Tag Archives: Travellers

CLARE County Councillors are looking for action on illegal encampments, which they say are causing enormous distress to residents in various parts of the county. One motion at the Council’s February meeting, from Councillor Paul Murphy sought the establishment of a multi agency taskforce to deal with the issue, while another, signed by a number of members, called on the Government “to enforce the laws of the land that exist in relation to tackling the unauthorised occupation of public lands all over Ireland.” The meeting heard that the occupants of these illegal encampments have caused a serious nuisance in several areas. “There’s an encampment in Ennis where there’s a generator that’s running morning, noon and night, that’s in a residential setting and it’s impacting on people’s wellbeing. Most of the encampments are out of town and to a certain degree they’re away from residents and impacting directly on people, but that case is very, very detrimental to people’s wellbeing at …

THE problems that have blighted Rathkeale must not be allowed to recur just 40 miles away in the parish of Clarecastle, according to Councillor Paul Murphy. On Wednesday, Councillor Murphy showed The Clare Champion the huge amount of waste left behind at a site just off the Skehanagh roundabout, where there had been an illegal encampment.   “For the likes of Clarecastle as a village, a lot of people are concerned that it is becoming overrun and that we could have another Rathkeale on our hands in a few years time. It is compounded by the lawlessness that you witness here, it is a big worry for a community to have this on our doorstep. We have estate management problems in our village, along with Ennistymon and other places, it’s not just Clarecastle; but it’s a huge, huge concern for a community,” he commented. The Fine Gael councillor said he is looking to make sure that concerns are dealt with. …

THREE Travellers who had stopped playing soccer for Sporting Ennistymon following incidences of racist abuse, have now returned to the club. Michael Sherlock, Patrick Sherlock and Martin Mongan all returned last week, as the club’s B side were defeated by Rineanna Rovers. Speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday , Michael Sherlock said, “We just said we’d go back. There’s a long winter ahead.” While the matter was featured firstly in The Clare Champion and then in the national newspapers, as well as on national TV and radio, Michael said no-one from the FAI or the Clare District Soccer League had ever made contact with him. “I never heard anything from anybody,” he said. The club’s PRO Matthew Crowe said they are glad to have the players back. “It’s brilliant. It’s a great boost to the club. They’re great players and they’ve been involved since they were 13 or 14.” Michael and Patrick Sherlock are brothers and another brother of …

FOUR travellers, who had been playing soccer for Sporting Ennistymon, have left the sport following numerous incidences of racist abuse. Figures in the club have voiced their upset at the abuse meted out to the young men, which had become increasingly frequent since the beginning of the current season. Secretary of the Clare District Soccer League, Michael Lydon, refused to comment on the issue on Wednesday. Twenty-four-year-old Michael Sherlock had played for the club, along with his brothers, Edward and Patrick, and their cousin, Martin Mongan. He said that, in recent months, opponents had increasingly sought to insult their background.“We go out and play and you have fellas saying into your ear, ‘Go away, you knacker’. When we react, the referee doesn’t do anything to the other party.” Earlier this year he was sent off in a match played at Lees Road after reacting to a person who referred to him as a “knacker”, while the player who dispensed the offensive …

A traveller told his legal team, “I paid you three grand to take this to court and is this the result I get?” after a judge threw out his discrimination case against a North Clare pub and seafood restaurant. At Ennis District Court, father-of-six Patrick Donovan expressed his frustration for everyone in the court to hear, after Judge Fiona Lydon ruled that he was asked to leave Vaughan’s pub and seafood restaurant in Liscannor not on the basis of discrimination or because he was a Traveller. In words heard across the court room, Mr Donovan told his two strong legal team, “I paid you three grand to take this to court and is this the result I get here? What is my kids’ future? What is my family’s future?” Judge Lydon moments earlier retreated from the bench to her chambers after Mr Donovan got to his feet to protest at her ruling in the case. He told Judge Lydon, before she departed, …

A NORTH Clare couple and their four young children are among the 6,239 people currently seeking accommodation in Clare. James Sherlock and his partner, Caroline Sherlock, have been living in a caravan at the front of Caroline’s family’s home in Ennistymon for the past year and a half. Now with four children, aged between four years and four weeks, the couple are at their wits’ end. “We have to go into my parents’ house to use the toilet, the shower and to do any cooking. Even at night, if my daughter wants to go to the toilet, we have to go out in the rain to get to the toilet in the house,” Caroline outlined. The family found this summer especially difficult because of the wet weather and are dreading the winter. “Like all children, they just want to play outside but, basically, they have been stuck in here,” Caroline said, indicating the one-room caravan. The caravan does not have …

Shannon Airport’s strong momentum across 2014 has continued into the final month of the autumn, with passenger numbers for October showing a 28% increase on the same period twelve months ago. The biggest gains in passengers through the terminal were again on European services, which were up by 63% on the same period 12 months ago thanks to a range of nine attractive new routes that were launched for the summer season (April through to end of October). Eight of those were on the European market, which resulted in a 111% increase (from 20,347 to 42,950) in passengers to and from the continent last month compared to October 2013. Transatlantic passengers were up by 15% (from 23,511 to 27,108) thanks to the increased frequency across New York and Boston services this year, with Shannon’s biggest market, the UK, up by 6% (from 61,681 to 65,243). Welcoming the growth, Airport CEO Neil Pakey said, “It’s been a really great summer season …

By Carol Byrne CLARE Champion Photographer John Kelly has scooped his 12th Press Photographer’s Association of Ireland (PPAI) award He claimed second prize in the Daily Life and People category of the national competition, which had almost 2,000 entries from 112 photojournalists around the country. John’s winning entry, Room with a View, was described by the judges as “a striking image graphically illustrating life for large families living in the restricted space of a caravan. Great thought and imagination used to create this image”. The black and white photograph was taken while covering the story of a school principal who was trying to secure emergency accommodation for the Sherlock family. Caroline Sherlock and her seven children were living in a small caravan without electricity or running water, next to a river and beach at Cregg, Lahinch. Black and white is becoming more prevalent in John’s work of late, as he has chosen to reawaken his passion for the medium he …