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CLUSTERING has become a com- mon phenomenon in our large towns and cities and Philip O’Reilly, Property Plus has just launched a car showroom development, which could see a large concentration of car dealerships establish a new base on the Kildysart Road.

The development incorporate six car showroom sites, which range from 1.1 acres to 2.1 acres. Prices range from €850,000 to €1.225 million.

The property is very well located

on the Kildysart Road, just 2km south of Ennis town centre and 300 metres south of the Clareabbey in- tersection of the new bypass.

Each of the six sites has outline planning permission in place for a car showroom unit together with assoociated parking and other facil- ities, allowing for the development of individual styled units.

The property has extensive road frontage running to 210 metres. The site is bounded by residntial lands with full planning permission for 220 housing units.

For full details call 065 6844448.

A DEFENDANT who has been in custody for more than four months pleaded with a judge not to send him to Dundrum mental institution in Dublin.

David Mulcaire, 31 St Senan’s Road, Ennis, told the Ennis District

court that he would “never be able to get on outside again if I went there. I’d never be served in a shop or a pub. No one would want anything to do with me. It would ruin my name.” Judge Joseph Mangan had suggest- ed sending Mulcaire to Dundrum af- ter reading an assessment of him. Previously the court had heard that

Mulcaire, who is facing charges of theft, suffered a serious brain trauma in 1999, when he was hit in the head with a concrete block.

Two psychiatrists gave conflicting evidence on that occasion on whether or not the accused was fit to plead.

He has been in custody since his ar- rest more than four months ago.

‘Surely the whole thrust of what we are trying to do here is to take this man out of the criminal justice sys- tem and get him into the psychiatric system?” Judge Mangan said.

He remanded Mulcaire to Clover- hill prison for two weeks to be as- sessed by a psychiatrist from Dun- drum mental institution.

A KILKEE man who is serving a 12- year sentence for aggravated sexual assault was yesterday handed a five- year-term for sexually assaulting a woman in Ennis.

Brian Mulvihill (30), of Lislana- han, Kilkee, admitted the offence, relating to an incident at a flat in En- nis, in January 2005. He also admit- ted sexually assaulting a woman in Tralee in November 2004.

Both incidents and the aggravated

sexual assault occurred within a five-month spell when Mulvihill was “gripped” by drink.

During that time, Mulvihill’s “life crashed around him. His old friend drink let him down and led him on a merry dance,” said his barrister Mark Nicholas.

The 12-year term, imposed at the Central Criminal Court last April for the assault on a 20-year-old student in a caravan in west Clare in August 2004, is currently under appeal.

Referring to the Ennis incident,

Garda Val McCormack told En- nis Circuit Court that Mulvihill had been drinking with the injured party for several hours. They both later re- turned to her apartment.

She went to bed and “as she knew him, she allowed him to sleep on the bed outside the covers, fully clothed,” said the garda.

She fell asleep and when she woke up, he was sexually assaulting her.

When she shouted and attempted to push him off, he started pulling her hair. She attempted to strike him

with a bedside lamp and flee the apartment, but had difficulty escap- ing. He asked her to promise not to the tell the gardai. She agreed, in an effort to get away from him. The young woman was later treated at a sexual assault treatment unit.

Mr Nicholas said his client “went on a downward spiral over the five months and was out of control on olen om

Judge Carroll Moran said Mulvi- hill was invited to stay at the young woman’s house, but “he abused the

invitation and took liberties of a fair- ly intrusive nature.”

He noted that a psychiatric report on Mulvihill didn’t question the ex- istence of sexual deviance which, he said, had to be a factor.

“It can’t all be down to drink and mood swings,’ he said.

He said he must impose a prison sentence and jailed him for five erase

“What he did was dreadful but there has to be some element of pro- portionality,’ he said.

WITH early indications showing that the price of beef has started to improve, the farming organisations have been keeping the pressure on the factories in a hope to maintain the positive trend.

Fears have been raised in recent week that there could be a massive exodus from beef farming, and in particular winter finishers in Ireland if consistent price improvement is not witnessed in 2008.

Speaking last week, the Chairman of ICMSA’s Beef & Cattle Commit- tee, Martin McMahon, repeated his

warning to factories that they will fall victim to “their own short-term view’ of the industry unless the re- cent firming-up of prices is contin- UerOmr Ree meee loesIiclee

“Beef finishers are looking at a situation now where they see strong demand and a tight supply, they know that a substantial increase in prices should be in the pipeline and they are left — once again — wonder- ing why the factories seem bent on keeping the prices as low as possi- ble to the point where beef finishers will simply drop out of the trade with dire consequences for the factories themselves next year’, said the Clare

le Dusnoe

“In the context of the substantial kill at the end of 2007 and the ad- ditional and very welcome curbs on Brazilian beef, it 1s perfectly clear that there will be a shortage of cat- tle supplies this spring and that the meat processors would want to start reflecting that reality for the sake of ensuring a continued supply going forward.

“The people who finished cattle in spring 2007 and who suffered finan- cially as a result will not be able to take two successive years in which their costs outweighed any benefits.

“If the processors take the short-

term view again, they may inflict fatal damage to their own industry. Prices must keep rising and they must do so immediately.”

Last week, they revealed that the price paid by factories to farmers has actually decreased in the last 17.

According to new figures seen by

A MAN who was suffering from de- lusions and believed he was being fol- lowed stole two cars and tried to take another, in three different towns, all in the space of a few hours.

Timmy Casey (30), of 3 Clonlong, Southill, Limerick, stole cars in Shannon and Ennistymon, and tried to take another in Lahinch, on May 29, 2006.

Ennis Circuit Court heard yester- day that Casey, who has 59 previous convictions, stole an Audi from the forecourt of a garage in Shannon, at 9.30am.

He had called to Shannon and

Roxboro garda stations that morn- ing and said he felt he was being fol- lowed in what was described in court as “a cry for help.”

He drove from Shannon to Corofin, Where he attempted to buy petrol. The alarm was raised after a petrol attendant in Corofin became suspi- cious when Casey was unable to find the petrol tank in the car.

He then drove to Ennistymon where he ran out of petrol and parked up that car.

He then stole another car in En- nistymon, where he told the owner he had a gun and demanded the keys.

That car was later seen speeding around Lahinch and Ennistymon.

“It was weaving in and out of traf- fic. There were school children on the road at the time,’ said Gda Alan Keane.

Shortly after 12 noon, he crashed that car into a BMW at Dough, La- hinch, where he tried to take another car and assaulted its owner.

He tried to pull the driver, a mid- dle-aged woman, out of the car, but she managed to hold on to her keys. He was arrested as he sat in the driv- er’s seat of that car.

Garda Keane said that he was “very incoherent and didn’t know what he was saying, at the time.

While he was sober, he was “defi- nitely under the influence of drugs”

and was “suffering from delusions,” said the garda.

Casey’s barrister said the incident “verged on a rampage on the roads.” She said her client could offer €3,000 in compensation.

Judge Carroll Moran accepted the money and directed that it goes to one of the victims.

“What would concern me now is that there would be any repetition of Wek

“It is important that he keep taking his medication, but how do you po- lice that,” said the judge.

He imposed a two-year jail term, suspended on condition that he co- operate with his doctors.

THE tragic Whitegate man whose body was found in the Shannon after a 32-day search was laid to rest on Sunday.

Teams of experts and volunteers had combed the area around Lough Derg, Killaloe and Ballina when James Burke from Ballinruan disap- peared after a night out with friends.

He was last seen near the bridge in Killaloe on Sunday, December 9, just after 10pm. He was heading for The Anchor Bar after an evening’s socialising in the town with friends, but never showed up in the bar.

Last Friday, a local man walking his dog spotted the body in the water north of the bridge in Killaloe a little after 9.30am.

A garda spokesman said the dis- covery was made at the rear of the li- brary, on the Scariff side of the town. The spot is not far from where James was last seen.

Gardai called in the local coast guard unit to help recover the re- mains which were taken from the lake to the Mid-West Regional Hos- pital in Limerick where a post-mor- tem and official identification were carried out.

Silom DENese Maye ame:Bicre Ma J eles pMmE-De eto didn’t show up for work or contact his parents.

Before Christmas, his mother, Peggy, made an appeal for help with finding her son.

“James was a very keen angler and he would have known not to go near the water when it was so high. He was a very happy lad with not a worry in the world. He phoned me earlier that night to say he would be home shortly.”

A widescale search of land and wa- ter was launched, including dives of the main River Shannon when the Ardnacrusha Power Station turbines were turned off.

The building site where the 23- year-old worked closed down and his workmates from Muggivan’s build- ers joined in the search.

A spokesman for the gardai said that they do not suspect any foul play. It’s thought James may have slipped and fallen into the water.

At one stage, neighbours called on the help of a psychic to try to locate AF Weatene

It’s not clear whether the body was obscured and missed in the initial searches or whether extremely high, fast-moving water in the area made it difficult to see.

THE threat of bird flu has once again reared its ugly head over the island of Ireland with the confirmation of a number of cases of avian influenza in the UK last week.

Despite a number of outbreaks across the water, Ireland has man- aged to stay completely bird flu-free since it first began to threat European farms almost two years ago.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food have called on all poultry producers to maintain vigi- lance and report any suspected cases as soon as possible.

The department’s National Disease Control Centre (NDCC) Manage- ment Committee met last Thursday

to discuss the confirmation of the presence of high pathogenic H5N1 avian “flu in three dead wild mute swans in the Dorset area of Eng- land.

The committee was briefed on the most recent information available from the Department of the Environ- ment, Food and Rural Affairs (DE- FRA) in Britain and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Develop- ment (DARD) in Northern Ireland.

According to officials from the Department of Agriculture, constant contact between experts in Dublin and their colleagues in Belfast, Lon- don and Brussels has been ongoing since the outbreak was confirmed.

On Thursday morning the British authorities put in place the required

EU control measures; which include a Wild Bird Control Area and Moni- toring Area, within which bird keep- ers are required to house birds or otherwise isolate them from contact A100 MM AUC mayb KCK

“The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has taking ex- pert ornithological advice from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and BirdWatch Ireland on current migratory patterns between Britain and Ireland,’ said a spokes- person from the Department of Ag- riculture.

“The most recent information available is that there is currently lit- tle migration and that the migratory pattern is stable and, as such, the risk to Ireland remains low.

“Department of Agriculture offi- cials have advised Minister Cough- lan of the current situation and will be monitoring developments in Dor- set carefully in the coming days.”

Meanwhile, the IFA National Poul- try Committee Chairman Ned Mor- rissey has also called on poultry growers here to maintain the highest levels of vigilance.

He said producers here have im- plemented extra measures such as the installation of water chlorination systems to ensure the health status of their flocks 1s protected.

“Poultry producers meet the high- est veterinary standards at all times, and are particularly vigilant at the moment to protect the health of their flocks,” he added.

AN undercover garda bought ecstacy tablets at an Ennis nightclub, as sev- eral premises were targeted as part of a planned operation.

Ennis Circuit Court heard yes- terday that a female garda bought eight ecstacy tablets for €70 at Mae Kearney’s, Lifford, Ennis, in March 2006.

She bought the tablets from an un-

named individual. That individual was later seen interacting with Dub- lin man Patrick Anderson.

Anderson (41), with an address of 72 Springdale Road, Raheny, Dub- lin 5, was arrested and charged with possession of ecstacy for sale or sup- ply. He pleaded guilty to the charge.

Garda Stephen Hession told the court that following a briefing, a number of premises were under ob- servation by gardai, in March 2006.

One of those was Mae Kearney’s, Lifford, Ennis and several undercov- er gardai visited the premises on the night in question.

He said that the undercover garda who bought the drugs used a ‘marked’ €50. This note was later found on the accused.

He was arrested and 36-and-a-half white tablets were found on him. Analysis concluded that these were ecstacy tablets.

The court heard Anderson had been suffering from a “very serious addi- tion” at the time and travelled to En- nis for a rave which had been organ- ised at Mae Kearney’s. His barrister Mark Nicholas said the accused is now drug-free.

Judge Carroll Moran imposed a two-year jail term and suspended it on condition that he not commit any criminal offence and not take or deal any illicit drugs in the next two

TWO young Shannon men will defy medical advice in undertaking a nov- el challenge which will see them run no less than 12 marathons this year, in aid of charity.

Darren O’Connell (32) and Alan Mullin (30) from Tullyglass ran their first ever marathon a year-and-a-half ago and were so enthused by it that they decide to take up marathon run- ning on a large scale.

The two are now hoping to under-

take the multi-marathon challenge and stand to enter the record books, if successful.

The two friends ran the Dublin marathon in 2006, in memory of their friend Earl Duff (21), who died from Cystic Fibrosis 10 years earlier.

They then decided to set them- selves a challenge and run one mara- thon every month this year, in aid of Cystic Fibrosis.

They rang in 2008, running their first marathon of the challenge in Zurich on New Year’s Eve, with a time of four hours, 19 minutes. They are now in training for the next run in Valencia, Spain on February 17. They will also run marathons in Rome, Switzerland, Berlin and New York, along with five runs in Ireland. The challenge will wind up with the final run in Milan on December 2.

The two have been keen sports enthusiasts over the years, but mar- athon running is quite a new phe- nomenon. They are looking forward to the tough challenge that will lie ahead this year.

“We said we would do something to generate money. We have always been into sport,’ said Darren, who is a secondary teacher.

“The medical advice is we shouldn’t do more than two or three marathons a year. We have carried out research, which shows that it has been done before, in the UK and the States. We are not allowed to break any records. If we stay injury free, it shouldn’t be a problem,” said Darren, who has played hurling for Wolfe Tones for many years.

“It is not about the times. It is about getting through them. The trick is not to burn yourself out and do just light training in between the mara- thons,’ he added.

Both Darren and Alan – who works in Dublin – had just three marathons under their belts prior to taking up this challenge, but are confident they will get through it.

The two are hoping to raise €20,000 from the challenge and are due to set up their own website www.l2marathons.com within the next few weeks, on which they will invite sponsorship.

CLARE is bearing the brunt of the economic slowdown with a higher percentage losing their jobs here than in other areas.

Statistics released by the Small Firms Association last week showed that 3.5 per cent of all jobs lost in Ire- land last year were lost in Clare. This is despite the county only accounting for 2.5 per cent of the national popu- lation.

According to experts, this is as a re- sult of the county’s over-reliance on tradition low-skill areas such as con- struction, tourism and farming.

“We have a broad mixture of in- dustry in the county but we are more reliant on traditional industries in Clare and as a whole in the west of Ireland. There is that bit more di- versity on the east coast and that is why we need to keep attracting companies into the region that have a broader spectrum of sectors,” said Rita McInerney, CEO of the Ennis Chamber of Commerce.

“We have the location for this kind of development in Clare, like in the Shannon Free Zone and the Ennis In- formation Age Park. We have to try and attract more industry that will cover us Over the times when things like the construction industry taking a hit takes place. We don’t want to have all of our eggs in one basket on dene

A total of 714 redundancies were recorded in Clare in 2007. This plac-

es the county in sixth place nation- ally behind Dublin (10,844), Cork (2,/07), Limerick (1,250), Galway (1172) and Kildare (1,147).

In total, 25,459 redundancies were recorded nationally, with men ac- counting for some 61 per cent of all job losses.

‘We are also very dependent on the tourism industry in Clare. We need to diversify over the next few years to help off-let any downturn that might take place in these industries,’ con-

tinued Ms McInerney.

“We all knew that there would be a saturation point in the economic erowth. In fact, many economists thought it would come sooner.”

Meanwhile, further proof of the downturn in the local economy was seen last week with the release of the live register figures for Clare. They revealed a massive 165 per cent year- on-year increase in the number sign- ing on in Clare.

In December last year, 4,696 per-

sons were on the live register in the county, compared to just 4,073 during the corresponding period in pau ees

“We need to look at ways of up- skilling people who are in the tra- ditional industries which are being hit. This is where projects such as the One-Step-Up programme run by FAS will be so important,” contin- ued Ms McInerney.

“I do think that there is an area of renewal energy and waste manage- ment, the Green industries, which could be a very good fit for people who are coming out of the construc- tion sector.

“It could be a way for many local construction workers to diversify into this area. I think they would be seen as very complimentary industries to each other. It would go hand in hand with the construction industry.

“TI feel that this is not a total down- ward trend; it’s more of a levelling off. The next six months will be a time of consolidation and reorgani- sation before the economy can move forward again.

“As long as it is managed properly and businesses have time to think about where they are going in the future, then it will turn around and come good again. There is a chal- lenge here in the west in terms of get- ting over our over-reliance on con- struction and the tourism industry.”