CLON SPECIAL OLYMPICS

SPECIAL OLYMPICS RINGS

The Clonakilty Special Olympics Ring Tournament, which was so popular last year, has commenced again. The Men’s Matches are held on Thursday evenings at different locations and the upcoming ones are at Charlie Maddens Bar, Timoleague this Thursday (22nd) and the Abbey Bar next week 29th. Meanwhile the Ladies Matches are held every Friday at the Brewery Bar from 9.00pm onwards! All support is greatly appreciated at these events. Further information from main organiser, Anthony McDermott.

In other Special Olympics news, Golf Skills training takes place on Saturday mornings at 11.00am at Rosscarbery Driving Range, with new Golf Coach, Christy O’Donovan. As always, the club would be delighted to have extra athletes and volunteers to get involved. The club is also actively seeking a basketball coach so that athletes can start up a second sport.

If you or anyone you know is a trained coach, please contact the club manager Rose Dempsey on 086-8844087 asap.

CLON OUTDOOR MARKET MOVING THIS FRIDAY

MARKET RELOCATES

As of this Friday, (23^rd) the Clonakilty Food Market, which has become a pleasant weekly feature of Clonakilty town life, will temporarily relocate to an area a short distance from The Credit Union Car Park where they have been trading since April.

Recorders Alley, which connects Pearse Street to the Kent Street car park, will be the temporary location for the Friday market which operates from around 8.00am – 2.00pm weekly. The market has enjoyed great success and public support since trading began in April. A wide range of goods on offer include locally grown organic produce, plants, flowers, oven baked pizzas, cheeses, breads, baking goods, dressings, meats, olives and much more.

The move follows the request by the town council after a vote in August that traders vacate the Credit Union car park. Since then the traders have investigated four possible temporary locations for the market. A lot of goodwill was expressed to re-locate the market and following meetings between Tom O' Donovan of O' Donovan’s Hotel and market traders it was agreed last week that the proposed location would be most suitable.

Following the unanimous August vote which voted in favour a finding a suitable permanent location for the market, councillors and town officials will now proceed with their investigations. Most of the present Town Councillors fully support the market.

It is now two years (November 2007), since the initial motion at the council to facilitate the setting up of a market was passed.

There's been a lot of tooing and froing, long-fingering, public meetings, public debates etc. in the interim.

Emmet Square is the latest proposal for consideration by the council, but as the saying goes, the wheels of power grind slowly!!

The market is a huge asset to Clonakilty every week. Long may it continue and hope officialdom get their act together to regularise the situation which is what everyone wants.

JUST ONE TALK TONIGHT

JUST ONE TALK TONIGHT

Clonakilty man, Declan Murphy originally from Michael Collins Road, will be returning to Kathmandu in the next week where he works with the “Just One” charity he founded a over five years ago. “Just One” works with street children in Nepal. Declan comes home approximately every 12-15 months and uses his time to visit schools around the country who engage in fundraising for his organisation.

He goes in to show the children and their teachers how the money they raise through their own initiatives like cake sales and no uniform days, is used to help children of their own age at the other side of the world. Just-One supports over 80 Nepali children to access education and works closely with their respective families in an effort to break the cycle of poverty that ensnares them. The photographs he shows of impoverished and abandoned children in Nepal, and how even one euro can improve their lives, really impresses the Irish children.

Tonight (Thursday 22^nd), Declan will be presenting his annual update on Just One to the Clonakilty public who are invited to O’ Donovan’s Hotel at 8.00pm. He will be showing a new short film on the work of the organisation and discussing progress made over the last year. Everyone welcome. Please show your support for a local, unassuming young man who has sacrificed a lot over the last 5-6 years, and is making a real difference to children in a deprived part of the world.

Further information can also be found on his website www.just-one.org. For the remainder of his visit home, he may be contacted on 087-9358667.

CLON YOUTH CAFÉ - NEW PREMISES?

YOUTH CAFÉ – NEW VENUE?

The recent news that there had been an objection lodged against the proposed Youth Café on Michael Collins Road came as a great shock and disappointment to many people in Clonakilty, especially the youth who have been looking forward to having the facility, and the hard working committee who had spent over a year (and a lot of money), working on trying to have an opening date.

A recent Emergency Meeting directed the committee to go and seek out possible alternatives to the building they were hoping to move into. The committee were unbowed by the recent knockback and enthusiastically went into action. Within a day or two, an alternative premises that ticks all the boxes was identified, it’s owner approached, and it’s availability for the Youth Café confirmed.

The whole process now starts again, and planning permission, Fire Officer reports, drawings, legalities and other related issues must begin. The push is now on again, as the determined group are working in overdrive to get everything in order as soon as possible and hopefully there won’t be any unwanted surprises this time round.

An information meeting to update people on the new developments will take place this Thursday evening (22nd October) at 8.30pm in the Parish Centre.

All young people, their parents and interested people are invited along to hear of the new developments. Any offers of help and positive suggestions will also be welcome.

JOINT POLICING MEETING REPORT

JOINT POLICING MEETING REPORT

With Clonakilty Town Council due to establish a Joint Policing Committee shortly, Cllr. Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin organised a public information meeting on the topic last Wednesday evening, (14^th October) at O’ Donovan’s Hotel. It was arranged at short notice, and clashed with the Ireland soccer game as well as numerous other meetings on the same night, which meant a small crowd.

However, it was a mixture of business people and residents many of whom have been victims of deliberate vandalism in the town centre area in recent times. Two have had their shop windows broken on Saturday nights; another has had her premises targeted with glasses and bottles used as missiles, resulting in damaged windows. The issue of town centre residents being unable to sleep most weekend nights until the early hours due to noise levels on the streets, as well as large unruly groups renting certain holiday homes was also raised at the outset. Anti social behaviour and street fighting are a weekly occurrence.

The noise and speed of “boy racer” cars around the streets and car parks was identified by a number of other people, as was the total disregard for the byelaws against public drinking. The organiser also outlined his belief that there is a substantial drug presence now in the town which is worrying. Everyone expressed their frustration that the same issues have been ongoing for years, with seemingly very little proactive approach by the relevant authorities to confront them seriously. These issues affect not only residents, but are also a very bad advertisement when seen by tourists to the town.

Cllr. Ó Súilleabháin outlined that the council has had a “Public Order Sub Committee” in place for around five years, but said that it is a “useless talking shop” that has irregular meetings, with no improvements on most issues raised at them. He felt that there is great merit in the new Joint Policing Committee’s “if all participants enter into a spirit of co-operation to admit the problems and work together honestly to try to resolve them”.

The JPC will be made up of all nine town councillors, two Garda reps, two council officials, three Oireachtas members and three reps from the voluntary and community sector. He explained that all the parts of the jigsaw are now in place except the three community reps. People had until last Friday (16^th) to propose/put their own names forward. From all these, three will be selected at the November Council meeting on 3^rd. The JPC will be a statutory body and will be obliged to meet regularly in an open forum, with formal agendas and minutes.

The councillor said there will be accountability, in that the various sections represented on it will be asked to account for progress and the JPC will be obliged to organise a public meeting at least once a year to account for it’s work. As well as that, the general public can attend its meetings as observers.

IMPORTANT PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING ON CLONAKILTY J.P.C. THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT

For further information please contact Cllr. Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin 086-2202029

PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING ON CLONAKILTY J.P.C.

With Clonakilty Town Council due to establish a Joint Policing Committee shortly, one of the councillors has organised a public information meeting on the topic for this Wednesday evening, 14th October. The meeting will be held at 8.30pm at O' Donovan's Hotel, Clonakilty.

Sinn Féin's Cllr. Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin said that many local residents and businesspeople have been frustrated for years by lack of action on anti-social activities, vandalism, public disorder, public drinking, boy racers, drug dealing and other issues. Three years ago, he organised a number of public meetings on the topic which were attended by up to 150 locals, many of whom are directly affected by what he calls "Anti Community activities by a small minority of both outsiders and locals". This is dragging down the good name of the town, with visitors frequently witnessing these activities, and residents completely fed up with the same activities happening in the same places and the same times every week. Hardly a weekend goes by now that there aren't fights on the streets, cars damaged and shops windows broken.

Cllr. Ó Súilleabháin said: "There is a Council Public Order Committee established for nearly five years. However, it rarely meets, is very informal and is totally ineffective and unaccountable. From my experience of it, it's a talking shop! Clonakilty is one of the finest places in Ireland to live and visit, but we have an ugly side that many people do not wish to acknowledge or talk about. At weekends particularly, life for many town centre residents and those living near amenity parks and car parks, and certain rented properties can be terrible. These issues must be confronted seriously by everyone to take the town back from the gurrier element who have no respect for public or private property, residents or tourists. I have been pushing for the establishment of the Joint Policing Committee since August 2008, and at last it looks it may actually be formed over the coming month or so.

This committee will be made up of Councillors, Garda reps and three community representatives whose job will be to work together to identify issues of concern and proactively come up with plans and actions to resolve them. The good thing about the JPC is that is has legal standing, it must have regular open meetings with minutes and agendas. In short, there will be accountability. It has the potential to transform a lot of the problems we have it everyone enters into it in the spirit of making the town better for everyone."

Cllr. Ó Súilleabháin has arranged the public information meeting because the council failed to do so, despite he requesting it at the September meeting. This Friday 16th is the closing date for nominations from the community sector. "I am arranging the meeting to explain the potential benefits of the JPC and also to urge locals to get involved in the process. To work effectively, we will need vocal, honest people who won't be afraid to speak the truth even when it's unpalatable, as that's the only way to rid the town of the negative things that many talk about but appear to be tolerated by the authorities".

The meeting is at 8.30pm in O' Donovan's Hotel on Wednesday 14th October.

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/Joint_policing_committees