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HOPE springs eternal for the resi- dents of Crusheen this week follow- ing the confirmation that Iarnrod Eireann will reexamine the possibil- ity of building a stop for the Western Rail Corridor in the village, months after ruling out the proposal.

It has emerged that, following a meeting with the Crusheen Devel- opment Association last month, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamaon O’Cuiv (FF), has urged the rail company to

reconsider its position on the Crush- een stop.

Responding to a Dail question from Clare TD Pat Breen (FG), Minis- ter O’Cuiv said that CLAR fund- ing could be made available for the project.

“I met a delegation regarding Crusheen station on Friday, May 16. I indicated that in discussions with Jarnr6d Eireann, further proposals had been requested from them in re- FVe Te) MaKOMnd Cem enim ise Um Goue lee under the CLAR programme,” said Minister O’Cuiv.

“T also indicated that, in this con- text, 1f proposals for Crusheen sta- tion were included, they would be considered in respect of CLAR fund- ing, subject to such funding being available.”

The announcement has been given a cautious welcome by Deputy Breen, saying that it could solve the problem in Crusheen if brought to fruition.

“The local Crusheen community have been very proactive in progress- ing this matter and Clare County Council are very supportive, having agreed to provide the car parking fa-

cilities,’ said Deputy Breen.

“IT welcome the positive signals emanating from Minister O’Cuiv and I hope that when the outstand- ing issues are resolved that budget- ary constraints will not delay this project.

“While there were outstanding is- sues to be resolved, he did indicate that once these issues had been ad- dressed and they re-submitted pro- posals for CLAR Funding in relation to the Western Rail Corridor, which included a stop at Crusheen, he would look favourably on this.”

IN an effort to catch up on the air- miles clocked up by their colleagues in Clare County Council, members of Ennis Town Council are packing their bags to travel to Hungary at the weekend.

Leading the charge is Town Mayor Tommy Brennan (Ind) and he ex- plained yesterday that the trip is at the invitation of the Mayor of Erzsé- betvaros, which 1s a district in Buda- pest.

According to Cllr Brennan, the trip

is part of a twinning initiative by Erzsébetvaros.

The district of Budapest is no stranger to twinning with other towns and is already twinned with Sveti Vlas, Bulgaria; Po’ega, Croatia; Nevers, France; Stavroupoli, Thessa- loniki, Greece; Siedlce, Poland.

According to Cllr Brennan, Erzsé- betvaros is paying the accommo- dation bill for the Town Council group over the bank holiday week- end, while Ennis Town Clerk, Eddie Power confirmed yesterday that the trip is costing the Council €7,000

and funds have been provided in the 2008 budget to cover the costs.

Those travelling to Hungary include four other councillors, Cllr Mary Coote-Ryan (FG), Cllr Taiwo Mat- thew (Ind), Cllr Tom Glynn (FF) and Cllr Donal O’Beara (Green) along with Town Manager, Tom Coughlan; Town Clerk, Eddie Power and Senior Staff Officer, Liam O’Connor.

One councillor who will not be trav- elling is Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) who said yesterday: “Unless it 1s demon- strated to me that there is a benefit for the local community, I won’t go.”

He said that at the moment, re- sources are scarce with 900 people on the housing list.

“T have no problem with officials going to learn from others or the mayor representing the town, but I am focused on local priorities and I believe that the solutions to our own problems can be solved from within our own area.”

According to Eddie Power, the in1- tial contact came through the Hun- garian Embassy in Dublin and the visit will allow an opportunity for both Districts to exchange informa-

tion and to learn from each other’s experience and culture.

Noted for his singing ability, Cllr Brennan said if called upon, he will sing a song for his hosts.

“We are honoured and privileged that the District of Erzsébetvaros in Budapest has identified Ennis as a possible twinning partner. We are indeed pleased to accept the Mayor’s kind invitation to visit his district and look forward to exploring the twinning potential and the possibil- ity of developing links between our respective areas’, he said.

“THAT Sounds Like Music’ is the project being proposed by a Killaloe after school group who are hoping to scoop the €10,000 which is up for grabs from the AIB Better Ireland aN VETO e

The project aims to make a real dif- ference to the music experiences of the children of Killaloe.

The Killaloe Out of School Project has been operating since August 2006. It started life as a pilot initia- tive and received short-term funding from the Local Development Social Inclusion Programme.

More than 30 children attend the project, the focus of which is “to provide high quality care and crea-

tive learning opportunities for each child,” according to the organisers. Over thirty children attend the after school group each week. During the after school sessions, the youngsters get to listen to classical and world music which they’ve grown to like. “Using music in this way can help children to learn as it helps to focus their attention. How easy it is to learn off Westlife lyrics or the rap tune – so why not the maths tables? Compos- ing music can help with a child’s self-expression, while at the same time improving listening and pro- moting creativity. Learning a musi- cal instrument can help to build con- fidence and to increase self esteem,” a spokeswoman for the project said. If they get the funding, the project

plans an initial ten week period, dur- ing which the children will be in- structed by two members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra to compose and to learn to play music.

Both music facilitators have previ- ously worked on successful children’s music projects. The funding pays for music tuition, and the purchase of musical instruments, computer, computer software, and recording equipment.

‘That Sounds like Music’ aims to uncover untapped musical talent in the young students and to allow the children themselves to learn about reading, writing and playing their own musical compositions.

“The after school team believes that offering children this intensive,

fun, creative, way of experiencing and expressing themselves through music is something that will surprise them and is something that will en- rich the community. The team will use this initiative as a building block for future programmes and will of- fer the use of the music equipment to other community groups work- ing with children in Killaloe,” the spokeswoman said.

The AIB will award the cash to the group which gets the most votes in a text vote. Each group voted for will get a contribution for every text sent. Texts cost 60 cents each.

To help the Killaloe youngsters to make beautiful music, supporters should text the word ‘Killaloe’ fol- lowed by the letter °C’ to 53099.

through the Free- dom of Information Act, the council anticipated that in 2006 and 2007 it would have 56 Traveller families in group housing. However, the actual accommoda- tion provided by the council in that category came to just 22 families.

But with work expected to start on three group housing schemes before the end of the year in Ennistymon (2) and Ennis (1), the council is hopeful of securing 73 of the 119 target for 2008 by the end of the year.

The figure of 73 does not include 18 Traveller-specific houses which will be under construction by next December.

A spokesman for the council’s Trav- eller Accommodation Unit said they would provide 18 new houses in the three schemes in Ennis and Ennisty- mon and planning was advanced in

relation to all three projects.

The annual targets for group hous- ing were altered due to new require- ments for Travellers and the fact that group schemes proposed for Shan- non and Liscannor did not proceed because of those changed needs.

“The overall programme is, by and large, a success with a 75 per cent rate of success and, by early 2009, the vast majority of Travellers should be in permanent accommodation.

“It continues to be a challenge to meet the needs of Travellers where more and more are settling down

rather than travelling around.”

Chairman of the council’s Spe- cial Policy Committee, Cllr Joe Ar- kins (FG) said, “There have been a number of difficulties with the pro- gramme in terms of sites and plan- ning but, all in all, I believe we have done well.

“Maybe we haven’t done as much as we should have, but we have done as much as we could.”

Cllr Arkins regretted the high spend on the legal costs relating to the pro- gramme as the money would be far better spent on bricks and mortar.

DETAILS of email exchanges be- tween ‘lyingeyes’ and ‘hitman- forhire’ were outlined to the jury by the Prosecution, on the second day of the trial.

“Lying eyes 1s Sharon Collins,” said Prosecutor Tom O’Connell.

At around lunchtime on August 2, 2006, a search for ‘hitman’ was car- ried out on a desktop computer at the Howards’ business at Westgate Busi- ness Park, Ennis.

A webpage, www.hitman.us, was accessed at 1.15pm and again after 3pm. At 4.01pm, the user accessed the inbox of sharoncollins@eircom. net and read email.

“Someone using it knows Sharon Collins’ password and is using her email,” said Mr O’Connell.

At 4.47pm, Yahoo searches were carried out for inheritance rights. At 5.17pm, the user logged into ‘lyingeyes98@yahoo.ie’ email ac- count and at 5.42pm an email was sent from sharoncollins@eircom.net to lyingeyes98 @yahoo.ie.

“Somebody sitting at the computer in the office, knowing Sharon Col- lins’ password, sent an email from her email address to ‘lyingeyes.’ That site had only been set up that day. The person sending the email knew that email had been set up that day and was testing the site,” said Mr O’Connell.

On August 8, 2006, the user ac- cessed = sharoncollins@eircom.net at 1.02pm and at 1.05pm, the user signed into lyingeyes98@yahoo.ie. At 9.53pm that night, the user ac- cessed = sharoncollins@eircom.net and at 9.58pm, the user ran searches on yahoo for ‘assassins for hire.’

“At 10 o’clock, the user accessed a webpage www.hitmanforhire.net and uses it. It tells you how to or- der a hitman for contract,’ said Mr O’Connell.

On August 16, the user of the office computer logged into ‘lyingeyes.’ The user then carried out a search for FedEx courier service and a tracking number was used.

This showed that the shipment had

left the previous day and was due to arrive in Las Vegas the following day, August 17.

“The significance is that the person using ‘lyingeyes’ knows the tracking number. “‘Lyingeyes’ is checking the progress of the package,” said Mr O’Connell.

“Sharon Collins personally went to FedEx… The next day in the of- fice of Downes and Howard business is checking the tracking number of the package sent to the US. The in- ference is that ‘lyingeyes’ is Sharon Collins,” he said.

Mr O’Connell said that the hard drive of the laptop computer which was stolen from the business premis- es was analysed.

He said that in the early hours of the morning afterthe alleged burglary, the computer was used to access anumber of web-based email pages. These included hitmanforhire@ yahoo. ooynee tonyluciano@yahoo. com, essameid@yahoo.com and tengels@yahoo.com.

“This shows the State would invite you to draw the inference that Essam Eid is ‘hitmanforhire’, Tony Luciano. He had the computer. It’s an infer- ence you can draw. It is up to you,” Mr O’Connell told the jury.

Mr O’Connell said a third computer was also examined. This was a lap- top computer seized at PJ Howard’s home, Ballybeg House, on February 26, 2007.

BUSINESSES on the Tulla Road may seek compensation from En- nis Town Council once construction work in the area is complete.

The May meeting of Ennis Town Council also heard that Tulla Road residents are living in a “Checkpoint Oita BCoMME AY Lom IAUE- LB CONTE

Speaking last Wednesday, Inde- pendent councillor Frankie Neylon said, “Businesses on the Tulla Road weren’t identified as being open. Pat Fitzpatrick has had to lay off staff. Pat Quinn’s business is down 80 per cent. When the bridge is complete, either the council or CIE will have to look at providing compensation for these businesses.”

CUlr Johnny Flynn (FG) said frus- tration in the area was mounting.

“We have taken an absolute ham- mering over this. East of the bridge, it’s a bit like Checkpoint Charlie. It’s bad for business.”

Cllr Tom Glynn (FF) said some businesses faced closure. “Could the work be done at night? We see it being done in America, Dublin, even back in west Clare. We have a

stretch of 50 metres – surely it could be done.”

He continued, “Some _ businesses are talking about going down the legal route. Can we consult now and can we try to help out young business people who are surely at risk?”

The Tulla road will remain closed until June 2 to allow for the raising of the Corrovorrin bridge and the upgrading of the foul sewer infra- structure. For the subsequent 25 days from June 3 to June 27, a single-lane closure will apply daily between 10am and 4pm.

New working arrangements were expected to come into effect over the weekend. Town Engineer Tom Tiernan stated work on a roundabout at the entrance to the Roslevan shop- ping centre should be “substantially completed” by June 2.

Mr Tiernan said that 72 signs had been erected in Ennis, alerting driv- ers to the closure. He added, “Ideally it would be great to have focused activity, over 24 hours. There are procurement procedures that need to be overcome. It might have been easier had a local contractor been in- volved.”

EAST Clare councillors have made impassioned calls to have measures put in place to stop Traveller groups setting up camp on the bog road be- tween Kilkishen and Tulla.

Cllr Joe Carey (FG) told a meeting of the Scariff Area Committee of the council last week that tempers were flaring since a large group of Trav- ellers parked up on the side of the road for the second time in less than cimeecennisey

‘This happens twice or three times

every year and we have to do some- thing to stop it. Local people are in- timidated and afraid to drive down that road because of the sheer number of caravans and there are children and vans out on the road every day. There will be a serious accident if we don’t do something.”

The councillor said that recently a local landowner “took the law into his own hands and went down and confronted them. He shouldn’t have done it but that’s the level of frustra- tion that people feel.”

Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) said there was

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a serious public health issue here with so many people parked up there with no toilets and no running water. When previous groups left, they left the place in an awful state behind them. We have to fine them for lit- tering – that’s what would happen anyone else.”

ClUlr Colm Wiley (FF) said that it is “hard to do anything while they are there but when they move off we should make sure no new groups can park up”.

Senior engineer Sean Lenihan told the meeting that he had been in con-

tact with the gardai.

“They have the power to move them on but that just sends them up the road. It’s not council policy to bank up ditches or put in boulders because if you do that in one place, then peo- ple want you to do it wherever there are encampments,” he said.

Mr Lenihan said that the council is “actively pursuing” litter offences on the bog road.

Councilors agree that if the group had not moved off by this week, they would seek an emergency meeting with the gardai.

THE finish ceremony of the Rally d’Italia Sardegna the sixth round of the World Rally Championship which took place alongside Porto Cervo’s Marina in Sardinia on May Reidee

Saw world rally champions Se- bastien Loeb/Daniel Elena claim the top prize in their Citroen C4. This result takes the reigning champion’s total to a record 40 world rally wins and sees them move to within three points behind of 2008 championship leader Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen.

This sixth round of the 15 rally series was the first European gravel fixture of the season. Based in the north east of Sardinia, the three day event was characterised by tough narrow tracks south of Olbia. Com- petitors tackled 17 speed tests cov- ering 344.73km. Despite heavy rain before the start, the rally itself was dry, although cloudy skies ensured temperatures were cooler than ex- pected.

BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team finished second and third in the rally and they retain the lead in both the manufacturer’s and driver’s standings in the FIA World Rally Championship.

Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtin- en claimed second in a Ford Focus RS World Rally Car, with Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikka Anttila third in a similar car. Ford preserves its seven point advantage in the manufacturers series while Hirvonen is three points ahead in the drivers title.

Donegal driver Shaun Gallagher maintains his second place in the Junior World Rally Championship after finishing fourth in Sardinia driving his Motorsport Ireland spon- sored Citroen C2.

The Irishman shares second place with 16 championship, alongside Po- land’s Michal Kosciuszko. Many of the car’s suffered mechanical diffi- culties brought on by the conditions including World Rally Team Ire- land’s car which suffered a break in the rear anti-roll bar and a flat tyre.

The next round takes place in Greece next weekend May 30th.

O’BRIEN’S Sandwich Bar, Ennis, is getting geared up for The Clare 10k 2008.

Proprietor of the sandwich bar, Kathleen O’Brien, has announced that they will be the sole provider of water for participants in the 2008 event.

O’Brien’s water will be available along the route at the water station outside The Auburn Lodge Hotel on the Gort Road. This is just past the halfway mark and has provided much needed refreshment for run-

ners and walkers alike over the past two years.

There will also be water available in Lees Road when competitors re- enter the complex.

Staff from O’Brien’s will be on hand on the day to distribute the wa- ter.

Kathleen O’Brien, owner of the Salthouse Lane store, said, ““We are delighted to be involved with The Clare 10k and to be supporting such a worthwhile charity.”

The store, which opened its doors over seven years ago, offers a full range of O’Brien’s products includ-

ing a popular juice bar, where cus- tomers can enjoy a range of freshly squeezed juices and made to order smoothies.

O’Brien’s has more than 300 stores providing the healthy fast food op- tion in 14 countries across Europe, Asia, Australia and Canada.

O’Brien’s aim to serve only the highest quality food and drink to customers and strives to offer a wide variety of fresh, natural and tasty food served by helpful and friendly Nee

The Ennis store has consistently achieved elite store status for stand-

ards from O’Brien’s head office in Dublin and received awards for the premium coffee quality from suppli- er Deemac, where it achieved one of there top awards in the country.

For more information on O’Brien’s Sandwich Bar visit www.obriensca- tering.com.

CLARE Fianna Fail TD, Timmy Dooley has performed a u-turn on the loss of Clare’s mammography service, claiming that travelling for the service to Limerick and Galway is now the best outcome for Clare (eyenles tb

In his maiden speech to the Dail last July, Deputy Dooley said he was deeply unhappy over the decision to end the mammography service at NKR eroloeye

“The genesis of this service was

based on the efforts of a local group of women who raised funds to put the equipment in place. Without con- sultation, however, the HSE proposes to end the service. This shows a great lack of understanding of the volun- tary sector and an arrogance on the part of the HSE.

“The HSE has not put forward a credible service plan to cater for the women of Clare in Limerick and Cre Ne

“They have done nothing to pro- vide reassurances that a centre of ex- cellence will be established and this

adds to the suffering of people who are already in very vulnerable situ- ations.”

But speaking on the same issue in the Dail last week, Deputy Dooley said he had sympathy with people in areas that are losing cancer services.

“When I first learned that Ennis General Hospital would lose its mam- mography services, I was deeply con- cerned but when I sought the advice of clinicians and consultants, it was clear that the best outcome from the patients’ point of view was to travel to either Limerick or Galway.

‘The reason is that enough patients were not using the service in Ennis to keep the skill levels of those uti- lising the equipment up to speed or to keep the system or the machinery calibrated.”

Speaking last year, Professor Ra- jnish Gupta, HSE Mid-West Director of Cancer Care Services, said, “The decision to discontinue mammogra- phy in Ennis is driven by the need to provide the best possible clinical practice.

“The time came to bite the bullet. Centres where less than 1,000 mam-

mograms are being done in a year do not provide the volume of work necessary for the maintenance of the required level of professional skills,” he added.

Consultant radiologist, Dr Paul Hession said “The benefits of this change are that the people of Clare can be assured that the service is in line with international best practice and subject to all the checks and bal- ances that ensure such a unit fulfils its remit. A standalone unit in Ennis would not have these benefits and protections.”