The Clare People Archive

TENDERS have been invited for a ferry service between Kilrush and Scattery Island.

A ferry service has been provided to the historical landmark off Kilrush by a local company for the last number of years, and once again the contract has been put to tender by the Office of Public Works.

The monastic island has seen an increase in visitors of more than 62 per cent last year, with the manager of OPW Heritage sites in the Shannon region, Pádraig Ó Ruairc, and the Scattery Island Heritage and Tourism Group working to increase that number again.

The Commissioners of Public Works are seeking the services of ferry operators for the provision of a ferry service from a designated berth at Kilrush Creek Marina to the picturesque island.

Located 2.5 kilometres off Kilrush, the island is home to a monastery founded by St Senan in the early sixth century consisting of a round tower and several churches. Visitor facilities located on the Island house some exhibition material on the history of the island and a free OPW Guide Service is provided during the tourist season or on special request.

Applications for the ferry contract are invited from those who are interested in tendering for the concession to provide a service between the OPW berth and the island for the 2014 season.

Closing dated for receipt of expressions of interest is mid-day Thursday, April 17, 2014.

AN ENNIS postman is on the verge of making a big splash in the film world with two new film credits to his name in 2014.

Local postie, Kerry Whitehouse, took up composing as a hobby a number of years ago and has been inundated with offers of work, including two films which will receive Irish releases in 2014.

Kerry worked on the sound effects and title music for Irish film ‘Somebody’s There’, which will released on DVD and Blueray across Ireland and the UK in June of this year.

He also completed the score for the American horror film ‘Slender’, which will be shown at a number of Irish film festivals in the coming months.

Indeed, Kerry has been in so much demand lately that he was considering giving up composition altogether because it was taking up too much of his time.

“It is going really well. So much so that I was considering packing it in before Christmas because I was just too busy.

“I work a full time job and the film composition has always been more of a hobby,” said Kerry.

“If the opportunity arose I’d go into it [film score composition] in a heart beat. I work in the post office and I get my fair share of bad weather going around the place.

“It is difficult though – even composers who are working on film shows in America often have another job. But if the opportunity arose I’d jump at it.”

Kerry is also in line to work on a new TV series which will deal with the events surrounding the famous Roswell alien sighting in 1947.

“I think one of the maddest things that I’ve been involved in recently is to do with the UFOs.

“I do music for a radio station in America and through that I came across Jessie Marcel, the grandson of Lieutenant Jesse Marcel – who was first on the scene at the Roswell UFO incident in 1947.

“He is putting together a new series for the Sci-Fi channel in America and I am in talks about doing that as well,” continued Kerry.

SHANNON Airport has taken to the Big Apple to promote the latest strengthening of its US network – Aer Lingus’ first year-round service to New York since 2009.

The airport kicked off the most significant week for route commencements in almost a decade as it held meetings with travel, trade and US media in New York to promote the enhanced services.

Airport chairman Rose Hynes and marketing manager Marie Slattery led the Shannon delegation and during the four-day visit also held meetings with New York-based business interests and investors with regard to the wider Shannon group activities, including members of the influential Irish diaspora.

According to the airport chairman, the American market for services into the west of Ireland is heating up. “We have had a tremendous response from the trade, which is our key audience this week, as well as US media. There is a particular demand from the US for services into the western half of the country and Shannon because of the uniqueness of the product we have.

“Shannon is, of course, the only airport on the entire Atlantic coast with direct access from the US and we are delighted to have strengthened the services this year again. The Wild Atlantic Way is also generating considerable interest. It will be the longest coastal driving route in the world and that’s the type of product the discerning US market demands,” she said.

Aer Lingus will add 31,000 seats on its transatlantic services in 2014, a significant increase in capacity over last year when it operated seven flights a week between Shannon and the US compared to 13 flights a week this year.

Said Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America Alison Metcalfe, “The Shannon region has extensive links with the US, forged over generations, and it has been a major gateway to the West of Ireland for US visitors over the years.

“Getting to the Shannon region has never been easier with great value non-stop flights from cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia with a welcome that is second to none.”

CLARE drill makers Mincon made a record profit of € 15 million last year, despite a general slowdown in the international mining sector. The Shannon-based company last week posted operational profits in excess of € 15 million for 2013, despite a sizable shrinkage in their overall sales.

The company, who famously played a key role in a mission to save a large group of Chilean miners trapped un derground for 69 days in 2010, saw their overall sales drop from € 63 million in 2012 to € 52 million last year. Despite the reduction in overall sales, Mincon managed to raise their overall profits by nearly 20 per cent over the last 12 months.

The company’s increased profits came against the background of a shrinking global mining market, with the price of precious metals continuing to decline in 2014. Mincon’s yearly sales were also hot in 2013 through by currency fluctuations in some of its key markets, particularly in South Africa and Australia.

Indeed, according to the company’s accounts, this currency fluctuation cost the company € 1.3 million in profits last year. The company determines that the profit increase has been brought about by increasing its share of the global rock-drilling products markets, which generates higher margins than what it can earn from the sale of third-party products.

Earlier this year, the company’s two biggest shareholders gave employees € 1.2 million from their own private funds to reward them for their hard work over the years. Company founder Paddy Purcell and Kevin Barry initiated the employee recognition plan, which excluded all members of senior management. The money was paid to Mincon’s 140 eligible employees across the group and was based on years of service with a payment of € 1,000 per staff member per year of service.

The company was founded in 1977 and listed on the Dublin and London stock exchanges late last year. Many of the company’s Shannon based employees have been there for a number of decades.

ENNIS Town Council yesterday heard calls for shaving foam, eggs and other messy substances to be banned from the town during certain public events such as St Patrick’s Day Parade.

The ban was called for by Cllr Mary Howard (FG) in the wake of a number of unsavoury incidents which were reported to have taken place during this year’s St Patrick’s Day festivities in Ennis.

“I think that it is obvious that if a group of 11 or 12 year-olds are buying lots of shaving foam that they are not all going home to shave their legs,” said Cllr Howard. See page 17 for more

AN ANIMAL rights group has offered a € 5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the deaths and dumping of 17 animals in Doonbeg.

The decomposing carcasses of approximately 10 horses, four cattle and three calves were discovered at the bottom of the spectacular Baltard Cliffs last week.

The animal carcasses, which have been at the scenic cliffs for up to two months, have not yet been removed as there is some difficulty in getting the proper equipment to where they are located. See page 9 for more

SARAH Keogh knows better than most the huge impact an organ donation can have on a life.

The young West Clare woman has been through a rollercoaster of emotions and experience since she was diagnosed with renal failure at just 12 years old. Since then she has received a kidney transplant, went into rejection after a few years and is back on dialysis and the transplant list again.

“What I can describe it as, you know the way you grieve for someone. When I heard the news that it had gone into rejection it was like you had nearly lost someone,” said Sarah.

For the years the kidney worked however, the now 22-year-old knew what is was like to be free of dialysis, be able to eat and drink with freedom, have energy to keep up with her friends and have her medication cut from 30 tablets a day to just five.

For the first year after her diagnosis medical professions tried to control her condition with a strict diet and medication, however when she was just 13 years old it became apparent she would have to begin home dialysis and begin the wait for a kidney.

“When I was younger I don’t think I grasped the whole concept of it really I just took it as it was but I understand it more now that I am older – the seriousness of it,” she said.

Then when she was 15 years old she received her first kidney transplant, which changed her life. After four years however, for no apparent reason, the kidney was rejected.

“When I was first in kidney failure I still had a urine output, whereas a lot of people in kidney failure don’t have that. I had the function where my kidneys would get rid of the fluid I was taking in, but it wasn’t clearing my blood. I had a looser diet and I wasn’t on fluid restitution, where as this time around I have no urine output so I am on a fluid restriction of 800 mls to a litre a day, which I find really, really hard. I am on a lot stricter diet because I don’t have any kidney function now,” she explained.

Sarah has also opted for home dialysis, which means she has access to the treatment 24 hours a day.

The Limerick Institute of Technology student uses portable bags for her dialysis. She must drain and replace fluid four times a day, a process that takes between half and hour and 40 minutes.

“If I go away for a day, say I go to Dublin on the train, then I do have to bring those bags with me, so usually I am carrying a bag with four bags in it depending on how much I have to do for the day I am gone,” she said.

Despite some of the setbacks and challenges life has put in her way, the Tullycrine student has a positive outlook for the future.

As she approaches her 23rd birthday, she is determined to live a full independent life irrespective of the constraints imposed on her by dialy- sis, food and liquid restrictions and low energy.

“With the home [dialysis] I have so much more freedom. I am in college, I can go on holidays, I hang out with my friends. I can bring it with me. Whereas Heamo you are that bit more restricted. Three days out of your week is gone really because it drains you completely,” she said. More than 40 people in Clare are on Heamo dialysis. “I sleep a lot. I go for a nap during the day for maybe two or three hours. The diet and the fluid I find very hard as well, especially when you are with friends and they might buy a bottle of water and they are able to gulp it down, where as I have to measure everything I am taking in or at least try. And even food wise as well. I am not really allowed processed food. It is very high in salt and stuff,” explained Sarah.

The second year student has her bag packed and is ready for another call from the kidney transplant team, when another kidney match is found.

She said that people who sign donor cards give people like her a great chance at life, for which she is very grateful.

Sarah looks forward again to a day when her dialysis is gone, her medication is drastically reduced and she has the freedom of a regular diet.

“I have told my family if I do get a transplant I want them to come in with a cup the size of my head, so I can have a massive cup of tea,” she said with a good humoured laugh.

IN WHAT has been hailed as a “hugely significant week” for the independent Shannon, nine new routes are starting operating out of Clare’s international airport over a five-day period.

Ryanair has added nine new routes to its Shannon services, while Aer Lingus has commenced a new service to Malaga as well as having a year-round transatlantic presence at the airport.

All in all, the 2014 summer season, which officially begins in April, will see 16 service enhancements at Shannon, including the nine new routes.

Less than 15 months after the airport was made independent, Shannon will enjoy its biggest week in almost a decade in terms of new route start-ups as Ryanair launches new services, to Munich, Paris, Faro, Warsaw, Krakow, Nice, Poitiers, Berlin, Fuerteventura, while Aer Lingus Regional kicks-off a new Bristol service.

Among the enhanced services is the now year-round Aer Lingus New York service which commenced on Sunday. This will be a six-times weekly service and is the first time Aer Lingus will have operated yearround on New York since 2009.

Aer Lingus also started a new twice-weekly Malaga service on Sunday, which will add to the significantly expanded European network to and from the airport this year.

“This week is a turning point for Shannon,” said Shannon Airport CEO Neil Pakey. “Not since 2005 has Shannon had a week like this in terms of new routes starting up and we see this as a real reward for the loyalty of our passengers across Ireland. They now have excellent choice from Shannon with 37 attractive destinations in Europe, the UK and North America.”

“Shannon Airport is a catalyst for growth for a region that stretches from Cork right up to the North West,” said Shannon chairperson, Rose Hynes. “We are the only airport across this region with transatlantic services and we worked particularly hard on developing that part of our business in 2013.

“We are delighted that this has paid off with new routes and improved connectivity. The next step for us was to grow our European route network and this week sees our efforts here bearing fruit.

“We listened to what our customers had to say and, with our airline partners, have delivered new services to nine great destinations. These new routes also connect us with destinations that have a strong inbound market and this presents a great opportunity for tourism here on the West Coast,” she added. New r out es commencing t his week fr om Sha nnon a r e:

THE late Jimmy Brohan had a simple philosophy when it came to business – be nice and treat people right.

It was a motto that informed his near 50 years working in the heart of Ennis.

A native of Ruan, Jimmy started out at John Roughan’s store just off O’Connell Square in 1963.

He worked there for 20 years before leasing and eventually buying the hardware business in the mideighties.

An incident in the year 2000 damaged the building and forced the relocation of Brohan’s to Parnell Street.

“One secret is that you have to be nice to people. If you’re nice to people and treat them right, they will come back to you. We have people coming to us since I started and now their family are coming [to us].”

That was Jimmy speaking in 2011, months before he retired from running one of the town’s best known and most loved businesses.

The interview took place in the teeth of recession as the town’s business community struggled with the impact of the economic downturn.

Jimmy had never seen it as bad. “Last year was middling but this year is very bad. People just don’t seem to have money. People that would sometimes spend € 40 would only spend € 10. They just haven’t the money to spend,” he said.

A family run business, Brohan’s was known for having a wide and varied collection of stock.

Jimmy explained, “People still come to me with the old spraying cans, copper spraying cans that the farmers would use. They are gone now with the last 30 years. They weren’t made for 30 years or more but I still have bits and piece for those.”

Jimmy typically started work at early in the morning, arranging goods outside the shop front. It’s a job he took great pride in.

“It’s good for the street. Once its nice and tidy and not all over the place. It’s not an eyesore on the street. It looks well,” he recalled.

Times were tough but Jimmy believed strongly in the importance of supporting local businesses.

He said, “If they only sold periwinkles, its better to have a door open. The worst thing you can have is to have shops closed.”

ABSENTEEISM within the health services in the mid-west, which includes County Clare, is almost twice the national target.

While no specific reason was given to explain why the figures in the region are so high, HSE area manager Bernard Gloster said “we have reduced it substantially and there is more to come, because it drives our agency costs through the roof and that is a major cost for us.”

The national target for absenteeism in the HSE is 3.5 per cent, but in the mid-west it is approximately 6.4 per cent, higher than the national average at 4.71 per cent.

“I make no apology for saying to anybody that one of the biggest demands and pressures on the staffing resourses in the mid-west remains the one focusing on absenteeism. First thing I will say on our rate of approximately 6.4 per cent in terms of the measurements and instruments we use to focus on that, is that is down from over 8 per cent and in some cases it was nine per cent so we have had a very significant focus on that,” he said. “We have where appropriate used the application of the disciplinary procedure and that is not something I consider necessarily a badge to wear on the sleeve, but when we are challenged by certain situations we are not shy in dealing with them. We have an increasingly robust focus on absent management.”

The HSE boss said that there were also a number of very genuine longterm absentee cases.

“I equally want to say on the positive balance side to be fair on staff themselves, my experience is that the majority of staff that have been out sick have a very genuine and sincere illness and reason and they don’t have repeat patterns. You would be surprised when I go to look behind some of the absenteeism figures, the number of young staff who have had incidents of cancer,” he said.

“That is why you maintain the balance with sensitivity but I can assure you in relation to the ones that are more challenging we are well on the game, we are reducing the percentage.”

Michael O’CONNELL
, 31Tullyglass Hill, Shannon. Funeral Mass today (Tuesday) at Mary Immaculate Church, Shannon at 11am, followed by burial in Illaunamanagh Cemetery. May he rest in peace.

Sean WARD
, Ugoon,Tulla.At Milford Hospice. Service at Smyth’s Funeral Home in Feakle on Tuesday at 11am, with burial afterwards in Feakle Cemetery. Family flowers only please, donations, if desired, to Milford Hospice. May he rest in peace.

Michael CAREW
, Castlebank, Launch Bar, Limerick,Ardnacrusha. Laid to rest in Relig Lua Cemetry Killaloe. Donations if desired to Cancer Research. May he rest in peace.

Patrick (Paddy) KENNEDY
, Parnell Street, Ennis. Funeral Director, Parnell Street, Ennis. Peacefully at the Galway Clinic. Laid to rest in Drumcliffe Cemetery. Donations if desired to a charity of your choice. May he rest in peace.

Patrick (Paddy) MCINERNEY
, Carrowmore, Mullagh. Suddenly. Laid to rest in Clohanes Cemetery. May he rest in peace.

Senan RYAN
, Carnacalla, Kilrush. Laid to rest in Old Shanakyle Cemetery. May he rest in peace.

Margaret KELLY
, Shannon. Unexpectedly, at Cork University Hospital. Laid to rest in St Finbarr’s Cemetery, Dunmanway. May she rest in peace.

Shirley MCNEVIN (née O’Doherty)
, 11 Corrovorrin Green, Ennis. Peacefully at the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick. Laid to rest in Drumcliffe Cemetery. May she rest in peace.

Teresa BLAKE (née McNamara)
, Ennis, Peacefully at home. Laid to rest in Drumcliffe Cemetery. May she rest in peace.

James (Jimmy) BROHAN
, Cloughleigh Road, Ennis. Suddenly. Laid to rest in Drumcliffe Cemetery. May he rest in peace.

Margaret COEN (née Flynn)
, London, and Shannon. Formerly of Creevaghbawn,Tuam. laid to rest in Creevaghbawn Cemetery. May she rest in peace.

Michael (Mick) ENRIGHT
, Doonbeg, Retired Assistant Commissioner of An Garda Síochána. Peacefully in his 93rd year. Laid to rest Esker Cemetery in Dublin. May he rest in peace.

John ENRIGHT,
Inchmore, Inch, Ennis. Laid to rest in Clarehill Cemetery, Clarecastle. May he rest in peace.

Steven KAVANAGH
, 35 Derryvinna, Clonlara. Laid to rest in Doonass Cemetery. Donations if desired to Search & Rescue. May he rest in peace.

Mary CONSIDINE (née Brody)
, Kilshanny. Laid to rest in Kilshanny Cemetery. May she rest in peace.

Vincent (Snr) CROWLEY
, Moyadda and late of Ennis Road, Kilrush. Laid to rest in NewShanakyle Cemetery. Donations, if desired, to Kilrush Community Hospital. May he rest in peace.

Betty McMAHON (née Kelly)
, 11 Derryvinna, Clonlara. Late of Templemore, CoTipperary. Laid to rest in Doonass Cemetery. May she rest in peace.

Patrick (Pat) HANRAHAN
,Ard Aoibhinn, Limerick Road, Ennis. Late of Harahan’s Supermarket, Clonroadmore, Ennis. Peacefully at Carrigoran Nursing Home. Laid to rest in Drumcliffe Cemetery. Donations if desired to the Clare branch of Alzheimer’s Society. May he rest in peace.

Mary Bridget HOWARD (née Breen)
, Tarmon, Knockerra, Kilrush. Peacefully at Cahercalla Hospital,Ennis. Laid to rest in Knockerra cemetery. Donations, if desired, to Cahercalla Hospital, Ennis. May she rest in peace.

Sadie McSWEENEY (née Sweeney)
, Wood Road, Cratloe. Laid to rest in Mount Jerome Crematorium, Dublin. May she rest in peace.

Sean O’HALLORAN
, Noughaval, Kilfenora. Peacefully, at home. Laid to rest at Noughaval cemetry. House Private onWednesday morning. May he rest in peace.

James (Jimmy) O’LEARY
, Poplarville, Ballycar, Newmarket-on-Fergus. Peacefully at the MidWestern Regional Hospital Limerick. Laid to rest in Fenloe Cemetery. Donations, if desired, to Clarecastle Day Care Centre. May he rest in peace.