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CONTENTIOUS plans by voluntary housing organisation, RESPOND in Shannon, are now in doubt after Clare County Council refused to ex- tend the organisation more time to complete a 28-unit housing develop- ment in the town.

Five years ago, RESPOND secured planning permission for 28 homes in the face of strong local opposition. To date they have constructed eight two-bed bungalows and two three-

bed semi-detached houses out of the total proposed.

The housing association lodged an application to extend time to allow for the completion of the project.

However, a submission from the Combined Residents Association from Tullyvarraga Hill and Brook- fields claimed that the site had been landscaped and surrounded by a boundary fence, and the contractor had left the site some months ago.

“There is little likelihood that the work, involving as it does consider-

able civil and ground work, could be completed within a reasonable time. In our opinion, there is no justifica- tion for extending the perfectly ad- equate original period,” the residents Sr BKGE

‘Furthermore, the imminent 1m- plementation of plans to extend the town centre area, with commercial and residential developments, chang- es the whole basis of planning.

“The only sensible course is to re- ject the extension and for RESPOND to re-apply for planning in light of

the new circumstances.

“There is an adequate supply, even a surfeit of apartments in Shannon, which are intrinsically better, more attractive and cheaper than the pro- posed mini-blocks and to spend pub- lic money on such a project is unac- ceptable,” the residents’ submission maintained.

“In our opinion, the mini-blocks are of defective design, would not serve the needs of Shannon and would be an irresponsible use of public money. They would be intrusive and dimin-

ish the area visually and in quality of life and in value terms.”

A report from the council’s planning inspector said that an additional four years was sought by the applicants to complete the development and this was not a reasonable timeframe for the works to be completed.

The council ruled that the exten- sion be refused “as substantial works had not been carried out to date in accordance with Section 42 of the Planning and Development Act 2000”.

ONE MORE beginning.

Just like last year, a fresh dawn will fall over Clare next weekend when the county footballers and hurlers begin their season under new man- agement.

Mike McNamara gets the opportu- nity to lead out his county on Sunday when the hurlers take on the Univer- sity of Limerick and Frank Doherty gets a taste of inter-county manage- ment with Clare as the footballers come up against University College Cork on the same day.

While results this early in the year won’t count for much in the summer and while Sunday, mainly, represents the chance to wipe the slate clean, two wins would lift a cloud that has lingered since Clare left the national scene at the height of summer.

Last year was one of the poorest in for the GAA in Clare at All Ireland level. The Tony Considine reign will be remembered for the wrong rea- sons — the spats, the county board interference and ultimately, the poor results.

To be fair, it wasn’t all negative. Philip Brennan, Kevin Dilleen and

Brendan Bugler all represent the fu- UN Ken ;

Under Paidi O Sé, Clare started well but came undone after their sec- ond league game. The defeat against Waterford represented the worst day in Clare football history and the de- mise of football in the county was copper-fastened by the withdrawal of three key players shortly before that game.

Again, the emerging talent, in the form of the Under 21s 1s there and it’s now about transferring that to some- thing meaningful at senior level.

That’s why decent showings this

winter are more important than they normally would be.

Neither the Waterford Crystal Cup nor the McGrath Cup will tempt numbers to the terraces in any mean- ingful way, but a decent run in both competitions would shine some sun on the situation in Clare.

Only the die hards will come out of hibernation on Sunday and all will hope to claim they were there on day one of the revolution. It remains to be seen if the uprising happens, but right now, at least, the only way is up.

TWO major car dealerships with their headquarters in Ennis increased the size of their businesses in 2006.

According to the latest returns to the Companies Office, Tom Hogan (Gal- way) Ltd of Ballymaley increased its turnover from €87 million in 2005 to €103 million last year.

The figures represent the sales fig- ures for the Tom Hogan outlets in Ennis, Galway, Clonmel and Shan-

nto) eF

Separate returns to the Companies Office show that Ford dealer T Sheils & Co Ltd increased its turnover from €35 million to €36 million.

The Tom Hogan group of compa- nies are Toyota and Lexus dealers and sustained an operating loss of €393,000 due to €992,000 being written off a related party debtor.

The company remains in strong financial health with accumulated profits standing at €6.7 million and

shareholders funds standing at €14.2 million.

The figures show that the company employed 153 people and had a wage bill of €6 million.

The two directors in the company are Paul and David Hogan. Accord- ing to a statement accompanying the accounts, “the directors anticipate an improved level of performance in 2006/2007”.

It continues: “The principal risk to the group is to lose market share

and as a result miss an opportunity to achieve planned sales growth with its knock-on effect on net income.

“The ongoing challenge for the group 1s maintaining sales and gross margin and controlling overheads and required capital expenditure. The strategy of the group is to con- tinue to differentiate its products on the basis of quality, service, range and availability.”

The accounts show that T Sheils and Co enjoyed a profit before tax in

2006 of €195,000. The directors are listed as Thomas Sheils and Mary- Ann Sheils.

The company had accumulated profits of €1.17 million and the fig- ures show that the company em- ployed 88 people and had a wage bill last year of €1.9 million.

According to a statement accom- panying the accounts, the directors “are satisfied with financial perform- ance for the period and anticipate improvement in future years”.

THE driving force in_ Bridget Sweeney’s life is her “Burren View” bed and breakfast business in Bally- vaughan and she proved it when pick- ing up her latest award last week.

On her way to an end of year awards function for the Tourism Learning Network, her car broke down. Yet just a few weeks ago, she had won a new car in a national newspaper Leyeny oles isleyee

But Bridget opted to convert the car prize into cash which she invested in the comfort of her guests rather than her own driving convenience.

Not even the breakdown halted Bridget. Still stained with oil and erime when she finally arrived in Limerick’s Castletroy Park Hotel, she was stunned to learn that she was one of three award winners chosen from the 25-strong membership of the Clare Tourism Learning Network.

Winning ways are nothing new to Bridget from Castleblaney who was the leader of an award-winning cus- tomer care team in the telecoms in- dustry before she used the proceeds of an early retirement package to fi- nance her dream of running her own B&B in the Burren.

She took on the job of project man- ager for the conversion and refur- bishment of “Burren View” which opened in 2006 and was an award winner within its first year.

The 5-bedroom B&B with disabil- ity access in all en-suite rooms won a “Welcome” award from Failte Ire-

land as well as getting a highly rec- ommended endorsement from Fam- ily Homes of Ireland.

Before she opened her doors to pay- ing guests, Bridget conducted a series of test runs to weed out any problems

or shortcomings for her entry to the tourist trade.

She invited well-travelled friends and family to visit and provide can- did feedback.

“They told me what they thought of how I greeted them on arrival, how I informed them about what was on of- fer in the area, the comfort of the bed- rooms and the quality of the break- fast”.

Bridget’s winning ways have also helped to fit out “Burren View”. She has a flair for dreaming up winning slogans.

Her prize from one competition provided the furniture for the patio looking out over the Burren. Light fittings and an aquarium for the guesthouse were also won in slogan competitions.

Bridget received her ‘Tourism Learning Network award for her achievement in developing a “bou- tique” bed and breakfast venture at Newtown, Ballyvaughan.

Other winners presented with their awards by Clare Mayor, Council- lor Patricia McCarthy were Davnet Cronin O’Brien of Clonlara Eques- trian Centre and John Davoren of Caherconnell Fort in the Burren.

SUPPORTERS of the restoration of the Shannon/Heathrow route have hit back at claims by an economist that the route is not important.

Separately, Cityjet were this week understood to be considering a fur- ther connectivity lifeline between Shannon and Schipol Airport in Am- sterdam.

A special report was produced by economist Sean Barrett to accom- pany the ESRI quarterly economic commentary.

Barrett said in the report that argu- ments favouring Government inter- vention to retain the Shannon-Hea- throw service were “weak”.

The report highlights how just 38 per cent of the 856,000 passengers who flew from Shannon to London in 2006 went to Heathrow. The bal- ance used services to Stanstead, Gat- wick and Luton.

In the 10 year period to 2006 the numbers flying from Shannon to Heathrow declined by four per cent while the volume of passengers trav- elling between the airport and Lon- don actually rose by 156 per cent.

But John King of Shannon Devel- opment said that “even if only one third of passengers connect on or use Heathrow, that’s still an awful lot of people.

“It’s easy to dismiss it if youre just

talking statistics but the business case set out by the Atlantic Connec- tivity Alliance is the reality.”

King added that this case was up- held by the fact that Cityjet have an- nounced their route to Paris from Shannon and they saw a market in providing connectivity to a major European hub.

Passenger figures for Shannon have jumped this year by 2.95 million.

According to a report on Irish air- ports in the year to date, published by the Economic and Social Research Institute, Shannon 1s connected to 39 airports serviced by nine airlines.

While lobby groups here including the Atlantic Connectivity Alliance have called for the Government to force Aer Lingus to reverse its deci- sion to axe the Shannon-Heathrow route from January 14, Barrett says he does not agree.

Meanwhile Cityjet, an Air France subsidiary which has recently an- nounced flights betwen Shannon and Paris, is looking at flying into the Amsterdam airport from Shannon.

The Amsterdam route would prob- ably depend on the support for the Paris route, airline sources say.

Separately, Aer Rianta has won one of its largest ever contracts which will see it develop operations at a new terminal in Moscow, in a deal which will generate more than €1 billion over seven years.

GARDAI have renewed their appeal for anyone who may have informa- tion about a 23-year-old, missing since a night out with pals in Killa- loe, to come forward.

James Burke from Ballinruan was last seen near the bridge in Killaloe on Sunday, December 9 just after LO oyere

He was heading for The Anchor Bar after an evening socialising in the town with friends but never showed up.

The alarm was raised the next day When he didn’t arrive for work or contact his parents.

A widescale search on land and wa- ter has been going on since then but has produced no results.

Last Sunday search and rescue divers entered the river Shannon for the first time since James’ disappear- ance, having been prevented from doing so before then by the huge pull created by the Ardnacrusha power station turbines.

A Garda spokesman said that they “have to keep an open mind on the matter. We have no concrete evi- dence that he went into the water and nothing has been found so far that would support that so we must allow for all possibilities”.

The spokesman asked that people

who were out in Killaloe on the night to think carefully about whether they may have seen Mr Burke.

“Someone may have some small piece of information which might prove helpful. There may be some- one who was away for Christmas and has just returned or even if one of his friends knows something that they may be worried about telling us, we would appeal for them to come KO MWe n Ke

“This is a terrible thing for a fam- ily at any time but particularly at this time of year.”

Anyone with any information can contact the incident room at Killaloe garda station on 061 620540.

AS the final experiments take place ahead of next weeks BI Young Scientist Exhibition in Dublin, one north Clare teacher will be travelling to the RDS with an extra spring in his step.

For John Sims from Mary Immac- ulate Secondary School in Lisdoon- varna, this year competition marks the 20th consecutive year that he has brought students to compete against the best in the country.

Since the first group from Lisdoon- varna competed back in 1988, John has overseen more than 120 projects from some 500 students.

‘“[ had always had an interest in the

Young Scientist and when I was in secondary school I did a project my- self. I enjoyed it greatly and I always said that when I was teaching myself that I would give something back and get involved from the teaching side,” he said.

“The first year I had two or three groups. But it was a much different competition back then. That was back in 1988 and in those days you had to type everything up manually on an old typewriter.”

Mary Immaculate has grown into the county’s leading school in the competition with more than half of all Clare’s entries coming from there this year.

“This year 60 students from the

school originally put down their names. Now some of them failed to come up with ideas and a few are be- ing held over until next year. In the end we entered 18 products and 14 of them were accepted. Which is good going considering that they only ac- cept 500 projects from about 1400 from all over the country,” continued John.

“We work here a lot over the Christ- mas and usually the group that goes up tend to remain friends afterwards. They have a great camaraderie, they really look after each other and help each other.

“Of course, if you want to get it to that high standard then you need to put in time outside of school. You

have to bring in a lot of different strands together.

“Td say PU be at this until I retire. I love the buzz. Some days you can be so tired over Christmas and you’d wonder why you would be doing it. But only for my wife and my kids al- lowing me to do this. I’m lucky, they know that this is my passion and they let me away with it. It’s my passion.”

To see a full preview of the Clare entrants for this years competition check out pages 37 to 44.

have predicted.

Recent developments in Limer- ick city will present an even greater challenge to Clare, with the green light being given to the €250 mil- lion Opera Centre shopping complex as well as the opening of Tesco at the massive Coonagh Cross facility, which will open fully in April.

Marks and Spencer have announced they will come to the Crescent while a €150 million Parkway Valley retail development is planned on the Dub- lin road, along with major refurbish- ments of the Parkway and Arthur’s Quay shopping centres.

Clare businessman Tom O’Callaghan, who has extensive business interests on William Street, Limerick and who 1s now involved in the building of a new shopping centre for that area, believes the improve- ments are good for both counties.

“My thinking is that anywhere there is progression, that’s a step forward,” said the Kildysart businessman.

“If we have strong developments in both Ennis and Limerick then every- one benefits.

“The important point is that Lim- erick City Council is now working positively with the traders to rejuve- nate the heart of the city.

People still want to go into town to do their shopping and that’s true eve- rywhere,” he said.

Meanwhile, East Clare Fianna Fail councillor Cathal Crowe has asked county manager Alex Fleming to consider a park and ride facility which would reduce traffic and allow people on that side of Clare easier ac- cess to Limerick.

THE highlight of the underage bas- ketball year in Ennistymon took place last Friday with the final of the Lorcan O’Connor Cup.

The cup, which is contested each winter between mixed U12 teams from the Clare Cascaders Club, is played in memory of the late Lorcan O’Connor who was one of Ennisty- mon _ basketball’s biggest support- ers from its early days back in the Toes

This years final was won by the Celtics, who scored a dramatic ex- tra time victory over the Cobras. The winning team included Laoise

Bucholz, Ciara O’Connell, Aisling O’Connell, Shane Doyle and John Dillon and was coached by U17 play- er Sean Devitt.

“Lorcan would have been one of the original founders of the club, that’s going back 53 years now. In those days they used to play all of their basketball in the old market house which is where the Holywell is now. It was the old market house where people would bring their pro- duce but when ever it was empty they would be inside in it playing basket- ball,” said Vincent Leigh of the Clare Cascaders.

‘From the early 60s right the whole way along Lorcan would have been

a great supporter of the club. He was heavily involved in getting the com- munity centre up and running and was a great supporter. He especially loved getting young people involved hie ned

Meanwhile, on January 5, the club will invite outside teams to take part in the Frank Kilkenny Cup for the first ttme. Clubs from Shannon, Lim- erick and Galway will make their way to Ennistymon for the UI7 com- petition which has up to now been contested by teams from the Cascad- ers Club.

‘Frank was a member of the Ad- mirals National League team back in the ‘80s and was a great club worker

over the years. This is the first year that we are inviting outside teams to take part.

“It will be good to open up that competition and hopefully it will catch on and we could invite more clubs next year and the year after.”

On January 20, the girls U14 and U16 teams will host a series of matches in Ennistymon. A number of boys involved in the U17 team are also now half way through a referee qualification course being hosted in Dublin.

All going well members of the eroup will be fully qualified referees before the summer comes around again.

THE welcome mat is being dusted down and celebrations planned for the army of Clare volunteers bound for South Africa to build a hospice.

On board are 180 of the 200 vol- unteers needed for the Building of Hope project for Lissycasey nun, Sr Ethel Normoyle.

Thousands of South Africa’s poor- est people live in the Port Elizabeth township mostly in huts and shacks made from waste corrugated and tin sheeting.

Unemployment runs at more than 70 per cent while seven in ten people are infected with the AIDS virus.

The hospice will give township residents a place to end their days in dignity as well as providing a centre where people can learn positive ways of caring for their own health.

Builders, plasterers, carpenters, electricians, and general helpers will be working flat out for ten-day stints at a time to get the project sorted in 40 days.

People have been hard at work fund raising the €3,000 per head neces- sary for the trip and in Purcell’s Bar, in Ruan on January 6 there will be a special night of trad and the auction of a valuable painting.

The ever popular Sharon Shannon will be joined by the famous Begley

family from west Kerry, including Brendan, Cormac, Niall and Owen. A fantastic night of traditional music is guaranteed.

Hot food will be served on the night and a painting by local Artist Peter Daffy of Corofin will be raffled dur- ing the night along with many more fabulous prizes.

Tickets costs €15 and are available from Purcell’s Bar or by calling An- nette at 086 3294982 or Mary at 086 3332780.

There are still places available on the trip for people willing to travel between February 14 and 25 and de- tails of accommodation, flights and transfers have now been finalised, said Olive Halpin, one of the Clare organisers of the trip.

“We would appeal now to anyone who has money outstanding to get it to us immediately,’ added Ms Halpin.

“The people of Missionvale are so excited about us coming to give them some help,” said Maureen McCarthy, another of the Clare organisers of the vale

Bishop Willie Walsh and Ennis priest Fr Tom Hogan will be along to lend support to the crews.

Anyone who would like to fund raise or even come along on the trip should call Olive on 087 6994599 or Maureen on 087 7803808.