The Clare People Archive

A MEETING attended by 85 people in Ennis last week heard serious concerns from the business community about the impact proposed changes to the Ennis and Environs Development Plan could have on retail activity in the town centre.

An element of the variation of the development plan, which is to be voted on by members of Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council, proposes changing the zoning provision for a site at the junction of the Limerick Road and the Tobertascáin Road. If passed the site would be deemed suitable, under the Ennis and Environs Development Plan, as a location for a new district centre.

Michael Lynch Ltd is seeking planning permission at the five-hectare site for the development of large retail park, which businesses fear could have a negative impact on the town centre. Documents filed with Ennis Town Council state that the project has the potential to create up to 500 jobs in construction and retail. Permission is also being sought at the same site for the development of a new access road.

The applications are currently the subject of a further information request. The proposed variation to the development plan is the subject of a lengthy submission by Ennis Chamber of Commerce.

The submission outlines the Chamber’s concerns at the possibility of a new district centre being developed away from the town centre.

The matter was discussed at a meeting in the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis last Tuesday.

Brian O’Neill, Vice President of Ennis Chamber, told the meeting that the review of the variation was commissioned by the Chamber and the streets associations of Ennis.

He said Ennis Chamber represents 230 businesses, employing over 4,000 people.

He said the review had been un- dertaken due to concern over the potential development of a new district centre away from the town centre.

Michael Leahy, architect and urban planner, said the submission was not an assessment of the Tobertascáin application. He explained that the variation would allow for the development of a new district centre. He warned of a “donut effect” whereby all retail activity would be attracted from the town centre to the outskirts. Mr Leahy said cars exiting the site would turn left on the motorway. “It’s a possibility that there would be very little benefit to the town centre.”

Mr Leahy said businesses are very concerned about the proposed dis- continuance of the requirement for a sequential test – a test requires that any applicant for a substantial retail development must first show that there are no suitable locations closer to the town centre than that which is proposed.

He added, “The location of the development is likely to act as a counter-magnet to the town centre.”

Businessman Oliver Moylan said the lack of a suitable retail mix is harming the town centre. He urged councillors who will vote on the proposed variation to “wake up” and oppose it. He said, “The town is dying in the centre and anyone with a brain can see that we don’t need this.”

THE COUNTY’S dog warden has been forced to contend with abuse from several dog owners in Shannon in recent weeks.

Frankie Coote told The Clare People that Shannon is a blackspot for roaming dogs and said that many dog owners are not facing up to the laws that exist.

He said that the issue of roaming dogs is more prevalent in Shannon than in any other part of the county. Kilrush and Shannon were the blackspots in the past, but Kilrush is now less of a headache than it was.

“We have never worked harder than what we are doing in Shannon at the moment,” said Frankie Coote.

He has been forced to contact the gardaí, after dog owners verbally abused him on numerous occasions in recent weeks.

“Shannon is the worst at the moment. I have had to have the guards out with me in the last few months. I’ve issued fines and warnings and taken away several dogs from there,” he said.

“More and more people are getting abusive,” he added.

“If I go to a call in Ennis, it’s rare I have to contact the guards,” he said.

He made the comments as Shannon Town Council has been asked to contact Mr Coote amid concerns over the huge number of stray dogs in the town.

Fine Gael councillor Vincent Cole- man has placed a motion on the issue, which is due to be discussed at a monthly meeting of the council this (Tuesday) evening. Mr Coleman has said the issue is “beginning to cause problems once again”.

Mr Coote said he has received sev eral complaints about dogs running around without leads in sports areas including Lees Road and the fairgreen in Ennis.

“People don’t realise they have to keep their dogs on leads,” he added.

He is pleased with the reduction in the number of dogs roaming around in Kilrush. “Kilrush has improved. There has been a marked improvement,” he said.

In general, there are multiple com plaints about wild dogs on a daily basis. “I could be dealing with 10 complaints some days over dogs being loose, dangerous behaviour and barking,” he said.

RESIDENTS of Francis Street awoke with a bang on Monday morning when a delivery truck bashed into a pillar at the historic Franciscan Friary.

The incident occurred at around 7.30am at the entrance to the Friary. No one was injured when the delivery truck accidentally collided with the pillar, sending loose piles of broken stonework.

Details of the accident were provided to Gardaí. A Garda spokesman said there was “nothing untoward” about the incident, which he said resulted from a “truck clipping a pillar”.

The spokesman said all details have been provided to the Guardian of the Friary.

According to a history of building, “The precise date of foundation of the Franciscan Friary in Ennis is unknown but it is likely to have been in existence by 1250.

“The nearby residence of the O’Brien kings of Thomond at Clonroad probably attracted the friars to the site and the O’Brien’s were its chief patrons throughout the medieval period.

“The first substantial friary buildings were constructed on an island in the late thirteenth century under the patronage of Toirdhealbhach O’Brien who died in 1306 and may have been buried there.”

A new chapel was opened in Bow Lane in 1830 and the present friary at Willow Bank House was obtained in 1856. The friary church was officially opened on 11 June 1892. The present friary is the Novitiate house for the Irish and British Provinces of the Franciscans.

CLARE County Council are poised to make the final grant allocation to Rural Resettlement Ireland for four once-off houses in west Clare that were inspired by a local community’s desire to save its local school from closure.

The four houses are being built by the Kilbaha-based national organisation in Tullycrine and Knockaderry on the back of funding from the Department of the Environment to the tune of € 400,000 and now a supplementary grant of over € 50,000 from Clare County Council.

“It’s a grant of € 56,670,” Clare County Council staff officer Deirdre O’Keeffe told The Clare People. “Kilrush area councillors have given approval but it now has to go before the monthly meeting of Clare County Council this October.

“The way it works is that there will be final budget costs submitted by the quantity surveyor for the houses. Rural Resettlement Ireland have reached the fund they are looking for and we have to go back to the Department of Environment to sanction that approval. We did that a while back and now we have to go before the council to get the councillors approval for that,” Ms O’Keeffe added.

The four houses are six years in planning, being part of an RRI plan to build 11 houses in depopulated parts of west Clare that were lodged with Clare County Council.

At the time RRI chief Jim Connolly revealed that plans for the four houses in Tullycrine and Knockaderry were lodged in direct response to a call from the chairman of Tullycrine national school board of management.

“We are working alongside schools by bringing in families to ensure that the schools’ future is secure,” Mr Connolly said.

Mary Lynch, one of two teachers at Tullycrine national school, said that the four new families moving into the area would mean the difference between Tullycrine being a one or a two-teacher school. “We currently have 12 pupils at the school and that is just enough to justify two teachers. But if four new families move into the area, that will help secure the future of the school.”

The house-building project was stalled for a number of years, before Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Michael Finneran in response to a parliamentary from Clare Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, revealed in 2010 that “the project being advanced by Rural Resettlement Ireland at Tullycrine and Knockadereen” was included in his department’s € 157m budget for voluntary and social housing.

“Clare County Council will advise the housing body with regard to the procedures for drawing down the funding in accordance with the terms and conditions of the relevant schemes,” he added.

A FREE event aimed at helping parents to recognise the early signs of suicide in their teenage children will take place in Ennistymon later this evening, October 4.

The event, which is being organised by the North West Clare Family Resource Centre will see the HSE’s Suicide Resource Officer, Bernie Carroll, talk to parents about what to look out for in their children and what they can do.

“It really is an excellent talk. Infor- mation about this is power and as a parent, if you have information, then you know where you can go and what you can do if you notice something,” said Barbara Ó Conchúir, Community Development Worker with the North West Clare Family Resource Centre.

“I think a lot of parents can feel powerless when they are faced with an issue like suicide. I think the talk can help show parents what they need to do but also it can show them the supports that are there to help if they are not able to do it themselves. I think that the talk takes the fear out of the subject of suicide and that is great for parent and gives them the feeling that they can do something about it.”

The suicide prevention event is an early taster of a number of events planned to take place in North Clare to mark World Mental Health Week – which runs from October 10 to 14.

A series of four events are being organised by the Ennistymon Interagency Network and the North Clare Mental Association under the theme of ‘Building Resilience Together’.

“The event will kick of next Monday with laughter yoga at the new An Grianán Resource Centre. This centre is a great resource for us know and it gives us a place to run events like this,” continued Barbara.

“On October 13 they have a session called Happy Parents, which is an introduction to parenting run by Clarecare, while later that evening there is a Happy Teens event organised by Clare Youth Services.

“The following day there will be a musical evening with the Scoil Mhuire School Choir, Ennis Gos- pel Choir and Toonta Ceoil, which will take place at the Lahinch Seaworld. The whole theme of the week is building resilience so it is about getting people out to do things that make them feel well as well.”

The free suicide talk will take place at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon from 7.30pm later today, October 4.

For more information or to book any of these events call the North West Clare Family Resource Centre on 065 7071144 or email info@northwestclarefrc.ie.

THE family of a young Shannon man who is undergoing treatment in the US for a brain tumour have appealed this week for assistance to help cover the costs.

Keith Gibbons (34) is currently with his wife Breda in Texas on clinical trials for the tumour. Keith was initially diagnosed four years ago.

“We really hope that one day we can say the treatment has worked and finally we may be able to get on with our lives like every other couple in their 30s. Keith so deserves this to happen to him as he is the most amazing man,” Breda told The Clare People

A DANGEROUS and organised armed criminal gang has been targeting homes in Ennis and East Clare over the past two weeks, resulting in a large increase in the number of recent house break-ins in the county.

The gang, which were described as being not afraid to ‘take on a group of gardaí’, is operating in a co-ordinated fashion across three jurisdictions and are the subject of a major garda investigation.

Speaking at a public meeting of the Joint Policing Committee in Sixmilebridge last night, Clare Garda Chief Superintendent John Kerin said that the gardaí are monitoring the group and soon hope to be able to make a major breakthrough in their investigations.

“We have had an upsurge in burglaries in Ennis and East Clare in the last two weeks and 90 per cent of these burglaries are being undertaken by one criminal gang.

“We know who they are, we know the cars that they are using and there is an extensive investigation taking place across three jurisdictions in relation to this group,” said Chief Supt Kerin.

“They are very serious criminals. They are an organised group of serious criminals and they wont be afraid to take on a group of guards.”

It was also confirmed at last night’s meeting that gardaí in Clare have been in contact with the Armed Response Unit in relation to policing the gang.

Meanwhile, Gardaí have promised that there won’t be a repeat of last Halloween when residents were “trapped in the homes” in parts of Sixmilebridge.

The town was the sight of serious anti-social behaviour last year when a campaign to “Come to Sixmilebridge for a Riot” was started on Facebook.

Supt Kerin committed to increasing garda activity in the town over the Halloween period and to investigating any illegal activity in the Cappa Lodge area.