The Clare People Archive

THE lack of a dedicated helicopter landing pad in Kilkee is putting lives at risk by delaying how quickly injured people can be airlifted to hospital. At present, the most suitable place for the Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter to land is at the first tee of Kilkee Golf Course, which must be cleared in full before a rescue operation can take place. A site for a dedicated helicopter landing pad was identified by locals more than 10 years ago but nothing has been done in the meantime to make the site a workable option. Following a number of high-profile accidents in the locality in recent weeks, Manuel di Lucia of the Kilkee Marine Rescue Service, believes that the site, which is in public ownership, could be made ready to receive emergency helicopter traffic for as little as € 30,000. “I don’t think that it’s good enough that here in the Kilkee area, where we have had some very serious incidents over the last couple of weeks, yet we don’t have a designated landing pad,” he said. “This wouldn’t cost a lot of money at all. For as little as € 30,000, they could put together a very workable landing pad which would not interfere with overhead wires and houses. “I think we need to invite the chief pilot from the Shannon-based coast guard helicopter, someone from the coast guard and someone from the Department of Transport down to meet with someone from Clare County Council to assess the site and see if it still fits the needs of the modern rescue helicopters. “This site would be closer to the rescue centre in Kilkee and it would be much easier to get there, so it would speed up the time it takes to get an injured person to hospital.”

THE power and importance of the local media in giving a voice to people throughout the county was highlighted at the annual Merriman Summer School which was staged in Lisdoonvarna last week.

Ennis woman Fiona Stack, who is general manager of Radio Kerry, showcased the significance of the local media in her lecture to the 45th Merriman Summer School that had as its theme ‘Thriving at the Crossroads: Rural Ireland in a Globalised World’.

Ms Stack said that local media fulfilled an important part of community life in rural Ireland, because it has “always been more answerable, had to be more responsible, had a sense of being around for the long haul”.

“Local media provides access to groups and voices that would never make it onto the national radar,” said Ms Stack. “All local issues are discussed and debated more, whether its concerns over cutbacks, local authority meetings, changes planned in local development plans, public meetings, or attempts to attract industry or tourists,” she added.

“It provides an important connection for exiles, a daily link to home and a means by which even if you do have to go away you can still stay part of the conversation, and when you do come home you can slip straight back in. Those links abroad can be called on for practical networking purposes for the benefit of an area.

“For anybody that doubts it, rural Ireland still has energy, still has community spirit, still has laughter, still has a future and still has many many stories to tell,” she added.

Ms Stack was one of number of keynote speakers at the Merriman School, which was chaired by former Director General of RTÉ, Bob Collins.

HE died 210 years ago, but renowned Ennis poet Thomas Dermody has been brought back from obscurity thanks to the work of University of Limerick academic Dr Michael Griffin, which was celebrated at the Merriman Summer School on Friday.

The Romantic-era poet, who was Clare’s answer to Robert Burns in the destructive lifestyle that he led and his literary genius, had his work republished and launched at the Merriman Summer School.

A critical edition of the Selected Wr itings of Ennis poet Thoma s Der mody (1775-1802), edited and introduced by Dr Michael Griffin of the School of Languages, Literature, Culture and Communication, and published by Field Day, was formally launched at the Royal Spa Hotel, Lisdoonvarna.

“He was much admired in his own time by leading figures in the political and literary cultures of Dublin and London for his prodigious tal- ents in poetry,” says Dr Griffin. “He published his first volume of verse in 1789 at the age of 14, but Dermody was also infamous for his selfdestructive lifestyle and he died in London at just the age of 27,” adds Dr Griffin.

According to Professor Seamus Deane, Dermody “is now seen in a more chastened spirit as a figure who flits uncertainly between Robert Burns and Thomas Moore, the great exemplars of those in whom a romantic nationalism and a liberal politics were key ingredients in the production of the new poetry”.

Professor Deane also said that the edition of his Selected Writings, edited by Dr Griffin, “defines his achievements and status with an unprecedented authority and precision”.

Dermody’s biographer James Grant Raymond said of him, “There is scarcely a style of composition in which he did not excel. The descriptive, the ludicrous, the didactic, the sublime — each, when occasion required, he treated with skill, with acute remark, imposing humour, profound reflection and lofty magnificence.”

In addition to a volume of verse published when he was 17, Dermody also published a pamphlet on the French Revolution in 1793, ‘The Rights of Justice or Rational Liberty’.

In 1806, James Grant Raymond published the ‘Life of Thomas Dermody, interspersed with pieces of original poetry’. He then went on, in 1807, to publish ‘The Harp of Erin, or the Poetical Works of the late Thomas Dermody’.

A NEW form of decentralisation was on the table for discussion in Lisdoonvarna over the weekend, as Fianna Fáil spokesman on Agriculture, Food and Community Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív, called for a reintroduction of the much maligned policy of his former government.

Deputy Ó Cuiv was speaking at the final major panel discussion of the Merriman Summer School alongside MEP Mairéad Mc Guinness at the Pavillion Theatre on Saturday evening. The theme of the discussion was ‘On the Land’ and Ó Cuiv suggested a new targeted form of decentralising as a means of invigorating rural areas.

The outspoken former Fianna Fáil deputy leader said that decentralisation could be carried out again on a more organised and incremental fashion over a longer period.

“I believe that the current Government should continue with a targeted programme of decentralisation,” he said. “Unfortunately, urban areas tend to be socially segregated and, in my view, that is a great ill in our society. Having grown up in Dublin and come to live in Cornamona, I have come to appreciate the strength of community life,” he said.

Speaking at the same event, MEP McGuinness said there was more to rural Ireland than septic tanks and turf-cutting rows. “In a globalised world, there is no room for a mentality of ‘they are for us or they are against us’,” she said.

The Director of this year’s Summer School, Chairman of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, Bob Collins, said this year’s summer school is about the very future of rural Ireland.

“In current economic conditions, where the easy optimism of a few short years ago has evaporated and where the enduring presence of institutions that have supported rural communities for almost two centuries can no longer be taken for granted, there is much on which to reflect,” he said.

A NOTE of hope for the future of Ireland was heralded by Professor Kevin Whelan at the Merriman Summer School in Lisdoonvarna last week. Professor Whelan, who is the Director of the Keough Naughton University of Notre Dame Centre in Dublin, opened this year’s Summer School at the Pavillion in Lisdoonvarna.

According to Whelan, rural communities in Clare and all over Ireland remain beautiful but should be developed with reference to the local environment and the work of previous generations, rather than through other ideas imposed from outside.

“Despite our efforts to exploit it, to ravage it and to neglect it, we still live on a beautiful island. We can re- store Ireland to itself and bequeath it to Irish people not yet born. We can all still open our minds, our eyes and our hearts to it,” he said.

“Seamus Heaney does this as he experiences the Flaggy Shore in the Burren in autumn. He says, ‘When the wind and the light are working off each other’ and ‘big soft buffetings come at the car sideways and catch the heart off guard and blow it open’.”

The theme of the 2012 Summer School was ‘Thriving at the Crossroads: Rural Ireland in a Globalised World’ and this put the focus of many contributors on both the positive and negative changes which impacted on rural Ireland during the Celtic Tiger years.

“The rural countryside is the cumulative creation of countless gen- erations of people living in a specific place, the sedimentation of culture from the stream of time,” continued Professor Whelan. “It nourishes deep social and psychological wellsprings by providing a sense of continuity. It remains too, an enduring source of spiritual and artistic inspiration, stimulating creativity in our best artists. It provides an inexhaustible font of ideas on how we can best use our land, sympathetic with the wider search for ecological sustainability and socio-economic well-being.

“The countryside is the dynamic arena in which the drama of human history, the never-ending dialogue of nature and culture, has been constantly played. Cultural landscapes embody the natural history of humankind, of a long and evolving relationship with landscape.”

THE life and times of Maeve Binchy are to be honoured in County Clare following the announcement of a new short story competition at this week’s Merriman Summer School in Lisdoonvarna.

The novelist, playwright and short story writer, who passed away on July 30 following a short illness, was a long-time supporter of the Merriman Summer School and had both visited and taken part in the event on numerous occasions.

The Merriman Short Story Competition will be run by the Merriman Summer School in conjunction with the Ennis Book Club Festival and the Irish Times .

With a first prize of € 1,000, it looks set to be one of the richest short story competitions taking place in Ireland next year.

The competition was announced by multi-Tony Award-winning director Garry Hynes of Druid Thea- tre in Lisdoonvarna on Sunday.

Speaking at the closing event of this year’s Summer School, Garry Hynes said that Maeve had given inspiration and confidence to many aspiring writers, and that this competition marked Maeve’s passing in a very appropriate way.

In 2005, Maeve Binchy wrote a special short story for the Brian Merriman bicentenary celebrations. The story, entitled ‘A Week in Summer’, was read by the author at that year’s Summer School in Lis- doonvarna and was recorded live. A limited edition of the story was subsequently published in CD and booklet form and Maeve donated the royalties from the US edition of this recording to the Cumann Merriman, while she also agreed that her donation be used to award a short story prize.

Entries for the competition must be original, unpublished and unbroadcast and should not be more than 2, 500 words in length. All entries must be set in Ireland. Stories may be written in Irish or the English language. The competition is confined to writers born in or living on the island of Ireland.

The closing date for entries is October 31, 2012. The winning story will be read at the 2013 Ennis Book Club Festival and will be published in the Irish Times .

Full rules for the competition will be published on September 15 on www.merriman.ie, www.ennisbookclubfestival.com and www. clarelibrary.ie.

FOR Dan Furey, set dancing was a way of life and a labour of love – something that will be celebrated once more in Labahsheeda this weekend when the 18th annual festival bearing his name will be staged.

“We would have been one of the first set dancing weekends around the country,” says Liam Woulfe of the organising committee, “and like last year, we’re holding the festival in the last weekend in August before the school holidays end.”

Dan Furey’s dedication to set dancing was legendary in Labasheeda and beyond, with his dedication in passing on the dances of the Labasheeda area over six decades winning him a permanent place in the history of traditional dancing in Ireland.

He is best remembered by dancers for having given us the Paris Set, and the Labasheeda Reel Set, and also some solo dances such as The Priest and His Boots, Single Time and the Gabhairin Buí.

“To bring the festival about each year, there is a lot of community effort. A lot people help out. This year’s festival will be opened by Fr Tom McGrath who spent over 40 years in Kenya as a missionary priest.

“Stephen McDonagh is a local his- torian who, along with Heritage officers from Clare County Council, will give a talk on the Battery Fortress in Kilkerrin – around now is the 200th anniversary of the erection of the Napoleonic fort.

“There is usually an impromptu céili at The Battery on Sunday morning, re-enacting the tradition of locals going there to dances hosted by the British soldiers based there. It’s a unique part of the festival and there’ll be a good crowd there, with people travelling through the fields to get to the point,” he adds.

THE recession is hitting Clare couples hard with the a marked increase in the number or people getting divorced and separated in recent years. The number of divorces granted to couples in Clare grew by 40.8 per cent last year – the largest year-onyear increase since divorce was made legal in Ireland in 1996.

According to new figures for the county released by the Central Statistic Office (CSO) 69 divorces were granted to Clare couples last year with a further 66 application for di- vorce being made.

According to Paul Woulfe of the Ennis branch of the Citizens Information Service, these figures are the tip of the iceberg, with many Clare people seeking judicial separations – because they cannot afford the cost of an official divorce.

“There are many more people going down the route of a negotiated separation rather than going for a divorce. We get a lot of people coming into us because their marriages have broken up and the cannot afford the cost of a solicitor,” he told The Clare People.

“People come to us and they don’t realise that there are other option to having a full divorce, but there are. Of course there are many other couples who have been cohabiting for years and have a family – these people do not need a divorce at all and would not show up on the statistics.

“When a marriage or a relationship breaks up people have a lot of questions. A lot of them either don’t realise that you can get a separation agreement or a judicial separation and they will give you the same protections as a divorce. Really, the main difference for a divorce is that it allows the party’s involved to remarry – but a person can always get a judicial separation and then apply for a full divorce down the line at some stage.”

Meanwhile, just one annulment of marriage has been granted in Clare over the last five years. A total of five application of annulment have been made in the county since 2007, with only one being granted. An annulment is a declaration that a marriage was deemed never to be valid and is declared on rare occasions – such as when one of the people involved is found already to be legally married.

Anyone who wishes to contact the Clare Citizen’s Information Service for can call 0761 075260.

DESPITE the torrential rain, students from North Clare were in high spirits when they collected their Leaving Certificate results last Wednesday.

While each of the local secondary schools reported good results, the cream of the crop for 2012 was at the CBS in Ennistymon, where two students achieved six A1 grades and the maximum 625 points.

Lawrence Egan and James Cotter, who are both from the Ennistymon area received the full six A1s in the exam.

Both students have applied for engineering courses in university.

“Everyone was very happy and very relieved with the results. There were a few people in honours maths who were a bit concerned but they all came through it well,” said Anne Tuohy from CBS in Ennistymon.

“The bonus points are definitely attracting more people [to maths]. I just hope that it doesn’t distort the points too much for people who didn’t do honours maths. I think it will be a few years before we know for sure what it is doing to the points system.

“Overall we are very happy with the results, especially with the two students who achieved six A1s. That was a fantastic result for both – they have their full 600 points and the 25 bonus honours maths points to spare. We had a lot of very solid results along with that so they are all very pleased.”

There was also a great performance from the students at the Ennistymon Vocational School, where Ciaran Roche from Liscannor was the top points earner on 550 points.

“We are very happy with all of our students. Everyone got on really well, especially in higher level math and in Irish,” said Elizabeth Flanaghan from Ennistymon Vocational School.

“The number of people taking higher level math definitely increased this year since the bonus points were introduced. The students were definitely attracted by the extra points on offer.”

There was also a series of very good results at Scoil Mhuire in Ennistymon, where principal Seosaimhin Ui Dhomhnallain congratulated the students for all their hard work.

“It is wonderful to see the girls’ hard work rewarded. They were a wonderful group of co-operative, hard-working girls, who made a very valuable contribution to all areas of school life,” she said.

“The parents, students and teaching staff of Scoil Mhuire are to be congratulated on their splendid re sults, for their support and hard work throughout the girls’ school years and I wish them all the very best in the next stage of their lives,” was the principal’s final words.

TEACHERS have credited a new focus on maths as helping boost the results achieved by Clare students in the Leaving Cert.

As students of Coláiste Muire gathered in the Ennis school on Wednesday to collect their results, school principal Jean Pound said there had been a good response to the Project Maths initiative.

Project Maths involves the introduction of revised syllabuses for both Junior and Leaving Certificate Mathematics. It involves changes to what students learn in mathematics, how they learn it and how they will be assessed.

Much greater emphasis is also being placed on student understand- ing of mathematical concepts, with increased use of contexts and applications to enable students to relate mathematics to everyday experience.

Ms Pound said students had scored “excellent” results.

“They’re delighted with the results so far.

“The Project Maths aspect of it seemed to go well. The students seemed very thrilled. We had some very good results. A few of the students had all A1s.”

She continued, “We had 90 students altogether sitting the exams, which was our smallest group for a number of years.

“We had 13 students sitting the Leaving Cert Applied. The students achieved some very distinguished results.

“Overall I’d say it was probably on a par with other years.”

Ms Pound also urged students awaiting third-level offers from the Central Applications Office (CAP) to carefully consider their options.

“They should be very pleased with what they have achieved.

Students shouldn’t get too worried if they did not get their first choice. They will always have options.”