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, as Fine Gael prepares to raise the issue of juve- nile offending in a private members motion in the Dail this (Tuesday)

evening.

Fine Gael is hitting out at the Gov- ernment’s record on the issue of un- derage offending and is calling for tough measures to be introduced.

It is calling for a comprehensive re- view on the availability of knives and to increase garda resources, in an ef- fort to tackle knife crime.

The party says it is concerned about the increase in incidents of anti-so- cial behaviour, the prevalence of al-

cohol and drug abuse and the prolif- eration of knife crime.

Fine Gael says the ongoing deterio- ration of law and order under Fianna Fail-led governments has created “fear and anxiety’ among the pub- liter

“A lot of the structures put in place over the past few years have to be rolled out,” said Cllr Carey.

“On the ground, I feel the system is very badly resourced. There isn’t

enough personnel involved,” he said.

He said that with hundreds of re- ferrals to the national juvenile office from Clare every year, additional gardai should be appointed to work with young offenders.

“We have two juvenile liaison of- ficers (JLOs) in Clare. This has in- creased from one a few years ago, but there is a huge volume of work for two people to be doing,” he said.

‘Restorative justice is the way for-

ward, but that initiative will be aspi- rational without resources,” he said.

“We (FG) want to see more com- munity policing in terms of juvenile justice,” he said.

He said that geographical areas most at risk must be identified and funding injected in those areas.

‘We need to invest in areas more at risk of problem behaviour and identi- fy the individuals at an earlier stage,” he said.

NEW facilities which will help pro- mote the increasingly popular farm- er’s market in Killaloe are being sought.

Local councillor, Tony O’Brien is to ask Clare County Council to cost the provision of facilities such as electricity, running water, signage and road markings for the site of Kil- laloe Farmers Market.

The call will go out to the council’s Director of Services at a meeting of the Killaloe area representatives of the council today.

“The market has become a very popular feature in Killaloe each

Sunday and I have met with some of the traders about their concerns and ways in which the market could be supported and improved,’ Cllr O’Brien said.

He added that those stalls which require power, such as hot food ven- dors and stalls which need chill ca- pacity for fresh food, are currently using generators.

“A power supply would be a big help to the traders and would help create a more pleasant atmosphere at the weekly event,” he said.

Farmers markets are becoming well supported countrywide as peo- ple become more aware of where their food comes from and buying

locally sourced and produced food gains in popularity.

“This is in line with Minister John Gormley’s recent statement about supporting local markets,” said Cllr O’Brien.

He added that he is “not asking the county council to pay for these facilities. just to cost them. Once we know what is involved, then we can look at what finances are available and maybe do some sort of scheme which involves input from the mar- kets vendors and whatever funding 1s available.”

The move to improve conditions for the market comes as Clare County Council finalises details of its desig-

nated casual trading areas.

The new by-laws on casual trad- ing will control where stall holders can set up and the area between the waters has been designated as one of these areas.

Meanwhile, Cllr O’Brien will also be chasing the local authority to check the water supply system in Killaloe to ensure there will be no further loss of supply like the one which affected homes in the town last week.

A leaking main was responsible, dumping 40,000 gallons a day into the ground.

“We can’t have this happening in the long term,” said Cllr O’Brien.

THE biggest thing about the tiny baby boy is his eyes. They stare in alarm out of a face that is sunken and a body that is covered in the open sores which are the tell-tale sign of infection with the HIV virus.

He is nine months old, but to lift him up is to discover that he weights little more than a large teddy-bear.

His mother looks almost as sick as he does and there is no alarm in her eyes, only defeat.

Sr Ethel wants to introduce the pair, who have come for help to the Mis- sionvale clinic, to a volunteer.

When the young mother leaves Ethel confides that her little boy will probably not live to see his first birthday.

“We have to work very closely with her now. She is close to giving up. She’s saying ‘what’s the point?’ It’s when people go that far down that they slip away”, says Ethel. “This is the face of AIDS in Africa.’’, she SEAS

Hope is a very valuable commodity at Missionvale, particularly for the children who come every day to be fed as part of the Orphans and Vul- nerable Children programme.

Around 3pm, they arrive and sit in lines on the grass of the school playground. There are 500 or more children involved. They sing togeth- er and then sit quietly with hands outstretched for a sandwich and the

jOLOLB Cod O1 Mo) ONTO SloXO MM OM UDLMMCDMDOL Gm Zen(on| kitchen staff have been preparing all morning.

The older children help marshall the younger ones into lines and they carry the crates of sandwiches for distribution.

These are the children who have had their childhood snatched from them by being made heads of house- holds often before they are ten years old. The AIDS virus has taken their parents and caregivers. Look into their eyes and you will see adults looking back.

Parents don’t have to be dead for a child to be an orphan in the town- ship. Many have parents who are too ill to provide care for them. Many more belong to families who have been defeated by poverty, hunger, disease or alcoholism.

Sr Ethel feeds these children and also supports the older children who have been cast into the parenting role to ensure they can continue going to school, getting an education which will provide them with wings to fly the grinding poverty trap.

Her investment in the future of the youngsters is already paying off.

Many who came to her when her only facility was the shade of a tree are now working as care-giv- ers, teachers and clerical staff at the centre and many more have fulfilled their contract with Missionvale and have gone out into their brave new Ke) u lem

DISTRICT court sittings in Kildysart and Corofin have become a thing of the past, while court hearings will not take place in Ennistymon for at least 18 months.

The Courts Service has decided to move Kildysart cases to Ennis and Kilrush, while Corofin cases will be heard in Ennis and Ennistymon, on a permanent basis.

The Ennistymon court hearings, which have taken place in the Teach Ceol for several years, will now move

to Kilrush.

The Courts Service has stressed that the Ennistymon move is only a temporary measure as it is close to reaching a decision on a new venue for the town’s court hearings.

The decision, announced last week, came in the wake of District Judge Joseph Mangan repeatedly voicing his concerns about the poor condi- tions of the Teach Ceol in Ennisty- mon and the Corofin venue.

The Teach Ceol building was cold and accoustics were poor. Over the past three years, personnel from the

Courts Service have made attempts to find a more suitable permanent venue in the town, but this hasn’t suc- ceeded. It 1s expected that a new ven- ue will be opened within 18 months.

While legal sources expressed satis- faction that the venue in Ennistymon is to be replaced, they did express hope that the decision to move the monthly sittings to Kilrush would be a short-term one.

The regional manager of the Courts Service, Brendan McDonald, said the plan is for a courthouse to be opened in Ennistymon.

“The judge has had enough of the cold and the poor accoustics. It is no longer suitable,’ he said.

He said the decision to move the Ennistymon cases to Kilrush and not Ennis was because Ennis was “very full with High Court and Central Criminal Court sittings.”

The Kildysart and Corofin sittings took place in the local community halls, which were not suitable for court hearings, according to the Courts Service.

“There were only 53 cases heard in Kildysart last year, while in Corofin

the conditions were appalling, with no consultation areas and no judge’s area,’ said Mr McDonald.

Kildysart Councillor Oliver Garry (FG) said locals fear the removal of the courthouse may be just another part of local services being eroded.

“The only thing I’d get worried about is everything is closing in rural areas. There is always concern about these things,” he said.

Lahinch Community Council chair- man Donogh O’Loghlin said the poor conditions in Ennistymon were ‘an insult to our courts system”.

OF uu (orem Menara Leys feature on the area after one of their journalists enjoyed a stay in east Clare on her holidays.

Theresa Brown of East Clare Tour- ism said her organisation had been involved in helping the newspaper to put together an article on things to do and amenities in the Lough Derg

area.

“They had a huge interest in the lake and the various activities avail- able and they were particularly inter- ested in fishing and other activities,” said Theresa. “We gave them all the information we could. We’re very pleased that the area is getting this kind of exposure and publicity.”

A spokesperson for Clare County Council said the local authority had also been involved in supplying in- formation on places to stay and things to do in the environs of Lough Doyse

Meanwhile, the East Clare Tourism

organisation held its annual general meeting last week, and elected Ea- mon Moroney of Scariff as chair- man, and Bodyke councillor, Colm Wiley as vice chair.

Teresa Brown was appointed sec- retary and Mary Corry of Tulla was elected assistant secretary. Joint treasurers for the year are Vera O’Rourke of Mountshannon and Elaine Rodgers of Whitegate.

Councillor Pat Hayes told the group that funds have been sanctioned by Clare County Council to support their work.

Members of East Clare Tourism

attending the AGM said they were very pleased with the proposed de- velopment of the hotel, golf club and equestrian centre at Tinarana, which, it was felt would greatly enhance the amenities in Lough Derg and the surrounding area.

The next meeting of the group will take place on March 11 in Teach Ui Bhriain at 8pm.

IT’S 5.45am, South African time and the phone is ringing in the hotel room, an alarm call to get going. Downstairs in the SIlver Springs the dining room has opened early for the Irish. The bus for Mission- vale will leave at 6.30am. An array of every kind of cooked food, cold meat, cereal and exotic fresh food greets us as we stumble in, bleary eyed. It’s our first day on the Build- ing of Hope project. We arrived yesterday after travelling for thirty hours and thanks, Aer Lingus for adding more than three hours on to that with the loss of the Heathrow connection. There are almost 170 Clare volunteers who will be cross- ing you off the Christmas card list. And it’s only 4am back home for God’s sake! But the cheerful banner crew are undaunted. We board the bus and before a hammer is lifted we re greeted by staff of the centre, singing, waving Clare and Irish flags and then we get the tour of Mission- vale and the surrounding township. The level of deprivation is hard to take in on first sight, it contrasts con- fusingly with the neat, clean dress of the children who come to school in

the centre and play in the yard where later we eat lunch.

After the first lunch-break, kitchen staff start gathering up the leftovers.

“Do you compost that or feed it to the dogs or what?”’, a volunteer asks. TMC oD remot Misa URN Ce TIN LONG ers will eat whatever we have left. There is not enough money in the kitty to provide packed lunches for them as well as the Irish volunteers and we are used to eating while they are used to going hungry. It’s the last day that anyone eats a full lunch. But then, there’s none of us likely to starve anytime soon.

By day’s end at 5.30, 6pm or later as the week marches on, there are little clusters of children waiting in the playground. They love to talk to the Irish, and the smaller ones wrap themselves around you, climb on laps and stroke the women volunteers’ hair in fascination at the straightness. They are mostly orphans, hungry not just for food but for affection also.

By day two a lot of the volunteers have bought bags of sweets to give to the children who wait at the gate for work to finish. It’s a heart-rend- ing exercise.

The children, anxious for any bit of a treat mob the volunteers and it’s

impossible to have something for everyone, there are so many.

The staff and African workers on the project ask on day one _ that volunteers leave them their clothes When they go home. The women want trainers, t-shirts and shorts. The men ask for work-boots. One of the Africans is using a whacker with no shoes on his feet.

Each evening, the volunteers hit the showers and go down for food and cold beer. Some evenings, with the red African dust lining our throats, the cold beer is the first priority. By ten everyone is singing, laughing and oar Denes

Missionvale may exist in the midst of poverty and death. But being here, and helping to build hope, we have never felt more alive.

AN ARGUMENT between three young boys over football ended up in court after the mothers of two children were charged with offences arising from the incident.

Mary Tubridy, of 9 Cluain Lia, Shannon, was charged with assault- ing Carol O’Kane of 22 Cluain Lia, Shannon while Mrs O’Kane faced a public order charge, on October 1, 2006.

Mary ‘Tubridy’s son James (12), told Ennis District Court he had been playing with his friend Jason Hoban close to the home of another boy, Matthew O’Kane. He said that Math- ew O’Kane came over and asked if he could play soccer with them.

James Tubridy then said that Math- ew O’Kane’s mother, Carol, “came out and caught me by the throat and said ‘what did you call my son?’”

The court heard that soon after the three boys had met, Mathew O’ Kane ran home and told his mother that James Tubridy had called him a “t***i no bastard”.

Following the confrontation be- tween Carol O’Kane and James

Tubridy, the court was told that James went home and told his par- ents that Mrs O’Kane had called him a “f***ing bastard and a bul- ly”. A short time later, Mrs Tubridy challenged Mrs O’Kane about the incident. It was during a verbal al- tercation between the two that Mrs

Tubridy was alleged to have assault- ed Mrs O’Kane by striking her in the rede

In her evidence, Mrs O’Kane ad- mitted that she confronted James Tu- bridy and reprimanded him for using language at her son but denied that she grabbed him by the throat.

Carol O’ Kane told the court, “I was sitting on the fence and she came right up to me with her fist clenched. There was an argument between us. She went to punch me in the face but I turned my head and she hit me in the neck.”

Judge Aeneas McCarthy acquitted Ms O’Kane. “In the case of Carol O’Kane, she did say she raised her finger and her voice was raised at this young man but I don’t think her behaviour reached the threshold high enough to convict her under the Pub- lic Order Act,” he said.

“In the case of Mary Tubridy, I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that she did assault Carol O’Kane. She admitted to the guards in her statement that she hit her about the face. I will mark it proved but will adjourn the matter for a period of six months and if there is no trouble in the meantime, I will apply the Proba- tion Act,’ Judge McCarthy said.

“These are neighbours and apply- ing penalties would only aggravate the situation,” he added.

A GORT whizz kid will next month take on some of Ireland most talent- ed young minds in a competition to design a new version of Space Invad- ae

Finn Krewer, a Leaving Cert stu- dent from Gort Community School, has qualified for a major program- ming competition which takes place at the Tipperary Institute on March iF

Finn will be one of just two sec- ond level students taking part in the competition, with the vast majority of entries coming from third level students and above. The competition is being organised to mark the 30th

anniversary of the creation Space Invades, which went on to revolu- tionise technology and help bring the computer to the masses.

“We all got a starter pack and a very basic version and we all had to design three levels of space invad- ers,’ he said.

“We were asked to keep the game play fairly similar to the original but the functions, graphics, sound and memory are all your own. It’s for the X-Box 360 so you have more abilities in the design than you would iLeyweee NOAA

“It’s difficult enough, you do need some good coding experience. It’s all hard code, there is a nice developing environment but you still need to be

able to write thousands of lines of code.”

The event is also being used to launch Tipperary Institute’s new De- gree in Computing and Game Design and Development. ‘Talent scouts from major computer game companies SEGA, BlackRock Studios (Disney Interactive Studios), Square ENIX and Blitz Games will be in Thurles for the event.

“I started programming pretty young and then last year I represent- ed Ireland in the Imaging Cup which is sponsored by Microsoft. Myself and a friend programmed artificial intelligence strategies for computer- ised robots to move around in and work,” continued Finn.

“IT was also in the young scientist last year where we developed an electromagnetic glove. It was a crazy idea of a friend of mine and I ended up making all the electronics for that. This year we tried to make a virtual chemistry lab. It was very simple but it was really the idea of it that we were trying to get across.

‘Tam also helping a group of second years in the school with their coding. They are taking part in a competition called Schoolbots, which is small lit- tle tanks moving around and trying to blow each other up.”

After last week ‘French kiss’ with her French counterpart, Michel Barnier, the Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, is turning Japanese this week by leading an Enterprise Ireland visit to the far eastern nation WNL oo) .@

While the emphasis of the visit will be on food innovation as well as spe- cific sectoral innovation in the soft drinks and seafood processing sec- tors it is expected that the visit will facilitate the development of new trading opportunities.

“Japan is a world leader in pioneer- ing and developing the food and functional foods industry. This visit offers an opportunity to explore the potential for future collaborative research projects between Japanese and Irish food companies and food research institutes,” she said.

“The functional food and beverag-

es sector has grown to be one of the biggest global trends in food supply over the past 20 years.

“Ireland’s traditional strengths as a dairy and beverage producer along with our strong pharmaceutical in- dustry base, ample availability of quality raw materials, state-of-the- art food and drink research centres, and world class third level institu- tions, position us to become a lead- ing force in the functional foods sec- tor,’ he continued.

“We are also committed to emu- lating the collaborate approach be- tween Government, industry and the research community that has proved so successful in Japan.”

Also on the plane will be Mike Feeney, Director of Internationally Traded Business Sectors, Enterprise Ireland.

“A number of Enterprise Ireland clients are already collaborating with Japanese food companies who

are experts in this field of food sci- ence and processing,’ he said.

“Not alone will it benefit our clients to learn from Japanese expertise, but collaboration will also benefit Japa- nese food companies, offering them access to our leading-edge food sci- ence and technology research and access to a valuable and growing EU market for Functional Foods and Beverages.’

Six Irish soft drinks companies are participating in the Soft Drinks In- novation Study programme whereby they will meet with a number of key Japanese soft drinks manufacturers to evaluate emerging technology, packaging and product innovations in the sector.

In conjunction with Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), six Irish seafood processing companies, will be in ex- amining the latest freezing technolo- gies with a view to transferring them back to Ireland.

A DISPUTE between a solicitor and his former client over fees for circuit court proceedings were aired in the district court last week.

Solicitor John Rynne, of Abbey Street, Ennis, took the case at Ennis District Court (civil) against Denise Dalton, arising out of previous cir- cuit court proceedings, in which he represented her.

Mr Rynne claimed that Ms Dalton owed him €5,743.50, but she claimed that was ‘excessive’ and that they had agreed orally on a €4,200 fee.

Last week’s case arose from a cir- cuit court matter last year. In that case, Denise Dalton (45), of Sonas,

Shanaway Road, Ennis, took a case against an Ennis hair salon, arising out of a perm that went wrong, on May 26, 2003.

She said she suffered itching to her scalp, on the night of the visit to the ar Demnr-D(0)0F

The following day, her hair started to fall out and she noticed a smell coming from her scalp. That case was settled in the circuit court in February 2007.

Ms Dalton’s barrister told Ennis District Court last Thursday that his chent was “taking substantial issue with the figure’ Mr Rynne claimed he was owed.

He said that the fee of €4,200 had been agreed, on February 1, 2007

and his client was willing to pay that amount.

“You said you would charge no more than three times what the bar- rister would cost. His costs were €1,050, so the total came to €4,020,” said the barrister. Mr Rynne denied Wen ke

Ms Dalton, who is currently a trainee barrister, told the court that Mr Rynne told her the fees would not exceed €5,000, in a conversation on February 1, 2007.

“The bill was excessive. It was in breach of our oral agreement,” she SrHTOR

Mr Rynne told the court that Ms Dalton “got as good a settlement as she could have got on the day, which

we still stand over. I did a job for her and I’m entitled to my costs for it.

“She’s perhaps confused, given the stress of the day (in the circuit court). I still remain unpaid, as is the bar- rister in the case,” he added.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy said, “I am satisfied an oral agreement did come into existence between the plaintiff and defendant, to the effect the plain- tiff would receive three times that of a barrister’s fee, or a maximum of €5,000. I’m satisfied that agreement formed a binding legal contract be- tween the plaintiff and defendant,” he said.

He awarded a decree of €4,200 to Mr Rynne, but awarded costs to Ms Dalton.