The Clare People Archive

AN ENNIS woman accompanied her six-year-old daughter to a Valentine’s Day audience with pop superstar Justin Bieber last week.

Aileen Roberts Routh, who is originally from the Kilrush Road area of Ennis, is the mother of Avalanna Routh, the young cancer suffered who last week captured global media attention when she met Bieber in Manhattan.

Avalanna, who suffers from AT/ RT, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer, saw her dreams come true as she played board games and ate cakes with the pop idol.

The once in a lifetime opportunity came about after Avalanna’s sister and her babysitter started an online appeal to have the Boston girl meet the teen singer.

Thousands of people around the world responded to the campaign via social network sites Facebook and Twitter.

The teen singer later wrote on Twitter: “That was one of the best things i have ever done. she was AWESOME! Feeling really inspired now!’ before adding: ‘#MrsBieber really inspired me.”

Another tweet from Bieber to his 17 million followers read: ‘Best part of my day’.

Avalanna’s dream was realised thanks to help from the Jimmy Fund, a charity that has helped children fight cancer for more than 60 years.

Her meeting with Bieber garnered huge public attention in America with family appearing on the popular Today Show .

“It was wonderful, just another fun moment,” said Aileen of Avalanna’s meeting with the singer.

Avalanna was diagnosed with AT/ RT when she was nine months old. AT/RT typically affects the brain, but the tumors can occur on the spine and elsewhere in the central nervous system.

She has received treatment at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The average survival time from diagnosis is approximately 12 months, according to America’s National Cancer Institute. As a result of an intense, multipronged therapy regimen, developed by doctors and other researchers at the Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center, a few young children have been cured, while others, including Avalanna, have been given a better shot at long-term survival.

Speaking to American media, Ms Roberts Routh, who has lived in America for the past 10 years, said her daughter has fought a brave battle against cancer. She said, “She’s beaten all the odds. It’s a very aggressive, rare disease, and she’s been in treatment for five and a half years.”

CONCERNED parents, teachers and community leaders heard last night how budget cuts to education will be detrimental to school communities in Clare.

At a mass meeting held in the West County Hotel, Sean Mc Mahon, Clare executive member of the INTO, called on the Minister for Education and Skills to rethink his education budget cuts particularly to disadvantaged (DEIS) and to small primary schools.

“The budget approach is fundamentally flawed, misguided and will be detrimental to school communities throughout Clare. What is needed is a coherent, long-term and resourced strategy for sustainable schools into the future. Instead what we have are budget proposals aimed at forcibly amalgamating some small schools by cutting teachers.

“The department should wait for the outcomes of a value for money report which it is undertaking. INTO has submitted our views on the importance and benefits of small schools in rural communities. They are very much aware that a programme of amalgamation of approximately 1,000 small rural schools has already taken place in the late ‘60s early ‘70s. The decline of many rural communities was, in fact, blamed on that policy of forced amalgamations or closures,” he said.

“This budget is being used as a blunt instrument to cut frontline services in small schools and disadvantaged schools. The money saved is going from education to feed the massive debt created by greedy bankers and speculators.”

Decisions about small schools in rural communities should be about ensuring the best education for pupils regardless of location. This is a complex matter and many issues need to be considered before embarking on a policy that will see some schools close, the crowd heard.

“We need to look at enrolment patterns and trends, investment in school buildings past and present and respect for language and religious diversity,” said Mr McMahon.

“Primary consideration must be given to the needs of pupils, their parents and the wider community. We also need to come up with alternatives to forced closure and pressurised amalgamations.”

The Minister was called on to deliver the three R’s: reversal of budget cuts to disadvantaged schools; removal of retrospection (basing teacher numbers on the previous year) and realign the additional education support available to the number of pupils in the school rather than the number of class-teachers.

AT LEAST one woman from Clare travels to the UK each week for an abortion according to figures released to The Clare People . In 2010 seventy five women who gave addresses in County Clare attended clinics for pregnancy terminations in the UK, a figure 25 per cent higher than those who sought terminations just two years earlier in 2008, (60).

According to the figures, provided by the Department of Health in the UK, 216 women from the county made the journey to Britain between the years 2008 and 2010 to terminate a pregnancy. The Clare People were only supplied with the number of Clare addresses, not any of the names or addresses of those who used the UK services.

In 2009, the figure was 81. This number then dropped slightly to 75 in 2010, but still shows an increase of 25 per cent on 2008. This figure may be higher, as not all women give their actual address at abortion clin- ics in the UK. As many as 2,012 Irish women did not state their county of residence when seeking a termination between 2008 and 2010. Women from Clare represent 1.6 per cent of the Irish terminations carried out in England in these years.

Abortion numbers for Clare addresses are quite low in comparison to neighbouring Limerick and Galway. Approximately 460 women from Limerick travelled to the UK to seek terminations in the last three years, while Galway women account for 570 Irish terminations. However, these counties have large urban populations while Clare would be considered as a rural county.

According to prices quoted by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the cost of a termination can range from £525 to £1,660 for a surgical termination during the 19 to 24 week mark. Anyone who may be struggling to cope with an unplanned pregnancy can call Cura in Clare at 065-29905.

THE President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, has failed to accept an offer made by Clare County Council to host a Civic Reception in his honour, more than three months after the invitation was originally made.

President Higgins, who spent many of his formative years living in Newmarket-on-Fergus, was invited to be honoured by the local authority on November 14 last, but has yet to indicate whether he will be interested in receiving the honour or not.

This apparent snub comes after President Higgins topped the poll in Clare during last Octobers election, receiving 20,828 first-preference votes.

A spokesperson from Clare Coun- ty Council confirmed to The Clare People yesterday that no response, beyond the standard acknowledgment letter for all correspondence, has yet been received from Áras an Uachtarán.

The invitation to the Civic Reception was suggested by former Labour councillor Christy Curtin (IND) who yesterday said that he understand that President Higgins has had a very busy couple of months.

“I am very confident that he will come to Clare. He has been a regular visitor to Clare over the years and has visited the Willie Clancy Week up here in Miltown on a number of occasions,” said Cllr Curtin.

CLARE farmers may be forced to assemble every animal on their farm for all future cattle inspections, should new inspections requirements being put forward by the Department of Agriculture come into force.

The new assembly rules were just one of the main sticking points when a team of senior officials from the Department of Agriculture met officials from the farming organisations in Portlaoise last week.

The other main point of conflict was unannounced inspections, with IFA Deputy President, Eddie Downey, strongly rejected the idea that any spot checks should take place.

“Unannounced inspections are totally unacceptable and IFA is demanding that no inspector arrives on a farm without reasonable prior notice. There need to be better coordination of inspections and the avoidance of duplication as well as increased tolerances, reduced penalties and a strict adherence to prompt payment deadlines. Farmers will not tolerate a repeat of last year, where applicants selected for inspection encountered long payment delays.” he said.

“The assembly of animals involves a major additional workload, creates undue stress, adds considerable costs, and is an additional and unnecessary farm safety risk.”

Downey, who described some of the new proposals as “way over the top” saying that the department inspectors should be able to obtain a reasonable sample of tags without the necessity to bring all animals into the farmers’ yard.

He also called on the Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney (FG), to intervene to ensure a more farmer friendly inspection regime. Pressure is also being placed on the Minister for Agriculture to ensure that the delays caused by maps and digitisation not be repeated in 2012.

“There is now significant advantages in submitting on-line SFP applications. Apart from the commitment to be processed and paid earlier by the Department, farmers and their agents can make changes to their applications and maps on line,” said Downey.

“Given the importance of direct payments to farm income it was vital that farmers make sure that their SFP application is made correctly and on time.

“This application is necessary for all schemes including the Single Farm Payment, Disadvantaged Areas, REPS 4, AEOS, Sheep Grassland, Suckler Cow Welfare, Dairy and Beef Discussion groups – it is absolutely essential that no mistakes are made.”

AFTER four years at the helm of the largest farming organisation in the county, Ennis farmer Michael Lynch has called time on his period as Clare Chairperson of the IFA.

At last week’s IFA AGM in Ennis, Michael handed over the reins of power to Ardnacrusha farmer Andrew Dundas.

Over the last four years, Michael has overseen some of the most interesting times in Irish farm history. After taking over from long-term IFA stalwart Seamus Murphy in 2008, he was immediately put to work dealing with falling commodity prices, disastrous weather conditions and pressures both from Brussels and the WTO.

“I think 2008 and 2009 were the most difficult years. We had very difficult weather conditions in those years and a collapse in prices, especially in 2009. It was a very expensive year, feed was scarce and the weather was so bad. A lot of farmers lost a lot of money in that year,” said Michael.

“There has been so much going on in farming over the last few years and a lot of challenges. Even when the prices and the weather started to improve, we had the cutbacks in all the schemes – in the REPS, the Retirement Schemes and the Installa- tion Aid for new farmers.

“There are always problems but I guess that 2008 and 2009 were the busiest years – we were certainly kept going then. I had a very good team of officers around me, which makes it a lot easier, and a good staff as well.

“It was an enjoyable experience though. A lot of the time you might be cursing, trying to round up people to go to Dublin for a protest when people are busy and don’t want to do. It is demanding but there is great ca- maraderie with the people that you meet, both in Clare and at the national level.”

Michael also paid tribute to incoming chairman Andrew Dundas.

“Andrew is a good chap. He’s a good farmer and he has plenty of experience. The organisation is in very safe hands for the next few years,” he said.

“He is a very capable and intelligent guy who is a good operator himself and will make a great job of it.” In next week’s Clare People , Andrew Ha milton spea ks to the new IFA cha ir person Andrew Dunda s who will la y out his vision for fa r ming in Cla re over the next t wo yea rs.

A SPECIAL concert to help save the life of an 11-month-old baby who needs a life-saving operation in America will take place in Ennistymon’s Teach Ceoil this Sunday afternoon, February 19.

Baby Sergio O’Connor was born on March 5 last with a rare condition which prevents him from eating, drinking or swallowing. Sergio, who is half of a set of twin boys, has only left hospital on two occasions since he was born, one being Christmas Day which he was able to spend with his family and twin brother Tadhg.

Sergio and Tadhg were born into one of Ennistymon’s best loved traditional music families, with his father Donal, his grandmother Ann O’Connor (nee Dillon) and his uncle, the former TG4 Young Musician of the Year, Liam O’Connor, all taking part in countless comhaltas sessions over the year.

While Sergio’s family are now based in Dublin, they still retain the original family home on Church Street in Ennistymon, where they spent much of their summers before Sergio was born.

“The little boy has only had two short trips out of the hospital since he was born. He got out for a few hours on Christmas Day but they had to take all of the gear with them from the hospital – he is dependent on equipment to breathe and be fed at this point,” said local comhaltas member Joe Rynne.

“Everyone who is performing at the concert is doing so free of charge and they have been really great to offer their services for the day. We do sessions in Ennistymon during the summer and we put on a great show.

“As well as the music, we will have a good lot of comedy on Sunday – we will have seanf hocail, storytellers, dancers, singers and loads and loads of musicians. We will have a lot of local talent but, as well as that, we will some people travelling from Galway and other places for it. So it should be a great show.

“The O’Connor’s have been part of the sessions in Ennistymon for years and years. Even before they got the building in Ennistymon, going back maybe 30 years or more, they used to attend sessions that we hosted out in a café in Lahinch. They would have been playing at the sessions and, when they were very small, they would even have been dancing ‘The Siege of Ennis’ and taking part in everything.”

A number of other fundraising events have taken place, both locally and in Dublin, in an effort to raise money for baby Sergio’s operation.

A bag-packing event took place in Fitzpatrick’s SuperValu in Ennistymon last weekend, while another fundraising event took place in Willie Daly’s Pub in Ennistymon the January.

Tickets are available at the door on the night for € 10.

LAHINCH artist Michael Hanrahan will meet with American ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, later this Tuesday and present him with a one-of-a-kind painting to mark the historic visit of Barack Obama to Ireland last year.

The painting, which illustrates Obama’s famous ‘Is féidir linn’ speech in College Green last May, will be brought by Ambassador Rooney to Washington later this year where it will be hung in the White House to commemorate the historic visit.

This completes a famous hat-trick for Hanrahan after both the Queen and former Irish president Mary McAleese accepted a painting marking their famous state visit last year. Hanrahan will become the first Irish artist to have paintings hanging in Áras an Uachtaráin, the White House and as part of the Royal British Collection in Buckingham Palace at the same time.

“It really has been an unbelievable six months for me,” said Mr Hanrahan yesterday. “I was contacted by Trina Vargo, founder of the US-Ireland Alliance, and she asked me to complete two paintings – one which I am donating to the George Mitchell Foundation and another which will be going to the White House.

“The painting for the White House is taken from the famous ‘Is féidir linn’ speech which took place in College Green. The painting is in the back of the car now and I will be presenting it to Dan Rooney tomorrow morning [February 14], and the Ambassador will then bring it to the White House. Dan Rooney has Clare connections – his brother Pat Rooney has a house in Lahinch.

“It really has been an amazing six months for me. I’m not being paid for any of these works. It’s such a great honour to be able to donate these paintings.”

Michael’s rise in Irish artistic circles has been nothing short of meteoric. He came to art late in his life, having worked as a banker in both Ireland and the UK. After taking early retirement from his position in the bank, long before the financial collapse, Michael set about creating a new career for himself as a painter.

Over the last five years, the Lahinch native has gone from strength to strength – culminating in him being chosen as the only artist to be granted official accreditation for the official visit of the Queen last year.

LOCAL authorities in Clare have less than three months to sign up to the Croke Park Agreement under which public service workers are obliged to increase their working hours.

This follows on from a survey of local authority working hours around the country which has shown that the average working week of public service working in Clare local government is one of the lowest in the country.

Staff in Clare local authorities are working just 33 hours a week, in comparison with staff in the private sector who work a 39-hour week.

This figure is shared by Meath County Council and Galway City Council. At Galway County Council, the figure is even lower with staff working 32.92 hours a week.

When contacted by The Clare People , Clare County Council that the deadline for local authority workers to fall into line with workers in the private sector is two months away.

“This is a national issue that remains outside of Clare County Council’s control as reform has been delayed due to an ongoing national dispute with unions,” said Eddie Power, Senior Executive Officer, Clare County Council.

“This point has already been made publicly by the Office for Local Authority Management (OLAM). The implementation date for the standardisation of working arrangements across the local government sector is April,” he added.

The increase in working hours that is expected to come into effect in April comes in the wake of staffing levels at Clare County Council hav- ing been reduced to just over 800 over the past six years.

In 2006 there were 1,002 people working in Clare County Council with the reduction over the past six years amounting to a 20 per cent, while payroll costs have been pared back from € 44.8m to € 36.8m in that time.

It is expected that there will be further reductions in staffing levels in 2012, while Taoiseach Enda Kenny has warned that local authority workers in all counties will have to sign up to the terms of the Croke Park Agreement.

CLARE’S Irish Wheelchair Association is to lose two thirds of its Community Employment (CE) funding this year.

The organisation that supports people with limited mobility throughout the county has had its funding slashed by € 16,000, from € 24,000 to € 8,000.

As many as 16 people are employed through the CE scheme providing administrative assistance to the charity as well as driving the buses, organising events and courses and providing support and assistance to the service users.

Up to now the local IWA was allocated € 1,500 for each CE participant – € 500 for training and € 1,000 for materials.

Johnny Crawford, Supervisor with the Irish Wheelchair Association in Clare, explained that this funding provided a vital role in delivering services to IWA users.

“In our context we have quite a lot of mandatory training to do, especially relating to heath and safety, manual handling, adult and child protection. We have a menu of mandatory courses to do that pretty much eats into the training budget. Beyond that if there is funding left over we offer it to people for something they want to do themselves outside of the mandatory courses,” he said.

The € 1,000 allocation is used to help fund the running costs of the office, help pay the rent, put diesel in the buses and cover other material costs.

It is through this funding, and the work of the 16 dedicated CE workers, that the IWA in Clare can provide outreach services in Cois Na hAbhana, Ennis, on Tuesday, Miltown Malbay on Monday and alternate between Kilrush and Ennistymon on Wednesday. An outreach programme is also provided in the family resource centre in Killaloe and Friday night is the social gathering for the younger people.

“Everything we do is driven by desires of service users. It is their programme,” he said.

He added the cut in funding would put added pressures on the charity’s fundraising, which has already been affected by the recession. “The loss is huge and it will affect the services without a doubt,” he said.

The CE programme is designed to help people who are long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged people to get back to work by offering part-time and temporary placements in jobs based within local communities.