturday after the press had fueled their motivation.

Rebels by name, Rebels by nature.

CALLS have been made for the gov- ernment to clarify its position in rela- tion to water charges for schools be- fore the beginning of the new school year this September.

As part of a heated debate at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, Cllr John Crowe (FG), called on central government to tackle the problem before schools are thrust into more financial difficulty.

“The reality of this is that schools in County Clare are already operat- ing on a shoestring budget. They have to organise endless fundraising to keep the schools going.

“Coupled with this the grants schemes for minor works were cut

last week despite the promises that government would not cut back from the health or the education budgets,” he said.

“Charges should only be levied if the schools use up all of their allow- ance. The schools can’t afford the fees that are being put upon them and we need central government to tackle this situation.”

Speaking on that debate, Green Party councillor Brian Meaney, said that most school welcome the charg- Ae

‘“T’m on the board of management of a number of schools and this has been a bone of contention for some time. Boards of management are looking at this in a positive way rath- er than a negative way,’ he said.

‘School are places where values are learned and thought – schools have no problem paying the charges as long as funding is available in terms of capitation or in other ways to al- low them to meet the charge.”

CUlr Martin Conway (FG) com- mented that the water charges were an example of the underprivileged being hit the worst in times of reces- sion.

“It is a clear example that when we have an economic downturn that the people most in need will suffer,’ he said.

“When the belts need to be tight- ened it’s always the elderly and the young who suffer. The government need to be clear and unambiguous about this.”

IRISH fishermen could finally be set for a slice of good news if a new scheme for utilising over-catch is adopted in the EU.

Speaking at the Council of Agri- culture and Fisheries Ministers in Brussels last Thursday, Clare TD and Junior Minister in the Depart- ment of Agriculture, Tony Killeen, made a proposal to the European Commission for the introduction of a pilot project to address the discard- ing of catches by Irish fishermen.

The Irish Department of Agricul- ture and its agencies the Marine Institute and BIM, in conjunction with the Federation of Irish Fisher- men (FIF), are developing the pilot

project, which is proposed to run for one year.

It will target unavoidable by-catch- es, in particular in the prawn fish- ery, where large scale discarding of marketable fish such as cod, which are caught over quota, is a particular problem.

These fisheries occur in the Irish Sea, Celtic Sea and off the west coast. The overall object will be to use more environmentally-friendly fishing gear to avoid catches of small fish in these fisheries and to reduce the occurrence of discarding of mar- ketable fish that cannot currently be landed under EU law if quotas are exhausted.

“The proposed project would be operated in conjunction with the pro-

ducer organisations that make up the FIF,’ he said.

‘The minister asked Commissioner Borg to give urgent consideration to this new proposal and to bring for- ward EU measures, which would al- low the new pilot project to be imple- mented as soon as possible.

“The additional quota will mean that this small quota can be set aside for unavoidable catches of cod by Irish fishermen in the Celtic Sea. This will help to reduce discarding of marketable cod in this fishery.”

The minister’s proposals, which he presented to Commissioner Borg, would mean that fishermen would be given an incentive to participate in the pilot phase. Vessels targeting prawns would have to be allocated

an additional discard quota by the EU, which would allow the landing of marketable fish that would other- wise be discarded. Fishermen would be allocated a share of the sale price of the fish to cover vessel-running costs. The remainder would be allo- cated to a charity.

Also at the Council of Ministers meeting this week, an amendment to the TAC and Quota Regulation for 2008 is due to be approved that results in an increase of 44 tonnes in Ireland’s allocation of cod in the Celtic Sea.

This increase came after sustained pressure by Ireland, after indications of improvement in the stock came from fisheries scientists earlier this year.

A GROUP which offers support to polio survivors and which 1s spear- headed by a voluntary board of 11 people, including Whitegate man, Hugh Weir, is the most recent char- ity to avail of a special telephone net- working service which makes com- munication easier.

The Post Polio Support Group, a national organisation with almost 750 members around the country is using the Commmunity Network system to keep in touch and for tel- econferencing.

Community Network Ireland is a unique service specifically for the voluntary sector, linking groups by phone so that people can be part of a support group regardless of their mo- bility or geographic location.

Supported financially and techni- cally by BT, the service also allows colleagues in the voluntary sector to stay in touch and attend meetings by providing them with an operator-led conference call service.

The Post Polio group has a number of members in Clare including Hugh in Whitegate and some in Killaloe.

Hugh said, “Many of our members

have decreased mobility and are get- ting on in years.

“They find it difficult to get out to our support group meetings, especial- ly during the winter months which can be very isolating for them.”

The Whitgate man added that the, ‘“PhoneChat, the name we gave to the service, allows polio survivors chat together on a regular basis and is a good example of peer support in ac- none

“The group can share information, exchange ideas or even just listen to each other.

“Working with Community Net-

work Ireland allows BT to offer its unique professional expertise to help build these communities through bet- ter communications,’ a BT spokes- man said.

Carmel O’Connor, Corporate and Social Responsibility Manager, BT added, “Not only is this service the first of its kind in Ireland, it’s a sim- ple and straightforward service that helps create opportunities for social inclusion and positive community engagement so that no matter where you live, what age you are or how mobile you are, you should not feel isolated or alone.”

PASCHAL Carmody was born in Tarbert, north Kerry, 60 years ago. From a family of 13 — nine brothers and three sisters – he attended the local primary school, before board- ing at Rockwell College in Cashel, SoA Ae Bye lae

While in his Leaving Cert year, he had a strong interest in biology and

science and decided to go into medi- cine.

In 1966, he went to university in Galway, where he studied for six years. He passed all but one exam during his years at university. After graduating, he served as an intern at the University College Hospital Gal- way.

During his year-long internship, he served under Dr Murphy for six

months and six months under Dr Bartholomew Driscoll, who special- ised in respiratory, dermatology and AMO Coges (ose

It was while working with Dr Dr- iscoll that he had his first experience with photodynamic therapy.

As the only dermatologist in the west of Ireland, Dr. Driscoll treated dermatology lesions with laser.

Dr Carmody then went to the Jervis

Street Hospital in Dublin where he worked for six months in accident and emergency, six months in the medi- cal wards and a further six moths as a Senior House Officer (SHO).

When he finished in Dublin he worked in Limerick for 18 months. He also worked as an SHO, then spe- cialised in obstetrics and gynaecol- ogy, and later paediatrics.

At the age of 29, he decided to spe-

cialise in obstetrics and gynaecology, but later changed his mind and went into general practice.

In 1976, just as he prepared to emi- grate to take up a position in Mon- tana, the Mid Western Heath Board asked him if he had an interest in taking a position as a GP in Killaloe, or Castleconnell, Co Limerick. He began working as a GP in Killaloe on October 1, 1976.