The Clare People Archive

ALMOST 5,000 people gathered in the square in Ennis on Saturday af- ternoon to see a former patient of En- nis General Hospital tear up a once prized photo of herself and Taoiseach BTUs owaUNOUIe

Maureen Hall, originally from Newbridge in Kildare but living in Doonaha with her husband Richard since the 1990s, brought the early afternoon protest to a close with her personal demonstration.

Mrs Hall told the crowd how she was ill and rushed to Ennis General Hospital; a hospital that, due to its lo- cality, saved her life.

Among those protesting for a 24- hour consultant-led accident and emergency service in Ennis were Clare People with Disabilities, Ennis Active Retirement, SIPTU, Shannon Aer Lingus Workers, Kildysart Agri- cultural Show, District Daycare Cen- tre Clarecastle, Birth Choice Clare, Clare Sinn Féin, the INO, The Lions Club and members of Clare’s locals PAu ieee ele lone

Notable by their absence were Clare’s two Fianna Fail TDs, Minis- ter Tony Killeen and Timmy Dooley. Marian Harkin MEP and Fine Gael deputies Joe Carey and Pat Breen were among the most senior politi- cians lending their support.

At midday, a crowd estimated by gardai at almost 4,000 left Cusack Park in Ennis and marched through

the town demanding that the HSE re- tain 24-hour accident and emergency at Ennis General Hospital and reo- pen the mammography unit.

People joined the march to the sound of the Tulla Ceili Band while those gathering in the square listened to the Ennis General Hospital Com- mittee’s fundraising CD.

The protest march was led by a cof- fin carried shoulder-high with the

slogan “20 deaths each year”’.

Once in the square, the crowd were addressed by a dozen speakers in- cluding the Chairman of the Ennis General Hospital Development Com- mittee, Peadar McNamara, for more than an hour and a half.

Each speaker outlined his or her fears for the local health services un- der current Government policy, most notably the so-called Hanly Report.

‘We are here in the square which has been a historic rallying point in Clare from O’Connell’s time right down to de Valera. Numerous politicians of all shapes have spoken here seeking our rights. We are in the same position. We pay taxes,” said Mr McNamara.

BISHOP of Killaloe Dr Willie Walsh has lent his support to a campaign to retain accident and emergency serv- ices at Ennis General Hospital.

The leader of the Catholic Church in the diocese told the rally that ‘as Christians we need to provide a health care system that is universal’.

“Many of us here have health insur- ance but it is not right that any of us can get preferential treatment just be- cause we can afford to pay a private health insurance,” he said.

“It is a challenge to all of us to com-

mit ourselves to building a society that cares for our sick anything else is less than Christian.”

Mayor of Clare Cllr Patricia Mc- Carthy (Ind) told the crowd that the minister for health confirmed to the five mayors of the county that the development of the hospital would go ahead, that any retiring consult- ants would be replaced and that she wanted a higher level of activity at the hospital.

Among the other commitments given was that the accident and emer- gency department would be consult- ant-led but “going into the future it

would not be consultant-led for 24 hours. The model to be put in place during the non-consultant-led pe- riod has not been defined or agreed. Mammography services will not be part of the radiology service to be provided.”

“IT welcome the commitment of the minister for the improvements that she outlined for the delivery of health services in the county.

“However, in view of the isolated and dispersed nature of many of the communities in the county…it 1s 1m- portant that any changes do not take place within the existing services un-

til such time as promised improve- ments in the delivery of services… are in place and delivering a safe and best practice service,’ said the county mayor.

“While welcoming the roll out of BreastCheck and the commitment to centres of excellence and improved cancer treatment services, I am not convinced that going forward it is not possible to provide a mammography service at Ennis General Hospital.

“Modern technology in my opinion can and should be used to provide a safe and efficient mammography service at Ennis General Hospital.”

A WEST Clare GP outlined in clear terms the uphill battle facing the people of the county if it loses its 24- hour accident and emergency serv- ice. Dr Michael Harty, Chairman of the Clare branch of the Irish College of General Practitioners, was also clear on the current challenges faced by Ennis General Hospital and laid the blame squarely at the door of the HSE and the Government.

“This systematic starving of the hos- pital of resources has led to the lower- ing of morale among the staff work- ing in the hospital and has eroded the confidence of the general public

in the hospital. These are the facts of the situation but as professionals we are not supposed to mention them as we might further undermine the con- fidence in the hospital. The time for such niceties has long passed,’ he told the protesting crowd on Saturday.

‘The vision of the Government and the HSE for the future of the Irish health service does not include En- nis General Hospital as a provider of 24-hour acute medical care. The minister for health has indicated that the consultant-led accident and emer- gency services will be limited to day time services only and there will be no consultant service at night.”

Dr Harty outlined the knock-on ef-

fects of this policy. “There will be no intensive care services, there will be no coronary care services, there will be no medical or surgical staff on duty at night. There will be no radi- ology or laboratory services. Ambu- lances will be directed to Limerick with all emergencies.

‘There has been a concerted cam- paign by consecutive governments, the health board and now the HSE to undermine Ennis hospital,’ said Dr Harty.

“One of the fundamental problems in the Irish health service 1s the short- age of beds. Nationally we are short 3,000 beds. In the mid-west region, this 1s equivalent to 250 beds.

‘To put Ennis in context, there are times, when Ennis operates at 117 per cent capacity, that there are 15 extra beds in Ennis over and above the 88 they are allocated.

“General hospitals such as Ennis should operate efficiently at 85 per- cent capacity. Thus at times Ennis is operating at 32 per cent above opti- mum capacity.

‘The fact that Ennis operates at 117 per cent capacity proves that there is a demand for acute services in Ennis. When acute services close in Ennis where will the replacement services be? Limerick Regional Hospital is already operating at maximum ca- pacity as well,” he said.

THREE and a half years of planning paid off this weekend as the crowds gathered in the west Clare village of Quilty for the first ever Leon XIII oneal

Even the weather played its part as musicians dancers and singers enter- tained those gathered to remember the final voyage of the ill fated ship 100 years ago.

The local fishermen men who car- ried out the dramatic rescue of its crew were remembered by a special currach race, which saw local people including the local priest training for the last year.

On Friday evening, anew commem- orative plaque and lectern featuring the Leon XII story was unveiled by relatives of the Quilty fishermen of IONE

IT goes to show you – you just can’t keep a good thing down. No sooner has the Stella Maris Day Care Centre reopened for two days in September 2005, than a message went out; we eNO LM ON KsLee

Now, almost two years to the day since Mary Harney reopened the centre, they have achieved just that. Last Wednesday a group of older people from Bell Harbour, Carron, New Quay, Kilfenora and Kilnaboy visited Stella Maris, taking a well deserved day out to socialise and re- lax.

Their weekly day out has been made possible by funding from the Department of Health and a new

bus, bought with money donated by a group of local businesses.

“When we started off we had two days and our long term goal is to have four or five days. The latest group are coming from the most remote places, so to cover these places we needed a bigger bus,” said Nuala Dillon of the Stella Maris Centre.

“So out of the blue, a group of local businessman came forward with the funding. Eugene Garrihy organised it, his father Jack used to come in and spend some time with us.

“Jack loved coming here, he was very enthusiastic about the place. So Eugene gathered together a group of local business people, people who have become very successful at their different types of businesses, they

contributed and now we have a brand new bus.

“We would also really like to thank John Curtin, who was our bus driver here. He was very involved in the committee and very involved in us getting the new bus. He unfortunate- ly passed away a couple of months x On

Alongside this, student from Mary Immaculate School raised €5,500 for the Stella Maris.

“We’re going to use that money to start a brand new project, we are going to compile a personal history for all the people who use the facil- ity here. It is something that a lot of older people don’t know about and will be really interesting. It will be about their own lives, how they grew

up, old sayings that they might have,” Leys lepeLeCre MN LUE DEB

“Each person will get a bound per- sonal history of their own life.

The committee in Stella Maris have now set their sites at getting funding to open the centre for a fourth and then a fifth day. In the future, they also plan to devote one day each week to people from the area who suffer from Alzheimer’s.

A FAMILY friendly approach, cul- tivated through their own love of eating out as a family, has seen the Stonecutters Kitchen in Doolin carve out a special niche for itself in the north Clare restaurant market.

Proprietors Karen Courtney and Myles Duffy were in Dublin’s Shel- bourne Hotel last week to collect a Gold Medal Award in the Cafés and Coffee Shop section of the Irish Ho- tel and Catering Review awards.

The award, which was sponsored by Kenco Coffee, recognises and re- wards excellence within the Irish ho- tel and catering industry in 2007.

The Stonecutter was joined in the list of finalist by Lahinch’s Moy House who narrowly lost out to the Rathsallagh House Hotel and Golf Club in Wicklow in the country house category of the awards.

“We decided right from the start that we wanted a spot in the market that wasn’t being looked after at the time. We had a small child so we were aware how hard it was to find somewhere which was family friend- ly,” said Karen.

“We were amazed and blown away by winning it. It’s our very first award, it was a long time coming but well worth the wait.

“It’s really great to get the recog-

nition. You can get very subjective about your own work. You believe that you are doing a good job but I think you do sometimes need some- one from outside to come in and say it as well. It’s great for yourself but it’s even better for the staff, and there’s no way we could have done this without the staff.

More than 200 hotels, country hous- es and restaurants entered this year’s awards with some 120 businesses making the shortlist. The short-listed businesses were visited incognito by the nine members of the Gold Medal Jury throughout the summer and as- sessed for their quality.

The judges are all highly respected

experts in hospitality with proven track records and can proudly stand over the exemplary impartiality and fairness of these awards.

“We moved down from Dublin in 1992 with my husbands redundancy. We decided that we would get a hell of a lot more going down the country that we would up in Dublin. My sis- ter is the potter down here, she has been down here more than 30 years, so we knew the area.

“We came down here and bought a site, a mobile home and a hot-dog wagon. Myles worked the hot-dog wagon for about eight years. We bought the restaurant in 2000 and it open then in 2001.”

CLARE county council has ex- pressed reservations over plans by developers to build 77 homes in Doonbeg because of traffic safety, density, waste water, archaeology and design.

Brian McGoey and Niall Cun- ningham have lodged plans with the council for the homes and a separate application for a restaurant.

The council has told them that the density of 19 houses per hectare is too excessive in terms of the zon- ing for Doonbeg and they have been asked to reduce the density from 19 to 15 units.

The council has also raised con- cerns over the demolition of two ex- isting houses and the construction of two town houses at the entrance to the development.

The council considers that the cot- tages may be vernacular, 19th or 20th century dwellings and may form part of the historic fabric of the village and make a contribution to the streetscape. The developers have been asked to submit a photographic survey of the cottages both internally and externally in order to allow the council to assess their importance.

The most prominent community- based organisation in Doonbeg has also expressed its opposition to the

proposal.

The Doonbeg Community Devel- opment Co Ltd state that the pro- posed development by virtue of its scale and density and the proposed neighbourhood concept does not ‘respect the existing character of the surrounding area’ and that it ‘harms the amenity of adjoining properties and the surrounding area’.

Their submission goes on to state that “The additional traffic generated by the proposal will have an adverse effect on the amenity and character of the surrounding area. You simply cannot lift an urban design model and implant it on to a rural village especially at such a sensitive river-

bank location.”

“To create a new, competing neigh- bourhood within the context of Doonbeg village conflicts with the sustainable development of the vil- lage and we contend, with the set- tlement strategy of the Clare County Development plan 2005.

“These houses will dominate the skyline and approach from the south along this route. We also suggest that they may impact on, by overlooking, the streetscape of the village.

The community development group is also concerned about the scale and density of development proposed for this elevated site located in such close proximity to the riverbank.

THE newly formed Miltown Malbay Resource Company Ltd, a voluntary organisation set up to look after the running of the West Clare Resources Centre has applied to the Govern- ment for staffing finance.

The centre was refused the fund- ing last year, as the application did not go through the required red tape. The applicants applied to Pobal for the finance, but it was told it should have gone through a local partner- ship body before arriving there.

On Thursday last the resource com- pany sent an application to Rural Re- source Development Limited.

Co-founder of the resource centre Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) said the centre requires one full time staff member and one part time.

“We are on a wing and a payer to maintain the management of this centre and it 1s running due to the good will of the companies and or- ganisations involved,” he said.

“I think the centre is ideally suited to the scheme.”

The building opened in 1939 as a

school before closing in 1985. After a brief history as a secondary school woodwork room the building closed and went into decline.

In the 1990s Michael Mahoney and Cllr Curtain saw the need for a building for the library and a dental clinic in the west Clare town, so the 27 windows were repaired and the building refurbished and opened.

Today the West Clare Recourse Centre in Miltown Malbay served an estimated 3,000 people through- out the year, including 1,000 who are subscribed readers at the library.

A total of 14 primary schools are To) AYLo16 MOAN DOL oMOlooOL EAD Ol DDAB(On

Among its many services provid- ed is the library; youth reach pro- gramme, art classes, dental clinic and child health clinic, and the wel- fare office and advice bureaus.

More than 70 people visit the elderly care centre three times a week, while 200 people aged between 18 and 90 took part in the ECDL course.

Cllr Curtain also highlighted the need for the services to be expanded to include speech therapy and physi- Oo) i ates: 1 One

WITH fruit and vegetables being flown halfway around the world to get to the table, east Clare people were pleasantly surprised last week- end to discover that some of the tasti- est produce is still grown just down the road.

In celebration of the home-grown apple, the Seed Savers organisation just outside Scariff played host to nu- merous activities for its Apple Day.

Visitors enjoyed guided tours of their heritage orchards contain- ing more than 200 distinct varieties

of apple. Staff also held tastings throughout the day, juicing some varieties and sharing tips growing apples and creating an orchard or- ganically.

Beekeeper Aoife Ni Giollacoda was also on hand to talk about our native black bee and she provided tastings of her delicious honey.

“Apples have been a feature of Irish life for at least the last three thousand years,’ a spokeswoman for Seedsavers said. “Apple orchards were a feature of most gardens in the past but with the development of commercial orchards, the tradition

of growing many varieties of apples has been lost. Realising the loss of many agricultural plants and fruit trees, the Seed Savers was set up by Anita Hayes in 1991 and with many volunteers they travelled the length and breath of the country locating old orchards to create the native Irish apple collection”.

Now the conservation organisation can offer varieties of apple which were thought to be extinct and peo- ple can buy and plant them in their ee NLC Oe

“Although climate in Ireland is per- fect for growing apples, many of the

apples for sale in your local super- market are the usual granny smiths or New Zealand Braeburns imported at atime of year when Irish apples are in season,” the Seedsavers spokes- woman said. “Locally produced foods provide a number of benefits both for the local community and for the environment as a whole. By mas- sively reducing “food miles’ between producer and consumer, green house gases and other emissions from transport are minimised. Locally produced food also benefits the local economy, providing employment and supporting family farms.”

FLOODS which drove Clonlara resi- dents out of their homes last winter threaten to engulf their homes again this year – because work on plans to solve the issue will not begin until next February.

Last year, gardens were flooded, residents had to sandbag their homes and an elderly woman had to be tak- en out of her house as floodwaters crept up.

Clonlara residents couldn’t use their own bathrooms as septic tanks and drains were submerged by flood-

water.

The problems started when the SJ aT-NebeLO)OM LeU nl Ms cM Oy-VON qc BEKoI MAY (c1o) es of heavy rains and the ESB control- led sluice gates being opened to let water down the system.

Local councillors were told recent- ly that a solution is being worked on between the Office of Public Works (OPW), the ESB and Clare and Lim- erick County Councils.

But in a statement, TJ Sherlock of the OPW said that the area has been designated as “an area of special conservation so any works must be capable of being demonstrated to be

essential, not causing avoidable dam- age to the habitat and to minimise any damage that is unavoidable. This has made the process of devising a scheme of works extremely difficult and slow,” he said.

Nor does the OPW have the powers to take on a drainage scheme on the Shannon alone and it needs to carry out that work as an agent of the local authorities and the ESB.

Sherlock added that the works may also require planning permission and this would be dealt with through the local authorities.

“We will also be dependant on any

landowners affected by the proposed works either to allow us to gain ac- cess or deposit materials on their lands but since these works have been locally requested, we don’t an- ticipate that that will be a problem.”

He added that every effort will be made to advance the works as quick- ly as possible.

But local councillor Pascal Fitzger- ald, said that residents “are annoyed. We thought this work would start in September. Now we hear it’s going to be next February at least. If we get severe rain this winter, the same thing could happen again.”