The Clare People Archive

THE plight of Travellers living on the roadside without sanitation is a thing of the past in Clare with council officials this week confirming that all of the county’s indigenous Travellers have been provided with living accommodation.

Over the past decade, Travellers have been forced to live without running water or toilet facilities as the Council failed to provide adequate accommodation after the closure of its main halting site at Drumcliffe outside Ennis in 1997.

The absence of any serviced accommodation forced Travellers to park illegally in urban areas, resulting in tensions between the Traveller and settled communities.

Bishop Willie Walsh intervened in a bid to resolve the issues and former County Manager, Willie Moloney had his car tyres slashed in a move believed to be connected with the Council seeking to provide emergency accommodation in 2001.

The fall-out from the Council’s failure to accommodate all the families resulted in a number of court battles financed by the taxpayer. Clare was also the first county where Travellers were sentenced to jail terms for contravening trespass legislation.

At the start of the Council’s Traveller Accommodation Programme, in 2000, there were 33 Traveller families living on the roadside. By the end of the plan in 2004, the Council reduced the numbers living on the roadside to 14 at a cost of over €12million.

Now with the provision of emergency accommodation outside Ennis and Ennistymon, the Council claims it has eliminated the problem.

In its latest Traveller accommodation plan to deal with new family formations, the Council has identified accommodation need for 88 families with 64 Traveller families in immediate need and a projected need for an additional 22 families.

County Manager, Alec Fleming said the council was very happy with what has been achieved and are working closely with the other state agencies and the Travelling Community to improve outcomes in a number of areas affecting Travellers.

Spokesman for Traveller rights group, Pavee Point, Martin Collins said that while he welcomed the news, there was a price to pay for Travellers as much of the accommodation didn’t accommodate their way of life, such as keeping horses.

“I don’t think that is inevitable and more should be done by the Council to accommodate Travellers in that way,” he said.

RESIDENTS of an Ennis housing estate have received assurances that a fence will be installed as part of the Westbourne housing development.

The controversial development received the go-ahead at this month’s meeting of Ennis Town Council.

Councillors decided to accept Town Engineer, Tom Tiernan’s recommendation, that the construction of 66 dwelling houses and 16 apartments including site development works and associated services, at Westbourne be approved by members.

But, despite opposition, Mr Tiernan said that the wall separating Bishop’s Court from the proposed Westbourne development will be constructed.

Ennis Town Council invited submission from residents of Bishop’s Court and Mountain View on the Watery Road. In total, 18 submissions were received.

The Bishop’s Court resident’s expressed the view that the provision of a three metre high wall between the proposed development and Bishop’s Court was essential. However The Killaloe Diocesan office said that it could not justify spending diocesan money on the wall.

“The wall proved to be the most difficult issue and we need to make inroads into it. We will provide that fence in time. The Department have made their feelings clear on that issue,” Mr Tiernan told the meeting.

Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) praised the work of Mr Tiernan and proposed that the council accept Mr Tiernan’s recommendations.

As part of the construction, three houses will be facilitated with solar-power technology.

A NEW sex-assault unit serving the mid-west is taking some of the trauma out of the investigation process that follows a sexual assault.

Clare victims of rape and sexual assault will no longer have to make a round trip of 150 miles, or more, to Cork for examination and the collection of forensic evidence.

A Sex Assault Treatment Unit (SATU) has now opened at the Mid West Regional Hospital in Limerick, saving victims from having to make the journey to the South Infirmary in Cork in the back of a squad car.

The Limerick SATU opened six weeks ago and has dealt with six people since then. The unit operates on a rota of 15 GPs and is housed in the hospital’s outpatients’ centre.

Limerick Rape Crisis Centre co-ordinator, Miriam Duffy, said that the mid-west had been crying out for the unit for many years.

“Studies have shown that where such a unit exists, survivors are more likely to stay in the legal process to the end.”

She said staff were “absolutely thrilled that we finally have a SATU. Usually, people are very surprised to learn that we don’t have a unit here.

But the reality was that people would have to get into a Garda squad car after they had reported the rape and travel to Cork in the same clothes, when all they wanted was to be able to take the clothes off as quickly as possible and have a shower.”

THE first honorary doctorate ever handed out on Clare soil will be awarded to American artist John Baldessari today, at the Burren College of Art.

The doctorate, which is in fine arts, recognises Baldessari’s achievements as a conceptual artists and photographer, will be awarded by the Dean of Burren College of Art, Professor Timothy Emlyn Jones, at the Ballyvaughan College at 1pm.

Baldessari is one of world’s best known artists and has been credited by experts as having invented a new form of photography. His work can be seen in major art museums all over the world and he has received much praise from younger artists who are learning their trade.

“It is both an honour and a pleasure to have John Baldessari involved with the Burren College of Art,” Professor Emlyn Jones.

“It is an honour because he is one of the most distinguished artists currently working anywhere in the world, and it is a pleasure since his work connects so well with the ideasled, enquiry-based education at Burren College of Art.”

Baldessari has been a member of the Advisory Council of Burren College of Art since it opened in 1994 and this will be his fifth visit to the college since then. The doctorate will be awarded by the Burren College on behalf of the National University of Ireland as part of the Masters in Fine Arts Graduation ceremony.

“He is not only an important artist but also an inspirational teacher who is warmly remembered by those of our students and teachers who have been fortunate enough to have met him,” said Mr Emlyn Jones.

“We are delighted that the National University of Ireland, Galway accepted our nomination for the award of an honorary doctorate to honour and celebrate this important artist.”

John Baldessari was born in National City in 1931. During his education he attended San Diego State University, the Otis Art Institute, Chouinard Art Institute and UC Berkeley.

His art has been featured in more than 120 solo exhibitions in America and Europe and in over 300 group exhibitions.

He taught at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia until 1990. He is currently teaching at UCLA.

Among his many awards include the Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts in California, the Oscar Kokoschka Prize from Austria and the Spectrum-International Award for Photography of the Foundation of Lower Saxony, Germany.

CLARE ENGINEERS are being invited to take part in a national engineering conference that will debate some of the most contentious issues in energy, health and transport policy. A number of world experts including Luis Echávarri, Director General of the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency, Dr. Alesandro Clerici of the World Energy Council, and Dr. Morgan Bazilian, of Sustainable Energy Ireland, will debate whether Ireland needs to embrace nuclear power at the Engineers Ireland Conference 2006.

The conference will take place in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin on April 26 and 27 – the date of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Clare Green councillor Brian Meaney says there is no need for Ireland to consider having a nuclear power plant. The councillor agreed that meeting future energy requirements “will be a challenge” but added that progress in technology and efficiency is the way forward.

“We need to embrace efficient technology and decrease our need to depend on energy production,” said Cllr Meaney.

The councillor warned about that the “dangerous” by-products of nuclear power creation. “It has a contamination potential that we can’t even begin to perceive,” he said.

“It’s just not an option for an island the size of Ireland. The nuclear industry would have us believe it is very safe technology but the consequences of an accident are just appalling.”

The opening address will be given by An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the conference will also explore the issues of traffic congestion, waste management, communication technology and project management.

The future direction of Ireland’s healthcare care industry will also be on the agenda, with the launch of a major report entitled A Picture of Health 2030.

According to a spokesman for the conference organisers, by 2030 we will all be living longer and will require a healthcare system that promotes wellness. “This report will outline Ireland’s potential to build a world-class healthcare system for the country and also a world-class healthcare sector for the economy.”

TURKISH firm, GAMA Construction, has lodged plans for a fourth quarry in a bid to advance the construction work of the €190 million Ennis bypass.

Currently, the company is working towards having the eastern section of the scheme open by next October.

This will remove heavy goods vehicles from Ennis’s clogged road network.

In the new application, GAMA is seeking to extract 176,420 m3 of rock.

The plan seeks to develop a quarry on a site extending to 4.34 hectares with an extraction area of 3.635 hectares.

The permission is sought for a total period of 24 months.

According to GAMA, “the proposed development is solely for the purpose of the provision of rock to the N18, Ennis bypass, which is presently under-construction immediately to the west of the application site.”

“Access to the site will be directly from the route of the Ennis bypass road scheme, presently under-construction immediately west of the application site. No public roads will be used to haul materials to or from the application site.”

Already, the company has secured planning for three quarries along the route, to excavate 900,000 m3 of rock material, with 480,000 m3 of the total to be excavated from the largest quarry at Killow/Kilbreckan on the outskirts of Ennis. This 37acre quarry is by far the biggest.

All quarries that have secured planning permission have a duration of 24 months.

The works on the bypass are due to end in 12 months time.

If there is any opposition to the current planning application, it is difficult to see how much of a material difference the operation of the quarry will make to the bypass project.

The Turkish company, however, will be confident that the application will secure planning permission, due to the fact that no roads will be used to transport the materials to the bypass.

In its most recent decision, the council granted planning permission for the largest quarry.

This was done in light of the fact that it would result in a vast reduction in the amount of material to be imported on the existing road network and thus represented a more sustainable approach towards the construction of the bypass.

YOUNG Ennis artist, Cillian Boyd, has made art history by claiming one of the major prizes in Texaco Children’s Art Competition for the seventh consecutive year.

A 15-year-old transition year student at Gaelcholaiste na Chláir, Cillian was awarded a special merit award for his painting Black Backed Gull. Cillian’s achievement in the competition has seen him pass out the likes of labour TD Ruairí Quinn, who had three victories in his younger years.

“I never really expected to win something this year,” said Cillian. “I thought they would say ‘lets get rid of this fellow, he’s been around too long.’”

Blacked Backed Gull is a reworking of Cillian’s winning painting from last year. This has given Cillian particular satisfaction as it means that he is being rewarded for the technique of his work, rather than the subject matter.

“This year it was all about the style of the painting rather than the subject matter,” he said. “It is nice to be recognised for the style and technique.”

In his first outing in competition in 2000, Cillian won first prize in the 911 Age Group. A keen naturalist and member of Birdwatch Ireland, he is a regular fixture down by the river, where he loves to sketch from life.

Cillian put on his first ever exhibition as part of his transition year work experience in the County Art Gallery earlier this year. The exhibition comprised 15 paintings and a number of sketches, which represented more than six months of work.

He does not see himself following a career in art, however, as he has been bitten by the architecture bug. He did his work experience with Hassett and Leyden’s Architects in Ennis.

“I really enjoyed my work experience there and I think that buildings are very interesting. It would give me a chance to still be creative and artistic in my work,” he said.

Cillian is the son of well-known traditional musician, Geraldine Cotter, and local artist, John Boyd.

“We are so proud of him. It is such a fantastic achievements,” said John.

“When you consider that he is up against children in private schools with lots of finances and more than 600 entries from Clare alone.”

Other Clare children awarded merits in the competition were Christi Olivier and Lucy Carragher from St Anne’s Community College in Killaloe and Moire Murphy from the Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Lisdoonvarna.

ELEVEN people were arrested on Clare’s roads over the weekend for drink driving offences as motorists recklessly ignored warnings over drink driving.

The arrests occurred between Friday and Sunday night during a heavy Garda clampdown over the busy holiday weekend. The majority of the arrests took place in the Ennis area while there were also offences in Ennistymon and Killaloe. The Easter crackdown came into force last Thursday night and ran through until today.

There was a strong Garda prescence operating on the roads over the weekend with unmarked vehicles supplementing the work of uniformed patrols. A number of operations were implemented by the Clare Garda Division including the targeting of known trouble spots. Gardaí say they are disappointed that so many people chose to ignore heavily advertised warnings about the dangers of drink driving.

The head of Traffic Corps in Clare, Inspector Kevin Moynihan said that the high figures were particularly disappointing in light of recent safety campaigns to curb the carnage on the country’s roads.

“Up to this morning (Monday) we had 11 arrests for drink driving, and we are very disappointed with that. It’s particularly disappointing, having regard to the fact that there was a lot of media coverage given over to the issue, that people continue to think that it is ok to drink and drive.”

There was also a heavy crackdown on other motoring offences with a number of fixed charge penalty points being issued for careless and dangerous driving.

The new Road Safety Bill proposed by Minister for Transport Martin Cullen will give Gardai wide ranging new powers to tackle the so called ‘hard core’ of drink drivers. Under new legislation Gardaí will be able to carry more speed checks and will have the power to randomly breathtest motorists. The introduction of the new penalty points system has also reinforced Garda powers. Since the addition of 31 new offences to the system, over 3,000 penalty points notices have been issued nationwide.

“From a speeding point of view the vast majority of motorists do abide by the rules of the road. But there are still people out there that continue to think that it is ok to drink and drive on the roads and that is a pity” added Inspector Moynihan.

CLARE County Council has claimed that the Environmental Protection Agency acted outside its powers in censuring the local authority over its management of its €8 million landfill at Inagh.

Last month, the agency served the fifteenth non-compliance notice on the council over the management of the landfill.

The non-compliance notice centred on the alleged felling trees during the nesting seasons and on continuing odour problems caused by the landfill. However, in a strongly-worded five page response, the council is now formally requesting that the agency withdraw the two non-compliance notices.

“The agency would appear to have arbitrarily issued a non-compliance in relation to tree-felling, which it can be argued, is outside the scope of the licence as the issue of tree-felling is defined and protected within other statute.

“In the council’s view, the agency have in effect, acted ultra vires in the issue of non-compliance notice, as the basis for its issue is held by other authorities.”

The council pointed out that the Forestry Service and the National Parks and Wildlife Service had both categorically indicated that they had no reservation in relation to tree felling on this site.

“The felling of conifer trees during the first week of March would have minimal effects on the well-being of nesting birds as the birds would only be in the earliest stage of nestbuilding and indeed, little or no nestbuilding activity would have been anticipated during the exceptional cold conditions of that week.”

The council also argues that “in no way can the tree-felling be considered as environment pollution and as such should not result in the issue of a non-compliance which is specifically linked to the Waste Management Act.

“The matter of a non-compliance notice being issued on foot of information from the licensee is a source of concern to the council.”

On the EPA’s move to issue a noncompliance notice as a result of the site’s odour problems, the council queried whether in duplicated a previous notice.

The council states that the EPA has changed the reporting system as followed, since the facility was opened and that off-site odours are now a notifiable offence.

“The council is not aware that similar reporting arrangements apply at other waste management facilities. Is there a change in reporting systems for all waste management facilities?”

AER LINGUS workers have been urged to join forces with fellow SIPTU members in the Great Southern Hotel chain, to take industrial action against the privatisation of the airline.

A member of Fingal Council, the local authority which has Dublin airport in its area, has called for escalating industrial action.

The call for SIPTU members working for Aer Lingus to take action would also affect members of the union working at Shannon Airport.

Councillor Clare Daly (SWP) said that the “privatisation of Aer Lingus is totally unjustified. It represents a threat to reasonable wages and conditions. We could face an Irish Ferries style situation once multinational speculators move in.”

Cllr Daly said she was “urging my union, SIPTU, to immediately convene a major conference of workers from both Aer LIngus and the Great Southern Hotels group, to draw up a serious campaign of escalating industrial action to stop this neoliberal Government, implementing privatisation policies for which it has no mandate.”

The call comes after SIPTU airport members, voted recently on a mandate for industrial action, should the management try to force rationalisation measures through.

The industrial unrest comes at a time when Shannon is reporting a 22 per cent increase on the number of passengers travelling when compared to the Easter Bank Holiday of last year.

Overall figures for the year show that passenger traffic at the Clare airport has grown by 38 per cent.

Despite the strong results, the directors of the Dublin Airport Authority have said that the break-up of the three airports will not take place for some time and probably not for at least a year.

The Authority will need about €300 million of distributable reserves before the break-up can go ahead.

At present, reserves stand at just €141 million.

DAA Chairman, Gary McGann, said that giving Cork Airport a debt-free status in future, as was suggested, could make the break-up even harder to achieve. He said he supported the new terminal at Cork, which is due to open shortly, but the question was finances.