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“THERE 1s no doubt that the Hanley proposals are alive and well and that the people of Clare are its first vic- anon

Those were the words of Clare Deputy Pat Breen (FG) in the Dail on Wednesday after news broke that there would no longer be a mammog- raphy service in the county.

“IT am reliably informed that unit was fully installed and ready to be recommissioned. The problem with the service is simply that there was no consultant radiologist employed at the hospital who was willing to

interpret and report on the mammo- grams, he said

“Prior to the refurbishment, this work was carried out by the HSE in Limerick Regional Hospital, but the service was discontinued. Why was the HSE not up-front with the peo- ple of Clare before the election?” he AIS .Cor6 B

“The HSE said this decision would cause inconvenience for the women of Clare but that those in north Clare could avail of services in Galway rather than make the long journey to Limerick. Did the HSE give any consideration to the women of west Clare, who will have to travel up to

100 miles to avail of the new serv- ice?” he asked.

Clare minister for state Tony Kil- leen (FF) said he was prepared to argue the case for retention of such services at acute hospitals rather than centralising services.

“Tam concerned about the loss of breast screening services at Ennis General Hospital and the impact it will have on the level of service be- ing received by Clare patients.

‘Any evidence I have seen, on the one hand, saying the centralisation of services is best is more than coun- tered by alternate evidence suggest- ing that the provision of local serv-

ices 1s best.

“IT am not entirely convinced that this decision will benefit the people of Clare in the long term”, added Minister Killeen.

Fianna Fail TD Timmy Dooley said that the HSE needed to clearly set out how it planned to manage the trans- fer to Galway and Limerick of some 400 women each year.

“It’s now time the HSE set out clearly the measures it intends to take to upgrade procedures in Limerick and Galway, particularly in light of a recent failure in Limerick to diag- nose a previous screened patient with breast cancer.”

LISDOONVARNA will play host to an Irish debut this September as Ireland first ever outdoor painting competition takes place in the Bur- ren Painting Centre.

Outdoor painting competition or ‘paint-outs’ have became popular in America in recent years but this is the first one which has ever been organised on this side of the Atlantic. The competition sees a large group of artists gather together on one day to paint and offer different artistic takes on the same moment in time.

“It’s an opportunity for good ama- teur artist to come together and paint for one day. Each person who comes to the day will have their canvass or paper stamped in the morning and they will sent out to three location

around Lisdoonvarna,” said Chris O’Neill of the Burren Painting Cen- nko

“They can choose any landscape the can find in those three locations. They can paint all day, submit their work and the judging will be carried out the next morning.”

The judging panel includes Irish painter Rosemary Carr and water colour expert Charles Harper. Paint- ers will be allowed to enter two painting in either oil and acrylic, pure water colour or mixed media, pastel and gouache.

“It’s for good amateurs. This means if you are a profession and you earn your livelihood through art then you are not eligible. We have decided to use the Government criteria of the artists tax exemption as a way of deciding who is amateur and who is

not. If they are earning their income through art and qualify for the tax exemption then they are not eligi- ble for this competition,’ continued Chris.

“We have had great support from the local community in putting the competition together. Michael Cun- ningham from Gort sponsored the main prize. Jordan’s Supermarket, Marian Petty Solicitors, the Road- side Tavern, Hayse Printers in En- nistymon and Burkes Builders have all offered great support. The whole local business community has been great as have the Lisdoonvarna Com- munity Council who have helped greatly with all the paperwork.”

The Burren Painting Centre was established in 1974 and has been at- tracting budding artist from Ireland, Europe and America to the Burren

for more than three decades. Courses run each year in Lisdoonvarna from May to August, with ‘away’ trip or- ganised all over the world in April and October.

The Outdoor Landscape Paint- ing Competition will take place on September |. For more information contact the Burren Painting Centre in Lisdoonvarna on 7074208.

THE General Secretary of the Psy- chiatric Nurses’ Association (PNA) staunchly defended the standards and staff at Cappahard Lodge during the heated radio debate last Friday.

Des Kavanagh said: “We are talk- ing here about a unit that the health service 1s particularly proud of.”

He added that PNA nurses wel- comed any investigation “as an op- portunity to prove to all and sundry that the care we provide is of the op- timum”’.

He also criticised Ms Flanagan’s

decision to go public with her com- plaint before the investigation was finished.

“We have felt for a long time that we are caught in the middle of an in- ter-family row… what Ms Flanagan is doing is trying to use information and rumour to create an impression of Cappahard that is totally inappro- wrANKon

It is unfair to people who have family members there because it puts concerns in their minds that their relatives are under stress or duress or threat and there 1s nothing further from the truth.”

RESTORING the bridge in Killaloe to it’s former glory will cost in the region of €100,000 Clare County Council officials have revealed.

A meeting last week of council offi- cials and elected members from both the Killaloe and Ballina sides of the river was being updated on progress with plans to repair the structure.

Council engineer, Sean Lenihan, told the meeting that the project is now at the stage where the council 1s seeking quotes from conservation ar- chitects for the job.

He told the meeting that the work

will be “slow and expensive” but of necessity as the bridge is listed as a national monument.

“The scope of this has increased considerably on what was first envis- aged,” he said. “Initially, we thought it was just a matter of cleaning off vegetation but there are some spots where the vegetation has become al- most part of the structure and it’s not just a matter of pulling it out. There’s a lot of restorative work and repoint- ing needed.”

The council’s conservation offic- ers became involved in assessing the project and they advised senior staff that conservation architects would be

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The question of where the money will come from for the work is still being discussed.

‘‘T have contacted the Heritage Coun- cil and they have a special fund which I hope might be available to us and we have inspectors from the department coming down on August 6. We’ll be making representations to him to see if we can get any department funding. After that, it will be between the two councils to pay for it,” said Sean.

Meanwhile, the meeting was told that the brief has now been finalised for the new river crossing at Killaloe.

Senior Officer, John Sheehy said

that the finished brief is about to be issued to those consultants who ex- pressed an interest.

“The consultants then have six to eight weeks to come back to us and we would expect appointments to be made after that,” he said.

The Clare council officer added that the new crossing “is a big project and it will take time. There will be issues on the links to the existing roads and after the consultants have been ap- pointed, there will be at least a year’s work for them to do. Anyone who is expecting a bridge to be there within a year has to realise that won’t hap- pen.”

THE HSE ordered an external inde- pendent review into the treatment of patients at Cappahard Lodge, Ennis last May following concerns raised by a number of parties including Sree

A separate Garda investigation is also under way following complaints made by family members of Kilrush man Gerard Finn relating to his treat- ment and care at the home.

The 69-year-old, who died last month, was admitted to the home in December 2005 with Alzheimer’s

and angina.

During an “extended period of time” some of his family members made a number of complaints to the HSE regarding his care at Cappahard Lodge.

The complaints were investigated by the Clinical Director and Direc- tor of Nursing, Clare Mental Health Services under the HSE Trust in Care policy document which is designed to deal with allegations of abuse.

The first part of this investigation process began on September 5 last year and concluded on January 8 last. The complainants were informed of

the findings.

This “screening process” found that no abusive actions had taken place and that “nursing and medical care provided for Mr. Finn was ap- propriate”.

The HSE said that as a result no further investigation was warranted:

“These findings were communicat- ed to the family members together with the appeal procedures and con- tact details of the appeals officer. The appeal process was not availed of by family members,’ the HSE said in a lengthy statement.

Following the Trust in Care inves-

tigation the HSE continued to re- ceive complaints from some family members, however, in relation to Mr. Finn’s ongoing treatment and care.

An external review was then com- missioned prior to Mr Finn’s death in June.

‘Those members of Mr Finn’s fam- ily wishing to make submissions to the review team will be contacted and will be invited to do so,” said a HSE spokesperson.

The HSE said it would also be co- operating fully with the Garda inves- tigation.

Cappahard Lodge on the Tulla Road

is a community residence providing long term care for clients of Clare Mental Health Services. The home is inspected by the Mental Health Commission on an annual basis.

The review will be chaired by Dr Donald Lyons, Mental Welfare Com- mission of Scotland and will involve an examination of “Processes and Protocols relating to both the clini- cal and administrative management of the unit’.

Relatives and other stakeholders are to be contacted and asked to make TU leyseb hwy Oy ele

A 55-YEAR-OLD man has been found guilty of making more than 8,000 nuisance phone calls to the garda emergency line in Ennis, over a five-month period.

Eddie Kirby, of Glenoir, St Senan’s Road, Ennis, was found guilty by a jury on nine charges, at Ennis Circuit Court on Friday. However, the trial judge indicated he was not likely to jail him.

Kirby admitted making the calls between October 2004 and March 2005. However, he argued that he suffered from a paranoid delusional disorder at the time.

The trial was told that on one oc-

casion, Kirby threatened to carry out a public hanging on public property. He was asked who was to be hanged and he said himself. During another phone call he made a reference to “corrupt gardai”.

On another occasion, he told gardai he had a rope around his neck. Each time, a garda car was dispatched but did not get any response.

The majority of the calls were made late at night and during some of the conversations, Kirby was abusive and often appeared drunk. His calls regularly clogged up the emergency line and he was told to stop ringing the 999 or 112 emergency numbers but continued to do so.

“Some nights the whole night was

taken up answering calls to this in- dividual, just ringing and ringing and ringing,’ Sergeant Michael Ha- ran told the trial. A log was set up at Ennis Garda Station where the calls were tracked.

Kirby’s barrister Michael Fitzgib- bon said, “This poor man has an ob- sessive compulsion.”

He said the accused was “not a bad man. He’s a misguided man. It’s not his fault. He suffers from this ill- ness.”

Kirby’s psychiatrist Dr John O’Mahony said that in his opinion the calls had been motivated by his condition. “He has a_ personality structure that’s of a paranoid nature. He feels that figures of authority and

other people conspire against him or do him harm,” he said.

He said another psychiatrist con- cluded that Kirby was “like a ter- rier with a bone. Once he gets it, he won’t let it go.”

Kirby told the court he was “very sorry he had to go to that extreme to try to express” himself through his phone calls to Ennis Garda Station.

He said he was abused by a farmer, when he was aged 11.

He made a complaint to gardai in Limerick, but the DPP directed that no prosecution be taken. He said he was sorry he ever made that com- plaint.

He told the trial he was socialising in Galway in 1997, when he was as-

saulted by aman who put his “fist into my mouth and burst three crowns.”

He made a complaint to gardai about that, but was upset that nobody was held accountable and admitted he was “obsessed” about it.

In his closing speech, Judge Sean O Donnabhain told the jury, “If you believe the defendant was entirely delusional or partially delusional, you have to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

The jury found Kirby guilty on all charges. Judge O Donnabhain ad- journed sentencing until a later date, but said he did not believe a prison term would be appropriate.

‘IT don’t see any merit in imposing a custodial sentence,’ he said.

A TEAM challenge tackled by a Corbally family showed that there ain’t no mountain high enough to stop Clare people.

The four-strong team trekked 75km across the Kerry Mountains, with an enthusiasm that won them Best Team Spirit in the Challenges 4 Charity (C4C) Kerry Challenge 2007.

Trish McElligott, Fanchea Molo-

ney, Michelle Moloney and Pa Molo- ney are local heroes this week after their terrific feat. But the four have more than just teamwork to be proud Oe

They also raised money and aware- ness for this annual event that fund- raises on behalf of DEBRA Ireland and Fighting Blindness.

The trek, which wove through the Kerry Way, Beara and Dingle Pe- ninsulas, tested even the fittest of

the 42 teams taking part. “But each kilometre was met by spirit and en- thusiasm, making for an unbeatable atmosphere,” a spokesman for the event said.

The measure of events success 1s in the €68,000 raised by participants. This money will go to the medical research teams and support groups funded by both charities, and will have a significant impact on their work.

Next up is the sister to the Kerry Challenge, the Wicklow Challenge, taking place this coming September 14 to 16. This event dubbed “Trek with a Twist’ includes fun-based tasks in addition to an extensive three day trek through Glendalough, the Wicklow Way and Powerscourt.

To register or find out more about the event, phone O01 677 6856, go online to www.c4c.ie or e-mail info@c4c.ie.

A NEW International Tour of Ireland Cycle Race was officially launched on Friday by Mayor of Ennis, Tom- my Brennan, at a reception held in the Town Hall.

The race, which passes through Ennis on Friday 24th August, will complete stage 3 of the route at Sta- tion Road near the Old Ground Ho- tel. Stage 3 will also bring cyclists through Kilaloe, Tuamgraney and Moymore.

Approx 112 riders will compete in this five-day nationwide event, tak- ing place from 22nd -26th August. The 864 km race begins in Kilkenny

and will pass through areas of Cork, Kerry and Clare before moving on through Galway.

The event will also bring the cy- clists through many other parts of the South, West and Midland Ireland before, on the 26th August, the vic- torious winner will arrive at Dublin’s Merrion Square.

The event, promoted by The Events Group in association with Shade Tree Sports and substantially funded by Failte Ireland as a means of show- ing the countryside of Ireland as a world class sport and tourism venue, will be covered live on television in a number of countries and will feature some of the top teams and riders in

the world. The race has been ranked 2.1 on the European Tour by the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale), the world governing body for cycling.

Top European teams have already signed up to enter the inaugural tour including David O’Loughlin and Ci- aran Power (both Navigators Insur- ance), and the successful Irish based Murphy and Gunn team. Invitations have also been extended to other Irish professionals who are part of successful professional teams in Eu- rope and in the USA including Philip Duignam and Nicolas Roche (Crédit Agricole), David McCann (Coalvita) and current Irish road race champi- on, Paul Griffin (Giant Asia).

PEOPLE who live in rural areas all their lives are being turned into urban dwellers who can’t get permission to build homes, it has been claimed. Speaking on a motion he tabled for last night’s county council meeting, Cllr Joe Arkins(FG) said that people, “who have been brought up and lived their lives in rural areas, surrounded by green fields are being urbanised because this council has drawn a line around their homes and re-zoned.” The councillor wanted the county

development plan interpreted as, he Said, was discussed with a former senior planner, to ensure that people who enjoyed the status of local rural person status should not have that status “eliminated by virtue of re- zoning the area of their birth”’.

The councillor said that much of the land which had been rezoned “will not be developed in the lifetime of this plan. Meanwhile, sites are sell- ing for figures that resemble foreign mobile phone numbers. It’s virtually impossible to buy a site.”

Councillors supported the motion

and detailed how people who had lived in the country could not now get planning permission to build if they wanted to build even a few hun- dred yards down the road.

Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) described it as, “absurd that a person can have a line drawn around them and be told they are urban when all around them are green fields”.

Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn (FG) said that when the council had origi- nally discussed the issue “we were conscious of people coming in and buying up land. Now we have a situ-

ation where local rural people are be- ing actively discriminated against.”

In a reply to the councillors motion, planners said that the result of doing as the councillors had asked would be “to remove any need for any land- owner to show they have current links with the rural community.”

Replying at the meeting, senior planner John Bradley said that what councillors had asked of planners in the past was “to be consistent”.

“You don’t want us flip-flopping. You want to see consistency in deci- sions,” he said.

THE Tuamgraney Development As- sociation has condemned the lack of progress by Clare County Council in addressing serious problems with water, pathways, road surfaces and safety in the town.

Association PRO, Margaret O’Meara, said that although resi- dents have raised over €91,000 to- wards local improvements the au- thorities have not been as generous in addressing long-term issues.

Council representatives were invit- ed to a public meeting last Tuesday but were unable to attend. Instead, Senior Executive Engineer Sean Lenihan, outlined upcoming work in

“NO molset-n ee

The email advised that a collapsed pipe causing “flooding opposite Has- setts” had been indentified for repair, further footpath repairs are depend- ent on funding and resurfacing and signage improvement will soon SEC a

It added that tenders for a water/ sewerage scheme will be decided later this summer but as it will cover several areas it 1s up to contractors where and when it will start.

He offered to arrange a meeting ata later date and Ms O’Meara acknowIl- edged this but added that phrases such as “in the coming weeks” were too vague.

“The road surface is appalling and

at the meeting we had a slideshow of 64 photographs showing potholes and dangerous footpaths. There is inadequate signage for our one-way system among other things. An au- dit by the national school showed that over 100 heavy goods vehicles pass by it a day and there is no pe- destrian crossing and no proper sig- nage. We’re afraid some child will be killed.”

Businesses have also complained about water pressure, sewerage and minor issues like the irregularity of road sweeping.

She added that there have been “mixed messages” about work and problems have arisen such as a traf- fic island having to be continually

moved- issues that could be avoided if plans were made “in consultation, not in isolation”.

TDA Chairman, Damien Heaney and other voluntary groups are call- ing for less “reassurance” and more action.

“The council have said that coun- cillors will collaborate with us and they are. Some work has also been done but there 1s still no proper time- frame or budget. We feel that there should be a concrete plan. It’s very frustrating because we have devel- oped the memorial park, done land- scaping and put up fences and signs. Everyone is trying to do the best for the village that they love,’ said Ms O’Meara.