The Clare People Archive

THE level of personal information required from people applying for planning permission in Clare has been criticised as an “invasion of pri- vacy .

Residential policies contained in the Clare County Development Plan require applicants to prove that he/ she is local.

In that process, applicants are asked to submit bank statements, invoices or other forms of financial records in order, in part, to meet the qualifica- tions.

In one instance, according to one Quin councillor who has criticised the process, an applicant was asked

to provide 12 years of information.

“If policies require this type of detailed personal information then I do not consider them to be proper planning policies,’ said Cllr Sonny Scanlon (FG)

“You have planners looking for bank statements back 10 and 12 years. There is no one keeping bank statements that length of time today. I would like to know of there is any- one in Clare County Council that have bank statements kept this length of time,” he added.

Cllr Scanlon says there have been other instances where inconsistency has been applied to the planning ROS

“There are two planning appli-

cations 50 metres apart – one was granted by one planner and the other was refused by a different planner and both applications were facing forestry with the same surroundings. The planning applicant who was re- fused owned 15 acres of land for 20 years.”

He continued, “A son wanted to build a house on his father’s land which was over 100 acres. This in- cluded a particular piece of wooded land. The planner informed him to clear out of that particular area in the wood where the house would not be seen and he also carried out a per- colation test, which passed. He had spent €6,000 carrying out work and was refused planning permission by

the planner.”

Cllr Scanlon said he was concerned that sensitive financial information maybe contained in planning files. “Tt is an invasion of privacy to have bank statements in a planning appli- cation file. Anyone can come in and see them on file. Revenue keep files for six years only. The council keep files for seven years. Most people today use mobile phone on credit so they don’t have phone bills.”

He has called for the County Man- ager Alec Flemming to comment on this particular aspect of the County Development. Cllr Scanlon (FG) has also called for the requirement of “substantial personal information to be terminated”’.

EVERY second level school in Clare will lose at least one teacher, with one school in Ennis losing five, due to Budget 2009 cutbacks.

According to the ASTI every sec- ondary school will be down one teacher come September, resulting in schools losing out in subject variety and choice, and special education needs.

Students’ extra curricular activities and field projects will also be greatly

NEKO

Ger O’Donoghue of the ASTI standing committee for Clare, Lim- erick and Nenagh said that the full extent of the loss of teachers is not yet known. All schools will lose and the cuts will “affect some schools more than others”.

Schools with an open _ policy will suffer most according to Mr O’Donoghue, as English language support teachers will be capped at two per school, irrespective of how many pupils in the school need as-

TED Gen

“We have these newcomer students coming to our schools and we pride ourselves in welcoming them to the school,” he said.

“These students are in _ classes where teachers are going to have problems integrating them with the other pupils.”

Initially an English language sup- port teacher was provided for every 14 students in a school. This allowed for a certain amount of withdrawal from class for extra tuition for stu-

dents whose first language is not English.

In the Budget the Government de- cided to cap the number of English language support teachers at two per school.

Mr O’Donoghue also maintains that the broad base of education will be affected by the cuts.

“There are some subjects that a smaller number of pupils opt for. Schools will now be forced to decide whether or not to keep these classes. It may not be possible to separate

pass and honours classes come Sep- tember,” he said.

“Tt will also have a huge affect of extra curricular activities. These form the basis of a rounded educa- WO )s Maen OLomncT-n LOR

Under the terms of the Budget sub- stitute teachers will no longer be available to cover teachers who are involved in school sports or field we 1Oe

‘How are schools going to manage in cases like that?” asked the ASTI rep.

PRIMARY schools in Ennis will lose 12 teachers if proposed Budget cuts go ahead as planned, according to provisional figures from Ennis Education Forum.

The forum, which represents pri- mary schools in the Ennis parish, met last week to discuss the cutbacks in education announced in the Budg- A

The most controversial proposal put forward by the Department of Education involves increasing class sizes from 27 pupils per class to 28 pupils per class.

Initial figures from the Education Forum say as many 12 teaching posts could be at risk, if the proposals are enforced.

Margaret Cooney, Principal of the Holy Family Senior School and Forum member, said the cutbacks would have very serious implications for schools.

“It is very serious, because I think maybe people don’t generally under- stand how much of an impact this is going to have. If you’re short a

teacher, then it’s going to be a case of having to divide three classes into two and it’s the children will suffer as a result.”

Ms Cooney said other issues such as the loss of substitution cover would have major knock on effects.

“If you don’t have a situation where substitute teachers are available to provide cover, what you’re going to find is that classes are being broken up and children are sent in groups of four or five to other classrooms. It’s a very, very Serious situation.”

She added, “I think this figure of 200 teaching posts being lost that the department has provided is a very conservative figure. It’s likely to be much higher. I was totally gob- smacked when I heard that they were going to introduce these cutbacks.”

“There is no evidence to suggest that they will go back on them but I hope that sanity will prevail.

“We had the second highest teach- ers pupil ratio in Europe and now we re on our way to having the high- est. That’s extremely serious and shoud be of great concern,” said Ms Cooney.

TWO homeless men who sought Shelter broke into a house in Ennis, drank a bottle of gin and then went to sleep in two of the bedrooms – in the mistaken belief that the house was vacant!

Both non-nationals Josef Pavelka (47), Lakeville, Gort Road, Ennis, and Aruydos Voronius (40), Riverd- ale, Tulla Road, Ennis, admitted en- tering a home in Highfield Park, En- nis, as a trespasser and committing theft, last Wednesday, October 22.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told Ennis District Court that a man returned to his home at 9pm and discovered an empty bottle of gin on the table.

“It had been taken and consumed in the house. The accused men were asleep in bedrooms,” he said.

Gardai were called to the house and the two men were awakened from their sleep and arrested.

Defending solicitor Daragh Has- sett said the case gave a “whole new meaning to falling asleep on the

job.”

He said both of his clients were

homeless and took refuge in the house.

Pavelka, a native of the Czech Re- public, had worked in construction, but lost his job and has been living rough. His co-accused, a native of Lithuania, has also lost his job.

Mr Hassett said it was a bad night and the accused thought the house was vacant.

“[‘m not trying to minimise it but on the level of breaking and entry, it’s on the lower scale. They did not ransack the house,” he said.

He said the two had been living

with other homeless people from Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. ““Both men are homeless, without benefits, living from hand to mouth at the moment,’ he added.

Judge Joseph Mangan, asked, “They sought shelter?”

The solicitor said this was the case. The judge continued, “On a wet night? They didn’t do much to make Le ata

“Tf it was November, I’d be refer- ring to the Star of Bethlehem,” re- plied the solicitor. The judge add- ed, “If there was a third one in the

company, you might be referring to something else.”

He asked did the men have the money for the gin in court and was told they did not.

Both were remanded on continuing bail to re-appear in court next month and the judge said they must pay €15 compensation each.

“We won’t ask them to make the beds. If that is done (compensation paid) on that date, I’ll take a certain view in the matter. If it’s not, I’ll take quite a different view,’ said the judge.

AN UNPROVOKED attack which the left the victim with a scar re- sulted in a criminal conviction for a Shannon man.

The Circuit Court heard that Chris- topher McGorrian (18) Rossbarack- en, Shannon struck Martin O’Leary in the face on April 21 2007, splitting his lip before running off laughing.

O’Leary told Stephan Coughlan BL for the prosecution that he he was standing talking to friends at Cronin Lawn on the night.

McGorrian came out of a house across the road and was “walking in circles. He was very agitated.”, O’Leary said.7

McGorrian walked over to O’ Leary and struck him in the face.

“The cut went right through to the inside of my lip and I had to have seven stitches to the outside and sev- en to the inside’, he told Judge Ger- ard Griffin in evidence.

The injured man was referred to a

plastic surgeon in Cork University Hospital and the surgeons report was read into the court record. It said that O’Leary would be left with a 2cm permanent scar which would be vis- ible at conversational distance.

McGorrian had pleaded not guilty to a charge of causing serious harm and disfigurement but guilty to a lesser charge of causing harm.

Summing up for the jury, Mr Coughlan said the fact was that the scar is permanent and this constitut- ed disfigurement.

Mr Mark Nicholas for the defence told the jury it was “nonsense” to de- fine “a scar which I couldn’t see and you couldn’t see as serious disfigure- ment. My client’s behaviour was dis- graceful and he has apologised to Mr O’Leary. It’s a bad injury but it’s not serious disfigurement.”

The jury returned a verdict of non guilty on the more serious charge and guilty on the lesser charge.

The Judge adjourned sentencing until Wednesday October 29.

A 51-YEAR-OLD man has been ac- quitted by a jury of assaulting his three sisters, on a drink-fuelled St Stephen’s night in Kilrush two years ago.

At the end of a two-day trial at Ennis Circuit Court on Friday, the jury found Martin Walsh not guilty of assaulting his sisters Josephine O’ Loughlin and Caroline and Helena Walsh, causing them harm, in Kil- rush, on December 27, 2006.

Mr Walsh, of Island View, Kilrush, denied assaulting the women, during two incidents in the early hours of the morning. He pleaded not guilty to assaulting Josephine O’Loughlin at Francis Street and denied assault- ing Caroline and Helena Walsh at his home, some time later that night.

Josephine O’Loughlin told the trial that she and her husband John went to Charlie Martin’s bar on the night in question. She said on their way home, they met her brother Martin and his partner Julie Counihan, at Francis Street. “He came out of no- where,” she said.

“He was screaming and shouting. He had a bottle in his hand. He said he was going to do us. He repeatedly punched me in the mouth,” she said. She said she hit the ground and broke her wrist. She said she was knocked unconscious.

Under cross-examination by Lor- can Connolly, BL, for the accused (instructed by Mairead Doyle, solici- tor), Ms O’Loughlin denied that she was heavily intoxicated on the night.

“You say you were punched repeat- edly in the mouth. That didn’t hap- pen at all. You had no injury to your mouth. You say you were knocked unconscious. We didn’t hear that un- til now,” said Mr Connolly.

‘The accused and his partner were going about their business and you attempted to attack Ms Counihan and you fell to the ground and broke your wrist and you were very drunk,’ added the barrister.

Ms O’Loughlin replied that while She had drink taken, she was not “out of my mind with drink.” She said the injuries she sustained “were inflicted on me.”

Her husband John O’Loughlin told the court that the accused was “shout- ing expletives towards my wife” on the street.

‘He was coming towards us with a broken bottle in one hand. He pushed my wife to the ground,” he said. He also denied that his wife was very in- toxicated on the night.

Mr Connolly said, “At no stage did the accused man have a bottle,’ but Mr O’Loughlin repeated that he did.

Caroline Walsh told the trial that she and her sister Helena got a taxi from Kilkee to their sister Jose-

phine’s house in Kilrush in the early hours of that morning. She said that Josephine was covered in blood.

She and Helena then went to their brother Martin’s house at Island View in Kilrush. She said they knocked on the door. “I confronted him. I wanted to know why he beat my sister. He pulled me in the door and started beating me. He punched me in the face,” she said.

She said that her sister Helena tried to stop Martin from beating her, but he then hit her with a baseball bat to the head. “He hit her again while she was on the ground,” she said.

Mr Connolly put it to her that they had no business going to the ac- cused’s house at that hour of the night. She said she accepted it had been a foolish thing to do. “If he had apologised, there would have been none of this,” she said. Mr Connolly asked her did she recall picking up pots and pelting them at the house and she said she didn’t. He also said the accused did not have an imple- ment. “He was fending off an attack from ye,” he said.

Helena Walsh told the court that Martin hit her at his house. “I fell to the ground and then he hit me with a bat, once on the head, once on the hip while I was on the ground. Caroline pushed him. That was the only rea- son he didn’t hit me again,” she said. She said she received nine stitches to

a wound on her head at Ennis Gen- eral Hospital some hours later.

Mr Connolly put it to her that she and her sister “were completely out of control.” She replied, “We were upset about the state Josephine was in.” He also accepted it was foolish to go to Martin’s house at that hour o) aa elo ou rca ole

Garda Eoin Daly told the court he came upon Josephine O’Loughlin on Francis Street at around lam on December 27, 2006. He said her face was covered in blood and there were several marks all over her face. At 2.30am, he received a call to go to a house in the town where he met Caroline and Helena Walsh. Caro- line had an injury to her right eye, while Helena had sustained a cut to her forehead.

Martin Walsh told the court that he saw his sister Josephine in the pub that night, but they did not exchange words as they do not speak. He said that he left the pub with his partner, Julie Counihan. He said while they were on their way home, Josephine Started to run after them, at Francis Street.

“She grabbed on to Julie’s hair and ripped two chains from her neck,” he said. He said they went home to bed and after 2am he heard voices. He went downstairs and said Caro- line and Helena were beating his son. “They were screaming and roaring,”

he said. He said they ripped his pyja- mas from him and then left.

He denied assaulting the three women. Under cross-examination from Stephen Coughlan, BL, prose- cuting, Mr Walsh denied that he had waited for his sister Josephine on the street. He said he did not have a bot- tle in his hand.

His partner Julie Counihan told the court she wanted to phone the gardai that night, but the accused told her not to, as the three women were his sisters. She said Martin Walsh did not assault Josephine O’Loughlin. “If anything, she ran after me and as- Saulted me,’ she said. She said that Ms O’Loughlin was “on a rage with alcohol” that night.

“T never thought it would go this far. I never thought that brothers and sisters would have themselves inside in court,” said Julie Counihan.

Judge Gerard Griffin told the jury the three charges were “separate and distinct.” “Each must stand on their own merits and must be dealt with individually,” he said.

After more than two hours deliber- ating in the case, the jury found Mr Walsh not guilty on all three counts.

A WOMAN threatened to kill four gardai during a stand-off at her home on the outskirts of Ennis, it has been alleged.

Caitriona Barker (37), of Bridge Court, Roslevan, Ennis, is accused of threatening to kill or harm a garda sergeant and three gardai, on May 14, 2007. She is also accused of pro-

ducing a knife, on the same date.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told En- nis District Court that gardai were called to the home of the accused at 1.40am. The front door was open and the accused was staggering on the street. He said she appeared she be 1n a distressed state.

“It will be alleged she produced a knife from behind her back and threatened the guards she would kill

them and herself,” he said.

‘There was a stand-off for a short period before gardai overpowered her and took possession of the knife. Gardai were not injured,” he said.

He said Ms Barker was disorien- tated and fell over a flowerpot.

Judge Joseph Mangan (right) said he was declining jurisdiction. The case will be sent forward to the Cir- cuit Court.

ADULTS are buying alcohol for those under the age of 18, while they wait outside off-licenses for them, it has been claimed.

The revelation emerged in court from a 17-year-old girl from Ennis, who said she asked people to buy alcohol for her at three named off- licenses in the town.

The girl is accused of being in- toxicated in public at Abbey Street, Ennis, on May 18 last. Judge Joseph Mangan noted that “Drink seems to be at the root of all these problems.”

Ennis District Court was told on Friday that the young girl accepted that this was the case. Her solicitor Tara Godfrey said her client would be prepared to comply with the Pro- bation services.

Judge Mangan called the girl up before him and asked her where she was getting the alcohol. She said it was being bought in off-licences. ‘‘Any of them,” she said.

Asked to specify, she replied, “Fine Wines; over by MT Pockets; Carry Out. That’s all.”

Judge Mangan asked her, “How do you get drink?” She replied, “People that I hang around with are 18.”

He asked her where she was located when the alcohol was being bought for her. “Waiting outside the offie,” she replied. The judge asked her was it handed to her as the buyers left the off-licences and she said, “Ya.”

Inspector Tom Kennedy then told the court that a recent case in Shan- non had been brought to court, where a young man bought alcohol for a girl who was under 18. The judge asked,

“Is it a case with some people, Hear no evil, See no evil?”

The inspector replied, “We have carried out surveillance. It 1s difficult enough to detect. It is not always as blatant as that.”

The judge placed the girl on proba- tion for 12 months. He ordered her to comply with counselling and treat- ment and undertake to comply with a urine analysis programme.

A MAN whose urine was left for two months before it was tested for the presence of drugs has been convicted of driving under the influence of an intoxicant. Niall O’Gorman (21), of Hurlestown Meadow, Broadford, Co Clare, pleaded not guilty to the of- fence, at Hurdlestown, Broadford, on

November 23, 2007.

During evidence in the case last Thursday week, it emerged that two months had elapsed before his sam- ple of urine was tested for the pres- ence of drugs at the Medical Bureau of Road Safety in Dublin.

While his urine sample was sent away for analysis just days after he was stopped by gardai, the test for

the presence of drugs did not take place for two months.

The sample was tested for the pres- ence of alcohol within weeks. He was notified in December 2007 that the result for the presence of alcohol was ‘nil.’ However, it was not until three months later that he received notification from the Bureau, indi- cating the presence of cocaine class

and cannabis class in the urine.

The Bureau said the delay was due to the Christmas backlog and gardai said the testing was done in accord- ance with procedures.

However, the accused’s solicitor Daragh Hassett said it was incum- bent on the gardai to get the samples off to the Bureau and for the Bureau to analyse the specimens as quickly

as possible. “There is a delay of three months here for a positive drug anal- ysis,” said the solicitor.

Judge Joseph Mangan adjourned a ruling in the case for a week. Last week, he convicted the accused and disqualified him from driving for four years. He fined him €800 and fixed a bond in the event of an ap- ered

CLARECASTLE is famous for it’s sluice gates, but it’s the ones up in the great beyond and not down on the River Fergus that attracted most at- tention on Saturday afternoon. They just wouldn’t shut and were intent of spoiling the showpiece occasion of intermediate hurling year.

But even the rains failed to spoil the Broadford party that started up around the midfield area of Clare- castle’s second field just after Spm on Saturday. It was there that the play- ers gathered in one big scrum to cel- ebrate joining the elite of Clare hurl- ing for the first time in 14 years.

That’s a long time, before Ger Loughnane’s hurling revolution swept the county to Munsters, All- Irelands and high kingship of the game. Maybe that’s why the scrum was so big and why the rains failed to put a damper on a huge day for Broadford hurling.

In time the scrum became one big rolling maul to the sanctuary of a fence on the sideline from where county board treasurer Bernard Keane addressed the crowd from on high and presented the intermediate cup to Padraig Hickey.

A winning captain, Hickey was al- ways going to get to lift the cup, but if ever a man deserved the honour it was the stylish corner-forward. He led by example, scoring four brilliant points from play over the hour in a man-of-the-match display.

“Give me the ball and I’ll score, that’s my motto anyway, but it’s the men that give me the ball, it’s the men that put super ball my way,’ he said after his winning speech and when the scrum had finally left for the dressing room and the bars of Broadford.

“We knew we were going to be there or thereabouts this year. At the start of the year we lost a couple of games and we knew afterwards that we just

had to get things right. Parteen beat us twice this year. Fair play to them, but it was a kick up the backside for us. Once we knew we had a lot of work to do we really got down to it, especially over the last two months. We put the foot to the floor and drove on. The rewards are here by winning the championship.

“It’s a massive step up for Broad- ford hurling. We haven’t played sen- ior championship since 1994. We went up Senior “B’ in ’97 and again in 2003, but playing Senior ‘A’ now is going to be a massive step up again. We’re going to have to put our foot to the floor again to even stay in the gerade, but we’re not going to worry about it tonight.”