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IT’S clear that the govern- ment, and the computer software industry sector are seriously worried about the fall-off in interest in careers in ICT Gnformation and com- munications — technologies), science and engineering.

The question being asked is where are the innovators of the future going to come from? More basically, as Bill Harris the director general of Science Foundation Ireland said last week: “without en- gineers, how are we going to make things?”

So, national and regional partners in the ICT industry have now come together in a concerted effort to promote the ICT industry as a career, by sending role models work- ing in ICT companies into schools to talk about their careers. The idea is to encour- age secondary school students to take science and technol- ogy based subjects at Leaving Certificate level, and to con-

sider ICT-related courses at third-level, including compu- ter science, science and elec- WUCereU oT aNieunetee

As part of a nationwide ef- fort to promote the take-up of high-tech careers, the ICT Champions programme was launched in Shannon last week, with a briefing work- shop in Intel Communications for the role models taking part in the programme.

Three Clare schools have already signed up for visits from the ICT’ Champions – St Caimin’s in Shannon, En- nistymon Secondary School, and Kilrush Community School. The Champions will be visiting them to tell the students what roles, oppor- tunities and challenges ex- ist within the industry. Intel, which has a cutting-edge re- search and development facil- ity in the Shannon Industrial Estate, and Dell and Chorus in County Limerick, have supplied over 20 volunteers to visit schools.

“Intel will be approaching other Clare schools to see if they are interested in the pro- gramme,’ Hannah Grene of ICT Ireland told

CLARE woman Lottie McClure has been re-appointed to the board of the National Disability Authority (NDA).

A native of Shannon, Mrs McClure will work with the statutory body that advises the Government on the co-ordination and development of policy on disability.

She has already warned about the dan- gers of funding for the disabled being ab- sorbed by administrators.

“Unless proper structures are put in

place, standards for services are introduced and services are co-ordinated across all Government Departments, there is a real danger that the bulk of this money could be absorbed by administrators and service providers instead of making a real impact on the daily lives of people with disabili- ties” she said last week.

Due to a streamlining strategy, the board of the NDA has been cut from 23 to 13 members. Mrs McClure believes this will allow the organisation to adopt a more “fo- cused approach”.

Along with transport and education the issue of personal assistance grants for people with disabilities is a major issue in ETc

“There is great demand for personal as- sistants but unfortunately there is an is- sue with funding and this is something I hope to address through my work with the board” said Mrs McClure who is also involved with the Clare Branch of People with Disabilities in Ireland.

A LIMERICK man who assaulted a bar staff member after he was refused entry to a pub during a festival in Sixmilebridge, has been jailed for three months.

But Thomas Power (43), of Sul- lane Crescent, Raheen, Limerick, will not serve time, if he carries out 200 hours community service.

Shannon District Court was told that the accused struck a Mr Hunt, after he was refused entry at The

Mill Bar, Sixmilebridge, on Janu- ary 8, 2005.

Defending solicitor Daragh Has- sett told the court his client was in Sixmilebridge for a festival that day. A session was taking place at the back of the bar and when he was not allowed in, he hit out.

He said his client had problems with alcohol and had “fallen off the wagon” over the years. He said the incident was a “watershed” for his client and he had not drank al-

cohol since it took place.

Judge Joseph Mangan adjourned the case until November, to allow for a community service report to be carried out and remanded the accused on bail until then. He 1m- posed a number of bail conditions, including that the accused abstain from alcohol, stay out of licensed premises, stay out of Clare, except for court attendances and report to Henry Street Garda Station in Limerick once a week in a “sober and orderly condition.”

Sentencing of a man who exposed himself and masturbated in front of a female hitch-hiker has been adjourned, pending a probation report.

Joe Clynes (33), with an address at 154 Hermit- age, Ennis, and formerly of 15, Millstream Court, Mill Road, Ennis, was convicted of the offence, which occurred at Dehomade, Lissycasey, in ALvb iter

The victim told a previous court sitting that she

had been hitching on the outskirts of Ennis on June 11, 2002, and accepted a lift from Clynes. A short distance from Ennis, she said she saw his hand on his “groin area” and his “elbow was mov- ihre

After a while, she saw “the head of his penis.” When she tried to get out of the car, the accused told her “it’s all right now” and he offered to drive her the rest of the way to Kilrush. The woman said she got out of the car and was “pretty scared”’ at that point.

In June, Judge Joseph Mangan adjourned the matter until last week’s court sitting at Kildysart, pending preparation of a probation report.But, when the matter came up, the judge was informed that there appeared to have been some misunder- standing, as Clynes had changed address. Clynes told the court he now lived at Hermitage, Ennis.

Judge Mangan told Clynes he would not accept any excuses at the next court sitting. “If you don’t hear from the probation services, you get 1n touch eLNemealsse me

GARDAI investigating — the death of Ann Walsh in Kilrush almost three weeks ago, are ap- pealing for anyone who may have seen her during the final moments of her life, to come forward.

The body of the 23-year-old was found in the grounds of St Senan’s church on Toler Street shortly after 11pm on the night

of Wednesday, August 24 last.

A number of people who saw Ms Walsh in the John Street, Looney Lane and Toler Street areas of the town up to 10pm, have come forward. However Supt Joe McKeown, who is leading the investigation, is ap- pealing for others to come for- FEO B

“There has been a huge re- sponse from the public in the Kilrush area, but we still want

to speak with people who may have seen Ann between 10pm and Ilpm and who may have seen anything suspicious,” said Supt McKeown.

A team of gardai continue to work on the case, at the incident room set up at Kilrush garda station.

The incident room can be contacted at 065 9080550, or people can ring the Garda Con- fidential Line, 1800-666-111.

CLARE County Council has secured an exclusion order against a couple living in a housing estate in Ruan, after a court heard their neighbours were subjected to hardship and ‘serious threats” as a result of their behaviour.

Mark and Louise Woodbridge had resided at Toormore Es- tate in Ruan, prior to their eviction by the Council over a week ago.

Brendan Murphy told Ennis District Court that he lived with his wife and family directly across from the home the Woodbridges had resided in. He is a tenant of Clare County Council.

He said he moved in at the end of July and became aware of the Woodbridges at the beginning of August. He said the

couple were fighting amongst themselves in their garden on one occasion and were ‘loud and vulgar.’ He said there was an instance where they hit their own car and shouted abuse at each other.

He was awakened one night to hear a lady screaming for help and she then “turned her anger towards us,’ Mr Murphy told the court.

He said his family received death threats, threats that the windows on his house would be broken and that his car would be damaged, while his children were called “vulgar” names.

“We couldn’t leave our house. There were serious threats that gangs would come down from Dublin with guns and kill us,’ he said.

The troubles continued on a daily basis, he said. Louise Woodbridge would lean out of the window of her house and

make threats to her neighbours.

He said he did not know the Woodbridges and this type of activity could take place at any time of the day or night. “We were terrified of them. We don’t know the people. We didn’t know how serious their threats were,” he said.

Clare County Council estates manager Dan Keane told the court that he notified the Woodbridges about the court hear- ing. However the couple did not appear.

Barrister Pat Quinn said he was applying for the interim or- der made a week previously to be confirmed as an exclusion order, to remain in place for three years. He pointed out that the couple had obeyed the interim order.

Judge Joseph Mangan said he was acceding to the applica- nto

THE highlight of the past weeks greyhound racing was the win of ‘Knappogue Roy- al’ in the final of the Galway Hurling Board A4 stake at the Galway track on Friday night.

The dog had been a good servant to owner Martin McDermot of Kilrush, win- ning some valuable races over the summer months and collected a cheque of €2,000 on this occasion. ‘Larch- ill Wood’ owned by Ciara Donoghue of Ennis took his chance after coming in as a reserve in trap 2 to win ina

time of 29.32 on Thursday night.

The final of the A5 Stake takes place this week, and also looking forward to a stake final at the weekend will be a long time supporter of the game Tom Flanna- gan of Ennistymon. His dog ‘Mythical Flyer’ secured his spot in the final after dead heating for first place in race 3. Race 7 on Thursday night’s card went to ‘Aulton Nikiata’ owned by Pat Hog- an of Barefield, the winners time was 30.96 seconds for the 550 yards trip. Excite- ment also continues this coming weekend for Ennis

man Frankie Sheehan. His dogs ‘Sheehans Cottage’ and ‘Joint Cottage’ did enough in there respective races on Fri- day and Saturday night and are now in line to collect big prize money.

‘Baby Lleyton’ owned by Bertie and Mary O’Doherty of Ennis was Clare’s only winner at the College Road venue on Saturday night. This was the dogs first win housed in trap one, the win- ners time was 29.78 *Lisnac- ulla Dream’ owned by Gerry Lang of Ballyea and ‘Rex the Rocket’ will also be in the line up at the Loughrea Hurling Club A3 Stake Final

this coming weekend.

Seamus and Aidan Dug- gan of Ennis kept the Clare flag flying at Limerick on Thursday night, winning race 2 with ‘Plenty of early’ in a time of 29.56. The same partnership returned on Sat- urday night with ‘Castleweir’ to finish second in the Tote retention scheme. There is €10,000 to the winner here and the Ennis lads will be hoping to maintain they’re interest over the coming weeks. Sixty dogs went to traps for the first round heats on Saturday night.

AN ENNIS man who 1s alleged to have threatened he would ‘get’ a garda when he was off-duty, has had public order charges against him dismissed.

David Gormley (19), with an ad- dress at Maiville, Kilrush road, En- nis, was charged with the offences in Ennis on March 17 of this year.

Garda Stephen Hession _ told Kildysart court that the accused was shouting at Parnell Street, at 10pm on the night 1n question.

“He appeared to be intoxicated and was very aggressive,’ said Gda Hession.

The court was told that he refused to give the garda his address and when asked for it, said, “Why the *** do | have to give you my ad- dress. I’1] get you when your hat and ID is off”.

When asked to leave the area, the accused started making threats at the garda, the court heard. “As he was walking through the Market area, he kept shouting and making threats at me. He said ‘I’ll get you

without the hat’’, said Gda Hes- sion.

Defending solicitor John Casey said his client was going home, along the Kilrush Road, as he had been ordered to do, but the garda continued to follow him and this frustrated the defendant. “He will admit he told you to f*** off. He was going home if you would leave him to go home,” said the solicitor.

But the garda said the accused

made “numerous, very specific threats” to get him while he was Oe RrelIAs

Mr Gormley told the court that the garda called him “a little sh**” and he gave a bit of abuse back. He admitted saying he would have “no problem finding” the garda any time. ‘He was telling me to go home but he wouldn’t let me go home,” said the accused.

Mr Casey said there was some doubt about what happened and said the onus was on the State to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.

Judge Joseph Mangan dismissed the charges against Mr Gormley.

OFFICIAL figures for one- off houses have been con- sistently over-estimated, according to a rural rights campaigner.

Prof Seamus Caulfield of the Irish Rural Dwellers As- sociation said that while 49 per cent of Clare’s popula- tion currently lived in the Open countryside, an aver- age of only 38 per cent of the planning permissions granted over the past year had been for one-off rural houses.

CSO figures had wrongly and consistently overstated the number of one-off hous- es by including houses in the

back gardens of Dublin city and all other cities and towns as one-off houses, for statis- tical purposes, he claimed.

Echoing Prof Caulfield, Independent MEP Marian Harkin said that planning decisions in Clare did not reflect the rural population of the county, or the need to preserve viable population in the rural areas.

She said it was essential to preserve the balance be- tween urban and rural popu- ETH Toyatce

“Tt is a major scandal that the people who have the greatest input into produc- ing our planning laws, have not even known the correct

statistics of the number and type of houses being built in the country,” she said.

Despite this, planning reg- ulations and guidelines had been produced, which were geared to restricting the preservation of viable rural population and pressuring people to live in towns and villages, she said.

“Recent CSO figures have revealed that for the first quarter of 2005, a higher percentage of plan- ning permissions for one-off houses were granted in the Dun Laoire/Rathdown area of Dublin city than in the whole of County Clare – a patently ludicrous situation”, said MEP Harkin.

Ms Harkin said that a sub- stantial campaign sustained by some national media and “influencers” had led to the creation and maintenance of a prejudice against grant- ing planning permission for one-off houses, in every county of Ireland including ETc

“This situation must be changed by insisting on the creation of an accurate ba- sis for housing statistics and analysis produced by the CSO and the Economic and Social Research Institute, so that planning regulations and planning decision are in future based on facts rather than the present fantasy,’ she said.

ENNIS’ Tricia Mangan will be the key figure on the Irish ladies golf team on their history-making mission in Dundalk this week as they attempt to win the Home Internationals for the third consecutive year.

Irish champion Mangan, who is in the form of her life and currently ranked number nine in Europe, 1s joined on the eight woman Irish team by Shannon’s Heather Nolan.

Ireland have not won on home soil since 1907, but with an ever improving side, the Irish are quietly con- fident of lifting the trophy for a third time following wins at Cruden Bay in 2003 and Royal Porthcawl in Auer

“We were very happy with our practice over this ex- cellent parkland course last week” commented team captain Sheena O’Brien-Kenney.

“We know our opposition will be stronger than ever this year but we’re most excited to have the opportu- nity to challenge for an unprecedented three-in-a-row. A good team morale added to the expected healthy home support will help tip the balance in our favour”

she added.

England look most likely to upset Ireland’s plans and hope to avenge last year’s first day defeat by Ireland which saw them finish the tournament tied second BLAS E: Doh