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October 07, 2005

Man Charged Over Sectarian Catholic Murder

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News about Ireland & the Irish

IO 10/07/05 Man Charged Over Sectarian Catholic Murder
SF 10/07/05 Working Together For Irish Unity
SF 10/07/05 Time To Tell Shell To Put Pipeline Off-Shore
BB 10/07/05 Solicitor Says Clients Astounded
IT 10/08/05 Methods Of Assets Team Criticised By SF
DJ 10/07/05 Dissidents Could Put Back Policing By Ten Years
IT 10/08/05 Ceasefire Body To Meet Rafferty Family
DJ 10/07/05 BS Relatives Still Tortured By Anger, Pain
EX 10/07/05 Opin: Should Be Slow When US Comes Calling Us
IT 10/08/05 Ennis Water Ban To Stay For Old, Young And Sick

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http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=130159540&p=y3xy6xyzx&n=130160149

Loyalist Charged Over Sectarian Murder

07/10/2005 - 23:57:24

A 33-year-old man was charged tonight with the attempted
murder of a man stabbed in a brutal sectarian attack in Co
Antrim two years ago.

The attackers threatened to cut up their victim but he
managed to escape while they were hunting for a saw to
dismember him.

Another man, Neil White, 30, was recently sentenced to 16
years in jail after admitting the attempted murder in
Ballymena.

The latest man to be charged was arrested by police hunting
gang members who strangled and repeatedly stabbed Catholic
Michael Reid during a merciless attack in a house in the
staunchly Protestant Harryville are of the town.

The suspect was arrested in the centre of the town earlier
today. He is due to appear before Ballymena Magistrates
Court in the morning.

When White was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court last month,
Mr Justice Coghlin hit out at the "corrosive toxin" of
sectarianism eating into Northern Ireland's social fabric.

He told the would-be killer: "Ultimately the victim went to
ground and pretended he was dead.

"You were assigned to guard the victim while others left
the premises with the chilling words: 'We are going to have
to get a saw to cut him up, look at the size of him'."

At one stage Mr Reid, 31, an imposing 6ft 4ins tall, went
limp and pretended to be dead in a bid to survive the
relentless assault.

The victim, who has since gone into hiding, was visiting a
friend in Harryville when White, of Wakehurst Road,
Ballymena, and two other men came to the house.

Mr Reid was beaten with a blunt object, stabbed and
throttled with cable after they discovered his religion.

Two men went on the run after White's arrest.

The three men launched their attack on Mr Reid after
discovering he was a Catholic because of where he lived in
the town.

Passing sentence on White, the judge added that a close
relative with a greater intellect had influenced his
actions.

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http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/11444

Working Together For Irish Unity

Published: 7 October, 2005

Sinn Féin MLA Mitchel McLaughlin has said that all parties
who want a united Ireland must work together to gather the
momentum to make it happen.

Speaking after attending the SDLP conference North South
Makes Sense Mr McLaughlin said,

"I am pleased that political parties, community activists
and business people across this island are seeing the
benefits of the creation of all Ireland dimensions whether
it is on the economy, energy provision or political
structures.

"There are many avenues in which working on an all Ireland
basis makes sense and even the most ardent Unionist has to
agree that this is so

"This conference today has highlighted some of the areas
where we can all find common ground for the benefit of all
the people on this island.

"The participation of senior Irish officials and senior
business people is welcome indeed but must however be
matched by the political will of the Dublin Governments to
create the momentum that will accelerate change towards
reunification.

"If the momentum is to be increased then all interested
parties must come together with a united voice in moving
this agenda forward." ENDS

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http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/11443

Time For Irish Government To Tell Shell And Statoil To Put
Pipeline Off-Shore

Published: 7 October, 2005

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP speaking on a visit to
Mayo today called on the Irish government to intervene in
the Corrib Gas dispute and tell Shell to put their pipeline
and refinery off-shore. Mr. Adams, accompanied by party
colleagues Councillors Gerry Murray and Noel Campbell,
visited the proposed site for the refinery at Ballinaboy
and met with Rossport campaigners including Micheal Ó
Seighin, Willie Corduff, Vincent McGrath, Brendan Philbin,
Philip McGrath and their families.

Mr. Adams said:

"The arrest and detention of the Rossport 5 has caused huge
disquiet throughout Ireland. People are concerned that
ordinary people could be treated in this way, they are
concerned that a multi-national consortium could force a
dangerous pipeline through a small community regardless of
concerns about health and safety and they are concerned
that the Irish government would give away natural resources
worth billions of EUROs at a time when our public services
are in crisis.

"Today I met with campaigners at Ballinaboy and in
Rossport. I spoke to the families involved in the campaign
and offered Sinn Féin's ongoing support. Sinn Féin has
raised this matter with the Irish government. We have also
spoken with the outgoing Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell
Bondevik, other Norwegian political parties and with Shell.
We have asked them to listen to the concerns of people in
Ireland.

"I want to welcome the release of Micheal O Seighin, Willie
Corduff, Vincent McGrath, Brendan Philbin and Philip
McGrath but it is important to recognise that this issue
will not be resolved by mediation with Shell. The way that
this will be resolved is for the Irish government to tell
the Corrib Gas consortium to move their pipeline and
refinery offshore. They also need to renegotiate the
scandalous deal signed by former Minister Ray Burke which
saw the government give away the rights to Corrib and
future gas and oil fields to the oil companies.

"It is estimated that Corrib gas alone is worth between €12
Billion and €21 Billion, which is over twice the size of
the government‚s entire health budget. And there are more
gas fields off Cork, Shannon, Galway and Donegal, but no
one knows yet how large they are or how much they are
worth. What we do know is that they are resources that
could be put to good use in Ireland." ENDS

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4321202.stm

Solicitor Says Clients Astounded

A solicitor for the Manchester property firm at the centre
of an Assets Recovery Agency investigation has said his
clients have done nothing wrong.

Raids were carried out at home and business addresses
connected to Dermot Craven and Brian Pepper on Thursday.

The searches are thought to be connected to inquiries into
south Armagh man Thomas "Slab" Murphy.

Michael Kenyon, solicitor for the Craven property group,
said his clients were astounded at the searches.

Sinn Fein said Murphy, who describes himself as a County
Louth farmer, was being unfairly linked to criminal
activity.

Newry and Armagh MP Conor Murphy said there was no evidence
to suggest 250 properties being probed in Manchester
belonged to Thomas "Slab" Murphy.

The DUP's Nigel Dodds said Sinn Fein's reaction showed its
"duplicitous attitude towards criminality".

Documents were seized in the Manchester searches, which
took place 10 days after the IRA put its weapons beyond use
and on the day Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams met Prime
Minister Tony Blair in Downing Street.

Meanwhile, separate searches took place in the Republic of
Ireland connected to the probe into illegally held IRA
funds.

Seven offices in County Louth were searched by officers
from the Criminal Assets Bureau.

A quantity of documents were seized during the raids but no
arrests were made.

Thomas Murphy lost a libel case against The Sunday Times in
1998, after the newspaper described him as a prominent IRA
member.

The authorities on both sides of the border have been
investigating him for years.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/10/07 21:17:25 GMT
© BBC MMV

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2005/1008/870388949HM9SLABREACT.html

Methods Of Assets Team Criticised By SF Politician

Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) has said it will not be
making any comment "at this stage" about an interview in
which Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy said Thomas "Slab" Murphy
was being unfairly linked to major criminality.

The MP for Newry and Mourne said yesterday there was
nothing to connect Thomas "Slab" Murphy to the 250
Manchester properties being investigated by ARA.

The Criminal Assets Bureau in the Republic is also carrying
out investigations in Dundalk which are said to be linked
to "Slab" Murphy, the alleged IRA chief of staff.

Mr Murphy accused elements in ARA, which is run by former
RUC Special branch chief Alan McQuillan, of providing
selective briefings to try to implicate the reputed IRA
leader in criminality.

"Slab" Murphy is a constituent of Mr Murphy and has a house
near Hackballscross straddling the Border at counties
Armagh and Louth. It is alleged he has amassed a fortune of
up to £40 million through cross-Border smuggling, some of
which purportedly has added to his personal wealth and some
of which was provided to the IRA.

"I read the statement from the Assets Recovery Agency which
is quite vague and bland and doesn't refer to any
republican at all, much less Mr Murphy," Mr Conor Murphy
told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme
yesterday.

"What we have is the Assets Recovery Agency issuing a
statement about what they are doing. But then elements or
individuals within the Assets Recovery Agency, who have a
Special Branch background, have been giving selective and
private briefings to some journalists to try to point the
finger at different people," added Mr Murphy.

ARA responded that it was declining to respond "at this
stage", implying that a reaction eventually would be
forthcoming.

If ARA and Cab believe they have evidence to take civil
action against "Slab" Murphy this would be likely to
involve applications to the High Court in the UK and the
Republic to freeze and seize his alleged multi-million
pound assets.

Meanwhile, DUP MP for North Belfast Nigel Dodds said Sinn
Féin's reaction to the current anti-racketeering
investigations demonstrated the party's "duplicitous
attitude towards criminality".

"Conor Murphy's attacks on the ARA, with his references to
Special Branch involvement, shows that any effort to stop
or seize the criminal activities and assets of the IRA will
be met with resistance by Sinn Féin.

"More Sinn Féin attempts to damage the credibility and
standing of the ARA and its staff can be expected in their
efforts to distract attention from the massive criminal
activities of the republican movement," said Mr Dodds.

He said it would not be sufficient for the British
government and the Independent Monitoring Commission
"simply to declare" there was a reduction in IRA activity
to allow for political progress.

"There must be positive dismantling of the criminal and
terrorist machinery. It is clear from the reaction to the
Murphy investigation that Sinn Féin have still a long way
to go on that issue," said Mr Dodds.

© The Irish Times

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http://www.derryjournal.com/story/7498/1/

Dissidents Could Put Back Policing By Ten Years

By Bernie Mullen

Friday 7th October 2005

Dissident Republicans, if they got organised, could set
policing back by ten years. This was the surprise admission
by PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde when he talked to the
'Journal' this week. But the police boss was equally
adamant that the dissidents had been 'badly disrupted'
pointing out that arrests were being made on an ongoing
basis.

While suggesting it was quite evident they had little
public support, he stressed that the police needed more
help from the community to thwart the violent activities of
dissidents whom he vehemently denounced.

In an interview with the 'Journal' Mr. Orde said:
"Dissident republicans are badly disrupted. Many [of them]
have been arrested North and South of the border. They have
no political agenda, they are violent, criminal thugs who
are stuck in history and haven't moved on."

Meanwhile, addressing a business lunch in the City Hotel
hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce, the Chief
Constable warned that a golden opportunity for members of
the nationalist/republican community to join the PSNI was
being lost by the ongoing refusal of Sinn Fein to join the
Policing Board.

Mr. Orde said the force was heavily oversubscribed with
7,000 applications for just 240 new officers each year.

"We are climbing inexorably towards 50:50 (Protestant
Catholic) recruitment ...and there is still a group that is
disenfranchised because of Sinn Fein's complete refusal to
engage with the new policing arrangements. The real tragedy
is that when Sinn Fein eventually admit they need to join
us the opportunity for those people who wanted to join will
be minimal because we are up to strength. I think it is one
of the great mistakes they (Sinn Fein) have made."

Speaking to the 'Journal' afterwards, the Chief Constable
repeated his call for Sinn Fein to "end the charade" and
for the party to come out and publicly support the PSNI.

Mr. Orde recently revealed that he had met with Gerry Adams
and Martin McGuinness in Downing Street and said that talks
were taking place between his officers and Sinn Fein "at
root and branch level." "There are a huge raft of people
from the nationalist, republican community who want to be
cops but until they get the seal of approval publicly from
Sinn Fein they feel they are unable to apply. We have
proved we can deliver on policing," he said.

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2005/1008/2147473134HM8IMCRAFFERTY.html

Ceasefire Body To Meet Rafferty Family

The Independent Monitoring Commission is to meet the
family of murdered Dublin man Joseph Rafferty, who was shot
dead in west Dublin in April by an alleged IRA gunman.

The commission will discuss claims by his family that the
murder amounted to a break in the IRA ceasefire.

The meeting, which is likely to add to growing political
pressure on Sinn Féin regarding Mr Rafferty's murder, takes
place in the next fortnight.

The IMC contacted Mr Rafferty's family just over a week ago
and requested a meeting.

The commission's approach to the family comes after two
months of intensive political lobbying by Mr Rafferty's
sister Esther Uzell and her brother-in-law, Bart Little.

The family have begun a Justice for Joe campaign modelled
on the campaign by the McCartney sisters in Belfast.

Ms Uzell last night told The Irish Times that she was not
sure who from the IMC she and her family would be meeting
but she believed they would be senior officials. "They rang
us last Thursday week. They want to talk to us about the
whole story basically. We'll tell them what happened from
start to finish and we'll see what comes out of it."

A spokeswoman for the IMC said the commission could not
comment. It had a policy of not disclosing the identities
of those it meets or the nature of its meetings.

Ms Uzell and Mr Little last month had a meeting with the
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who has told them he will raise the
issue with the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams during their
next meeting.

The family has also met the main Opposition leaders here,
all of whom have added their support to the campaign. They
have held talks in Belfast with the sisters of Robert
McCartney, who was murdered by members of the IRA outside a
Belfast pub in January.

Mr Rafferty's family believe that, as well as being a
member of the IRA, the murderer has actively campaigned for
Sinn Féin candidates during elections in recent years.

The family want Sinn Féin and the IRA to actively encourage
the murderer to give himself up.

The dead man, a 29-year-old father of one, was gunned down
last April in the Ongar housing estate in west Dublin where
he lived. He was originally from the south inner city; in
the months leading up to his murder he had become embroiled
in a dispute with a family from that area.

Mr Rafferty was told a number of times by members of the
family he had clashed with that he would be "got" by the
IRA.

The woman whose sons he had become embroiled with is in a
relationship with a former member of the IRA. He is the
only suspect in the murder.

Ms Uzell reported the threats against her brother's life to
Cllr Daithí Doolan of Sinn Féin late last year and early
this year.

Mr Doolan has said at no time was any threat to Mr
Rafferty's life reported to him. He has condemned the
murder.

© The Irish Times

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http://www.derryjournal.com/story/7486

'Sunday' Relatives Still Tortured By Anger, Pain - Say
Authors

Friday 7th October 2005

Anger, pain and traumatic memories continue to torment the
relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday to this day, a
new book argues.

"Bloody Sunday, Trauma, Pain and Politics", by Patrick
Hayes and Jim Campbell, was launched yesterday at Queen's
University, Belfast.

The new book appears on bookshelves just before the Saville
Inquiry - the longest and most expensive public inquiry to
date - publishes its findings on what happened before,
during and after the events of 30 January, 1972, in Derry.

Although there have been many accounts of events on Bloody
Sunday, this book tackles the subject from a new angle: it
focuses on extensive interviews with family members whose
relatives had been killed by British soldiers on the day.

The book's authors are Patrick Hayes, who carried out the
interviews for the book as part of his PhD thesis at
Queen's University Belfast, and Jim Campbell who is a
senior lecturer at the Queen's School of Social Work.

Patrick Hayes is a clinical social worker and has worked
for 20 years in private practice as a psychotherapist. Much
of his work involves the treatment of trauma related
disorders.

Jim Campbell teaches and publishes on mental health social
work and the impact of 'the Troubles' on service delivery.

Patrick Hayes argues in the book that anger, pain and
traumatic memories continue to affect adversely both the
first and, to some extent, the second generations of those
killed.

'Sunday' Relatives Still Tortured By Anger, Pain - Say
Authors

As he himself puts it: "In carrying out these interviews
and analysing what the narratives seemed to mean for family
members, it became apparent that there was a great deal of
unresolved grief and loss which had not been dealt with.

"The traumatic aftereffect, even three decades later, was
palpable."

A central element of the book is structured around these
verbatim accounts.

The authors, however, were also interested in trying to
make sense of the stories of those involved in Bloody
Sunday within the context of wider historical, sociological
and political factors.

The book includes, for example, chapters on the history of
the conflict, the way in which the State responded or did
not respond to the needs of the families and other victims
of 'the Troubles', and the purpose and process of the
Saville Inquiry.

Jim Campbell argues that those, like the Bloody Sunday
families, who are victims or survivors of such violence,
must have their needs addressed by a variety of methods.

These include strategies which deliver social justice and
healing as well as quality health and social care services.

"People who have suffered in this way are only recently
having their voices heard: what they need are processes
which acknowledge their pain and enable them to find
resolution and help them rebuild their lives," he said.

"Bloody Sunday, Trauma Pain and Politics" is published by
Pluto Press and is now on sale in outlets across the North.

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http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/opinion/Full_Story/did-sgW1x63GhjoaQsg0aewFBADppk.asp

Opin: We Should Be Slow To Oblige When The US Comes Calling
For One Of Us

By Ryle Dwyer

THE question over whether or not the Colombia Three should
be extradited continues to exercise minds. It could set a
dangerous precedent.

Does anyone here have any confidence in a judicial system
in Latin America? Chile had a stable democracy until the US
instigated the overthrow of the democratically elected
government of Salvador Allende, thanks to the machinations
of Henry Kissinger and company on September 11, 1973.

Augusto Pinochet, one of the leaders of that neo-fascist
coup, is facing trial at home, but does anyone think the US
would send Kissinger to Santiago to face trail for his
involvement in the murder of the Chilean chief of staff,
René Schneider, who was butchered because he refused to
allow the army to be used to overthrow the democratic
government.

Of course, there is little comparison between the IRA and
Henry Kissinger.

Even if the IRA were responsible for everyone killed in the
North's troubles - that would not be remotely near the
number of deaths in which Kissinger was implicated in
Cambodia, Chile and East Timor, not to mention his
conniving treachery in prolonging the Vietnam War.

Last week the Americans sentenced Pte Lynndie England to
three years in jail, essentially for violating Geneva
conventions in relation to the treatment of internees at
Abu Ghraib prison. US President George W Bush and Defence
Secretary Rumsfeld say that old rules don't apply to
suspects in the war on terror. Then they prosecute a lowly
private, while they are responsible for what is going on in
Guantanamo. That's not justice.

We should not allow Americans to walk us into a dangerous
precedent in relation to the Colombia Three. It could have
implications for other matters. For instance, next week the
High Court will be considering the extradition of Ethel and
Timothy Blake from Cobh in Co Cork. They took their
grandson, Dylan Benwell, from the US in July 2004 and
brought him back to Ireland. It was a complicated affair.
It's understood that the Blakes had reared the boy from the
age of just two weeks to four years, after his father was
killed in an accident. When they went to the US to see the
boy, his mother (their daughter) was reluctant to give them
access. They pleaded that Timothy Blake wished to see the
boy as he was dying of cancer.

Dylan's mother insisted on holding her parents' passports
before she let him join them. Her precautions were more
than justified by subsequent events.

They already had duplicate passports, as well as a passport
for the boy. They took off and reached Ireland in a chase
suitable for the script of a Hollywood thriller. It seems
preposterous that the Americans are now requesting the
extradition of the Blakes to face a charge of aggravated
kidnapping for which they could be sentenced to anything
from six to 30 years in jail. Regardless of the merits of
the custody battle, this was not a conventional case of
kidnapping. It was absurd of the US Congress to refer to
the infamous 1930s kidnapping and murder of Charles
Lindbergh's son in a resolution it passed calling for the
return of Dylan. The grandparents undoubtedly believed they
were acting in Dylan's best interest. There was no question
of them mistreating him, much less holding him for ransom.

Dylan was sent back to his mother last November. This was a
tug-of-love case.

Charging the grandparents with aggravated kidnapping and
setting their bail at $2 million is preposterous. As usual,
the Americans are playing to the mob mentality on law and
order.

In August, our High Court refused to extradite Fr Patrick
Colleary to the US on child abuse charges because he had
been compelled to parade in public in nothing but pink
underwear. This was a vile extension of the reprehensible
American practice of the so-called 'perp walk' in which
people, entitled to the presumption of innocence, are
deliberately degraded by being paraded before a camera in
chains.

Mr Justice Philip O'Sullivan concluded that Fr Colleary's
human rights were violated. Obviously the court decided he
was unlikely to get a fair trial in the US.

There is a case in New York that began to make waves
recently over the 1999 conviction of John Kennedy O'Hara
for voting fraud. He was fined $20,000, sentenced to five
years probation and 1,500 hours of community service.

He has also been disbarred as a lawyer as a result of his
conviction.

HIS crime was registering to vote from what he said was his
girlfriend's apartment on 47th Street, where he stayed
sometimes. By law, however, he should have registered and
voted from his primary place of residence an apartment on
61st Street. There was no question of double voting, or
anything like that.

Harper's Magazine which contends that O'Hara was victimised
by selective and malicious prosecution has disclosed that
the district attorney responsible was actually registered
for voting purposes at his office address. O'Hara was the
first person ever convicted of this specific crime, and he
is the only person convicted of any crime in connection
with voting just once in an election since the notorious
conviction of the suffragette Susan B Anthony, who was
convicted of voting in the presidential election of 1872.
As a woman, she supposedly had no right to vote so she
asserted her constitutional right as an adult US citizen by
voting.

The judge had his judgment written before her trial, and he
ordered the jury to deliver a guilty verdict. As he was
about to pass sentence, he asked her if she had anything to
say.

"Yes, your honour, I have many things to say," Susan
replied. "For in your ordered verdict of guilty, you have
trampled underfoot every vital principle of our government.
My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights are
all alike ignored. Robbed of the fundamental privilege of
citizenship, I am degraded from the status of a citizen to
that of a subject; and not only myself individually, but
all of my sex, are, by your honour's verdict, doomed to
political subjection under this so-called Republican
government."

Still, the judge ruled: "The sentence of the court is that
you pay a fine of $100 and the cost of the prosecution."

But she declared defiantly: "I shall never pay a dollar of
your unjust penalty."

She was as good as her word, but the case was clearly a
travesty. The state did not pursue her further. O'Hara, on
the other hand, appealed his conviction and the severity of
his sentence to 10 different courts all the way to the US
Supreme Court, which effectively ruled against him by
refusing to hear the case.

In the highly-politicised atmosphere of the American
judicial system, justice frequently gives way to political
considerations.

One would hope that the High Court in applying the law in
the Blakes' case, as of course it must, will remain aware
of the situation in the US at the moment.

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2005/1008/2058436755HM2WATER.html

Ennis Water Ban To Stay For Old, Young And Sick

Gordon Deegan

The young, the sick and the elderly were yesterday
advised by the Health Service Executive (HSE) not to drink
from the Ennis water supply for the next two years.

The outright ban on 30,000 residents in the greater Ennis
area drinking from the public water supply was yesterday
lifted with immediate effect by the HSE and Ennis Town
Council after almost one month due to an E.coli
contamination of the supply.

However, the HSE has advised that the young, the sick and
the elderly or any other section of the community
vulnerable to infection should continue not drinking from
the water supply without first boiling until the provision
of a new water treatment plant in July 2007.

The warning also applies to visitors to Ennis, and a joint
statement from the two agencies yesterday advised that
"institutions such as hospitals, nursing homes, creches,
pre-schools and daycare centres serving vulnerable people
should continue to boil tap water or use alternative
supplies."

The advice to hospitals, daycare centres and creches not to
allow their patients or residents drink tap water is
expected to add tens of thousands of euro to those
facilities' expenses over the next two years as they buy in
bottled water.

A spokesman for the HSE said that the advice to the
vulnerable sections of the community was because of the
risk of infection from the public water supply.

He said: "It is there as a precaution and will remain in
place until the provision of a new treatment plant for
Ennis.

"We just have to hope for the best and that the chlorine
treatment of the water will keep the contamination under
control."

Highlighting the vulnerability of the Ennis water supply
system, the joint statement advises "that heavy rainfall
may affect the quality of the water supply".

Tender documents for the plant have only recently been
approved, and it is not expected to become operational
until July 2007.

The current plant has no filtration system, making it
extremely vulnerable to contamination.

Representatives of two community-based facilities yesterday
urged the town council to provide water tankers to the
sectors of the community that must still boil their water.

The community-owned Cahercalla Community Hospital cares for
100 long-stay elderly patients and has bought in large
quantities of bottled water in response to the recent
advice by the HSE, according to the hospital's nurse
manager, Rose Collins.

Chairwoman of the Clarecastle Day Care Centre Mary
Morrissey said yesterday: "No one will feel comfortable
drinking the water when the ban is lifted only partially.
It is extremely worrying and tankers should be provided by
the council."

The recent warning about the public water supply was the
second time in three months that the public in the greater
Ennis area had been advised not to drink from the water
supply.

Last June the two agencies issued a "boil notice" - which
lasted for two weeks - after five pre-school children were
diagnosed with cryptosporidiosis, a diarrheal disease.

© The Irish Times

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