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COINCIDING with World AIDS Day Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSCs) have made a special appeal in Clare for support for their work with AIDS victims in South Africa. In 2006 nearly three million people died from the virus with about two million of these in sub-Saharan Af- rica – half the population of Ireland. ‘There are hundreds of thousands of children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Children as young asl2 years are the head of

their household trying to provide for their younger brothers and sisters,” a spokesman for the charity said.

The MSCs have care programmes for orphans and the sick and dying. These include prevention education, foster family care for orphans, sup- port for the sick and dying as well as for families where the breadwinner has died. They also supported the development of an AIDS Hospice at Midrand.

Fr Michael O’Connell at the MSC Mission Support Centre in Cork said: “The orphans receiving care are the

lucky ones… but many thousands are left to fend for themselves… of- ten with tragic consequences. With very limited resources to meet the erowing need we are dependent on personal donations from Ireland and local fundraisers.”

€35 will care for an orphan for a month. Donations can be posted to Fr O’Connell at the MSC Mission Support Centre, PO Box 23, Western Road, Cork.

Credit card donations can also be made to 021 4544024. All donations will be acknowledged.

AS charities across the country begin their Christmas appeals, Sixmilebri- dge man Kevin Byrne is busy rais- ing the profile of Concern – Ireland’s largest aid agency.

Fondly known around Dublin’s Rathmines as the Clare man with the Dublin accent Kevin has seen first hand where the money raised by the chairty goes as he has spent much of is career working abroad.

“T have been on the Iraq Jordanian border, Liberia, Somalia, Tanzania and Bangladesh,” he said.

His mother, Christina Wallace is now living in Mounthsannon having spent many years in Dublin. Kevin’s uncle, Jim Hoban, is well known in rugby circles in Shannon and is a past president of St Senan’s Rugby Siti

Kevin makes sure to set the record straight about his Clare genealogy before talking about his 20 years with Concern.

“T started working with Concern the day after my 29th birthday and I can honestly say it was the best birth- day present I ever received.

“And I would not still be here if I did not believe that Concern makes a difference helping the poorest of the poor around the world,” he said.

He came to Concern back in 1988 having spent ten years working as a spray painter and panel beater. His first job involved packaging material for distribution to the 800 schools taking part in the famous Concern Se Nierhwrhie

It was not long before he was posted to the Iraq Jordanian border in 1990 where he was assisting refugees from Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

“IT was allocating people to their tents and it so happens that I was working with two Ennis men, Mike McDonagh and Noel Moloney.

“Then in 1991 I spent four months working on the Liberian Sierra Leo- ne border. I was based in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. My job was mak- ing sure that Concern goods shipped into Freetown in Sierra Leone were safely delivered to Liberia.

It was a war zone at the time. Im- agine, we had just one satellite tel- ephone which was shared among all the NGOs. We had one fax machine

available to us in Freetown. I often spent all day there until I learned how to ‘wheel and deal’ and manage to get to skip the queue,” he said.

When he arrived in the Somali cap- ital, Mogadischu, in 1992 on a UN aircraft he was greeted with gunfire all over the city.

“It was gunfire day and night every day and it was my job to find some- Where for Concern staff to Stay. There was absolutely no infrastruc- ture, everything had been looted.

“In Afghoi, about 30 kilometres from Mogadischu, we were feeding

2,00 people every day. There were people dropping dead in front of us. It was terrible,” he recalled.

During the Rwanda emergency Kevin was part of the Concern Emer- gency Response Unit and spent nine months on the Rwanda Tanzanian border, based in the Kagera region.

“For the first two months I was involved in managing a camp for 10,000 people. I was then seconded to the World Food Programme where we were distributing food. We began supplying food to 40,000 people and that number grew to 250,000 in a

very short time.”

Between 1996 and 1997, Kevin spent 14 months working with the British High Commission in Bang- ladesh and also helped Concern na- tional staff to improve their report- ing skills in Concern’s head office in Dhaka.

These days Kevin is working in Concern’s head office in Dublin where he is in the customer relations department.

THE Irish Beef Sector is set to lose as much as €100 million should a proposal contained in the review of the CAP, known as the “health check” come about.

Commissioner Fischer Boel has proposed to increase the compulso- ry modulation levy from its current level of five per cent to 13 per cent by 2013.

This proposed move has led to an- ery responses from the IFA.

“While the commission is suggest- ing that part of this cut-back in fund- ing of the EU Single Payment could be recycled to some farmers, this is far from clear, and such ‘rural de-

velopment’ and ‘agri-environment’ measures are likely to impose ad- ditional costs on farmers,’ said IFA National President, Padraig Walshe.

‘In addition to the cut in the Single Payment due to the increase in the modulation levy, many farmers most dependent on the Single Payment for their incomes, particularly cattle and sheep farmers, would also lose out from the proposal to switch from the current individual farmer payment, based on his past level of production, to an average payment across all the land of the country.”

Speaking on the issue, the Minis- ter for Agriculture, Mary Cough- lan, was more positive, saying that the CAP Health Check provide an

ideal opportunity to reduce the ad- ministrative burdens on farmers by simplifying the requirements of the Single Payments System and cross- compliance.

The minister said she had serious concerns about the commission’s pro- posal to increase the rate of compul- sory modulation. Noting that Ireland had shown its strong commitment to rural development through very sub- stantial national exchequer funding, she said she did not see the merit of Supporting rural development at the expense of direct payments to farm- ers, especially at a time when farm- ers were still adapting to the impact of decoupling.

Coughlan also expressed scep-

ticism about the suggestion that changing from a historic to a flat rate model of payment would simplify the Single Payment system and she emphasised that she had no plans to do so in Ireland.

On milk quotas, she stressed the need for careful analysis before any final decisions are taken and said that she was undertaking a consulta- tion process with key stakeholders in Ireland on this important issue.

“Tam optimistic that we can find a practical and useful outcome that de- livers real simplification and assists our farmers to take advantage of the opportunities offered by decoupling and by stronger dairy markets,’ she said.

that the organisa-

tion had not yet been able to calculate

how many women in the mid-west

had been affected but she feared that

the numbers to date were just the tip of the iceberg.

The ICA is providing counselling

for the women who were first given the all clear for breast cancer only to be recalled and re-tested. Some of these women were then told that they had cancer.

The ICA spokesperson said that many of these women were not of- fered counselling until they were of- fered help from the ICA. She said the ICA were now asking the Govern- ment to provide a medical card for the women for the duration of their treatment.

The ICA meeting in Limerick is open to all and not confined to just members of the organisation. The eroup hopes that through the voices of its 14,000 members the women’s voices will be heard.

STUDENTS from St Caimin’s com- munity school Tullavaraga will again be competing with the brightest and best at the 2008 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

3,514 students are represented in the 1,416 projects from 31 of the 32 counties across the island, showing that the interest in the BT Young Sci- entist and Technology Exhibition 1s erowing even stronger.

The aim of the organisers is to at- tract young people to science by making it fun, exciting and acces- sible, not just for the participating

and visiting students, but also for the general public as well.

500 of the projects submitted will qualify to compete in the finals in the RDS, Dublin next January.

The overall winner will be named the BIT Young Scientist(s) of the Year and receive a Waterford Crys- tal trophy together with a cheque for €5,000.

Each category is represented and has entries in junior, intermediate and senior levels.

Speaking at the announcement, Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin TD said, “Every year the BT Young Scientist and Technol-

ogy Exhibition attracts thousands of inquiring minds to submit projects outlining their research and experi- ments. This January, once again, we will see competitors from second level schools throughout the coun- try, as Well as a small number of pri- mary schools participate in this pre- mier science event. This exhibition has served as a Starting point from which many successful careers in science, technology and engineering have been launched. I want to wish all our young scientists the best of luck in the coming months with their projects.”

In total 1,416 projects have entered

next year’s competition with 500 projects expected to take part in the final. This represents an 11 per cent increase on last year’s entries.

The BT Young Scientist and Tech- nology Exhibition will be held in the RDS from January 9 to 12, 2008 and open to the public on January 10, 11 and 12.

Chris Clark, Chief Executive Offic- er, BT Ireland added, ““The key aim of the exhibition is to stimulate, nur- ture and reward those students and schools who have shown a passion for science and technology – subjects that are critical to Ireland’s future as a successful knowledge economy.”

SPEAKING following a study tour to Italy in association with An Bord Bia, Clare farmer and Chairperson of ICMSA’s Beef and Committee, Martin McMahon, said that the Ital- ian market currently presents valu- able and worthwhile opportunity to increase the value of Irish weanlings and must be developed to its maxi- mum potential.

Following visits to a number of feedlots and discussions with many Italian farmers, many of whom are already buying Irish weanlings, Mc- Mahon said that the prices received for Italian cattle are well above the Irish price with some farmers receiv- ing up to €3.60 per kg liveweight.

Given these prices, Italian farmers assured the ICMSA Chairman that they will buy a lot of Irish weanlings if they can get the appropriate type of cattle and would not hesitate to pay a premium price to Irish sellers.

McMahon said that the Italian buy- ers were pleased with the cattle from Ireland this year, but he warned that if we were to develop this market, it is important that suckler farmers produce cattle to Italian specifica- tions.

“If this 1s to be achieved, the role that Bord Bia and Teagasc will have to play is informing farmers on the type of cattle required for this mar- ket in order to achieve maximum value,” he said.

“At a difficult time of low margins

for suckler farmers, the Italian wean- ling market certainly provides an op- portunity to enhance suckler farmer income and it must be pursued.”

Meanwhile, Clare dairy farmers will have the opportunity to meet leading New Zealand fertility ex- pert, Scott McDougall, at a special meeting on dairy breeding and fer- tility in the Radisson SAS, Limerick on Thursday, December 13.

Scott McDougall, who leads the re- search and development team at the Animal Health Centre in the heart of New Zealand’s dairying territory, will be joined on the platform by some of Ireland’s foremost authori- ties on breeding and fertility of live- stock.

The high-powered panel includes

Par Dillon and John Mee from Moorepark, Michael Diskin from Teagasc Athenry and Teagasc dairy specialist, George Ramsbottom. Doreen Corridan from Dairygold AI as well as Mark Crowe and Finbar Mulligan from UCD will also par- ticipate.

The meeting runs from 9.15am to 4pm. Clare farmers unable to attend the Limerick meeting can go to a meeting featuring the same panel in the Silversprings Moran Hotel, Cork on Wednesday, December 12 at the same starting time.

To reserve a place at either meeting, contact Event Plus at 01 2302591, e- mail info@eventplus.ie. Registration fee, which including lunch and cof- fee, 1s €55.

A HIGHLY cosmopolitan group of adult learners, including Polish Rus- sian and Croatian nationals, received their certificates at a special ceremo- UNAS DOW BI OD ON KB Keero NLU AZ

The awards were the end result of courses delivered by Clare Adult Basic Education Service (CABES), an arm of County Clare Vocational Education Committee’s Adult and Community Education Service.

The 147 strong group of certifi- cate recipients was the largest in the county to have gone through assess- ment.

Dr Sean Conlan, head of the Adult and Community Education Service, who presented the certificates, said that the high number was another milestone for the service.

He complimented the courses par- ticipants on their courage to return to education and upskilling themselves in various subjects while juggling with their other commitments.

He said his service providers were delighted to be in a position to of- fer such wide-ranging courses to an ever-growing international popula- tion in the county as well as indig- enous residents.

Recipients of certificates were

participants in CABES programmes in Knockalisheen Accommodation Centre, Clarecare Primary Health- care and various CABES courses.

Karl Quinn, co-ordinator of Eng- lish Language Programmes, who was master of ceremonies, pointed out that the range of subjects cov- ered included English for speakers of other languages, child develop- ment and play, learning skills, com- puter literacy, computer applications, communications, food and nutrition, food and cookery and understanding POLKoRGUDLAUUEAUO KONE

The courses were certified by the Further Education and _ Training Awards Council of Ireland.

CABES delivers one-to-one and group tuition to learners wishing to improve their skills in reading, writ- ing, spelling and basic maths as well many other subjects. Themed litera- cy classes allow learners to explore a subject while improving their liter- acy. Themed classes include stained glass, preparation for the driver the- ory test, computers, woodwork, arts, crafts and cookery.

Resources for the courses include a library available to students and an extensive range of adult-based read- ing writing and numeracy materials, including computer software, avail- able on loan.

IT’S shaping up to be a busy festive season for the students of Maoin Cheoil an Chlair and the school’s new director, Hans Boller.

On Saturday, students from the Ennis-based school performed a fundraising concert at the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre. It 1s just the first in a series of concerts planned for Christmas.

The main event occurs on Wednes- day, December 12 when respected musician, composer and academic Micheal O’Suilleabhain takes to the stage in Danlann an Chlair.

O’Suilleabhain, chairperson and

co-founder of Maoin Cheoil an Chlair, will be joined by more than 100 students from the school, who will also perform over two nights, December 12 and 23.

Hans Boller, the recently appoint- ed director of Maoin Cheoil, said preparations are well underway for the concert. “Over the two days, we expect there will be over 100-200 students performing. It is the kind of event that takes a lot of work but everyone is looking forward to it.”

Originally from Germany, Boller has lived in Limerick for the past eight years. He was appointed to the post of director after attaining a masters in medieval music from the

University of Limerick. He is look- ing forward to working in Ennis.

“It is going well so far. The main thing is to get the students to per- form, we are trying to have as many performances in the school as pos- sible. We hope to bring a few new teachers to the school so that we can offer new classes.”

The school caters for 380 students with a staff of 17 teachers. Talks are also taking place with Glor about giving students the opportunity to perform in the venue’s foyer space.

“It important, for their own ben- efit, that they get to play regularly. It is something we are looking at and hopefully we will know in the New

Year if it is going to happen”. Then- president Mary Robinson opened Maoin Cheoil an Chlair in 1994. It was the first music school in Ireland to include classical and traditional music on an equal basis.

Founded by Fr Harry Bohan and Prof O Suilleabhain, Maoin Cheoil an Chlair was designed as a model for similar schools in other local au- thority areas and further afield.

Maoin Cheoil an Chlair has close links with the Sionna Academy of Music and Dance (Irish World Music Centre) at the University of Lim- erick and frequently draws on the wide international music education expertise at the university.

TWO Clare artists have just repre- sented Ireland at a major internation- al art fair. SOFA Chicago attracts some of the world’s leading galler- ies and collectors and Nicola Henley and Kathleen Moroney both did ex- ceptionally well.

Nicola creates textile art from her studio in Tuamgraney where she is inspired by birds and their relation- ship with the sea and the sky. She spends a good deal of time studying and drawing their movements before making her textile pieces. Using a combination of dying, painting and screen printing cotton calico, she tex- tures her work with materials such as Japanese paper and silk stitching.

Ceramicist Kathleen Moroney was also a big hit at the Chicago fair. Her two-part ceramic forms are made from slipcast tinted stoneware. El- egantly simple, her work is inspired

by the Japanese appreciation of space. She is based in Kilkishen and recently became involved in an art project in the newly refurbished art- ists studio spaces in Tulla.

With Christmas just around the corner, now is the perfect time to discover the work of these two inspi- rational artists. Both have just been featured in the

A DUBLIN-BASED housing asso- ciation has scaled back its plans for an apartment complex in Ennis town centre in order to overcome local council and resident concerns.

Last September, Ennis Town Coun- cil refused planning permission to Cluid Housing Association for a five storey apartment block adjacent to Ennis Tennis and Badminton Club.

The proposal involved plans to con- struct 21 one bedroom apartments and six two bedroom apartments.

However, Cluid Association 1s now seeking permission to construct three and four storey buildings in the erounds of Waterville House to ac- commodate 14 one bedroom apart- ments and three two bedroom apart- ments.

The housing association is also seeking planning permission for two one-bedroom apartments within Wa- terville House.

The Ennis Tennis and Badminton Club lodged a strident objection to the previous scheme pointing out that “with a large junior membership, the club has rigorous child protection schemes. Consequently, units with views overlooking children at play is of serious concern to all members”.

In a subsequent refusal, the council stated that due to the scale, massing, height and excessive site coverage

would result 1n over-development of the restricted site.

The council concluded that the pro- posal would compete visually with the Cornmarket building and Water- ville House, would detract from the character for the setting of Water- ville House and would fail to respect its context and contravene the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

The council also refused planning permission after ruling that the de- velopment would result in over-look- ing and over-shadowing of adjacent residential buildings and would seri- ously injure the amenities of prop- erty in the vicinity.

“The proposed development there- fore would materially contravene a policy of the Ennis and Environs Development Plan 2003 and the zon- ing objective for the area which 1s to protect residential amenity.”

The council also refused planning due to the proposal’s “layout and den- sity and consequent lack of private Open space to serve the residential units would result in a sub-standard form of development which would seriously injure the amenity of future occupants. The council found that inadequate on-site parking would re- sult in over-development of the site. Rather than appealing the decision to An Bord Pleanala, Cluid Housing Assocation lodged revised plans to overcome the council’s concerns.