The Clare People Archive

CLARE hurling legend and Water- ford senior hurling manager, Davy Fitzgerald has made a fresh bid to kick-start his plans for a €4 million boutique hotel near Newmarket-on- Woeauke

Earlier this year, the Sixmilebri- dge man lodged plans to convert the Bellsfort Inn public house on the link road between Newmarket-on-Fergus to Shannon into a 23-bedroom hotel.

The proposal encountered local op- position and An Taisce stated that because part of the hotel would over- look an adjacent graveyard, it would “impose on the privacy of those

praying at graves’.

However, in September, Clare county council stated that it has a number of serious concerns in rela- tion to the proposal and were not fa- vourably disposed towards planning permission for the project because it represented significant overdevelop- ment of the site.

The council told Mr Fitzgerald to submit revised plans of significantly reduced proportion in terms of size and scale.

Now, in a bid to improve his chanc- es, Mr Fitzgerald has lodged a sub- mission with the Council to rezone the site as part of the new South SEA ier ae

And the council looks set to accept the submission and rezone the lands to have the site included in a new BSUS Cea meek ew

Mr Fitzgerald’s submission states that the 1.12 acre site comprises of a public house and function room which are outside any zoned area or designated settlement cluster in the local area plan and suggests that the proposed extension to the Urlanmore rural settlement cluster is in accord- ance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the re- rea toyl

The South Clare Plan is expected to be adopted by the Council next month.

CLARE County Council has been urged to erect new signs for Clare- castle and Doora on the N18 Ennis bypass despite claims that the pro- posal would cost “thousands”’.

The calls were made yesterday at a meeting of councillors representing the Ennis electoral area.

ClUlr Tommy Brennan (Ind) said the issue of signage had dragged on for 12 months. “No matter what the policy is will you not just stick down afew signs?” asked Cllr Brennan ad- dressing staff of the roads section of Clare County Council.

Councillors were debating a mo- tion put forward by Cllr Paul Mur- phy (FG), requesting an update on signage for Clarecastle and Doora on the Ennis bypass.

In his written response Declan O’Regan, Senior Executive Engineer

(SEE) with the Ennis electoral area Stated,

“IT contacted Mr Paul Moroney, SEE, Ennis bypass, in relation to this motion and he advised me that the last time that this question arose, the National Roads Authority (NRA) did not approve for various reasons.”

Mr. O’Regan continued ‘He also advised me that he was not aware of any recent correspondence from the NRA in relation to this mater and stated that it would cost thousands to change the signs in question at this Sonal

Cllr Murphy said that the lack of signage was an “oversight from day one. Now they are saying it will cost us thousands to do it. Surely we could put down a few signs.”

Cllr Bernard Hanrahan (FF) said that he had been in contact with the NRA and they hadn’t forseen any problem with erecting signage.

“Surely we could just stick up a sign for Clarecastle where the sign for Quin is.”

Cllr Sonny Scanlon said he was aware of instances where business owners in Doora were forced to send staff out to find customers who had taken the wrong exit from the by- er Ae

“They ended up in Crusheen. That man had to send out his own staff to show them the way back down. It’s a lost area the way it is at the moment,” said Cllr Scanlon.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) advised that the council consult with the Road Safety Authority before pro- ceeding.

Cllr Brennan added, “Every month we have some motion up about the bypass and this has been going on for the past 12 months. Can we not just stick a few sings down. It isn’t going to cost a fortune.”

A 79-YEAR-OLD woman died due to smoke inhalation after her house caught fire in east Clare earlier this year.

Ennis Coroner’s Court heard that widow Mary Carey died at her home near O’Callaghan’s Mills, on March DEC e

Fireman Pat Myles said when he attended the scene of the blaze, the ceilings were on fire and there was a lot of smoke and heat.

He said he could see a body leaning over a wash hand basin. He brought the woman outside, but she was life- less and he believed she was dead.

Mrs Carey’s son Anthony recalled receiving a telephone call, indicating that his house was on fire.

He said the roof had collapsed in the back kitchen and his mother had been slumped over the wash hand ba-

sin in the back kitchen. A short time later, a local doctor pronounced her dead.

Dr James O’Driscoll carried out a post mortem examination on Mrs Carey’s body. He said that she had received burns to her body.

A sample of her blood showed there had been a 65 per cent saturation by carbon monoxide. Death, he con- cluded, was due to cardiac respirato- ry failure, due to smoke inhalation.

Coroner Isobel O’Dea expressed her sympathy with Mrs Carey’s fam- ily, who, she said, died in “such trag- ic circumstances.”

Inspector Tom Kennedy concurred and said it was “very difficult to know what to say in a situation like this. It was a terrible tragic accident.”

He complimented the ambulance and fire crews who attended the scene, but said “unfortunately it was too late.”

WHEN the Saw Doctors waxed lyri- cal about the rain “splish-splashing”’ on the streets of Galway, surely they weren’t talking about days like this. Yet despite driving wind and a rain Storm that threatened, on more than one occasion, to turn into hail, a mas- sive crowd turned out in Galway City on Saturday for the first in a series of regional education protests.

The Irish National Teachers Organ- isation (INTO) had set out a target of 5,000 men, women and children

for this rally. But when the morn- ing opened in a cloud of grey and cold, this target was quickly revised down.

They shouldn’t have worried how- ever, such is the anger of the people of Clare and the west of Ireland that a massive troupe, somewhere in the re- gion of 8,000, turned out to vent their annoyance and frustration.

With signs like “As Blind As A Batt” and “Leave Our Kids Alone Brian’, the Minister for Education, Batt O’Keeffe, and Taoiseach Brian Cowen can have been left with little

doubt about the seriousness of these cuts.

The anger was real, these people are desperate and are becoming in- creasingly doubtful that “the Batt- man” will somehow come in and save the day.

There were many voices joining the march from Eyre Square to the Galway Cathedral, and even more joined once the brigade had stopped for their main rally at the Galway GT itereree

Among those to speak were INTO General Secretary John Carr and

Sean Holian of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network while Corofin’s Declan Kelleher also addressed the crowd.

Of the many threads which ran through each speech – the increase in class sizes, the end to substitute cover and the loss of more than 1,000 teachers in the primary sector – the most common one was the equating of money to education and the notion of selling out future generations.

The potential for creating econom- ic troubles for the next generation as a result of these cuts was lost on no-

oy iter

Like Dublin, Christmas decora- tions (and the hope of Christmas shoppers) has come early to Galway this year. And after the protest Shop Street had it’s busiest day since the CFE Na e-leroe

The downturn is cutting everyone deep.

Further demonstrations are expect- ed to take in Offaly, Cork and Don- egal, finishing with a mass rally in Dublin on December 6.

The “Batt signal” is clearly lit, but is anybody watching?

TRIBUTES have been paid from across the world to a west Clare woman who raised millions of euros for the poor and sick, and was co- founder of two new missionary rell- gious congregations in Burma.

Mary Doohan, founder of the Lit- tle Way Association was born at The Hand, Coore in 1917 and 1s still re- membered fondly by neighbours.

Mary Burke recalls how Ms Doohan’s mother Hannah was a very religious woman, and it was no sur- prise that three of her children en- tered the religious life.

Mary Doohan far surpassed many in her religious devotion and service of the poor, and was recognised for her work by the Holy See when she was decorated with the “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice” medal in 1978 and was made a Dame of St Gregory in 1996.

Despite her worldwide recognition Mary never forgot her home and last month was laid to rest in Coore Cem- etery.

Having given so much in life, Mary died without any home, in the care of the Little Sisters of the Poor, Meadow Road, Vauxhall, aged 91 years old.

The late Ms Doohan was the sec- ond child of Timothy and Hannah Doohan. Her brothers John and Michael joined the priesthood and continue to dedicate their lives to the Columbian Missionary in the Philip- pines. Her late sister Philomena be- came a nun.

Mary was also predeceased by her sisters Bernie and Teresa, and her brothers Patrick and Joseph.

She is survived by her sister Cath- erine (Baby) and Fr Michael and Fr John.

Having been educated in Spanish- point she left for London in 1937

where she worked as a clerk. She was a daily mass goer and spent much of her time working with the Legion of Mary. She also promoted devotion to St Therese of Lisieux and

While he was working in the Phil- ippines her brother Fr John wrote to say that the roof of his church had been blown off by a typhoon. Miss Doohan started holding jumble sales and other fundraising events to help her brother’s mission. Soon priests and lay Catholics became involved.

Ms Doohan set up her charitable association, The Little Way Asso- ciation, with missionary Bishop of Anthony Galvin of Miri in Malaysia, who helped her get approval from Cardinal William Godfrey in 1960.

The Little Way Association takes its name from St Thérése’s “little way – which emphasised carrying out the smallest of deeds in a spirit of charity.

The association was the first run from a basement in London’s Victo- ria Street before it moved to a larger office in Red Lion Square, before fi- nally moving to its present headquar- ters in Clapham in 1962.

Ms Doohan, was the lifetime presi- dent of the Little Way when she died in London on August 29, following a stroke.

During Miss Doohan’s lifetime the Little Way Association grew from an informal group of lay people raising money for the Catholic missions to an organised missionary charity with six centres.

Two of these centres are based in India and the other four are in places of pilgrimage in Lourdes, Knock, Fatima and Walsingham.

A WEST Clare student was honoured along with five more from the county at the National University of Ireland Galway last week for outstanding re- sult in this year’s leaving cert.

St Joseph’s Secondary School Spanish Point paid tribute this week to past pupil Sorcha Curtin who not only secured the maximum 600 points in the state exam but was also awarded a bursary from the Galway University at the Entrance Scholars Socsaleyne

The intelligent teenager is now studying medicine at the college.

School principal Mary Crawford paid tribute to the 17 and a half-year- old and told the Clare people the school was very proud of Sorcha’s achievement.

While attending the Spanishpoint school she opted to study English, Irish, Maths, French, Music and Chemistry.

“As well as a great academic achievement she was a trusted friend and also got on very well with all members of staff in the school,” said

a school’s spokesperson.

“Tt 1s an honour for her and the school that she was one of eighteen to get such a high grade, and we would like to congratulate her,” he said.

A keen musican Sorcha plays the concertina in Michael Mahony’s tra- ditional music group.

She is the daughter of Anne (nee Barry) and Christy Curtin from Clondony Miltown Malbay.

Other Clare students to be hon- oured by NUIG were Ian Broderick from Ennis, who was a past pupil of Rice College and is now studying

Engineering. Finn Krewer, from Tu- ber is also studying engineering and is a past pupil of Gort Community College.

Caoimhe Marie Hanrahan from Corofin is a past pupil of Ard Scoil Naoimhe Mhuire Ennistymon and is now studying Occupational Therapy.

Christine Kelly is also from Tu- ber and is a past pupil of Kinvara Secondary School. Paula Christina Kelly is a past pupil of Rice College Ennis and she was also honoured by NUIG.

A POLICY is needed for the future maintenance of the Ennis public lighting system, Town Councillor Johnny Flynn has said.

At a meeting of the town council last night, Cllr Flynn proposed that a professional consultant be employed to draw up such a policy as the con- tract between the council and the ESB is drawing to a close.

In a motion before the meeting he asked that “in the context of deregu- lation and possible departure of ESB contracts that Ennis Town Council

develop an appropriate policy to manage their street lighting asset having regard to public safety, en- ergy efficiency, value for money for maintenance, liability indemnifica- tion, design commissioning and cer- tification”.

The councillor said that the service which the town council is getting has reduced in recent years “probably because of the break up of the com- pany into constituent parts”’.

He said that street lighting is “a valuable asset” on which the coun- cil spent a third of a million Euros last year. “We have something in the

order of 3,000 street lights in En- nis and it’s important that we have a policy for managing and maintaining them,” he said.

Cllr Flynn said that in February 2007, 7 per cent of the town’s pub- lic lights were not working. “That went back to two per cent following a discussion of the matter,’ he told the meeting.

Cllr Tommy Brennan said that it would be important when the council takes over maintenance of the light- ing system that they “ensure that we are taking over lights that are in good working condition, in the same way

that we would if we were taking any- thing else in charge’.

In reply to the councillor’s motion the town engineer said that the coun- cil has engaged a company to carry out an inventory of public lighting and an asset management system. “The softwear is a specialised light- ing management package which is used by eight other local authori- one

He said the lighting inventory would be used by the local authority to tender their public lighting main- tenance when their existing ESB contact expires.

, will this week

(Wednesday night, 9pm) focus on the

Brendan O’Donnell tragedy, while

it will also look back at the Patrick O’ Dwyer case.

The final part of the series, next

week, will look at the unsolved mur- der of Ennistymon woman Emer O’Loughlin, on the Galway/Clare border in 2005.

In a case that shocked the na- tion, Brendan O’Donnell murdered Imelda Riney, her three-year-old son Liam and Galway priest Fr Joe Walsh. Their bodies were found in Cregg Wood in east Clare in 1994.

O’Donnell was subsequently con- victed of the triple murder, but died in 1996 while serving his sentence at the Central Mental Hospital in Dub-

lin.

Patrick O’Dwyer, from Shrohill, Ennistymon, killed his 17-year-old sister Marguerite in a frenzied at- tack at their home on November 29, pAuers

O’Dwyer hit his sister six times on the head with a claw hammer and in- flicted more than 90 stab wounds to her body. He told gardai he had con- templated suicide and attacked his sister while she watched television, as he feared she would get in the way of his suicide attempt. He later came

clean to gardai. “It’s like being inside a room with a video and I can’t turn it off,” he told gardai.

At the Central Criminal Court in June 2007, O’Dwyer claimed a de- fence of diminished responsibility, in that he suffered from a mental disor- der when he killed his sister.

The jury in the trial agreed and found him guilty of manslaughter, by reason of diminished responsibil- ity. He was sentenced to six years in jail.

This week’s hour-long programme will address the issue of balance of mind and the prevalence of mental health issues among a high percent- age of those who commit crime in Ireland.

The third Clare tragedy to be in- cluded in the series is that of Emer O’Loughlin. The 23-year-old’s body was discovered in a burnt out cara- van near Tubber in April 2005. No- one has ever been held accountable for her killing. The story of Emer’s killing is one of three unsolved cases being highlighted in the documen- Fe AY

The series is produced by Sideline Productions. It examines the rise in Irish murder rates and assesses the impact of the various killings on the families left behind. It is presented by former T’V3 crime correspondent Maura Derrane.

ALMOST 70 per cent of créches in Clare failed to comply with HSE regulations. That is according to a survey of inspection reports from the county’s créches and schools car- ried out between October 2006 to October 2007 and released under the Freedom of Information Act.

According to the pre-school inspec- tion reports into facilities that ca- tered for 10 or more children, 69 out of the 101 inspected in Clare were in breach of the HSE’s criteria.

Of those, which did not comply with the inspector’s criteria, as many as 33, or almost a third, were record- ed as having minor or very minor

breaches of the regulations. Another 32 had no breaches at all.

Among the most common breaches outlined was the child-adult ratio exceeding the 10:1 limit, bound- ary fencing or doors broken, lack of space for children to move about in and un-nutritious food.

At the Knocklisheen Accommo- dation Centre the inspector found a long list of issues including the need for more space and staff, and a lim- ited range of toys available

The report also recorded that there was no nappy bags or disposable gloves for the staff, no snacks pro- vided to the children in the morn- ing session and sleeping babies were at risk of being hit by falling toys.

There were no toys or equipment in the outdoor area.

The Department of Justice said however that the number of children in this pre-school in the reception centre for asylum seekers had been adjusted to meet the HSE guidelines.

Additional toys and equipment are now in place and a stock of depos- able gloves and nappy bags are avail- able to staff. It said healthy snacks it said were available, and the outdoor play area, which was under construc- tion at the time of the inspection is now complete.

The inspector also out lined con- cerns relating to the prefabricated building in which the Little Rascals Playgroup in St Conaire’s National

School in Shannon was situated. That prefab has since been replaced however and the HSE are said to be happy with the new facility.

In Maghera Gardens Créche the in- spector found that nappies were be- ing changed in both toilets including staff toilets. The creche said that one of the toilets is now designated for staff only, and the other is the chil- dren and changing nappies only.

The Inspector found that the stage area in the Community Centre in Kil- rush was not suitable for the Stepping Stones Playgroup. The playgroup has applied however for funding to fix the concertina doors leading to the stage which they claim provide plenty of room for the children.

he felt it necessary to have his feelings known when he took part in the teachers and parent’s protest against budget cuts in education.

‘For me it is very clear cut. I am a teacher and at the cold face of it, and long after this has died down as a political issue, for me and other teachers and more importantly the children will be paying the price for months and maybe even years to come,’ said Cllr Crowe.

He said as far as he was concerned there was no conflict of interest in his stance.

“T think it is healthy that I should go out. [ am a Fianna Fail man and wish to stay a Fianna Fail man, but I was elected by the people of this area and this does not sit well with them and it does not sit well with me,’ he

added.

While his own school won’t be af- fected directly by the cuts this year the east Clare councillor has not ruled out crippling affects in the fu- neh ker

‘Down the road new appointments could be affected and class sizes,’ he Cr AKOR

“I think the Government and Fian- na Fail need to rethink this. In mak- ing the necessary cuts you should not touch the young or the elderly.

“We have a very low betting tax and by increasing it by a few more per cent it could net another €100 million.”

Like many more in the profession the young teacher said he has spent his Own money on providing essen- tial materials for the classroom.

‘“T have spent close to €2,500 of my own money to put things in my class room.

“IT bought my own projector and I am out of pocket and I took out a broadband contract that I use for the classroom. This is something that should be in every classroom,” he said. “I am not alone in this. We (teachers) put up with a lot and say very little, but at a time like this we cannot stay quiet anymore,’ said the outspoken councillor.