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POLISH workers in Kilkee hotels who successfully completed a FAS Skills for Work course have been commended for their application to studies and their level of achieve- ment.

The group of eight spent fifteen weeks on a part-time series of classes that had to be juggled with varying duty shifts. It was delivered in Kil- kee Bay Hotel by Clare Adult Basic Education Service (CABES), an arm of the Clare Vocational Education Sonatas

FAS devised the Skills for Work course as part of a new programme

from its Services to Business sector. In Kilkee, it was delivered by Kala Moloney of CABES whose tutors and materials costs are paid for by FAS.

Karl Quinn, co-ordinator of Eng- lish language programmes within CABES, who presented certificates to the workers, said he was full of admiration for the progress made throughout the course and looked forward to other similar courses around the county.

Margot Walsh, Skills for Work co- ordinator with FAS, also commented on the progress achieved during the course and hoped that the partici- pants could involve themselves in

further segments of the programme.

Designed to provide easy access to training for employees, the pro- gramme improves essential commu- nication skills and educational levels in the workplace, helping ensure a competitive edge to the employer.

The recipients of certificates were Jolanta and Krzysztof Ciesielski, Marck Sulkowski, Lukaz Kandler and his wife, Kamila, Sebastian Sulkowski, Andrzej Janoska and An- eta Sadowsti.

After the awards ceremony, the stu- dents presented Kala Moloney with a photographic encyclopaedia of Poland. An informal meal followed, featuring typical Polish food made

by the workers and samples of her native foods made by Kala Moloney who is Indian-born.

Several courses are running suc- cessfully in companies around Clare. Benefits are two-fold: the employees, for their part, develop new skills while companies gain in having employees with greater flexibility, improved communication skills and an interest in training and develop- ment.

Other benefits for employers are increased quality and output, more profitability, increased retention of employees, better team performance and health and safety record and or- ganisational flexibility.

A HALF tonne of rubbish, including a fridge freezer and the front door of a house, was dumped along a road- side in Meelick, a court has heard. Arising out of the incident, Tina Quilligan, of Cannonbreen Park, Thomondgate, Limerick, was fined €400, at Shannon District Court.

Garda John Kelleher told the court that a variety of rubbish was dumped at Gortgarraun, Meelick, on Decem- ber 23 last.

These included a fridge freezer, the door of a house, sheets of corrugated iron, paper, cardboard, plastic pack- aging, Christmas wrapping and gen- eral household rubbish.

It was dumped by the side of the

road and was visible from the public road, the court heard.

Correspondence found in the rub- bish led gardai to the defendant.

She admitted some of the rubbish came from her house and some of the Christmas wrapping had her childrens’ names on it. It cost Clare County Council €316 to clean up the rubbish.

Defending solicitor Caitriona Car- mody said her client, a mother-of- five, was doing work to the rear of her house. She saw an advertisement in a newspaper and contact the number on it, to remove the rubbish.

“She paid them and expected them to dispose of it legitimately, but they didn’t,” she said. “She is here to plead guilty,’ added Ms Carmody.

THE Clare branch of the Samaritans has received a major funding boost after ©€26,000 was raised for the service, by organisers of alOk walk held in April. The cheque was pre- sented to members of the Samaritans in Ennis, last week.

SU slomr-NbecKO) Mee COMA VDL Gn. chem rO ms Eihio awareness of the issues surrounding suicide. It was the second year of the event and brings to almost €50,000 the amount of money raised by the walk for the Samaritans.

The event was organised by three local people Keith Molloy, Sasha O’Brien and Clare O’Brien. The money will be used to cover the costs of running the Samaritans centre in

Ennis which are estimated at around €1,000 a week.

A spokesperson for the Samaritans thanked the organisers and said the money would go towards maintain- ing a 24-hour service at the centre.

“We really want to thank the people who did this. It is an amazing amount of money to raise and it will be really helpful to us running the service. We are constantly having to maintain the centre on Kilrush road”.

The spokesperson added, “The walk was for suicide awareness and it really gives you an indication of the concern and interest that exists out there about suicide”’.

Sasha O’Brien, one of the 10k walk organisers has already been com- mended for her efforts to generate

greater public discussion on suicide. Earlier this year, she was nominated for a Pramerica Spirit of Community Award, for a series of projects she undertook as a Leaving Cert student at Colaiste Muire, Ennis, to raise sul- cide awareness.

The Pramerica Spirit of Commu- nity Awards programme recognises and rewards post-primary/second- level students for volunteer work car- ried out in their communities.

Sasha received help from her un- cle Keith Molloy and aunt Clare O’Brien.

Meanwhile the Samaritans are set to benefit from money raised from a different type of event over the week- Nee

The “Malin Head to Mizen Head

Challenge’ saw local man Peader White travel from one end of Ireland to the other, setting of on Friday and returning back to Ennis on Sunday.

Peader’s choice of automobile for the three-day journey was a 1956 vintage Morris Minor. It is the sec- ond time the keen vintage car enthu- siast undertook the challenge. Last year Peader raised almost €2,500 for the Samaritans, by taking the same journey in a 1950 Austin A40 Somerset. The car had previously been used in director Tim Burton’s big screen version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

A CONVICTED sex offender from west Clare is due to be extradited to Ireland within the next week, after he fled to the UK two years ago.

Graham Haugh (21), of Drumina, Dysart, Ennis, was found guilty by a jury, in March 2004, of buggering and sexual assaulting a young boy in Kilrush, in 2001. The verdict fol- lowed a 10-day trial.

Haugh fled the country in 2005 and joined the army in the UK under a false name.

At an extradition hearing in London last week, the City of Westminster Magistrates court heard Haugh had fled to Britain because he believed his life was in danger.

“I was attacked by a few people. I was getting called “paedophile, sick bastard’, I felt a glass smashed into the back of my head and I was kicked on the ground,” he said.

He breached his probation condi- tions and went on the run to London in 2005. He argued last week that extradition would breach his human rights.

Haugh alleged his parents’ car had acid thrown on it and there were at- tempts to poison the family cat and dog. Haugh asked the court not to send him back to Ireland where he fears he could be killed.

“Every time I walked the streets I got abuse — | felt my life was in dan- ger every time I was outside the door. It felt like house arrest,” he said.

He said the vigilante campaign forced the family to move to Ennis, but the harassment followed him Wee uer

Judge Anthony Evans said the risks to Haugh’s safety did not meet the high criteria.

The judge, approving the extradi- tion, said he had received reassur- ance from the DPP that Haugh would be protected in a special wing for vulnerable prisoners.

At Dublin District Court in 2005, Judge Yvonne Murphy noted that Haugh’s life had been very difficult and dysfunctional. His role in bug- gering the victim had been to hold him down with another’s help, while a much older third man committed the actual act.

AFTER immense fundraising ef- forts, Clarecastle woman Lorraine Reynolds is preparing to help chil- dren in one of Europe’s poorest countries.

In September Lorraine will travel to Moldova to work in the Hincesti Children’s orphanage with the Irish charity Outreach Moldova.

The orphanage is home to 395 disa- bled and orphaned children, all of whom are girls.

Already, through various fundrais- ing initiatives Lorraine has raised €4.500 for Outreach Moldova.

In order to raise costs for the trip, a fundraising night will be held in

Powers Bar in Clarecastle on Friday are

€1,000 must be raised for the cost of flights and board, while a further €1,000 goes towards the orphanage.

Lorraine was drawn to the idea of traveling to Moldova after reading an advertisement in a newspaper. The mother of two said she was a little nervous but is now looking forward to the trip.

“T have never done anything like this before and I am glad to be doing it. | was nervous at the start. Moldova is the second poorest country in Eu- rope. A lot of the children there have been abandoned. It will be hard, but when you have two children of your own, it makes you think that it’s good

to give something back.

In Hincesti, Lorraine will work in the orphanage helping with feeding the children and organising excur- sions. Lorraine and her fellow volun- teers will work from 9 to 7 each day from Monday to Saturday and stay in an on-site dormitory.

Outreach Moldova _ concentrate on all aspects of the children’s care from medical and surgical to build- ing and renovation, to improve the environment in which they live. The Dublin based charity has implement- ed and supervised the incorporation of social, educational and care pro- grammes with local staff to provide the care these children need.

There are two full time Irish ad-

ministrators living in the orphanage to oversee all work carried out by both local staff and Irish volunteers.

Outreach Moldova employs over 275 Moldavian staff including 12 full time doctors, 30 full time nurses, six physiotherapists, two speech thera- pists, and a dental team, all provid- ing 24 hour a day care, 365 days of the year. Over 150 carers, a dance teacher, 15 teachers, 12 classroom assistants and four play assistants supplement this medical team. All programmes are funded by the peo- ple of Ireland.

Lorraine added, “It’s going to be the experience of a lifetime. They say that when you go there once, you will want to go back again”’.

THE HEALTH Service Executive is preparing to announce that accident and emergency departments at three hospitals in the mid west are to close and be replaced with “nurse lead mi- nor injuries units.”

According to sources, the depart- ments at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s voluntary hospital in Limerick City will be named as the three casualties of the Teamwork report, a review of accident and emergency departments nationwide by the British-based con- sultants. The announcement is ex- pected in the next three weeks.

The news comes just two months

after a document leaked to the media revealed that accident and emergen- cy departments in the north east of the country are also set to close.

The Teamwork report will recom- mend that accident and emergency services at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s be moved to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick. The facilities will instead be replaced by “nurse lead minor injury units.” It is not clear, however, whether these new units will be open on a 24-hour basis.

Clare Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, has called on the Government “to shred this report, live up to their election commitments or lives will be lost.”

Deputy Breen said, “If these reports are true, then Ennis hospital will ef- fectively become a 12-hour nurse-led injury clinic. Whilst acknowledging the outstanding role that nurses play in the hospital and the care and atten- tion given by them to their patients, the failure to provide 24-hour con- sultant-led accident and emergency will mean that lives will be lost”.

“Of course, it 1s no coincidence that the Dail is in recess when this report is set to be published.”

Meanwhile, the PRO of the Ennis General Hospital Development Com- mittee Councillor Brian Meaney said, “They are suggesting putting in an injuries unit and they should do

but it should operate in tandem with the existing 24 hour accident and emergency department which is al- ready stretched…

“We will fight this and if means marching on the Dail we will but we also have a number of imaginative civil disobedience protests we could mount,’ Mr Meaney said.

“If they think the HSE can intro- duce this policy unilaterally, without consulting politicians, like they did with the mammography unit in En- nis earlier this month, they will have to deal with a different reality in due course,” the councillor added.

A comment was still awaited from the HSE last night.

KILBAHA is a small west Clare vil- lage that is proud of its history and traditions.

The tight-knit community has now made that unique history avail- able to tourists and visitors with two projects that bring the past to life and celebrates the creativity of the areas many artists.

Looking out on to the Atlantic is the newly completed Garden of Re- membrance and the year old Five Pi- lot Memorial.

The projects are the brainchild of the Kilballyowen Development Company and the work of the Rural Resourse Development Scheme.

Local men Eddie Fennell, John O’ Dwyer, Gerard Collins and Pead- ar Keniry are proud of the stonework that will ensure the two projects live

on for generations to come.

The beautiful stonewalls are built from local stone, with limestone flags underfoot.

The top of the wall is encrusted with beach stones giving the struc- ture a rope like effect.

The men’s stonework skills were also used to create a water feature in the shape of a milk churn at the front of the garden, and an open fireplace at the back.

A bog oak tree from Tulagher Bog makes up the centre of the bronze Diarmuid and Grainne sculpture.

The piece representing the two lov- ers whose story is part of the Loop- head folklore was designed and cre- ated by father and son team, Jim and Seamus Connolly.

Along the right hand wall, that has been created to look like a scroll, is the wroth ironwork of local man and

former teacher Paddy Murray.

The ironwork is made up of eight pieces reflecting seven moments in history for the peninsula.

Not surprising the Little Arc Church makes up part of the sequence under the title of “Religion”.

“Fishing” features artic explorer Captain Michael Brennan, while “music” features the late John Kelly and the Clare Set.

Two of the scenes depict traditional farming methods, with the scene on the “Irish language” featuring por- traits of Seamus O’Dea and Eugene O’Curry.

“Emigration” tells its own stark sto- ry aS women on the shore wave good bye to their sons and daughters.

It is his final scene entitled “Sport” that begins to tell a lot of the penin- sula’s hidden history. Depicted in the iron is Peter Foley who was a record

holding weight thrower from 1889.

Yet to be added to the garden are two pieces by Michael McTigue, re- flecting the history of the “yellow men” who perished in a shipwreck approximately 150 years ago and all who lost their lives at sea.

The second pieces is “the flame of freedom” remembering all of those involved in the Irish move towards Independence.

The Sides family, who have a hol1- day home nearby, donated the piece of land on which the garden was een ne

IT seems that the European Om- budsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, is going to have to brush up on all things Irish, as it was revealed last week that at least three of the Irish Farming Organisation have lodged official complaints with his office.

The ICMSA and Farmers for Fair- ness in Europe (FFE), lodged a join complaint with Ombudsman, target- ing both the European Commission and the Council of the European Union on grounds of maladministra- tion by failing to ban Brazilian beef imports.

The complaint, which was drawn up in ICMSA Head Office, centres on what ICMSA President, Jackie

Cahill, has described as ‘the incon- trovertible evidence’ that the failure to ban beef imports from Brazil is in breach of EC law.

“We think we have identified the Commission’s vulnerable spot on this issue, which infuriates us all. The European Ombudsman func- tions in a similar way to the ombuds- men in member states – he must now undertake a full investigation of all the trails and reports drawn up by the Commission — including any that are as yet unpublished. He must then present his report with recommenda- tions to the European Parliament.

“The complaint is to be issued in the name of FFE and the presidents of the 12 associated farm organisa- tions and according to Mr. Cahill the

‘wriggle-room’ that the Commission have been using on the issue of Bra- Zilian beef will be severely circum- scribed by the formal complaint.”

The formal complaint is of the na- ture of a double-whammy in that the ICMSA/FFE complaint will also argue that the maladministration on the question of Brazilian imports coupled with the onerous regulations imposed on native European beef farmers amounts to an infringement of the rights of those farmers as Eu- ropean citizens as established and guaranteed by the European Court of Justice under the Treaty that estab- lished the European Community.

As a part of the FFE, the ICSA has also echoed the dissatisfaction of the ICMSA with the situation surround-

ing Brazilian beef.

“The Commission is failing in its legal duty to EU citizens by continu- ing to allow beef imports from Bra- Zil,’ said ICSA president Malcolm Thompson.

“The combined efforts of the or- ganisations in FFE are targeted at forcing the Commission to act on the clear veterinary evidence and other information collected by the Food and Veterinary Office of the European Union arising from nu- merous official missions undertaken by that office. In addition, FFE is confident that the Ombudsman will have to factor-in to his deliberations the complete ban on Brazilian beef imports operated by both the US and Australia.”

UP TO 190,000 bednights and 25,000 car rental days will be lost as a result of Open Skies and there will be 40,000 fewer US visitors to the Shannon region, a startling new industry report has predicted.

The report, featured on the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) website, 1s based on flight figures and current information from tourism industry players, many of whom are moving their interests to Dublin Airport.

Based on recorded visitor behav- 1our, an increase in the number of

US visitors flying into Dublin won’t make up for the Shannon losses as Americans who fly in through Shan- non stay longer, spend more time outside Dublin and are more likely to hire a car to get around.

Shannon will see a reduction from 59 flights per week in each direction last winter to 34 for the coming win- ter – a 40 per cent decrease in maxi- mum available seat capacity.

‘The net impact of a possible shift of between 25 per cent and 30 per cent of US holiday traffic from Shannon to Dublin in the short term, without any appreciable increase in overall capacity on direct routes to Ireland

in 2008, could see an estimated net loss of between 150,000 and 190,000 bednights in the country, a reduction of up to 25,000 car rental days and at least 25,000 fewer Americans visit- ing in Cork/Kerry and up to 40,000 fewer Americans visiting the Shan- non region. The Galway west region could see at least a drop of 15,000 US holiday visitors’, the report states. The ITIC study predicts a “redistri- bution of mobile services – car rental fleets and coaches from Shannon to Dublin, with added congestion issues in Dublin together with higher oper- ating costs for most”

“These changes have potentially

very significant implications for the tourism industry, particularly busi- nesses based in the west’, it states.

ITIC is calling “as a matter of ur- gency” for the implementation of “a tourism and economic plan for the region, to include funds for the promotion of the west of Ireland in the US market so as to overcome the short-term impacts of open skies.”

It also argues that a special budget allocation to Tourism Ireland for each of three years (2008-2010) should be directed at heightening the motiva- tion to visit the western seaboard and to at least sustain the level of services to Shannon Airport.

THE Miltown Malbay E-town is on course despite the bad weather af- fecting building projects across the county.

That’s according to Shannon De- velopment E-Town Project Leader Paul Ryan, who said that the project is On course for opening in October.

The Miltown Malbay E-town will give a “turn key” working and living space for families and single people wishing to avoid the rat race and set

up business in the west Clare town.

The 12-unit E-town is expected to attract micro business to the area and cluster them so that they in turn could grow from each other and pro- aCe ComAUUUM sloiumoreel O)Cenranetounle

Miltown Malbay has a hard work- ing community and a history of in- dustry, which made it attractive for this project.

The population of the town is about 1,000 people with another 3,000 in the area.

In partnership with the local au-

thorities, local communities and the Ibrickane network Shannon Devel- Opment is pioneering this new rural town renewal initiative, a €4 million investment by the development com- Orv aNYA

Among the many attraction likely to entice people to the west Clare town and its e-town are the nine pri- mary schools and secondary school in the area.

It also has a vibrant community, surfing, golf, drama, Irish music classes, créche facilities, 15 bars, and

a dozen restaurants within a couple of miles, and the sea.

It is just 30 minutes from Ennis and less than an hour from Shannon In- KoouirleCeyer Diane Oe) um

The primary aim of the pioneering approach of the e-town is to enable people to achieve a live/work bal- ance in tailor-made accommodation, create clusters of businesses and bring new economic activity back into local communities.