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ONE of Clare’s true characters will be honoured this week when he re- ceives an honorary degree from NUI, Galway.

Br Sean McNamara is one of just five people who will be honoured in a special ceremony later this week alongside traditional musician Frankie Gavin, RTE’s Northern Edi- tor Tommie Gorman, Galway soccer legend Eamonn ‘Chick’ Deacy and Fr Raymond Browne.

The Christian Brother will receive the award for his lifelong active engagement in voluntary organisa- tions.

Born in Kilmurry McMahon in 1927, Br Sean began his teaching ca- reer in 1947. He taught in Clonmel, Colaiste Mhuire and Marino in Dub- lin, Drogheda, Monaghan, Trim and Ballinrobe from where he retired when the Christian Brothers pulled out of that town in 1990.

During his time as a teacher, and more especially upon retirement in 1990, Br Sean became well known for his active engagement in volun- tary organisations and his campaign- ing on behalf of a number of organi- sations in the media.

As well as this he also served at

various times as Chairperson of the National Garden Association of Ire- land, as Council Member of Trees for Ireland and he was also a founding member of the St Columba’s Garden- ing Club in Dublin.

Over the last two decades, Fr Sean has also enjoyed an amount of fame as an author. He has written a number

of books including

A NUMBER of Clare people have been among the victims of an on-line scam which gets its victims to hand over credit-card details on the prom- ise of a tax refund.

A record 83,000 emails offering fake tax refunds were reported to the UK Revenue authorities in Sep- tember. The attacks have continued this month, with an unprecedented 10,000 reports of the fraud made on one day alone.

The UK Revenue confirmed that they have received complaints from

Ireland about the emails and that a number of these have been from people in Clare, including one wom- an whose card details were used fraudulently.

The email tells the recipient they are due a tax refund and then asks for bank account or credit card de- tails. Anyone who gives these details to the fraudsters risks their bank ac- counts being emptied and credit cards maxed to their limit. The victim also risks having their personal details sold on to other criminal gangs.

The ACCA Ireland (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is

also warning tax payers to not reply to the tax refund e-mails. “The UK tax authorities will not communicate with tax payers by e-mail and will not refund tax to a credit card or directly to a bank account based on filling out an on line form, this is a simple scam.” Aidan Clifford, ACCA’s Ad- visory Services Manager, said.

‘The web pages are very convinc- ing and professional looking. Expect any credit card or banks account de- tails supplied to be cleaned out with- in hours of responding”, he said.

Particularly at risk are people who were recently resident in the UK.

SEVEN former members of Clare County Council, with public repre- sentation records ranging from five years to 35 years, were honoured by the local authority they once served at Aras Contae An Chlair, last week.

Among those honoured were two former mayors, a former chairman, and some of the longest serving members of the council, all of whom served their last term from 2004 to PAU OL

Special tribute was paid to the

former north Clare county council- lor, Martin Lafferty (Ind) who re- tired from the council following an NU Baten

His former colleagues were de- lighted to see him back in the cham- ber, in good spirits and at the end of his treatment.

The Lisdoonvarna man was a former schoolteacher, and first ran for Clare County Council in 1974 as a Labour candidate.

While former Cllr Lafferty began his political career as a Labour coun- cillor, in 1999 he contested the elec-

tion as an independent candidate and topped the poll. He remained one of the most outspoken Independent councillors in the chamber up to his retirement earlier this year.

He was one of four councillors to retire at the last election, along with former mayors Madeleine ‘Taylor Quinn (FG) and Flan Garvey (FF), and one of the council’s most col- ourful characters former east Clare councillor Colm Wiley (FF).

The other three councillors to make the bittersweet return to meet their former Clare County Councillor’s

colleagues and council staff were Peter Considine (FF), Bernard Han- rahan (FF) and Tony O’Brien (FF). The three men, all Fianna Fail councillors were unsuccessful in an election that saw the annihilation of the main Government party in the county council election in Clare. Missing from the line up of former councillors from the 2004 to 2009 era was Kilrush Town Councillor Tom Prendeville (FF) who lost his county council seat in June and John ‘““Mashen” McInerney (FG) who also experienced the disappointment of

losing a seat.

CLARE County Council is using a Dublin debt collection agency to ob- tain development contributions from individuals – some of whom may al- ready have paid their debt to the lo- cal authority.

It emerged at yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Council that the lo- cal authority has employed a Dublin agency to collect contributions for a range of small scale development and one-off houses stretching back for more than a decade.

It has also emerged however that the local authority may not have any documentation to prove that the con- tributions have not been paid.

‘Tam surprised that the council has not heard about the uncertainty out there as to who has and who has not paid,’ said Cllr Patricia McCarthy COND}

“The big problem here is that we don’t know. We can’t prove that they haven’t paid, they can’t prove that they have paid. When we are not 100 per cent sure we should have taken a softer approach to this instead of

going down the heavy-handed route of going to a debt collection agency. It shows a terrible lacking in the sys- one

According to Clir Pat Keane (FF), some people have received bills from contributions due more than 10 years ago which are now dramatically more expensive then they previously had been.

“It is unfair to be going back over ten years to people looking for this money. These people are getting a bill that might have been £170 or £180 at the time and now they are

getting bills for €1,500. I know for sure that there are a lot of people out there who paid in cash at the time and do not have the receipt and may now be receiving letters from debt collectors.”

A spokeswoman from Clare Coun- ty Council said that any confusion over who owes the money will be handled quickly.

‘Tam not aware of any issue around the uncertainty with regards pay- ments. If there are issues around un- certainty of who has and has not paid I will deal with that as a matter of

urgency, she said.

“The provision in our budget this year for the collection of debt collec- tion is €1.5 million and the collect so far is €1.25 million. So it would appear that we are on target so far to meet these projections.

“We took a twin approach to debt collection, some were pursued through Houlihans [county council solicitors, Michael Houlihans] and some were pursued by an outside group, and that was just to maximise the collection of money. I must stress that this money is legally due to us.”

GARDAI in Shannon are being asked to investigate the origin of fireworks which are in circulation in the town, after a firework was put through the letterbox of the local family resource centre.

The call from Labour Council- lor Tony McMahon came during a debate by local elected representa- tives on how Halloween should be celebrated in the town.

The idea of holding a party, to in- clude a fireworks display, bonfires and games for children, was raised by Fine Gael Councillor Mary BIKINITADOR

However, Independent Councillor Gerry Flynn said while he would support the idea, he could not back the suggestion to organise a bon- nae

“IT cannot support bonfires. It’s against the legislation,’ he said.

Labour Councillor Tony McMa- hon asked could special permission be obtained to have a bonfire.

“While they are nice to look at, fireworks are dangerous. Some ani- mals are badly frightened by fire- works,” he said.

He expressed concern about the easy availability of fireworks.

“They are supposed to be ille- gal and yet there are a lot of them

around town. They are going off al- ready. It is only a matter of time be- fore a child loses an eye or a limb or something. They should be treated a lot more seriously than they are,” |ntemncreBLOe

He called on gardai to investigate Where the fireworks have come from.

Councillor Patricia McCarthy (In- dependent) said that a firework was inserted into the letterbox at the family resource centre in the town KAN

“All of us are vulnerable if fire- works get into the wrong hands. There is no control. I’d ask that peo- ple be vigilant. We hear every year

that people are getting seriously in- jured,” she said.

Labour’s Greg Duff said that a small minority of people engage in anti-social behaviour around Hal- OW (eroe

“We have to work with the legisla- tion, but I’d hate to see it losing the momentum that we started in previ- ous years in working with groups in the community,” he said.

The mayor of the town, Councillor Sean McLoughlin said a fireworks display could be arranged success- fully, if handled by professional people.

“We definitely should have some- thing for Halloween,’ he said.

THE celebrations were far from wild, but when Kilmihil manager Mick Darby took a few minutes out to reflect on some more silverware heading out the Kilrush Road, be- fore hanging a right at Downes’ pub, skirting by Knockalough and on its way to Declan’s Bar, he was keen to reflect on what had been another mission accomplished for his emerg- ing side.

“We are a couple of years away from being a real force at senior lev- el,” he admitted, “because we have a lot of young lads coming through but I believe that it will happen for us in due course, so it’s about trying to improve with every year and this win is part of that.

“The lads themselves made the de-

cision that they wanted to stay train- ing. We had two games to play to try and win this Senior B title and we did that. It’s about keeping up the momentum for this Kilmihil team after winning the intermediate title last year and winning the Senior B was important.”

Just as important was being part of county senior final afternoon for the first time in nearly two decades. “It’s a long time, 19 years since the Kilmi- hil club has been here in Cusack Park on county senior final day,’ reflected Darby, who was manager back in 1990 when they were beaten by St Joseph’s Miltown.

“It meant this was a big day for the club and an occasion for the players. They needed to settle in and they did that in the first-half when get- ting those points near the end of the

half to go in with a good lead at half- time.

“The two Ryans caught great ball and kicked great scores, but I wouldn’t be one for singling out in- dividual players because everyone on the panel has worked hard. It was a panel effort, just like it has been all year.

“Mark O’Connell had a problem with a groin injury, but that wasn’t the reason he was moved in. He was moved in for a different reason and he’s a hard player to stop when he’s on form and going forward.”

Kilmihil are going forward them- selves.

SERIOUS questions have been raised over the way in which Clare County Council deals with inter- nal industrial disputes, following heavy criticism of the Local Govern- ment Management Services Board CRIN SD Ema (cio cer hmmm enleolBnttcame) i the local authority.

Speaking yesterday, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (IND) said that the op- eration of the council’s Human Re- sources and the LGMSB was been shown to be a flawed system.

“If you take the cost of LGMSB by itself then it would appear to be working and saving money. But when you go deeper into the debate you see that there are anomalies there and faults in the system which are not addressed,” she said.

“It seems that our system, wheth- er it’s because of the advice of the LGMSB, has something wrong with it and it is costing us money. If our HR unit 1s operating on the advice of the LGMSB then it would seem that this system would be faulty.

‘There are a lot of things concerned to this which are not clear and need to be tightened up. If we add up the costs of our own department and the

LGMSB and ask are we getting value for money, the answer would be no.

“IT have serious serious concerns about this. At the end of the day we have a picket outside of here today, and with all avenues in the labour court exhausted. Things should never be allowed to get to this stage. PW elem cer NOI Atm ome et-nimie(osuomsKmCoyon (oi en ets. wrong and it needs to be tidied up,’ the councillor said.

Commenting on the motion, Coun- ty Manager, Tom Coughlan said that the objective of the LGMSB is to save money for the local authority into the future.

“We are questioning every euro which we spend at the moment in the context of the budget in 2010, which is going to be a very difficult budget. In relation to our overall approach to industrial relations, my view is that we try and meet as many disputes as possible on a local level,” he said.

“We are going through a very dif- ficult time in relation to budgets. We are negotiating at the moments with unions and I must thank the unions for their cooperation in that process.

“The overall objective of the LGMSB is that we will be saving money in the future as a result of this board.”

VISITORS to Limerick’s Milk Market in recent weeks have been astounded to hear perfect sean nos singing by a Chinese American lady who calls east Clare home.

Singing is Penelapai Ni Tiung’s passion and she has been behind the very successful Singers’ Club which meets every other month in Lucas’ Pub in Whitegate. It has proved so

popular that she and the singers who Support the club are considering starting a singers night in Scariff.

“I’m happy to travel long distances to sing and I go busking in the mar- ket on Saturday. I thought, why not have a club closer to home?” said Penelapai.

She started the club in Lucas’ and it has become a night that is very well supported. “Someone always brings a guitar and there are all styles of

singing, depending on who’s there. It’s a lovely night and even the bar staff join in. It’s also family friendly as children can come along. It’s free, and the bar is very supportive, lay- ing on some food. Everyone enjoys the night.”

One of the regular singers at the club is Robbie McMahon, who is in his 80s and has won 17 All-Ireland singing competitions. “He comes all the way from Spancill Hill and he

just embodies the spirit of the mu- sic.” she said.

In previous years, there was a small amount of funding from the Arts Council for the club but this year it has yet to materialise.

But that’s not stopping the club from considering holding a night in Scariff and going monthly with their nights between Scariff and White- gate. “We will be meeting this week to consider it,’ said Penelapat.

THE backbone of Sunday’s victory was laid in the weeks and months of the earlier part of the year. Back in Quilty, half an army trudged regu- larly to Pairc Naomh Mhuire to take part in training. Strength in num- bers.

“There’s been great competition at training,’ says Dermot O’Brien. ‘“There’s a dozen players you could pick our forwards from. Even against Doonbeg we brought on five subs and they made the difference. It was the same thing again today.

“Over the last few years we lacked a deep panel. We seemed to have only 15 players and that was it. It’s different now. We have 33 lads train- ing every night and it’s so intense at training. Before, maybe you could only manage a game of backs and forwards. This year we can have 13 or 15-a-side at training every night and that pushes everybody along.”

O’Brien was involved in two of the most important incidents in the opening half, Kilkee’s two goals.

“The first goal, I caught a high ball and I saw two lads outside me. I went to hand pass it and I’m not sure if I slipped, but I fell down, the ball slipped out and it seemed to re- bound into the net. I can’t make any excuse. I caught the ball, so it wasn’t the sun.

‘For the second, I came out against him [Geardid Lynch] and thought

he was going to round me, which is what he did. I just spread myself and blocked it and for a split second I lost where the ball was. Then, I just saw the ball going past me and into the goal.”

O’Brien’s initial save from Lynch was one of the few highlights of the game and like the first goal, consid- ering where the ball dropped, luck wasn’t on the goalkeeper’s side.

In the end, it didn’t matter though.

“T still think we haven’t reached our peak this year. We reached our peak for ten minutes against Doonbeg and ten minutes against Kilkee. It’s been a long year and it can get to lads but we Il have no excuses.”

O’Brien described the game as both mentally and physically tough, made difficult by Kilkee’s insistence that Kilmurry Ibrickane wouldn’t have Omer aan E

“We had a game plan going out but we never stuck to it. We had planned to drive the ball in long and hit our two or three men inside but any time you looked up there seemed to be lots of Kilkee players up there and we seemed to drift up there with them instead of staying back. So, instead of kicking ball into four or five lads, you were then kicking it into to ten or twenty lads. So the game plan went O) ULM aTomy Yau eLeCO)\ ee mm Melo On acl must.) Fame

Even when the now back-to-back champions went three up near the end, O’Brien wasn’t taking the result for granted.

“T didn’t figure we had won until the final whistle to be honest. I never thought we had the game won. When we went up two, we pushed on to three but they had a free in the last few seconds of the game. If a high ball went in from that, anything could have happened. They could have got a goal.

“Before, we might have been com- placent but that’s not the case any- more. Little things like that can make a huge difference.”

MOTORISTS can park for free in Ennis today as Clare County Council have suspended all the traffic war- dens working in the county capital.

Three traffic wardens and a super- visor were taken off the council’s payroll system last Friday following a long running dispute with the local authority. This action, which centres around the wardens’ security allow- ance, prompted the wardens to picket last night’s meeting of Clare County Sorrireek

‘Our member have been suspended so on foot of that we really have no

choice but to engage in industrial ac- tion,’ said Clare SIPTU spokesper- son, Tony Kenny.

“We issued notice of industrial ac- tion in August but we refrained from any industrial action at the time in the hope of engaging in discussions with Clare County Council.

‘That didn’t happen so we entered into a work to rule on September 11 and following a request from the council to withdraw from this so as to allow for meaningful engagement we dropped that on September 14.

“There was no engagement from Clare County Council over the next 14 days, all that happened was that at

the end of the 14 days we got a letter from the council saying that the posi- tion has not changed.”

According to the striking workers, the council has refused to engage with them or make any effort to work out the dispute.

“We are very very disappointed with the strong arm tactics being used by Clare County Council. We remain committed, as we always have been, to resolve this around the table. This is the only way in which this will be resolved,” continued Mr Keath

“We received a letter from Clare County Council today regretting

our strike action but that is the only communication which we have from detoye0 ea

The striking traffic wardens re- ceived a measure of support at last nights meeting of Clare County Council with one councillor pledg- ing to boycott future meeting unless the issue 1s resolved.

“I will most certianly not be pass- ing a picket if it is there next week. Despite the fact that they are war- dens, and many people would like to See them off the street, I will not be coming in here if that picket is still there next week,” said Gerry Flynn (IND).