The Clare People Archive

THE NUMBER of companies in Clare to find themselves on the rails has more than trebled in the last four years.

25 Clare companies went into re- celvership, examinership or liquida- tion in the year ended December 31, compared to seven during 2005.

The figures released by financial advisory firm, FGS show that just one in three examinerships were successful last year. One of the com- panies which rallied and stayed open with the aid of examinership was the Clare-based Lynch hotel group.

In all 1,570 Irish companies went into receivership, examinership or liquidation last year. The largest cas- ualties have been in the construction industry with 593 companies in this sector – 37 per cent of the total.

And most worrying is that the in- formation does not point to a slow- down as 28 per cent of the failures occurred in the last three months of 2009.

THE proposed wind farm at Slieve Callan will have a number of “slight” impacts on the elements of the sur- round environment, according to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) lodged with planner at Clare County Council last week.

Along with some short term dif- ficulties during the construction phase the EIS has flagged some

longer term environmental concern in relation to the project.

These concerns are in relation to the noise generated by the windfarms and traffic flow in the Baer.

In addition to this the proposal ar- gues that the windfarm will have a significant positive impact on tour- ism in Clare.

According to the EIS, noise pol- lution from windfarms can come

both from the internal workings of the wind farm as well as the noise of the blades cutting through the wind.

‘Advances in turbine technology and design have resulted in reduced noise emissions. Above wind speeds of eight to twelve metres per second, background noise begins to exceed turbine noise.

“Therefore it is within wind speeds range of four to eight metres per sec-

ond that turbine noise is typically most audible,” read the EIS.

“At wind speeds greater than eight metres per second, noise generated by wind has the effect of largely masking wind turbine noise.”

The document also states that there is a slight possibility of injury to humans as a result of frozen ice building up on the turbines.

“The guidelines state that there is a very remote possibility of injury

to people from flying fragments of ice or from a damaged blade,” read the EIS.

“However, most blades are com- posite structures with no bolts or separate components and the danger is therefore minimised.”

Each windfarm will also be fitted with a special anti-vibration sen- sors, which is designed to detect any imbalance caused by icing on the blades.

THE Slieve Callan Wind Farm will generate more than €750,000 a year for the 30 farmers whose land could form part of the proposed de- velopment. According to documents lodged with Clare County Council last week, the proposed wind farm will generate at least €775,000 for the land owners – who will retain ownership of their land, as well as €40,000 to local community groups and €500,000 for Clare County Council.

This means over the first 20 years of the project the local landowners stand to gain more than €15 million while Clare County Council will benefit to the tune of €10 million.

The proposed development consists of 31 wind turbines, each 80 metres in height and with a three blade ro- tary blade with a diameter of 90 me- BKey

Should this project go ahead in it’s current form it would become the largest wind energy facility on the is- land of Ireland, dwarfing the overall output of the current largest, the Al- tahullion windfarm near Dungiven in Northern Ireland.

According to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) lodged with Clare County Council last week the plant has the ability to generate elec- tricity for 59,189 homes, or roughly the combined number of households in Clare and Limerick City.

This would mean that the entire site would produce roughly the same amount of electricity as the Ard-

nacrusha Hydroelectric plant, which is currently Ireland main source of green energy.

Construction on the site 1s likely to cost in excess of €200 million with more than 40 per cent of this outlay,

or €80 million to be spent in relation to on-site works. It is envisioned that in excess of 250 people will be em- ployed on site during the 18 months of construction.

According to the EIS, the declining population and low socio-economic standing of the Slievecallan study area make it the ideal spot for the de- velopment of such a large scale wind energy facility.

“The analysis of census data for the study area shows that population growth has been significantly lower here than at county and national lev- el, with population decline recorded between 2002 and 2006,” it says.

“Overall, the electoral division that make up the study area were catego- rised as being in the ‘20 per cent most extremely deprived’ and °*20 per cent somewhat deprived’ groupings.”

A CLARE woman yesterday told a court that she had a “volatile” rela- tionship with the man accused of raping her at gunpoint.

She revealed she “stopped count- NOTA DACs OOOO MB DO CommO OCoummO TUN] left her house during the first year of their relationship because “it was getting ridiculous”.

A 44-year-old man has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to three counts of rape, two counts of anal rape, two counts of oral rape and one count each of false imprison-

ment, threatening to kill by shooting, threatening to disfigure with a knife, ageravated burglary and possessing a shotgun with intent to endanger life. He pleaded guilty in December 2008 to assaulting the woman but CLSeDCe Me OUIABU NISMO MMU BINOME NO CoMEcAIDO yA UE| the offences are alleged to have oc- curred at her Clare home on Septem- ber 9, 2007.

Under cross-examination yester- day, the woman agreed that there were many “fallings out” between her and her ex-partner which were generally followed by their love life resuming.

She denied she was drunk during their first argument around Christ- mas 2004 shortly after he had moved in with her and she had told him she “felt” pregnant with their child.

She denied she hit the man with a brush on that occasion but admitted throwing one at him around the time of the alleged rape when he turned up at her house without her consent.

It was put to the woman that gardai intervened during another “furious argument” with the accused about selling property on eBay around eight months after the birth of their oF

The woman agreed the accused phoned gardai after she had kicked some of the property arranged on the living room floor, but explained she did no damage and smashed her own vase against the kitchen wall in reac- tion to the Garda summons.

She said that she and the accused had been in financial trouble at the time and that she was “extremely an- noyed” with him selling the property since he had already spent the sales money on a motorbike and used car.

She said a neighbour dropped her baby back to the house after she locked her ex-partner outside and

when gardai arrived he “gave them the impression” she’d locked both fa- ther and child out.

She agreed that gardai let her choose between letting the child stay with a social worker or giving the baby to her partner for the night.

She agreed she had been drinking earlier that day but denied she was drunk. She said it was Garda duty to call a social worker when responding to domestic incidents where there al- cohol is involved.

The trial continues before Mr Jus- tice Paul Carney and a jury of seven women and four men.

AFTER two years of fundraising, the first 50 of the 200 volunteers with the Building of Hope Project have arrived in Kenya.

Fr Martin Keane is pictured laying the foundation stone for the training centre which the Clare volunteers will build over the next eight weeks.

Celebrating Mass for the newly arrived volunteers on Sunday, Fr Martin told them that the founda- tions were made not just of sand and mortar, but of the hope that will help rebuild lives.

The Cranny priest ministers to the poorest of Mombasa’s people in his parish of Migombani.

The centre will be a place where they aquire work skills and qualifi- cations which can rescue them from a life of degradation and hunger.

AFTER the 2004 FA Cup final in which Manchester United easily overcame Millwall inspired by 19 year old Portuguese winger Chris- tiano Ronaldo, his tormented marker that day Robbie Ryan famously ad- mitted “I have never played against anybody like that in my life and to be honest I was pleased to be taken off”.

At 66”, with an ease of touch, graceful lithe and pace, not to men- tion a ruthless eye for goal not seen in the county in quite a while, that quote could have easily been attrib- uted to 19 year old Darach Honan in 2009, whose devastating perform- ances against Limerick, Waterford and Galway ensured that Clare were firmly on route to a first ever All-Ire- land Under 21 title.

Of course, while those individual displays deservedly earned the for- ward national recognition, his huge potential has been noted for some time by keen hurling observers. Part of the County minor team that shocked Cork in their own back yard in 2008 and indeed the Under 21 side that were so cruelly denied victory in the Munster final later that summer, Honan did have better luck on the domestic front as Clonlara secured a remarkable treble of a first Under

21A championship as well as a senior league and championship success. It was enough to earn him the Munster Minor player of the year and he car- ried that form into 2009, now a year wiser and therefore infinitely more difficult to stop.

Clonlara’s defence of their Under 21 title fell at the first hurdle but they did retain their Clare Cup crown and just missed out on a historic back-

to-back double when beaten in the county final by Cratloe. However, it was in the county colours that Honan really blossomed. Part of a full-forward line triumvirate along- side county seniors Caimin Morey and Colin Ryan (who had scored 12 points in his full Munster champion- ship debut against Tipperary), Honan and Co. simply tore a ragged Limer- ick apart in Cusack Park in July, ac-

cumulating 4-15 out of Clare’s total of 4-22 to set up a second successive Munster final appearance, this time against Waterford.

After bagging 1-4 in that opening game, Honan was thirsty for more and duly came to Clare’s rescue with a match winning 2-2 to his name. If the first goal was an clever instinctive flick, then the second was a trade- mark Honan major, turning his man

on the wing before arrowing his way towards goal to turn the tie decisively in Clare’s favour.

However, there was a lot more to come from the Clonlara teenager. In what appeared a personal duel with Galway’s Joe Canning in the AIl- Ireland semi-final, the pair traded blows in what proved to be the most absorbing hurling game of the year. Canning may have led the way with 4-7 but Honan’s contribution of 2-4 and his constant threat and supply to others aptly earned him the man-of- the-match award.

Suffering from a hamstring injury and being double if not treble teamed at times in the All-Ireland decider against Kilkenny, he still played his part in a memorable day for Clare hurling and when the dust settled on that championship win, went on to win the Bord Gais Break Through Under 21 Player of the Year along with the Munster GAA Under 21 Player of the Year awards.

It meant that he was a shoe-in for Ger O’Loughlin’s county senior pan- el for 2010 and equally a certainty for The Clare People’s Sports Star of the Year.

2009 presented an exciting new dawn for Clare camogie as they am- bitiously met the double challenge of playing at the top level in both league and championship head on in a bid to establishing the county as a new senior force.

After several attempts during the decade, Clare finally made _ that breakthrough on the back of an un- precedented 2008 in which a Nation- al League Division 2 and All-Ireland AUT eb Ce) MMOL O(c) Rom UITDO A aRcecDuIEsIen

However, the beginning of 2009 also brought great change in Clare camogie. Orla Considine was ush- ered in as county chairperson, Clare subsequently entered two adult teams for league and championship for the first time (one at senior and one at intermediate level) and a new man- agement team of Bertie Sherlock, Catherine O’Loughlin, Kevin Ryan, John Sheedy and Fintan McNamara was introduced to guide both panels into the new unchartered waters.

In hindsight, it was perhaps too demanding to initiate such an ambt- tious two pronged set-up in the first year. The lack of numbers were an constant issue which meant there was a significant doubling up of play- ers and possibly a year at junior level would have served the second team better in their inaugural year.

That said, Clare can feel quite un- fortunate not to have taken more points in both the league and cham- pionship, especially at senior level. Clare entered the league in typical determined fashion but overall, in- experience at the top level was to repeatedly prove their undoing. Des- perately unlucky to be edged out by a point in their opening tie against eventual finalists Tipperary, Clare then led by 0-8 to 0-5 with less than 25 minutes to go against defending champions Kilkenny in Meelick only a week later before conceding nine unanswered points. Unperturbed by such set-backs, Clare finally got their just rewards with a final day 2-7 to

2-6 victory over Dublin in the capital and it was enough to give them re- newed confidence for the champion- ship campaign.

The intermediates on the other hand had a largely fluctuating league debut in Division 2. Going down by seven points in their opening tie against Tipperary in Cashel, the young side actually claimed a major scalp in their next outing by comprehensively beating defending All-Ireland inter- mediate champions Kilkenny by 0-11 to 1-O in Meelick, inspired by Carol Kaiser, Roisin McMahon, Chloe Mo- rey and Danielle Sheedy.

It should have initiated a new level of confidence in the predominantly teenage side but they were soon brought back down to earth by a 3-

14 to 2-04 defeat to Antrim and in fact, were unable to field in their final game against Derry a week later.

The final nail in the second side’s coffin came in their intermediate championship debut against neigh- bours Galway. With a largely experi- mental side, Clare were simply over- ran by a vastly experienced Galway who were ruthless in a 7-13 to 1-03 victory in Athenry. Clare chose to pull out of the competition after that while Galway eventually went on to win the intermediate championship O)binw resale

There was a similar camogie lesson for the senior side that afternoon as Clare supporters were left scratching their heads after totally contrasting halves. Despite being without the

experience of Sharon McMahon, Laura Linnane and Aimee MclIner- ney, Clare more than matched the All-Ireland finalists in the first half, only to undo all that good work with an abject second half display as Gal- way eventually ran out 3-17 to 1-04 victors.

It would have been enough to de- rail most sides but Clare had recog- nised long before the Galway game that their derby tie with Limerick would be the most pivotal game of their championship season. A tense, nail-biting encounter subsequently ensued with both sides craving the points to remain in the race for the semi-finals. In the end, Clare’s resil- ience saw them prevail by the bare minimum after the sides had been

level on three occasions in the final minutes. It was also a significant coming of age performance from Under 16 Chloe Morey who took responsibility for the final, pressu- rised free from 65 metres that sealed victory for the home side. That dis- play would subsequently earn her a national Gala Performance Award and also ensured that Clare’s hopes of advancement hinged on their fi- nal game against league champions Wexford a fortnight later.

Essentially a_ straight play-off in Bodyke, Clare battled hard but were unable to cope with Wexford’s smooth interplay and superior scor- ing ability who eventually ran out 2- 15 to 0-03 winners.

Overall though, Clare will feel sat- isfied that they were extremely com- petitive in their inaugural season at senior level. Wins over Dublin and Limerick, a one point defeat against Tipperary and the fact that they were still in contention for a semi-final place going into the final round of championship games indicates that they were far from daunted by their more experienced opposition. On the flip side however, sizeable champ1- onship defeats against Galway and Wexford mean that Clare still have a bit to learn before they can realis- tically challenge for honours at this Aree

The key to Clare’s future at the top level though could rest with their burgeoning underage system. The county have been consistently knocking at the door of All-Ireland glory at Under 16 and minor level in recent years and much like Kilkenny, that continuous supply to the senior squad, combined with the experi- ence of their more established play- ers means that the future is certainly bright for the county. Consequently it’s simply a matter of when, not if.

CLARE will learn of their quarter- final opponents in the Oscar Traynor Cup next week with the draw for the last eight round scheduled to take place in the Aishling Hotel in Dublin on Friday, January 22.

The Clare side, managed by Hugh Kelly advanced to the knockout stag- es for the first time since 2004 thanks to taking four points from their two games in Group 5 of the prestigious nationwide competition.

In their opening game with the Limerick Desmond, Clare secured a valuable away point when Rock Rov- ers’ Stephen Hickey grabbed a share

of the spoils with a goal in the 90th minute.

Then in the second game against the Cork Business League at Mc- Donough Park in Newmarket-on- Fergus, an injury time strike from Bunratty’s Con Collins gave Clare a thrilling 3-2 win and safe passage into the quarter-final stage.

Those teams who will be in the draw with Clare are Galway or Mayo from Group 1, Roscommon, Sligo or Don- egal in Group 2, Tipperary Southern & District League in Group 3, Cork AUL in Group 4, Wexford in Group 6, The Defence Forces in Group 7 and Dublin AUL in Group 8.

Manager Hugh Kelly, in resum-

ing the management reins for the 2009/2010 competition said “any- thing is possible and we could go all the way”. The Derryman was man- ager of the Clare team that scored a famous victory in the competition six years ago, when they beat the Dublin Senior League 2-1 in the final played in Ballycasey.

It was Clare’s first national cup suc- cess since the Clare Youths won the Irish Inter League Youth Cup in 1971 thanks to a 2-0 win over Dublin Ath- letic Union League in Ennis Show- erounds. Clare’s Youths are also in the knockout stages of the FAI Youth Inter League for the first time since the 1970s.

EDUCATION #£Minister Batt O’Keeffe has issued a ‘call-to- arms’ to rally volunteer engineers to go into schools across Clare to enthuse students about maths as part of Engineers Week 2010.

Speaking at a photocall with busi- ness leaders, Minister O’Keeffe welcomed the Engineers Ireland initiative and called on engineers and businesses to support the day. “T strongly welcome the efforts of Engineers Ireland to promote eve- ryday understanding of maths in schools through Volunteer Day and Engineers Week more broadly. These initiatives support the Gov- ernment’s strategy to move more students into science and technol- ogy-based higher education cours- oe

“Our curriculum reform plan – Project Maths – will begin in all post-primary schools in September as part of efforts to radically re- form the way the subject is taught and make it more relevant and ac- cessible.”

Engineers Week is a campaign held annually by Engineers Ire- land to promote engineering as a career and the importance of the industry to Ireland. Volunteer Day on Thursday, Feb 11, Engineers Ireland’s first national volunteer day, will be a key day in Engineers Week 2010, which runs from Feb 8-13. On that day, it is planned that volunteer engineers, with the co-operation of local schools, will enter classes in Clare and across the country and spend a few hours working with pre-junior certificate students to improve their knowl- edge and appreciation of maths through puzzles and work sheets.

John Power, Engineers Ireland Director General, said: “Engi- neers Week is a critical campaign in the engineering calendar. En- gineers Ireland believes there is a direct link between the decreas- ing numbers studying maths and the shortage of engineers entering Irish industry. Leaving Certificate results showed that just 16 per cent of students took honours maths which is down on the 2008 figures. We need our students to become more comfortable with maths as it is a fundamental building block towards a career in engineering. Ireland already has a deficit of en- gineers and the situation is becom- ing more severe. A ready supply of engineers is critical to the Smart Economy and emerging industries such as the Green sector.”

Business Leaders came out in force today to show their support for the initiative. Representing in- dustry on the day was Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ire- land; Leonard Hobbs, Intel Ireland Research; Eamonn Quinn, Chair- man, Nualight and Paul Mallee President of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

To get involved, please contact the engineering team on O1 665 1340 or email info@steps.ie. Engineers Week 2010 will run from Feb 8-13.

THE region’s flagship tourism company sustained losses of over €250,000 in 2008 as visitor numbers continued to plummet last year.

Shannon Heritage Ltd operates Bunratty Castle and Folk Park along with King John’s Castle in Limer- ick and accounts just returned to the Companies’ Office show that the Shannon Development subsidiary in- curred losses of €254,476 to the end of December 2008.

This followed the company return- ing a pre-tax profit of €27,745 in 2007.

Confirmation of the losses coincide with the company absorbing a 13 per cent drop in visitor numbers last year to around 440,000. This follows a 13 per cent drop in 2008 resulting in a total drop of 141,000 visitors over two years.

This has resulted in the company — which employs 300 – imposing a 10 per cent pay reduction or 12.5 per cent reduction in hours worked, for staff and management.

Chief executive John Ruddle con- firmed the pay/hours reduction yes- terday, but stated: “Overall, staff numbers remain unchanged during 2009 despite the global downturn. The company is making the retention of its full staff a key 2010 priority in this very difficult climate.

“The Shannon Heritage operation is vitally important to tourism in the Shannon region as it continues to an-

nually contribute an estimated €20 million to the local economy and in- directly supports many more jobs in the wider region.”

In 2008, Shannon Heritage sus- tained a 10.5 per cent drop in gross profit from €9muiullion to €8&million that year. The €245,000 loss sus- tained in 2008 reduced the company’s accumulated profits to €621,237.

Describing 2009 as a very chal- lenging year when the company had to make adjustments to work- ing arrangements, Mr Ruddle said

that some visitor sites had a slightly shorter season, and minor adjust- ments to opening hours were also introduced in 2009. However, all ac- tivities are going ahead as normal for 2010.

“After five years of strong growth to 2007, Shannon Heritage, like most businesses 1n the tourism sector, has experienced the effects of the world recession. While 2009 results are not yet available, a 13 per cent decline in visitor numbers is anticipated. While any loss is disappointing, the

company is satisfied with the results given the dramatic fall in US visitor numbers to Ireland.”

The accounts show that visitor num- bers to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park dropped from 343,675 to 305,557, while visitors to Bunratty Banquets dropped from 65,878 to 57,911.