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LOCAL authorities remain on alert in Ennis over fears that further floods could be on the way.

While flood waters in Ennis have, in the main receded, and most roads leading to the town have fully re- opened, the forecast of heavy rain- fall and expected peak tides later this week has led Clare County Council to issue a severe flood alert for all parts of the county.

Speaking yesterday, Town Man- ager, Ger Dollard said that while the situation in Ennis has improved considerably since the weekend, there remained a risk of flooding.

Highlighting the difficulties caused in Dublin and Kildare by sudden bursts of heavy rainfall, Mr Dollard said water levels in the River Fergus may rise with tides ex- pected to hit peak levels on Thurs- day, Friday and Saturday.

“The forecast is for rain later in the week and so the potential is there for floods,” he said.

“As we saw in Dublin, it can so easily happen. We have been doing a lot of work in terms of pumping water out and putting up flood de- fences, so we hope that if there is further heavy rain, the system will be able to cope,” added Mr Dol- lard.

“We would urge people to be vigilant, to take necessary pre-cau- tions and to have a flooding plan in place.”

Commenting on the local author1- ties response to the floods crisis, Mr Dollard said, “The operation was cohesive and everyone associated with it deserves enormous credit.”

27 families remain in temporary accommodation after being forced from their homes by floods.

On Thursday, Ennis Town Council stated that one family had returned to their home and alternative ac- commodation has been identified for a further two families.

Mr Dollard said that flood damage

to some homes has been so exten- sive that some families may not be able to return to them for a number of months.

“Properties are still being in- spected and some will be habitable again fairly soon, we hope. Others will require a few months. There has been some minor damage but in some cases the damage is fairly sig- nificant. Naturally, we want to get people back into their homes in the shortest period possible,” he said.

Mr Dollard explained that the council is working with local auc- tioneers and Ennis Chamber of Commerce to private rented accom- modation for affected families.

CHILDREN from all over Ireland were this month invited to follow in the footsteps of Liscannor legend John Philip Holland. The inventor, who became world-famous as the man who built the first working sub- marine, was one of the main attrac- tions during National Science Week.

Children were invited to follow in Holland’s footsteps by building their very own submarine at the Irish Ma- rine Institute in Oranmore. Indeed, Holland was one of the central fig- ures being celebrated through the week alongside such world-famous scientists as Einstein, Jacque Coust- eau and Marconi.

The young scientists were asked to dream up a “futuristic” submarine capable of exploring Ireland’s 220 million acres of underwater terri- tory.

John Holland was born 1841 in Lis- cannor. He attended St Macreehy’s National School and the Christian Brothers School in Ennistymon be- fore joining the Christian Brothers in Dito.

He left the Christian Brothers in 1873 and joined his mother and his

two brothers in Boston where he joined an engineering firm. Hol- land’s brother, Michael, had been introduced to the Fenian Movement who had organised a “skirmishing fund” administered by John Devoy.

Devoy helped fund John Holland’s research into the submarine. His first submarine, the Holland No 1, was built in Todd and Raftery’s shop, in New Jersey in 1877.

It was 14 feet long and was pow- ered by a primitive 4hp engine and carried one man.

It was brought down to the Passaic River and launched before a big au- dience. But someone had forgotten to insert the two screw plugs and the sub began to sink underneath the wa- oe

His net attempt, The Fenian Ram, built at Delamater Iron Works in New York in 1881. It was 31 feet long and could travel at 9 mph. over water and 7 under water, displaced 19 tons and was armed with an underwater canon fired by compressed air.

After many frustrating efforts to deal with the American Naval au- thorities Holland won an open com- petition for a submarine design and in 1896 the John Holland Torpedo Boat

Company was set up with Charles A Morris as Chief Engineer.

In 1900, the Holland’s No 6 would prove a major improvement on previ- ous efforts. It was 53-feet long, car- ried a crew of 15 and had a torpedo tube in the bow. It took its first dive on St Patrick’s day, 1898, in New York Harbour and was acclaimed a SECA

Despite inspections and favourable publicity and indeed the recommen- dation of the then Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, the Gov- ernment did not buy the submarine.

Holland made some _ alterations and after a final test in March 1900 the US Government bought the Hol- land No 6 on April 12, 1900, for ny LOR OLOeF

John Philip Holland from Liscannor died on August 12, 1914. He is buried in Totowa, New Jersey, less than one mile from where he launched his first submarine.

SOME of the leading lights of the last decade of the Lismorahaun Singers will return to north Clare for a series of festive concerts this December.

Leading soloists such as tenor Pe- ter O’Donohue, soprano Kate Daly and the choir’s young new talent Katie O’Donohue, will join an army of other voices for the three-concert series which will mark the 10th an- niversary of the choir.

The concert will take the form of a musical stroll down memory lane with the Lismorahaun Singer revisit- ing their most famous performance, with a selection of numbers from Mozart’s ‘Requiem’.

The ‘Requiem’ was first performed by the choir in Ennistymon and in Dublin’s RDS in 2005 and was later released as the Lismorahaun first al- bum.

Along with the “Requiem’, the con- cert will also feature a selection of the most popular numbers performed by the choir over the last decade in- cluding Vivaldi, Verdi, Orff and a host of other celebrated composers.

The second of the concert will feature a range of both secular and traditional Christmas favourites that have become popular with audiences as part of the choir’s annual holiday ee ae

Each of their three concerts will raise money for a different local OirWwIA

The first concert will take place on Saturday, December 12, in Lisdoon-

varna and will benefit the local Pavil- ion Theatre. The community building

has been totally restored by the local community over the last number of

years and now, among other things, is home and rehearsal space for the Lismorahaun Singers.

Proceeds from the second con- cert, which takes place at the Fri- ary Church in Ennis on Wednesday, December 16, will go towards the Special Olympics. Fittingly, the final concert in the series will take place at the site of their first ever perform- ance – St John the Baptist Church in Ballyvaughan, with all money raised going towards vital repairs for the Church. This final performance will take place on Thursday, December 17.

“The choir would like to welcome everyone to come and celebrate our tenth birthday in high style this year,” said PRO of the Lismorahaun Sing- ers, Marych O’Sullivan-Sanford.

“We all wish to express, in song, our sincere thanks for the generous enthusiasm received from so many concertgoers over the years.”

The concerts will take place on the 12, 16 and 17 of December in Lis- doonvarna, Ennis and Ballyvaughan. Tickets are available from €15 (€50 family ticket) from Jordans in Lisdoonvarna; Mooneys in Bal- lyvaughan; Crosbies in Ennistymon and Scéal Eile in Ennis.

FLOOD hit businesses prepared to re-open yesterday in Ennis amid warnings that more floods could be on the way.

Businesses in the Gort Road, Ab- bey Street and Newbridge Road were among the worst affected when floodwaters rose to unprecedented levels in Ennis last month.

The Gort Road was expected to fully re-open last night while New- bridge Road is closed from the Club Bridge to the junction of Gort Road and New Road.

Paddy Perill, of Perill’s Furniture Store, was forced to close up shop last Wednesday when floodwaters spilled over from the nearby Colaiste Muire secondary school.

Perill’s reopened yesterday with Paddy, who has run the business at Newbridge Road for 23 years, saying he had never seen floods as severe.

He said, “There was a bit of dam- age done alright. It wasn’t too bad but there was still a bit. It never hap- pened before that we got flooding as bad. I was talking to a man from up the road who is 84 and he said he never saw it as bad”.

Mr Perill said he had experienced heavy flooding in 1999 when the River Fergus burst its banks and cov- ered Newbridge Road.

“It came over the road 10 years ago but what got us this time was the water coming down the back from

the Colaiste.” He believes that there isn’t a whole that local authorities can do to prevent floods from strik- ihetear-hex-BU0E

“There’s nothing that really could be done. Look at all that rain fell in the last few weeks. Water always finds its level. It has to go some- where,’ he said.

Ronan Cahir of GiftVenue.ie at Ab- bey Street is hoping to re-open this week after floodwater caused exten- sive damage to his premises.

“No time is ideal for businesses but

with Christmas around the corner, it was a far from ideal time for this to happen,’ said Mr Cahir.

In order to dry out his business, Mr Cahir said he has been forced to run three large dehumidifiers 24-hours a day for the last week.

‘“We’ve had to get new carpet and flooring in but they can’t be put down until the place 1s dry”, he said.

Mr Cahir, who was initially refused sandbags after Abbey Street was not designated as a priority area, said he is determined to re-open despite fur-

ther flood warnings.

‘Every day for the past two weeks there seems to have been warnings about high tides and more floods. You could lose a lot of sleep and you could freeze with anticipation but you have to get on with it”.

Big demand for over-55s to get started

THE flooding disaster in Gort was only prevented from turning into a catastrophe through the actions of a small group of volunteers, who have carted away more than 70 million gallons of water from the town over the last two weeks.

Despite the intensive flooding in parts of Crowe Street, large sections

of Gort remain largely untouched by the disaster. Had it not been for this effort, it 1s believed that more than 100 houses and businesses located on the Galway Road out of Gort would have been destroyed by the rising water.

A number of pumps have been go- ing round the clock in Gort since the flooding started and a small army of volunteers have been carting the wa-

ter away using tractors.

‘The situation on Crowe Street – we didn’t realise what we were doing at the time but we saved half the town. We thought we were saving our own street but by doing that we saved half the town by pumping away all that water,” said Mike Finn.

‘There is more then 70 million gal- lons of water pumped out of Crowe Street in the last 10 days. We thought

we had lost the battle on a few occa- sions but we pulled through.

“The gardai were good and the council workers. The community reaction here has been brilliant. We just can’t let it beat us now, we are nine or 10 days into it now and we will stay going – we will fight it all the way.”

Despite the terrible conditions, lo- cal people have been offering their time and support to the flood relief.

“It’s a huge community effort here. We have so many people working voluntarily here, so many machines working voluntarily. It’s not just in Gort, it’s all over the area,’ said Cllr Gerry Finnerty.

“It’s unbelievable the effort that people have made and only for it south Galway would be gone.”

Despite the flooding, locals have been keen to emphasise that Gort is still open for business.

‘There is a lot of good people here in Gort who have been doing their best to help. We need to emphasise to everyone out there that Gort is not closed, it is still open for business,’ continued Mr Finn.

‘This is a bigger disaster than peo- ple realise – if things don’t change all the shops will be closed by the Christmas.”

Remembering the Mills’ lost children

THE last two weeks will define the life of Mike Finn – for better or for 0) Toe

Like many other people on Gort’s Crowe Street he has lost everything in the flood. The undiscriminating waters took it all, his livelihood and the business that has been in his fam- ily for generations. A life’s work sim- ply washed away.

Like most other people on Crowe Street Mike has no insurance – no insurance company would have him after the floods in 1995 – and he now stands to loose an estimated €1 mil- lion from the latest set back.

‘The business in closed and I have no appetite at the moment to ever open it again. It’s heartbreaking to see it all. Heartbreaking,” he said.

“It’s not getting any better, not for the near future anyway. Long term it is still not good. We have great work done here, everyone is helping out, everyone wants to help get us out of this mess – but it’s frightening.

“We were let down at the start of this. We were let down by our local engineer and the local guards but I don’t think they realised the scale of the problem. Since then though they have come on board.

“T’m tired of giving out, I’m not go- ing to give out anymore, we need to get on with it and do the best that we can. It’s a natural disaster in the area,

it should never have happened and it should never happen again. But there is nothing being done to prevent this happening next year or the year af- oe

“If we can get some sort of drain sorted out between here and Kinvara then that would be a solution. There

are houses marooned under 12 feet of water, cattle gone out of sheds, the fodder is gone and the sheds them- selves are gone.”

For many people affected by repeat- ed flooding there is simply nowhere to turn, as the insurance companies will refuse to re-insure someone who

has previously made a claim.

According to Mike, the €10 mil- lion allocated by the Government to tackle the flooding will be just a frac- tion of the eventual cost.

“It’s bad, I need something from somewhere, I need to sort out myself and I need to sort out my family. I

need funding, and I don’t need it next month, I need it now,” he continued.

‘There doesn’t seem to be any an- Swers out there. Brian Cowen going out around the country in a pair of shoes is not the answer. He doesn’t need to go around the country, all he needs to do is turn on his TV – he needs to go out to Europe and get funding to fix this.

“We are sending out funds to every country in the world and we can’t Support our own people. It’s the peo- ple on the ground who are working very, very hard to sort this out and we are not here to be giving out.

“We are in the middle of a reces- sion and the last thing that we needed was to be hit by this natural disaster.

“We have no flood insurance here since the flooding in 1995 but we still pay high rates. I pay nearly €14,000 a year in rates and what happens? The place is distroyed for a second time. That shouldn’t happen. The council needs to protect the town from some- thing like this.

““T have no insurance, no one would insure me after the last time, I’m to- tally wiped out. I don’t think that a million euro would be enough to sort me out at this stage; the building has to go.”

CHRISTMAS time promises to be rosier than ever this year with two new Christmas markets announced for the Burren area.

Alongside the established and ever popular market in Ballyvaughan, new markets will be held this year in Kinvara and Kilfenora. Indeed, the Ballyvaughan market has agreed to cut its normal season by one week to allow the Kinvara and Kilfenora markets the weekend to themselves.

Established just this year, the Kin- vara Farmers Market will host its first annual Christmas Food and Craft Market on Saturday and Sun-

day, December 5 and 6.

The market, which will take place from llam to 6pm each day in the Kinvara Community Centre, will boast up to 40 stalls selling a huge variety of seasonal produce and gifts with live music and fun stuff for young and old.

The markets will include a selec- tion of handmade Christmas gifts as well as a host of Christmas food to buy or order, including turkey, goose, seafood, shellfish, cheese, deli prod- ucts and vegetables as well as cakes, puddings and baked goods.

As usual, crafts will be many and varied with jewellery, textiles, pot- tery, toys, books, photographs,

Christmas decorations, stained glass, Christmas flower arrangements and paintings all on offer.

Meanwhile, the Burren Centre in Kilfenora will host their first ever Christmas Fair on December 4 and 5 in Kilfenora. The fair will run from llam to 5pm each day and will show- case a Selection of the quality crafts available in the Clare.

Many of the items are handmade and shoppers will have the opportu- nity to pick up many Christmas gifts while avoiding the crowds and con- gested car parks.

Stalls will include Wildes Choco- lates, books, Christmas hampers and wine, jewellery, Christmas gifts,

wreaths and plants, candle arrange- ments and home-baked products.

The Burren Centre Tea Rooms will also be open on both days to allow shoppers to relax and enjoy some Christmas treats.

For more information on the Kil- fenora Christmas Fair, contact the centre on 065 7088030 or email info @theburrencentre.ie.

Organisers of the Ballyvaughan Christmas Market have announced their fair will take place on Decem- ber 12, 13, 19 and 20 this year, with the usual variety of top-quality local producers. For more details on the Ballyvaughan market, check out next week’s Clare People.