The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government and Fine Gael leadership candidate Simon Coveney was flanked by party colleagues Minister of State Pat Breen, and Deputy Joe Carey at ministerial engagements in Ennis today, Friday. The Minister will later address members of Clare’s Fine Gael party at their Annual General Meeting this evening, where he will hope to secure some undecided votes in the leadership contest. As yet undeclared, Deputies Pat Breen and Joe Carey would not be drawn on their stance in favour of one candidate over the other at today’s events, and Minister Coveney said he would not ask them to publicly declare during the media questions and answers session. The first of Minister Coveney’s engagements was to visit Laurel Lodge, Clare’s only homeless hostel located on the Clare Road in Ennis. While there he met with some of the residents and discussed his leadership bid with journalists. He then went to Pairc na Coille bungalows to meet …

THE Clare Champion has scooped another award at the Local Ireland Media Awards, as reporter Dan Danaher’s series focusing on the EPA took the news series prize. This is the second award for The Clare Champion in the two year history of the Local Ireland Media Awards, as last year the regional newspaper took the prize for best feature article. Also nominated for an award was ‘Clare Champion reporter Peter O’Connell for his news story, Death by Geography. Over a 10 week period, Dan Danaher’s award winning news series examined the environmental compliance of 17 local companies who deal with various different types of chemicals and hazardous waste. Of those that were featured in The Clare Champion/Mary Raftery Special Investigation, 15 companies were initially granted Integrated Pollution and Prevention Control (IPPC) licences. The two exceptions were Enva and Clean Ireland Recycling Limited, who have waste licences. The main function of these licences is to ensure that companies, who are handling …

AN inquest has returned a verdict of manslaughter in accordance with the findings of the Central Criminal Court into the death of 43-year-old Ballyvaughan woman Deirdre McCarthy. Just days before the sixth anniversary of Ms McCarthy’s death, Colm Deely of School Road, Ballyvaughan was sentenced to eight years in prison for her manslaughter. He had denied murdering Ms McCarthy but in early March 2017 he pleaded guilty to her manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court. At a sitting of the County Coroner’s Court in Ennis on Thursday, an inquest found that Ms McCarthy’s death was due to asphyxia, with blunt force trauma as a contributory factor. County Coroner Isobel O’Dea said, in holding this inquest, she hoped it “helps to bring some closure to what was a tortured and arduous journey” for Ms Carthy’s family. Superintendent John Galvin, acting as coroner’s officer, offered his sympathies and those of An Garda Síochána, describing this case as something that has “been going …

A Mountshannon farmer has received a suspended three year jail term and ordered to pay a €3,000 fine after it was uncovered using DNA tracing that he was responsible for three separate thefts of a total of 15 cattle from his neighbour. Ahead of delivering his sentence at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Gerald Keys told Padraig O’Brien, (42), of Magherigh “what you have done to your neighbour is unforgivable”. O’Brien had pleaded guilty to 15 counts of theft of the cattle worth €17,000. The offences involved the theft of five in-calf heifers from Bohatch, Mountshannon between January 17 and 18, 2015; the theft of six heifers from Kilrateera, Mountshannon between May 23 and 24, 2013, and the theft of four cows from Bohatch between December 8 and 9, 2013, a total of 15 charges. The court heard that gardaí were led to O’Brien after they found “sporadic hoof marks on the ditches” in frost, leading to his farmyard in …

INVESTMENT in quality journalism is essential to combat the rise of so-called fake news, a conference in Limerick has been told. The use of click-bait and fake news to drive traffic to online news and social media sites, allied to a lack of media literacy amongst many members of the public, were some of the factors cited as influencing the rise of this phenomenon at the event in King John’s Castle. Organised by the Irish South-West Branch of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII), the conference entitled Local News Matters featured a panel of speakers offering different perspectives on the theme of ‘The Truth in the News? The role of quality journalism in an era of fake news’. The panelists were Emma O’Kelly, RTE’s Education Correspondent, Cian Connaughton, President of the PRII and Fiona McGarry, Producer of Clare FM’s flagship current affairs programme, Morning Focus. The debate was chaired by Nandi O’Sullivan, …

Three year old Estlin Wall, the daughter of Vincent Wall and Amy Dutil Wall, lost her fight for life this weekend following a car crash near Inagh on Wednesday morning last. Her father Vincent Wall from Ennistymon, who is the youngest brother of Steve Wall of The Walls and The Stunning, is still in a serious condition in a Dublin hospital having suffered brain injuries following the 9am crash. In the wake of the tragedy Steve Wall has issued an appeal for support on his Facebook page. “Last Wednesday morning my youngest brother Vincent and his almost four year old daughter Estlin were involved in a terrible car crash in County Clare. Vincent is in hospital in Dublin with massive brain injuries and still hasn’t opened his eyes. At around 9pm last night [Saturday] little Estlin’s life support was turned off and she passed away in her mother Amy’s arms, who is also nursing their 12 week old baby Mannix. “It’s a …

A PUBLIC information session will be held on the proposed upgrade of Main Street in Scariff at the Killaloe Municipal District Office in Scarriff on Wednesday, February 22, from 5pm to 8pm. The proposed works, which are being carried out by Clare County Council under the town and village renewal scheme and overseen by the planning department of the local authority, will include road and footpath alignment works to improve safety and accessibility of all users, and hard and soft landscaping works. Clare County Council says the proposed public realm enhancement scheme is being guided by the Scariff Tidy Towns and Environmental Improvement Strategy, which was developed in 2013 in consultation with various community groups. The €111,764 project is 85% funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and is expected to be completed by mid-2017. The development is one of four community infrastructure projects in Shannon, Kilkee, Clarecastle and Scariff benefitting from funding under the Town and …

A LITTLE over three years ago, Aileen O’Connor and Ronan Shiels began messaging each other on Plenty of Fish and now they are married, living in Sixmilebridge with their two children. Unsurprisingly, both of them are advocates of online dating and Ronan says he knows several others who have found love on the web. “It’s definitely a good avenue. Three of my friends are married through online dating.” The couple had actually met each other socially long before they got together, says 33-year-old Aileen. “I actually had met him through mutual friends years ago and then I had lost touch with that friend. To my knowledge, he was in a long-term relationship or married, then he appeared on this Plenty of Fish thing. I kind of knew he was a decent and good guy. He messaged me to say ‘hey, fancy meeting you here’ kind of thing and we chatted fairly fluidly because we had been in each other’s company …