The Clare People Archive

TUAMGRANEY has received na- tional recognition after being named one of the winners in Cooperation Ireland’s Pride of Place Competi- tion.

At a weekend award ceremony held in Cappoquin in Waterford, the east Clare village was named overall win- ner of Category 2, catering for popu- lation centres of 200-500 people for which the Tuamgraney Development Association received a Waterford Crystal trophy and €2,000.

Four other Clare groups – Gleann an Oir, Shannon; The Burren Cen- tre, Kilfenora; Obair Afterschool Project, Newmarket on Fergus and the West Clare Resource Centre, Miltown Malbay – were shortlisted in the All Ireland competition, which aims to recognise contributions that community groups make to society.

Mayor of Clare, Cllr. Madeleine Taylor Quinn described ‘Tuam- graney’s success as a wonderful ex- ample of what could be achieved by adopting a partnership approach to improving community life.

“This competition focuses on local communities, both north and south of the border, coming together to shape, change and enjoy all that is good about their area’, she said.

According to Tuamgraney Devel- opment Association Secretary, Mary Cassidy, the award is a tribute to eve- ryone who contributed to the group’s success, including those who helped out during the Pride of Place pres- entation, Clare County Council and the local engineer in Scarriff. She also paid special tribute to the fifteen local community organisations who

pledged their support along with res- idents associations and schools.

Ms. Cassidy explained that the im- mense civic pride in Tuamgraney resurfaced with the formation of the Development Association twelve years ago.

“The Association was formed in re- sponse to concern about the decline of the area. Its goal is to make Tua- megraney a better place to live, work, play and visit. The challenge now is to build on this success’, she added.

The village and the Association have won numerous awards in recent

years, including Clare In Bloom and a Regional landscape award in the Tidy Towns competition, as well as increasing substantially year on year marks and performance in the Tidy Towns competition.

Since its inception in 2003, Clare communities that have participated in the Pride of Place competition in- clude Kilrush, Kilkee, Newmarket on Fergus, Ennis, Labasheeda, Shan- non, Tuamgraney, Miltown Malbay, Sixmulebridge, Ballynacally, Scar- iff, Kilfenora and O’Briensbridge/ Montpelier.

THE company at the centre of con- tentious plans to construct a €10 million explosives plant on the Shan- non estuary is under threat of being struck off and dissolved because it has not filed returns since 2003.

At the first day of the oral hearing into proposal in Ennis last month, so- licitor for one of the opponents to the proposal, Michael Nolan for Cairde Cill an Disirt said that Shannon Ex-

plosives was due to be struck off at the end of October.

On the final day, counsel for Shan- non Explosives Ltd, Esmonde Keane rejected the claim made by Mr No- lan, stating that the company is oper- ZLObToas NOwneT-N OKA

However, yesterday, the Companies Office confirmed that Shannon Ex- plosives Ltd – which is a subsidiary of the Whelan Group – was put on the strike-off list on November 2.

A spokeswoman for the Companies

Office said if no returns are filed in the next number of weeks, Shannon Explosives Ltd will appear in the Government publication, Iris Ofigu- ue

The company will then be further given a number of weeks to file docu- ments before the company is struck off and dissolved.

The company is also one of a number of notice parties in a High Court action being taken by Cairde Chill an Disirt Teo (CCDT) seeking

a High Court injunction preventing An Bord Pleanala from taking any further steps in determining the ap- peal on the plan.

CCDT along with a number of other objectors withdrew from the oral hearing on the first day after the Board refused to state as to whether the hearing was being held under Irish law or a review under an EU Directive.

Solicitor for CCDT, Michael Nolan has confirmed that the High Court

case being brought by his clients has been adjourned until Novem- ber 21 to allow the other sides lodge responding affidavits. Papers have been served on An Bord Pleandala, Shannon Explosives Ltd and Clare County Council.

Mr Nolan confirmed that CCDT are seeking an injunction preventing

An Bord Pleanala from taking any steps in determining the appeal and an order requiring the reconvening of the oral hearing.

CLARE ICMSA 1s set to take legal action on behalf of as many as 100 Clare farmers whose payments have been compromised as a result of the backdated closure of the Farm In- vestment Schemes.

The organisation has obtained legal advice from barrister Gerard Hog- an and are preparing to take a case should the situation not be rectified. The action concerns the decision of the Department of Agriculture to

back date the closure of applications for the Farm Investment Schemes to October 21 of this year.

The closing date for the scheme had been advertised widely as October 31, and an estimated 100 Clare farm- ers who made applications in good faith between October 21 and Oc- tober 31 of this year have now been disqualified.

“The Department of Agriculture has been consistently telling Clare farmers that we could apply for this scheme right up until the end of Oc-

tober and now, after the fact, they have decided that this is no longer the case,’ said Martin McMahon, Clare President of the ICMSA.

“This means that anyone who has applied for this scheme between Oc- tober 21 and the end of the month is in a total limbo land. Every meeting that we attended we were told that the scheme was still open but it ap- pears that that was not the case.

‘There are a good number of people caught by this, it’s human to apply for things at the last minute so an awful

lot of people applying for the scheme are now caught really badly.”

The scheme was put in place in or- der to allow farmers to modernise their farms and many farmers can- not now afford to complete building projects because of it’s scrapping.

‘“T know more than one farmer here in Clare who is half way through a building project on his farm is wait- ing for this funding to come through in order to let him finish,’ continued Mr McMahon.

“They are totally locked into this

situation and now they don’t know if they are coming or going. This whole budget has been very damag- ing for farmers. Besides the Invest- ment Scheme, we have also lost the Disadvantages Areas Payments, the Installation grants and the Early Re- tirement Scheme. It’s been very bad news for Clare farmers.”

The ICMSA held a special National Council meeting in Dublin last week to brief TDs, including Clare TD Joe Carey (FG), on the situation follow- ing the budget cuts.

A WEST Clare man suffered sub- stantial hearing loss after being at- tacked on a street by his brother-in- law, a court heard yesterday.

Ennis Circuit Court was told that there had been bad blood between the two men, after their wives had fallen out previously.

Father-of-four Michael McInerney (36), of Ballard Road, Miltown Mal- bay, admitted assaulting his brother- in-law Gerard Sexton, causing him harm, at Main Street, Leagard, Mil- town Malbay, on February 24, 2007.

Sergeant Joe Hehir told the court that Mr Sexton (43) went to a public house in Miltown Malbay to watch a rugby match between Ireland and England.

He met his brother-in-law, the ac- cused, in one of the pubs.

Words were exchanged between the two and there was a subsequent scuffle. Mr Sexton was forced to the ground, he said.

However, while a number of people

saw the incident, no-one present had remembered what had been said.

The court heard that an independ- ent witness who was standing close by on the street told gardai he saw “a big guy wearing a Munster rugby jer- sey” (the accused) having a hold of the injured party.

He said Mr Sexton had fallen back- wards on to the road and his head was banged off the road. “There was a bang as his head hit the ground,’ the witness told gardai.

Sgt Hehir said that at the scene, the accused accepted responsibility for what had happened.

He said Mr Sexton, a carpenter, now suffers from a severe imbalance and his work has been affected by the incident.

He said the relationship between the two men had deteriorated due to a dispute between their wives. He said he believed it emanated from a row at a chip shop.

Mr Sexton told the court that his balance was “completely gone” while the hearing in his right ear was

“nearly gone’, as a result of the in- cident.

Asked how he felt about the ac- cused, he said, “I wouldn’t look at the ground he’s on.”

Defence barrister Brian McInerney said it was tragic that the case had developed in such a manner.

He said his client had put together €7,000 in compensation for the in- jured party.

Judge Carroll Moran said while he appreciated the accused did not have any previous convictions, “he did in- flict very serious injuries on the in- jured party”.

He said the sum of money offered was inadequate and adjourned the case until January. He said the sum of money he had in mind was €15,000.

“I do not want to send him to prison,’ he said. However, he said he would have to impose a jail term if adequate compensation was not Or nCee

A DEFENDANT who had 113 pre- vious convictions told a judge he thought he was allowed to take off- cuts of steel from a Shannon factory.

Darren Mason of Oliver Plunkett Street, St Mary’s Park in Limer- ick, pleaded guilty at Ennis District Court to taking the off-cuts from the Lasercut premises at Smithstown In- dustrial Estate.

Judge Leo Malone heard that when gardai arrived, the accused was load- ing some lengths of steel on to his truck. He had not been given permis- sion to take to steel, the court heard.

His solicitor, Ted McCarthy, told the court that Mason’s father works collecting scrap and he had been asked by his father to go to Shannon to collect a scrapped car.

“When he arrived, the person he needed to see about the car wasn’t there but members of the household suggested to him that if he was look- ing for scrap, he might find some at this premises in Smithstown”’.

He added that when the gardai ar- rived, he explained that he thought the metal was just being scrapped.

“These were not full lengths of steel, they were off-cuts,’ Mr Mc- Carthy said.

The judge heard that all of Mason’s previous convictions were Road Traffic offences and none were for theft. The solicitor said his client 1s not working and has five children to Support.

The judge imposed a fine of €350 for the theft charge and took a charge under the Public Order act into con- sideration.

A MAN WHO snatched a ‘defence- less’ 81-year-old woman’s handbag and knocked her to the ground has been handed a five-year jail term. However the sentence will not come into effect 1f the accused succeeds in staying away from heroin, to which he had been addicted at the time of the attack.

Jonathon O’Donoghue (28), of Beech Grove Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, pleaded guilty to robbing the woman of her handbag and €450, at Avoca handweavers, Bunratty, on October 31, 2005. He also admitted assaulting her.

Ennis Circuit Court heard that the woman was confined to bed for al- most two months after the ordeal she endured.

In imposing sentence, Judge Ger- ard Griffin told the defendant he chose a “defenceless elderly woman” to rob, to feed his heroin habit.

“The weakest victim you could find,” remarked the judge. “You de- prived her, by your actions, of her independence, as she was confined to bed for two months after,’ he AYO Ce(oxen

However he said he had taken into account the very positive report from Slainte and the fact that O’ Donoghue had inspired other young adults on

the road to recovery.

He said the appropriate sentence was five years, which he suspended in its entirety, on condition that the accused remain drug-free for five years.

“You have made great progress in your rehabilitation and I wish you oN DOME HO TAL

“T want to warn you if you are tried and convicted from this day on, or if you don’t remain drug free, I will impose a five year sentence,” he con- Wb OLeCoee

“You are getting a chance. You de- serve a chance in the circumstances. Don’t let it slip,’ Judge Griffin add- ek

THE family of a Polish man who died as a result of a road accident three years ago – while working in Shannon – has secured €500,000 in damages in the High Court.

Damian Zimowski (27), an alarm technician with Active Technology in Shannon, died as aresult of an incident on September 10, 2005. He lost his life

hours after the accident in which steel rods protruding from the back of a lorry pierced into his van. He became impaled in the upper body.

The case was taken by his widow Agnieszka against Foley Contract- ing of Milltown, Askeaton, Limerick – owners of the lorry – and Brian Mc- Mahon, Ballynoe, Castlemahon, Lim- erick, who was the lorry driver.

The offer was made to the plaintiff

on the third day of the hearing before Mr Justice John Quirke at the High Court last Thursday.

Liability had been fully contested, until an engineer for the plaintiff gave evidence in court. A satisfactory offer was then made by the defendants.

Solicitor for Ms Zimowski, Gear- oid Howard – partner with Crimmins Howard solicitors in Shannon – said the case was tragic and his client was

relieved it was all over.

“Tt is a huge relief that the case has fi- nally been settled. It was a tragic acci- dent. He had come to Ireland to make a new life for himself and his family,’ he said.

Mr Howard paid tribute to the late Mr Zimowski’s employer Ultan McAvinue at Active Technology in Shannon.

“Damian sold his family car to fi-

nance his trip to Ireland. At the time he was killed, his family didn’t have the money to pay for his funeral or fly his body back to Poland. Mr McAv- inue paid for the funeral and for his body to be flown home,” said Mr Howard.

‘His employers were hugely support- ive of his widow and his child. They did everything they possibly could to help at this difficult time,” he said.

The Courts Service has released documents that show how the Su- perintendent for the Killaloe area expressed considerable opposition to the move. Supt Tony Kennelly’s view prevailed and the Tulla sittings will now be held in Killaloe.

The Courts Service board recently ratified the re-organisation of the Clare Courts Service, which involves the the abolition of a number of sit- tings in the county.

The moves will see sittings taking place in three venues from the New

Year: Ennis, Kilrush and Killaloe. When additional courthouses are provided in Ennistymon and Shan- non, the number of venues will in- crease to five.

The plan — which will be effective from January | — will see Kilkee sittings take place in Kilrush and Lisdoonvarna and Miltown Malbay being relocated to Ennistymon. The re-organisation will also see Scariff sittings being relocated to Killaloe.

Ennistymon sittings are currently being held at Kilrush pending the provision of a new courthouse in the north Clare town.

A spokesman for the Courts Serv- ice said that it may be one more year before courts are held once more in Ennistymon. Negotiations are ongo- ing in relation to a proposed site in the north Clare town.

The spokesman said that next on the priority is a new courthouse for Killaloe.

An internal Courts Service memo stated that the former courthouse building in Killaloe was being used by the county council “as a store for everything from straw to wheelbar- rows. The courthouse is in a ter- ribe state. However, there is at least room there to constitute a proper court venue, preferable with a local partnership input to best utilise this building”.

A spokesman for the Courts Serv- ice said that it’s hoped that the court- house will be shared with the Family Support Centre in Killaloe and that the two would share maintenance costs.

The spokesman couldn’t put a time- frame in relation to the provision of a new courthouse in Killaloe or Shan- non. The Shannon sittings are cur- rently held in Ennis.

An internal memo anticipated that there would be resistance to the move from Kilkee to Kilrush. The memo stated that “conditions are very poor at Kilkee and Kilrush has good fa- cilities eight miles away”.

However, no opposition to the Kil- kee move materialised.

AN Bord Pleanala has given the go- ahead for a wind-farm that will meet almost half the energy needs of an east Clare company.

Located near the village of O’Callaghan’s Mills, Olympus Diag- nostica secured planning permission earlier this year for the 200 high ft turbine which will be the third wind- farm erected in the county.

The company will use the entire output from the wind-turbine and have stated that their decision was prompted by spiraling energy costs which make financial planning more eluenceueim

The decision was appealed by Mr and Mrs JP Murphy of Rosslara, O’Callaghan’s Mills who claimed that the proposal would be at vari- ance with the Clare County Develop- ment Plan and the East Clare Plan.

They did not accept that the devel- opment would not impact negatively on the local bat population and in the

absence of substantive evidence that there would not be negative impact, the precautionary principle should apply and permission should be re- fused.

In relation to the bat population, the Murphys stated that the proposal to fit ultrasonic scarers to discourage bats at risk was not proven as a suc- cessful mitigation intervention and there were question marks over the viability and availability of the pro- OOo MOU UC RED Roe

In his assessment, the Bord Pleana- la inspector stated: “In this case an established industrial user seeks to provide sufficient power from a re- newable energy source to cater for its base load electrical needs. I consider this to be an inherently desirable ob- jective, and something to be encour- aged if there is not direct conflict with soundly based policy objectives for vulnerable landscapes.”

On the visual impact, he con- cluded that “the erection of a single wind turbine as proposed would not

detract from the landscape. If per- mitted and developed it should ap- pear as no more of less than a crisply presented utility structure in the rural landscape and would not seri- ously injure the visual amenities of the area.”

The inspector noted that the devel- opers would not proceed with the ul- trasconic scarers for bats.

The appeals board gave the propos- al the go-ahead, stating that having regard to the nature and scale of the proposed development and the pro- visions of the development plan for the area, the proposed development would not seriously injure the ameni- ties of the area or of property in the vicinity and would not adversely af- fect the natural heritage of the area.

IT WAS in memory of a Dub, who made Miltown Malbay his adopted home and final resting place, that hundreds gathered in the Bellbridge, Spanish Point at the weekend.

In the singing workshop specifi- cally aimed at encouraging young people to become involved in tradi- tional singing at the Clare Festival of Traditional Music, Tom Munnelly’s spirit over Saw a new generation in- troduced to a part of Irish culture he held so dear.

It was after the world-renowned folk song and folklore collector died last year following a long illness, his friends and family decided to re- introduce the festival to west Clare after an absence of six years.

It was under the stewardship of the late Mr Munnelly the festival origi-

nally ran in Ennistymon for 13 years and for a further two years in the Belbridge Hotel in Spanish Point.

Shortly after Tom passed away in August 2007, friends and fam- ily started work on relaunching the festival, in what they felt was a fit- ting tribute to his life and work. The singing workshop for younger people was the brainchild of Roisin White, the chairperson of the festival, as a fitting tribute to Tom.

“Getting young people involved in traditional singing is a very difficult task, as our culture has changed so much in the past 50 years, but Tom always took enormous pleasure in inviting young singers down to En- nistymon to take part in the week- Xe F

‘He understood that younger peo- ple could be intimidated by the close-knit community of ‘estab-

lished’ singers, particularly if they didn’t know anyone involved in the world of traditional singing.

“The Singing Workshop for Young People is our way of recognis- ing Tom’s work in that area, and of continuing his work of encouraging young singers,” said Annette Mun- nelly, Secretary, Féile Amhranaio- chta an Chlair.

The Dublin native who made Mil- town Malbay his home for almost 30 years was laid to rest in Ballard Coilatoa

The 63-year-old folklorist, recog- nised for compiling the most com- prehensive collection of traditional folk songs in Ireland, had numerous credits to his name.

Mr Munnelly was prominent in the Dublin folk scene of his youth, and found his niche as a collector of songs through his work with Univer-

sity College Dublin’s Irish folklore department.

It was his passion for recording and collecting traditional songs that brought him to Clare in 1978, where he set up home.

The adopted Clare man soon be- came involved in the local art and festivals.

Not only was he chairman of the Clare Festival of Traditional Singing he played a strong role in bringing the Willie Clancy Summer School to prominence, and was a founder and chairman of the Lahinch Folklore School.

He received an honorary doctorate from NUIG.

Mr Munnelly served on the Arts council from February 1986 to De- cember 1988 and was a board mem- ber of the Irish Traditional Musical Archive.