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A NUMBER of residents who had to evacuate their homes as a result of a fire that burned down Bredin’s hard- ware on Station Road in Ennis have failed in their bid to halt the redevel- opment of the site.

The well-known Ennis store burned down in November 2007 causing a number of houses to evacuated for a number of days and, in one instance, for a number of months.

Last year, Galileo Enterprises Ltd lodged plans to replace the structure and these were approved by Ennis Town Council. The directors of Gal- ileo Enterprises Ltd are local busi- nessmen, Noel Connellan and Dan Moran and its most recent returns show that it has accumulated profits OR OPA Pa ribelnleie

However, Maeve Hoey, Paul Bar- rett (on behalf of the Estate of the late Mrs M.R. Barrett) and Sile Gin- nane lodged an appeal against the council decision on the grounds of privacy and security of their houses . They maintained that the application was “thoroughly unclear and unsat- isfactorily”’.

They maintained that there should be an overall site masterplan which would set the design quality for the remainder of the brownfield site.

An earlier submission to the coun- cil from the residents stated that “the fire at Bredin’s premises put their homes at risk to fire, smoke and as-

bestos, resulting in evacuation for a number of days to several months for some residents and the clean-up which took many months to com- ey Kome

“This experience has undermined our confidence in the close proxim- ity of large retail and warehouse units and we are not distressed with the scale of what is indicated in the masterplan site of this application,” they claimed.

However, in his recommendation, the Bord Pleanala inspector stated that “the proposed development does not represent a significant departure from the current use of the surround-

ing area and would not require justi- fication by a masterplan”.

The inspector stated that “the type and scale of the proposed uses would be in keeping with those established on the site and the proposed building would be in keeping with the charac- ter of the area”.

“The development would not seri- ously injure the amenities of proper- ties in the vicinity of the site. it would not give rise to traffic hazard or con- gestion or place an undue demand on the water and sewerage services in the area

As a result, the Board ruled that “having regard to the established use

of the site and to its planning history, the grant of permission and to the pattern of development in the vicin- ity, the proposed development would not seriously injure the character of the area or the amenities of property in the vicinity, would not be prejudi- cial to public health and would be ac- ceptable in terms of traffic safety and convenience’.

A BAG, containing €2,800 worth of drugs, was thrown from a car into the river while gardai were in pursuit, a CLoLtD am Nor DKC MoI KOKerh Ys Michael McMahon (22), of Plunkett Drive, Kilkishen, and Keith Ryan (20), of Orchard Drive, Clarecastle, admitted possession of drugs for sale or supply on August 28, 2008. Inspector John Galvin told En- nis District Court yesterday that members of the divisional drugs unit in Clare were on patrol on the Quin Road in Ennis on the date in question. SW eleavaeelelateeeme. car parked beside a soccer pitch. TRAE Tete hom OD’s Michael McMa- hon and Keith Ryan was the passenger. The car pulled away and travelled in the opposite direc- tion to the gardai. He said that Ryan threw a brown carrier bag out of the car and into the river. Gardai pursued the car for a distance of five kilome- tres. During some of this time, the vehicle was driven dangerously. The bag was taken from the river

and it was found to contain cannabis herb, valued at €2,803.

The court heard that McMahon had a small number of previous convic- tions, while Ryan had none.

Defending solicitor Daragh Has- sett said that both men are unem- ployed plumbers. He said that they went overseas on holidays together in the summer and during the holi- day, Michael McMahon’s brother

drowned. He said _ that the two accused “intend to stay trouble-free for the rest of their lives”. Judge Aeneas McCarthy im- posed a nine- month jail term on McMahon and suspended this OVNMCCey NCD LALOveMmNer-NE he be of good be- haviour for two years. He said he was taking the mitigating —cir- cumstances into consideration. He adjourned Ryan’s case for two months and directed that a probation report be carried out on him.

Bredin’s rebuild gets go-ahead

A SCHOOL principal arrived at work in Ennis to find what she thought was a dead woman lying in a foetal position at the entrance to one of the prefabs.

The dramatic evidence was heard at Ennis District Court yesterday, which was told that the young wom- an was naked from the waist down, was semi-conscious and was cov- ered in flour, while a classroom had been thrashed.

The 18-year-old woman, from En- nis, remembered very little about what had happened, having drank vodka that night. Her solicitor said yesterday she could have died from hypothermia.

Arising out of the incident, she was charged with burglary, but after hearing the evidence, Judge Aeneas McCarthy dismissed the charge.

The acting principal of Clough- leigh National School, Fiona Power, told the court that she arrived at school shortly before 8.30am on No- vember 28, 2008 – the morning after what she described as the coldest night of the year.

She said she noticed that the door of one of the prefabs was opened and she saw “what looked like a bundle of clothing lying on the floor. As I got closer I realised it was a person lying on the ground. I was afraid first of all that she was dead.”

She said she touched the woman and when she heard her mutter, she realised that she was alive.

“She was only partially clothed. She was lying on the bare concrete and a mixture of flour and liquid was emptied all over the floor. She looked as if she had been rolling on the floor. Her hair was matted,” she said. There were a couple of bottles

in the vicinity, including a vodka bottle, she said.

“It was a freezing cold morning,” she said. Ms Power and another teacher brought the young woman inside and tried to warm her. She was taken by ambulance to hospital.

Ms Power said the room had been thrashed, there was writing all over the walls and tables and the “floor was an absolute disgrace. Books had been thrown all over the place and filing cabinets had been opened.” She said the prefab had been locked the previous evening.

Under cross-examination by de- fence solicitor Tara Godfrey, Ms Power said that the young woman was drenched to the skin and was not wearing any clothes from the waist down. “Her feet were on the jamb of the doors,” she said.

Garda Jason Lardner recalled be- ing called to the school that morn-

ing. He said he tried to speak to her, but she was unresponsive and ap- peared semi-conscious.

‘Her eyes were open but she was unable to speak to me. There was flour on her face and black marker on her forehead,’ he said.

He explained that the door to the prefab had been forced open. Tables and chairs were thrown all over the place, while writing on the walls had sexual references. He said the wom- an told gardai she had been drinking the day before. She went to an apart- ment on the Mill Road at around midnight and had vodka, but did not remember much after that, until she woke up in hospital.

Ms Godfrey asked the garda, “Am I the only one concerned about her … naked from the waist down and with sexual references on the wall?” Garda Lardner replied, “My imme- diate concern was for her safety that

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Ms Godfrey submitted to the court, ‘In the case of burglary against my client, the threshold hasn’t been reached.”

She said the accused could have died from hypothermia that night, given the cold.

“There’s an awful lot more doubt and fear in my mind that something else could have happened,” she said.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy said, “I have serious concerns about what happened this girl. She was cov- ered in flour and was naked from the waist down and there was graf- fit: with sexual connotations on the walls.”

He said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt and dismissed the charge.

‘Her semi-conscious state that morning also causes me concern,” he said.

that he believes the measure is “short term gain but to- tally counter productive”.

The renowned Jim Power, Chief Economist with Friend’s First was speaking in advance of his presenta- tion at “Dynamic Regions – Future

Directions in Regional Develop- ment’, which was organised by Shan- non Development to mark its 50th

anniversary. Describing the tax as a “totally counterproductive measure’ he

warned that the “tourism product in Ireland is already under pressure. Getting people to come to Ireland in the current economy is already dif- ficult.”

He said he is in “100 per cent agree- ment with Michael O’Leary about the long-term damage this will do. This tax is a short term measure with

long-term consequences.”

Speaking as workers from the pub- lic and private sector converged on cities around the country for a na- tional day of protest last Friday, Pow- er said the public service employees and unions will have to face facts and “will have to get their heads out of the sand. We have allowed the cost base in this country to get totally out of control over the past decade and that has to be brought down. Any- thing else would be disastrous for the jaUinel none

And he added that with high unem-

ployment in the mid-west, proper uti- lisation of the Task Force appointed by the Tanaiste, Shannon Develop- ment and other agencies is “vital”.

Speaking at the event in Limerick’s Thomond Park Conference Centre, Power said, “Continued ongoing in- vestment in access – by that I mean transport infrastructure such as ports, airport, rail and road, 1s criti- cal for the mid-west economy.

“Also critical for the region and Ireland generally will be a competti- tively priced power supply, without this economic and commercial activ-

ity will be in jeopardy. Broadband infrastructure will be another key business and economic enabler. Ac- cess to high speed broadband is an essential “must have’ on every inves- tors shopping list.

“A highly skilled flexible workforce iS a prerequisite to many FDI compa- nies in their search for a new base. If any of these basic requirements are missing or weak in a region, then it puts that area at a huge disadvantage. This is why it is vital to continue to invest in these key economic driv- ne

BEAMING and panting, Sean Chap- lin is coming to terms with the hour he has just logged and the trophy he has helped secure for Cratloe’s al- ready crowded cabinet.

‘This is beyond my wildest dreams,” he says. “As a young lad myself and the lads would go down and watch the Cratloe seniors. We were about ten or 12 and we would follow those guys every season. To us they were the next big thing when they won the intermediate and things died down for a while after that but it’s great to bring success to the club again.

“We had had so many years of los- ing but when you get that winning feeling it’s very hard to stop it be- cause that feeling 1s unreal.”

Sunday was the club’s 13th game in 14 weeks and the winning percent- age from that butcher’s dozen — in both codes — has been phenomenal.

“We have massive momentum in

this club. We had the football to build on and I’ve heard that some people have said football should be banned in Cratloe. I don’t believe that.

“We’re mad for football, we’re mad for hurling. These fellas are mad for action. I don’t care if we’re playing every week from here until Christ- mas. That’s what we want. We want to play and we want to train. That’s what we get the buzz from. That’s our life.”

From beginning to end, Chaplin was at the core of Cratloe’s win but for the midfielder, the final score of the game proved the sweetest mo- ment.

“The end was unbelievable, it was just a great way to win a county final and I didn’t know how long was left. It seemed like a fast second-half. I thought there would be more left in it because even after the goal it was backs to the wall time for us.

‘When the ball hit the net I was still cautious though because Clonlara

have some fantastic players and they had the ability to come back down and get another goal.”

A familiar refrain surrounded Cratloe both before and during the game.

“We had to work and work and be disciplined. That was the target we set. At half-time we said we had to be patient as well, that the breaks would come and that’s exactly what hap- pened. We were getting tired towards the end of the first-half because there was a lot of hard hitting but we kept going, we wouldn’t back down.

“Inside in the dressing room there were no mad speeches. We just de- cided we would stick with what had got us this far, stick with it. We knew were fit and we believed in ourselves. That counts for something.”

THE victim of an assault has told a court that he was attacked with wheel braces, while he exercised at an Ennis leisure centre.

Anthony McDonagh told Ennis Circuit Court that he was training in the gym at Ennis leisure centre on the evening of July 3 last year.

He was preparing to finish up and go for a shower when he said that the door was pushed in and a number of

men arrived at the gym.

One man was holding a machete, which, he said, was swung at him. “I put up my arms. I got a wheel brace to the side of the head. I fell to the ground,” he told the court.

He said he was also cut with a knife and was struck to the face and body. “IT was ducking the machete and I just got attacked by wheel braces and stuff,” he told the jury.

Asked by counsel for the state, Stephen Coughlan, BL, what the ac-

cused did to him, he replied, “I’m not 100 per cent sure what he did. It happened so fast. He was with them.”

The court was told that Anthony McDonagh sustained head and wrist injuries and cuts to his left arm.

Under cross-examination by de- fence counsel Pat Whyms, the wit- ness said he is currently in prison. He admitted that he had carried out a revenge attack for the incident in the gym.

“What did you do?” asked Mr Whyms. Mr McDonagh replied, “I went to a barber’s and attacked him (a man other than the accused) with an axe.”

Details of the garda interview with the accused were read to the jury. He admitted going to the gym and said he went there to train.

“One of the lads handed me some- thing. I didn’t use it. It was a Stanley knife. There was a blade sticking out of the end,” he said.

Asked by gardai why he had a knife in a gym, he replied, “I don’t know. A fella gave it to me.” Asked why it was open, he said, “I don’t know.”

He told gardai that he threw away the knife after leaving the leisure centre.

Mr Whyms put it to one of the in- vestigating gardai, Mike Kelly, that his client “at all times manages to position himself away from the ac- tion.” Gda Kelly replied, “For most of it.”

IT’S as if Barry Duggan didn’t want to leave the field. Long after the ball- game was over he was still out there, Canon Hamilton in one hand, the other working overtime as he shook all comers’ hands. Centre stage after all these years. Young and old sought captain and cup out — wanting to touch the cup, and see it up close. Duggan was hap- py to oblige, the sponge for everyone for those few minutes as he stood there in his own elevated world. Taking it all in. Living it. Nirvana. “County champions,” he says. “It’s brilliant, isn’t it? It’s unbelievable. To think we’ve won a senior champion- ship and the way we won it makes it even more unbelievable. When we went a point down with a couple of minutes to go the heads were down. It looked as if we might have missed our chance.

“But there’s something in this team this year. Going a point down brought us back to the Broadford game when we were a point with a minute to go. We got back to draw that day and today we said to ourselves that there was nothing more going past and we ll get a chance down the other end. We believed that. That’s what happened.”

Belief that manifested itself for a number of reasons, admits the in- spirational captain. Mike O’Gorman and John Gleeson telling them all year about he work they clocked up; Mike Deegan’s unfettered belief in their ability to deliver; the profes- sionalism from the world of rugby that Fiach O’ Loughlin brought to the eles

“Coming together 112 times speaks for itself,’ he says. “It shows we worked savagely hard all year — run- ning in Cratloe Woods in the hail, sleet and rain. That was back in Janu-

ary and back then we didn’t believe we’d be here in November, but once we reached the semi-final we said we were ready for anything that would be thrown at us.

“Tt was one big roll. We never had time to think about the next game that was coming up. One game was over and another game came on top of us. We just kept on thinking about the next game when it came along. Like Clonlara last year we didn’t have time to think about the hype of being in a county final. It was just a matter of going out there and treating it as another game. We did that after getting over a Slow and nervous start WOCO MO ODM OOo Kon ED Ln

Canon Hamilton was beaming up at him. Telling him he was thirsty. The dressing room was calling were the champagne was already uncorked.

THERE was blood on the floor and walls of a room at Ennis leisure cen- tre in the immediate aftermath of an attack there, a court has heard.

A leisure centre employee told En- nis Circuit Court that she was work- ing at the poolside when she was alerted by a colleague to what was happening in the gym.

‘He said there was a fight going on

in the gym with knives. I grabbed my phone and went up,” she said.

She said she saw that a man was in- jured in the aerobics hall.

“T just saw blood. There was a good bit of blood. It was on the floor and on the walls,” she recalled.

She said that she rang gardai and attended to the victim.

Garda Saran Butler told the tri- al that he was using the gym that evening. At around 7.45pm a group

of men burst in the door.

“T could see Anthony McDonagh getting hit on the head with a wheel brace,” he said. He said that the ac- cused was holding what appeared to loLome SL E-DIU CONAN @ NDE ISe

“A lot of people in the gym started rushing for the door,’ he said. Asked by counsel for the state, Stephen Coughlan, BL, did the accused come into contact with the injured party, he replied, “Not from what I saw.”

AS part of a special commemora- tion, Clare casualties of World War II will be remembered at the Clare Armistice Day multi-denomination- al service at Ennis Cathedral at 8pm next Wednesday, November 11.

The service will honour the memo- ry of Clare service men and women, and civilians who lost their lives in

both the First and Second World AEN ace

At the service, a special address will be given by retired Col. Michael Shannon, from Kilrush, former Chairman of the Irish Peace Institute. Col. Shannon served with UN forces in the Congo, Cyprus and Lebanon Where he was Commanding Officer of the UNIFL force. He also worked with the OSCE and EU monitoring

elections in Boznia- Hertzegovina, South Africa and Russia.

The commemoration committee is currently appealing for names and details of other casualties, as the com- mittee is raising funds to erect a me- morial wall to all casualties. Names may be given to the local libraries, Fr. Hogan, Ennis, Tom Prendivelle, Kilrush, Rev. Bob Hanna, Ennis and Peadar M Namara, Inch.

In total, World War II resulted in the death of 24 million military service personel and over 40 million MANET Oh

The war started on September 3, 1939, and ended on September 2, ee

Over 100,000 Irish served in the British Forces of which 10,000 lost their lives. Over 150,000 Irish worked in Britain during the war — in

factories, building aerodromes, nurs- ing etc.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record the following Clare dead by name, rank serial number, unit regiment, date of death, age, parents, home address, grave/ memorial, and cemetery location.

The names listed here are not a full record of the Clare World War II casualties.