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ALL of the families who had to flee their homes have now returned.

But an 80-year old woman who had to be brought down ramps in her wheelchair still can’t return to her Clonlara house because everything in her home has been destroyed.

Nora Mason can’t return to her house in Springfield and most likely SAU oLemmcy oles NOCD OToMm GUST MINNeT-MAU LOOM slot daughter, Geraldine Quinliven, who was also evacuated with her husband

and four children.

‘Everything in my mother’s house is gone. There’s an inch and a half of silt covering the floors in there. She has to start again at her age,” said Geral- otter

Geraldine and her family returned home on Saturday, more than a week after having to leave their house in Springfield. They spent the time in the interim in a Limerick hotel. The clean-up operation has taken all weekend, she said.

My husband is taking all the sand-

bags away from our doors and stack- ing them behind the house. I really hope we’re not going to need them again.” said Geraldine.

The burning question for Geraldine – and other families flooded out – is how this will affect their insurance. “We haven’t even gone there yet. We’re just trying to get the boys back into school and into a routine and set- tle ourselves back in.” she said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the emergency team has confirmed that all 20 south east Clare families evacu-

ated have been told they can return home.

GE Tiee Orel Seer elm-riCmsiew ele met on Friday with the families who are residents of the Hampstead Park and Riverbrook Lawn estates in Shan- non Banks.

Mary Halpin General Manager with the HSE said “We have met with the families involved and assured them in relation to their dwellings and offered general advice in relation to any is- sues that may require to be addressed. All families are delighted to be able

to return to their homes and the HSE will continue to offer whatever sup- port it can to families that have been displaced as a result of the flooding” Ger Dollard, Director of Services, Clare County Council said: “The HSE and council have no objection to people returning to their homes. The 20 houses in question have not been affected by flooding while the con- struction of a 310-metre long earthen embankment along the river bank has greatly reduced any risk of flooding taking place in the area in question.”

THE spirit of co-operation was shown to be alive and well in New- market-on-Fergus last week when Scoil na Maighdine Mhuire held its annual Christmas Fair.

From 12 midday to 5pm, members of the school and local community flocked to the school hall to admire and purchase a wide variety of items from over 20 talented craftsmen and

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They were spoilt for choice, with goods from chocolates and home baking to handbags and hand-knitted crafts. People could buy yule logs, Christmas wreaths and choose from a huge selection of books.

While the adults perused the many displays, the younger visitors availed of face painting and visited Santa Claus who had made a special ap- pearance on the day.

School principal, Ann McMahon one of the organisers of the popular annual event, expressed a huge ‘thank you’ to all those who supported this year’s fair.

“T would like to sincerely thank the people of Newmarket for their con- tinued support. Thanks also to all the friends who came forward to help with the setting up, as well as the clearing up at the end,” she said.

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used to buy much needed resources for the school, which is celebrating its SOth anniversary this year.

MARK Fitzgerald, Karuna O’Rahilly’s trainer, is lamenting a season just passed. Lamenting the referee too.

“It’s gut-wrenching,” he says, “and we were hit with a dubious decision. I just hope that they were the right decisions because players put their lives on the line.

“David Moran came back two weeks earlier from Australia. Mike Quirke cut a honeymoon short. I just hope the decisions were right and if so fair enough, but Barry John Keane was not given any protection.”

However, then Fitzgerald puts his hand up. “We did have enough pos- session and we did have enough chances. The nine wides in the first half killed us.

“We thought if we won the toss and had the wind that David [Moran] would be best utilised at full-for- ward, he is a good fielder and a good kicker but it did not work out. We did not get quality ball into him.

He said he was pleased with how his side applied themselves in the second-half.

“We upped it after the sending off because we had to, we possibly had chances but took the wrong options rm Ob estoy

“It was hard playing into the breeze with 14 men. You think you might nick it in with a goal chance.”

Then there’s the red card. “I did not see what happened with the incident that led the first yellow card, but the leg was raised for the second one.

“Then again the Kilmurry players were grabbing fellows around the neck and there was no recourse to them. It is tough to take again.

“The free count at half-time was something like 16 to six in their fa- vour and we said that to the referee at half time. We were not asking for any favours but a fair crack at this den eetcaae

BUSINESSES around the county are picking themselves up after the big clean-up and the receding flood waters and are ready to go with the Christmas trade.

‘Everyone is getting down to busi- ness again,’ said Chamber of Com- merce CEO Rita McInerney. “Eve- ryone is back in action and looking forward to Christmas. We are already one quarter way through the Christ- mas shopping season and businesses are concentrating on that. It will be January before people can really take stock of all that has happened.”

Ms McInerney said that the Shop In Ennis drive which is in operation at the moment appears to be bearing fruit. “There is a feeling of pride in shopping in our own area and that is a good thing and I think it has been reinforced because of the floods. We’ve had a few businesses saying that they have found good local sup- port.”

Meanwhile, insurance companies are still dealing with the barrage of claims which have resulted from the deluge.

Hibernian Aviva’s have been deal- ing with €250 million in claims countrywide. Spokesman Alan Tyrell said that there is no breakdown avail- able locally.

The thorny issue of re-insuring business and home owners who have suffered flooding is still to be tack-

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“It’s too early to say how that will work out. The focus is on getting over this issue and then all the stakehold- ers will have to sit down and take stock of what can be done to prevent this in the future, whether this is a one-off occurrence, something that’s going to happen every ten years or something which will happen more

regularly than that as a result of cli- mate change,’ Mr Tyrell said.

SCHOOL is not the place young- sters usually expect to see Santa so it was a great treat for the pupils at St John’s National School in Cratloe when he turned up at their annual Christmas fair.

There was great excitement as the man himself stepped down with a sackful of presents.

“There was a fabulous atmos- phere,” said Parents Council Chair, Taly Crowe. “I think the adults were as excited as the children, jumping up and down and waving and cheer- ing as he arrived. It was brilliant.”

Of course, Santa’s reindeer have to rest up for their marathon efforts on the big night so local woman, Linda Gleeson volunteered the services of her horse and trap to get Santa to the school.”

The school has an annual fundrais- ing craft fair organised by the parents council, but this year they decided to go all out.

“We invited Santa, who very kind- ly turned up, and as well as the usual crafts, we made it more like a Christ- mas fair. Everyone chipped in and supported it,” said Taly.

Local businesses also chipped in with prizes for the raffle. “We had great support from the businesses here and in Sixmilebridge. Crowe’s supplied baked goods, we got fuel vouchers, we had a round of golf from Dromoland and Shannon; all the business people got on board and the whole community came together for it.”

A native of New York, living in Cratloe for the last two years, Taly said that the response to Santa and the Christmas fair is another exam- ple of the community spirit which constantly amazes her.

“Everyone worked very had to

make the day a success and it was just that. Santa’s grotto was all done up and it looked amazing.”

The school – like all schools – tries to supplement the money they get from the department with various fundraising efforts.

The main drive at present is to buy interactive whiteboards, which are replacing the old-fashioned black- boards.

KILMURRY Ibrickane last played in Croke Park in 2000 — they’re now planning to mark the ten-year anni- versary of their All-Ireland Féile na nOg triumph by winning the All-Ire- land Club title on St Patrick’s Day.

No sooner had Kilmurry Ibrick- ane scaled the peak of Munster club football in the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday with their dramatic Q-7 to 0-6 provincial final win over Kerins O’Rahillys and manager Micheal McDermott was looking ahead to greater things.

“We want to get to Croke Park and win an All-Ireland,” said McDermott in the first flush of victory. “Every- thing from here on in is a bonus for this team, because winning a Mun- ster title is what we wanted all year, but having said that we will be deter-

mined not to leave it here.

‘“T have to go home now to my wife to tell her that she probably won’t see me between now and the middle of February and hopefully March, be- cause I’ll be double-jobbing it until then,’ added the new Clare senior football boss.

“This is fantastic for Clare football. Anytime a small team from the west of Clare comes out and beats a Kerry team in a Munster final is a superb day for football in the county. Clare football can be up there with the best of them and we’re well able to com- pete with the best of them.

‘We said to ourselves all year that we really wanted to get back into a Munster final and win it. We’re going to enjoy this win for a good while, but then we’re going to have a real go at the All-Ireland. We’re not just there to make up the numbers. Why

not give it a lash. I’d love to be in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day. I’d love it for the players, because peo- ple outside the club do not realise the effort that these guys put in over the last couple of years.

“They’ve done it without complaint — an odd whinge here and there, but they’ve given everything that they could possibly give. That’s what brings success. Hard work and effort is the key to success and they give it in abundance.”

It’s the new blueprint for Clare football.

RESIDENTS in Ennis are looking forward to a Christmas free of boil- ing water, as Clare County Council hopes to remove the partial boil no- tice within the next few weeks.

Director of Services David Timlin said, “It will take a number of weeks to withdraw that notice, but hope- fully it will be done by Christmas.”

He was speaking after the council signed off on the certificate to allow a private company to operate the plant.

The partial boil notice has been in place for residents who are immuno- compromised, children under five and visitors since June 2005, when high levels of cryptosporidium were discovered in the water.

An interim water system was put in place at a cost of €3 million, un- til the new €9 million system was oyna eyo Keree

Mr Timlin, who over sees all the water services in the county said the testing for cryptosporidium for this year has been “off the scale”.

“It has been costing us a lot of

money, around €50,000 or more in extra testing costs.”

He said the council hope to reduce the number of tests in the future but the number taken will still be more than statutorily required.

The council will now enter into discussions with the HSE in a bid to have the partial boil notice re- moved.

To date the water has passed all the quality tests according to Mr Timlin, adding the reassurance that he drinks the water himself.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said, “I

have no doubt that when the HSE go through the steps the boil notice will be removed.”

He said the filter worked well un- der extreme circumstances in the past number of weeks.

Not all councillors were as con- fident however. Clr Johnny Flynn (FG) said he was sceptical about the treatment plant and worried about the amount of pre-treatment.

Meanwhile Clare’s local authori- ty’s problems with water supply for the county are far from over howev- er, as the head of the water division

has described as urgent the need to replace the number of mains in the county.

‘There are a lot of mains in Ennis that are beyond repair. It is vital the Government give the go ahead to re- place these.”

The council, which once recorded a 50 per cent water leakage in the county has decreased this to 36 per one

Not all of the county has been ex- amined yet by the council who hope to get water wastage down to 25 per one

IT IS officially Christmas time in west Clare, as the biggest town in the area was illuminated with Christmas lights on Saturday.

The lights were put up a little later than usual this year due to the bad weather, and financial restraints meant that they were not expanded this year.

This, however, had little or no af- fect on the Christmas spirit in the west Clare capital, with more people than ever vowing to shop locally this year.

Even Santa arrived in the town on Saturday afternoon last to lend his support to the town.

Carol singers kept the festivities alive until the lights were switched on at 4.30pm, which was followed by a party in The Haven Arms at 9pm.

Chamber of Commerce President, Mark Reidy said that while all busi- nesses are feeling the pinch this year there is a lot of support with more people putting an emphasis on shop- ping locally.

“The competition is more intense with improvements in products and Services,’ he said.

The festive lights again this year depict the ‘Spirit of Kilrush’ theme, which entered its second phase last year.

Designing this display for the mari- time town took a lot of planning, with challenges like the width of Francis Street having to be overcome.

The majority of the work for this scheme was completed for Decem- ber 2007.

‘This wouldn’t have been possible without the four main players: Kil- rush Town Council, the Chamber of Commerce, Kilrush Credit Union and the ESB,” said Mr Reidy.

The town is also adding to the fes- tivity with a draw for thousands of euros of prizes.

Everyone that shops in Kilrush can use his or her receipts to enter the draw in the credit union, adding to the incentive to shop in Kilrush this year.

Last month Kilrush Town Council also appealed for people to not only shop locally this year but to also buy tener

Murray’s resignation will be ‘a devalued currency’

SUPERQUINN announced today it has listed artisan producer Burren Smokehouse in several of its stores, following the highly successful Ar- tisans Festival run by the retailer in October.

During the festival Superquinn opened its doors to give small arti- san producers exposure to trading within a multiple retailer, while also showcasing their innovative products to 800,000 shoppers over a two week period. Some 100 artisans took part in the event over an eight day period hailing from all corners of Ireland including County Clare. Producers sampled their products for custom- ers, and all sales generated went d1- rectly to the artisans.

Burren Smokehouse, a family-run business founded by Birgitta and Pe- ter Curtin in north County Clare in 1989, is now supplying Superquinn’s Limerick and Blackrock stores with its delicious smoked Atlantic fish products. The company, which em- ploys 12 people, has won numerous awards for the quality of its products, including the high profile annual Great Taste Awards in the UK.

Birgitta Hedin-Curtin, co-owner of Burren Smokehouse, comments, “We at Burren Smokehouse are de- lighted to come on board with Super- quinn. It’s great to see Superquinn supporting 100 per cent Irish artisan producers and stocking our products

OD eTos Dam eA one

Commenting on the success of the Artisans Festival, James Wilson, Trading Director at Superquinn, says that it has provided a boost to small Irish food businesses during difficult trading times. “The objec- tive of the artisan festival was to give producers, who are not listed with Superquinn, a platform to showcase their products to customers in a Ssu- permarket environment. It also gave our team of buyers the opportunity to explore how some of their products

might have a more permanent role on our shelves.

“We’re delighted to have listed Burren Smokehouse whose products received a great reaction from our shoppers. Quality Irish food is what Superquinn is all about and these products demonstrate the fantastic quality available from dedicated small food businesses in Ireland. We look forward to working with them,” continues Wilson.

Glenilen Farm of County Cork, Surf Seeds of County Leitrim and

County Dublin, and Marine Har- vest of County Donegal have also achieved listings, and Superquinn is in ongoing discussions with several more artisans, which it hopes will lead to further listings.