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Building bridges for peace in Scariff

PEACE advocates Jo Berry and Pat Magee will open this year’s Scariff Harbour Festival. Jo is the daughter of Sir Anthony Berry, a Tory MP who was killed during the Brighton Bombing of 1984 and Pat Magee was the Republican activist who planted the bomb. Having sought out and reconciled with Pat, Jo went on to found Building Bridges for Peace and now she and Pat conduct peace and reconciliation talks and workshops. They will hold a workshop for a group of Foróige members on Saturday, July 30 and will give a talk at Scariff Library during the festival. On October 12, 1984, the IRA exploded a bomb in the Grand Hotel, Brighton, during the Conservative Party Conference killing five people, including Sir Anthony, and injuring many more. Sir Anthony’s family were devastated but for his daughter Jo, it also started a life-long mission for peace. Sixteen years later, Pat, the man who planted the bomb, was released from prison …

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Call for moratorium on evictions

THE plight of those evicted from their homes was highlighted at this week’s meeting of Clare County Council, with one councillor voicing fears that someone could take the law into their own hands. Calls were made for the Government to introduce a moratorium on evictions until the social housing crisis has been resolved. Councillor PJ Ryan commented, “One of these days I can see somebody taking the law into their own hands if the situation is not rectified. The banks are 95% the cause of the problem and they need to take a reality check.” Councillor Mike McKee raised the issue with the local authority where he outlined increases in the numbers of people evicted across the country, those in mortgage arrears and families being made homeless. “Hard-working families are being dragged through the courts by the banks, the very same banks that were bailed out,” he stated. “There is a crisis in social housing at the moment and until …

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Priscilla Lernihan with her daughter, Sophie Rynne. Photograph by John Kelly

A ‘living hell’ pregnancy

A debilitating and sometimes life-threatening condition became the focus of international attention after the Duchess of  Cambridge’s battle with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) during  her pregnancies. Dan Danaher spoke with Clare Champion staff member Priscilla Lernihan about her own experience with HG Priscilla Lernihan shares a common experience with Kate Middleton. Both of them suffered from Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) but Priscilla would rather not be able to draw any comparison with the royal family member’s experience of the condition. Speaking about the “living hell” she endured during her pregnancy, Priscilla underlines the importance of early diagnosis in the treatment of HG. Her daughter, Sophie, will be 12 in August. A devoted mother to her, Priscilla says she could not have coped with a repeat of her HG experience with another pregnancy. “If I had known back then what I know now, it would have been a very different experience. I was lucky to have a healthy, beautiful baby girl, Sophie, at the …

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Ballycar group visits the Áras

The President of Ireland Michael D Higgins recalled his boyhood days in Clare, when a group from Ballycar, Newmarket-on-Fergus were among his garden party guests at Áras an Uachtaráin last Sunday. The President mingled with his former neighbours, exchanging stories of their formative years in Ballycar National School. Talk also came around to many events that made their way into the parish history books and he even recalled enjoying playing handball in the local alley. President Higgins and his wife, Sabina, welcomed the 80-strong Ballycar group, part of a gathering of nearly 500 people, at a marquee on the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin. The afternoon programme included a tour of the stately residence, viewing the gardens and even a respite to watch the Ireland-France soccer game on a large screen. President Higgins’ one-time neighbour, Kathleen O’Leary, presented him with a hollowed vessel made from Ballycar ash by local man Ray Walsh. Each year, President Higgins and Mrs Higgins open …

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Madge strikes gold in New York

Madge O’Callaghan, who spent many years living in Shannon, was a gold winner at the New York Festivals World’s Best Radio Programs 2016. Madge is not a career broadcaster but her documentary My Uncle Jack, originally made just to record her family history, was picked up by RTÉ and has now been recognised globally. “These awards are given out to world-class radio programmes, documentaries and dramas in various different categories. It was in New York on June 20. I went over on the Monday and came back on the Wednesday, it was a quick trip. My brother Sean, who lives in Newmarket-on-Fergus, came with me and my daughter, Niamh, who lives in Sixmilebridge came with me as well,” she said this week. The subject of the documentary is her uncle, Jack Dowling, who is now 87 and based in Sheffield. Jack set a record for walking from Malin to Mizen Head and the documentary is about that feat, as well …

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30 years gliding around the dance floor

Thirty years ago, a group of like-minded men and women came together to form Ennis’ Dancing for Pleasure group and some of them are still coming together to dance every Sunday evening. The Auburn Lodge has been the venue for the weekly dancing for the last few years after decades in the West County Hotel. Sheelagh Abraham was one of the founders of Dancing for Pleasure, while Andy Carmody is a relative newcomer by comparison, having only been involved for 29 and a half years. The two visited The Clare Champion recently to reflect on a milestone for the club, its 30th year in existence. Sheelagh remembers how it came into being. “When we came to Ennis first, I had two sisters in Ennis and my husband had one sister. At the St Patrick’s Day parade, I said to them, “Will there be any dancing tonight?” One said to me there will be loads of dancing but it was all …

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Bells toll for soldiers of the Somme

THE year 1916 holds a special place in many people’s hearts. Not only was it the year of the Easter Rising, but that same year saw one of the most brutal, and most futile, battles of the Great War, the Battle of the Somme. To commemorate the centenary of the start of this battle, churches have been invited to toll a funeral bell for 10 minutes from 7.30am on the morning of July 1 (Friday), the precise moment that soldiers climbed from the safety of their trenches to face the awaiting onslaught. In Limerick, at 9pm today ( Thursday), the eve of the Battle of the Somme, the local branch of the Royal British Legion, with Irish ex-service organisations, will gather at the Limerick War Memorial in Pery Square, where a ceremonial candle will be lit, followed by a symbolic vigil, ending with reflective readings and prayer. On Friday, at 7.30am, as the church bells are tolling to mark the start …

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Throwing light on rural electrification

THEN There Was Light, a radio documentary and a book, is a project that has been initiated by the ESB to mark the 70 years since the commencement of the Rural Electrification Scheme. The book promises to be a unique collection of stories by people recalling their memories and experiences of the Rural Electrification Scheme and will provide a valuable snapshot of the time Ireland left the dark ages by allowing power and light into the midst of even the most remote communities. The stories for the collection and radio programme are expected to provide a frank insight into the suspicions, worries and welcome the ESB’s light brigade faced as they began work on one of the most important undertakings in recent Irish history. The stories encapsulate and preserve the approach of a previous generation as it came to terms with the prospect of rapidly changing rural lifestyles. The collection and editing for the book and documentary is being undertaken by authors and editors …

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