The Clare People Archive

THE price of property in Clare con- tinues to fall this Autumn with the latest Permanent TSB/ESRI House Price Index showing a drop of 0.3 per cent month-on-month in September.

This amounts to an average price drop of 3.6 per cent since January of this year and 2.8 per cent since Sep- tember of 2006.

“The market in Clare is static at the moment and the funny thing is that the houses that are moving are the detached houses on the outskirts of towns that are running up €350 thousand,” said Samantha Coote, of Philip O’Reilly Auctioneers in En- Whe

“So our demographic of buyer are people looking for the family home, which would be out of sync with what we would expect.

“I think we are looking at a static price in Clare for the months to come. If we are to see any increase in price, it will be very very slow and minimal coming into May and June of next year.”

Despite claims last week by Niall O’Grady, Head of Marketing at Per- manent TSB, that prices are being

artificially supported by developers add-ons, Ms Coote claims that this is not a factor in Clare.

“That is really not happening in Clare. The prices are not being skewed because of that.

‘ For first time buyers, new devel- opments and second hand houses are now on a par.

“The advice for first time buyers would always have been to get a good second hand house but now they can get the new developments with struc- tural guarantees that will be as full fitted as a second hand house,” she nee

“At the moment we still have a lot of people sitting on the fence. We were snookered in every way; we had the general election, we had the upheaval with the interest rates and now we are heading into budget sea- son again.

“Regardless of what the _ politi- cians say buyers are always hoping that something will come up in the budget so we might see some more stability into the new year.”

The average price paid for a house in Ireland in September now stands at €299,483, compared with €308,179 in September of last year.

SEVERAL firemen had eggs, fire- works and bottles thrown at them as they attended bonfires on Hallowe’en night.

The fire services in Clare had 23 call-outs last Wednesday night, 18 of which involved bonfires. This com- pares with an average of three or four incidents on a normal day.

According to the acting Chief Fire Officer, Denis O’Connell, it was a very busy night. Although there were no hoax calls, he said that the behav- iour of a number of individuals cre- ated trouble for firemen.

“Ennis and Shannon fire brigades ran into a lot of difficulty trying to carry out their duties. Fireworks, eggs and bottles were thrown at crews and many firefighters received a lot of verbal abuse over the evening. Ennis fire brigade had bottles and fireworks thrown at them at a bonfire near Oak- wood Drive, Ennis. They received a lot of verbal abuse and had fireworks thrown at them at a bonfire in Quin Gardens, Quin,’ said Mr O’Connell.

“Shannon fire brigade had timber and eggs thrown at them at a bonfire in Rineanna, Shannon and they re- ceived a lot of verbal abuse and had bottles thrown at them at a bonfire in Newmarket-on-Fergus,” he said.

“It is very regrettable that firefight- ers should have to deal with this type of behaviour while carrying out their duty. Fortunately, there were no inju- ries received by any firefighter on the

night,” he added.

In Ennis, a garda was assaulted as he intervened in a dispute in the Mar- ket area of the town on Hallowe’en night. The garda had to receive stitches to a wound on his face, after he was struck.

Gardai say that a number of nui- sance calls were made over the course of the evening. Overall, how- ever the night was “no busier” than any Hallowe’en night.

Meanwhile, locals in Kilkee were angered after 22 steel rims of cars and trucks were left on the beach after bonfires there on Hallowe’en night. While the rims have since been removed, there are still remnants of

car tyres lying on the beach.

Former Mayor Manuel di Lucia said the situation is not acceptable.

‘There are something like 100 coils of wire still there and they are going to cause problems if they are not moved. Some years ago, a young girl cut her hand after the wire became embedded in the sand and she was playing with the sand,” he said.

“It happens every year but this is the worst I have seen it,” he said.

ANIMAL rescue services have been working overtime this Hallowe’en to help pets who have bolted in terror of fireworks.

Clare dog warden, Frankie Coote said that this had been one of the busiest seasons ever and in just two nights last week, he dealt with 30 dogs that had lost their way in fright.

“It just gets busier every year. I worked through the night on Hallowe’en and Hallowe’en doesn’t just last for one night anymore. There’s nearly a whole month of it, with fireworks being let off and bon- fires being lit every weekend in Oc- tober.”

Stray dogs are still being brought in to the pound and Mr Coote is doing all he can to re-unite them with their owners.

“We’ve got about half of the ani- mals back to their homes but there are still a lot of dogs whose own- ers we haven’t found. We would ask people whose pets have gone miss- ing to contact us – we can’t get your dog back to you if we don’t know it’s TOD Estoy 0 roa

Good weather has exacerbated the dog warden’s difficulties as people have more opportunities to be out-

doors, letting off fireworks.

While most animals are acciden- tally strayed, having bolted in fright at an exploding rocket, one of the more sinister practices of Hallowe’en is for owners to abandon their pets under the guise of them having strayed.

“Some people use the night as an excuse to dump pets and then they are brought in to us.

“It’s a terrible thing to do but there are people who will do that,” he said.

The animals taken in by the dog warden vary from thoroughbreds to cross breeds. Some people who find animals keep them in their homes until the original owner has been found while other dogs are brought straight to the pound.

In the run up to Hallowe’en, pet owners were warned to keep their pets indoors to stop them running away or worse, being snatched by people with cruelty in mind.

“When an animal is lost, it’s very important that owners contact us so that we can help them look for it. We may already have the dog but we can’t keep animals indefinitely so we would appeal to people to contact us as soon as possible,” he said.

Frankie Coote can be contacted on 087-6225253.

UP to 15 books of evidence which are due to be served for criminal tri- als have been lost — they were inad- vertently deleted from a computer in the State Solicitor’s office in Ennis. The “human error” was made by a

Staff member in the office, who was in the process of creating a back-up of files on a computer.

An incorrect key was accidentally hit and the loss was incurred 1m- mediately. The computer was sent to Dublin in an effort to retrieve the data. While some indexes have been

recovered, the books of evidence have been lost and will have to be reassembled.

“Rather than getting more support as a Single parent and carer I feel like

I am being punished or penalised. They [the Government] put too much red tape up without looking at the needs of the people

Deborah’s daughter, Marie, is a beautiful eight-year-old girl with a

heart-warming smile and infectious laugh. She is very close to her two- year-old brother Ben and loves hors- es. Despite the challenges facing her on a daily basis, the brave young girl favours activities such as go-karting

and cycling her bike.

The determined little girl and her equally resolute mother fight on, de- spite the uphill battle.

Marie suffers from hypotonia, sen- sory integration disorder and global

developmental delay but, despite nu- merous tests in Ireland and France, no name has been found for her con- dition. “In terms of services or sup- port, you have to fit into a slot,” said Deborah.

While acknowledging that the ther- apists within the HSE are doing their best, Deborah believes that, even with new therapists coming from Australia, there will continue to be a shortage in certain therapies on a regular basis.

Marie is now availing of the serv- ices of the Clare Crusaders, much to the delight of her mother.

“Now you realise that if all of these services were available to children so much earlier, how different their lives would have been. I am really seeing the benefit of the different therapies provided by the Crusaders.”

Deborah is the founding member of Connectabilities, a support group for parents with children with spe- cial needs and disabilities. Through the organisation, parents meet and exchange information and provide a newsletter.

The next meeting of Connectabili- ties is on November 7 at 8.30pm in the Old Lodge in Shannon.

, Mr McDonagh, outlined a zero tolerance policy against dirty play, if the match

official in charge names and shames those guilty of bringing any game into disrepute.

“We’re never slow to act,’ said Mr McDonagh. “If something is reported to us there are disciplinary measures in the board to deal with them.”

The board chairman attended the final act of the Clare senior football year in Quilty, but arrived at Pairc Naomh Mhuire after the fracas in the first minute of the game that resulted in the sending off of Lissycasey’s

Michael O’Rourke and Doonbeg’s David Downes and Frank O’Dea.

“I was late going to the game,” he revealed, “because I was delayed with work commitments and when I arrived at half-time all the alleged incidents were over with. I didn’t see any row.

“The board will examine Rory Hickey’s report when it comes in — that will determine what action is taken. It’s a matter of waiting and seeing what’s in the report.”

Rory Hickey’s version of events is expected to be with the county board later this week. This will give the disciplinary arm of the executive time to study it before the November meeting of the county board.

WHEN Jim Gully took charge of Clonlara two years ago, they had just been relegated from senior and there wasn’t a large queue of candidates willing to take over the side. Their focus since then has been firmly on getting the club back to senior and even though they went out of last year’s championship at the semi-fi- nal stage at the hands of Killanena, Gully knew that his young side were heading in the right direction.

More than anything else, it was that drive and focus which brought them victory last weekend. Their deter- mination on route to this final was a major factor in their success but they brought that tenacity to a whole new level on Sunday with a huge second half display which epitomised their strength of character and never-say- die attitude.

This all stems from the manage- ment’s commitment and belief in their team which manifested itself on Sunday in Jim Gully’s post-match celebrations. As the final whistle sounded, Gully’s elation was obvi- ous for all to see as he lept and ran around Cusack Park, even dropping to his knees at one stage, to thank the man above.

Still out of breath, he still had time between handshakes and hugs to pay tribute to his side who won their first intermediate title in eight years.

“It’s a great day for the club. This is the culmination of two years work. Relegated the year before last, we took it on last year with a very young team and we were a bit unlucky to

lose the semi-final by a point to Killanena. But today just makes it all worthwhile. It was a long, long slog.”

Fifteen points in the second half was a reflection on how much this

final meant to Clonlara but Gully admitted it took a while for them to really get on top after half-time.

“TI thought at the start of the second half, things were going slow and we didn’t seem to be able to get the lead

down. We went down and scored two points and then they went and got two back and I thought ‘Christ it is going to be another one of those days’. But then we scored five points without re- ply and | think that really gave us the

impetus to go on. Our lads have great belief because even in the semi-final, we lost the lead with four minutes to go and we still came back and won it by four. So that belief probably car- ried through today as well.”

Six points down at half-time after leading by five midway through the half, Clonlara’s challenge looked to be petering out. Half-time could not come soon enough and as Killanena remained on the field for the inter- val, Clonlara retired to the dressing rooms to reflect on what had gone wrong. But Gully confesses there were no tea-cups thrown around, just a reaffirmation by the management of the team’s abilty and belief.

“Those guys are all well able to hurl so we just said “believe in your- selves’. | mean we were only five or six points down with a big wind so we said ‘don’t panic and the scores will come’. Probably five minutes into the second half, if I had a chance I would have withdrawn those words but anyway, they didn’t panic and kept it going and they got there in the end.”

They certainly did and they will have to do it all again next weekend as they enter into their first Munster intermediate campaign. Jim Gully reckons they won’t think about that until maybe Wednesday. Ampel time to digest this win first.

DESPITE a disappointing perform- ance, Clare League chairman Jim Madden remained upbeat after Sun- day’s four nil defeat to East Cork / West Waterford.

The concession of two first half goals and the failure to exert sus- tained pressure on their opponents saw Clare suffer a costly defeat.

This was Clare’s only home game in the group stages and they now face tough away assignments against the Munster Senior League and the Lim- erick League.

There were a number of new faces on the Clare side and Madden was pleased with the performance and attitude of the younger players, most of whom were making their debut in the competition.

He said, “It was disappointing, we conceded a few soft goals in the first half. But a good feature of the game was that we were able to introduce so many new young players. There were a number of players missing through injury and others were unavailable because of prior commitments. We brought 22 players to a meeting in Newmarket and of that 22, six were missing on Sunday. It was disap- pointing but I was pleased with the attitude, they worked hard”.

Clare suffered an early blow with the loss of promising left back Eoin O’Brien through injury and believes this had an unsettling effect on Clare’s performance.

“We gave a lot of new players a run out. Guys like Derek Fahy, Eoin O’Brien and Evan Glynn. The injury to young O’Brien, I thought made

it hard for us. We had to make an early substitution and move our back line around. Because we were miss- ing a few players, we had to draft in a few new lads. Three of the back four were making their debuts in the Oscar Traynor and there were a few others who were making their first appearances as well. We couldn’t re- ally start David Russell because he is only on the way back from injury”

Though he admits preparations for Sunday’s game could have been bet- ter, Madden said it was important for new players to gain experience.

“We had a bit of experience in midfield with Mike O’Malley there. Gary Browne did well; he was an- other lad new to the scene. A lot of the squad that was there last year had been playing since 2003 and have given tremendous service to Clare. This year we needed to bring in a few new lads and we have been able to do that.

In advance of their meeting with the Munster Senior League, the Clare League will play two friendlies, one against Limerick side Hill Celtic on November 6 and another against the Desmond League on November 13.

focused on how schooling

was very different many years ago. Over 800 children attended the third annual FIS festival, which cel- ebrates outstanding achievements by primary school children involved in the FIS (Film In Schools) project. The FIS project is an initiative de- sisned to introduce the medium

of film as a support to the Primary School Curriculum.

Commenting on the awards, Minis- ter for Education and Science Mary Hanafin TD said “Children from Dun Chaoin, Kerry, to Sligo and from Wexford to Louth and many schools in between have made films using the FIS methodology. This year there is such a wide range of films – historical, comedy, horror and cinn as Gaeilge freisin.

“A special thanks to all the teachers involved in FIS who have risen to the challenge by providing such wonder- ful creative learning opportunities for their children.”

As part of the curriculum for pri- mary schools, children in over 100 primary schools throughout Ireland wrote, directed and produced their own five-minute films. Their ef- forts were supported by the National Centre for Technology in Education which provided training in film mak- ing techniques and digital and film editing equipment.

Anne White, National Coordinator with the National Centre for Technol- ogy in Education said, “FIS touches every nerve of the primary curricu- lum. It brings alive the immense cre- ativity of children and their ability to apply the technology in a collabo- rative way in filmmaking. It simply makes learning great fun.”

A SHANNON-BASED aviation leasing firm secured pre-tax profits of $36 million, according to accounts filed to the Companies Office.

Underlining the buoyancy of the aviation sector in the Shannon Free Zone, GE Commercial Aviation Services Ltd experienced a 24 per cent increase in turnover from $146 million to €177 million.

The company — owned by US giant, General Electric — is engaged in the leasing of aircraft and engines and the provision of management serv- ices to the aviation industry.

According to accounts filed with the Companies Office, “both the lev- el of business and the year end finan- cial position were satisfactory and

the directors expect that the present level of activity will be sustained for the foreseeable future”.

The accounts show that profits be- fore tax dropped from $46 million in 2005 to $34 million in 2006.

The profits last year by GE Com- mercial Aviation Services Ltd have resulted in the company accumulat- ing $377 million.

The company’s accounts show that itemployed 141 in 2005 with a salary bill of $24 million. This increased to OM Odom MIs TIE IA Mme tl mem ele million last year.

The company’s operating profit dropped from $47 to $15 million. However, the company’s profits were boosted through $21 million received through the sale of assets.

The accounts show that the di-

rectors’ remuneration increased to $3.562 million. This included a bo- nus of $1.891 million and salaries of OI PSB reTe Ub COee

EArlier this year, the company ord- ared 15 Boeing 777s — a mix of seven 777-300ER (Extended Range) pas- senger jetliners and eight 777 Freight- ers — and 24 Boeing 737-800s.

Deliveries of both the 777s and 737s will begin in 2008 and extend through 2010.

GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS) is the commercial aircraft financing and leasing business of GE and part of GE Infrastructure. GECAS has a fleet of 1,450 owned aircraft it leases to more than 230 airlines in some 70 countries, and it manages nearly 300 aircraft for oth- ae