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and CIE, is designed to give pri- mary schools the opportunity to communicate their vision of their community and how it could be im- proved.

St. Enda’s project, which was completed by last years 5th and 6th class, looked at the development of the Lisdoonvarna around the Spa Wells.

The project traced the history of the Wells from the late 1700’s right up to the present day.

It examines how the town of Lisdoonvarna grew up around the Wells and how the guesthouses, ho- tels, schools and churches built up as the town expanded.

The project also researched the life of one of Lisdoonvarna’s oldest residents, ‘Biddy the Sulphur’ who used to jug out water at the sulphur wells for many years.

Indeed, a plaster cast of Biddy is in the school as a reminder to the children of a by-gone age.

An important element of the com- petition is looking to the future and in their project the pupils of St. En- da’s felt very excited by what has been planned to make the town an attractive tourist destination once eheee DOE

The children researched the project by interviewing their par- ents, grandparents and neighbours

and used the information to pro- duced the 35-page book.

The book also featured plenty of photographs from the past and the students also visited the Wells and all the sites mentioned in the

project.

A St. Enda’s teacher, Mrs Brigid Hehir, co-ordinated the project was delighted with the win and with the €3000 which was presented to the school last week.

Last years 6th class, who are now in Mary Immaculate Secondary school, returned to St. Enda’s to attend the presentation along with their principal Mr O’Loughlin and Se Erece heel mY Eee

A NORTH Clare solicitor has been is- sued a warning letter under the Planning Acts over a two-storey extension alleg- edly built without planning permission on Ennistymon’s Parliament Street.

Clare County Council has served Ju- dith Foley c/o Chamber & Co Solicitors of Parliament Street, Ennistymon in respect of an alleged unauthorised de- velopment in the town’s Architectural Conservation Area (ACA).

The letter to Ms Foley states: “I am to inform you that it has come to the attention of Clare County Council that unauthorised development is_ being carried out namely the construction of a two-storey extension in an ACA at Parliament Street without the benefit of planning permission.

The letter continues: “The council considers the development to be unau- thorised as it does not have the benefit

of planning permission and does not constitute exempted development.

You are required to cease unauthor- ised works and remove unauthorised development.

The letter adds that any person found guilty of carrying out an unauthorised development shall be liable on sum- mary conviction to a fine not exceeding a Oe

Ms Foley has been invited to make submission in writing to the council within the next four weeks. It will be open to Ms Foley to lodge plans with the council to retain the development.

The issuing of the Warning Letter to Ms Foley is part of increased policing of alleged unauthorised developments in Clare. Earlier this year, the Council’s Director of Service for Planning, Liam Conneally said that 900 notices had been issued since 2001.

Ms Foley was unavailable for com- ment this week.

TINY Bodyke in East Clare is taking its place on the map of some of the world’s top tourist resorts by extend- ing the golf course development in less than 10 years ago.

The €15 million East Clare Golf Holiday Village now taking shape beside the championship standard golf course at Bodyke has linked up with global giants in the holiday vacation sector by offering 10 year holiday ownership deals starting from €5,000 for week-long breaks that include free golf.

Part of the innovative approach adopted for the holiday ownership is to offer the guests the option of either using the property each year during the week purchased or to exchange it for another worldwide resort. Both Resorts Condominium International (RCI) and DialAnExchange, the world’s largest vacation operators in the world have approx 4,000 affiliat- ed resorts in over 100 countries. RCI also operates one of the exchange

call centres in Cork providing sup- port to European customers. Businessman Mr Scott who mar- kets the holiday ownership through his Horseshoe Holidays venture from Clare added, “the ten year deals start at € 5,000 for a week in the low sea-

son, which works out at €500 per week for week-long breaks over a decade”.

The 51 villas at the golf holiday vil- lage are being sold under a tax-break scheme and will be leased back to the operating holiday company with

a yearly rent return of €7,000 guar- anteed for the first six years. Costing under €300,000, the villas qualify for capital allowances of 95.8 per cent excluding fit out costs, accord- ing to General Manager of the villa complex, Ger Teefy.

Promotional programmes in over- seas and home markets for both the holiday ownership scheme and the in- vestor programme have already been launched and are being supported by Feilte Ireland, Tourism Ireland and Shannon Development.

Both Tony Scott and Ger Teefy are longtime members of the East Clare Golf Club which has sparked the big- gest ever tourism and leisure invest- ment in the area. Mr. Scott has now joined the launching investor group of Ennis businessman Tom O’Keeffe of O’Keeffe Electrical; architect Michael Lucey of Lucey & Associ- ates and project manager, Emelyn Heapes whose expertise in tourism and leisure has already established 6-unit holiday accommodation at Dangan Lodge, Tulla and Fisher- men’s Lodge in Scariff.

THE TRAGIC young father of three, who lost his life in an hor- rific road accident at Clonlara at the weekend, will be laid to rest tomorrow.

Shane Browne, from Ballycan- non Heights in Meelick, died after the truck he was driving was in collision with a four by four vehi- cle at Harold’s Cross in Clonlara, just after 1lam on Saturday morn- ing.

The passenger in the truck and the driver of the other vehicle were both injured in the collision.

One 38-year old man remains in a serious condition in hospital fol- lowing the crash.

Two units of the Limerick fire- brigade were called to the scene. Gardai at Ard Na Crusha station are investigating the crash.

Mr Browne was a driver by pro- fession. The 35-year old victim of Saturday’s crash had found new happiness in recent years with his partner, Maggie.

Sources close to his family said that he had been widowed several years ago, when his young wife died following an illness.

A native of Garryowen in Lim- erick, he had moved to the East Clare village in recent years, where he lived with Maggie and his three children. The youngest child is just 22 months.

Maggie and the three children were being comforted by relatives after hearing the shocking news.

A friend of the dead man de- scribed him as “a lovely man. This is a terrible shock and tragedy for his family, particularly with young children involved. No-one could believe it when we heard what had

happened.”

Mr Browne’s remains will be removed from Cross’s Funeral Home, Limerick, this evening at 7.30 and taken to St John’s Cathe- dral.

He will be buried in Mount Saint Oliver Cemetery after 10 o’clock Mass on Wednesday morning.

Mr Browne is survived by his partner Maggie, three children and his mother Toni.

Locals in the Clonlara area said that the spot where Saturday’s fatal accident took place, a cross- roads, was an extremely danger- ous location , where crashes had happened before.

One local man described it as ‘a blackspot for accidents. That cross roads is just deadly and there have been many crashes at that spot in the past.”

THE decreasing influence of the Town Council in the operation of Ennis Town has been criticised by the Town Mayor.

Councillor Frankie Neylon (Ind) made his comments after the council withdrew from its loss-making refuse service and ahead of its handing over of responsibility for the town’s water sup- ply to Clare County Council to comply with Government policy, in January.

Mayor Neylon said this week, “It is very disappointing. All the council will be left with is collecting rates, car-park- ing and provision of roads and we will be reduced to a parish council or form part of a regional council.”

Last year, the cost of collecting and disposing of Ennis’s refuse accounted for 15 per cent of the town’s overall

budget of €12 million.

Explaining the council’s decision to withdraw from the service, Cllr Neylon said, “If the council kept on the service for the remainder of the year, we would have been looking at a loss of €300,000 and next year a loss of over €1 million.

He added, “I made my feelings known to management on the issue as I have been fighting for years to retain the service, but they pointed out to me that they don’t have the expertise to run a commercial operation and that is ac- cepted.”

In 2003, the council spent €35,000 to market its refuse collection, managing to attract 35 new customers. Later that year, councillors ignored pleas by man- agement to abandon the service.

Cllr Neylon said, “The council have decided to hand the service over to a

private contractor after the Ennis trad- ers didn’t support the service. It is very disappointing.”

Cllr Neylon added that the small number employed by the council in the refuse service are being offered vol- untary redundancy or redeployment to other sectors of the council.

Cllr Donal O’Bearra (GP) said this week, “Ennis Town council needs to re- invent itself.

“Otherwise we will become a talking shop with the power to give out commu- nity grants on a very limited budget.”

He said, “We have become a begging bowl establishment and are too depend- ent on national government.

The issue over the water is a prime example where we are relying on Gov- ernment funding to solve the problem,” said Councillor O’ Bearra.

SCIENTISTS at Teagasc’s National Food Centre in Dublin are involved in work on the development of a gluten-free bread formulation that they believe is superior to anything currently available on the market. Indeed, a number of small bakeries in Ireland have taken the formula- tion and are working on it commer- ats

Work on the gluten-free formula- tion was undertaken because of the increasing numbers of people who are gluten-intolerant, as well as Coeliac sufferers. Dr Eimear Gal- lagher, who is head of the research team, also believes that gluten free products are of a poor quality and are often expensive.

“We started to develop a gluten-

free bread with no wheat starch or gluten presence, working with rice flour and potato starch. We used a lot of statistical and mathematical models to give us the best formula- tion,’ said Dr Gallagher. *”Taste tests were done with panels from the Irish Coeliac Society, which has given the new formulation its approval.”

As yet the unnamed formula- tion has yet to come on the market, however, all going well it could be in commercial use before the end of next year. Meanwhile the research group has focussed their attentions functional ingredients, such as pro- teins, dietary fibre, calcium and mi- cronutrients to the formula.

One of the problems that people with gluten intolerance have is that they are not able to absorb some of these important nutrients properly.

SAU Sa item om aleriucmrmeNom\yE-Dade| Insurance A3 Sweep which got under- way at the Limerick track on Saturday night last. Race four went to ‘Redzone Run’, owned by Mrs Kathleen Carroll of Newmarket on Fergus running from trap 6 returned in a winning time of PIA Y

Heat seven of the stake went to ‘Scratch it Mac’ owned by Aaron Car- roll of Cratloe with a winning time of 29.26. Both dogs are expected to ad-

vance in the second round heats which take place this weekend.

‘Student Pass’ bowed out of the Irish Laurels at the Cork track during Sat- urday nights semi-final. The Cathal O’Doherty and Vincent Meaney owned dog did not enjoy much luck, finishing fourth after getting into trouble at the first bend.

Paddy Conlon of Cree made a wel- come return to the winners enclosure at Galway on Friday night ‘Cragaknock Vierl’ winning race two. The race was a sprint over 325yds and Vieri recorded a

good time of 17.94 out of box 1.

Race 10 on the same night went to ‘Buffalo Buddy’ owned by Ann Carey of Cooraclare who record a time of 29.17 running out of trap 1. Through to the final of the Tote A6 525 stake this coming weekend is “Clouncaheen’ Boss owned by Anne McGuire of Mullagh.

The dog won his semi final heat on Thursday night in a time of 30.03. Di- ane Shallis of Kilmihil also collected on Thursday night when ‘Greygrove Billy’ was a winner in race 9 with a time of 29.50.

THE tourism subsidiary operated by Shannon Development increased its profits by 50% last year, accounts filed to the Companies Office reveal.

Shannon Heritage and Castle Banquets Ltd. increased its profits to €117,040 in a success- ful year for the company.

Prior to an exceptional cost of €60,000, the company, which employs 200 people, made a profit of £69,073 in 2003.

Last year, it made a turnover of €11.3 miul- lion, which was up 5% on the 2003 figures and attracted 625,000 visitors to its attrac- tions, an increase of more than 6%.

According to the accounts, “the 2004 year has been a difficult year for many in the Tour- ism industry particularly the latter half, due to a combination of factors. These include the downturn in US visitors due to the value of the dollar against the euro. However Shannon Heritage has managed to attract over 625,000 people to its range of day visitor attractions and evening entertainments.

‘Most of this increase was achieved in the first half of the year when trading conditions were much better.

The most popular visitor attraction remains Bunratty Castle & Folk Park which attracted 324,903 visitors in 2004 — an increase of 17,000 on the 2003 figure of 307,145.

A PROPOSAL by Clare County Councillor Michael Kelly (FF) to lower the speed limits in Crusheen and Corkscrew Hill was turned down last Tuesday, three days before five peo- ple were hospitalised following accidents at both locations.

Cllr Kelly’s proposals were among nine al- terations to speed limits made by councillors for the North Clare area, none of which were recommended. In each case, Inspector Kevin Moynihan, Head of the Garda traffic unit in Clare, and Sean Liddy, Senior Executive Engi- neer of the Clare County Council, advised that a speed change would be contrary to the De- partment of Transport’s policy and would also

be impossible to enforce.

Several councillors raised concerns about their role in deciding speed limits, consider- ing that none of their proposed changes were recommended. Inspector Moynihan and Mr Liddy stressed that they were only making rec- ommendations and the final decision would be made at the council level.

Four people were hospitalised following a serious two car accident at Tubber cross in Crusheen at 7.30am on Friday morning. Three were Americans, who were travelling in one car. Two people were hospitalised after a two vehicle crash just after 5pm on Friday evening at Corkscrew Hill.

It’s understood that Israeli tourists were among those involved.

this week, Ward expressed his satisfaction at the balance that currently ex- ists in the squad.

‘We probably played better earlier on than we have done lately but we will be hoping for an improvement on Sunday. There is a good few young players coming through at the moment and we are delighted with that, along with hav- ing the older experienced lads like the Sheedys and those lads.”

Clarecastle will hold some advantage over the Shannon side going into Sunday’s clash given that they have had an extra week to prepare. Clarecastle overcame a battling per-

formance from Newmarket a week ago while Wolfe Tones turned in an assured perform- ance to brush aside the challenge of Barefield. Ward agrees that Wolfe Tones enter the game

as slight favourites, a tag which he believes is justified, but one which his side won’t be over- awed by.

“When you are hurling you can never have

enough time off. There is never an ideal time for a match. We are delighted to have the extra week. It has been a long year and we have been out since the beginning of March, so we are glad to be coming up to the county final so we are delighted it is now rather than later on.

“They (Wolfe Tones) are the favourites. I saw the game at the weekend and they are very good and the favourites – that’s the way it should be. We are going there to compete so after the match we will know who is the best team”

According to Ward preparations have gone smoothly with the only real injury concern be- ing Danny Scanlon who is expected to recover fully from a concussion sustained in the semi- nue

‘Preparations have been going fairly well. We came back in the middle of the week so the training has been going fine we have been fairly happy with it. We have trained on sched- ule and will train tonight and again on Wednes- day night and that will be the end of it. Danny Scanlon was out after the Newmarket match – he is expected to come back tonight and other than that we have what I would call normal wear and tear.”