The Clare People Archive

HERITAGE group, Duchas na Sion- na, has outlined a number of concerns regarding the proposed major over- haul of Shannon town centre.

In its submission regarding the pro- posed development, Duchas na Sion- na has referred to archaeological and wildlife concerns, while it has also made recommendations relating to pedestrianisation.

“A primary site of archaeological concern would be the old roadway that joins the Sli na Mara boreen. This is the oldest existing roadway in the entire Shannon area, featuring on the Ordnance Survey map of 1841

and also dating back to an appearance on Henry Pelhams map of 1787. We strongly feel that it must be a matter of the highest priority that the remain- ing sections of this road should be preserved and maintained so, that no further sections of the existing road are lost or destroyed,” stated the sub- mission.

Duchas na Sionna has suggested that the road and boreen be incorporated into any new development, “in an im- aginative way.

“Tt could be a unique aspect of a new town if surrounded by a parkland or nature reserve, thereby incorporating the ancient and modern as part of a new development,’ stated the submis-

sion.

It is also calling for the placename ‘Slina Mara’ to be preserved and used as an integral name of central signifi- cance in any new development.

“The archaeological group on our committee also strongly suggest that a full archaeological audit and survey be carried out, prior to the commence- ment of any preliminary works on the Site,” it stated.

The group is also calling for the provision of a number of areas of parkland, shrubbery and indigenous hedgerow, which would “be conducive to and harmonious with the wildlife which currently inhabits the site”’.

Among the other issues raised in-

clude a recommendation on pedestria- WURS-1B COEF

“We submit that the current main road running past the Oakwood Arms Hotel and between SkyCourt Town Centre and the proposed site should be largely pedestrianised, with only very limited vehicular access, which should be subject to a very low speed restriction. This would effectively link the existing shopping area to the new development,” it stated.

Duchas na Sionna is also proposing that the proposed arts and cultural centre be located within the area of the proposed development, as it would be central to the existing housing ar- SHIDO) OFT ON ALO)OF

A CLOCK tower, water feature or specially commissioned piece of sculpture should form the central fo- cal point of Shannon town, when it is overhauled.

That’s according to the local Cham- ber of Commerce, which has submit- ted its proposals on the development of the town.

The chamber’s detailed submission on the development of Shannon also suggests the provision of a skate- boarding park or an ice skating rink.

It also stated that “it is crucial that mistakes made in the development of the existing [Cl (current town cen- tre) are learned from, while working to integrate each of the three town

centres with each other.”

The architects behind the project plan to create a new ‘urban retail en- vironment’ and a ‘living centre’, on a site across the road from SkyCourt, while the inclusion of a traditional streetscape 1s also expected to be a priority.

The chamber suggests the estab- lishment of a commercially-orientat- ed theatre, a multi-functional social amenity and an outlet facility, which would consist of medium-sized units, that would attract vendors of design- er goods at discount prices.

Its submission also suggests a “unique attraction” in the shape of a “state-of-the-art skate boarding park or an all-year ice skating rink”.

The submission was compiled by

the chamber’s interim chief execu- tive Laurie O’Connor, in consul- tation with its board of directors, which represents 150 companies in the Shannon region.

It has also addressed access routes into the proposed development.

“The proposed Shannon Light Rail Scheme needs to be integrated, with a centrally located station in place. In tandem with this, public transport links from this centrally located sta- tion need to be provided for,” stated the submission.

“Provision and design of foot- bridges and road links over the cur- rent airport road must be central to the masterplan. The people of Shan- non need to be central to the design behind these modes of crossing be-

tween the two development areas,’ it AYOCe(oxen

The chamber has also advocated maximising current routeways.

“Approach roads to and from Shannon town centre and Shannon Airport must be maintained to the highest of standards. Current levels of landscaping, grass cutting and hedge maintenance is below stand- ard and there is a considerable lack of floral displays located in strategic locations such as roundabouts, town entry points and at the entrance and exit points of Shannon Airport,” said Ms O’Connor.

Murray O’Laoire architects hope to have a draft plan completed by Sep- tember, before final plans are drawn

vee

A 300 kilometre bike ride to raise money for Belarussian children started at the weekend — with a game of golf.

Anthony Foley and Ger O’ Loughlin were among the players on 36 teams of three who took a swing at help- ing to raise money for the East Clare Chernobyl! Project in the golf classic at Clonlara Golf and Leisure on Sat- WaKOE: WA

The day was organised by Johnny Murphy and his five Clonlara com- panions who will be cycling from Minsk to Malech, starting on Sep- tember 21.

Johnny and fellow Clonlara cy- clists, Daithi O’Shanahan and Denis McKeown did the cycle last year and raised €18,000 for the cause.

This year, they are being joined by two more Clonlara residents, Trish O’Shea and Eoin Begley, with 23 cy- clists from Clare and Limerick join- ing in the ride.

“I think I can retire from it after this year — the whole thing is getting so big they won’t need me,’ joked Johnny.

Much of the money is spent on im- proving life in orphanages in Bela- rus, where children live in appalling conditions.

The project spent more than 60,000

there last year, with some of the fund- raising being used to bring young- sters to Clare for a little r ‘n r from the radiation which they live with on POE DEWAN Oye FSS ESe

The golf classic, barbecue and night of music and fun served to raise money to get the cyclists out there as well as kick-starting their fund.

On a serious note, Even if he takes a break from organising, Johnny says he will still be involved in the ride. “When you see the terrible condi- tions the little children have to cope with, you couldn’t but go back.”

The gruelling ride will take two and a half days and the riders will stay in the orphanages and meet the

children along the way.

Johnny is training by cycling to and from Shannon while other members of the team have taken on challenges such as the Limerick to Kilkee and Ring of Kerry rides.

“We’ll have great craic and most importantly we’ll make some money for the projects. We’re delighted that sO many people have decided to get involved this year and we’re hoping there will be even more next year,” said Johnny.

FUN – hopefully in the sun – is on the agenda for Feakle people this weekend with the second summer Family Fun Day all organised, de- spite the weather.

The day is designed to have people come out and enjoy spending time as a family and with neighbours.

Whether you think your forte is welly-throwing or tug-of-war, there’s bound to be something eve- ryone excels at. Or at worst enjoy the

hilarity of being soundly trounced by a more Serious welly-slinger. Among the fun competitions being staged from 2pm at the hurling field are the bungee run, sheaf throwing, sponge throwing, the aforemen- tioned tug-of-war and welly throw- ing, a limbo competition, an assault course a penalty shoot and a clothes hanging competition, of all things. ‘The men are welcome to try their hand at this if they are confident in their abilities – this is an equal op- portunities event,’ a spokeswoman

for the organisers said.

The day is the brainchild of the pastoral group and the youth group and is the second after a very suc- cessful debut last year.

Also on the day, there will be a prize for fancy dress and everyone is welcome to try their hand by coming dressed up.

There will also be a Feakle ver- sion of “odd one out” as well as a mini-treasure hunt.

To slake the thirst of all that sheaf, welly and sponge throwing, there

will be tea and coffee and a shop on site.

There will be a canopied area and a sheltered toddlers play area as well.

“What we are saying to people is to come out, bring a picnic and spend the day. There’ll be music and great fun and it’s a chance for people just to relax, enjoy the day and have fun. Hopefully, we’ll get a couple of dry days this week for the pitch to dry out,’ the spokeswoman said.

THE BATTLE of the bands brought tunes and toe-tapping to Tulla at the weekend. Members of the Tulla Pipe Band played host to the Munster Pipe Band Championships.

The event follows on their hosting of the championships last year, to mark their 70th birthday.

The musical gathering saw more than fifteen bands, including almost two hundred musicians, helpers and supporters flock to the town on Sun- day.

Between lpm and 5pm, the bands

played their hearts out for the honour of being the best in Munster.

For the finale, all of the musicians joined in a musical parade through the village and the grounds of the national school were busy with per- formers and locals who came along to enjoy the music and support the competitors.

There were four grades of competi- tion, with the Tulla band competing with the best of them.

Michael O’ Rourke of the Tulla Pipe Band said they were “delighted and honoured” to be hosting the impor- tant competition for the second year

running.

“Even the weather was kind to us on the day – we had a fine afternoon and everyone enjoyed it,” he said.

While hosting of the Munster Championship is up for grabs next year, the Tulla organisation is hoping to have some input into the organi- sation of the All-Ireland Champion- ships, which will be held in Ennis next year in July.

The event will see up to 100 bands from all over the country come to town to play and compete.

‘Ennis will never have see the likes of it. It’s a massive event and a real

boost for Clare,’ Michael said.

Pat Danagher of the Tulla Pipe Band was named the Munster Cham- pion Bass Drummer. The Tulla Pipe Band finished runners up to Youghal with Togher coming in third. Limer- ick City Pipe Band were the overall competition winners with another Limerick band, Corpus Christi also among the prize winners.

AN EAST Clare councillor has called on Clare’s newly elected pub- lic representatives to let Green En- vironment Minister, John Gormley know they will have no truck with an extension of Limerick’s bounda- ries into Clare.

OORT d er NE Oven (op e-biioe miele ie at arecent council meeting and in a press statement.

“Last year Minister Dick Roche gave the people of Clare a positive indication that he wouldn’t grant a

boundary extension into south east Clare. Whilst I remain confident that the new environment minister John Gormely TD will not grant an extension, it is nonetheless impor- tant that as an elected representa- tive of the area I continue to force- fully articulate the concerns of my constituents.”

Cllr Crowe said that should the minister be considering such a move, he should exercise differen- tiation.

“Whilst there is validity to the boundary opposition arguments put

forward by Limerick County Coun- cil I consider the Clare argument to hold far more substance,” he said.

While the consideration for Lim- erick authorities is largely one of rate payments, Cllr Crowe said, Clare’s concerns are about identity as well as money.

“A Limerick City boundary exten- sion into south east Clare will rob the people of south east Clare of a sense of identity,” he said

In addition, people who are sub- sumed into the new boundary would pay higher car and home insurance

and business people would pay higher rates, the councillor said.

‘At present arguments are abound- ing regarding Limerick’s city-status being in jeopardy. As an elected member of Clare County Council I] am well aware of the ‘bigger pic- ture’ of the mid-west regions:Lim- erick, Shannon and Ennis are pivot- al to the National Spatial Strategy,” he continued.

“I do however believe that the economic and social continuity of Limerick City does not hinge on a boundary extension.”

A NEW group is being formed to fight to retain a mammography service in Clare.

Following a meeting called by the Ennis General Hospital Development Committee, more than 20 people signed up to be part of a committee that will organise a campaign to have the county’s only mammography unit reopened.

The group will seek a new digital mammography unit at the Ennis hos- pital. It is proposed that the results can then be read from Limerick reduc- ing the travelling time for women and maintaining a vital health service in the

county. Chairperson of the Ennis Gen- eral Hospital Committee Peadar Mc- Namara said, “It has to be pointed out that the power rests with the two Fianna Fail deputies in Clare.

“This is an example of the whittling away of our health services.”

He said Limerick was over stretched at the moment and and stated con- cerned about the waiting time for Clare women.

“We had a service in Clare. We had a new room build for it and the day it was ready to open, the service was discon- tinued,’ he said.

The first mammography unit was opened in the 1980s following a fund- raising campaign by local women.

Mr Hession also said that the radiol- ogy staff in Limerick has agreed to take on extra work, when Clare wom- en are referred there from September ‘‘on the promise from the HSE that all this is going to get sorted out in terms of we get a proper breast centre”.

Mr Hession said that there would be no preferential treatment for women from Limerick and any woman pre- sented with a lump will be seen with- ht Wiere) ©

Meanwhile he is supporting Lim- erick as a centre of excellence. Mr Hession fears that there are a lot of misunderstandings about the service.

“Radiology is the diagnosis of breast cancer or the exclusion of breast can- cer after that our job is essentially done. The treatment is basically on- cology, surgery, radiotherapy,” he said.

He said that there are two differ- ent types of screening. The screen- ing breast service is the Breastcheck service, which has yet to be rolled out in the west offering mammograms to women in a certain age category.

“Tt is like going to the dentist with no symptoms,” said Mr Hession.

“What we are dealing with is sys- tematic breast disease. It is basically a woman either in between her invi- tations to Breastcheck or before she would even be asked, she developed symptoms be it pain or a lump or something like that. It is that group of patients that would be referred to the systematic breast service,’ he said.

Approximately 3,000 women a year go through the radiology department in Limerick, while 500 to 600 were receiving mammograms in Ennis every year.

Breastcheck will reduce both of

these numbers significantly accord- ing to Mr Hession.

“There is a significant waiting list for mammograms here as people are requesting screening mammograms, which GPs have a right to ask for. Un- fortunately we don’t have the slack in the system that we can facilitate them in the time scale they would want,’ he said.

‘“T am not speaking on behalf of the HSE, I am the person in charge of administration with the department of radiology and the advice we have been given is to make a systematic service work, a radiologist needs to be reading a thousand mammograms

a year. The technician doing them should be doing at least 20 a week.”

“The purpose of that is that these people get very experienced at what they are doing and very good at what they are doing. It also allows for the policing of results. So if a tumour is missed or it is a delayed diagnosis, it is all centralised and it is all open to analysis as to what happened and why did it happen. It 1s to put everything in one area, to pool the expertise, not just radiologists and breast surgeons. You are meant to have more than one surgeon as well, a pathologist, the doctor who looks at a specimen un- der a slide.

“The triple assessment clinic is Where a lot of women with lumps should go so they can be seen by a surgeon that day. That surgeon will refer them for imaging, which will be a mammogram or ultra sound, that depends on the woman. Cytolo- gist would be taken at that stage,” he said.

“The unit at Limerick 1s not a dig- ital system but the next system we hope to put in would be digital,” said Mr Hession.

“Technically it is very exact and it is policed and certainly no one is shy in breast screen washing laundry.”

“Unfortunately not all cancers are detectable. A mammography is not a clean bill of health,’ he said. “And they should not be taken as that. Cer- tainly if a woman has a mammogram and still feels a lump, and it is not rare, that still needs to be pursued. It does not mean it 1s missed, it just means it 1s invisible. Mammograms extenuates certain characteristics in a tumour but if that tumour does not have it or that lump does not have it, it is invisible.

“The real thrust of it is you are go- ing to a service that is designed by international best practice to deliver that service. It is not that we will have a little bit out in Nenagh and a little bit in Ennis. It 1s inconvenient, we were aware that it is less than conven- lent,’ he said.

THE roll out of the Breastcheck serv- ice to Clare is imminent, according to organisers, but a date has not yet leroy eM-DeneLOleNeTesrem

The national breast-screening pro- eramme has been available to wom- en in the east of the country for a number of years and plays a key role in early identification of cancer.

There are 30 new cases of breast cancer in Clare every year, and 13 deaths according to the most recent figures available for breast cancer

patients in Clare in 2002. Early de- tection is vital for the successful treatment of this cancer.

A spokesperson for the Breastcheck service would only confirm that the service would be available to women in Clare “later in the year” through a screening unit in Galway or mobile USD RSE

Initially the programme will sys- tematically screen women aged be- tween 50 and 65 years, eventually being expanded to women aged 70. Women will be screened on a two- year basis.

FORMER customers of Smart Tel- ecom in Clare, who are owed money by the telecommunications company, can expect to be reimbursed in the coming weeks.

Around 1,500 people nationwide are owed money almost nine months after they moved to other providers after Smart’s widely publicised row with Eircom late in 2006. There is no exact figure for the number of people owed money in Clare.

Last October,

Eircom ceased

providing whole-

sale services to

Smart Telecom

NACo MLS) DOLCE SC eLO!

that the company owed eircom sever- al million euro. Almost 45,000 cus- tomer voice lines were cut off leav- ing the majority of Smart customers unable to make outgoing calls except those to emergency numbers.

It was reported at the time that Smart owed Eircom €4m including arrears of €1.7m. Shortly afterwards, the then Communications Minister Noel Dempsey intervened, calling on Eircom to reconnect a full telephone service to Smart customers.

In a statement, the company said

that less than 1,500 customers are due refunds of up to €20 each. Re- payments have already commenced and are expected to be completed within the coming weeks. A small number of customers will receive monies over and above their entitle- ment where excess credits were at- tached to their bills last October.” Last month, Smart announced the appointment of Paul Talbot as its new Chief F*1- nancial Officer completing its new manage- ment team. The appointment of a CFO completes eComp an MU CCHRUDM DOTS of Smart ‘Tele- com which com- menced last au- tumn and which has seen numbers employed by the company reduced from 380 to 95. The company statement added, “Smart Telecom is now focused on data, broadband and Voice over In- ternet Protocol (VoIP) services to the Corporate, SME and Residential sec- tors. The company has indicated that it is part of a bidding consortium in a public tender to provide broadband services in areas that have been un- economic to date. If successful, this would see Smart roll out its services over an extended footprint”.