Ennis

PEOPLE from Clare are jetting off to the sun for surgery in a bid to avoid long waiting lists in Ireland. An organisation which works alongside the HSE to facilitate surgery abroad, have said the service is particularly popular with Clare residents, confirming they have helped 24 people in the county access treatment in Europe under the EU Cross-Border directive. Among them is well known Ennis business man Ken O’Grady who flew to Spain for an operation after being told he would have to wait four years for surgery here in Ireland. Ken has said he was amazed to discover he could fly to Alicante on Spain’s Costa Blanca to get the operation for free under the EU Cross Border Directive which allows patients here in Ireland to go to other EU countries for healthcare. The cost of his operation at the Vithas hospital in Alicante was reimbursed by the HSE after he called Healthcare Abroad Ireland. Mr O’Grady, owner …

ENNIS man Professor Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, MA, MBA, HDE, DUÉF, PhD was recently appointed Director of the School of Irish Studies at Concordia University Montréal. This international School—the largest of its kind in North America—has a faculty of twenty professors, lecturers, fellows and tutors, and 1400 students who take its undergraduate and postgraduate courses every year. Delivering interdisciplinary programmes in Irish language, history, music, geography, film, literature, theatre, and diaspora studies, the School has hosted over a hundred visiting scholars during the past decade, including Fulbright Scholars from the US and Marie Curie Scholars from the European Union. It is the only School of Irish Studies in the world where research is conducted in four languages: Irish, French, English and Spanish. This synergy is made possible by the Canadian Irish Studies Foundation, the Québec government and Concordia University, who have donated over $14 million to the School since it was founded in 2009. A multilingual scholar who emigrated to France …

THEY may be taking to the stage a little later than they hoped, but the cast and crew of the Cloughleigh Amateur Drama Group believe their latest production will be certainly worth waiting for. The local drama group had planned on bringing the acclaimed Jimmy Keary comedy ‘Mother Knows Best’ to the stage of the Cloughleigh Community Centre back in 2021, however Covid meant those plans were put on hold. Now they are back in action and rehearsing hard in preparation for four nights of shows at the hall in Davitt Terrace on Friday, January 27, Saturday, January 28, Friday, February 3 and Saturday, February 4. Willie Crowley of the drama group told The Champion,“We had been hoping to do this play in 2021 but because of Covid we had to put it on hold. “We had actually just done our second play, ‘Nobody’s Talking to Me’ two weeks before everything was shut down, we were very lucky in that. …

DRUID has announced that their five-star production of The Last Return, Sonya Kelly’s award-winning new comedy, will play glór Arts Centre, Ennis as part of a national tour for two nights in February. Directed by Sara Joyce, The Last Return, a thrilling comedy about conflict, peace and the pursuit of territory at any cost, will be stage in Ennis on February 17 and 18. One final night. One last chance. Five people queue for a ticket to the hottest show in town. All they must do is simply wait in line. But what in life is ever simple? Who will triumph, who will fail, and who will walk away with… The Last Return? The play has earned five-star ratings from The Times, What’s On Stage, The Arts Desk and The Wee Review, and praise such as ‘pitch black comic mayhem’ from The Guardian, ‘wonderful’ from The New York Times, and ‘shocking and very funny’ from The Irish Times. As part …

FOUR decades ago the centenary of St Flannan’s College was commemorated with an album of traditional music featuring some of the best of Clare’s musical talent. The album was originally issued on cassette in 1981 and marked a peak in the success of traditional music at the Ennis school, buoyed by the folk revival and the growth of the Fleadh Cheoil movement through the ‘70s. Now in 2023 that album has been remastered to its original pristine condition, and it will be relaunched this weekend at a very special concert. The relaunch of the classic trad music album St Flannan’s Céilí Bands Reunion takes place in glór on Sunday, January 22. A nostalgic night is in store, bringing old musical comrades back onstage together, who haven’t met for 40 years – and they will share the limelight with the college’s current crop of trad music talent. By the early 1970s, the traditional music revival in Clare had brought many young …

A WOMAN was knocked down and injured in Clarecastle, sparking calls for action to be taken on a “dangerous junction” in the village. A meeting of the Ennis Municipal District last week heard Councillors Paul Murphy and Tom O’Callaghan voice their fears for public safety at the junction where three roads meet. Councillor Murphy proposed that a Road Safety application be prepared and submitted “as soon as possible” seeking funding to improve safety at the junction of Barrack Street, Old Road and Church Drive / Creggaunahilla. “This is a dangerous junction where three roads meet and there is the added complication of a carpark being adjacent to it also, a number of pedestrians have been knocked down and this needs to be given priority urgently,” he said. While Councillor O’Callaghan also asked the council to review the Church Drive road “on safety grounds in Clarecastle due to increased traffic to and from Creggaunnahilla Housing Estate”. Responding to both councillors’ proposals …

THE town of Ennis is set to be put in the frame as part of a collaboration between a local artist and well-known hotel – and inspiration is being sought from the public. Artist Cathal Butler has been commissioned by Treacys West County Hotel Ennis to create a selection of paintings showcasing the very best of Ennis town and its environs. A photographic competition has now been launched urging members of the public to send an image they believe best captures Ennis which will be transformed into works of art. Five photos will be chosen for Cathal to bring to life on canvas, and the original paintings will be displayed in the hotel’s new Clare Art Display in the hotel lobby. As well as having their winning image immortalised in the hotel, they will also receive a night’s stay at any of the Treacy Group Hotels and a print of the painting. The new paintings will join other works by …

TEACHERS and staff at St Flannan’s College have voiced opposition to plans for the development of a €25 million 100-bed community nursing unit on land used as playing grounds by the Ennis secondary school. According to a statement issued by the staff of St Flannan’s the proposal “will have a seriously negative impact” on the student population. “The green field site in St Flannan’s College is the last remaining site of its kind in Ennis. Urban sprawl is taking up much more of our green spaces each year. Once this land is built upon it will be gone forever,” it states. The teachers and staff have detailed reasons for their opposition to the plans including that during the academic year many teams of various sports regularly train on the pitches. “With so many students on the fields at any one time all our field space is utilised, including much of the space that is suggested for development under the proposed …