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ANIMAL rescue services have been working overtime this Hallowe’en to help pets who have bolted in terror of fireworks.

Clare dog warden, Frankie Coote said that this had been one of the busiest seasons ever and in just two nights last week, he dealt with 30 dogs that had lost their way in fright.

“It just gets busier every year. I worked through the night on Hallowe’en and Hallowe’en doesn’t just last for one night anymore. There’s nearly a whole month of it, with fireworks being let off and bon- fires being lit every weekend in Oc- tober.”

Stray dogs are still being brought in to the pound and Mr Coote is doing all he can to re-unite them with their owners.

“We’ve got about half of the ani- mals back to their homes but there are still a lot of dogs whose own- ers we haven’t found. We would ask people whose pets have gone miss- ing to contact us – we can’t get your dog back to you if we don’t know it’s TOD Estoy 0 roa

Good weather has exacerbated the dog warden’s difficulties as people have more opportunities to be out-

doors, letting off fireworks.

While most animals are acciden- tally strayed, having bolted in fright at an exploding rocket, one of the more sinister practices of Hallowe’en is for owners to abandon their pets under the guise of them having strayed.

“Some people use the night as an excuse to dump pets and then they are brought in to us.

“It’s a terrible thing to do but there are people who will do that,” he said.

The animals taken in by the dog warden vary from thoroughbreds to cross breeds. Some people who find animals keep them in their homes until the original owner has been found while other dogs are brought straight to the pound.

In the run up to Hallowe’en, pet owners were warned to keep their pets indoors to stop them running away or worse, being snatched by people with cruelty in mind.

“When an animal is lost, it’s very important that owners contact us so that we can help them look for it. We may already have the dog but we can’t keep animals indefinitely so we would appeal to people to contact us as soon as possible,” he said.

Frankie Coote can be contacted on 087-6225253.

MAKE the new Northern Distribu- tor Road big enough to solve grid- lock in east Clare – that was the message to the Clare and Limerick County Council’s from an elected representative for the area. Councillor Cathal Crowe said that he wants the two local authorities to give “strong consideration” to the width of carriageway for the proposed Northern Distributor Road. In June of this year the elected members of Clare County Council gave the green light to Limerick County Council to proceed to the planning stages for a section of the Northern Distributor Road from Coonagh roundabout to

Knocklisheen, Meelick.

“When this road sees the lights of day it is vital that it tackles traffic congestion in south east Clare and suburban Limerick in a meaningful way, the councillor said.

“A lot of forward thinking is re- quired if this road 1s to be effective.”

The councillor pointed to the road system built 15 years comprising of the Clonmacken Ring Road and Condell Road on the north side of Limerick City.

“These roads were built with the aim to alleviate traffic congestion in the city hinterland. The present re- ality is that this road system is one of the most congested routes in the mid-west and in order to escape the

city and suburban traffic, motor- ists are forced to take a detour on the south east Clare ‘rat-run’ from O’Briensbridge to Meelick. I feel that a wide carraigeway, or better still, a carraigway routed several miles north of suburban Limerick would best deal with the current traf- fic problems.”

John Fitzgerald has been appointed by the Government to head a task- force to deal with matters of social exclusion in the Moyross area. His report included a proposal to have a road running north of Moyross from Coonagh roundabout to the Knock- lisheen Road in Meelick.

Whilst the entire Northern Dis- tributor Road will take a number of

years to come to fruition, the section from Knocklisheen to Coonagh will be fast-tracked.

“IT hope that ultimately this road will do a lot to alleviate the daily congestion on roads in the south east Clare area. The road system from Clonlara, through Parteen and Ar- dnacrusha and on into Meelick has become a rat-run for commuters,” SO voy (our bee

He added that it is “important that all efforts are now made to build on the positive momentum around John Fitzgerald’s report. I hope that both local authorities, in conjunction with central Government, will now try to advance the entire Northern Distrib- utor Road project”.

PLANS for a €10 million retail de- velopment for Miltown Malbay has come under fire.

Currently, Clare County Council is adjudicating a planning application by John Jones to construct a super- market, seven retail units, offices, 18 apartments and 148 car-parking Spaces on the Ennis Road leading into the village.

In the first two to three years of operation the venture is expected to create 100 jobs. However, business interests in the village have railed against the proposal.

Patrick Boland, who is the owner of five retail units on the Ennistymon Road has told the council in an ob- jection that “the scale of the project is so large that it threatens the exist- ing business ecology of the town”’.

He stated, “This development would constitute a new town cen- tre. It is on the scale and design of a modern shopping centre suitable for a large town or city but is not com- patible with a village.

“It is on the outskirts of the town, on a mainly residential street and would cause the centre of business and trade to shift away from the main Street.

‘The attraction to tourists of a bus- tling village with traditional shop fronts and small individually owned businesses would be lost.

“Currently, the shops in Miltown are owned and run by different families. Historically, this pattern of ownership and trade has sustained the economic and community life of small villages and towns in Ireland. This development threatens that d1- versity of ownership.”

Donnan Meade of the Mace Shop on the Main Street claims that the proposal “could take the soul out of the village with nothing left on the main street but closed businesses and properties. This is in nobody’s inter- est”.

Claiming that the proposal could herald the death-knell of new busi- nesses along Main Street, Mr Meade said, “I understand that there would be a short-term benefit to the com- munity during the construction of the proposal but over the course of time, it will have a negative impact on the community at large.

He added: “I am not against devel- opment, but the sheer scale of this particular one is daunting and I feel that Miltown could regret such a de- velopment over the medium to long term.”

A decision is due later this month.

SEVERAL firemen had eggs, fire- works and bottles thrown at them as they attended bonfires on Hallowe’en night.

The fire services in Clare had 23 call-outs last Wednesday night, 18 of which involved bonfires. This com- pares with an average of three or four incidents on a normal day.

According to the acting Chief Fire Officer, Denis O’Connell, it was a very busy night. Although there were no hoax calls, he said that the behav- iour of a number of individuals cre- ated trouble for firemen.

“Ennis and Shannon fire brigades ran into a lot of difficulty trying to carry out their duties. Fireworks, eggs and bottles were thrown at crews and many firefighters received a lot of verbal abuse over the evening. Ennis fire brigade had bottles and fireworks thrown at them at a bonfire near Oak- wood Drive, Ennis. They received a lot of verbal abuse and had fireworks thrown at them at a bonfire in Quin Gardens, Quin,’ said Mr O’Connell.

“Shannon fire brigade had timber and eggs thrown at them at a bonfire in Rineanna, Shannon and they re- ceived a lot of verbal abuse and had bottles thrown at them at a bonfire in Newmarket-on-Fergus,” he said.

“It is very regrettable that firefight- ers should have to deal with this type of behaviour while carrying out their duty. Fortunately, there were no inju- ries received by any firefighter on the

night,” he added.

In Ennis, a garda was assaulted as he intervened in a dispute in the Mar- ket area of the town on Hallowe’en night. The garda had to receive stitches to a wound on his face, after he was struck.

Gardai say that a number of nui- sance calls were made over the course of the evening. Overall, how- ever the night was “no busier” than any Hallowe’en night.

Meanwhile, locals in Kilkee were angered after 22 steel rims of cars and trucks were left on the beach after bonfires there on Hallowe’en night. While the rims have since been removed, there are still remnants of

car tyres lying on the beach.

Former Mayor Manuel di Lucia said the situation is not acceptable.

‘There are something like 100 coils of wire still there and they are going to cause problems if they are not moved. Some years ago, a young girl cut her hand after the wire became embedded in the sand and she was playing with the sand,” he said.

“It happens every year but this is the worst I have seen it,” he said.

AS OF yesterday, council officials and elected representatives in east Clare have a new home to go to. Staff began the move yesterday from the courthouse to the new coun- cil offices at Mountshannon Road. The Tulla Courthouse, which was home to the council in recent years, is now being leased to the local com- munity development group which will be using the building for various

community activities. The Court will also continue to sit in the court- house.

The new offices in Scariff will also be home to a branch library, and will offer a range of services for the public including payment of house rents, loans, rates, water rates and planning contributions, receipting and processing of all road opening licence applications and distribution of information, application forms and contact details relating to all

Clare County Council services.

The public will also be able to view documents such as County Develop- ment Plans, area plans, register of electors and there will be a planning clinic at which the Local Area Plan- ner will attend on the morning of the fourth Tuesday of each month for pre-planning consultations.

Motor tax online service will be available in the very near future and elected representatives will hold their meetings in the new offices.

“These range of facilities should be a great asset to the people of the east Clare area in availing of services lo- cally,” said Area Officer, Michael McNamara.

The new branch library will be Open as and from the November 12 and will have increased opening hours.

The official opening will take place on Monday, November 19 next and will be performed by the Mayor of Clare, Cllr Patricia McCarthy.

CLARE county football cranks back into gear tonight (Tuesday) with the first training session of the new sea- son, a full two months ahead of last season’s return.

It’s the third manager in as many years for the footballers and while the exact make-up of the league squad won’t be known for a number of weeks, some new additions are likely to be included when the panel is pared down.

The early start brings renewed

Structure, a direction that has been welcomed by players involved under recent appointment Frank Doherty. “Players have had a rough enough time of it over the past couple of sea- sons, maybe they lost their way at times and we decided to get together to bring some guidance back,” said Doherty. “I want to get to know play- ers and know what they’re about. Put faces to names. There’s no point in starting out for the season a couple of weeks after Christmas and maybe a fortnight to go before a McGrath Cup game. The bottom line is that

we want to get belief back in Clare football that’s been missing for the past while.”

With the addition of Kilkenny to the footballers league group, it means the spring will be action filled and if Clare can put together a decent McGrath Cup run, close to a dozen hours of competitive football could be played before the championship Torta DENSE

“It’s important to get some work under the belt at this stage,” adds Doherty. “All going well, the core fitness will increase and the lads

will be able to play at a high tempo throughout the league.”

Some dovetailing for those involved in the Under 21s is also expected.

“In all, I’m hoping for 28 to 30 lads at the first training. Some will be in- volved in Under 21 training and I’d expect a lot to be involved with us as well. On top of that, we have lads involved with Sigerson who won’t be available immediately and there isn’t any issue there. We want the entire panel to know what the game plan is and what’s expected in terms of physical condition.”

THE price of property in Clare con- tinues to fall this Autumn with the latest Permanent TSB/ESRI House Price Index showing a drop of 0.3 per cent month-on-month in September.

This amounts to an average price drop of 3.6 per cent since January of this year and 2.8 per cent since Sep- tember of 2006.

“The market in Clare is static at the moment and the funny thing is that the houses that are moving are the detached houses on the outskirts of towns that are running up €350 thousand,” said Samantha Coote, of Philip O’Reilly Auctioneers in En- Whe

“So our demographic of buyer are people looking for the family home, which would be out of sync with what we would expect.

“I think we are looking at a static price in Clare for the months to come. If we are to see any increase in price, it will be very very slow and minimal coming into May and June of next year.”

Despite claims last week by Niall O’Grady, Head of Marketing at Per- manent TSB, that prices are being

artificially supported by developers add-ons, Ms Coote claims that this is not a factor in Clare.

“That is really not happening in Clare. The prices are not being skewed because of that.

‘ For first time buyers, new devel- opments and second hand houses are now on a par.

“The advice for first time buyers would always have been to get a good second hand house but now they can get the new developments with struc- tural guarantees that will be as full fitted as a second hand house,” she nee

“At the moment we still have a lot of people sitting on the fence. We were snookered in every way; we had the general election, we had the upheaval with the interest rates and now we are heading into budget sea- son again.

“Regardless of what the _ politi- cians say buyers are always hoping that something will come up in the budget so we might see some more stability into the new year.”

The average price paid for a house in Ireland in September now stands at €299,483, compared with €308,179 in September of last year.

A business, which began with a kindly Mountshannon woman cook- ing up nourishing stews for weary travellers, is to feature in Georgina Campell’s Jameson Guide next year. The little house which has now be- come the Cupan Café restaurant was once the sitting room of a Mrs Flan- nery, who provided simple meals for travellers at a time when there was nothing else available in the area.

She was even know to extend her hospitality to giving them a bed for the night if they were stuck.

Dagmar Hilty took over the premis- es in 199] after ten years of running

the hotel in Mountshannon and start- ed by serving teas and coffees, but quickly discovered there was a de- mand for more substantial meals.

As she was bringing up two small children at the time, Dagmar found the premises ideal. “It had a very big sitting room, which I turned into a café and we lived in the rest of the house. It meant I could work from home.”

After the second year, she extend- ed, putting in a new fitted kitchen and equipment to offer full lunches and dinners.

“Till 1996, I cooked myself. After 1997 I employed, every season, a chef either from Switzerland or Aus-

tria,” said Dagmar.

By 2002, An Cupan Café was mak- ing it’s mark, having become a mem- ber of Bord Bia, and featured in the Georgina Campell’s Jameson Guide.

After four years of leasing the res- taurant – during which period, An Cupan added a listing in the Bridge- stone Guide to it’s accolades – Dag- mar is back in the kitchen.

In February of this year, she re- opened, with top Bavarian Chef, Thomas Turk, at the pass. Thomas has worked in Mitchelin starred res- taurants for the last five years. “The market has changed in the last four years and customers appreciate high quality food, want to know where it

comes from, and love to taste the dif- Ko None

After dropping the lunch menu, now the team “concentrate on high quality food, with a Mediterranean touch, using fresh organic herbs only, and sourcing the products locally and whenever possible organic.”

Now Dagmar has been told that the quality of her food has put her in line for the Georgina Cambell Guide next year and she is eagerly awaiting confirmation of the listing. She cur- rently employs two people full time. SW ile ucie-lene-UlM ARG UeURo Ub MOeioem OK a brief respite before opening with a spectacular Christmas menu, which will be served from December 1.

SOME of Clare’s most famous tourist landmarks could be used as locations for civil unions for gay and lesbian couples before the end of next year. Following a relaxation of the laws in relation to civil ceremonies, which came into effect yesterday, locations such as the Cliffs of Moher and even the Poulnabrone Dolmen are now free to host civil ares eOy Nee SUE COVuebeetoel have also commit- ted to putting in place legislation legalising — civil unions between same sex couples in 2008, follow- ing the defeat of a private members OJON MO) MEU elemnIUlo) (ore

put forward by Labour in the Dail ETM ioe)

“We are very pleased the Labour party brought a civil partnership bill back to the Dail last week and we welcome it as a major step forward that it is now part of the Government agenda to have legislation in place by March of next year,” said a spokes- person from the Gay Clare Group who asked to remain anonymous.

“We hope that this will be wide ranging legislation and not just to cover tax issues. It needs to tackle joint legal protection rights for gay parents and social welfare and will be enacted very quickly.”

The Labour Bill was defeated in the

Dail last week following fears that it would be deemed unconstitutional as a result of it’s reference to marriage rather than civil unions.

“Gay partnership would be fine as long as their rights are the same as married couple. The word marriage is achurch word more than anything else. We would just look to have the same legal status as married couples

and the word isn’t

important. We

would look to hav-

ing civil unions

or civil partner-

ships,’ continued

the spokesperson.

“At the moment

a lot of lesbians

have children so

it would be im-

portant for them

that this new bill

would give them

some sort of joint

legal protection.

So if, for exam-

ple, they are ina

partnership with children and some-

thing happens to one of the lesbians,

the other would be able to have cus- tody of the children.

‘That would be the initial step at the moment. The issue of gay adop- tion 1s something that could come farther down the line.”

There has been a huge growth in the number of civil marriages in Ireland over the past decade. In 1995, only one in every 10 couples married in a registry office while now the figure is more than one in five, with 22 per cent of all weddings now non-church events.

CONCERN over the pressure being exerted on the Ennis sewer network by development has emerged as one of the key issues affecting the future erowth of the town.

Speaking at last night’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Town Engineer Tom Tiernan admitted the system was under strain and that innova- tive solutions would be needed until a permanent water treatment plant is in place in 2012.

He said, “The treatment plants are approaching capacity but that doesn’t mean that development can’t con-

tinue. There is a bridge to be gapped between now and 2012. There is a deficiency creeping into the system given the level of development that has taken place in the past 10 years. We will have to be more careful in our planning assessments…it will require a certain degree of thinking outside the box.”

Fine Gael councillor Johnny Flynn said the infrastructural deficiencies were the fault of the Government.

Yesterday, councillors accepted the report compiled by Town Manager Tom Coughlan and County Manager Alec Flemming, on pre-draft submis- sions for the review of the Ennis and

Environs Development Plan 2003. Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council have received 169 written submissions relating to the review of the development plan. Strictly dealing with land-use is- sues, the revised plan will seek to guide and facilitate the future growth of Ennis and its surrounding area. The development plan covers a Ssix- year period while the current plan is due to expire in December 2008. The other main issues that emerged during consideration of the submis- sions were the need to protect the Drumcliffe springs inner protection zone, inadequate road infrastructure,

the need for additional residential zoned land, isolated development in open countryside and flood risk ar- eas.

Cllr Donal O’Bearra (GP) said the council had not followed through on commitments made in the previous plan regarding the provision of cycle lanes. He said, “Both Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council have not been putting in facilities for cyclists. There are 70,000 people visiting Ireland on cycling holidays. Executive planner Bill Sansum ad- mitted there was concern over the lack of suitable cycling facilities in Sav evESe