The Clare People Archive

IT is the sense of freedom that Síle deValera is looking forward to most. To be able to decide to go to the cinema on a Thursday or meet friends on a Tuesday at short notice is the simple, but until not unattainable pleasures, that the retiring TD has to look forward to most.

For the next five or six months however it will be business as usual in the constituency as her diary is dictated by a busy political schedule.

Speaking to The Clare People just the day after she stood down as Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy deValera was slightly hoarse from one of the many winter colds in the air and as busy as ever.

She was conscious of easing the slight aliment quickly as that night she had a Cumann function in Spancilhill and a women’s lunch the following day.

Despite the slight hoarseness however the former minister sounded happy and jovial and completely at ease with her decision to retire from politics.

She described how fortunate she felt and how she looked forward to a new life.

“I am lucky in a way as a lot of politicians don’t get the opportunity to decide when they are leaving politics.”

Working as a TD for the next five to six months is the “nice part of it all” she said very much at ease with the change in her life.

The former Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands maintains that making the decision not to run in the next election was the biggest decision.

“Working for nine and a half years as minister and then minister of state there is a weight lifted off my shoulders today. With the office there is a sense of obligation and duty and I feel I have done that,” she said.

When asked about the “warts and all” book on political life she plans to write, the 52-year-old breaks into a hearty laugh.

With 30 years of politics, including the Lynch, Haughey and Ahern eras, the impoverished 1980s and the prosperity of the late 1990s under her political belt, publishers and political nerds are already drooling at the thought of such memoirs.

Her voice retains the mirth as she describes how she got yet another phonecall from a publisher shortly after telling a radio programme she already had a number of publishers interested.

Deputy deValera has already begun writing the book and “thinking about it’”.

“Over the last 30 years since I first went in to the Dáil there have been a lot of changes. The state of flux in the late seventies and eighties and the poor economy.”

“People who were not TDs in the late 1980s and early 90s are lucky to have only experienced the good times of telling people how good things are going to be.”

Deputy deValera is also conscious of the fact that there are very few women in the Dáil and 30 years of political change does not seem to have changed that fact.

Once fully retired, Síle deValera is looking forward to planning life for herself and having a social life, but she is adamant that she is not complaining about the political life she had.

It is just time for change.

“I hope to have another career as something else,” she said referring to her continued study of psychology.

BISHOP Willie Walsh has urged Travellers to become involved in social issues directly affecting their own lives.

Speaking in Ennis on Friday, Dr Walsh said that often in the past he would have found himself doing something for Travellers or to the Travellers when he was not fully aware of their needs.

Dr Walsh was launching a new Traveller newsletter as part of the implementation of a three year strategy for co-ordination of public services to the Travelling community in Clare as part of National Traveller Focus Week.

The strategy aims to strengthen the culture and self-governance of Travellers in Clare, while enhancing their quality of life and identifying gaps in the current provision of public services.

After hearing of the various initiatives being undertaken within the Traveller community, Dr Walsh said the meeting was a revelation and there are so many positive things going on.

“Very often in life, we seem to focus on the problems and see that such a problem isn’t soluble and we forget about all the things that are being done.”

Dr Walsh urged people from both the Traveller and settled communities to speak to each other more in order to break down the prejudices that exist in each community.

“One of the constant difficulties between the Traveller and settled communities is very often lack of awareness or lack of knowledge of each other, that we don’t communicate together or simply talk to each other or get to know each other better”.

On the high unemployment rates and lower life expectancy in the traveller community, Dr Walsh said: “There is no doubt, there is a long way to go, but up until now, we thought very little about anything except accommodation.

“In fairness to Clare County Council and I would have been critical, they have made extraordinary progress in recent years, having made that progress with accommodation and now the new challenge is to move onto the employment and healthcare challenges.”

He said the Traveller strategy was a very welcome and important initiative. Very often public services were not well co-ordinated and one group didn’t know what another was doing. This led to a duplication of services and caused unnecessary confusion and waste.

THE BISHOP of Killaloe has stated that the proposal to reduce the age of consent to 16 almost puts pressure on 16 year olds to start engaging in sexual activity.

Bishop Willie Walsh said that the proposal to reduce the age of consent to 16 was sending out the wrong message to young people still in school, in school uniform and was almost putting pressure on youngsters to engage in sexual activity.

Dr Walsh was responding to the Joint Oireachtas Committee report on Child Protection which recommended that the age of sexual consent be reduced from 17 to 16 years.

In a joint statement on Thursday, the country’s Catholic Bishops expressed their alarm over the proposal and speaking at a function in Ennis on Friday, Dr Walsh said that the appropriate age of consent was 18.

“We have a law against children under the age of 18 buying drink, buying cigarettes. People aren’t allowed to vote until they’re 18 and we see 18 as a figure accepted by society which marks the passage into adulthood.”

“The reality is that not every teenager of 16 or 17 is involved in sexual activity. A lot are but a great deal aren’t and lowering the age of consent would be unfair to those young people who are not sexually active.

“We would be almost putting pressure on them to have sex, that somehow they haven’t grown up unless they have indulged in sexual activity. One of the mistakes is that we think that young people mature at an earlier age these days. I think the opposite is true.”

“I am very conscious of the dilemma that many parents are facing to give moral guidance to their teenage children. Then a law comes out and undermines the authority of parents in this area and sends out the wrong message. Sexuality is something very precious, mysterious, extraordinary, wonderful and anything that trivialises that is highly dangerous.

“We are not asking people to legislate according to Catholic teaching, we are asking people to look at this from a human point of view and look at it very seriously.

“I believe that if you ask parents of teenage children what do they believe is the appropriate age of consent, the vast majority would say 18 instead of 16. Many parents are struggling with these things and they are entitled to the backing of the law.”

Dr Walsh expressed concern that the Government was being steamrolled into changing a law, just because it is being broken.

THE BISHOP of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh has hit out at people from wealthy backgrounds indulging in drug taking.

Speaking in Ennis last Friday, Dr Walsh said the drugs culture was not confined to areas of deprivation and there was a growing number of people using drugs in the more wealthy parts of society.

“We use the word ‘recreational’ in relation to drug taking but drugs really are not recreational at all. They are destructive and the people using drugs in the better off areas are contributing to the violence we have recently seen in Dublin.”

“There is no doubt that there is a very serious growth in violence in society and this is very often related to justice issues. Take our prisons for example where the vast majority of prisoners come from areas of deprivation, particularly in our cities.”

“When you speak about violence, you have to speak about justice as well.”

Dr Walsh’s comments come against the background of a doubling in size of the Clare’s drugs unit in recent months with substantial drug seizures being made in a number of locations in the county.

Dr Walsh cited the statement on violence released by the Bishop’s Conference last Thursday.

“Our social fabric is being torn apart by a culture of violence that leaves people dead on our streets and gunned down in their own homes. Our society seems to be growing numb to human loss and suffering as yet another murder or assault is reported, another family devastated by a road death, and certain housing estates, themselves the subject of poor planning and inadequate maintenance, are constant reminders of the destructive culture of violence on an almost daily basis.

“Fundamentally, our society needs a moral revolution to replace a culture of violence with a renewed ethic of justice, responsibility and community. New policies and programs, while necessary, cannot substitute for a recovery of the old values of right and wrong, respect and responsibility, love and justice,” Bishop Walsh concluded.

ITS fate will not be known until early 2007 but, whatever the outcome, the people of Ennis must have a say in the future of Cusack Park.

That’s according to one local councillor who has strong family connections with the grounds.

At last Monday’s monthly meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) said the people of Ennis must have their say before any final decision is taken.

Members were discussing the lack of suitable services for the elderly in the town as well as a proposal to construct a two-storey library in the Post Office Field.

“Where are the people of the town who owned Cusack Park? It was bought for €500 in 1934. Just because €80 million is plastered across the front of The Clare Champion doesn’t mean that the people of Ennis can be ignored in all this. Where are all these facilities gone to?”

Earlier this year, Cllr Neylon questioned whether or not the County Board retained full ownership of the grounds which were given by the Royal Irish Constabulary to the town in the 1920s.

Cusack Park was subsequently developed by the Dalcassians Club but after their demise in the forties the County Board then assumed ownership.

Cllr Neylon’s father Pat was a caretaker at the ground for 20 years from 1952 to 1977.

GAA chiefs in the county have delayed a decision on whether or not to sell the county grounds located in prime retail location.

At last month’s County Board meeting, a special committee was picked to assess the various options open to the Board.

It was recommended that, given the complexity of the proposals, more time should be given in order for a decision to be taken.

It was also confirmed at that meeting that 10 developers are interested in acquiring the site.

It is expected that, under the terms of the deal, the successful bid would have to first build a completed stadium at a location within a close proximity to Ennis.

The development would involve the construction of state-of-the-art facilities, including a 40,000 stadium, carpark, training facilities, floodlights, all-weather surfaces and a gymnasium. A site on the Quin Road has been mooted as one potential location for the new stadium.

THE decision by surfers to refuse assistance last month from the Irish Coastguard Service near the Cliffs of Moher was defended yesterday.

Owner of the oldest surf shop in Ireland, Lahinch Surf Shop, Tom Buckley, said that the surfers involved felt that they didn’t require rescuing as they did not believe that they were in danger.

Last week, it emerged that the Irish Coastguard Service is considering imposing penalties on the surfers for refusing assistance during the large-scale rescue operation that was launched.

Mr Buckley was an eye-witness to the scene and said that the rescue effort was launched after a brother of one of the surfers looking on from land called in the rescue.

He said, “It is better to be safe than sorry but the surfers themselves felt that it was not a serious situation.”

He added, “The surfers have got a bad press with reports stating that they didn’t accept the assistance because they didn’t want to leave the surf boards behind.

“That isn’t the case as they left behind a video camera which would be much more expensive than the surf boards.”

Mr Buckley said, “The people on the helicopter and the winch-man put themselves at risk, but the lads didn’t consider themselves in danger. They have surfed big waves all over the world.

“When you’re suddenly confronted and asked to go on a winch and you feel that you don’t need rescuing, how do you react?”

Mr Buckley said that a surfer on a jet ski and another on a board got washed in by a wave, while a third man was filming events from the rocky shore.

The two could not restart the jetski valued at around €10,000 and it was abandoned.

Two surfers then paddled out through the waves with one returning with two surf boards to retrieve the third man and Mr Buckley said that it was at this time that the winchman descended to offer assistance.

The wave was surfed for the first time last year and, over the past 12 months, it has attracted world-wide attention in the surfing community and is now regarded as one of the world’s best tow-in surf spots, though opportunities to surf the wave are rare.

TEEN songbird, Susan O’Neill, from Rockmount Manor in Ennis will be looking to the Banner next Sunday night to vote her through to the next round of the You’re a Star competition.

16-year old Susan will be cheered on first and foremost by her parents, Jim and Helen, sister and brother Sharon and Eoin and her nana, Lizzy Neylon.

The Rice College student is currently studying for her leaving certificate but made time to polish her act enough to be chosen at the auditions in Cork when 12 people were picked to go forward out of the hundreds of hopefuls.

In further auditions and workshops in the RDS in Dublin ,the twelve were whittled down to six and the talented Ennis girl was one of the chosen ones who are now battling it out in the Helix in Dublin on December 17.

“Music is my life, I enjoy singing and playing, and I also write songs”, said Susan, who plays the guitar, the cornet and is now learning the piano.

The busy Ennis girl sings in the Ennis gospel Choir and was a member of the Ennis Brass band for six years.

On Sunday she will be singing Jeff Buckley’s ‘Halleuja’, a song which she loves.

“It would be so great to win this competition, to have a chance to record some of my songs professionally,” said Susan. “This is what I want to do. I want to be a performer and I’m not sure exactly what form that will take but I know that’s what I want to do.”

And to launch her on her way, Susan is asking for Clare people to vote for her on Sunday next.

If Susan gets through, she will be joining another Clare woman, Maeve O’Donovan from Ardnacrusha.

Maeve – who is still in secondary school – knew she was headed for a career in song after singing Sting’s “Fields of Gold” for her classmates when she was twelve.

As part of her personal profile on the show, she was filmed at home in Ardnacrusha.

If she won the record deal which is the big prize, Maeve says she would be “really happy because I’ve wanted this for so long. I’m deighted to get this far and I’m looking forward to getting to the final in the Helix.”

Both Banner contestants will be cheered on by everyone in County Clare.

A WAR of words look set to erupt between Clare farmers and GAMA Constructions Ltd if flooding problems caused by the construction of the €190 million Ennis bypass are not resolved in the next four months.

Lands belonging to between 20 and 25 farmer in the Barefield area have been effected by flooding as a result of run off from the roads construction over the last number of months.

This flooding has been compounded by record high levels of rainfall in the county since September and there is a fear among farmers that flooding will become a yearly event if corrective action is not taken.

“People feel that there is a real danger that there will be a problem with the flooding of farmland because of the road and we would like this to be addressed before it is opened,” said Seamus Murphy, President of the IFA in Clare.

“They have said that their specifications for the road is capable of getting rid of the water and not causing flooding. There is a lot of water and the pressure on the water system is far greater than it has ever been before.”

A top level meeting between Clare IFA and the Turkish construction company failed to reach a resolution to the problem when it took place in Ennis last week. Representatives from GAMA agreed to monitor the situation and another meeting has been scheduled for January of next year.

Local farmers have expressed concern that, should the flooding situation not be resolved before completion of the Ennis by-pass, that they will not be able to challenge GAMA when they have left the area.

“GAMA is coming to the end of their contract and the fear is that they would just walk away and leave when it is up,” continued Mr Murphy.

“They said that there would not be a problem and they have given us a commitment to meet with us again in January and address the issue again at that time.”

The Ennis by-pass is scheduled for completion on April 11 of 2007.

Since construction began on the Ennis bypass, GAMA has been embroiled in a number of high profile controversies including planning issues relating to a number of quarries opened by the Turkish company to facilitate construction work on the bypass and a dispute with employees involving payments below the minimum wage.

THE OFFICIAL opening of the Ennis by-pass has been deferred to January due to fears that the road may not be ready in time because of the recent poor weather conditions.

However, workers from GAMA Construction are now working seven days a week and the company is still aiming for the main section of the €190 million by-pass to be open for traffic on or before the original target date of December 21.

The recent poor weather, however, has thrown that timetable into doubt with County Engineer Tom Carey confirming that a planned ceremony to mark the opening of the by-pass on December 21 has been postponed due to doubts that the road will be ready in time.

“The deferral is purely related to the weather. It is nobody’s fault as the contractor was gung-ho in finishing the first phase for December 21,” he said.

Mr Carey said the decision to postpone the opening ceremony was made following a meeting with representatives from the National Roads Authority (NRA) on Friday morning.

Before the meeting, Mr Carey admitted the contractor was “very much up against it” to meet the December 21 deadline to open the first phase of the new route.

Prior to the weather deteriorating over the past number of weeks, Mr Carey said the council was confident that the first part of the contract would be completed on time.

However, he told The Clare People there were a number of issues to be addressed, including final surfacing and road lining, that were weather dependent and outside the control of the contractors.

“Safety is paramount and there will be a safety audit after the works are complete and these audits normally turn up things that require addressing. We are not talking about a long deferral of the opening ceremony and are hopeful of an opening ceremony in early January, taking the holidays into account.”

Mr Carey said that the by-pass will make a “very, very significant difference” to the quality of life of people living in Ennis.

“For motorists driving from Limerick to Galway, it will cut journey times by 20 minutes and more in certain times,” he said.

CLARE people have been digging deep to help a Lisseycasey nun build a hospice for AIDS victims who are dying in rusty shacks.

And they’ll be digging deeper still when 100 volunteers grab their tools and fly to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, next year to build a legacy from the Banner County.

The measure of Clare support for the work of Sr Ethel Normoyle was highlighted on Monday when she was named as Clare Person of the Year. She will be presented with the award at a function hosted by the Clare Association in Dublin next February.

Hearing the news in South Africa, Sr Normoyle said she felt, “honoured and humbled. It is Clare people who have stood beside me all my years in Africa”.

Clare wome Olive Halpin and Maureen Halpin-McCarthy are organising a mass descent of builders, plumbers and electricians to build Sr Ethel’s Hospice at MissionVale, a shantytown on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth.

Every day the Clare nun and her helpers feed thousands, as well as providing healthcare, education and community services to people who have nothing.

Recently, Olive and Maureen organised a charity ball in the Auburn Lodge which raised €52,000. Added to other funds raised, including a recent sponsored hack in Lisseycasey, there is still €80,000 to go to fund the building of the hospice.

With cash coming in, Olive and Maureen are now preparing to launch an appeal to have 100 or more Irish tradespeople fly to South Africa and build the hospice.

“Sr Ethel’s wish is to build a hospice which will give a bed to people dying from AIDS during their final days.”