The Clare People Archive

CLARE’S President of Ireland, Dr Patrick Hillery, was caught in the eye of a diplomatic storm in 1982 over the birth of Prince William, the son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana and second in line to the throne.

The State Papers from 1982 reveal that President Hillery was accused of snubbing the royal birth, but that what happened was that diplomats had wrongly advised him not to send a message of congratulations to Queen Elizabeth on the birth of Prince William.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach’s office became embroiled in a row over whether or not to send a message of congratulations. A memo sent from assistant secretary Richard Stokes to Charles Haughey outlines advice given by the Chief of Protocol, who said it would not be appropriate for a message to be sent as Prince Charles and Princess Diana were not Heads of State.

The Chief of Protocol had been asked for his advice following a press query by a journalist to the President’s office. Stokes told the Taoiseach he “would strongly disagree with the Foreign Affairs advice on this”.

“I believe that a message of congratulations should be sent by the President to the Queen on the birth of her grandson,” he continued.

President Hillery’s chief of protocol in the Aras sought advice on the issue, with his own thinking being that a message was not necessary, as Prince Charles, was not a head of state. Foreign Affairs backed the advice, as did a Mr Ó hAnnrachain in the Taoiseach’s office, who also said then Taoiseach Charles Haughey was not to be consulted.

However, Mr Stokes believed “an explanation will be no substitute for a warm and gracious message for this happy event on our neighbouring island”.

Another document from HJ Dowd, an official in the Department of the Taoiseach, shows that he was in agreement with Stokes. He also said it would be of “no harm” to tell the Foreign Affairs Department that “they were in error when they said that their files suggest that a message should not be sent”.

He points to two further precedents for sending such a message. On the 15 November 1948, President Seán T Ó Ceallaigh sent his wishes to King George VI on the birth of a son (now the Prince of Wales) to Princess Elizabeth (now the Queen). On the 16 August 1950, he sent a similar message to King George on the birth of his grand-daughter Princess Ann.

A note made out on the 22 June shows that the Government then scrambled to reach an agreement that the President should send a message of congratulations. The draft was cleared with the Chief of Protocol at 12.50pm.

SHANNON Airport’s status as a stopover point for world leaders from President John F Kennedy to Mikail Gorbachev to Barack Obama has been showcased once more with release of the State Papers from 1982.

The papers released under the 30year rule show that Cuban leader Fidel Castro passed through that year, creating the possibility for what could have been one of the more unlikely summit meetings in Irish history.

All because when passing through Shannon, Castro left a gift for Taoiseach Charles Haughey. The documents show that the Cuban president stopped off at Shannon Airport in late 1982, probably en route from Moscow after attending the funeral of USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev.

Haughey wrote a private letter to the Cuban president on 9 December, 1982 – one of the final acts he performed during his term as Taoiseach in that government – to thank him for the gift Castro had left for him.

An election in November had seen Fine Gael and Labour form a coalition and Garrett Fitzgerald took over from Haughey as Taoiseach on 14 December, just five days after the letter was written.

In the letter, Haughey thanked Castro for the “magnificent gift” of cigars and a casket which the Cuban leader left for the Taoiseach during the stopover.

“The hand-carved casket is most impressive and the cigars will be greatly enjoyed by my family and friends at Christmas,” Haughey told Castro.

Given the differences in political philosophies between the two men and Cold War tensions at the time, it is somewhat surprising how eager Haughey seemed to be to meet with the socialist leader, telling him:

Please accept my apologies that I could not be there to greet you in person but I hope that we can meet on some future occasion.

The letter ends with Haughey expressing his “warm personal regards” for the Cuban leader.

A MAJOR shake-up in the way that policing is operated in Clare was announced in December with the news that eight Garda Stations were to close around the county.

Stations in rural areas such as Quin, Inagh, Lahinch, Broadford, Mountshannon, Doonbeg, Kilmihil and Labasheeda were named for closure while it was also announced that both Ennistymon and Killaloe District Garda Headquarters will be downgraded.

Former Superintendent, Frank Guthrie, who is now involved with the Inagh Housing Association said that there was some concern in the village about the new arrangement.

“A lot of people, especially older people, favour the old-style policing and confiding in their local garda. They felt safe. The meeting is really to see how this will be dealt with,” he said following the news.

The changes will see the garda serving in Quin reassigned to Ennis, the gardaí in Inagh and Lahinch moved to Ennistymon, the Broadford garda will now be based in Ardnacrusha, the Mountshannon garda will be based in Killaloe and the Doonbeg garda will be working out of Kilrush Garda Station.

Labasheeda and Doonbeg stations were provided with a garda from Kilrush every weekday from 10am to 1pm and at the weekend from noon until 2pm. These stations will also close.

The Chairperson of the Lahinch Community Council welcomed the closure of Lahinch Garda Station, saying the station was already “virtually closed” and the town would be better served from Ennistymon.

Donogh O’Loghlin believes that the closure of Lahinch Garda Station will not have an effect on the safety of the local population.

“I am not really concerned by the closure of the station. It is a beautiful building but I think it has been more or less closed for years already,” he said.

“It should have been closed years ago really. The local people here don’t have any idea when there will be a garda present in the station or not, so what is the point of having it there? There are 30 guards stationed just two miles out the road in Ennistymon. That should be enough.”

Clare Labour Party National Executive Member Seamus Ryan called on the Government to rethink the course of action.

“While the Commissioner is operating under the same financial constraints as so many people and the Government, it is short-sighted on the part of the force to abandon these facilities in favour of patrols and cover from other stations, some of which are up to 20km away and are themselves part-time and up to 25km to a 24-hour station for communities like Mountshannon,” he said.

PLANS to construct a massive Rotterdam-style transshipment port at Kilrush were lodged with an Bord Pleanála in December.

The multi-million euro project has been earmarked for banks of reclaimed land adjacent to the Moneypoint Power Station and could create hundreds of sustainable jobs locally if successful and transform the area into one of Europe’s largest freight ports.

The Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company lodged papers with the national planning authority seeking to have the development classified as a Strategic Industrial Development (SID).

The deep waters of the Shannon Estuary would allow larger vessels from America and Asia to unload massive volumes of cargo in the area – which would then be transferred to smaller ships and brought to shallow ports in other parts of Europe.

The 16-metre water depths on the Shannon is rivalled only by Rotterdam in Holland. The Dutch port employs well over a hundred thousand people directly and indirectly around the Europort facility, the biggest in Europe and currently operating at full capacity.

A Spokesperson from An Bord Pleanála said a meeting with the Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company would likely take place in January but could not confirm any details about the specifics of the proposed port.

If the facility is deemed to be of strategic national importance, An Bord Pleanála will give it SID status – which means than a decision on planning will be made by them and not by Clare County Council.

The application was made by the Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company – who are not currently listed with the Irish Company Registrations Office (CRO).

The Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC), who had previously examined the possibility of creating its own deep water transshipment facility in the Shannon Estuary, confirmed yesterday that the application had not been made by them.

A spokesperson said that that the organisation had “no comment” to make on the proposal currently before an Bord Pleanála but did say that the company would assist “any marine or shipping related projects” in the area of the estuary.

In 2004, the Shannon Foynes Port The Shannon based Atlantic Way group commissioned a feasibility study on a deep water port in the Shannon Estuary in 2009. That report, conducted by international expert Dr John Martin, indicated a massive demand for a deep mater port to service shallow ports across Europe.

Speaking on behalf of Atlantic Way yesterday, former chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority, Brian O’Connell, said that his organisation were not responsible for the application to An Bord Pleanála.

THE future of Clare’s international airport was finally resolved in December when the new vision for Shannon Airport and Shannon Development was announced in Dublin.

The decision to separate Shannon Airport from the control of the Dublin Airport Authority was confirmed by the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar (FG), who said that as many as five thousand new jobs could be created in the new company over the next five years.

It was also confirmed that Shannon Airport debt, understood to be in the region of € 100 million, would remain with the Dublin Airport Authority – but Shannon would also lose any stake in Aer Rianta International.

The new airport authority was been provisionally named as NEWCO. The Minister for Jobs, Richard Bruton (FG) confirmed at the announcement that there would be no compulsory redundancies form Shannon Airport or Shannon Development. The Clare People also reported on December 4 that Clare woman Rose Hynes was being lined up to become the first chairperson of the new airport authority.

The Bellharbour woman, who chaired the Aviation Business Development Task Force that drafted the new airport plan, was rubber stamped into this role later in the month.

At the Dublin announcement the government set a ambitious target for boosting passenger numbers at Shannon by one million over the next nine years, Minister Varadkar telling The Clare People that “if Shannon can’t achieve that kind of growth, then there is no future for the airport”.

However, it’s in the area of jobs that Shannon can expect its biggest windfall with the transport minister revealing that a new international aviation services centre has “the potential to create between 3000 and 5000 jobs within five years”.

Minister Bruton said the airport’s independence, which will see two companies in Shannon provide up to 850 in the coming months represents “a new chapter in regional development” in Ireland.

“The independence of Shannon Airport has been sought for many years,” said Minister Varadkar. “It certainly is a risk, but the risk with doing nothing is far greater. It is an historic decision and it will bring a new future for Shannon Development and Shannon Airport.”

Shannon was formally separated from the DAA on December 31. The government now plans to appoint a new boards for the NEWCO in the new year. The government will also have to address the possibility of industrial actions as Shannon Development workers hav raised a number of worries about the new arrangement.

CARERS from all over Clare took to the streets of Ennis in December to raise their concerns about budgetary cuts to the Respite Care Allowance. More than 50 people too part in the impromptu including parents of young children with disabilities, older parents of adults with special needs and full-time carers of the elderly.

One of the organisers, Niamh Daly, said that a similar protest organised in Dublin by the Carers Association was an indication at how upset people were but, as most carers cannot travel to protest, the carers of Clare decided to have their

say on their own streets.

“Carers cannot all get to Dublin but, at the end of the day, we have to have our voice heard,” she said.

Many more Clare carers were unable to attend the protest as the people they care for are house-bound and therefore could not come to En nis.

It is not just the cut to the respite grant, however, that is affecting Clare’s carers. Family carers, providing unpaid care to family mem- bers and loved ones, have been seriously affected through the number of cumulative cuts, including the cut to the Household Benefit Pack- age, increases to the prescription charge from 50 cent to € 1.50, the new carbon tax on fuel and the drug payment scheme threshold increase from € 132 to € 144. The Carers Association said it was extremely disappointed with the level of reduction of over 19 per cent in the respite grant paid to over 77,000 family carers, 20,000 of whom receive no other support from the State for providing full-time care for a family member from their own resources. The grant is designed to be used by carers to buy in home care or pay for residential respite care for the caredfor person in order to give the carer a much needed break from their caring role. However, many carers are using this grant to pay for necessary therapies and services for those they are caring for. Despite intense pressure from lobby groups and concerned citizens the government has, to date, help strong on the issue of the Respite Care Allowance. It is as yet unclear whether the Cares Association or other interested organisation will host more protests or other actions in 2013. Wed02January13

REPORTER Andrew Hamilton became interested in all things ecumenical during the holy month of November. He reported that the Killaloe Diocese was facing a “crisis” of holy orders, with the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) predicting that the entire diocese will be serviced by a handful of “ShannonDoc priests” in as little as a decades time.

The organisation, which now represents more than 1,000 parish priests in Ireland, said massive changes were required by all the Irish Bishops and the Vatican if this doomsday scenario was to be avoided.

According to Fr Tony Flannery of the ACP, the priesthood is set to become a transient profession in Ireland, with a much reduced number of priest delivering sacrament across many parishes – without having the time to be based in any individual community.

A spokesperson from the Killaloe Diocese told The Clare People , that there had been active moves to engage with lay community in the diocese over the last 12 months – there are some issues which can only be changed at Vatican level.

“Priests in the Killaloe Diocese are already doing the work that three priests would have been doing ten years ago, and this is going to get much worse, very quickly. This is a crisis, no questions about it. In 10 or 20 years time there will be only a handful of priests and they will be just saying mass in an area and moving on – they will be like ShannonDoc priests,” said Fr Tony Flannery.

“The ACP now have more than 1,000 priests in our organisation and it is growing all the time. This is in spite the feeling that priests are being actively discouraged by the powers that be to join. So it shows you that there is a real desire among the priests for change.”

According to Fr Brendan Quinlavin, spokesperson for the Killaloe Diocese, Bishop Kieran O’Reilly had been engaged in a “listening” process over the last 12 months designed to allow lay people to have more say in the diocese.

In a separate story it was highlighted that ordaining women priests was one of the main changes suggested in a revolutionary new document produced by the Diocese of Killaloe as part of the listening process.

The process, which was started by Bishop Kieran O’Reilly last year, involved more than 700 priests and lay church members in the diocese and was viewed as a blueprint for the future of the Catholic Church in County Clare.

The document also recommended the creation of new active roles for lay people in the diocese and fostering a greater appreciation for local priests as two of its other main aims.

The document also highlight the main challenges faced by the church in the Killaloe diocese with mass attendance as low as 10 per cent in some parishes. Other fears also include the prospect of church closures in rural part of Clare, as priest numbers continue to decline.

“This [listening] process is an invitation to engage again and to be an integral part of our future,” said Fr Brendan Quinlivan, spokesperson for the Diocese of Killaloe.” The next step in this process is unclear as many of the recommended changes would require a change of official church doctrine in the Vatican.”

A PROBLEM resident was accused of taunting neighbours plagued by anti-social behaviour in November by claiming he would buy their homes if they want to leave a troubled estate.

The man, a convicted criminal, made the claim in a letter delivered to homes in the estate in Ennis.

Residents suffered numerous instances of anti-social behaviour and raised their concerns in a meeting with senior Gardaí in Ennis during in October.

The situation got so bad for one mortgage payer that it was claimed that he has been forced to leave the area to live in another part of Ennis. Other residents are also believed to be considering leaving.

The typed letter was hand delivered by members of the man’s family to certain homes in the estate.

In it the man boasted that he could afford to purchase homes in the estate and give them to members of his family.

In the letter he refers to a wide circle of cousins who he would like to see move into the estate, if his neighbours felt they wanted to leave.

The letter was delivered after a local newsletter highlighted the pres- ence of Garda patrols in the area.

A delegation of residents of the estate had raised their concerns during a meeting at Ennis Garda Station. The week after this report a Traveller resident in that Ennis estate hit back at what he said was racism at work.

The man rubbished claims by residents that he had been the cause of anti-social behaviour in the estate since he moved some months ago, or that he had been the reason a person moved out of the estate.

“The only thing that’s happened in the five months I’m living there is the young kids took a football and kicked it around the green.

“Children is children. That’s been the size of it,” he said.

The man, who admitted that he had sent a letter to some residents in the estate offering to buy their houses if they wanted to sell, told us that the letter was ‘sarcastic’ in parts.

“I was sarcastic in the letter. I admit that. The bit about the horses eating the grass was sarcastic. I know that.

“But they think they’re better than me. They haven’t taken the time to get to know me. They judged me because I’m a Traveller. And that’s racist,” he says.

The letter he had hand delivered to some of the residents in the estate invited them to have a cup of the tea with him.

LESS than a third of Clare’s voters went to the polls to vote on the Children Referendum on Saturday November 10, the lowest turn out in 11 years. Despite the turnout being lower than the national average, the number in favour of changing the constitution was slightly higher, with 61.7 per cent voting yes. As many as 79,905 Clare people were entitled to vote, 197 less than the last referendum. Just 25,808 people from the Banner chose to exercise their democratic right however. As many as 15,868 people voted for the amendment, with 9,846 voting against. There were 94 invalid votes. The county has a history of not going to the polls on questions that would affect the constitution in recent decades, but the November turnout was surpassed only by the weak showing during the first Nice Referendum, the abolition of the death penalty and the criminal courts referendum. In June 2001, just 30.83 per cent of the people of Clare voted on those three referendums. When 49.8 per cent of voters in the county turned out for the Stability Referendum at the end of May voter apathy and lack of information was criticised for what was then the lowest turn out in the county in almost a decade. Six months later it would appear that apathy and lack of engagement has grown to the point where 17.8 per cent more of the county’s population decided not to vote. The drop in voter turnout is significant when compared to June 1999 when 60.05 per cent of the Clare electorate turned out to vote for “Recognition for Local Government”.

In March 2002, just 39.29 per cent of the Clare electorate turned out to vote on the Protection of Human Life in Pregnancy, with 47.05 per cent voting on Nice 2 that October.

The largest turnout for a referendum in recent years in Clare was in June 2004, when 64.6 per cent voted on the Citizenship.

From then until the Stability Referendum the turnout remained over 50 per cent in the Banner county, with 52.48 per cent voting on Lisbon 1 in June 2008, 56.9 per cent voting on the second Lisbon referendum in October 2009, while 56.12 per cent voted on the House of the Oireachtais Inquiries and 57.95 per cent on Judges Remuneration during the Presidential election in October 2011.

While the turnout on Saturday was disappointing for the Government, it still considered it “a historic day for children”.

Speaking at the count centre at the Court House in Ennis after returning officer Pat Wallace declared the Clare result of the Children Referendum, Deputy Pat Breen (FG) said, it was “a truly historic day for our children”.

GARDAÍ in Clare are appealing for assistance in solving a number of burglaries that took place during the Christmas period.

Between 2pm on Christmas Day and 5.30pm on St Stephen’s Day, costume jewellery was stolen during a break-in to a house in Westwood, Ennis. The culprit gained entry by breaking a rear window.

A burglar used the same method of entry during a burglary in Showground’s View, Ennis. The breakin took place between 1.30pm on Wednesday, December 26 and 3.15am on Thursday, December 27.

As well as stealing a 32-inch Samsung television, Playstation3 and eight games, a Hewlett Packard laptop, 3D Panasonic TV, DVD player and key to the patio doors, the burglars also stole a white Toyota saloon (00 OY 1070), which was later, recovered.

Efforts were made to steal the copper piping from a bathroom in a house in Ballina sometime between 4pm on Saturday, December 22 and 10am on Thursday last.

A Triton shower was stolen from the house in Beechgrove Grange Road, Ballina, after the culprit broke in through a rear window.

In Kilfenora, a house on Doctor’s Hill was broken into between 8pm on St Stephen’s night and 8am the following morning. The house and its contents were disturbed but nothing appears to have been taken.

The occupants of a house in Killernan Miltown Malbay were not as lucky. A sum of money, including sterling, and a white Citreon Berlingo Van Sl59 OFF were stolen from this home some time between 8.30pm and 11.40pm on Friday, December 28. The burglars gained entry to the house by breaking a side window and then stole the keys of the van.

In Kilkee, between 2pm on Thursday, December 27 and 10.30am on Saturday, December 29, an apartment on Circular Road was broken into through the rear door. A 32-inch Toshiba flatscreen TV and some bed clothing was stolen.

Meanwhile, Gardaí are looking for any witnesses to criminal damage of a car which was parked outside the Church in Roslevan on Christmas Eve. Three of the car’s tyres were slashed between 7.30pm and 8.45pm.