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KILRUSH area councillors have re- neged on a written commitment and voted to extinguish a right of way close to the multi-million-euro golf club in Doonbeg. Last February, the seven members of the Kilrush area agreed to defer consideration of the proposed extinguishment of the Pub- lic Right of Way pending the out- come of the Judicial Review of the enforcement action by Clare County Council against the golf club.

On Friday last, however, four of the seven councillors voted to com- mence procedures under the Roads Act to extinguish the right of way.

Councillors Patrick Keane (FF), Christy Curtin (Ind), Bill Chambers (FF) and Oliver Garry (FG) voted in favour of the proposal while Cllrs Tom Prenderville (FF), PJ Kelly (FF) and Madeleine Taylor Quinn (FG) voted against.

During the meeting, which was at- tended by Clare County Council’s solicitor and had representatives of

Doonbeg Golf Club’s legal team in the public gallery, the councillors agreed to begin proceedings which, if they come to fruition, will see the extinguishment of 120 metres of the right of way over part of the public road at Caherfeenick, Cree.

The extinguishment will only take place when certain criteria are met by the golf club. These include the provision of a car park constructed to council specifications and the trans- fer of afurther half-acre for more car park spaces to be transferred into the

ownership of the local authority.

A new “turntable at the new termi- nal point” on the Caherfeenick road to council specification must also be constructed and bollards installed.

“A clear legal grant of a pedestrian right of way to be given by Doonbeg Golf Club to Clare County Council from the turntable” at the end of the road to the beach is another part of the controversial proposal, as is “a clear legal grant of a vehicular right of way for emergency vehicles”’.

The final criteria to be met by the

golf club states that the council is to be “indemnified against any claim on the Doonbeg Golf Club property.

During the meeting, allegations were made that the original public notice and accompanying maps con- cerning the right of way published last January differed from the pro- posal before the members on Friday.

The proposal must now go back on public display for submissions from the public, and will also require the final seal of approval from the coun- cil if it is to go ahead.

The standards commission will not CMR AYAMOsCommCCOlUvaCOsUOCOyMmY alle MEAIB KOIDOO bursement of election expenses until the issue has been resolved, accord- ing to SIPO.

The councillor is entitled to a reim-

bursement of her election expenses to the amount of €8,700.

In total, Cllr Taylor Quinn spent € 25,352.02 on her election cam- oenreane

First time elected TD Timmy Doo- ley (FF) not only topped the poll but he also topped the list of the big spenders in the Clare election de- claring total expenses of €26,676.77. James Breen (Ind) who lost his seat spent €26,148.21, while Cllr Taylor Quinn was next.

Returning TD and Minister for State Tony Killeen had expenses of €21,895.68, while outgoing Senator Brendan Daly (FF) spent €19,942.31.

Newly elected TD Joe Carey (FG) declared expenses of €19,940.14, while Clir Tony Mulcahy (FG) spent €17,297.02, and returning TD Pat Breen (FG) spent 15,161.02.

Cllr Brian Meaney’s (GP) ex- penses ran to €12,651.76, latecomer Murt Collins (PD) to €9,806.08 and Labour’s Pascal Fitzgerald to €8,358.21.

Anna Prior (DEF) has the smallest expenses at €4,316.39.

Among the other interested groups registering their expenditure was the Ennis General Hospital Development Sroyenveabiacen

They spent €13,606.59 on newspa- per advertising, posters and the dis- tribution of a newsletter.

AN BORD Pleanala has been told that there is not much point in zon- ing land and then refusing to allow permission for its development on the basis that it is a rural area.

Last month, Clare County Council refused planning permission to Tho- mas Sexton for eight holiday homes at Quilty.

An appeal lodged on behalf of ar- chitect, Michael Leahy, states: “The facility as proposed will provide year

round employment in terms of care- taking, maintenance and repairs. In addition to the summer period, facil- TLS MLU(C OAR Nalshom-VRoM Ro) IICoLOMBODKOlerca bank holidays and for Christmas “Mr Thomas Sexton 1s a local man from the parish. He is anxious to es- tablish a small business in his parish which will provide employment and will also be make a contribution to the economic and social life of the area, it is difficult to understand why his application should be refused. “The proposal is compatible with

the development plan, with the built form of the area and with the zoning objectives for the land on which it is located.

‘The council appear to want to treat the site as an unzoned piece of land in a rural area, which contradicts their own plan. There are no amenity or infrastructure reasons for refusing permission for this development.

“The proposal is located on zoned land and to suggest that the proposal would ‘significantly exceed the den- sity appropriate to the zoning of the

site’ 1s not justified.

“The density proposed of slightly more than four to the acre could not be regarded as excessive.

“We cannot see that it could be ar- cued that the development would de- tract from the rural character of the area or would in any way injure the amenities of the area. The proposal has been designed to be compatible with other developments close by in Caherrush including the much larger holiday homes development to the west of the site. We cannot see the

council’s justification for saying that the proposal would detract from the rural character of the area

“We consider the development ap- propriate to the rural tourism infra- structure of the area. The proposal is located in an area zoned for ‘other settlement land’ and is compatible with that zoning. .. The proposal sat- isfies a need for tourism accommo- dation in the area and will facilitate economic growth in the area.”

A decision is due on the application Tama ert

THREE Clare organisations will benefit with a 25 per cent increase in funding for animal welfare organisa- tions, the minister for agriculture an- nounced on Friday.

The Clare Animal Welfare in Ennis, the Clare SPCA in Clonoghan and the Second Chance Animal Res- cue will receive €15,000, €10,000 and €3,000 respectively from the new funding.

The total number of organisations being supported by her department has now been increased by 13 to 107, representing every county in the Coe as

Payments totalling some €1.46 million will be paid immediately

to the 107 organisations to assist in their work in 2008 and brings the total amount of assistance provided by the department to animal welfare organisations since 1995 to more Wer Ne temom mses esONF

‘These bodies do tremendous work in rescuing, rehabilitating and pro- viding new homes to neglected and abused animals.

“While the grants being announced today do not cover the full costs of the increasing demands being placed upon these organisations, the sub- stantial increase in the level of fund- ing was in recognition of the vital role played by such organisations in animal welfare, particularly in respect of small animals,’ said Min- ister Coughlan.

‘Animal welfare organisations still require the ongoing generous finan- cial support of the general public to enable them to fulfil their mission to promote animal welfare and relieve animal suffering in Ireland.”

Other local organisations to gain funding were the Avalon Greyhound Sanctuary in Galway (€10,000); the East Galway Animal _ Res- cue (€3,000); the Galway SPCA (€25,000); the Limerick Animal Welfare (€20,000); Limerick SPCA (€15,000); MADRA in Galway (€3,000); the Renvyle Animal Res- cue Group in Galway (€3,000) and the Whiskers New Park Animal Sanctuary in Galway (€15,000).

Minister Coughlan said that, given her new fisheries’ responsibilities,

she was particularly pleased that among the first-time recipients of funding is the Irish Seal Sanctuary which has, for many years, been pro- viding welfare support for rescued marine wildlife found in difficulty around the Irish coast.

“A pet is for life, not just for Christ- mas. I am appealing to parents and others to think responsibly when considering giving a pet as a Christ- mas present and reminding people of the numbers of animals that are abandoned every year as soon as the Christmas novelty has worn off,” she said.

The minister urged people to heed the warnings and advice offered by the animal welfare organisations in this regard.

has learned that the centre in Ennis offered 223 hours’ counselling to rape or sexual assault victims last year. This grew from 173 hours during the previous year.

Rape Crisis Midwest, which caters for victims in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary, advised 209 new clients in 2006. 172 of those were women and 37 men. It offered 2,355 hours of counselling sessions in 2006 in

the mid-west area which was a sig- nificant increase on the figure for the previous year.

Nationally, the Rape Crisis Net- work gave counselling to more than 1,600 people last year.

The mid-west centre says the number of male victims of sexual abuse now presenting is steadily in- creasing.

Co-ordinator Miriam Duffy said victims should report abuse as early as possible.

“The earlier they can get on to us, the better for themselves, as it will be less negative for them as they get on with their lives,” she said.

She said two in five women and

one in five men in the mid-west will experience sexual violence at some stage of their lives.

“One-third of the population of the Midwest will experience sexual violence in their lifetime,’ said Ms Duffy.

She said there is no fixed time set aside for counselling sessions. Some victims just attend once, while oth- ers receive counselling for up to a year.

“We are usually a bit busier around Christmas and if there is publicity about an incident,’ she added.

“We are starting to get men who are recent survivors of sexual abuse, le. that it happened in their adult-

hood,” she added.

“The profile of people coming to us is changing. We are getting more in the mid-range, between the ages of 24 and 39. Previously our clients were older and younger than that age bracket,” she said.

Ms Duffy also said that more vol- unteers were required, in order that the service could continue to progress and offer advice and counselling to all victims who came forward. The service 1S currently under pressure for resources.

“It has fallen off so we expect that our figures will show a reduction in hours’ counselling for this year,’ said Ms Duffy.

THE ICSA has joined a host of farm- ing organisations who are predicting a mass exodus from the beef and lamb markets if prices don’t rise in the coming months.

Speaking last week, ICSA president Malcolm Thompson told farmers that unless beef and lamb prices rise in line with recent cereal and dairy increases, then farmers will have to switch enterprise or get out.

Thompson was addressing the ICSA AGM and National Confer- ence, where he focused on significant differentials opening up between ce-

reals and dairying on the one hand and cattle and sheep on the other.

He argued that Ireland should look for as much extra milk quota as pos- sible with a view to facilitating new entrants and existing small and me- dium quota holders to grow substan- tially as quickly as possible.

“We need to reverse this trend. We need more people, not less, in dairy- ing. We cannot accept that by 2015 there will be only 8,500 viable, full- time farms out of a total of 125,000 farmers currently claiming the Sin- gle Farm Payment,” he said.

“The practical realities are that Ireland has the competitive advan-

tage to be the most efficient dairy farming country in Europe.

“We need to maximise the amount of competitive farms ready and able to compete when quotas go. We would like to see the entire addition- al quota targeted at helping farmers, including existing dairy farmers and new entrants to get at least 300,000 litres as quickly as possible.”

Mr Thompson also took time out to take a swipe at Minister for Ag- riculture Mary Coughlan, who had opened the congress. “The days of lazily accepting that the future for 116,500 out of 125,000 farms is via part-time farming and full-time slav-

ery must be consigned to the dust- bin,’ he said.

“Higher product prices can best be achieved by having full mobility between the different farm sectors. It requires innovative thinking with regard to marketing. It means not seeing GM as a quick-fix solution to cutting costs but rather as an impedi- ment to our clean, green image.

“It needs us to put more farmers into cereals and dairying because these are the sectors where we have competitive advantage. Above all, it requires an acceptance by supermar- kets and other retailers that the days of screwing farmers must now end.”

WITH Christmas drawing near, a number of high-profile artists are featured in exhibitions around north Clare this week, hoping to offer punt- ers the perfect Christmas present.

The Courthouse Gallery in Ennisty- mon is hosting a special Christmas exhibition entitled “Small Works’, which features the work of a number of well-known Clare artists.

The exhibition will include prints, photographs, drawings and sculpture from the likes of Richard Sharpe, Barbara Roder and Finola Graham.

“This exhibition is a really great opportunity for people to purchase an artwork for Christmas among the

large selection on display, which will bring joy to you or a loved one for many years to come,” said Kathryn Comber of the Courthouse Gallery.

The exhibition will continue from 12 to 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday, until December 21.

Meanwhile, Kenny’s Lahinch Art Gallery will host an exhibition by Irish artist Philip Gray until Janu- ary 10. Gray was this year’s winner of the highly coveted Fine Art Trade Guild ‘Best Up and Coming Artist Award 2007’ in the UK this year. The exhibition will include a number of recent works.

Widely exhibited in multiple for- mats, Gray captures the imagination with scenes familiar to many. The

west of Ireland and sea and land- scapes in sunrise and sunset are sub- jects which create a contemporary appeal.

Gray’s passion and insistence on perfection never wavers, as can be seen in each of his compositions, the sheer beauty and impact of his 1m- ages regularly stop people in their WRG ep

He has achieved international suc- cess as an artist and his work is a celebration of both what he sees and feels and a wish to share the beauty and diverse emotion of life itself.

The Ballyvaughan Christmas market will host its last weekend of festivities and fun this weekend. Or- ganisers are hoping for one last good

weekend before the specially made German Christkindl wooden huts get put away for another year.

Back in’ Ennistymon, Noinin, Aficionado and Crosbies in the Square are continuing to pool their resources in promoting the shop lo- cal campaign this Christmas.

Aficionado is a mothers, babies and gift boutique which provides mater- nity-wear, children’s clothes up to the age six years and a collection of nursery accessories.

Noinin fashion boutique stocks funky wear to formal wear and Cros- bies supplies a great selection of un- usual Christmas decorations, home accessories and cotton rugs, to name but a few.

THE recently held AGM of the Clare Camogie Board reinstated the en- tire out-going committee of Maura Sheedy (Chairperson), Mary Hogan (Secretary) and Michael Maher (Treasurer). Orla Hayes again takes the position of Registrar, Bridie O’Looney will continue as Munster Delegate and Orla Considine who acted as Assistant PRO takes over as PRO.

All assistant positions are also now filled with Kevin Halpin (Newmar- ket-on-Fergus) taking Vice-Chair, Mike Griffen (Clarecastle) as Assist- ant ‘Treasurer and in the bid to grow the coverage of camogie, Kathleen McMahon and Marie McDonald will

assist as PROs.

In a positive move, Patricia O’Grady has taken over as Integration Officer which will be important to camogie as it attempts to build links across the codes to ensure the full availabil- ity of all girls at all stages of each campaign. Bridie O’Looney also ac- cepted the office of Child Welfare and in a new position Kate Lynch of Kilkishen will take the position of Youth Officer, a role which will ex- press the views of young players in the county and 1s specifically aimed at those under the age of 18.

The role of Irish Officer was not filled as Anne-Marie Arthur who was nominated for the position was not present and therefore was not permitted to take the role. This posi-

tion was left over to the next meeting as Chairperson Maura Sheedy stated that it would be nice to have some- one who would be able to address the board meetings in Irish.

Fr Murray of Whitegate was again elected to the position of president in his absence to the meeting due to cir- cumstances in the parish of White- ee

The contest for Chairperson in which Bernie Ryan of Clarecastle had expressed an interest did not materialise as due to circumstances he was unable to attend the meeting. He had, however, sent a letter to the county board expressing his interest in the position and wishing that his name go forward. This was not per- mitted by the meeting though as it

was stated that to be elected you had to be present.

The Clarecastle delegates stated that they had checked this with Ard Comhairle and that it was permitted that you could run for a position in your absence. This was not permitted but Mr Ryan had not been informed of such on receipt of his letter by the County Board.

The meeting also elected a Fixtures Committee, Discipline Committee, Finance Committee and Field & De- velopment Committee. Again there were nominees for these committees who were not able to attend on the night and these were not permitted to be elected to the committees.

The fear with this is that people who are interested in helping out and

getting involved might not wish to do so in the future as in the past officers and committee members have been elected without being present at the eVGA E

The meeting went on to discuss the motions for the AGM these were some 59 in number but not all were dealt with on the night as the meet- ing was adjourned after |!lpm with- out having the matters of the meeting finished.

The meeting was also to attend to the matter of team management for 2008 which the meeting was in- formed would come up under AOB. As the meeting did not get this far, the issue was not dealt with and will now have to wait until the reconvened meeting in January.

WATCH your wallets folks, there’s pickpockets about as the staff and students of Mary Immaculate Sec- ondary School in Lisdoonvarna make final preparations to host their first musical.

The ultimate pickpocketers’ tale, Oliver! opens today in the school with two matinée and three evening performances taking place. With a long tradition of Christmas pan- tos in Mary Immaculate, this year the school decided to go one step further.

“This is our first musical at the school, usually we do a Christmas panto but this year we said we would

try out the musical and see how it Lele

“We have got a couple of first years who sing with the Lismourahaun Singers and we have a bit of talent in the senior classes, so we thought Ol- iver! would be a good show to look at because it has such a good mix,” said teacher Mark Mulqueeney.

“The idea is to establish it this year and maybe take it on then every second or third year. It’s a fairly big undertaking so we wouldn’t do it every year.

“We had been getting requests from parents to put on a show and when the talent is there you have to go for it. There is a great mix of male and female characters in Oliver! so it was

a really good show for us.”

The show will star Brendan Schol- und, Peter Lynch, Mark O’Donnell, Aishling Clancy and Evelyn Linnane in a production which combines tal- ented students from every age and class in the school.

“T was involved in our panto last year, when I was in transition year, and I got roped into auditioning this year because of that. It’s a good thing to do, a lot of fun,’ says Aisling Clancy from Kilfenora, who plays Fagan.

“Fagan looks after the runaway pickpockets, he trains them in what to do. They steal stuff for him and he sells it off. He’s a rogue but he’s a bit of a likeable rogue.

“IT feel grand about playing a male character. I played one last year for the panto so I don’t mind — you just have to wear a beard. I’d love to car- ry on with musicals beyond this, it’s something I’m interested in.”

The show takes place over three nights from Tuesday, December 18 to Thursday, December 20 in the school hall from 8pm. To book, you can contact the school on 065 7074266.

MARY Hogan outgoing county Sec- retary in her address to Thursday’s Camogie AGM told delegates of her privilege in having been involved with the county set up and how she was disappointed that Clare had yet again failed to win the Junior All- Ireland at the third attempt. She re- marked on the progress of the U14 Coilte Development Squad and the U16 Munster Title while the U16 and U18 teams also did quite well at national level. Deirdre Murphy and Claire Commane were congratu- lated on their All-Star nominations and all those who were chosen on the Gael Linn Inter Provincial team with manager Fintain McNamara. Congratulations were also conveyed to Vera Loughnane on the individual skills award and Denise Lynch who won the Long Puck. To all teams who won county titles notably Sixmileb- ridge who represented the county at the Feile Finals and Kilnamona who won Munster Club title. She noted that the difficulties with the fixtures is the most pressing problem for the Board and the secretary thanked all GAA clubs and referees who had as- sisted in the running of games during the year. She also thanked her fellow officers for an enjoyable year, and the sponsors of all club competitions and County teams.

Treasurer Michael Maher presented a detailed account of the Boards fi- nances which he is glad to report are in the plus after the year on end. The Board ran several fundraisers during the year and had an extremely posi- tive response to the All-Ireland final fund. The dog night in Galway pro- vided a profit to the board of €7,020, while the flag day earned €3,399, the bag packing €940 and the All- Ireland fund €15,340.

It cost the board €28,734 to look af- ter all teams in the county U14, U16, U18 Junior and Intermediate which is not too bad considering that they played in three Munster Finals, the U16’s reached the semi-final stage and the Juniors played in an All-Ire- land final. The board did have other

day to day expenses and medals etc to provide but at the end of year there was a surplus of €4,872.91 for year on end. The Treasurer thanked all gate collectors, fundraisers, clubs and GAA clubs for their support dur- ing the year and thanked Pat Fitzger- ald for his commitment to Camogie.

The Chairperson Maura Sheedy also congratulated all club win- ners for 2007 and recounted on the county teams exploits of the year. She expressed her disappointment at the Junior Teams loss at the All-Ire- land final stage, also the U16 teams loss at semi-final stage and the U18 loss at quarter-final stage which she stated was related to Kilmaley’s fail- ure to release players and the Junior Teams involvement. She expressed her disappointment at having to ask the County Junior management and some players to have to leave the November meeting of the Board and finally wished Deirdre Murphy well in her role as Munster Development Officer.

Kathleen McMahon as PRO thanked all clubs for their help and co-operation during the year and ac- knowledged the support of all media outlets in the county for their support in the promotion of Camogie in the county and wished for this to con- tinue in the coming year.

Sympathies were expressed to Michael O’Halloran of Corofin who attended the AGM. Michael is a pre- vious treasurer of the board and on the day of the AGM had the personal experience of burying his brother.

The board were told that the man- agements of the teams may be present at the January meeting to outline their wishes for 2008.

Tributes were paid to the officers on the jobs during the year and Michael Maher was thanked for his detailed report of the finances of the board and the hard job which it was to keep the accounts in the plus, which he was managing to do.