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EDITH Van Burgh decided to change her lifestyle last year. She had spent her life living in The Netherlands, where she was born and bred. Edith knew that, at 46, the time was right to move to another country. She had al- ways had a love of Ireland and when she saw a job advertised in Shannon company Digital River, she decided to apply.

From her home in The Netherlands, Edith sent off her application and was delighted to get the job. In February 2006, she packed her life into a few Suitcases, bade farewell to her native country and headed for Shannon.

Edith had always had a preference for the west coast of Ireland and was

thrilled when she found her dream job in the Digital River call centre in Shannon.

And Shannon did not disappoint Edith. Given that Shannon is home to hundreds of people from all over Ireland and overseas, there was eve- ry chance that she was going to settle in quite fast and that is exactly what happened.

Although she misses her husband Taco – she is hopeful he will leave his job in the fire department in The Netherlands and join her in Shannon later this year – she is delighted to have made the move to Ireland.

“It was not difficult to settled in. The social side is very easy. I speak English, but it would be very differ- ent if I didn’t. It is not hard to talk to

people here,” she said.

Through her work at the interna- tional call centre, Edith has got in contact with various people of dif- ferent nationalities – including from her native country – and this has also helped her settle in to Shannon.

She believes that she would not have settled in to Shannon as quickly if she had been younger when she took the decision to move here.

“T imagine there is not a lot to do for young people in Shannon, but for me, there are a lot of things to do,” she said.

Asked does she miss home, she replied, “I am home…of course you miss some things, but Iam not home- sick. I plan to stay here.”

‘Ireland has much more space than

The Netherlands. I like Irish people. They are more gentle than Dutch people. I have waited for 20 years for an opportunity like this,’ she beamed.

Edith is just one of the many people who have chosen to move to Shan- non and start a life there. Locals are keen to embrace the outsiders into their community.

THE sight of wandering cattle with big horns on a busy stretch of road near Sixmulebridge caused grave dis- tress to passing motorists, a court has heard.

Before Shannon District Court was Christy Grady, of Rath Beg, Sixmile- bridge, accused of allowing beasts to wander, at Feenagh, Sixmilebridge, on January 10 and 11 last.

Sergeant Con Ryan told Shannon District Court the defendant’s frie- sian bullocks were wandering on the road. It resulted in a lot of motorists getting frustrated.

‘He had been warned a few times about them. A lot of people were con- cerned. The animals hadn’t been de- horned,’ said Sgt Ryan.

He said the first report was made to Sixmilebridge Garda Station, at 3.10pm on January 10, from a driver who became “very distraught” on seeing what he described as “bulls with big horns”.

Sgt Ryan went to Feenagh, where he found two long-horned friesian cows wandering. He and another man moved the animals off the road.

A local farmer told him the cattle were belonging to the accused.

The following day, gardai received further reports, that cattle were wan- dering on the road near the mart at Sixmilebridge. Sgt Ryan found one long-horned friesian and put him back on land.

He said he met the accused and told him he would have to move the cattle. He co-operated fully with him.

“He undertook to move them. He is an elderly man. I don’t think he realised the significance of this. It 1s a busy stretch of road. He did move them the third day,” he said.

Mr Grady told the court he did not have cattle on the road at Feenagh – which was named on the summons – and for that reason he was not guilty.

His solicitor Caitriona Carmody said her client was adamant his cattle wouldn’t wander at Feenagh. If they wandered anywhere, it would have been at Ballysheen.

Sgt Ryan replied that the accused admitted to him that the cattle were Nhe

“T’ve seen Mr Grady on that road, tending to cattle and at that field,’ he nem

Ms Carmody said there was an ele-

ment of doubt. She pointed out that none of the complainants were in court and Sgt Ryan said they did not want to give evidence.

Mr Grady told the court that he removed one of the cattle to County Limerick.

“He was a bit wild. He might be used to mountainous country. They’d be used to be not confined. I took him to County Limerick and he hasn’t broke out since. He won’t ever stand in Clare again,’ he said.

Sgt Ryan said if the accused un- dertook to fence the land, he would agreed to withdraw the summons.

Mr Grady replied, “I will, but there’s no cattle breaking out since January 11. I have very good fences.”

Judge Joseph Mangan struck out the ores

ILLEGAL parking of caravans in Shannon is posing huge problems for the people of the town and flies in the face of the county’s Traveller Accommodation Programme.

That was the view expressed at a meeting of Shannon Town Council last week, where councillors hit out at the trend of illegal parking.

Councillor Patricia McCarthy (Independent) called for a height restriction barrier to be placed at the entrance to the laneway, ad- jacent to the Shannon Olympic yiKe ee

She said while she does not want to see the town being “fenced off”,

parking restrictions should be put in place there, as it is “too easy to open the gate and get in there”.

“There is very obviously a loop- hole in the legislation, where some- body who has accommodation can up and leave,” said Cllr McCarthy.

“Unauthorised and illegal park- ing is detrimental to Clare County Council’s Traveller Accommoda- tion Programme,” she said.

Cllr Gerry Flynna (Independent) said, “There is a huge problem of illegal parking all over the town. There doesn’t seem to be legisla- tion there to deal with it at a local level. I think it 1s a huge problem.”

Cllr Tony Mulcahy (FG) said it appears that some areas are ex-

posed to “this type of behaviour” which is not acceptable.

“If there are areas with a history of this type of parking, we should be protecting these areas,” he said.

Clir Greg Duff (Labour) agreed with this view and pointed out that there was “a long history” of this type of behaviour.

He said if a barrier was put in place beside the Shannon Olympic pitch, he would be afraid that the problem would just move a short distance down the road.

Cllr Mike McKee (Independent) agreed with this and said he felt that if one area was blocked off, then another area would be used to park caravans.

Clir Sean Hillery (FF) made the point that Travellers should be in- tegrated, “but in a controlled man- ner”.

Shannon’s mayor, Cllr Tony Mc- Mahon (Labour) said Shannon ap- pears to be getting “a right lash- ing’, in relation to illegal parking.

‘The whole issue needs to be re- visited. There is no use in us trying to provide accommodation, if we have new people on the block next week looking for accommodation,” he said.

“It has to be addressed at national level. It is doing no good for either the settled community or the trav- elling community,” said Cllr Mc- Mahon.

TWO Polish brothers were caught “red-handed” stealing almost €4,000 worth of cosmetics in the duty free shop at Shannon Airport last week, it has been alleged in court.

Before Shannon District Court last Thursday arising out of an alleged in- cident earlier that day were Thomaz (25) and Bartosz (24) Lagan.

They are accused of stealing as- sorted cosmetics, valued at €3,887, the property of the Irish Aviation Authority, at the airport duty free sy aTe) oy

The court was told that the broth- ers arrived in Shannon, for one day and had intended to return home.

Inspector Michael Gallagher said the case was “very serious” and he applied to the court to remand the duo in custody for a week.

‘They are living outside the juris- diction. They just flew in yesterday. They have no address within the ju- risdiction,” he said.

He said there was a fear that if granted bail, the two defendants would not face the charge.

“By their own admission they ar- rived in Ireland yesterday and were due to leave this morning. They were caught red-handed,” he said.

He said that CCTV evidence relat-

ing to the case would be available from the airport authorities.

Judge Joseph Mangan said, “We will take it in future when an appli- cation like that is made (to remand in custody), one of the questions I will be asking is, ‘Were the defend- ants caught red-handed? Were they caught in the act?’”

The judge remanded the two in custody, to appear again in court later this week.

WELL IN excess of 40 afford- able houses are to be built at Cluain Airne in Shannon, 1n an effort to re- duce the housing waiting list in the town, it has emerged.

Members of the town council were told last week that a density of 80 houses was suggested for the area, but that it was unlikely 80 would ac- tually be built there.

Several councillors expressed their concerns that 80 houses may be built Wo Ron

Town manager, Ger Dollard was asked to clarify the position and he pointed out that a design team had

not yet been appointed.

“In the absence of this, we are all talking in a vacuum,” he said, add- ing that the density of housing on the site in question would be “well in excess of 40”.

He said there are currently more than 200 people on the affordable waiting list in the town.

Councillor Patricia McCarthy (In- dependent) said she did not like be- ing told that there were in excess of 200 people on the affordable list.

“It is like playing one off the other. .. If you don’t do this, there is a con- sequence,’ she said.

The mayor of Shannon, Cllr Tony McMahon (Labour) said this would

equate to “intrusion” for the local residents.

‘The parking issue has been going on for years. This is going to be a frightening experience for the peo- ple of that area,” he said.

CUlr Sean McLoughlin (FG) said he would be disappointed to hear that there were plans to build more than 40 houses there, as traffic 1s al- ready busy in the area.

Cllr Gerry Flynn said that people living in Cluain Airne were worried that their green area was going to be taken away from them.

He said that there are 178 houses in Cluain Airne and 167 across the road in Tradaree. “We all know a

new estate will bring extra traffic,” he said.

“Just because the Government says extra houses should be provided, it is not about throwing people in on top of each other,” he said.

Cllr Mike McKee (Independent) said this should not be “pushed on to eTom Reha LO (CINTA

“Even when residents heard of 40, they were horrified,’ he said.

Cllr Geraldine Lambert said “a density like that is way too high”.

Mr Dollard responded to the coun- cillors’ concerns by pointing out, “You will not see 80 houses in this scheme, but for it to be viable (densi- ty), it will have to be more than 40.”

FRIENDS turned their backs on a Polish man who was drinking a bottle of vodka a day, the Ennis District Court heard.

Piotr Baran of 47 Dun Na Hinse, Lahinch Road in Ennis, was before Judge Joseph Mangan on 14 charg-

es of stealing drink from various premises in Ennis.

His solicitor, Darragh Hassett, said the man had “a very serious drink problem” which had been under control in his native Poland.

But after he lost a job here, he began drinking a bottle of Vodka a day. “He was drunk on every oc-

casion and easily caught. All the property was recovered. He wants to go back to Poland but his friends have turned their backs on him and no-one is willing to lend him the air fare. Rather than leave him lan- guish in jail, I would ask the court to release him on bail to attend AA and to get a job to raise his fare

home,” the solicitor said.

Inspector Michael Gallagher told the judge that the tradespeople of Ennis had a right to be protected from having their property stolen.

Judge Mangan released Baran on bail on condition that he sign on sober at Ennis Garda Station each ora

CLARE farmer and chairperson of the ICMSA’s Beef and Cattle Com- mittee, Martin McMahon, has called for immediate action to be taken or the plight of winter finishers could seriously damage the beef sector.

He stated this week that given the current beef prices and the substan- tially higher input costs this year, the problem of winter finishers could seriously damage the future of the entire beef sector.

‘There are two main and intercon-

nected issues causing concern at the present time. These are the price of cattle and the problems of slaughter- ing heavier cattle,’ he said.

‘Farmers have fed cattle expensive feed to get them ready for slaughter this spring when, without any notice or indication from the meat plants, cattle over a certain weight are being discounted and are becoming hard to sell.

“The ICMSA considered this to be totally unacceptable and almost suaranteed to force committed peo- ple out of the business. Farmers can-

not operate in a business environ- ment where new issues and policies are introduced overnight.”

McMahon has called on meat plants to discontinue this policy against heavier cattle for 2007. He called on the whole industry, and not just the farmers, to address this issue going forward.

“The matter of price was perfectly straightforward — winter finishers are unable to make a profit at current prices. Irish beef prices have not in- creased this year, with the price of certain cattle having fallen and con-

tinuing to fall,” he said.

“Input costs, most particularly feed costs, have increased substantially this year and Irish beef farmers were particularly irritated by the fact that UK beef prices are up 10 per cent on this time last year, while Irish prices were static or falling. Who could ex- plain such a discrepancy?”’

He concluded by calling on the meat plants to realise and act on the fact that 1f they didn’t pass back a de- cent price to their suppliers then the very future of Ireland’s winter finish- ers must be called into question.

A YOUNG Clare man has walked free after receiving a three-year sus- pended sentence for raping a woman in her home while she slept.

Adam Keane (20), a bricklayer, of Barnageeha, Darragh, Clare, was convicted at the Central Criminal Court in February by 10-2 majority of raping the now 33 year-old wom- an in a house on May 30, 2005.

Mr Justice Paul Carney said his de- cision was based on a previous rul- ing by the Court of Criminal Appeal following an appeal in relation to a sentence imposed by him in another case, brought by the Director of Pub- lic Prosecutions who regarded it as ‘moderate’.

Mr Justice Carney said that appeal was lost and the sentencing was set aside in its entirety.

“Having regard to the approach taken by the CCA to this type of of- fence in this type of case, I have to ask myself whether I would be com- fortable to imprison this young man who said it was out of character for him, but that if the DNA said he had done it, he wouldn’t shy away from his responsibility.”

Mr Justice Carney added, “People

from respectable homes taking al- cohol or drugs and then committing rape or murder come before the court with surprising frequency,” he said.

The complainant told the trial she woke from her sleep to find someone cuddling her.

At first she thought the man was

her boyfriend, who had left the house NU DCs mM OT-LoAY( oO OND OTSMmE-D Ko) Mme DOUmE-D ued Ue ment. By the time she realised the man was not her boyfriend, he had started to have sex with her.

She said she threw him off her and turned on the lights and recognised the man as then 18 year-old Keane.

She ran from the house and when gardai later arrived at the scene, Keane was still in her bedroom.

In interviews with gardai, Keane said he couldn’t remember breaking into her house or anything about the attack as he blacked out after drink- ing heavily and taking ‘ecstasy’ in a nightclub.

He said he didn’t think it possible he had raped her because he had never raised a hand to a woman in his life. It ‘went against everything’ he believed.

He said he blacked out regularly after heavy drinking and explained, “That’s why I’ve been thinking about giving up the drink for some time.”

However, he said he would accept any DNA evidence proving him as the attacker.

In her victim impact report, the victim said the rape had had a huge impact on her life and that she had had to move house twice since.

Defence counsel Mr Brendan Nix SC (with Mr Mark Nicholas BL) said Keane ‘deeply regretted’ what hap- pened and noted his client had not Ker D UNO OT-NOLoINrCeLOm DOR mearalO (oN Gom DOD ale oon

THE courting of the farming vote continued this week with two Clare General Election candidates making statement on the Farm Waste Man- agement Scheme.

Deputy Pat Breen (FG) and Sena- tor Timmy Dooley (FF) both issued statements on Thursday, calling for the Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, to extend the application deadline for the Farm Waste Man- agement Scheme.

Early-bird Dooley was first off the mark with a statement calling for farmers to be given more time to get their planning applications together.

“In the past few days, I met the Minister for Agriculture, Mary

Coughlan, to outline to her the prob- lems that farmers in Clare are ex- periencing in making the March 31 deadline,” he said.

“By that date, farmers must have the full details of their planning applica- tions supplied to the Department of Agriculture under the popular Farm Waste Management Scheme.

‘The scheme has been such a suc- cess, with the 60 per cent or more grants available, that agricultural ad- visors, Who help farmers with their plans, are struggling to get through the workload,” the Fianna Fail can- didate continued.

“As a result, farmers are at risk of losing out by not having their plan- ning applications in by the current deadline.”

He goes on to say that he has asked the Minister to extend the deadline by a full three months.

“This would, I believe, be a fair compromise and bring the submis- sion deadline into line with the Department’s final date for the al- teration of plans already submitted or approved,” he continued. “Some 2,600 farmers in Clare have applied under the scheme for new on-farm facilities.”

A mere 15 minutes later, Fine Gael’s Pat Breen was off the mark, saying there was simply not enough consultants available to assist with the huge volume of applications.

“IT am calling on Minister Cough- lan to take into account the very real problems that farmers are experi-

encing in respect of applying for the Farm Waste Management Scheme,” he said.

“They are caught between a rock and a hard place as the deadline is looming but a shortage of consult- ants means that a significant number of applicants will not be able to meet the deadline.”

Alas, Deputy Breen called for a slightly more modest extention of just two months.

“I am not asking the Minister to provide special treatment for any- one,’ he continued. “Rather, I am asking her to consider the real situ- ation on the ground and taking into account the shortage of consultants, and extend the application deadline until the end of May.”

CAMPAIGNERS are confident En- nis will achieve Fair Trade status providing there is greater support from the local business community.

A number of businesses and schools in the town have already committed to stocking Fair Trade products.

In order for any town to be granted Fair Trade status a flagship business must pledge its support to the ven- ture. Ennis Fair Trade Committee member Mairead Sheedy explained Ennis has already met with much of the criteria required to achieve Fair Trade status.

‘We presented the statutory report

on Ennis to the national organisation and we were congratulated for that. Some businesses have supported us and are carrying the products but we still need a flagship business. Ideally that would be a hotel, but we are hop- ing to get a local factory. They have already said they would stock Fair Trade coffee so we just have to final- ise a few things.”

A two-week global campaign aimed at creating awareness about Fair Trade products drew to a close last week.

Ennis also took part during that pe- riod with a number of events held in schools and other locations around i eTom KO), 2 08

Last Thursday students at Colaiste Muire organised an information day at which they sold products which carried the Fair Trade logo.

The school also held a hot choco- late morning with money raised to be donated to a former student who plans to travel to Sri Lanka with the Fair Trade organisation.

Ms Sheedy said, “We were look- ing at ways to raise awareness and through schools have shown a great interest. Some of them went out on the street and did a survey with lo- cal people about their attitudes to Fair Trade. We held a tea and cof- fee morning in the Friary and that was very successful. We had a lot of

people coming in who showed a lot of interest. We also held one in the Adult Education Centre”

The Fair Trade Mark is an inde- pendent consumer label, which ap- pears on products as an independent guarantee that disadvantaged pro- ducers in the developing world are getting a better deal.