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ONE of north Clare’s longest serv- ing schools is now also one of the county’s best equipped following the opening of a new €500,000 exten- sion at Kilnamona National School.

The Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, officially ushered in a new era for the school alongside parents, teachers, pupils and invited guests in Kilnamona last Friday.

The school, which has been educat- ing local children for more than 120 years, has seen a significant growth in numbers over the last number of years.

“Part of the role of the school Board of Management is to plan for the needs that the school will have going into the future and that is something the previous boards of management did between 2003 and 2007,” said Tony Barrett, Chairperson of the Board of Management.

“We saw that we had a growing school population, we had come back up from a three-teacher school to a five-teacher school. With that in mind we realised that the school building and educational facilities we had weren’t big enough for the erowth projected for the school.”

The extension includes an extra classroom, a resource teaching room, a special needs room, an IT room and extra administrative space. The work was completed by Pat Carmody Gros male noysmaneeem seer

“We really did need something that would bring the school into the 21st century. The school in Kilnamona has been there since 1889, so it’s a very old school,’ continued Tony.

“There are two aspects to any school. This extension has revolu- tionised one aspect, which is the physical school itself. But the second more important aspect is the teachers and teaching quality at the school. You don’t need to have a very mod- ern building to do that well and we have an excellent staff in Kilnamona under the principal, Sean Crowe.

“We were also very careful not to destroy any of the old school and to maintain its original architectural

style – we took great care to marry the new extension onto the older building and the new and the old now sit very comfortably together. “There are so many people who helped to make this possible. First of all the former Board of Management of the school who had the foresight to see that this would be needed, the parents of the parish have also been very supportive of the application, we would also like to thank the De- partment of Education for granting

the funding, the Oireachtas members at the time who supported our appli- cation for funding, our architect Ed- die Grace, Pat Carmody Construc- tion and the Parish of Kilnamona who actually gave us the land that we needed to build this extension on.”

DETAILS have been announced of a concert in aid of the District Day Care Centre, Clarecastle.

Acclaimed singer Sean Keane and his band will perform at the Church of Ss Peter and Paul, Clarecastle on July 19.

The concert is being organised by the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, Clarecastle in association with the District Day Care Centre.

The District Day Care Centre in Clarecastle opened in August 1999 following six years of planning, fun- draising and consultation. It was a proud day for the committee to see the first neighbours and friends avail of the new facilities.

The centre caters for 250 people per week and covers a 10-mile radius from Clarecastle. Transportation 1s arranged by minibus. The facility is usually offered one day per week to each person but some may avail of it more often in special circumstances.

Facilities provided at the centre include nursing care, classes and a wide range of social activities.

A meeting held at the centre last Monday highlighted shortfalls in funding for a new state of art and ful- ly complete dementia day care unit.

Chents and staff appealed for the HSE to make funding available for the project.

Maureen Keohane, who has been attending the centre for the past seven years, said, “This is a wonderful fa-

cility. I don’t know how I could man- age without it. Everything is under one roof. The staff are superb, you couldn’t praise them highly enough. I don’t know what Id do if it didn’t exist.”

The unit is designed to facilitate 25 people per day with mild/moderate elentenlete

The services anticipated in the new unit will offer up to dementia suffer- ers more specialised care in an en- vironment that is purpose built for their needs.

Management at the centre say that the new unit will also free up spaces in the existing day care centre which has a waiting list of 40.

The Health Services Executive, mid western region meets the day-to-day

running costs of the centre.

The existing services are operated by agreement between District Day Care Centre Ltd – a voluntary or- ganisation – and the Health Services Executive. The decision to develop the centre by providing a purpose built dementia unit was approved by the HSE.

Galway singer Sean Keane is ap- pearing as part of the bill announced for the 13th annual Céili at the Cross- roads Festival in Clarecastle.

This year’s festival again features performances by a host of local mu- sicians as well as workshops in set dancing and sean nos singing.

The festival concludes on July 26 with a céili at Kerins Cross with mu- sic from the Four Courts Céili Band.

Ennis Anna Prior-itises Galway

It could have been last chance saloon

for these two but when the dust set- tled — and it took a while following a stormy enough few minutes after the final whistle in an incident that included a red card for Tulla’s Eanna Torpey — both had somehow man- aged to keep their season alive.

It was a free from distance, executed by the accurate Alan Duggan, close to three minutes into injury time that sealed the draw and it was the free that was at the heart of the debate afterwards. Torpey himself was pre- viously adjudged to have fouled the ball, which led to Duggan’s free and subsequent point.

Into the last quarter of the game, the specatacle improved and it looked at times like Tulla might just sneak away with the points. Padraic McKeogh had goaled for the Mills in the 42nd minute, following a pass from Fergus Donovan that left Dug- gan one on one with Philip Brennan. When his shot rattled the net, it gave the Mills and four-point lead but it was Tulla who managed to react the stronger.

They replied with six unanswered points in the space of five minutes — two frees from Andy Quinn and points from Brian Lynch, Aidan Lynch and Kieran Brennan.

Now, Tulla were hurling with pur-

pose and intensity, qualities they had lacked up to that point of the game. When Andy Quinn blasted over an- other free eight minutes from time, Tulla led by two and the Mills had only scored twice in the sceond half. Then Conor Cooney — who had been substituted with an injury only to re- turn with a few minutes left and in a

more advanced position — fired over a point for the Mills.

Time wasn’t on their side but they stuck to their task. They pushed for- ward with every opportunity and eventually they did get the break- through with that late, late free from Duggan.

And to be fair, they deserved to get

something out of the game. When they slipped ahead before the break, thanks to two fine points from Fer- gus Donovan, they had set them- selves up to battle hard in the second half. That McKeogh goal arrived at just the right time but they failed to follow through and steer themselves to victory.

Tulla didn’t win a championship title two years back without picking up some knowledge on the way and they eked out their own lead impres- sively but with two games left to play for both sides, they’Il know equally well that a full 60 minutes will be re- quired from here on in.

Candidates under the radar

THE BOOKIE and the pollster both predict very little change when it comes to the Members of the Euro- pean Parliament representing Ireland North West.

Both predict that Pat ‘the Cope” Gallagher will replace his party col- league Sean O Neachtain in Brus- sels, while Fine Gael’s Jim Higgins and Independent Marian Harkin are likely to be returned.

The latest TNSmrbi poll has shown a grow in support of one per cent for Deputy Gallagher, indicting a 20 per cent of first preference votes and likely to top the poll.

Bookie Paddy Power is putting is money on Fine Gael’s MEP Higgins to come in first, while the polls have him in third place behind MEP Har- ene

While Harkins’s odds have re- mained the same at 4/9 on, Gallagh- er’s odds have shortened to bring him from 8/11 to 1/9 on.

Higgins odds of winning at seat has also shortened from 1/12 on to 1/16 on.

Saturday’s poll however has seen a three per cent drop in support for the sitting Fine Gael MEP, who now has 17 per cent of the vote.

MEP Harkin’s vote has increased by one per cent to 19 per cent.

While Libertas leader Declan Ganley has moved up the board in the bookies, he remains in fourth place in Saturday’s

AN ESTIMATED 50 per cent of people living in Clare have access to broadband Internet services, accord- ing to figures put forward by Clare County Council.

The council’s Head of Information Systems, Urban McMahon has stated that people are receiving broadband through a “fixed or wireless service with the availability constantly in- creasing due to the continued suc- cess and extension of the previous group broadband scheme an also the continued rollout schedules to pri- vate service providers”.

Mr McMahon was responding to a motion submitted by Cllr Sonny Scanlan at the May meeting of Clare County Council.

Cllr Scanlan had sought informa- tion on what areas of Clare are cur- rently covered by broadband. Cllr Scanlan also queried how long it would take all before all areas, par- ticularly Quin, will have access to broadband.

He said that it had been 15 years since Ennis had been designated as an information town and claimed that people living three miles outside of the town did not have Internet cov- eben

Responding, Mr McMahon said that the Minster for Communica- tions, Energy and Natural Resourc- es has entered into a contract with the broadband service provider, Hutchison 3G Ireland, (trading as 3) for the implementation of the nation-

al broadband scheme.

He said that the objective of the scheme is to provide access to af- fordable, scaleable broadband serv- ices to rural areas, many of which do not have any broadband services.

Mr McMahon continued, “The scheme will be rolled out on an elec- toral division basis and currently 49 electoral are divisions in County Clare have been identified under the scheme. It is expected that al residences and business premises lo- cated within the national broadband scheme coverage area and will be able to avail of broadband services by the end of the September.

Cllr Scanlan has welcomed Mr Mc- Mahon’s response but he added that more needs to be done to ensure the delivery of high-speed broadband services to rural communities in Clare. Cllr Scanlan described it as a priority issue.

THE family of Kay Cregan, who died after undergoing a facelift in the US, has been given the right to sue the anesthesiologist who was responsible for overseeing her operation.

Ms Cregan (42), from Croom and who had family connections in Kil- laloe, died after she underwent fa- cial surgery at a Manhattan clinic in March 2005.

The family is taking a case against the plastic surgeon who carried out the procedure, Michael Sachs, and that case is due to commence in the US on September 15 next.

The New York Supreme Court has now ruled that Ms Cregan’s husband Liam can also sue Dr Madhavrao Subbarao, a certified anesthesiolo- gist.

Last year, the case against him was thrown out. However, this decision was appealed and the ruling emerged last week. The judges at the Supreme Court decided that a jury should rule Whether Subbarao abandoned Ms Cregan after the operation.

Ms Cregan, a mother-of-two, had read about Mr Sachs in a newspa- per and travelled to New York for the procedure. She collapsed in Dr Sachs’ recovery room after she had received the facelift, which was to be a surprise for her husband.

She complained of feeling dizzy the morning after undergoing five procedures, including a facelift, eye- lid surgery, nasal reconstruction and chin augmentation.

She was taken to St Luke’s Roo- sevelt Hospital and her husband im- mediately travelled to the US. He was present by her bedside when the life support machine was turned off, three days after the facelift.

Ms Cregan was a senior executive with Limerick City Council.

Dr Sachs, who was dubbed “Dr Botch” in the New York media, had

been involved in more than 30 mal- practice cases since 1995.

The Cregan family is being repre- sented by medical malpractice spe- cialist, Waterford-born Thomas A Moore. Mr Moore is suing on behalf of Mr Cregan and his two sons.

THE Shannon-based insurance arm of UK bank, HBOS plc last year re- corded a sustained £21 million (€24 million) pre-tax loss after record- ing pre-tax profits of £75 million in 2007.

According to returns lodged with the companies office by Halifax In- surance Ireland Ltd, the company se- cured a profit after tax of £8m after a tax credit in the accounts of £29m from the Irish tax authorities.

The accounts show that the compa- ny recorded a turnover of £205.2m — down three per cent on the £211 mil- lion in revenues generated through premiums in 2007.

The main business of the company — which employs 319 people in the Shannon Free Zone — is to underwrite general insurance elements of repay- ment insurance cover for HBOS plc customers and the repayment insur- ance 1s provided on mortgage, credit card and personal loan products.

The company’s ultimate parent is now Lloyds TSB after it completed its takeover of HBOS plc earlier this year in a move that created a banking giant of 145,000 staff.

The accounts for Halifax Insurance Ireland Ltd show that during 2008 the company paid dividends of £97m and this followed dividend payouts of £32.6m during 2007 and £130m in 2006. The accounts show that £49m was paid out last year in claims and benefits — down £5 million on the 2006 total of £54.8m.

The returns also confirm that the company’s retained earnings at the end of 2007 was £93 million, while the company has cash and cash equivalents of £149 million.

The accounts show that the compa- ny increased its workforce last year by 18 and its wages and salaries bill increased by 88 per cent from £5m to £6.7m. Total staff costs were £7.5m.

Directors’ remuneration increased from £395,000 to £462,000.

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