The Clare People Archive

WITH the days fast counting down to the beginning of the new Depart- ment of Agriculture scheme to cross- check the milk testing by co-ops, the IFA has come in with its support for the initiative.

According to IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Richard Kennedy, the scheme, due to begin on April 1, is in line with the Gov- ernment’s Partnership commitment to the IFA.

This protocol of verification will cover the testing of all constituents used for payment, audit of lab pro- cedures, check calibration of ma- ATEN Tom AMV ICM URANO OComBUch UO LRCMECTo OL! back to farmers. Results of the cross-

checks will be published by the De- partment.

Kennedy commented that while this new protocol was welcome, it was only the first step in raising the standards of Irish milk testing to in- ternational best practice, paving the way for full accreditation of central, independent milk testing laborato- ju Coe

“I believe this move will help focus the minds of all in the dairy industry on the importance of proper stand- ards in milk testing, from sample taking, all the way to the returning of results to both farmers and proc- essors, he said.

‘However, I see it as merely the first step towards world-class ISO 17025 accreditation of a small number of

centralised milk laboratories, shared by all milk processors, which could easily be established on an independ- ent footing.”

Kennedy said the chances of achieving fully accredited, and ulti- mately independent, milk testing in one or a few central laboratories for all of Ireland’s milk have never been aoa Koa

“Dairygold have committed to out- sourcing their milk testing needs to a fully accredited third party lab by 2009,” he said.

“The West Cork Co-ops have de- cided to centralise all their milk test- ing into one, accredited laboratory. Connacht Gold are preparing to in- vest in new, accredited facilities and are willing to share those with other

neighbouring co-ops. The Chair- man of Lakeland Co-op has publicly expressed his support for a single, world-class milk testing lab.

‘Many other co-ops have declared to us they were seriously looking into accreditation for milk testing, and an increasing number of them have now recognised the importance for farm management purposes as well as accuracy of results, of testing every collection.

‘These strands all go in the right direction, but now they must come together. Co-ops must agree to share the use of a small number of fully accredited, world class standard fa- cilities – eventually ensuring that those are operated independently,’ Kennedy concluded.

THERE was mounting speculation yesterday that the proposed €7.2 million sale of Clare FM to Radio Kerry had fallen through.

The rumoured collapse of the sale will disappoint hundreds of share- holders across the county who were set for small windfalls as a result of investing in the station in the early Les

The shareholders last had contact from the station’s board in Decem- ber when they were told that the sta- tion had decided to accept a €20 per share offer from Radio Kerry.

In a letter to shareholders, the chair- man of Clare Community Radio Holdings plc, Michael Evans, stated that the sale was conditional on 95 per cent shareholder approval.

Mr Evans stated that the sale should be completed by the end of March mau eres

However, there has been no further communication from the board to shareholders since then.

One major shareholder said yes- terday, “I understand that the deal has fallen through and this has been communicated to the Clare FM board, though we have heard nothing official as yet.”

Both sides are declining to com- ment. The Clare FM chief executive, Liam O’Shea, failed to respond to

e-mailed queries on the matter last Thursday and Friday, while Radio Kerry also failed to return a phone query.

However, even if the deal has col- lapsed, it will alert others in the marketplace that the station is up for grabs. It is believed that Radio Kerry was not the only station interested in purchasing Clare FM.

If the deal has fallen through, the station’s senior management and the CPIM SDrmeE-DesveAAmny some;

FEARS that nursing staff at Ennis General Hospital will not be rostered for duty in Accident and Emergency between 8pm and 8am from the end of April have been rubbished by the Jett) ay

Fine Gael Deputy Joe Carey said that he was made aware of the ru- mours circulating that this effective downgrading of the hospital and the implementation of the Hanly Report would take place before the feared Teamwork report was published.

The Irish Nurses Organisation said that it understood that the number of nurses were to increase in A and E in June when the 37-hour week came into play.

These latest fears follow on from the news that the €39 million origi- nally designated for the development of Ennis General Hospital has now gone to St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.

“This news, 1f confirmed, will rep- resent a fatal blow to health service delivery in County Clare,” said Dep- uty Carey.

“In effect, what this means is that A and E services at Ennis General will be discontinued between those

hours and the care and attention cur- rently provided at the hospital will no longer be available.

“This means that 44,000 Clare people will be outside the golden- hour time for A and E treatment after suffering from an accident, stroke or a heart attack. Recent cases in west Clare have highlighted the need for patients to be able to access key medical services in the County. The closure of A and E services dur-

ing the times proposed will remove the last emergency birth services for Clare. Where will people go if they are involved in a serious car crash or a farm accident or have a sports in- jury?” he asked.

“The HSE cannot be allowed to fol- low this course of action. If you take into consideration the recent trauma bypass decision, abandonment of the €39 million redevelopment com- mitted to by Government before and

after the election, and the continued absence of an on-site CT scanner facility, all these decisions and inac- tions represent key elements in the implementation of the Hanly Report by stealth, and are huge backward steps in Clare healthcare provision which must be resisted at every op- portunity and reversed.”

Deputy Carey will meet with sen- ior HSE officials and the four Clare Oireachtas members next Friday to discuss these concerns.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin have called on the Government TDs for Clare to resign “if they have any integrity” in light of further delay in the develop- ment of the hospital.

Speaking at Sinn Féin’s Easter commemoration last Sunday, Sinn Fein’s Cathy McCafferty said, “This is appalling but not surprising news. Fianna Fail assured the people of Clare during the general election campaign last year that our hospital would be safe, even going so far as to get planning permission for the project. This latest news proves that promises from Government were oe

EU laws governing the control of bluetongue has come in for stick this week from Clare farmer and Chair- person of ICMSA’s Beef and Cattle Committee, Martin McMahon.

“If bluetongue arrives in Ireland it will not only lead to considerable movement restrictions, but also lead to livestock mortality, poor animal health and performance, as well as imposing considerable additional costs on farmers with the negative impact on farm incomes that comes from that,’ said Mr McMahon.

‘The starting point in our efforts to control the threat of bluetongue must be to ensure that EU rules at least do

not hinder Ireland’s ability to keep the disease out. And ICMSA’s view is that the current rules are unfortu- nately more of a hindrance to our ef- forts than they are a help.

“For example, under the existing rules, if a vaccination programme is introduced, then zones have to be es- tablished and movement restrictions put in place. In addition, Ireland’s trading status for live exports would ost ahem

He continued, “It is absolutely ab- surd that we would face extra restric- tions because we vaccinate to try and prevent the disease. What kind of logic has you disadvantaged for trying to prevent a disease?

“It is ICMSA’s firm view that we

need to strengthen our defences against bluetongue in the whole of Ireland. In this context, preventative vaccination for bluetongue should be considered as soon as the vaccine be- comes available. And we should be able to carry through this preventive measure without being disadvan- taged by the EU.”

Meanwhile, Minister for Agri- culture, Mary Coughlan, last week noted that a draft proposals from the EU Commission in relation to blue- tongue has been compiled.

The Minister said that she and her officials had been pressing the Com- mission to make every effort to en- sure that those countries that are free of bluetongue remain disease-free

and the latest proposals from the Commission should be seen in this context.

“Following the introduction of im- port control measures last month, which suspended the importation of certain cattle and sheep from blue- tongue-restricted zones, I had again asked the Commission to consider revising the conditions under which live animals may be exported from bluetongue-restricted zones in the light of the then emerging informa- tion,” she said.

The new proposals will be dis- cussed at a meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH) in Brus- sels on March 31.

AGRICULTURE Minister Mary Coughlan continued to talk tough at the World ‘Trade Organisation (WTO) talks last week, describ- ing them as representing a “serious threat to EU and Irish agriculture” while speaking at an EU Agriculture Ministers meeting on Thursday. Coughlan said that there were clear indications that the negotiations be- tween over 150 countries in Geneva may be reaching a critical point. The EU is represented in the talks, which are now in their seventh year, by the European Commission. “There is a real danger that, in an

effort to get a deal before the US presidential elections, there will be a temptation to agree concessions on agriculture which would be severely damaging to farming and the food industry in this country and through- out Europe,” she said.

‘This must be firmly resisted, and I and my Government colleagues have been and are working hard to build the widest possible alliance to pre- vent this happening.

“My worries in this regard have not been eased by the Commission, which accepts that there will be a major increase in imports into the EU if a deal is done along the lines currently on the table.”

The Minister said that it was huge- ly important that important sectors such as beef and dairy received the necessary protection.

“The European beef sector could not possibly survive the 70% tariff cut which is on the table in Geneva, and must therefore be treated as a sensitive product as provided for in WTO rules.

“While this is widely accepted, it is vital that sensitive product status must deliver real and effective pro- tection. Some proposals now being touted could seriously undermine Wena

Minister Coughlan claimed that Ireland has strongly pressed its case

in relation to the beef and dairy sec- tors in a wide-ranging set of contacts, throughout the EU and elsewhere in the world, as well as in every avail- able official forum in the EU and at WTO, most recently by the Taoi- seach at the European Council last Veto) @

Other member states have expressed equally serious concerns about other aspects of what is on the table.

Another key feature of the talks are the proposals to reduce domestic supports to agriculture.

Most of the supports received by Irish farmers are classified in a “green box” which is not subject to such reductions.

A NEW project aimed at balancing the scales of history will take place in the Vandeleur Walled Garden this Maren tee rhs

The “Bring a Story’ open day, which aims to root out some positive stories about the often-abhorred west Clare landlord family, the Vandeleurs, will take place on the ground of their old homestead from |llam to 4pm.

The Inrush House seat of the family was burned out in 1897 and Wednes- day marks the 111th anniversary of the razing of the house.

“We are not attempting to re-write

history,’ centre manager Susanne Matejka explained. “The stigma at- tached to the Vandeleur family as cruel landlords has lived on in the folk memory of west Clare and the burned-out ruins of Kilrush House stood as a reminder of those op- pressed times right up to 1972 when the shell of the great house was de- molished in the interests of public SAAS

“Yet in the 89 years that it survived, Kilrush House was a landmark in west Clare and an outstanding exam- ple of the great houses of the time. As home to the military and political family, which owned most of Kil-

rush and built most of its civic build- ings, the building of Kilrush House under the direction of Crofton Van- deleur was completed in 1808. It was built on classical style rising to three floors over a basement and with 86 windows which were a feature of the building,’ said Ms Matejka.

“We would like to balance up the bad taste which was left by the Van- deleur landlords by gathering what- ever positive information we can,” she added. “As the Vandeleur era is now more than a century distant, we are hoping that locals will have sto- ries which were passed down to them through the older generations.

“We will have people on hand on the day to record the stories or make arrangements to have them docu- mented. Depending on the response, we would also envisage assembling the stories in a publication.”

Ms Matejka is also interested in collecting pictures of Kilrush House before and after the burning and any other memorabilia connected to the Vandeleur estate.

Local people and any other inter- ested parties are invited to attend the centre free of charge for a coffee and an exchange of stories. Information can also be emailed to info@vandele urwalledgarden.ie

PLANS to market the west Clare capital as a “key economic, com- mercial and administrative centre” through a specially published guide has been proposed by local council- lor Tom Prendeville.

The guide suggested would target prospective settlers and investors to Kilrush outlining all it has to offer.

“This council has been most posi- tive and progressive in stimulat- ing and accommodating economic erowth,” said Clr Prendeville (FF).

“The layout of Kilrush is most at- tractive. As the capital of west Clare there is an expectancy that Kilrush has the capability to create its own vision of where the town would hope to be in 2020.

“That vision would have to be built on a bedrock of economic sustain- ability. We need to aggressively chase investors to establish an indus-

trial base in west Clare,’ he told this month’s meeting of Kilrush Town Council.

‘Nowadays people seek quality of life and this presumes a wide accept- ance of social inclusion and integra- tion and the promotion of vibrant lo- cal communities,.

“An admission that we lack ad- equate services in some area will of necessity be counterbalanced by the many quality of life advantages we enjoy here in west Clare.

“Perhaps at a later stage we can produce a town or regional guide highlighting their advantages.”

Senior staff officer, Siobhan O’Keefe said that while there is no one publication that fulfils that criteria there are many examples of marketing tools that are used by the council including the “Welcome to Kilrush’ brochure, www.kilrush. le, participation by the council in various advertising and _ business

features, and county development board’s “Clare Means Business’ CD.

“In light of the ongoing invest- ment by Kilrush Town Council in all of the above marketing tools, I feel the publication of a new guide as requested could potentially be deliv-

ered through the partnership struc- ture of the West Clare Economic Task Force.

“Kilrush Town Council would be happy to support the task force in the delivery of such an objective,” said Mrs O’Keefe.

THE waiting is almost over for the children of the Lisdoonvarna area as works on the Community Parkland Playground and Childcare Centre is nearing completion.

The playground, which is part of a large community and amenity centre planned for the park, has been built to cater for the needs of children in the surrunding areas, as well as those in Lisdoonvarna.

To coincide with the completion of the playground, a children’s sum- mer camp will begin on July 7 in the adjoining childcare centre. Children between three and five are invited

to take part in the camps which will be continued weekly until the full launch of the centre in September.

“It is going to be a kids’ summer camp with loads of activities for all the children. We will have a lot of arts and crafts, sports and all kinds of activities,’ said organiser Maggie O’Sullivan.

“At the moment we are looking for three- to five-year-olds but if a par- ent comes with a two-year-old who is potty trained and ready to go then we will be as flexible as we can.

“We will have six different children in the camp each week so we should have a good range.

“We will definitely be looking to

grow it but for this year the numbers we have are about right.

“In September we will be starting the new creche facility. We haven’t got a name yet but I’m sure over the summer one of the kids will be able to come up with a good name for it.”

The summer camp will be the first part of a major childcare centre open- ing on the premises in September.

“Come September, we will have six or seven rooms going and we will be catering for 0-12 months, toddlers, playgroup Montessori and _after- school,’ continued Maggie.

“It will be a fairly large operation but numbers will be limited both in the summer camp and the creche so

people should get in contact as soon as possible.

“We have space now but we could be full before we know it.

“As of right now the building is up and more or less ready. They are just finishing off the insides and the parking and landscaping outside so everything should be perfect for July wi 99

For more information on _ this project, contact Maggie O’Sullivan Oy MOL MANOR LONE

This playground, summer camp and creche are all elements of the Lisdoonvarna Amenity Park being developed by Lisdoonvarna Failte Ltd.

COMEDY is thick 1n the north Clare air this weekend with a series of one- act plays presented by the Burren Players.

The captivating evening of one-act plays, which features seven short comedies from the players, will take place in the Royal Spa Hotel in Lis- doonvarna from Thursday to Sun- day.

“Things have changed a bit this year,’ said Susan Edwards of the Burren Players. “A lot of the key ac- tors who have been with us in the past are not with us this year because of other obligations, which means that

we have a whole cast of new players – 14 – this year.

“The show will consist of seven one-act comedies. They will cover the whole spectrum of comedy – there is some farce and some relationship comedy, which can be a bit dark.

“In the past the cast has ranged from two to seven players each year. So by putting on a large number of plays it means that we can bring ina lot of new people who have shown an interest before but for whatever rea- son haven’t always been able to be a part of the production.

“In this format we have some ac- tors who play a number of roles in different plays. Some of the charac-

ters are very extreme and it is very interesting to see the players go from one character to another on the same night,” Susan added.

The players have been careful to incorporate many different and com- plementary styles of comedy into the programme.

“Comedy is something that our au- dience always enjoys. But as well as that the cast is having a really good time with these plays. We had to pick the plays and order them very care- fully,’ continued Susan.

“We took a good bit of time to fig- ure out what was best and we wound up with a fairly wide range of com- edies. We have some Irish plays and

Some non-Irish, but seven different types of comedy. It’s a really inter- esting mix of plays.

“People might love one play and then find the next one a bit bizarre. But then the person beside them might feel the total opposite. But there will definitely be laughs in the evening for everyone.’

Tickets at a cost of €15 are avail- able on the night or from the Royal Spa Hotel on 065-7074288. The show Starts at 8.30pm.

THE public is being invited to enjoy the historical and natural beauty of Gort’s Coole Park, tea rooms and visitors’ centre which reopened last weekend. Following a very success- ful winter and spring programme of events, the Coole Park Visitor Centre reopens to the public on Easter Sat- urday and will remain open through- out the summer.

The centre will be open daily from 10am to 5pm until the end of May, and then from 10am to 6pm. As a special treat for literary and his- tory buffs, there will be no entry fee

this year to the centre’s audiovisual presentation of the life of Lady Gre- gory and the exhibition “Coole Park through the eyes of Me and Nu’.

Me and Nu were pet-names of Lady Gregory’s granddaughters who spent much of their childhood in Coole Park and witnessed the passing of some of the leading artistic and po- litical figures of Ireland history in the early 20th century.

Coole Park is managed by the Na- tional Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Be- sides being a literary and historical pilgrimage, it is also a nature reserve,

includes six kilometres of trails tak- ing in woods, river, turlough, lime- stone and Coole Lake.

The Seven Woods and wild swans, which were celebrated in verse by WB Yeats, are part of its unique en- vironment. Depending on the season you may see red squirrels, stoats, bluebells and violets, butterflies and dragonflies, woodland or wetland birds.

Coole Park was once the home of Lady Gregory, dramatist, folklorist and co-founder of the Abbey Thea- tre with William Butler Yeats. In the early 20th century, it was at the heart of the Irish Literary Revival.

Yeats, Shaw, Synge and O’Casey all came to experience Coole’s magic. They and many others carved their initials on the Autograph Tree, an old copper beech still standing today.

Although the house no longer re- mains, you can still appreciate the beautiful surroundings that drew so many to Gort. It is possible to expe- rience the magic and serenity of the landscape that inspired the poets and artists of Ireland’s last literary gold- ae rnes

For more information, contact Hilda Mac Lochlainn, supervisor guide at Coole Park on 091-631804 or info@coolepark