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KILKEE was at the centre of a health scare this week, as a young holiday- maker was taken to Ennis General Hospital suffering from a life-threat- ening form of meningitis.

The Limerick teen, who was d1i- agnosed with the deadly and highly contagious form of meningitis at the Seaside resort, 1s now out of ICU and believed to be recovering well.

A spokesperson for the HSE said the 17-year-old was “stable and com- fortable”. Family and friends who had been in contact with the girl, from Crecora, County Limerick, were given antibiotics as a precau- tion and the public health depart- ment of the HSE notified.

“There were 269 cases of bacte- rial meningitis detected in the mid-

west over the past eight years. Dur- ing the period 1998-2003, a total of 11 people who contracted bacterial meningitis in the mid-west died as a result,’ a spokesperson of the HSE Mid West.

There have been no fatalities from the disease between 2004 and 2006, according to the HSE.

The disease, which infects fluid in the spinal cord and around the brain, TSM Busre1nere MMU lH OMr-DeL Ble) Ce) Bl ee

Symptoms of bacterial meningitis include stiff neck, rash, drowsiness, fever, cold hands and feet and abnor- mal skin colouring.

All cases of suspected bacterial meningitis and meningococcal dis- ease must be reported to the Depart- ment of Public Health.

An area medical officer then inves- tigates each case.

A NEW farming initiative, aimed at saving the ancient Burren goats from extinction, was launch in Carron last week. The BurrenLIFE Project (BLP) has established a trial scheme, where they will transform one Bur- ren farm into a sanctuary for the goats.

The long-term survival of the rare indigenous Irish goats has been put in jeopardy in recent years due to interbreeding with local abandoned goats and culling.

The goats can cause problems for Burren farmers by spoiling grass- lands and knocking walls, caus-

ing penalties for the farmers under REPS.

Large herds of goats roam and graze in the Burren but only a frac- tion of these are ancient Irish goats.

In recent years the explosive growth in the population of feral goats in the Burren has resulted in the culling of large numbers of goats by local farmers and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, who are concerned about the impact of goat browsing on tree species.

While there is general agreement on the need for managed culls of fe- ral goats to sustainable population levels, there are concerns that ran- dom culling could spell the end for

the few remaining individuals of the old Irish breed of goat.

The objective of the BLP 1s to de- velop a new model for sustainable agriculture in the Burren in order to conserve the sensitive Burren habi- tat.

As part of its work with 20 local Life-farmers, the BLP is working with one local farmer to erect a se- cure 22 acre enclosure within which itis hoped that a breeding population of old irish goats may be kept.

This pilot project will not only sup- port the conservation of the goats, but will also allow the BLP to moni- tor the impact of these feral goats on scrub and grasslands, and look at

their use as a ‘conservation grazing’ tool. ;

According to Ruairi O Conchuir of the BLP, the project is being under- taken on the farm of LIFE farmer, Patrick McCormack, with support from the project going to erect suit- able fencing and to supply water fa- cilities for the goats.

Goats have a long association with the Burren. Excavations at Poulnab- rone Dolman uncovered goat bones, indicating that these were an impor- tant part of the mixed farm systems of the Stone Age, over 5,000 years ago. For more information on this and other BLP work check out www. ebeMuCOUENCoMCCe)eeF

IN THE twelve months since the Environmental Protection Agen- cy (EPA) launched its “Dump the Dumpers” phone line, 32 calls have been registered from Clare with most of them related to fly-tipping, illegal landfill and illegal dumping.

Nationally, 2,184 calls had been received on the illegal dumping line to the end of July with EPA Envi- ronmental Enforcement Director Dara Lynott describing it as a valu- able mechanism for the public to re-

port illegal waste activities.

The “Dump the Dumpers” service was designed to encourage report- ing of illegal dumping of waste or of abandoned illegal dumps via a 24 hour call save telephone number – 1850 365 121. This information is followed up and checked by the enforcement authorities – local au- thorities, the EPA’s Office of En- vironmental Enforcement and the Gardai – through the Environmental Enforcement Network.

While information can be provid- ed anonymously, callers are encour-

aged to leave contact details so that clarification can be sought if nec- essary and so that feedback can be provided to the caller if requested.

This allows the enforcement au- thorities to gather information about illegal waste activity and to act on this information.

Sp.4 o.oo u lo Com UUMOlAmeeleNeuCocm Iles as England and Scotland suggests that a national phone-line for report- ing illegal waste activity is and will continue to be a central plank in the fight against illegal waste activity.

Serious incidents of illegal dump-

ing are reported immediately to the Gardai and the relevant local authority so that activities can be investigated as appropriate. These include, for example, the contents of a 40 foot trailer being dumped in a field or the dumping of diesel laun- dering waste.

This phone line complements and builds on existing local authority litter hotlines and offers the public a single point of contact to report in- formation about the more serious in- cidents of illegal dumping of waste, both past and present.

A MAN with 93 previous convic- tions, who stole cash to feed his her- oin habit has been jailed for a year.

Michael McNamara (33), of Row- an Court, Kennedy Park, Limerick, stole three purses from an office at Avoca handweavers, Bunratty, last March.

McNamara, a father-of-three, also stole €60 cash from the Texaco fill- ing station, Ennis, on March 19 last.

Inspector Michael Gallagher told Ennis District Court yesterday that McNamara stole money from the till at the Texaco garage and ran out of the shop.

He took off in the direction of Lim- erick and was intercepted by gardai.

The money was recovered.

Relating to the stolen purses, In- spector Gallagher said the accused brought gardai to two scenes, where the purses were found.

Defending solicitor John Herbert said his client began to use heroin a number of years ago and was “taken in grip of it.”

He pointed out that there was a

“hapless” element to the crimes be- fore the court.

“The stealing was in order to feed his addiction,” said the solicitor.

He asked the court to take the ac- cused’s circumstances into account, as he is “taking steps to address his difficulties.” Judge Leo Malone im- posed two six-month jail terms, to run consecutively.

AS THE summer begins to slowly wind down, Coole Park will be a hive of activity over the next few weeks with a range of free events for all shapes and sizes.

Events kick off in ghoulish fashion tonight, when the Galway Bat Group will host a Bat Walk in the park, meeting up at 8pm weather permit- ting.

A range of events to mark National Heritage Week, starting this week- end, will follow tonight’s talk.

“We have about eight of the nine species of bats in Ireland living here in Coole. The Galway Bat Group

will be coming along on the night with bat detectors which can detect the different sounds that the bats make,” said Hilda Mac Lochlainn, Head Guide with Nation Parks and Wildlife Service at Coole Park. ‘They will tell us what the species are that we are listening to and see- ing and in what direction they can be found. It’s a really great event for children and all the family. They get to see the bats and they also get to hear the bats through the detector.” The centrepiece of this year’s Her- itage Week Programme at Coole will be a pair of multi-media exhibition. The first, a film of Lady Gregory and Coole Park and a multi-media exhi-

bition on Coole ‘through the eyes of Me and Nu’ — the granddaughters of Lady Gregory – will take place all day Sunday August 26 and Septem- ber 2. On Saturday September 1, an award winning short-film by the stu- dents of Tubber National School will also be shown.

“We try to have a mix of events for all age groups and tastes. We try to focus on the history of Coole as well as focusing on the natural beauty and uniqueness of the area,’ continued Hilda.

“It was a project where national schools are asked to make a short- film on their area and Tubber decided to look at school and education in the

past. Part of it was recorded in Tub- ber and some of it was also recorded here in Coole.

‘The entered the Clare competition which they won so we are delighted to have a special screening of the film on Saturday, September 1. We are hoping to have some of the peo- ple who were involved in making it, here so they can talk a bit about it and answer questions.”

All of these activities are free of charge and are organised by the Na- tional Parks and Wildlife Service with help from the Friends of Coole and the Heritage Office of Galway County Council. For more contact O91 631804.

THE Burren coastal village of Bally- vaughan is becoming a weekender’s paradise and a weekday ghost town.

That is the view of two Bally- vaughan residents who made their claim during the course of an objec- tion against plans by Kevin Tuohy to build 44 homes in the village.

In their objection, Brendan and Katherine O’Donoghue stated that, “further holiday homes are not re- quired for Ballyvaughan. The com- munity cannot thrive or support a

range of services with empty houses most the year round”.

“This village is becoming a week- ender’s paradise and a weekday and winter ghost town. A balance is needed now in the village and any unnecessary development pressure must be avoided.”

The land is zoned ‘other settlement land’ which allows for restricted housing development, however, the O’Donoghues state that the develop- ment represents total overdevelop- ment in the small village.

“This development does not rep-

resent controlled settlement growth and its scale does not keep pace with the village infrastructure.

In her objection, Pauline Burke of the Ballyvaughan Lodge said, “It should be quite clear already that this development is unsustainable due to water and traffic alone.

“The resident make-up in Bally- vaughan at present is approximately 70 per cent holiday home owners. Given these statistics, it 1s clear that the developer intends to market this development as holiday accommo- dation. We do not feel that this is in

keeping with the current government policy on development in villages in the west of Ireland.”

“We would consider that the lack of two bedroom accommodation will price local people out of the market and is a further example of the inten- tion to market this development as holiday accommodation.”

Ballyvaughan resident, Barry R1- chards said that, “the public sewerage is insufficient to cater for an extra 44 dwellings and to use septic tanks for such a large development would be damaging to the environment.”

A CHEF in an Ennis hotel was dis- missed after he threw a knife at a co- worker during an outburst, the Em- ployment Appeals Tribunal heard.

The claim that the tribunal was hearing concerned the woman who had the knife thrown at her, claiming She had been dismissed because she asked for shorter hours after becom- ing pregnant.

Patrice O’Shaughnessy, Ballycu- min, Raheen, Limerick, took the case against the West County Hotel under the Unfair Dismissals Act.

During the hearing, members of the ‘Tribunal were told that, O’Shaughnessy, who worked in the kitchens, had a butter knife thrown at her, hitting her in the back, by a fel- low chef after she refused to make a

sandwich for a customer, telling him it was not her job.

The chef was subsequently fired, the hearing was told.

She was a part-time worker who nonetheless worked up to 50 hours per week, the tribunal heard.

In autumn 2005 there, the claimant found she was pregnant and asked the then head chef for a shorter work- ing week. She claimed that when she asked to work just two days, the head chef told her that if she could not work three days, he would have to find somebody else.

On October 27, the claimant said, she was at home in bed when she was phoned and told that she had been rostered to be at work.

Having not been in for the previous week, she was not aware that she was on that day, but got up and went to V0) 0.@

Another employee had been asked to ring her and tell her she was work- ing but had not done so, she said.

O’Shaughnessy said that the head chef told her to get her things and get o)bia

The hotel denied dismissing the claimant. The head chef said that he did not tell her that she would have to work three days or be gone.

On 27 October, the tribunal heard, the night porter rang the head chef at home at 6.20am. There were over 100 guests in the hotel and no-one from the staff to prepare breakfast. He denied dismissing the claimant.

The tribunal found that the claim- ant was dismissed but was not satis- fied that the dismissal was related to the fact that the claimant was preg- nant. But it did find that the claim- ant had an entitlement to a minimum notice payment of €254.36.

NORTH Clare acting starlets Fionn Burke and Caolann O’Dwyer took centre stage last week as shooting be- gan on a new film based in Ennisty- mon, Lahinch and Liscannor.

The pair star in Seaside Stories, a new project by acclaimed local film- maker, Fergus Tigue.

Both Fionn and Caolann came to the attention of Fergus when they took part in a series of open work- shops hosted by the Ennistymon based writer/director earlier this year.

“This is my first time ever do- ing anything like this. I went to a workshop and Fergus picked me and Caolainn to be in the film. It’s good

fun, sometimes the days are pretty long and I get tired,” said nine-year- old Fionn from Ennistymon.

He added, “It might be the kind of thing that I would like to do when I get older. I have definitely got better at it since I have been practising.

“T play Locky in the film. Locky is different from how I would normally act, he supports a different team, he acts differently, he’s totally differ- ent. It is kind of hard to pretend to be someone so different from how I normally am.

It can be a bit embarrassing some- times, when we are asked to act something that we don’t want to do. Like when there are loads of people watching.”

Locky’s best friend in the film is

played by 11-year-old Lahinch ac- tor, Caolann O’Dwyer. “We play best friends in the film and we are friends in real life so that 1s easy,” said Caolann.. “One of my favour- ite bits is the chase scene. There is a bit where we steal a man’s hat and he chases us all around the place. It is definitely something I’d like to do when I get older. I like all of it.”

Written by Fergus, the story has evolved through these workshops as well as through improvised rehears- als held with the actors and could now develop into a three film series.

Seaside Stories is set in a coastal Irish town and tells the entwined sto- ries of a number of the local inhabit- an OLNE

Alongside Fionn and Caolann,

talented local youngsters Aileen Murphy and Maura Garrihy join local professionals Gerry Howard, Michael Canavan and Bernard Dowd alongside a number of Dublin based actors in the production.

Fergus is based at the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon where he shares studio space with a number of other artists.

One of these artists, Sara Faust, is producing Seaside Stories.

IT WAS Spm before the panic set in. Watched by almost 1,000 eager spec- tators from the Lahinch Promenade, 250 surfers had tried in vain for two hours to once again make history. To prove that lightning can indeed strike twice.

But the Atlantic Ocean can be an unpredictable master. From mid-af-

ternoon the swell had steadily grown, the waves were messy, strong and un- predictable, and the troop of young surfers stood little chance.

After a short respite to rest their tired limbs, 60 surfers re-entered the water for one last attempt. Three quarters of an hour later they returned to dry land – no longer mere surfers, they were now surfing heroes, World Record Holders.

‘The swell was almost too strong, we tried for more than an hour with about 250 surfers but we had to call them in and try again with just 60. The waves were breaking in sections and it was very difficult to get all of the surfers on the one wave,” said co- organised Brian Nevin.

“We tried again and because the tide was further in the waves were much cleaner and easier to ride. At

the third attempt we managed to break the record.”

Just before 5.45pm on Saturday, 49 surfers managed to ride the same wave for more than five seconds. Just four more than last years attempt but good enough for the Guinness Book of World Records, good enough for aes

“We are all so excited about it. It’s a really fun event, open to every level of surfer and it has really put Lahinch on the map. It has grabbed people at- tention all over the world. A lot of different challenges have now been laid down in other locations so it all bodes well for next year’s event,’ continued Brian.

“We are looking at building the world record attempt into a whole weekend event for next year. I mean, there was 700 or 800 people on the the prom and more than 250 in the water on Saturday.

“We are also looking at putting a charity element in for next year. Maybe do the world record on the Saturday and have a different charity event on Sunday.

“This can only help Lahinch, there is also the serious surfing event hap- pening at the Cois Farraige in Kilkee next month, but this was more of a bit fun event. It was great.”

Anyone who registered to take part in the world record attempt can col- lect their official certificates from the Lahinch Surf School by checking out www.lahinchsurfschool.com.

PLANS for reputedly the county’s most environmentally friendly hous- ing scheme have been thrown out by An Bord Pleanala.

This follows the planning board over-turning Clare County Council’s decision to part-grant planning to ar- chitect, Tom Byrne for the proposal and refuse the plan outright.

Residents in Kilkee and appli- cant, Mr Byrne had both appealed the council’s decision to An Bord

Pleanala.

Mr Byrne was seeking planning for the erection of six houses on a site formerly known as Walton’s Quarry and the council granted planning for three, lowering the height of the homes granted planning.

In all, four third-party appeals were lodged against the decision, along with Mr Byrne appealing.

The board’s inspector recom- mended that planning be refused on a number of grounds. He stated “that the proposed development would be

contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area, having regard to design and scale of the residential scheme, the alterations to site levels which are necessary to facilitate the development, the result- ant high visibility of the develop- ment, open space arrangements and proposed landscaping of the site”. The inspector also stated that the board “is not satisfied that the pro- posed development can be carried out as proposed without adversely affecting the visual amenity, residen-

tial amenity and integrity of adjoin- ing property and lands, identified as a Architectural Conservation Area in the Kilkee Local Area Plan in the West Clare Local Area Plan”’.

The inspector also stated that the board were dissatisfied that construc- tion of the proposed development could occur without resultant nega- tive consequences for the ecologi- cal system based around the nearby pools to the west of the site.

In its order, the appeals board stat- ed, “Having regard to the highly vis-

ible nature of the site, the proposal to raise ground levels up to seven metres and the nature, scale and de- sign of the residential units built on fill, it is considered that the proposed development would be visually ob- trusive and incongruous and would adversely affect the visual amenity, residential amenity and integrity of adjoining property and lands, iden- tified as an Architectural Conserva- tion Area in the Kilkee Local Area Plan, as set out in the West Clare Lo- cal Area Plan, 2003.”