GARDAÍ in the county have noted a sizable spike in the theft of catalytic converters from cars, with five stolen at different locations in one day alone. Catalytic converters are a part on the exhaust system which helps reduce the pollutants in emissions. To have this item replaced costs in the region of €1,500 and gardaí are advising the public to take precautions where possible. Speaking to The Clare Champion, Clare Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Joe Downey said, “There is an increase in these thefts and people need to be more alert. There were five catalytic converters stolen this past Tuesday, three in Shannon and two in Ennis”. He explained to steal these parts, the thief crawls under the vehicle and simply cuts it out. It only takes approximately two minutes. Sergeant Downey said those who have fallen victim to this crime will know, as when they start their car the exhaust system will be must noisier. “They cost €1,500 …

WATER levels in Dooras, O’Callaghan’s Mills have risen to a new high this week, as flooding along the access road reached the four foot mark. With only a few days reprieve, residents of the four houses on this stretch of road have endured five weeks of surface water surrounding their homes. One family moved out over the Christmas period and a second family has now made the decision to also move. Of those who remain, an 88-year-old woman remains trapped in her home. Her son, Ger Mulqueen, is living with her and trying to maintain a farm, while another resident, James Peppard, continues to live there to look after his animals. Locals have had to resort to using a boat to access their homes and to bring in meal and nuts to their cattle, as the road remains submerged and the bog behind them becomes more dangerous to traverse, with each rain shower. Helen Mulqueen, whose mother-in-law is 88 and …

GARDAí in Ennis have arrested a man in his early 30s following the discovery of a growhouse in Mullagh on Thursday night. Gardai seized cannabis plants at various stages of growth with an estimated street value of up to €144,000, pending analysis, following a search of a house on Main Street, Mullagh. The house was searched as part of an ongoing operation targeting the cultivation, possession and sale  of cannabis in the county. The growhouse, which was discovered shortly after midnight on Thursday by gardaí from the Ennis Drug Unit assisted by local gardaí, was described as “sophisticated”. A male in his early 30s was arrested at the scene and is currently being detained at Ennis Garda Station under the provisions of Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996. He can be held for up to seven days. This is the sixth cannabis seizure in Clare in less than two weeks and brings the total estimated value …

A-68 -YEAR-old West Clare man cycled 30 miles. with all of his belongings, in the dead of night from his home to a nursing home in Ennis  after being subjected to two frightening robberies a circuit court has heard. The details emerged at a sentencing hearing at Ennis Circuit Court of three accused, Noel Garry, aged 20, of Cooraclare; Shane Donnellan, aged 20, of Clohanbeg, Cree and Joseph Lernihan, aged 21, of Finnemore Park, Mullagh, who were  all charged with robbing €3,000 from the injured party at his rural home in West Clare on February 25, 2012. Joseph Lernihan is further charged with robbery of €4,000 from the same man, four days earlier on February 21, 2012 at the same location. All three pleaded guilty to the charges against them. Detective Garda Donal Corkery told the court, “The injured party in this case is 68 and resided alone in a rural isolated location”. He said he was targeted by a …

RAHEEN Wood Steiner National School has a new chairman of its board of management, clinical psychologist, broadcaster and author, David Coleman. The Ogonnelloe resident has recently taken on the new role at the Tuamgraney-based school. Mr Coleman is well known for his award-winning television programme Bullyproof, the series Families in Trouble, Teens in the Wild and more recently his ongoing project 21st Century Child, which is running on RTÉ One on Tuesdays at 10.35pm. Mr Coleman’s three children attended Raheen Wood Steiner National School and his wife, Michelle, who is the chairperson of the parents’ association, has been actively involved with the school since their eldest started there. “He started in the local national school here in Ogonnelloe and then after two years, he moved into Raheen Wood Steiner School when my wife discovered Steiner education. We decided to make the shift and all three have either been through or are going through the school,” he said. What struck a …

THE secret to a long life may lie somewhere in East Clare as this past week saw a Feakle woman make the headlines, both in Ireland and in the United States, having made history by being named the Republic of Ireland’s oldest ever person. East Clare has had its share of title holders in this regard, with Ireland’s oldest living residents often being from the region, including Mary Kelly, née McNamara (108) from Scariff, who also lived in New York; Annie Kett (108) from Kilkshen and Paddy Gleeson (106) from O’Callaghan’s Mills. Kathleen Snavely, née Hayes, hails from Garraun, Feakle, with her homestead not far from Pepper’s pub in the village. Last week, she overtook Ireland’s longest living person, Katherine Plunkett, who lived to be 111 and 327 days. Kathleen was born to parents Patrick and Ellen (neé Moroney) Hayes on February 16, 1902. Her father was a publican and farmer in the village. She had two sisters, Lena (known …

CLARE Music Education Partnership (CMEP) is to receive more than €400,000 in seed funding, enabling high quality, accessible music education programmes to be provided for children and young people in the local community. The funding was announced as part of Music Generation, the U2 and Ireland Funds’ supported National Music Education Programme initiated by Music Network. Clare was selected for participation in the fourth and final round of the programme. Chairperson of Clare Music Education Partnership George O’Callaghan said, “It is a great boost in terms of delivering a musical educational programme for those who will find it difficult to access music education in the county. “Currently, there is great work being done by private providers and this will add to that and will allow other children, who up to now hadn’t been able to access music education. There will be a hub in Ennis and various out-centres across the county,” Mr O’Callaghan added. He said the funding will be …

THE lack of ATM services over the Christmas period and banking services in general in East Clare has the potential to become “a serious crisis”, according to local councillor, Pat Hayes. Councillor Hayes highlighted the issue after the two primary towns in the area, Scariff and Tulla, experienced intermittent outages of ATM services over Christmas and into the new year. “The Friday before Christmas, the ATM in Scariff in the bank and outside the bank were out of service. All over the place, there seems to be huge closures of services to the public. It is a continuous thing. “There are two ATMs in Tulla, the one inside the bank was out of order over Christmas and there’s the one in Supervalu, where there is a maximum withdrawal of €120. There were a lot of complaints about it. There were issues still the following Monday and they were out of order several times since,” Councillor Hayes said. He continued, “What …