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A 38-YEAR old Ennis-based sales- man who feared that he may die of AIDS and may not see his young son erow up after finding a needle em- bedded in his knee while in hospital, is suing the Health Service Executive (HSE) over the incident.

At Ennis Circuit Court this week, the man is seeking damages from the HSE in relation to the incident that occurred at the Limerick Mid Western Regional Hospital on May 1, 2005.

According to the claim lodged by the man, he was staying overnight at the hospital to be with his sick son, then aged two and a half.

The man slept on a mattress beside his son but at 6am woke to a feeling of mild pain in his left knee.

A YOUNG west Clare man has been charged with raping a 14 year old girl. The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Ennis District Court on Friday. Seeking an adjournment for service of the book, Inspector John Galvin said that he needed the case put back to prepare what would be a “lengthy book of evidence.” The man was re- manded on bail of €1,000 on condi- tion that he have no contact with the alleged injured party or her family.

On examination, the Ennis man discovered an orange-coloured nee- dle protruding from his knee, with the needle puncturing his skin and drawing blood.

As a result, the man was placed in genuine fear and apprehension of having contracted AIDS or Hepatitis ‘oF

The man was advised to attend the accident and emergency department where injections were administered and, according to his claim, the pos- sibility of having contracted HIV was mentioned to him during his time in the accident and emergency depart- ment by a HSE employee.

At the accident and emergency de- partment, the man was injected with HIV antibodies and advised that tests for HIV and AIDS would be performed in due course.

According to the man’s statement of claim, he began to experience panic attacks in the period following the incident and frequently suffered from shortness of breath and felt a heaviness in his chest during which he felt he was having heart attacks.

The claim states, “These panic at- tacks occurred several times per month, lasting five to ten minutes each and were also characterised by sweating, shaking and pins and needles in his arms. The plaintiff suffered from disturbed sleep and awoke due to the panic attacks on several occasions.”

The man was subsequently referred to a consultant pathologist and he said that administering the HIV anti- bodies was the wrong procedure. The consultant confirmed that there were concerns regarding the man having

contracted HIV or AIDS.

“The plaintiff was unclear as to the level of risk.

“He became even more concerned about his health as time went on and came to the view that he was going to get AIDS, that he would die a young man and miss seeing his son grow up. He became irritable and suffered from loss of concentration.”

Subsequent tests for HIV and Hepa- titis C proved negative and the results came before and during a family hol- iday to Lanzarote.

According to the claim, the holiday was ruined and the man spent the entirety of the holiday sitting around the pool crying and worrying about his future.

The claim states that the effects of the “needle” incident on the sale- man’s life were profound. The claim

states, “His personality was funda- mentally affected. He became much less relaxed and less outgoing. He avoided going out socially. He had suicidal thoughts and was subjected to taunts by work colleagues who became aware of his HIV test. The plaintiff has delayed trying to have a second child with his wife as a result of his residual fear about HIV.

The man attended a consultant psy- chologist in May 2006 and she con- cluded that the man had developed an anxiety disorder and suffered consid- erable psychological distress arising directly from the trauma associated with the incident and the limited re- sponse and support provided by the sls ay

The man is responding to anxiety management techniques and cogni- tive behavioural strategies.

THE demise of US airline American Transair (ATA) has had minimal im- pact on the number of US military personnel going through Shannon Airport, new figures confirm.

According to the figures released yesterday by the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA), 124,441 members of the US military went through the airport in the first six months of this year on 893 flights.

This represents an increase of 36 per cent on the 90,897 that went through Shannon on the correspond- ing period in 2007.

During the first quarter of 2008, over 66,000 US personnel went through Shannon. It was speculated upon that the bankruptcy of one of the troop carriers, ATA, at the end of March would have a negative effect on the numbers.

Second quarter figures show that 57,/74 troops passed through com- pared to 66,667 between January to March.

Well over a million US military personnel have gone through Shan- non since the invasion of Iraq.

The SAA does not release the prof- its made from the US military traffic. But it is estimated that the SAA will have made a profit of €7 million last year through this business.

Speaking last year the chairman of

the SAA, Pat Shanahan said: “Shan- non has a tradition of handling mili- tary traffic. We do it very well and we have the infrastructure to do so. Geographically, the airport 1s ideally located between the two great con- WDA OLAS

“It is a business we do very well. Obviously the ultimate decision is a government decision, while there is a business opportunity we will cer- tainly capitalise on it and Shannon captitalizes on it better any airport that I know in the world in terms of friendliness and in terms of the serv- ice level we give the various carriers that operate that business.

Last December, the Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan, confirmed that over €7 million had been spent on preventing Shannon Airport from incursions from anti-war activists over the previous two years.

This follows the estimated profit of €16.4 million made from the muili- tary traffic in 2006 and 2005.

Minister Lenihan confirmed that €4.69 million was spent on policing arrangements at Shannon last year. To the end of November this year, the costs are put at €3.1 million.

A KILKEE businesswoman has ex- celled in her professional field for the second year in a row. ;

Public relations officer Aine Car- mody has secured a “Highly Com- mended Certificate for Excellence in Communications” by the Public Re- lations Institute of Ireland with her company Carmody Smith PR.

Originally from Tullaroe, the former pupil of Querrin National

School and the Mercy Convent Kil- kee, along with her team, secured the award for the Sligo Live Festival 2007 campaign.

From a west Clare family of II, Aine 1s now based in Dublin with her husband and one-year-old daughter.

Her mother Dolly still lives in Kil- kee and Aine likes to visit her home- town as often as possible.

She set up the successful company with her business partner in January Aue s

The company represents mostly cli- ents involved in entertainment.

Last year Ms Carmody was recog- nised for her work in promoting the very successful series of “Pop’s Fam- ily” books aimed at children with Downs Syndrome.

This year’s award was bestowed on the company for the outstanding public relations campaign it created and delivered for the Sligo Live Fes- tival 2007. Sligo Live is an annual event and returns this year on Octo-

ber Bank Holiday from Thursday, 23 to Monday, 27 October 2008.

In a statement the company said, “Carmody Smith PR is delighted to consistently achieve exceptional re- sults for its clients as demonstrated in the public relations campaign for Sligo Live Festival 2007.”

THERE was a net loss of 131 jobs in the Shannon Free zone in 2007, the development company’s annual re- port shows.

While 354 new jobs came on line, 485 job losses were recorded during the year.

But the good news in the report 1s that sales figures, considered to be a reliable barometer of growth in the knowledge economy, have grown tot he point where Shannon Free Zone International Services now accounts for 70 per cent of total Free Zone sales compared to just 56 per cent in

Auer

The report, unveiled yesterday to an audience of dignitaries including Ta- naiste Mary Coughland, Dail depu- ties and the mayors of Clare and En- nis, shows there are now more than 7,000 people employed in the Free Zone in more than 100 companies.

In 2006, the year for which latest figures are available, Shannon Free companies generated €3.3 billion in sales, over 90 per cent in exports.

Investments in 2007 included a €100 plus million investment by Schwarz Pharma and in-house re- search and development by compa- nies in the zone amounted to €40

million.

New companies which came into the Free Zone during the year includ- ed Whitehorse Insurance, PC Tools Softwear and Genesis leasing.

The development company sank €8 million in providing property solutions for indigenous and foreign direct investment companies during the year.

The company also completed 17 land transactions and ten building sales, generating more than €14 mil- lion for investments in future devel- opments.

Shannon Development entered into 64 new leases with business clients

during the year and there were more than 100 lease renewals completed with clients in the same period.

In the tourism brief, the region at- tracted two million visitors during the year and generated more than €443 million in tourism revenue. Shannon airport recorded more than 3.63 million passengers during the year.

The company’s tourism market- ing team got the tourism message out to 250 million potential visitors world-wide through attendance at 40 national and international trade and consumer tourism events, focused e-marketing campaigns and adver-

ornate

Domestic visitors to the region numbered some 865,000, a 13.6 per cent increase over the previous year which generated €150 mullion for the region.

During the year, the company worked with private sector promot- ers and investors on a range of tour- ism projects with a potential future investment of more than €250 mil- iteyne

A fund of £12 million was invested in broadband roll-out by Shannon Broadband Ltd, a public sector con- sortium led by Shannon Develop- ment.

A SHOTGUN, slash hooks, wheel braces, a machete, a samurai sword and a haul of drugs have been seized by gardai investigating a violent feud between Travellers in Ennis, over the past fortnight.

Several incidents have broken out between two Traveller factions, in- cluding shots being fired at a house, a vicious row breaking out at the lei- Sure centre in the town and two cars

being burnt out.

As part of a major Garda opera- tion, several parts of the town were searched last Wednesday and Thurs- day. The firearm, implements, and cannabis resin were seized during the searches, which involved several gardai.

A house at Waterpark View in the town was shot at in the early hours of last Wednesday. While nobody was injured, members of a family were in the house at the time.

One car was burnt out last Thurs- day and the other on Sunday night.

“In the course of the searches, we recovered various implements on lands, in houses and in bays last Wednesday and Thursday. It was part of a coordinated operation,’ said Superintendent John Scanlan, Ennis.

The feud involves several people. Four men have been charged with possession of implements relating to one of the incidents. All four have been granted bail in court, on condi-

tion that they abide by strict condi- tions. Gardai say that the matters are still being investigated and CCTV footage has been viewed by those investigating the rows. A file will be sent to the DPP.

According to sources, the feud start- ed 12 months ago when a row broke out at a wedding in the Midlands. A second incident is understood to have occurred at a wedding in Limerick a short time ago and has escalated in Ennis in recent weeks.

THE Eigse Mrs Crotty Music Festi- val, Kilrush Choral Society and the Garda Youth Diversion Project under the Clare Youth Service were the three big beneficiaries of this year’s Kilrush arts and community grants.

The groups received €500, ©450 and €400 respectively.

Applications were invited in March for the Grant Scheme for Assistance to Community and Arts Related Projects 2008.

The grant was available to arts related projects and community projects from Kilrush.

Kilrush Town Council this year received a total of 26 applications seeking grant assistance, with 15 seeking assistance under the com- munity project scheme and 11 seek- ing assistance under the arts related project scheme.

This represents an increase of eight applications on the amount received in 2007 and double the amount re- ceived in 2006.

As was the case in 2007, the sum of €5,000 was made available in the 2008 Adopted Budget to fund both scheme.

“Our aim is to ensure that those who have been allocated funding in the

past are again being awarded funding this year and we have attempted to ensure that in most cases the amount of funding approved this year will not be reduced too significantly due to the increase in the amount of ap- plications received,’ said Siobhan Garvey, Marketing and Development Officer with the council.

In the assistance to the community section of the grants Clare Haven Services, Kilrush Ladies Football club, West Clare Early Years and Kilrush Rangers AFC all received €200.

Comoradh Sheandéin Naofa, West Clare Cancer Support Group, Kil-

rush Family Resource Centre, West Clare Kidney Support Group and the Kilrush Golf Club received €©150 while all the other groups in this cat- egory received €100 each. In the as- sistance to the arts category Kilrush Youth Project and the Kilrush Farm- ers’ Market received ©250 each.

Three groups received ©200, in- cluding Scoil Samhradh Inis Ca- thaigh, Kilrush Family Resource Centre and Kilrush Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann.

Kilrush Art Group and St Senan’s Primary School each received €150. The two remaining groups received Ja LOleR

The final component of Dromoland Castle’s €30 million expansion has secured planning permission. An Bord Pleanala has dismissed an ap- peal by a local resident against a golf facility at the five star hotel.

Last year, Clare County Council granted planning permission for 32 short-rent apartments, a 38-unit ac- commodation block for staff and the provision of a golf course operations facility.

The Lynch Group had initially op- posed the luxury apartment plan, but chose not to appeal the decision to An Bord Pleanala. However, local resident Ken Power objected.

In his appeal, Mr Power said: “The buildings will be at least 27 feet high

and will be visible from the front of my house…the proposed building will devalue my houses and should be relocated in a different site within the Dromoland Castle which has a lower landscape sensitivity.

“The mixing of pesticides and her- bicides on a large scale for a golf course in the vicinity of households with young children is not accept- able… .”

The board ruled that “having regard to the zoning objective for the area and the pattern of development in the area, it is considered that the pro- posed development would not seri- ously injure the amenities of the area or of property in the vicinity, would not be prejudicial to public health and would be acceptable in terms of traffic safety and convenience.”

THE HSE has confirmed that it is considering establishing a satellite kidney dialysis unit in Clare, accord- ing to junior minister Tony Killeen.

The Clare branch of the Irish Kid- ney Association has long since ar- gued for a life saving dialysis unit for the county.

The treasurer of the Clare branch, Peggy Eustace, said, “Ideally we would like to see a satellite unit in Ennis. At the moment our patients have to endure a long and difficult journey to Galway and Limerick

three times a week.”

According to Ms Eustace 85 people are currently receiving the life sav- ing haemodialysis treatment in an over stretched unit in the Mid West- ern Regional Hospital, Limerick.

This unit is catering for 20 people from Clare, 18 from Tipperary and 44 from Limerick city and county.

A further 16 patients must travel to the Wellstone clinic in Galway while work begins on a new satellite unit on the Dock Road in Limerick. Seven of these patients are from Clare.

Most recent research shows that in two years the need for dialysis in

the Midwest has increased by 41 per cent. This is significantly higher than other regions in the country making the case for a unit in Ennis all the

stronger. Four patients in the Midwest will require haemodialysis treatment

within the coming weeks, with many more in a pre-dialysis stage. Minister Killeen received confir- mation of the proposed development following a meeting this week with the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney. “A satellite dialysis centre is cur- rently being established in Limerick

to alleviate some of the pressure on the Dooradoyle facility. This will provide some relief for Clare patients in the short term. In the longer term, the HSE has said it would like to ex- plore the possibility of establishing a satellite unit at Ennis General Hos- pital.”

“The HSE stated that this option would be evaluated in light of the demand and throughput of patients. However, this is not likely to be de- veloped in the short-term. The HSE confirmed that there are currently 22 patients for Clare receiving haemo- dialysis treatment,” he said.

WHEN the West Clare Currach Club went in search of Maggie May, there wasn’t a Rod Stewart CD in sight.

The men and women of the Kilkee based umbrella club were instead in search of the old turf boat preserved in the mud near Blackweir Bridge, Lisdeen, Kilkee.

The club members set about ex- cavating the boat, believed to more than 100 years old, last week with an aim to learn more about the old ship.

The group has taken measurements and photographs of the boat in the

hope that they may some day have enough information to construct one of these long forgotten boats.

Turf boats were unique to the Shan- non estuary and as club member Dixie Collins explained, “they would have been no use around Loophead or the other side of the peninsula in north Clare.”

Carrying anything up to a 15-ton cargo, turf boats would have moved items up and down the estuary be- tween Limerick and Clare.

“These boats would bring lime- stone down from Askeaton and turf back up from west Clare. These

boats were unique for their purpose,’ he said.

While the boats move up and down the estuary on the tidal currents, the large sail also helped with naviga- ntOne

These boats developed to meet lo- cal needs and their ability to land on the Shannon mudflats enabled them to unload and load their cargo eas- ily. Floating off on the high tide us- ing tide and wind to carry them up or down river.

These boats were in constant use around the Shannon estuary over a hundred years ago. At one stage 20

of these boats worked out of Poul- nasherry alone.

The Maggie May has been in the sand for as long as anyone can re- member, but the West Clare Currach Club are hopping that some local people may have pictures or extra 1n- formation on the 35-foot boat.

Mr Collins has asked people to con- tact him or a member of the club or email info@westclarecurrach.com.

“We are doing this project so that the history of the boat doesn’t die. We are interested in the social his- tory and any folklore surrounding the boats too,” he said.

said that the homes were being targeted during the day when they were unoccupied.

‘A lot of the houses are on the main road. They just drive up and break in,’ he said.

People in neighbouring Kildysart have also reported theft from boats.

Gardai say that a group of travel- ling criminals are responsible for break-ins to several houses in north and west Clare over the past two TneCOy ele stse

The thieves targeted the unoccupied homes during the day and among the

items they stole include jewellery, cash and computer games.

Five boat engines, valued at up to €6,000 each, have also been stolen from Crovraghan Quay, Kildysart, area over the past few weeks.

These boats were used by local farmers to access the island.

Two boat engines, stolen in Car- rigaholt and Kilkee earlier this year have been recovered by gardai in Sligo.

“There has been a marked rise in burglaries while people are out of their homes during the daytime. These are opportunist crimes involv- ing a gang of travelling criminals,” said a garda spokesman.

A non-national was arrested in con- nection with a burglary in Inagh and detained for questioning.

He was later released without charge and a file 1s being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecu- tions.

No one has been arrested in connec- tion with several other burglaries in Cranny, Ballynacally and Kildysart.

Local County Councillor Oliver Garry (FG) said there 1s a lot of con- cern in the local area about the large increase in the number of house usr onny

Warnings for people to be vigilant have even appeared in parish news- ato ne

‘People who live alone or people who would leave their house for the day are now putting in house alarms and electric gates,” he said.

“There is a lot to be said for the Garda on the beat and they are miss- ing from the country areas. That is what will control crime in the rural areas,” said Cllr Garry.

A community alert meeting is now being planned for the area. The lo- cal superintendent has been invited to attend to offer people advice on home security.