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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.”

A NEW exhibition of Irish paintings spanning almost a century of Irish art opens at the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon from September 4.

Curated by Fiona Woods of the Clare Arts Office, the selection of exhibited works will represent a broad survey of painting practice in Ireland.

Beginning chronologically with a work by Paul Henry, ‘Irish painting 1919 – 2007’ features works from the likes of Gerard Dillon, Jack B Yeats, Mainie Jellet, Mary Swanzy and No- rah McGuinness.

“Many of the featured works have been sourced from the Collection of the Arts Council of Ireland and Lim-

erick City Gallery of Art’s perma- nent collection,” said Fiona.

‘The work reaches right up to con- temporary times, incorporating a number of genres such as Landscape, Interior/Still-life, Portraiture, Ab- stract and Narrative approaches.”

To coincide with the exhibition, the arts office is also organising a Series of guided gallery tours, public talks and workshops for artists.

Catherine Marshall, Chief Cura- tor with The Irish Museum of Mod- ern Art, currently on secondment as Visual Arts Touring and Collections Advisor with the Arts Council, will provide the opening talk on irish painting.

On Saturday September 15, Ennis- born artist Mick O’Dea RHA will

give a talk about his work, followed by aclosed workshop for artists.

On September 22 Irish artist and member of Aosdana, Micky Donnel- ly, a leading contemporary will give a talk about his work, followed by a closed workshop for artists.

Donnelly has exhibited in many countries around the world, includ- ing solo exhibitions in Germany, Ita- ly, Scotland, England, and New Zea- land, and major group exhibitions in USA, Canada, Mexico, France, Spain, Greece, Norway, Australia, and Japan.

Every Wednesday, Marie Con- nole MFA, will give tours for school groups, complete with educational material at 1.30 pm. A guided tour for the public will be available at

3pm each Wednesday, or at another time by appointment.

The Fine Art Graduate of The Bur- ren College of Art received the Spire- sart Outstanding Student in Art, an accommodation and studio residency award in 2005 and tuition fees bur- sary in 2006/07 from The Clare Arts Office, and recently The Burren Col- lege of Arts Presidents Award.

The exhibition will formally be launched by Clare FM _ presenter, Marian Egan, at 7 pm on Tuesday September 4, and runs until Septem- ber 23.

NOT a single patient in Clare or the mid-west, who was retested fol- lowing last June’s faulty nationwide pregnancy test kit scare, has been found to be pregnant.

The Health Service Executive Mid- West has confirmed that it has com- pleted the process of contacting all patients who were originally tested with suspect Clearview HCG preg- nancy test kits to offer them retest- ing. Some of the kits were found to give false negative results following an error in the manufacturing proc- NSE

Staff at Ennis General Hospital painstakingly trawled through three months of records to establish how many women were tested for preg- nancy between March and May so they could be contacted and offered retests. Around 200 patients are

known to have taken the test in that period in Ennis alone.

A spokeswoman for the HSE has now confirmed that on completion of those retests, “no women were found to be pregnant.”

Four out of the six main hospitals in the mid-west are known to have received kits from the faulty batch. The Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick, the largest hospital in the region, contacted patients who were given the test and quickly con- firmed that all negative results de- tected with the suspect test kit were confirmed as negative on re-test.

The Regional Maternity Hospital was issued with four boxes of kits from the suspect batch but none of them were used and have since been destroyed. Management at Nenagh General Hospital also retested pa- tients and all results were con- firmed.

AS BRITISH authorities downgrad- ed the chance of any further spread of foot and mouth to ‘very low’ over the weekend, the Irish Farmers As- sociation (IFA) has attacked the Irish Army for it’s use of Brazilian beef. Many in the farming community believe that contaminated Brazilian beef was to blame for the foot and mouth outbreak in the UK and have called for an outright EU wide ban on imported beef from South America. The IFA’s National Livestock Chairman, John Bryan, described as ‘a disgrace’ that the Irish Army pro- vide imported Brazilian beef to Irish soldiers on duty. “Livestock farmers

will be appalled that this is happen- ing and that Brazilian beef is being brought in the back door by the State to feed our troops. It 1s incredible to think that a British trading company is allowed supply the Irish Army with Brazilian beef.”

“T have to seriously question the Army’s purchasing policies. From IFA’s investigations in Brazil, we know their production standards do not meet EU requirements.

‘“T am therefore calling on the Min- ister for Defence, Willie O’Dea, to order an immediate investigation of this embarrassing revelation. The Department of Defence must ur- gently review the specifications for Army food procurement contracts to

ensure proper standards and quality assurance, and that Irish suppliers are well placed to fill contracts with meat of Irish origin.”

The use of Brazilian beef by the Irish Army was discover by IFA Livestock Vice-Chairman, Michael Doran, who joined in calls for an in- vestigation. “As a livestock farmer, I was disgusted to find out that the State was involved in purchasing Brazilian beef,” he said.

Meanwhile, across the water tests on three location where foot and mouth had been suspected all re- turned negative last week.

Chessington World of Adventures and Zoo in Surrey, a farm in Romney Marsh, Kent, and a meat processing

plant in Merthry, south Wales, were given the all-clear by British Gov- ernment scientists on Thursday

Temporary control zones restrict- ing the movement of livestock in the areas have been lifted.

One Scottish man is claiming to have already lost thousands because his famous ‘dancing sheep’ have been unable to perform as a result of restricted movement.

Stuart Barnes was on tour in Scot- land wide with ‘the Sheep Show’ when the outbreak happened.

The show, described as ‘an educa- tional 30-minute show which fea- tures dancing sheep doing The Hus- tle’, has been grounded as a result of the foot and mouth outbreak.