Morning Focus Thursday July 18

On Thursday’s Morning Focus John Cooke spoke with Ailish – a visitor from Dublin – following an upsetting experience at Clahane beach near Liscannor

She and her family are holidaying in the county with other families and witnessed nappies and other refuse being thrown around the beach and onto rocks by beachgoers.  Also She and her young daughter (8) saw young people abusing a Jack Russell terrier – they asked the kids to stop but were ignored and then the kids parents approached them – she says they were quite intimidated. The same kids also tried to steal their bikes off the back of their car.

On July 1st John Ryan occupied his house in the ghost estate of Ard na Deirge in Killaloe
The house is without electricity, running water and sanitary services but John has occupied the property in spite of AIB and its receiver, KPMG
John and others who had purchased properties in the estate have been waiting for seven years for this issue to be resolved
Fed up waiting for the final completion of the sale of the estate and the connection of services, the 68-year-old ignored warnings he was trespassing on private property by entering his home
John spoke with John Ryan to see how he is doing three weeks later.

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Lorcan O’Connor, Director of the insolvency service spoke with John
He said people applying for bankruptcy under the new Insolvency provisions won’t need to hire a solicitor or barrister to go to court. He appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Finance yesterday afternoon. He says he expects the service to be up-and-running by next month – with the first debt-relief notice applying from September and says filing for bankruptcy will cost less than 750 euro.

Tens of thousands of people work in Brussels, in the various organs of the European Union; making the whole organisation tick
A small minority make the decisions which affect all of our lives.  Others assist them, working in support roles, or they cover what happens in Brussels for various media
One person who has worked in both of those roles is Joanne O’Dea, who comes from Killaloe, and is a former student of St. Anne’s Community College in the town
Joanne moved to Brussels last year to work as a parliamentary assistant to Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins and is now working as a journalist in the Belgian capital
She’s been speaking in Brussels to Clare FM’s Gavin Grace about life in the EU bubble, and how it all began in the first place.

Doolin Coastguard is seeking the public’s help in tracking down a runaway mannequin – believed to be lost at sea.
It follows a major simulated water rescue off Blackhead yesterday involving Navy ships , RNLI vessels , The HSE and several coastguard boats- including the team from Doolin.
As part of the drill, which involved a mock fire on board a ship – five manequeins were put into the water to act as persons overboard – but only four were recovered.
Doolin Coastguard spokesperson Mattie Shannon had a word with John
He is hoping the public may be able to locate the 5th if it washes ashore.

The annual Galway Arts Festival has commenced and runs until July 28th
There is an impressive array of events, from theatre, dance, visual arts, comedy and music and features local, national and international artists and performers
Galway Arts Festival chief executive John Crumlish had a word about what’s on offer in Galway.

The County Clare Agricultural Show is taking place this Saturday
Mary Stafford, PRO of the Clare County Show and Bernard Hanrahan, Chairman of the Clare County Show, joined John in studio.

The Clans of Clare series 
 
This is the second week of our ‘Tribe of Dal gCais’ series which examines 15 Clans whose origins are based in Co. Clare
Each Clan name descends from the The Tribe of Dal gCais who were a powerful network of Families from the 10th Century that ruled the Kingdom of Thomond
The series was produced by Denise Woods and we’ll be featuring a different tribe each day on Morning Focus.

Today we looked at the Clancy Clan.
 
Ennis business David Woodford of the Irish Shop was the drummer with ‘Hot Ice’ – a rock band in the 80s
They are having their 30 year reunion concert this Saturday in the Temple Gate Hotel, Ennis in aid of the Clare Youth Service on Carmody Street
David joined John in studio to speak about his years as a hellraiser and ask people to support the fundraiser
We also heard some of Hot Ice’s original tunes.

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